Hump Day Music: Sonic CD Title Screen

In honour of Sega finally bringing many classic Sonic soundtracks to iTunes, I decided to highlight a classic track from the ever amazing Sonic CD.  Sadly these soundtracks are currently available in the US at the moment and not in Canada, so I cannot pick any of them up.  Hopefully they are released in the Canadian iTunes Store very soon, but I digress.

Sonic CD has many great pieces of video game music from both soundtracks (the North American soundtrack and the Japanese/European soundtrack).  My two favourites can both be found on the title screen.  While I would love to be talking about Sonic Boom, I will save that track for another edition of Hump Day Music.  I want to highlight a track that few North American Sonic fans have actually heard before the re-release of Sonic CD late last year.  It is Sonic CD's title screen theme from the Japanese/European soundtrack.  Quite possibly my favourite title screen theme of all-time, it is incredibly upbeat and infectious.  I cannot help but smile whenever I hear it.  This music really brightens up your day and gets you bouncing around to the beat.  I could easily listen to it for hours on loop as it serves as great background music while I am working.  The Sonic CD Title Screen music is an underrated piece of video game music that should be listened to.  Give it a chance, I guarantee you will crack a smile.

On the Download: January 15-21

The steady stream of downloadable games continues on with the release of some games from the past and the first demo for the 3DS.  It has been a solid week for downloads.  Apple just released the new iTunes U app which provides hundreds of free courses for people to take.  Apple also updated the iBooks app, named iBooks 2, which adds textbooks to Apple's online bookstore.  Two very useful apps for current and future university and college students such as yours truly.  Now let us rundown the biggest download games and demos of the week.

After weeks of waiting, demos have come to the Nintendo eShop.  The first demo available for 3DS owners is Resident Evil: Revelations, which is set to release in a few weeks.  Interesting thing you will notice once you download this demo is that you have a limited amount of times to play the demo.  You are given 30 times to play the demo.  From my playthrough, you will only have to play this demo once.  It was rather short as I beat it in 18 minutes.  The demo highlighted the feel of playing Resident Evil on the handheld, the return to Resident Evil's more plodding pace and a brand new item.  The controls will take a little while to get use to especially when fighting baddies.  They do make you feel like you playing an old Resident Evil game as Jill moves like a tank.  In my 18 minutes with the game, I did jump a few times as enemies seemed to pop up when I least expect it.  You feel very tense wandering the halls that this demo is set in.  The last thing I want to touch on is the new scanner.  It is such a great tool that I used anytime I could to find hidden items and other scannable objects.  I would have liked to have had a little more time with Resident Evil: Revelations to get a better impression on it, but I am still looking forward to playing it sometime later this year in preparation for Resident Evil 6, which I am very excited for.

Like many other games before it, Soul Calibur has been ported to the ever popular iPod and iPad.  Namco has brought this fighting classic originally for the Dreamcast, but not without a few modes taken out of Soul Calibur.  Soul Calibur for iOS does not have multiplayer or story mode, but Namco hopes to soften the blow by making the game universal.  I am not a fan of fighting games for iOS.  The touch controls are not responsive enough to work for a genre that focuses on precise controls.  The removal of two key modes for any fighting game does sting as a lot of people are not going to want to play Arcade, Time Attack and Survival over and over again.   If you are craving a fighter for your iDevice, I will not stop you.  At 12 dollars, Soul Calibur for the iOS seems more like a quick cash-in for Namco as we quickly approach the release of Soul Calibur V later this month.

By now, you all should have figured out that I am a huge Sonic fan and love to talk about anything involving my favourite Blue Blur.  This Thursday saw the release of Sonic CD and Sonic 4: Episode 1 for the PC via Steam.  If you somehow missed out on these great games when they were released for XBLA, PSN and iOS before, then pick them up.  Both are great platformers that you should have a lot of fun with even with a keyboard.  Trust me, I have played a good number of Sonic platformers on the PC and they have controlled just fine.  At 5 dollars and 10 dollars respectively, this decision should be a no-brainer.  Also every other Sonic game on Steam is 50% off for this weekend only.  So jump on it and download some great games at 50% off the regular price.  You will not be disappointed.

On the Download: December 11-17

Just as Hump Day Music was pushed back a day do to my long yet highly entertaining rant of the VGAs, On the Download has been pushed back a day.  It actually worked out for the better since Nintendo released the 10 Game Boy Advance games for the 3DS Ambassadors to download.  I will get into specifics  in just a few moments.  This week there were quite a good number of downloadable games released on all platforms.  So let's dive into the biggest downloadable games of the week.

To celebrate the 10 year anniversary of the game that launched them to superstardom, Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto III for iOS and Android tablets.  Back in 2001, GTA III laid down the groundwork for the open-world genre that populates the majority of games we see today.  The developers at War Drum Studios ported over this PS2 classic to the tablets also added a few new bells and whistles to make the game work on these devices.  The controls have been optimized for the touch screen on these devices, the graphics have been cleaned up so they look much smoother on the HD screens and other options such as instant mission restarts have been added to make the game more suited for playing on the go.  At 5 dollars, GTA III is a steal for one of the great games from the previous generation of consoles.  If you do not already have it for the either PS2, Xbox or PC, which I do, go ahead and pick it up.

For those people like yours truly who bought the 3DS before the huge price drop back in August, Nintendo launched a program to make sure we all were rightfully compensated for the 250 dollars we paid.  That program was called the Nintendo Ambassador program.  Before the end of 2011, all Nintendo Ambassadors would receive 20 free games for their 3DS.  Out of the 20 games, 10 of them would be NES games and the other would be 10 GBA games.  The 10 NES games were released back in September and today, Nintendo has finally released the 10 GBA games.  These 10 games are Metroid: Fusion, Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario vs. Donkey Kong, Yoshi's Island: Super Mario Advance 3, WarioWare Inc.: Mega Microgames, Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Wario Land 4 and The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap.  Wow, Nintendo sure gave us bang for the bucks we spent.  Some might take these free games for granted and demand more from Nintendo.  The value in these games alone are well worth the 80 extra dollars we spent especially for the games I missed out on when I owned a Game Boy Advance.  So if you are an Nintendo Ambassador, go on and download your free games just after you finish reading this post.  For everyone else, maybe you should have supported the system before the price drop.

Last but definitely not least, the final downloadable game we are taking a look at today is... wait for it... can I get a drum roll, please... Sonic CD!!!  Yes, this week saw Sega release the classic Sega CD platformer for XBLA, PSN and iOS.  Personally Sonic CD is not my favourite 2D Sonic as that honour goes to Sonic 2, but it is sure as hell one of the best platformers I have ever played.  With these ports, Sega has added a few things that Sonic fans will enjoy.  The inclusion of both the US and Japanese soundtracks will let you bop your head to Sonic Boom while feeling the energy from the Japanese title screen music.  You can play as Tails for the first time in Sonic CD only after beating the game with Sonic.  Lastly, the inclusion of time attack mode and leaderboards add to replay value of the game as you try to get the highest score or the fasted time in order to be the best in the world.  Even if you are not a Sonic fan, at 5 dollars on the consoles and 2 dollars on iOS Sonic CD is one excellent game at one excellent game at one affordable price.