St. Patrick’s Day — a national holiday set aside for good beer, good friends, good music, and good times. For two weeks my friends have been asking each other, “what are you going to do for St. Patrick’s Day?” And each time they asked me, they got the same answer. “I’ll be down at the Green Door, listening to Bongzilla, Brothers of Conquest, RPG, and Alabama Thunderpussy.”

Since doors at the Green Door open at eight and I arrived a few minutes early, I headed next door to Size Records. Size Records is one of those indie music shops straight out of another time. Long haired/long mustached owner Dustin knows his music and knows his customers. Each time I’ve gone in he’s sent me on my way with something good. This time, it was Dead Meadow’s s/t disc. With a huge selection of metal/stoner/punk/hardcore/indie CDs, it’s almost enough to make you forget you live in Oklahoma.

I was standing there talking with Dustin when in walked a couple of guys that he obviously knew. They introduced themselves as Johnny and Brian, and it dawned on me who they were — Brian Cox (drums) and Johnny Throckmorten (vocals) of Alabama Thunderpussy! After exchanging pleasantries and bullshitting about music for a few minutes, we all headed over to the Green Door for a night of good beer, good friends, good music and good times.

Seeing a band at the Green Door is like seeing them in your own home. There’s no back stage area, no green rooms, no VIP lounges. You sit where the bands sit. You piss where the bands piss. You rock where the bands rock. The club is set up like a big studio apartment. The stage is to the left, the seating area is in the middle, the pool tables are to the right and the bar is in the back. And shortly after eight o’clock, the Green Door’s complete roster included its staff, the band members, and me.

On my way to the bathroom, I ran into Erik Larson, ATP guitarist and legend in his own right. After taking care of business, we spent a few minutes at the bar bullshitting about the tour, the shows, and how sick everyone in the band was. After taking a couple of pictures of Erik and Ryan (the other ATP guitarist, amazing on the six string as well), I headed back to my spot in the corner, waiting for the festivities to begin.

These are the exciting things that go on at a show before the rock commences. After the stage was loaded and people began arriving, it was time for the show to finally begin.

The first band of the night was 16 (no, not their age, their name). 16 had the unenviable task of playing first, which almost always means ironing out technical difficulties. 16 wasn’t on the original bill, so the crowd turnout for their gig was pretty light (read: myself, and seven people from the other bands). Still, the three-piece outfit rocked as if they were jamming to a thousand people. The bassist lost his strap during the opening notes of the first song but never missed a beat, crouching to the floor and continuing to jam until Erik Larson (of all people) jumped on stage with a replacement strap.

Apparently Bongzilla was slated for the second slot of the night, but didn’t show. I don’t know the details of their absence so I won’t bash them too hard, only to say that there were at least a couple of people in attendence wearing Bongzilla shirts. I’m sure some people went home disappointed.

This change of events caught RPG a bit off guard, as the guys had been out muching on some Sonic hamburgers. “You’re next!” they heard as they walked in the front door. The guys got their stuff together quick, mounted the stage, and rocked the house.

To tell the truth, I’ve never considered myself a fan of “stoner rock”, although it must be said up front that the stoner rock I’ve heard to date sounded nothing like this. With the volume turned to 10 and the fuzz turned to 11, RPG sounded more like a hard rock/punk attack from the 70s rather than anything you would listen to while sitting in a bean bag. In fact, I can’t imagine sitting at all while these guys are playing! Despite a shortened set list, RPG kicked ass and took names at the Green Door. The band’s dual guitar attack sounded thick and juicy, and the bass had plenty of tone, volume, and attitude.

In between bands, I found my way back to my table. A collection of Bud Light longnecks crowded the center. Sweat rolled from my hair, down my face and onto my neck. I folded my coat up and hung it over a railing next to the stage. It was hot and it was muggy. Everyone at the club was hot, tired, exhausted, and having the time of their life. For seven bucks, this show had turned into the deal of the century.

Next up were the Brothers of Conquest, another band I hadn’t personally heard. The Brothers delivered a straight-forward style of rock and roll from another era — the 80s, this time, instead of the 70s. When “The Rock n’ Roll Outlaw” (vocals) took the stage, he certainly had the crowd’s attention. Donning a vest covered in WASP and Judas Priest patches, the Brothers of Conquest delivered a metal onslaught I haven’t seen the likes of since 9th grade. Armed with leather wristbands, plenty of attitude and even a Warlock guitar (how metal is that!), BOC worked the crowd and put on a stellar performance.

