Saturday, 3 November 2012

A wonderful assortment of links with oxo cube hi-jinks

There’s no need to knock, come on in.

I believe this gravy needs more beef which will ensure more flavour than a mouthful of Skittles.

Yep, after giving it a stir and quick taste; that's yummier already.

So while that particular form of pressure is been soaked up, why not be caught up in further carnage…

As I’m now able to exploit a bigger budget, it’s not gonna be just good, but great.

The subject matter remains…

Here’s Oasis at it again…

This is literally Whatever.


Then Neil Innes’ How Sweet to Be an Idiot.


Oasis brought out some excellent and timeless songs.  It’s a shame Noel’s occasional brilliance is almost matched by plagiarism.

This is funny.  Forward to 13m until 14m 45s and listen to the sound the char Pielle constantly makes in Visco’s Breakers on Neo Geo.


That is possibly the gayest noise I’ve ever heard in a video game.  Even his voice getting hit is suitably pathetic.  Visco knew what they were doing and I thought Laurence Blood, Benimaru et al were camp…

This is another mental audio scoop.

Listen to the sound used when Kurgan is dying in sword romp Highlander from 2m 11s to 29s.


Here goes, listen to a sound at 1m 14s to 1m 17s from the obscure and equally awful Taito arcade, Dino Rex.


Now doesn’t the roar sound eerily similar?

Weird shit!

Using the same Dino Rex vid, here’s a few more funnies.

Watch the intro text from 10s to 31s.

Apart from the terrible Engrish, why does the writing suddenly turn into Braille?

It gets even better and is genuinely funny.  What the hell where these guys on when they made this?

Watch the credit roll from 36m 03 to 37m 30s.

I just want to know, why are the poor dinos forced into having twitching episodes?

Watch Factor 5’s Super Turrican 2 from 43m 27s to whatever point during this stage.


It looks smart right?

Yes it does, but oh dear, watch stage 5 from Konami’s 1992 classic Axelay from 22m 35s to 23m to get the idea.


All that I have to say is that Factor 5 had some balls and seemingly got away with it.

Unbelievable!
Listen to the 2012 Volkswagen Polo advert.


This is Take Care by Beach House.


You should vent your anger at the ad company, not Volkswagen.

Listen to Papa Roach and Between Angels and Insects.


Cool, but what’s this?

It’s only Iron Maiden’s Prowler.


Wow Papa Roach, it’s the Iron Maiden song with different lyrics…

Unfortunately, listen to the awful Dot Rotten Overload, ft TMS.


This is Robert Miles’ instrumental classic Children.


WTF?  Yeah that’s right, just nick somebody else’s tune, shove some shitty lyrics in and claim it as your own.

Okay, that may be fairly famous but what might not be so famous is this.

Ignore the Dot Rotten bilge and if you have to, listen to Children again.

Below is Rock Howard’s theme - Spread the Wings, again from SNK’s Garou: Mark of the Wolves.

At 52s to 1m 20s, you’ll notice something.


Listen to the chords from Opposite of Adults by Chiddy Bang.


Then the music featured heavily in Kids by MGMT.


What does the music remind you of from some rap shit Unorthodox - Wretch 32 ft Example.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAdZLGQv0_0

You know what's coming, but just in case, it ain't no bus.

Fools Gold from The Stone Roses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSD11dnphg0

That is far worse than Chiddy Bang.  What a bunch of pricks.

Here's another fairly pointless but relevant observation and this time, it involves scrolling.

Watch Konami’s Turtles from 6m 01s to 6m 25s


Then watch Capcom’s Cadillacs and Dinosaurs from 22m 04s to 10s


I know scrolling is scrolling but this is a pretty odd duplication to scream coincidence.

Use the Cadillacs vid again and first watch from 16m 14s to 18s.

Got that?  Good.

Then forward to 44m 30s to 35s to get the idea.

So Capcom basically recycle the boss Slice, turn him into an alien with exactly the same attacks as another boss, Slisaur.
 
It’s commendable laziness.

In fairness, it seemed to be the trend years ago with scrolling beat ‘em ups and shmups that recycled previous bosses (especially towards the end of a game).

I used to think it was cool, but not so now.

Otherwise decent and obscure Amiga shooter Apidya turns into a shameless R-Type and even Turrican 2 rip-off.

Just look at the some of the enemies (mainly the flying red things) in this vid from 24m 47s to 27m 28s


Watch 24m 50s to 25m 58s for some Turry 2 blink and you’ll die stuff.


Then more Apidya originality as it tries similar stuff (badly) 30m 05s to 30m 57s


If you will, watch Team 17’s Project X on the Amiga and its bonus stage for its equivalent from 16m 34s to 17m 38s. 


Here’s Shinobi again and have a very brief watch from 30s to 32s.


Notice how those guys run and they’re armed with knives….

This is Data East’s 1988 arcade of Robocop.


You should notice that Robocop is really just a huge Shinobi rip-off.  Just check out the first stage to understand from 47s onwards ‘til the boss on 1m 48s.

The layout’s practically the same and apart from being unable to jump to different levels (which would be admittedly stupid), those guys that run on the floor are animated exactly the same (do they have knives too?)

You can even rescue hostages (albeit in slightly different circumstances).

Further rips are evident in close combat with the melee weapon in Shinobi is a sword and in t’other, it’s a fist.

It’s the same idea and same effect.

Wrap your hearing tackle around SNK’s Alpha Mission II on Neo Geo from 38s to 1m 01s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szn0b4stzwu

This is the first stage of Konami’s Gradius 3 on SNES and listen to its music from 0s to 23s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ubiv3rsmly&feature=relmfu

At least Alpha Mission II becomes totally different thereafter.

