The Best Music You've Never Heard #1: Kenseiden

Growing up on the Sega Master System while everyone else had a Nintendo has a lot to do with my perspective and taste for games. The two consoles may look the same at a glance but are drastically different from one another. For one thing; the Nintendo had an unprecedented amount of titles to choose from. Some of the greatest third party franchises belonged to the Nintendo, such as Mega-Man, Ninja Gaiden, Final Fantasy, Double Dragon, and Canstlevania just to name a few. This alone dwarfs the worth of th Sega Master System. But what the SMS lacked, made up in gaming atmosphere, music, graphics, sound effects and originality.

While Nintendo did have their great soundtracks from Konami and Capcom, I've always found them lacking  sense of aura and originality. Sega, simply put, destroys the Nintendo's library of music (my opinion, of course). 

One of the main reasons why is because, as oppose to Nintendo, Sega embraced it's origins. The console had numerous games that were heavily influenced by Japanese traditional culture. Complimenting Feudal Japan settings from The Ninja, SpellCaster and Kenseiden, were music that was completely unheard of at the time.

Kenseiden puts you in the roll of Hayato, a samurai that goes across the treacherous land of Feudal Japan, collecting scrolls from Warlocks in order to defeat Nobunaga. Along the way you'll have to fight some creepy and odd Japanese folklore demons. The settings of each stages are creepy, depressing and curiously beautiful.

Where the game shines most is it's eerie, unique soundtrack. Each song is layered incredibly deep with many different types of percussions, flutes and "twangs" unavailable in Sega's direct competition at the time. The soundtrack creeped the crap out of me when I was a little kid, and even today as I go through the tracks, some of them provoke the exact same feelings.

Here are some samples of Kenseiden's soundtrack (VGMusic):

Kenseiden - Stage 1

Kenseiden - Boss

Kenseiden - Castle

Kenseiden - Stage 3

Kenseiden - Yonensai

Kenseiden - Map

If you own a Sega Master System, I highly encourage you purchasing Kenseiden. It plays like Metroid / Ninja Gaiden minus the speed, and the difficulty can be brutal at times, but if I cleared it when I was only 7, it shouldn't be a problem right? ;) 

The game only cost me a mere $5 on eBay, and was worth sacrificing my meal from McDonald's.

Here's a pic of a spread from the manual to entice you:

Love that Harlot Lizard... *shudder*

Kenseiden and Space Harrier

The Sega Master System was my first console. I believe my brother bought it back in 1986 and at th age of 3 I was already playing Alex Kidd, Shinobi, Hang-On, Wonder-Boy, Space Harrier and Kenseiden.

I just received these 2 from the good people of Canada Post.

Space Harrier is a very unique game (especially for it's time) where you control a flying space dude carrying a giant cannon like a rolled carpet tucked in his armpits. The game is formatted like a racing game or even an FPS that has you constantly going forward, shooting the oddest and most original enemies (one-eyed mammoths, 2 headed human-faced dragons, alien-like octopuses, and even that flying dog from The Never Ending Story as a companion).

The game was originally an arcade, fully equipped with an elaborate cabinet to simulated the MC's flying abilities. It was a faithful port with some hiccups here and there, but for it's time, it was pretty amazing. Definitely blew my 6 year old mind :)

Here's a review of Space Harrier from Mark of Classic Game Room. You might find some similarities between Space Harrier and Bayonetta. That's because one of Bayonetta's stages is an homage to the semi on- rails, semi shmup classic. 

If you're interested in some awesome, obscure retro games, I would highly recommend both Space Harrier and watching Classic Game Room!

I'll do a short summary of Kenseiden later in the future.

Casio Watch: "Space Warrior"

Back when I was 7, a grade school friend of mine lent me his amazing Ninja Gaiden digital watch for a week. The crazy thing (at the time) was that this watch actually had the Ninja Gaiden game on it (Game & Watch style). It completely blew my mind. Imagine how boring class was while the teacher was going through the answers for math homework and all you wanted to do was to slice some bad ninjas up. That's exactly what I did, and it was the greatest thing ever.

It's hard to imagine now how cool it was, with all the modern technology today... You have handheld consoles that could play games sub-par PS2 graphics, watch movies near HD quality, mutiplayer wifi, etc... Back in the day the only thing electronically portable was either your watch or a set of walkie talkies.

About 2 years ago I decided to go on a massive hunt for digital watches, specifically ones that play games. The very first one I purchased was MIB. It was from a Swedish collector from http://pocketcalculatorshow.com.

The Casio "Space Warrior" watch was made in Japan, 198*. The watch has a time, alarm function and a side scrolling SHMUP where you must control the Gundam-like android printed on the middle right of the screen, and shoot and avoid the enemies. There's also a multiplier if you hit multiple enemies with a single shot.

The game has some wear on it since it's the watch I wear the most. It's definitely a personal favourite of mine.

 

Here's a short clip of me demoing off a few seconds of the game.

Luckily I purchased these watches before the big inflation started. Casio game watches can range from $100 - $300 depending on  the model nowadays.

Hope you enjoyed this post. I'll be uploading more pics of other watches I own in the near future :P

Work from Drawing 1 (Interior + 3 Characters)

An assignment I had in Semester 1. Was going for a futuristic/cyberpunk interior design mix match with some "old" furniture and technology.

Not sure how long this one took, but it was pretty fun to do :0

Sengoku Basara Figures by Revoltech

Just got these in the mail. I nabbed these through Amiami.co.jp for $5 a pop. That's a hugh mark down from $27!

Meet Chosokabe Motochika and Mori Motonari from Sengoku Basara, a hack and slash game by Capcom on the PS3 and Wii (think Samurai Warriors by Koei, but with a little more flare). Both figures are made by Revoltech and were imported from Japan.

The figures look great on pose. Each have vibrant colours to match their silly, angsty attitudes and interesting choices for weapons. My only gripe is that for Revoltech figures, where they decided to place the ball joints are odd (Motochika's neck is connected to his scarf thingy and his waist is connected to the gilt, not the waist). Poseability is a hit or miss. While you can arrange them in some pretty cool poses, the placement of the joints don't really help out when playing with them. Limbs and clothing parts were flying off as I was fiddling around with the figures.

Overall though, they were easily worth the $5, but I would have felt a little burnt if I paid full prices for them.

WIP Sprites

Some sprite work for my Flash project.

Making very fast progress (started on the 17th). Still a bit of ways to go, but it's been fun along the way :)

My last Design (3) work

I just found this piece a few minutes ago. It was laid hidden in a bunch of old files located in my external hd. It was for Design 3, a book cover about your fictional "biography".

I wish I could've made my brother proud, but in the end Graphic Design was too much for me. Gaming seems like a better choice. I feel much more passionate about it.