Normally people sit down in between sets at a show due to boredom; that night, it was from sheer exhaustion. During all four of the bands’ sets, you could find members from the other three bands in the front row, watching and cheering. So while we were energetic during the performances, after each one we plodded back to our chairs, resting, recouperating, and conserving valuable energy for the next band.

Around 11:30pm, Alabama Thunderpussy (the last band of the night) took the stage. It’s an amazing moment to capture, the moment where people stop being “people” and become “rock stars”. Brian and Erik had spent much of the night at the bar, talking with other patrons and hanging out. Erik was much shorter and skinnier than I’d thought. Ryan had spent much of the night sunken into a leather couch in the main lobby. John (bass) and Johnny had kind of been quiet throughout the night. But there’s that moment — the moment when people who just a minute before were sitting at the bar next to you are suddenly on stage. They’re suddenly 10 feet tall. Their instruments and amplifiers can drown you out and take over your head, your thoughts, your actions. It’s that moment when five guys you’ve seen wandering around all night suddenly come together and become something bigger, something important, something massive. The lights dimmed, the guitars roared, and those five, normal guys became Alabama Thunderpussy.

Cranking out new tunes, old tunes, songs I’d heard and songs I hadn’t, ATP tore the place apart. More loud, more furious, more raucous than any of the bands before them, ATP rocked on through the night. Despite being the loudest and hardest rocking band of the night, somehow they did it with a laid-back appearance. While bassist John rocked and spasmed his way through the performance, it was the calmer approach of guitarists Ryan and Erik that really caught my attention. The two axe-grinders dished up a three course meal in rockin’ that filled everyone’s bellies. In the back of the stage, perched high behind a kick drum with “FUCKING BULLSHIT” stickered to it sat Brian, complete with a backwards trucker hat and tattoos, glistening in the spotlight. At the front of the stage stood Johnny, a guy who somehow transformed from the quietest guy in the club to the most energetic. When he wasn’t singing, he was microphone twirling, chest pounding, fist thrusting and dry humping.

Those looking for good beer, good friends, good music, and good times this St. Patrick’s Day at the Green Door didn’t leave disappointed. For seven dollars, we had our butts rocked hard by some great bands all night long. Although the night went on for everyone else, I eventually had to excuse myself from the festivities. With a stack of CDs in hand (RPG 4-song EP, ATP’s River City Revival, ATP’s Staring at the Divine, Erik Larson’s The Resounding, and that Dead Meadow disc), a sweat-soaked shirt, a pocket full of free stickers and a ringing in my ears that still persists as I write this review, I headed out into the cold night and back to reality.

If this is stoner rock, then roll it up and pass it my way.

For all intents and purposes, the new iPhone game Star Wars: Trench Run is the updated spiritual successor of Atari’s classic 1983 Star Wars arcade game. In the original, players alternated between shooting TIE Fighters buzzing around the perimeter of the Death Star, and racing through the Death Star’s trench in order to blow it up (over and over). Star Wars: Trench Run consists of these same two levels, repeated with minor variances.

That’s not to say anyone could confuse the two games by looking at them. The arcade version of Star Wars used color vector graphics — essentially stick drawings — to convey the action. In contrast, Star Wars: Trench Run opens with almost a minute of near DVD-quality video taken right from the movie, and contains graphics indistinguishable from last decade’s movie special effects. Likewise, Trench Run contains audio samples straight from the Lucas archives.

Star Wars (1983)

Star Wars: Trench Run (2009)

Where the original arcade game gave players a flight yoke with which to control their X-Wing fighter, Trench Run uses the iPhone’s gyroscopic controls. Waving your phone around causes your X-wing to dip, climb and swerve. The constant movement of your phone ensures no one will be able to see what’s on the screen at any given time. It also kind of makes you look like a goof ball; then again, most of us Star Wars fans are used to that. The game’s flight controls can be inverted as well. Shooting is performed by touching the right side of the screen. The bottom left allows players to “use the Force” and slow down the action temporarily, while the upper left swaps between 1st and 3rd person views. The motion controls work perfectly and, especially when flying an X-Wing, I thought they added to the game’s fun.

