#WeeklyGameMusic: Noisy Notebook C (Snipperclips – Cut it Out, Together!)


I said we’ll likely revisit Calum Bowen’s wildly creative compositions. And here we are: this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic is an arrangement from Noisy Notebook C levels in SnipperClips – Cut it Out, Together! by SFB Games. Like many other games with fantastic adoptive soundtracks, SnipperClips changes its arrangements as situation changes in this cooperative puzzle game for the Nintendo Switch: below is just one composition that plays at one specific moment in gameplay in what is otherwise a very complex music.

While SnipperClips itself doesn’t have much in way of a story, its development is far more interesting. A London indie team put together a prototype known as FriendShapes during a short game jam session. Much like the final product, it features two shapes with legs that can cut each other out, creating a new collision shape. After winning the GDC Europe Innovative Games Showcase, SFB Games attempted to pitch the product to various publishers. As it turns out, Nintendo took the most interest in the game, and of course, sold it as a launch game for their latest console, Nintendo Switch.

This thoroughly English title is a puzzle game where two players control each shape, Snip and Clip, to handle a number of tasks. These challenges can include cutting each other out until they make a specific shape; moving a ball into a hoop; and blocking specific circuitry in a web of wires. As mentioned earlier, both players are armed with the ability to cut each other out using their own shape, as well as reforming themselves back to the original shape if needed. Complexity is added in later levels when certain objects reacts not only to your character’s shape, but your own controller input.

SnipperClips is available on the Nintendo Switch. No other ports exist as of this writing.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Octo Eight-Step (Splatoon 2)


Yet another #WeeklyGameMusic from the cultural icon that is Nintendo. This week, I’d like to introduce the bizarre mish-mash of music genres, Octo Eight-Step by Toru Minegishi. A remix of the single-player campaign track from the prior game, this fresh track sets the player up to the Japanese company’s take on the 90’s Nickelodeon slime covered aesthetic in their kids-friendly shooter, Splatoon 2.

With the inclusion of Octo Expansion DLC, Splatoon 2 has two parallel stories occurring in the same Shibuya-like universe. The first follows the former pop-star and all-around snarky Inkling, Marie, searching for where her singing partner and cousin, Callie, went. Upon revisiting Inkopolis two years after her stardom, she finds the metropolitan’s power source, the Great Zapfish, missing again. Her secret-agent instincts kicking in, she recruits you — yes, your very own customized squid-kid avatar — to go defeat her old nemesis, DJ Octavio and his Octarian army.

The second story starts decidedly more grim. You — yes, another, new customized avatar; this time of octopus-kid variety — wake up as an amnesiac Octoling. But rather than in a bright, bustling city like Inkopolis, you’re trapped in a grimy subway with a crusty old veteran named Cap’n Cuttlefish. After the two explore a bit, they come upon a telephone that mysteriously informs them about “the promised land” that’s only reachable if a series of test chambers are completed. Without any further means of escape, the two agree to take on the challenge by hopping onto train, leading them to a world unknown.

Splatoon 2 is a third-person shooter where your cartoon sea-creature/humanoid hybrid fires brightly colored ink. The most popular mode of the game, Turf War, is a four vs four battle where each team paints as much of the stage in their own team color as much as they can. After the 4 minutes time limit is up, the coverage of each team is tallied up, and the team that covers the largest area wins. Much like any shooters, team members can use their weapons to temporarily incapacitate the other team’s players. Unique to this game is how each player can turn into a sea creature that both swims in, and perfectly blends into, their own ink color. To further add variety, the game also has two more modes: Ranked Battle, a competitive 4v4 team match on a randomly selected rule-set, usually involving fighting over a designated area or item; and Salmon Run, a four-player co-op mode where players defeat waves of computer-controlled salmon-like enemies and collect their eggs.

Splatoon 2 is released on the Nintendo Switch. As of this writing, no other ports exist.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Toad Café (Paper Mario: Color Splash)


Ah, yes, time to return to the good old classic Italian plumber in this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic. This time, let’s chill with the Toad Café theme, composed by Takeru Kanazaki, Shigemitsu Goto, and Fumihiro Isobe. The track is from…*shuffle, shuffle*…uhhh…the fan-disapproved game, Paper Mario: Color Splash, developed by Fire Emblem series game, Intelligent Systems?

Before, uh, I get any comments from fans of the Paper Mario series (this writer being one of them), I guess I should cover the paper-thin story. On a faithful day, Princess Peach approaches Mario to deliver a letter. Or a folded, completely discolored Toad, to be more accurate. Struck by this tear-agic discovery, Mario and Co. travel overseas to investigate where the letter was delivered from: Prism Island.

Upon arrival, Mario and Peach learns the truth: the sucky Shy Guys has been slurping up all the color out of this colorful resort. Including Toads, apparently. Crumpled, but undeterred, Mario teams up with the Prism Island guardian (and all-around a floating, hammy bucket) Huey to bring color back to the decorated world.

Much like prior entries, Paper Mario: Color Splash is turn-based JRPG. Similar to the misaligned series entry, Sticker Star, Color Splash also has a TCG-like aspect where Mario needs to collect cards to attach enemies. The power of the cards is determined by how much paint Mario applies to them, which in turn can be permanently powered up by collecting power-ups from defeated enemies. And of course, the trusty cardboard-hard hammer can be used in the regular exploration levels to color any blank spots, restoring Prism Island to its former gay glory.

