Banjo Kazooie Diary Five: Having the time of our lives.

Last week I was witty and rhetorical. Fuck doing that this week because I played;

Gobi’s Valley

Let’s play a game. ‘Never have I ever’. You take a shot if you agree with me. Ready?

Let’s go.

Never ever have I ever cursed at a game.

Never ever have I ever lost to unfair time trials because a secret technique was necessary.

Never ever have I ever died because I touched fucking sand.

Never ever have I ever had to restart and entire level when I had over 90 of the notes because the camera bugged out.

Never ever have I missed the water level in Ocarina of Time.

Never ever have I ever died in a maze merely due to the timer running out.

Never ever have I ever spat on a game developers graves.

Never ever have I ever thrown a controller.

Never ever have I wished I could put whatever genius it was that came up with the idea for time trial puzzles/races into a deep, dark pit of hell.

Banjo Kazooie Diary Four; The night before Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through Feezeezy Peak,

Not a mole was stirring, not even a squeak.

The jiggies were hung by the chimney with care,

In hopes that the hero Banjo soon would be there.

The cubs were frantic with despair,

For lost was their poppa bear.

He left with the promise of gifts,

But never returned because he is a right old git.

Turns out he had something stuck in his tummy,

Which BMD found pretty funny.

Well I’ve run out of rhymes so I’ll just get on with this.

Freezeezy Peak.

Pixellll’s Top 10 game tracks.

Another day, another countdown! Honestly, compiling this list was really, REALLY tough. There are just way too many games with amazing musical scores out there. Limiting myself to just ten tracks was pretty tricky, but through sheer determination (and not paying attention in class) I managed to come up with a selection of my personal favourites. So, without further ado, here they are!

DISCLAIMER: We at DLC Diaries take no responsibility for any songs that may get stuck in your head as a result of reading these articles. We good? Good.

10. KINGDOM HEARTS 2: “ISN’T IT LOVELY?” 

Okay, I’ll admit it. I had this track on my list as a joke at first. Why? Because the music that plays in the Atlantica world in the first Kindgom Hearts game gets so jarring after a couple of minutes that ANYTHING – and I do mean ANYTHING – would be easier to listen to. Yes, it is the Disney classic “Under the Sea”, but honestly hearing it play non-stop made me want to throw my PlayStation out a window. That being said, I really feel like the sound team made up for this in Kingdom Hearts 2 with the theme “Isn’t it Lovely?” as the standard music for Atlantica. It’s relaxing, it sounds aquatic and it’s just generally quite pleasant to listen to. It also happens to make up for certain “musical theatre” aspects of the level which I won’t go into here…

Grifflon’s Top 10 video game tracks!

I set the task this week for the DLCD crew to compose a list of their top ten favourite musical scores and songs from any and all video games. I have to say this is not a simple task to do. It involves a lot of soul searching. Throughout your gaming experiences what songs have remained glued to your memory? What inspired you to push the buttons a little harder and quicker? What levels would you replay over and over just to hear that fantastic music forever indented in your mind?

These are mine.

               

10. POKEMON MYSTERY DUNGEON EXPLORERS OF THE SKY –

                     “MEMORIES RETURNED”

I am quite a fan of the Pokémon franchise and have followed it since the early stages of Pokémon Yellow Special Edition, right up to the recent Black and White 2 games. Spin offs are usually terrible, but in my eyes the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series is actually pretty good. Unlike the main games where the protagonist catches Pokémon and trains them to fight others you actually are a Pokémon. What type of Pokémon is left up to a personality test that at times seems to just spurt random nonsense. What these games have is emotion. Never in the main series has there been such attachment and an emotional plot line than the Mystery Dungeon games. You and your partner grow together, battling and becoming successful Pokémon Explorers, all while uncovering a deeper plot that involves the fate of the entire Pokémon World!

Banjo-Kazooie vs. Banjo-Tooie

Let’s take a look at the late nineties of Nintendo. The Nintendo 64 had just been released and 3D gaming was a very rare thing if not unthinkable thing. I was very young at the time the Nintendo 64 first came into being and had only known the NES to exist. Two dimensional gaming was all my little 5 year old head could comprehend at the time. I remember going into a Gamestop video game store for my 5^th birthday and receiving a Nintendo 64 as a gift. The rest of the afternoon was spent with my parents trying to figure out how to connect the thing to the TV. We knew we got it right when the title screen for Super Mario 64 appeared and all we could see was Mario’s giant head.

“It’s a me, Mario!”

Banjo Kazooie Diary Entry 1: The world doesn’t always correlate.

So today I began on my heroic quest to save my bear sister Tooty from the wrath of the evil witch Gruntilda with the help of my feathery friend Kazooie. Just another normal day.

Yes Ladies and Gentlemen it has begun, DDD14 has finally persuaded me to play Banjo Kazooie (however begrudgingly). So I decided to make a diary of my experience into the game. Just so you know I am emulating this on my laptop and streaming; so keep a lookout for our live streams on twitch TV.

Pixellll’s top 5 game soundtracks: nostalgia edition!

As my fellow writers have already so eloquently covered, music tends to be an integral aspect in games. To many, gaming is more than merely completing objectives or “winning”. It’s about becoming immersed in a story or environment and getting invested in what you’re doing. It’s a way to forget all the stress you’ve got going on and just blow some stuff up or get lost in a fantasy world – and I feel as though this sense of escapism is what is most enhanced by music.

Music can create tension, ease, majesty, fear. I don’t know how many times I’ve been playing a game and felt my heart rate increase at the sound of “final boss” music.

Over the years I’ve heard some awesome soundtracks which have made my gaming experience so much more enjoyable. Rather than limiting myself to choosing my all time favourites (I did try, I just couldn’t decide), I’ve decided to take the reminiscent route. So, here are my top 5 nostalgic soundtracks! Scores that bring back some of my best gaming memories.

Journey no. 2

Journey no.2 – Grifflon

Top 5 Best Nintendo Soundtracks

As much as I love video games themselves, we have to remember all of the components that make up a good video game. Typically, there involves a story, good gameplay, nice visuals (you don’t need good graphics to have nice visuals, but it’s a nice bonus), and of course, music. Next to the actual gameplay and control of a game, I think the music and the ambient sounds play a huge role in the success of a game.  I extend the term music to apply to a game that even uses silence to set a mood. Music is so very important, it can determine whether a game is worth it to play or not.

This being said, there are many great games out there with amazing soundtracks to go with them. Even narrowing the range to just Nintendo soundtracks, there are many incredible titles out there. I’ve compiled a list of my top five favourite Nintendo soundtracks. These are just some of my personal favourites, and these were really difficult to pick out from the many great games Nintendo has made. Agree or disagree, here is what I think to be some of Nintendo’s finest.

Metroid Metro: The Other M

When playing a Metroid game, one thing comes to mind and that is exploration. Metroid is known for its vast and detailed environments that branch off in many different directions. A game like the original Metroid is not meant to be played in any set order. One’s objective is search out hidden items and power ups, and then one uses those items to advance to places one’s never been before. This same concept has held true to pretty much every game in the series. This trend of games gets broken with the arrival of the specious game: Metroid: Other M.