Star Wars: Trench Run looks and plays so great that it took almost ten minutes for me to realize how repetitive the game was. I shot a few TIE Fighters, flew through the trench, shot a few more TIE Fighters, flew threw the trench again, shot some more TIE Fighters, and then wandered off to go check my Facebook updates. I can’t see playing Trench Run for hours on end, but I do see myself playing it a few minutes each day, which is all a guy can ask from a mobile phone game.

The game’s overall quality makes Star Wars: Trench Run a must own title, especially for Star Wars fans. (It’s a lot more impressive than showing off that free lightsaber app over and over, trust me.) My first instinct was to say that $4.99 is slightly overpriced, until you realize that $3 probably goes toward licensing fees, leaving you a $1.99 game that’s impressive to show off and lots of fun to play for a while. May the Force be with your wallet.

Moto X Mayhem is one of those frustratingly simple games that drives you crazy until you master it. Unfortunately it doesn’t take long to master, but it’s a blast until you do.

In Moto X Mayhem, players must navigate a motorcycle over hills, through caverns and across chasms in a race against the clock. There are two islands for riders to blast through (Bear Island and Lost Island), each with their own types of terrain. The game is 2D; your bike is viewed from the side, in landscape mode.

Controlling your bike couldn’t be more intuitive. Gas is applied by touching any part of the right hand side of the screen using your right thumb; brakes are applied by touching the left, although as any true racing fan will tell you, brakes are mostly optional. Steering is not necessary, as you are constantly travelling across the screen from left to right — instead, you must control how far you lean. As jumps are made, you’ll need to lean either forwards or back to adjust to the proper landing angle. And yes, you can pull off both forward and backward flips by leaning really far. (No points for flips; they’re purely for style.) Additionally, players will need to lean forward to avoid falling backwards while climbing the steepest of hills. The game accepts two different control schemes: one involves steering the phone left and right like a steering wheel, the other is by looking down at the phone and tilting it left and right. I found the second control scheme much more responsive and easier to use.

Moto X Mayhem includes rag doll physics for your rider, which means each time you flip over backwards or land awkwardly your rider will be flung into the air and his arms and legs flop wildly. A humorous touch, you can actually use your finger to flick the rider to and fro and give him a good thrashing after each crash.

The game’s graphics are bright and colorful and the sounds, from your bike to the background ambient noise, is fantastic.

The game’s Achilles heel is its brevity. Almost every level can be beat in less than 20 seconds, and with 14 levels total, by the time you do the math you could have already beat the first half of the game. A couple of the levels have multiple paths, but other than that there’s very little replay value especially once you begin to memorize the layouts of each level.

Available for $1.99 via iTunes, Moto X Mayhem is well worth the money. I’ve been playing it off and on for a couple of weeks now, which is worth two bucks to me.

Alice in Chains paved the way for grunge in 1990 with their debut album Facelift, and followed up that effort with 1992’s Dirt, one of my top 5 favorite albums of all time. By the time the band released their self-titled album in 1995, lead singer Layne Staley’s drug problems were already well known to the public and were causing great friction within the band. The band ceased performing and recording; Staley withdrew from the spotlight and withered away. Unsurprising to almost everyone, he died of a cocaine/heroin overdose in 2002.

While there are many examples of bands dropping their original lead singers and going on to achieve fame and fortune with their replacements (does anyone really talk about the glory days of Iron Maiden with original vocalist Paul DiAnno?), few already popular bands have successfully continued after losing their front men. There’s AC/DC, Van Halen, and … well, that’s about it. The thought of anyone even attempting to replace Staley’s vocals made me depressed, so let me kick things off by making the following statement:

Alice in Chains’ “Black Gives Way to Blue” is the best album of 2009.

“All Secrets Known,” the album’s opening track, lays everything out up front:

Hope, a new beginning / Time, time to start living / There’s no going back to the place we started from / All secrets known.

While most people think of AIC’s vocals as belonging solely to Layne Staley, they were, in fact, a combination of harmonies between Staley and co-vocalist/guitarist Jerry Cantrell. “All Secret’s Known” focuses heavily on Cantrell’s voice and staccato riffing. The harmonies sound so familiar it’s uncanny; you can almost feel Staley’s presence on the track. The guitars are thick and layered and ominous. The album moves into “Check my Brain,” a track featuring one of the most interesting guitar riffs I’ve heard in a long time (it’s one note being bent in and out of tune). Again the vocals are familiar.

