SuperPhillip's Favorite VGMs - Back to School Edition

Many students, whether they are in primary school or college, are heading back or have already headed back to school. It's time to give my prized pupils the treat of video game music. Feel free to leave an apple on this teacher's desk when we are through. On this week's edition of the VGMs, we have music from Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Sonic & Knuckles, and Pokemon Rumble. Get your #2 pencil ready so we can begin.

v176. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (DS) - Into the Dark Night

The boss theme of Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Into the Dark Night is a fast paced theme worthy of slaying the most formidable foes. Dawn of Sorrow was my introduction to the series, and it left a grand impression on me. I loved the Metroid-style gameplay mixed with RPG elements such as leveling up. Then came the awesome and addicting soul-collecting. Grinding to kill the same enemy just so you could get its rare soul never grew old.

v177. Mega Man Battle Network 2 (GBA) - You Can't Go Back

The theme of the final level in Mega Man Battle Network 2, You Can't Go Back is a phrase that is exactly how it sounds. At a certain point in this level you literally cannot go back or save. You must beat the game from that point on. My favorite portion of this theme occurs between 0:20 and 0:35. The Mega Man Battle Network series's music didn't necessarily push the Game Boy Advance sound card much, but this theme is still rather catchy.

v178. Sonic & Knuckles (GEN) - Flying Battery Zone Act 2

Set on an airship suspended in the sky, the Flying Battery Zone takes place both inside and outside the aerial vessel that Sonic or Knuckles explore. Sonic & Knuckles wasn't your ordinary Sega Genesis cartridge. It had the ability to have Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Sonic the Hedgehog 3 to latch onto it on its top. Thus, one of the greatest Sonic the Hedgehog experiences of all time in Sonic 3 & Knuckles happened. The game allowed the player to go through all of Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles' levels one by one, gathering the Chaos and then the Master Emeralds.

v179. Pokemon Rumble (WiiWare) - Fiery Furnace Battle

There's a sense of urgency when this theme from the Fiery Furnace levels of Pokemon Rumble plays. Pokemon Rumble was an action game where your Pokemon battled a bunch of other Pokemon across numerous dungeons. Once in a blue moon a defeated Pokemon would be able to be collected to join your arsenal of toy Pokemon. The Nintendo 3DS's Pokemon Rumble Blast would make a meatier game with more gameplay ideas, more dungeons, and a myriad of more Pokemon to obtain. I only wish the 3DS game prices weren't so high.

v180. Graffiti Kingdom (PS2) - The Boy's Small Hope and Weak Breaths

Graffiti Kingdom is a lesser known PlayStation 2 game, a sequel to Magic Pengel: The Quest for Color. The fun of the game was creating your own monsters to battle through the dungeons, defeating enemies, platforming, and finding treasure (you can see gameplay in the video the music accompanies). Unfortunately there are not too many songs uploaded to YouTube of this creative and severely overlooked game. The soundtrack by Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger/Cross, Xenogears) is charming and whimsical as evident by this theme.

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I hope those that are returning to school have a splendid semester. I know I hope to have one. But SPC will not be slowing down at all despite this. No, like I mentioned in my Spirit Camera review, there are two more new reviews for me to reveal and for you to read. Please look forward to those as I most certainly am.

Pokemon Rumble (Wiiware) Review

It's the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, so let's have a Pokemon feast! No, we're not going to eat the tender little creatures. We're going to be playing a game chock full of them with Pokemon Rumble for Wiiware. This is our third Wiiware review ever on SPC! What a celebration we will pretend to have!

Are you ready to rumble?
Screenshots by SuperPhillip

Pokemon is a series where the goal is just like the series' motto: "You gotta catch 'em all". This greed mentality has run through normal Pokemon games and specialized games alike. The very first Wiiware Pokemon release was a simulator where you got to store and play with the various Pokemon you collected in the DS Pokemon games. Those who had been expecting something with more action were left disappointed and confused. Now it's two years later, and Pokemon Rumble is here to bring the goods in the action department, but is this rumble one you'll want to pay the price of admission for?

