Tag: Xbox 360

#WeeklyGameMusic: To Catch an Owl (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

Welp, this writer didn’t have a festive tune in their backlog of video game music, but this #WeeklyGameMusic, composed by James Hannigan comes close enough. To Catch an Owl is a video-game-original track for the book-to-movie-to-game adaptation, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, developed by EA UK. It’s a magical and celebratory tune fitting of the upcoming holidays, and manages to capture the movie soundtrack’s spirit.

Note: this writer does acknowledge the author of the Harry Potter series is notoriously transphobic. While the composer of this track is completely unrelated to J.K. Rowling, it should be stated that transphobia is immoral and wrong. This writer does not intend to promote such a position.

Within a few chapters of the fifth entry in the seven book (or eight movie) series, titular character Harry Potter and his non-magical cousin Dudley get attacked by the depression-inducing Dementors, well outside of the wizarding realm and within our realistic one. Thus setting the tone for what’s going to be a dark entry amongst the series, Harry uses magical spells Dudley can’t perceive to ward off the Dementors in self-defense. The problem? It’s illegal for an underage wizard student (which Harry himself is just into the fifth year of a seven year long career) to use magic in front of muggles, or normies by wizard lingo. This immediately kicks off a number of lawsuits Harry is forced to navigate, and while the ruling manages to fall into his favor, puts Harry into a legally precarious position as he enters Hogwarts wizarding school for the fifth year.

While story-wise, the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix doesn’t stray from this story, it’s gameplay takes a much more interesting approach to the politically oppressive atmosphere the book presents. In short, Order of the Phoenix is an open-world game where players utilizes gestures on the right-stick of the controller to cast various spells. Said spells are used to handle various tasks given by minigames, or simple environmental puzzles to unlock new secrets in the labyrinthine Hogwarts. Exploration is key to both progressing the story and unlocking new abilities and upgrade to our hero as he navigates this magically dangerous place.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released for the (wait for it…) Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, PC, and Mac (phew!)

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Skate Park Shuffle (Create)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

Regulars of #WeeklyGameMusic know I often find some rather obscure game music pretty often. Here’s one from a little-known sandbox game called Create, developed by EA Bright Light. That’s right, we’re checking out Electronic Arts game music this week! Ian Livingstone’s piece, Skate Park Shuffle, is a bit corporate at the beginning, but soon mellows out to a rather calming (and more interesting) conclusion.

A bit like the The Incredible Machine, the most game-like aspect of Create involves the player to use the items and tools available in the pre-made levels to push, nudge, and navigate an object from point A to point B. Much of these levels take place in the 2D plane to provide a simpler interface, though lanes of depth can be added like LittleBigPlanet. And of course, much like LittleBigPlanet, Create allowed players to create and share levels online, though as of this writing, the servers has long been shut down.

Create was released on PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, PC, and Mac. As far as this writer can tell, there does not appear to be a way to purchase the game online easily, but the official game page is available here: ea.com/games/create

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Whetfahrt Cheesefunk (Bit.Trip Presents…Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

You’d think a jazzy composition wouldn’t work too well on a game that requires paying close attention to the music’s rhythm, but the auto-runner Bit.Trip Presents…Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien (phew!), developed by Choice Provisions, throws away all common sense and just makes it happen. Whetfahrt Cheesefunk, composed by Matthew Harwood, takes a nice, soft swinging beat, and crescendos it to a deliciously chaotic composition. An interesting decision for a game that demands every single fiber of the player’s attention, lest they get hit, and be forced to replay from the beginning of the level.

The game’s album is available on Bandcamp, by the way: choiceprovisions.bandcamp.com/track/whetfahrt-cheesefunk

Runner2 is a bizarre side-story the happens between two Bit.Trip series entries, Runner and Fate. In short, series villain Mingrawn Timbletot fires a laser at Commander Video, thus whisking him away into a new dimension…the 3D realm! Tired plot point aside, this leaves Commander Video doing what he already does best in Bit.Trip Runner: keep running right in hopes of finding an exit out of this world.

While an auto-runner in the same vain as Canabult, Runner2 has multiple levels with a clear ending, collectibles, and even boss battles. Naturally as the music would imply, the audio design is the primary highlight of Runner2, making it a stand-out among other games in the same genre. Obstacles and collectibles are deliberately placed to create a sense of rhythm and memorization one would expect from music games. On top of this, each successful action is awarded with a note that, stung together, creates a procedurally generated music matching with the composition already playing in the background. In essence, the player gets to feel like they’re composing music.

