A double dose of Cladun craziness

The focus of this two-part post: The fabulous, System Prisma-developed, NIS America-published Cladun: This is an RPG.

I've spent more than 10 hours playing this pixelated gem since I bought it last week and I have to say, if you like dungeon crawlers, roguelikes and RPGs (this game includes elements of all three genres), own a PSP and can afford to blow $19.99, you're sure to enjoy this game as much as I have so far.

Anyway, the point of this post isn't to talk about how much I'm loving Cladun; the point is to talk about how much I'm loving its soundtrack.

You see, when I first started playing Cladun, I opted to listen to its 8-bit-esque tunes rather than its standard ("real," according to the folks at NIS America) tunes. The former are appreciably chunky, but I'd be hard pressed to say they blew me away. Hoping to change things up a bit, I switched over to the game's standard tunes yesterday--and was astounded.

I'm especially fond of the following track, titled "Slicing the Wind":



For the sake of comparison, here's the 8-bit version of the song.

So, the focus of the first part of this post is Cladun's awesome soundtrack; what's the focus of the second part? NIS America's recently released trailer for the game's sequel, Cladun x2, which will hit the North American PlayStation Store sometime in August.




Sounds pretty fantastic, doesn't it? I mean, according to the trailer, Cladun x2, staying true to its title, will offer players more characters, more classes, more dungeons, more monsters and more weapons than its predecessors. It'll also give them more customization options by allowing them to alter their character's weapons and armor as well as their character's appearance.

The only thing that could make me look forward to this game more than I am already would be for the folks at NIS American to announce a physical, retail release that includes both Cladun and Cladun x2.

See also: 'File this under 'how in the hell did I miss this announcement?': Cladun x2 is coming to the States in August' and 'I spent my holiday weekend playing Cladun: This is an RPG, how'd you spend yours?'

GameBoy collage on masonite

The folks at Nintendo sure know how to design a slick piece of hardware, don't they? Case in point: The original GameBoy.

Honestly, I think it's the most attractive piece of portable hardware the company has ever created. The original GameBoy's only competitors, in my opinion: The DSlite and the DSi.

I'm guessing artist Laura Kelly is of a similar opinion, as the following collage--titled "Game On"--is the only one in her rather extensive portfolio that was inspired by a game system.

To see more of Kelly's art, pay a visit to her Flickr photostream or her website, lauralkelly.com.

Full speed ahead!

Does it still take 30 seconds or longer for you to load this blog? I hope not!

I just got rid of some unneeded code (thanks to the assistance of a kind fellow named Peter McCartney) and that seems to have solved the problem on my end. Hopefully it's solved the problem on your end, too?

By the way, if something like this ever happens again--i.e., you can cover yourself in honey and have your cat lick it all off before the darn blog finishes loading--I'd really appreciate it if you'd let me know. I honestly didn't realize it was a problem until this morning, when someone decided to mention it in the comments section. (Thanks again, Justin!)

Anyway, thank you for your patience with this issue and sorry for any inconvenience it may have caused. Now that it's seemingly been put to rest, let's get back to business, shall we?

Sloooooooooooooow

Have you noticed anything new about this blog in the last week or so? No, I'm not talking about the ads (more on them in a minute, by the way); I'm talking about the length of time it takes to load the darn thing!

Silly me, I've been thinking all this time that it was just my computer. You know, maybe I had to restart it or clean out my cookies or something. Last night, though, the hubs wanted to check out the blog. For at least 30 seconds he sat staring at a sea of pink.

Even then, I thought it was probably just related to our router or something. (Yes, I'm naive.) Until this morning, when one of you told me the blog was loading slowly for you, too.

Unfortunately, I don't have a clue as to what would be causing this problem. It can't be the ads, since they weren't added until last night.

The good news is that I've posted a question about the situation in Blogger's help forum. Hopefully someone there will be able to help me sooner rather than later. If any of you have any ideas as to what could be slowing this blog to a crawl, please let me know. I'm certainly up for hearing any and all suggestions at this point.

As for those above-mentioned ads: I hope they don't completely bug any of you--or at least don't bug you enough that you stop coming to this blog.

Why did I add them to the blog after all of this time? Well, my answer is pretty simple, really: I thought they might help me bring in enough money to buy an extra game a month or something like that. If that doesn't happen, though, I'll drop them--no ifs, ands or buts.

The Great Gaymathon Review #30: Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip (PSP)

Game: Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip

Genre: Sports

Developer: Clap Hanz

Publisher: SCEA

System: PSP

Release date: 2010

I've been a tennis fan ever since I watched Steffi Graf win Wimbledon back in 1989. That match did more than make me a fan of tennis, though; it also made me a fan of tennis games. Unfortunately, most of the tennis games that were available at the time completely sucked. In fact, the only good ones I can think of are Nintendo's Tennis for GameBoy (released in 1989) and Namcot's Pro Tennis World Court (aka World Court Tennis, released in 1988) for the PC Engine/ TurboGrafx-16. Thankfully, a number of truly great tennis games hit the streets the world over following my introduction to the genre--games such as Nintendo's Super Tennis (released for the SNES in 1991) and Human's Final Match Tennis (PC Engine, 1991). Well, after playing through--and thoroughly enjoying--it, I can without hesitation add Clap Hanz' Hot Shots Tennis: Get a Grip to that hallowed list. If I were forced to succinctly describe this game, I'd say it's a mixture of Super Tennis and Nintendo's Mario Tennis titles (especially the Nintendo 64 entry)--topped with a sprinkling of Pro Tennis World Court. I picked those three games as points of comparison because Hot Shots Tennis has an accessible quality to it like Super Tennis, plays and feels like the Mario Tennis games and features an utterly crazy, travel-around-the-world "story mode"--which tasks players with spreading the love of tennis to the depressed and otherwise downtrodden (read more about this mode here)--that brings to mind Pro Tennis World Court. You don't have to play the game's story mode, of course; also available is an exhibition mode, in which you can play singles or doubles matches against a number of computer-controlled opponents, and a multiplayer mode, in which you can compete against friends (or strangers, I guess) locally and globally using Sony's adhoc Party service. If you're anything like me, though, you'll spend the bulk of your time playing through Hot Shots Tennis' story mode--beating opponents, buying and collecting gear (including crazy "outfits" like panda suits and tutus) and visiting all kinds of weird and wonderful locales (like the top of a skyscraper, a river-side stadium and a rural farm). The only negatives I can ascribe to this adorably odd game: 1) It doesn't include a traditional career (aka "world tour") mode, and 2) Too many opponents turn to the hit-a-drop-shot-and-then-lob-over-your-head tactic.

See also: Previous 'Great Gaymathon' posts