Drew almost dies AND Wayne dropping some of the more perverse lines he has ever said on the show? A classic if I ever saw one!
LVLs. Contributors
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All posts for the month June, 2012
Weekly Whose Line? – Show-Stopping Number
Posted by WildcatJF on June 30, 2012
http://lvls.wordpress.com/2012/06/30/weekly-whose-line-show-stopping-number/
Virtual Console Recommendations: Double Dragon II: The Revenge (NES)
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
W- After nearly a year of limbo in the ESRB, Aksys finally gets this classic beam-em-up out there onto the Virtual Console. Technos improved nearly every aspect of the first NES Double Dragon with their sequel, with full-blown two-player action, better level design, more complex movesets, and improved graphics. It’s been a while since I’ve played it, but I remember it fairly fondly.
Posted by WildcatJF on June 28, 2012
http://lvls.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/virtual-console-recommendations-double-dragon-ii-the-revenge-nes/
Virtual Console No-Shows: Shadowrun (SNES)
Aw man, I was sort of enjoying my vacation!
102. Shadowrun (SNES, Data East/Beam Software)
Brief Synopsis – Based on the popular cyberpunk pen-and-paper series, Shadowrun places you into a dystopic RPG that was more edgy than your standard JRPG of the era. With real-time combat and deep speech options, not to mention far more mature environments and some gritty writing, Shadowrun redefined what a RPG on a console could be.
Why is it Missing? – Well, it’s not for lack of trying. The creator of Shadowrun, Jordan Weisman, would love to re-release this and its Genesis counterpart, but unfortunately the games are lost in licensing limbo:
“It’s a matter of tracking them down,” he says. “We’ve actually been trying to track down the [Data East / Beam So{f}tware] SNES title because we would love to be able to in some way offer that to the fans. We’ll see where that goes, but I certainly don’t want to make any promises about it because we need to find out who owns it at this point.
“But we’re working on it. I think it is just, so far, lost in that change of title. And then there will be finding ways of being able to adapt it. So, there’s some hurdles there, which I think is why it hasn’t happened so far. We’re trying to see if we can figure that out. But again, it’s complete pie in the sky.”
Grim reality, once again taking away content from us. The good news in all this is that his Kickstarter campaign to create a proper sequel to these games has done spectacularly, so there will at least be a new title based on their framework.
Other (Legal) Options – The Super NES version is unique from its Genesis cousin, and to my knowledge they were only released on those systems. So, Super NES only for this particular rendition of Shadowrun’s world.
Posted by WildcatJF on June 28, 2012
http://lvls.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/virtual-console-no-shows-shadowrun-snes/
Music Wednesdays – Joni Mitchell’s “The Beat of Black Wings”
From the spectacular album “Chalk Mark in a Rainstorm.” My mother listened to this all the time when I was a child, and so I really disliked it for a long time. But now that I am older and have given up on hating my parents, I can finally appreciate it. 
Posted by grace on June 27, 2012
http://lvls.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/music-wednesdays-joni-mitchells-the-beat-of-black-wings/
Music Wednesdays – Mumford & Sons’ “Little Lion Man”
Profanity alert!
A lovely song from a lovely album. This is probably my favorite song from Sigh No More, and it’s packed full of great music. It’s a little more spiritually oriented than I expected it to be (I heard this song before the whole album, and usually “fuck” doesn’t translate to gods and heaven :p ), but the band seems to be asking questions and pondering the topic more so than preaching, which I appreciate. Good song regardless!
Posted by WildcatJF on June 27, 2012
http://lvls.wordpress.com/2012/06/27/music-wednesdays-mumford-sons-little-lion-man/
Song Highlights – Xenoblade Chronicles, Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Mario Party, Rayman Origins
Guar Plains – Xenoblade Chronicles (ACE+, Wii, Nintendo/Monolith Soft)
Man, this soundtrack is incredible, with this one track a highlight of its quality. I adore wandering around to this theme. So adventurous!
Bramble Blast – Super Smash Bros. Brawl (Michiro Naruke/David Wise [original composer], Wii, Nintendo)
The original song Wise performed is nice, but I really do enjoy listening to Naruke’s arrangement. It has great instrumentation that take the original composition into peppier places, and I am a big fan of the way it sounds. Shame I don’t like the DK level it plays on. 
Mario Party – Peaceful Mushroom Village (Yasunori Mitsuda, Main Menu theme, N64, Nintendo/Hudson)
A short loop but a really good one. Very relaxing, very mellow, and is the best thing I can recollect from this game. My palms still ache, Nintendo. :p
Rayman Origins – Lost Beats (Christophe Heral/Billy Martin, Desert of Dijiridoos stages, PS3/Xbox 360/Wii/PC/3DS/Vita, UBISoft)
The musical talents of Heral cannot be ignored. I don’t know how much Martin did, but most of this soundtrack screams out Heral to me. :p This is a lovely mix of instrumentation that is just amazing to listen to. It’s 10 minutes long, so it’ll keep you entertained for a bit.
Posted by WildcatJF on June 25, 2012
http://lvls.wordpress.com/2012/06/25/song-highlights-xenoblade-chronicles-super-smash-bros-brawl-mario-party-rayman-origins/
Weekly Whose Line? – Scene with an Audience Member
Occasionally Drew forced some poor audience member to join the improv hijinks, and this is one of the better playings. Enjoy!
Posted by WildcatJF on June 23, 2012
http://lvls.wordpress.com/2012/06/23/weekly-whose-line-scene-with-an-audience-member/
Music Wednesdays – The Cranberries’ “Zombie”
You know, amazingly enough I don’t think I actually heard this song in the 90′s. XD Shame for me, because it’s damn good! From No Need to Argue.
Posted by WildcatJF on June 20, 2012
http://lvls.wordpress.com/2012/06/20/music-wednesdays-the-cranberries-zombie/
1UP Tackles Gender and Sexuality in Video Games all throughout the week
I’m not “back” quite yet, but I wanted to share this feature 1UP is doing. They’re tackling what turned out to be one of the big controversies that spewed out of E3 this year, the difficult topic of gender and sexuality. So far, they have a review for Lollipop Chainsaw, which turned out to be a disappointment for me once I realized thedirection it was heading (if only it could have made Juliet anything but the stereotype), plus an editorial on the hero/heroine debate (that’s mostly about the new Tomb Raider and the brouhaha its producer caused with his poor framing of Lara’s “development” through a potential rape), and an interview with game designer Anna Anthropy, who identifies herself as a ”queer, kinky trans woman in a committed non-monogamous relationship.” I’ve read all the pieces thus far and am quite impressed with the approach the staff is taking with this. I applaud 1UP for taking this subject seriously and giving it their Cover Story treatment. This is something that needs to be done for our industry to grow, despite the high frequency of naysayers commenting on their posts. Please, try to check it out.
Posted by WildcatJF on June 19, 2012
http://lvls.wordpress.com/2012/06/19/1up-tackles-gender-and-sexuality-in-video-games-all-throughout-the-week/
Weekly Whose Line? – Hollywood Director
I love this game. This is a good playing of it. Enjoy!
Posted by WildcatJF on June 16, 2012
http://lvls.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/weekly-whose-line-hollywood-director-4/