Runner2 is available on Windows, OS X, and Linux via Steam; Playstation Vita, 3, and 4; iOS, Xbox 360, and finally, Wii U.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Discothéque Rouge, After Hours (Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

Need a little more chiptune in your life? The absolutely talented Chipzel has you covered with this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic. Her remix of Discothéque Rouge, After Hours, from Pocketwatch Games’s multiplayer heist game, Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine is some of the tastiest gems out their to savior. Enjoy it…while it lasts…

They can’t keep us locked in! Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine begins with a group of criminals breaking out of prison, and sneaking out. The triumph is short-lived, however, when the company realizes they’re penniless and wanted. After much deliberation, the party comes to a decision: escape to Monaco, by every means possible. Thus begins their long journey of gathering more criminal connections to assist their freedom.

Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine is an award-winning cooperative heist game. You and three other skilled thieves infiltrate heavily guarded buildings to — what else? — steal everything valuable. The innovation kicks in when every player realizes they’ll need to share information between each other as they deal with each character’s limited vision and hyper-specialized abilities. It’s pretty normal for something to go wrong during the heist: alarms triggering, guards taking notice, etc. After all, much of the fun is trying to figure out how to deal with the escalating situation amongst your group of friends.

Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine is released on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Switch. It’s also available on Steam.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: A Floral Creation (El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

Need a little bit of mystery and whimsy in your day? This week’s #WeeklyGameMusic has you covered with this track from…an action game? A Floral Creation by Masato Kouda and Kento Hasegawa starts cute and innocent, but gradually builds to a more tense composition. A fittingly bizarre track to an equally strange but visually stunning game, El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron.

Roughly (one might say, poorly) retelling the Hebrew Book of Enoch, El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron stars the scribe Enoch, tasked by God to punish seven fallen angels for taking a liking of humans and transforming Earth to their own image. To aid with Enoch’s travels, Lucifel — yes, that Lucifel, although in this case prior to him betraying God — also follows along, primarily acting as a save point by keeping God up-to-date with Enoch’s progress via a handy flip-phone. The two heroes travel to lands with wildly different, and absolutely gorgeous visuals, going from what appears to be a serene but mostly monochromatic world, to one that’s vibrant and neon colored like Vegas, to even one that’s clearly inspired by cyberpunk.

As an action game, El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron involves Enoch hacking-and-slashing fallen angel goons, first by literally stealing their weapon, then purifying it to be used against them. There are three weapons to master, and interestingly enough, each provide not only different controls in combat, but also a unique utility when it comes to light platforming. Highlight of the game, of course, are the bosses, which each use their own tricky combos to challenge the player’s reaction.

El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron was released on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. No other ports exist.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Opala (Two Worlds)

Posted on by Taro Omiya

Sometimes, this #WeeklyGameMusic post series likes to look into tracks from unexpected places. Take, for example, Two Worlds by Reality Pump: a game touted as the Oblivion/Skyrim-killer…then fall into complete obscurity as rapidly as it came in. It once returned back to fame in 2016’s Summer Games Done Quick…where a speedrunner beats it in less than 3 minutes. Well, surprise, surprise, the game has a really beautiful soundtrack! Opala, in particular is a stand-out composition from Harold Faltemeyer.

(Psst! You can buy the soundtrack on iTunes! music.apple.com/at/album/two-worlds/699269326)

Two Worlds opens with the hero’s sister getting kidnapped and held for ransom. It turns out the kidnappers are planning nefariously to unseal Aziraal, the god of fire, from its tomb. It’s up to you to rescue your beloved family member…by taking on a huge number of quests factions give you.

As one would expect of a game dubbed Oblivion-killer, Two Worlds is an open-world WRPG. Customization and freedom is the key goal of the game, as the hero’s individual attributes and skills can be incremented per level-up in any way the player pleases. Naturally, the player can gain favors from the game’s 7 factions by taking on quests each one gives, thus changing their alliances. And of course, if you really want to, you can outright kill villagers if you so desire. Normally a bad choice, but said mechanic can be taken advantage of…such as the aforementioned 3-minute-long speed run.

Two Worlds was released on Xbox 360 and PC. A sequel for the game was released as well, this time on Xbox 360, Playstation 3, PC, and Mac OSX.

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