It’s not until “Last of my Kind” that new vocalist William DuVall takes front and center. His range and tone are remarkably similar to that of Staley’s. When on his own, DuVall compliments Staley; when harmonizing alongside Cantrell, he channels him.

At least three of the album’s eleven tracks, including “Your Decision” and “When the Sun Rose Again,” are throwbacks to the band’s softer, acoustic sound. The album is well balanced, varying tempo and ferocity — “A Looking in View,” the album’s first single, is as heavy any anything from the band’s back catalog.

The album’s closing track, “Black Gives Way to Blue,” serves as a final farewell to Staley. When Cantrell says he’s “haunted by your ghost” we feel it; when he says “I’ll remember you,” he speaks for all of us. The touching tribute (which features Elton John on piano) won’t leave a dry eye in the house when played live.

Black Gives Way to Blue stands as both closure to times past and, hopefully, new beginnings. The album is dedicated to Staley (and its sound reflects that) and is definitely therapeutic for both the performers and fans alike. How the band plans to continue in the future is anybody’s guess, but as of right now make no mistake about it: Alice in Chains is back.

There is no doubt in my mind that the makers of Dirt 2 have watched every single X-Games from start to finish. This game was not created by people who worshiped A. J. Foyt or Mario Andretti, and they may not even know who those people were. No, Dirt 2 is all about the new and the now. My generation slapped “No Fear” stickers on our cars; in Dirt 2, your default ride has “www.NoFear.com” printed across the front.

Dirt 2, obviously the sequel to Dirt 1, puts gamers behind the wheel in the world of off-road racing. After picking your first name from a list so that the game can address you audibly, you’ll be turned loose with the pedal to the metal. “C’mon, Rob,” virtual in-game Travis Pastrana encourages me, “let’s see what you can do!” What I can do, unfortunately, is pummel the crap out of my virtual Subaru Impreza. Like a 2,000 pound version of Hansel and Gretel I leave a trail of Subaru crumbs in my wake. “Hey Rob, you’re going the wrong way!” Yeah, I get it.

Graphically, Dirt 2 for the Xbox 360 is simply amazing. I typically roll with a 3rd-person view when racing, but the cockpit view in Dirt 2 is real enough to make you taste dirt in your mouth. Speaking of dirt, you’ll be driving on it — a lot. I’ve been lucky in real life to spend most of my driving time on dry, sticky asphalt. In Dirt 2 you will learn that pavement handles like ice, and dirt handles like ice after a layer of snot has been applied to it. Drifting with the hand brake takes more skill than I acquired after more than a couple of races. The car models look fantastic, but you’ll need to work on your driving skills to see much of them (unless they’re passing you).

Throughout your virtual career you’ll attempt various types of races. In Baja you’ll line up “land rush style” and made a mad rush for the finish line. There are normal point-to-point races and rally car races too, where your navigator informs you of upcoming twists and turns (”60 degree left, soft right”). I’ve found driving into a tree at about 50mph shuts her pie hole for a minute or two.

When things go really wrong — and they will — you can use your “flashbacks”, which enable you to rewind the game’s footage and attempt a do over. Depending on your skill level you start with somewhere between three and five flashbacks — not enough to use on every corner, but just enough to save an otherwise good run from one stupid mistake, little hitting a bridge underpass head on with the throttle wide open (he says, from experience).

Dirt 2 is all about fluidity and motion, right down to the menus and the pause screens. Yes! Even when the game is paused, the in game camera slowly floats around, gently reminding you that it’s time to get moving. Of course, pausing the game also gives you a break from the constant camera movement, the loud sound effects and the pounding rock soundtrack, so it’s actually kind of nice. It’s kind of like going to the bathroom in the middle of a concert and enjoying hearing yourself think for a moment. “Hey Rob, get back out there!” Okay, okay!

For those who like to tinker with the virtual settings on their virtual cars, Dirt 2 allows it. There are seven different things than can be changed for those that wish to, although I found I did performed equally poorly regardless of my tweaks. Dirt 2 is more arcade than simulator, but there are enough options to keep the sim-drivers placated.

Other racers’ AI is surprisingly advanced. They crash too, and it’s not unusual to watch the leader slip, side, or roll his way out of your path. The PIT maneuver (which I learned from watching too many episodes of Cops) also works pretty well here. Weight-wise, it doesn’t feel like your opponents have any advantage over yourself.