Paper Mario: Color Splash was developed for the Nintendo Wii U. No other ports exists as of this writing.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: MNN+@0・ (Xenoblade Chronicles X)


#WeeklyGameMusic: New week, new music. Time to talk about a track that is frankly very difficult to spell. I’m talking, of course, about MNN+@0・, composed by Hiroyuki Sawano of Attack of the Titans fame. This is probably one of his early music debut in video game context; too bad it was introduced in the ill-fated Wii U game, Xenoblade Chronicles X, by Monolith Soft.

Like a true action JRPG, Xenoblade Chronicles X has quite a length story, loosely inspired by the Tower of Babel. In the future, a mega-space-battle between two advanced alien races takes place, destroying Earth with it. As a last-ditch survival effort, a bunch of ships carrying humans are launched, in hopes of landing on a habitable planet. You — yes, a customized hero designed by you yourself — are awoken from suspended animation by Elma, who introduces you to the sprawling world of Mira that your colony’s ship has crash landed onto. But first, she hands you a laser gun and knife. That’s right, the native alien species on this planet aren’t too fond of visitors!

Exploration is Xenoblade Chronicles X‘s name of the game, as planet Mira is absolutely massive. Much of your time will be spent on uncovering landmarks, tackling both main- and side-quests, and grinding for materials. Mid-way through the game, your party gains access to mechs that fly, opening the world up even further. Battles are held in real-time as you designate what special moves your hero or mech should execute, and at which enemy body part. On a more clever twist, the touch-pad on the Wii U controller can be used to setup mining stations, allowing the player to both make money and materials over time — similar to Universal Paperclips and other idle games. The feature also doubles as a way to buff your party members in specified areas of the map, ideally where more difficult enemies are crawling over.

Xenoblade Chronicles X is available on the Wii U. No other ports exist as of this writing.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Credits (Metroid Prime)


#WeeklyGameMusic: New week, new music. Today’s track is an oldie, but timeless creepy-crawly…sci-fi tune, the Metroid Prime credits theme, composed by Kenji Yamamoto and Kouichi Kyuma. That’s right, we’re highlighting Retro Studios’ first release, the fantastic sci-fi first-person action-adventure game, Metroid Prime, published by Nintendo.

Where to begin with such a legendary game such as Metroid Prime? The mission starts with infamous bounty hunter, Samus Aran, investigating a seemingly decimated space laboratory that reveals that the evil Space Pirates has, once again, been experimenting with the deadly alien parasites, Metroids. True to the series roots, while Samus successfully destroys the laboratory to prevent further spread of specimens coming out of it, she loses all her upgraded space-suits with it, and needs to regain them from a neighboring planet that she once called home (or more like training ground, but that’s another story for another time). Unbeknownst to her, though, the Space Pirates had some tricks up in their space-sleeves…

Metroid Prime is renowned for successfully genre-shifting the retro-platformer to a first-person shooter, and still garner praise and support from fans of the older series. Despite some similarities, graphic-wise, to modern shooters, Metroid Prime doesn’t feel like a competitive shooter. Instead, the game has a strong emphasis on exploration and puzzle solving, with action occasionally sprinkled to even the game’s pacing. More often than not, the map is going to be your best tool: figuring out where to go next, and more importantly, how to get there defines the game’s core experience. Furthermore, to de-emphasize the action, Metroid Prime utilizes a lock-on mechanic akin to The Legend of Zelda series, making combat focus more on dodging attacks, rather than aiming. Finally, who can forget the scan-visor? It’s a lore-revealing tool that allows Samus to gather information on aliens, plants, data logs, power-ups, and more! This useful, but optional feature allows the player to organically piece together the scattered logs and events by themselves, revealing what has happened to the planet prior to Samus’ arrival.

Metroid Prime was originally released on Nintendo Gamecube. A remake of the entire Gamecube series, Metroid Prime: Trilogy, was also released on the Nintendo Wii, complete with motion-controlled aiming.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Main Menu (Epic Mickey)


#WeeklyGameMusic: New week, new music.

Now that love is over, it’s time to return to an old classic (made new (but is now old (this is so confusing))).  Epic Mickey could be described as Warren Spector’s darker remix to the classic Mickey cartoons, and its music follows suit.  James Dooley’s composition has such a classic Disney charm to it, yet manages to be more ominous than its inspiration.  A fitting re-arrangement to a game that looks at Mickey’s less kind, devious personality.

Epic Mickey‘s story is a simple one: darn old Mickey screws up big time when he fiddles around with Yen Sid’s beautiful sculpture that, itself, holds many denizens such as Oswald the lucky rabbit.  Out of pure curiosity, Mickey tries to create his own things using the magical brush, but instead creates a living monstrosity that tries to consume him.  Panicking, Mickey chucks paint thinner at it and flees before Yen Sid gets back.  Years later, and significantly more famous, Mickey completely forgets about the incident until Blot, the monstrosity, manages to take Mickey while he’s asleep into the demented world named Wasteland.

Epic Mickey is a 3D platformer that revolves around an unusual tool and weapon.  Mickey’s paintbrush can throw both paint and thinner, something that he uses to both construct and destruct the world around him.  This proves to be important when Mickey needs to construct new platforms, or break down a wall that’s in the way.  The paintbrush can also be used for combat, with paint turning enemies to allies, and thinner practically destroying them.  Much of the morality plays around which type of tool you prefer to use, and as a result, a few story elements may change on your play habits.

Epic Mickey was original developed for the Wii.  No other ports exist.

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