Another year has gone by and another MAGfest is upon us. Last year, Sean Orange and I made the trek to MAGfest X to take part in the 4-day music and gaming geekery that surrounded us, and this year we’ll be doing another round and taking in all the highlights (and even maybe some hilarious lowlights!) that the event has to offer.

This year features 3 special guests in terms of composers. Following up last year’s spectacular appearance by Final Fantasy’s Nobou Uematsu, MAGfest XI has the legendary combined talents of Kuniyo Yamashita (Castlevania, MegaMan X3), Chris Huelsbeck (Turrican Series, R-Type) and the great Yuzo Koshiro (Streets of Rage, Actraiser) gracing the Gaylord National Harbor hotel. This will also be the first time Koshiro will be playing a DJ set in US shores, which provides event-goers with an extra special treat!

There are a huge amount of bands and performances this year as well; 38 concerts and visual performances to be exact! (the largest amount thus far!) Included in the lineup are mainstays such as Metroid Metal, The One-Ups and The Megas, but also included are a ton of new-comers to the MAGfest scene such as Lords of Thunder, Fighting in the Streets and The Tri-Force Quartet. There’s even band-personifications of two of the better institutions for video game music arranging: Overclocked Remix’s Overclocked University and Dwelling of Duels Live! Throw in tons of panelist and entertains like Arin “Egoraptor” Hanson, The Angry Video Game Nerd and yet another return by Jon St. John, and you’ve got the most ambitious MAGfest to date!

The event runs January 3-6 at the Gaylord National Harbor Hotel, Maryland with tell that there are tons of tickets still available at the door. Sean and I will bring coverage of the fun little things we run across at this gamer’s paradise and bring it to you for your viewing enjoyment.

Everyone likes a challenge, right? It’s the cornerstone of video gaming or gaming in general and gives us things to strive for. Several different gaming genres catered to specific challenges that gamers wanted to test their skills at. Want to see how well you can memorize things? Try Mortal Kombat or Killer Instinct for their ability to throw insane combo strings at you. Want to test your mettle and see how much of a brave person you are? Go ahead and play Silent Hill 2 or the more recent Slender to see how much you are, in fact, a little girl.

Want to be barraged by near-endless curtains of projectile death in order to see how well your dodging skills are and your resistance to collapsing into twitching messes? Bullet Hell games are right up your alley!

A sub-genre of the classic shoot’em-up games, Bullet Hell gaming is exactly what it sounds like – you doing nothing but maneuvering into endless waves of bullet-like projectiles with a emphasis on precise movements in order to survive. The sub-genre itself isn’t as recent as some people might think, but it’s only gotten more insane with time. Here’s a list of top Bullet Hell games that leave people with twitchy fingers and darting eyeballs for day afterwards, and be sure to let us know what yours are if any were missed!
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In the past few years, video game conventions have managed to take great strides to become a heavy presence in the convention and event field. With PAX, and later PAX East, and eventually smaller but more tight-knit cons like MAGfest and Gencon, video games have been getting a lot of venue attention. Eventually, gaming media giant Screwattack decided to create their own event called SGC (Screwattack Gaming Convention) Started in 2009, it was in their own words – “We don’t think of SGC as a “convention” but moreso as a 72 hour gamer slumber party.”.

Unfortunately, after the second SGC in 2010, funding the event became too hard and the venue did not return for 2011 or 2012. However last month, Screwattack posed the idea of bring SGC back with the help of Kickstarter. If 100K was raised in the month timeframe, SGC would be able to rise again and offer another fun gaming event for all to enjoy. However, the campaign started slow and suffered from a slight lack of publicity and details as to how the money raised would be spent to make SGC come to life.

Surprisingly, however, it became Cindrella story of sorts, since within a 12-hour period, not only was the gaming fan community able to rally together and raise the remaining 30k in funds that was missing from the original goal, the goals was actually succeeded by an additional 20k.

Sadly, they couldn’t make the goal of 300k that would ensure Stuttering Craig would cosplay as Chun-Li the entire con. A heavy loss indeed.

Ok, I’m going to start off by immediately saying that this list does NOT, in fact, represent my top favorite game themes. Neither does it mean to undermine any of the multitudes of iconic first-level game tunes that didn’t make this list. This list is simply made up of those jingles upon first entering a game’s plane of existence that meant the most to me and why. (and yes, most are from older games)

I see you there with the pitchfork and torch. Don’t try to hide it.

So here are my top 5 most iconic 1st Level tunes from video games.