With multiple skill levels, the ability to turn damage on or off, several different styles of racing and dozens of do-dads, race tracks and cars to unlock, Dirt 2 should keep racers racing happily for a long time.

“Hey Rob, get off the computer and let’s go race some more!”

Sheesh, this game never lets up!

In the early 90s, four bands from Seattle unleashed grunge music on the world and single-handedly put the final nail in hair metal’s coffin. Soundgarden’s BadMotorFinger, Pearl Jam’s Ten, and Nirvana’s breakthrough album Nevermind were all released in the fall of 1991; Alice in Chain’s debut full-length album, Facelift, actually led the pack by landing in stores a full year earlier than the other three, debuting in August of 1990.

It has been said that Layne Staley (vocals) and Jerry Cantrell (guitar, vocals) set out to capture the sound and mood of Seattle on Facelift; as a result, the album is moody, dark, emotional and heavy. By the time listeners reach the chorus of the disc’s first track (“We Die Young”), Alice in Chains’ sound has already been established: classic Cantrell riffs backed by drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Starr, smothered with a layer of Staley and Cantrell harmonies. It’s the sound and formula the band would stick with throughout the years.

Songs like “Bleed the Freak” and ” Sea of Sorrow” set the album’s overall tone, a mixture of metal, hard rock and blues combined with the band’s signature vocal style. While the pace occasionally picks up on tracks like “Put You Down”, typically the songs are slower and riff-based, like the album’s biggest single “Man in the Box.” “I Can’t Remember,” the fifth track on the album, is probably the most similar to AiC’s later material.

Most of Facelift’s lyrics are metaphoric and abstract; while you’ll find plenty to sing along to, you may not know what you’re singing about. According to Wikipedia, Jerry Cantrell once noted that “We Die Young” was written about an experience he had seeing young children with pagers and cell phones dealing drugs, something you’re not likely to get from the song lyrics alone. Interestingly, the topic of drug usage doesn’t appear much on Facelift, something the band would deal with both publicly and lyrically as Layne Staley’s addiction eventually spiraled out of control.

All fans of Alice in Chains or grunge in general should definitely give this album a spin. Facelift is one of the greatest debut albums of the ’90s and contains lots of classic yet often overlooked Chains material.

Tracklist:

01. We Die Young
02. Man in the Box
03. Sea of Sorrow
04. Bleed the Freak
05. I Can’t Remember
06. Love, Hate, Love
07. It Ain’t Like That
08. Sunshine
09. Put You Down
10. Confusion
11. I Know Somethin’ (’bout You)
12. Real Thing

If you’re looking for an unbiased, objective look at Life of Agony’s new two-disc River Runs Again live album, you should probably just stop reading now and look elsewhere. I’ve seen Life of Agony perform live three times (every time they’ve come to Oklahoma, I believe). I’ve got a stack of VHS concert bootlegs sitting above my VCR, bought every CD they’ve put out, made “sampler cds” and given them away to friends to promote the band, recorded a cover version of “Bad Seed”, and even wrote a Praise the Gods article dedicated to the band which ran on White Trash Devil. Short of building a Life of Agony shrine in my front yard, there’s not much else I can do to show my love for this band.

Quick history lesson. After the band’s third studio album was released in 1997, the group began to unravel. lead singer Keith Caputo left and was replaced by ex-Ugly Kid Joe vocalist Whitfield Crane. Shortly after completing the tour, LOA broke up. The chances of me seeing the band live a fourth time looked pretty bleak. All four members formed projects and continued making music, but the sum of the parts was obviously greater than the parts themselves (see: Sepultura).

Six years after Keith’s departure and almost five years after the band officially called it quits, Life of Agony reunited for two sold out shows, performed on January 03-04 in New York City’s Irving Plaza. Those who were lucky enough to get tickets (the shows sold out in a matter of hours) got to see something incredibly special. The rest of us who live 1,500 miles away and couldn’t get tickets (grumble) will have to settle for 2003’s River Runs Again, the recording of those shows.

For not having played together for five years, Life of Agony shows very little ring rust. Mixing songs from the band’s entire catalog, the band kicks off the live show with “River Runs Red”, the title track from their first disc, and heads from there into “This Time,” the opening cut from the same album. The track list is very crowd friendly, covering all the classic LOA tracks like “Bad Seed”, “Lost at 22”, and “Let’s Pretend”.

