video games (was Re: UFCS for D)

[Nick Sabalausky]

From: "Adam D. Ruppe" <destructionator at gmail.com>
> On Sunday, 1 April 2012 at 03:10:49 UTC, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>> But I tend to listen to non-game stuff more: I'm a total whore for Anime 
>> opening/closing themes.
>
> Oh yes. Coincidentally, as I read this, I was playing
> the opening from Zeta Gundam!
>
> Another one I find incredibly addictive is one of
> the openings from Tenchi Muyo - "Pioneer" I think
> is the title.
>

Haven't heard that Gundam one (I'm not usually real big on mech animes. I 
have no idea why.) I have a couple Tenchi ones, but the metadata labels on 
them aren't very helpful, so I don't know if I have that particular one. One 
of them's an instrumental.

These are my favorites so far (and keep in mind, too, that one of the things 
that often makes me love an opening/closing song is when a great animation 
goes with it - Just one of those weird psychological "association" things.) 
And yea, this *is* a long list. I have a lot of favorites :)

[artist] title (show)

[Anzen Chitai] Suki Sa (One of the Maison Ikkoku openings)
[The Indigo] I Do! (ED1: Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi)
[Yoko Ishida] At Your Own Speed (I don't actually know what it's from)
[Oranges & Lemons] Raspberry Heaven (ED1: Azumanga Daioh)
[Oranges & Lemons / Kuricorder Pops Orchestra] Soramimi Cake (OP1: Azumanga 
Daioh)
[Hitomi Takahashi] Aozora no Namida (OP1: Blood+)
[Chitose Hajime] Kataritsugu Koto (ED1: Blood+)
[???] Let Me Be With You (OP: Chobits)
[Yoko Kanno] Tank! (OP: Cowboy Bebop)
[???] Real Folk Blues (ED: Cowboy Bebop)
[Excel Girls] Ai (Chuuseishin) (OP: Excel Saga)
[Origa & Yoko Kanno] Inner Universe (OP: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone 
Complex)
[Kaoru Wada] Kagome's Theme (Background Music: Inuyasha)
[Ayumi Hamasaki] Dearest (ED3: Inuyasha)
[Dream] My Will (ED1: Inuyasha)
[Every Little Thing] Yura Yura (Movie 2: Inuyasha)
[Hitomi Shimatani] Angelus (OP6: Inuyasha)
[Namie Amuro] Come (ED7: Inuyasha)
[Nanase Aikawa] Owarinai Yume (OP3: Inuyasha)
[Eufonius] Koi Suru Kokoro (OP: Kashimashi)
[Yuumao] Michishirube (ED: Kashimashi)
[Isoe Toshimichi & Hosoi Soushi & Fujima Hitoshi] Hiai mo Otome ni wa 
(Background Song: Kashimashi - I've actually been trying to learn this one 
on the piano)
[???] Panic (ED1: Kodocha)
[???] Ultra Relax (OP2: Kodocha)
[the show's cast] Cherry Blossoms Blooming (OP: Love Hina)
[Shiro Sagisu /Miho Morikawa] Blue Water (OP: Nadia: The Secret of Blue 
Water)
[Shiro Sagisu / Miho Morikawa] Yes! I Will... (ED: Nadia: The Secret of Blue 
Water)
[Rythem] Harmonia (ED2?: Naruto)
[Eufonius] Idea (OP: Noein)
[Solua] Yoake no Ashioto (ED: Noein)
[the show's cast] Shojo Q (OP3: Pani Poni Dash)
[the show's cast] Roulette * Roulette (OP2: Pani Poni Dash)
[Suga Shikao] 19sai (OP: xxxHolic)
[Minmi] Shiki no Uta (ED1: Samurai Champloo)
[Nujabes] Battlecry (OP: Samurai Champloo)
[Yui Horie & Unscandal] Scramble (OP1: School Rumble)
[Yuko Ogura] Onnanoko Otokonoko (ED1: School Rumble)
[the show's cast] Ichigo Complete (OP: Strawberry Marshmallow)

Some of those artists have some other really good stuff, too. Like Anzen
Chitai's "Jirettai". Namie Amuro's "Style" and "As Good As". Or the 
"Abingdon Road" album from Abingdon Boys School (along with much of T.M. 
Revolution's stuff - one of the members of Abingdon Boys School). Or almost 
anything from The Indigo (NOT to be confused with Indigo Girls).