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Remember back when I did that review about the Amiga and all the games I had remembered playing on it, and said that Turrican 2 was my absolute hands-down favorite because it’s music alone was what helped me find the game again after 15 years? Well, that was an understatement really, because the music of not only Turrican 2, but the entire Turrican series are some of the best of that era of gaming. Composer Chris Hülsbeck really outdid himself when he crafted the music for the Turrican series, going above and beyond what alot of games at the time were doing and cementing himself as a legend in the game music field.

Well now, 20 years after releasing his original Turrican Soundtrack Album, Hülsbeck is stepping it up a notch with a Kickstarter Project to help fund a new Turrican Soundtrack Anthology!

I’d like to create a Turrican Soundtrack Anthology Limited Edition Box Set, with nearly all of the music from the Turrican Series of Games. At least 3 CDs will contain these brand new, pristine studio recordings. Even music pieces that were featured on the 1993 Turrican Soundtrack CD will be newly recorded and arranged to update their sound. Highlights will include for the first time: the whole ‘Turrican 2 Title’, ‘Credits’ (all versions), ‘Metal Stars’, ‘Tower of Morgul’, ‘Unidirectional Flight’, ‘Concerto for Laser and Enemies’ and ‘Hall of Heroes’ – all as full length recordings/arrangements.

To fund the project, Hülsbeck has set a goal at $75,000. Those who donate get special goodies, such as signed copies of the early album release, and other signed memorabilia. So far the project has raised over 20k of the goal in just over 24 hours alone! With a June 3rd deadline, it’s not hard to believe that this dream could become a reality, but not without fan help! Please go donate and help Turrican and Hülsbeck fans relive a bit more of our childhoods!

Welcome to the Powet Top 5, where we explore the top (and bottom) 5 items we think are relevant to any of a variety of topics that span the imagination. Sit back, read, and respond

Aiight, gather around folks, we need to talk.

Lets be clear now. Video Games aren’t dead or dying. They aren’t on life support or in the intensive care unit either. They aren’t even out with a broken arm, pulled hamstring, or 3-day flu. Nope, video games are just fine. Yeah I know how everyone loves the classics, but now is a good time to be involved with this hobby. We got high quality games like Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed, and Deus EX being released on a regular basis, a thriving independent scene, and developers stretching the limits of what’s possible in video games. With that said, there are at least 5 big issues that video gaming could use less of. Some of these are on the part of publishers, others on the part of developers, and still others are even on the gaming community itself. Many of you will agree, many of you will not.
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Since 1953, Hugh Hefner’s lifestyle magazine has been the bastion of men’s journalism. Each month, readers the world over have enjoyed the magazine’s selection of short stories, articles, and political commentary. Oh and of course pictures of nude women. ARUSH entertainment, along with Groove games have released Playboy the Mansion, a lifestyle/business simulator game allowing players to step in the shoes of Hugh Hefner. Because of its name, this one is clearly not for kids. However, unlike other titles of this nature (i.e Rumble Roses and Dead or Alive Extreme Beach volleyball) rated titles, this one focuses on creating a compelling (if flawed) gaming experience as much as it focuses on nude women.
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Time Crisis was, and is still a trendsetter in the Arcades. Along with it’s polygonal graphics (which were pretty cutting edge at the time and still hold up well even to this day), the game also added a key innovation to the light-gun genre: the Duck Pedal. When you pressed the pedal, you popped out from under cover ready to take on enemies. When the pedal was depressed, you hid behind a nearby object where you could reload. However, each section was on a strict time limit, so you couldn’t hide underneath forever. When you played the game with another person in the game’s sequel, they played on another screen that was hooked up to the arcade cabinet, and they saw the action from a slightly different viewpoint. This was in contrast to two people looking at the same screen and being forced to take every bullet shot at them like other light gun games have done for years. Time Crisis Project Titan was a PlayStation-exclusive entry in the series. Playing as Richard Miller of the V.S.S.E, you fight to clear your name for the attempted assassination of Cuba’s President. The game contains the series’ signature duck and hide action, and you can even hide in different places by shooting the yellow arrows while the player is hiding. Oh yeah, and if you didn’t get it with the original PlayStation port of Time Crisis, TCPJ comes with a guncon for PS1. Of course it’s painted in a day-glow orange color so police won’t recognize it as a real weapon. Although TCPJ’s graphics were a bit dated at the time compared to the rest of the series, the game is still a fun light gun shooter with a gimmick that’s still clever even today.