The story is a simple one in Pokemon Rumble. Apparently, every Pokemon in the region wishes to be declared as number one. In order to do this, they must complete in various battle royals where the winner advances to the next rank. The winner of this competition goes onto become the champion. No endorsement deal, no face on the cover of Rolling Stone, just the title of champion. Oh, and of course, the fun that goes along to achieving the rank.

It might not be all Gloom and doom after all!

The game structure is as follows. Your Pokemon begins at Rank C. Your Pokemon team cannot enter the battle royale until your party has at least one Pokemon stronger than a set level. Since you can't gain experience levels (or any type of levels for that matter), you have to befriend new Pokemon to join your team. Befriending Pokemon is a completely random process with rarer Pokemon taking a lot of patience to collect. Once befriended, that Pokemon can be switched in to do battle, replacing the previous Pokemon on the screen. There are ways to better insure the collection of a Pokemon such as hitting them with a critical strike, invoking a status ailment on them, or just by pure persistence. After you have a powerful enough Pokemon for the Battle Royale, you can enter it. Win, and move onto the next rank. Rinse and repeat until you're champion.

Nothing like a bash at the beach!

There are six areas to explore in each rank. No matter the rank, the level and level structure remain the same which is a bummer. It can make an already repetitive game feel even more so. The six areas house different type of Pokemon. For instance, the Silent Forest level houses grass, bug, and normal type Pokemon. Other levels include a furnace for fire Pokemon, a rocky cavern which houses rock and ground Pokemon, and a large ominous tower home to dark, ghost, and psychic Pokemon. Each level is completely linear. You just go marching through each area, destroying any Pokemon that gets in your way. There's no form of exploration whatsoever which may or may not appeal to many players.

Battles take place in real-time, and at many locations you'll be facing anywhere from 1-15 wild Pokemon at a time. Each of your Pokemon can have up to two moves learned. These can range from short range to long range attacks, healing moves, confusion, paralysis, and poison moves, and stat boosting abilities. Enemies telegraph their attacks, giving you a short window of time to dodge their attacks, but when there's fifteen Pokemon aiming for you, it gets a bit tricky. At the end of each area (areas last five rooms each essentially), you take on a giant version of a Pokemon along with a bunch of smaller chronies in a circular room. Not only does this behemoth Pokemon take more damage, but it also causes more damage, too, and has a larger reach in attacks. After the battle is won, the boss drops a plethora of Rumble Points, the currency of Pokemon Rumble. If you're lucky, you might even be able to befriend boss after battle.

The bigger they are...

With your points you can use them in a pair of ways. You can use them to purchase new Pokemon at random and buy new moves at random for said Pokemon. You can also release up to five Pokemon in a row to perhaps earn a new Pokemon in the process. You can also gain new friends by inputting an eight digit code for new, rare Pokemon-- ones that would otherwise be unavailable to you. You can also choose to play with up to four friends together in the multi-player mode. Very cool indeed. Perhaps online would have been nice to see, but local multi-player is better than online any day. Though a choice would be even better.

Pokemon Rumble controls as fine as any other dungeon hack-n-slash game. You hold the Wii remote horizontally as if you were playing Excite Truck or Super Paper Mario. The d-pad moves your Pokemon, and the A button is used to move Pokemon in and out of battle. When you pause to select a new Pokemon, the actual game world around you still goes on, so if there's Pokemon around you, perhaps it's not the best to exchange Pokemon now. Meanwhile, the 1 and 2 buttons unleash your Pokemon's individual special abilities. Alternatively, you can choose to play with a Gamecube controller if the above set-up doesn't appeal to you.

After each area your new befriended Pokemon are shown.

Pokemon Rumble is a fun if not mindless dungeon crawler. As you play through the game, there's three different difficulties total each with Pokemon from different generations. There's over 200 individual Pokemon to collect in all, multiple capture attempts, and plenty to complete and accomplish. If collecting Pokemon doesn't seem like your thing, Pokemon Rumble definitely isn't for you. For all the millions of Pokemon fanatics out there, however, Pokemon Rumble just might be a rumble worth joining.

[SuperPhillip Says: 7.5/10]