Finally, consider Mike Oldfield’s The Lake from 2m 24s to 2m 40s to get the idea.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=my2bccuom9o

I’d say this sounds like Gradius 3 too (at least a sample).

If you weren’t aware of The Lake, you’ll now get the bit I’m talking about.

So did Konami rip it off, then did SNK rip off Gradius, blissfully unaware they were ripping off a sample from Oldfield that Konami may have originally ripped off?

It’s food for thought.

Agony is a basic and short (admittedly very nice looking) 1992 Amiga shmup with the main protagonist being an owl.

The game is more famous because it has a fantastic piece of music by welsh musician Tim Wright.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9utnucyed0

Then open your ears to Dimmu Borgir’s Sorgens Kammer from their album Stormblast released in 1996.

Stian Aarstad famously plagiarised the title theme of Agony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adeqi949nia

This is Alt Lys Er Svunnet Hen, which is another track from Stormblast.  Listen until 1m 33s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=errkmo6ieya

Way back in 1982, British band Magnum released a song called Sacred Hour from album Chase the Dragon.  Listen until 1m 48s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yejfv0dkqc&feature=relmfu

It is plain to hear that keyboard player Stian Aarstad nicked the intro from Sacred Hour.

At the time, Aarstad failed to make Tim Wright or Magnum aware of his apparently ‘original’ compositions.

I wonder why?

In 2004, Dimmu Bogir was given agony by the game’s creators.

Consequently, when Stormblast was re-recorded, the intro to Alt Lys Er Svunnet Hen was removed and Sorgens Kammer was totally omitted…

So that undoubtedly makes Aarstad a little tinker and a thieving git.

An undeniable classic in Capcom’s 19xx series


Here’s Banshee on the Amiga showing us all how to badly rip off 1942.


Way before Mortal Kombat, there was Atari’s Pit Fighter released in 1990 and was much lauded at the time for its use of digitized fighters.

It’s only necessary to view from 30s to 1m 25s.


Then slam on this vid of SNK’s Street Smart released in 1989.


To get the gist, watch from 8s until at least 1m 25s.

The concept and mechanics are indistinguishable, right down to the flying white pixels of saliva and/or sweat from each brawler.
From 7m 27s to 7m 45s, this is Viccom's bonus stage from their only Neo Geo game Fight Fever.


Then watch this bonus and/or skill up stage in Art of Fighting from 7m 57s to 8m 12s


I don't care if the former was apparently modelled on AOF - it's terrible.

You could link both games to the bonus stage in the original Street Fighter.  Watch the PC Engine port released as Fighting Street from 4m 11s to 4m 20s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTlzvVm_Nvk

These are great observations (ahem).

The year is 1992 and watch Genias’s Catalypse (on C64) from 7m 57s to get idea.


Rewind a year and a boss from C64 classic Turrican 2 from 15m 27s for a short period of time.


Now doesn’t Catalypse look vaguely familiar?

Use the Catalypse video again and forward to 9m 27s.

Then use the Turrican 2 vid and forward to 16m 28s until 30s.

Wow!

If anybody says games from yesteryear don’t matter and/or aren’t relevant anymore, they are definitely wrong as you should also note that Catalypse is also a shameless Armalyte rip-off.

For the proof, just watch Armalyte in action...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPge1O4TIYQ

I'm sorry Genias, it was hardly a genius move.

This is a stage from SNK’s The Last Blade 2 on Neo Geo at any point from 7m 21s to 9m 03s.


In this vid, take note of the background to which the end fight from anime Ninja Scroll is set against.


Okay, the latter is on a boat and the former is in a house but everything is very similar – the timber and even the flames.

It will more likely be in homage as some chars in Samurai Shodown 2 were inspired by Ninja Scroll.

Or maybe it’s just a well staged steal by SNK.

This is Aerosmith’s Sweet Emotion.


Now hear The Rolling Stones and We Love You.


Hmmmm…

Listen to Number Nine by The Twilight Singers.  Spin on until 5m until its ending.


Then Pink Floyd’s The Great Gig in the Sky from 1m 08s onwards


Same idea, different tune right?

Here’s a scene from Romeo Must Die starring Jet Li.  Take a peek at the action from 15s to 18s.


The same effect was stolen by Rain in Resident Evil: Retribution.  Watch from 04m 41s, 7m 02s and 07m 46s.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DYBr-HFWIA

 X-ray moves were popularised in Mortal Kombat 9.

 Here's a video showcasing the lot.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgEFXMUr55E

 Okay, now view this Samurai Shodown V Special vid and Hanzo’s fatality from 1m 11s to 1m20s.


Then El Gado's nuke in Final Fight Revenge on Saturn from 1m 50s to 1m 56s.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr6I00NCTkI

I know, you're amazed.

We’re back with Sega and Sonic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djjnxhcv1z4

Then a curious rip-off in the form of Accolade’s Bubsy released in 1992 on various 16 bit systems.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agiykm3kf_q

That’s bad, but the ultimate rip off was shat into existence in 1993 was Vic Tokai’s Socket or Time Dominator 1st.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx4ndlzfchg

Open your ears to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1986 Phantom of the Opera theme.  Listen from 0s to 14s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5z_l6ne3qs

This is Pink Floyd’s 1970 20 minute epic Echoes and why does the beginning sound like a submarine radar?  Anyway, jump to 3m46s to 4m 05s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kmpzaef6g0

That marks the end of this latest broth and dinner is served.

This animal won’t remain caged for long as the final fury is impatiently waiting to be unleashed.

I know it’s a cliché, but the best is definitely saved until last.

You simply can't, shouldn't or mustn't miss it.
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