Actually, that is insanely long, these would be the tops of the tops:

[Anzen Chitai] Suki Sa (One of the Maison Ikkoku openings)
[The Indigo] I Do! (ED1: Ai Yori Aoshi Enishi)
[Hitomi Takahashi] Aozora no Namida (OP1: Blood+)
[Yoko Kanno] Tank! (OP: Cowboy Bebop)
[Origa & Yoko Kanno] Inner Universe (OP: Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone 
Complex)
[Kaoru Wada] Kagome's Theme (Background Music: Inuyasha)
[Dream] My Will (ED1: Inuyasha)
[Namie Amuro] Come (ED7: Inuyasha)
[Nanase Aikawa] Owarinai Yume (OP3: Inuyasha)
[Eufonius] Koi Suru Kokoro (OP: Kashimashi)
[Yuumao] Michishirube (ED: Kashimashi)
[Isoe Toshimichi & Hosoi Soushi & Fujima Hitoshi] Hiai mo Otome ni wa 
(Background Song: Kashimashi - I've actually been trying to learn this one 
on the piano)
[???] Panic (ED1: Kodocha)
[???] Ultra Relax (OP2: Kodocha)
[Rythem] Harmonia (ED2?: Naruto)
[Eufonius] Idea (OP: Noein)
[the show's cast] Shojo Q (OP3: Pani Poni Dash)
[the show's cast] Roulette * Roulette (OP2: Pani Poni Dash)
[Suga Shikao] 19sai (OP: xxxHolic)
[Minmi] Shiki no Uta (ED1: Samurai Champloo)
[the show's cast] Ichigo Complete (OP: Strawberry Marshmallow)

Shit. Still long. Oh well :)

> This is one reason I like living alone though: I can
> use the speakers for this stuff without embarrassment.
>
> "are you listening to some weird Japanese song???
> At 1.3x speed???"
>
> /deal with it/
>

LOL :)

>
> This included some baseball game (baseball btw is a
> weird thing. I can't stand watching it. Baseball
> on the tv is one of the most boring things I have
> ever seen. But, I enjoy playing it, both in the
> video game world and in the real world.),

That's how I feel about Golf, Bowling and Volleyball (although TV Golf's not 
bad for background atmosphere and scenery). Then skateboarding's good to 
both do *and* watch (though I'm awful - I never even learned to ollie). 
Skiing/Snowboarding are good to watch, but torture to do. Everything else is 
just boring period. Except NBA Jam. That's awesome :) "BOOM-shaka-laka"! Hee 
hee hee.

> a fighting game, Dead or Alive (2 and 3 I think),

Those are the best ones. I had 2 on Dreamcast and on XBox (ie "DOA: 
Ultimate").

> some kind of Tony Hawk,

Those very wildly. Some are fantastic, some are crap, some are in the 
middle. 2X and American Wasteland are my favs, then the original. Project 8 
and everything after were crap. Everything else was ok-to-mediocre.

> and Halo. And Halo 2, but that was godawful.
>

Really? I never actually played 2 (or 3). I definitely enjoyed the first 
(except for how some levels contained the *same* fucking sections 
copy-pasted over and over and over). But I didn't like it enough to care 
about the sequels. I never would have guessed 2 would have actually been 
worse.

>
> The Dead or Alive games are ridiculous though. One
> word: BOOBS. But, they were pretty good for fighting
> games anyway.
>

lol, yea. One of them was *really* ridiculous for that though: I don't 
remember which one (I think 4 - they made a 4, right?), but at one point 
they made *separate* physics for the left and right ones and they were just 
bizarrely flopping all over the place. It was kinda freakish. That can't 
even *happen* when they're wearing shirts.

> Tony Hawk is a nice game. I played Tony Hawk 2 on the
> playstation (something I'd like to find. I think I
> still have it, but idk) and I liked that one. The
> xbox wasn't the same though - I could never get used
> to the new controller.

I love my Chinese PS2 -> XBox/GC/USB controller converter :)

But yea, MS dpads have always been garbage.

I always liked the size of the original XBox1 controller though. The S 
controller, and every other MS or non-MS first party controller in existence 
is too small for my hands. The 360's is waaay to small - that's actually one 
of the reasons I'm more interested in PS3 than 360. The PS3's is too small, 
but not *that* insanely small.

>
> And then, Halo. The single player is PURE ASS. It
> just goes on forever and is horribly repetitive. I
> can't play that.
>

Heh, I was never a fan of the multiplayer. Actually, I got tried of 
multiplayer FPSes way back with the original UT and Q3A. It's all the same 
game and...well...personally I find it 10x as repetitive as even Halo 1's 
single-player. :/

I *did* however enjoy the 16-player Halo & pizza LAN party we did at college 
once :). I still found the gameplay to get too repetitive too quick (and I'm 
honestly *terrible* at multiplayer FPS), but the whole thing was fun 
overall, and connecting together four XBoxes, with four TVs, four players on 
each (right in the middle of the CS department, too), was a bit of a 
geek-out high ;)

>
> My favorite part of that game though was the title
> screen.

Heh, that sounds like an insult. :)

It *was* good though. Metroid Prime 3 tried to ape it, but it just ended up 
sounding like a cat being run over by a half-broken motorcycle.


>> Although I could do without the pretend-it's-an-extreeeeme-TV-show 
>> announcer
>> and the over-designed menus.
>
> haha that sounds awesome. I'm reminded of one game
> my brother had in... oh god, the old house, 1998 or
> something.
>

It gets better though: You can blow up the buildings near the track in order 
for them to fall on and wreck the other player's cars :)


> It was a wrestling game for the playstation with
> announcers.
>
> Me, being a button masher, had little to no style,
> and this game actually called me out!
>
> "This guy is an idiot! He keeps doing the same move
> over and over!"
>
> that was great. Until they started repeating the
> same commentary over and over.
>

lol. Gotta love irony.