The band’s performance is very loose. There are a few screw ups, a little microphone feedback, and a whole hell of a lot of feeling, which is exactly the way I love my live albums. Caputo shows he is not afraid to change up his vocal delivery on some of the songs, and the crowd shows they have not forgotten the band’s work, by singing right along with every track. Crowd noise is audible on every track, and the band’s effort to both capture and deliver the live experience to the listener is definitely successful.

The beginning of the second disc shows some early pacing problems. The first four tracks include “Tangerine”, “My Mind is Dangerous”, and an acoustic version of “Let’s Pretend”, with “Lost at 22” thrown right in the middle to keep the crowd awake. Fortunately, from there it’s a sprint to the finish with three River Runs Red classics: “Underground” (a crowd favorite), “My Eyes”, and the band’s first hit single, “Through and Through”.

If I had to find something negative to say about the release, it would be the three songs tacked on to the end of the album. The Super Massiv, solo Keith Caputo, and Among Theives tracks are interesting but not particularly good. Cut those three tracks and you’re down to an 83 minute release; cut a little stage banter (or “My Mind is Dangerous”) and now you’ve got a one disc release (I’ve already burned a copy like this for the car). It just feels wrong ending an awesome live album with three tracks from side projects. If you really have to have a 2CD release, cram all the LOA tracks on disc one, and fill the second CD with all those side projects (speaking of which, where’s Joey Z and Dan Richardson’s Stereomud stuff?).

They say “you can never go back.” Whoever “they” are haven’t heard River Runs Again. For at least two nights (and what now seems to be more, with a European tour in the works and rumors of new material surfacing), it’s as if the band never left. A must have for all fans, and the perfect place for those who have never heard the greatest hardcore crossover band of all time to begin.

“Unwilling to change for society, we’ll be who we wanna be. We are the underground.”

Disc One
01. River Runs Red
02. This Time
03. Other Side Of The River
04. I Regret
05 Weeds
06. Seasons
07. Hope
08. Method Of Groove
09. How It Would Be
10. Bad Seed
11. Heroin Dreams

Disc Two
01. Tangerine
02. Lost At 22
03. My Mind Is Dangerous
04. Let’s Pretend
05. Underground
06. My Eyes
07. Through And Through
08. Consequence (Among Thieves)
09. Were What I Say (Keith Caputo)
10. Fake – (Supermassiv)

I was in 7th grade in 1985. One of my friends had one of those “arcade birthday parties” that year — you remember, the ones where each kid got one coke, a piece of cake, and a little cup of tokens? Unfortunately for my friend, only 3 kids (instead of twenty) showed up. Fortunately for us, the tokens were then split four ways instead of twenty. What seemed like an endless supply of tokens were fed into two machines that day: Gauntlet, and Sega’s Space Harrier.

Sega recently updated Space Harrier’s graphics and has released it as volume 4 in their Sega Ages 2500 series (a reference to the games price in Japan, 2500 yen). Currently the Sega Ages collections have only been released in Japan, so you’re going to need a Japanese Playstation 2 (or some other less scrupulous method) to play this game elsewhere.

As with all the other Sega Ages releases, while the graphics and sound have been revamped, gameplay is essentially the same. You control a guy with a big-ass gun — the basis of many an exciting video game. In Space Harrier, your gun also has a rocket in the rear, giving you the option of flying around the screen or just running really really fast along the ground. This gun packs a hefty punch, and you’re going to need it, because straight ahead are eighteen levels of things that want to kill you. Flying “into the screen” so to speak, Space Harrier was one of the first games to be marketed as “3D”.

I actually had to look up that last fact, as I have to admit I’ve never made it past level three. One of the most frustrating parts of the game for myself is that you can’t see through your own guy. Had Mr. Space Harrier been designed using a wire frame, like the character from Punch Out, I think this game would have been a lot easier. As it stands, I often seem to get shot out of nowhere, due to the fact my butt was blocking a big missle from view.

The control system is so easy that most children should be able to pick up and play the game. The left analog stick controls your character, while the square button shoots. That’s it. The complexity of Space Harrier is delivered through it’s level design and it’s barrage of enemies, not the control system.

It’s been over fifteen years since I played Space Harrier in an arcade, so I honestly can’t remember what the music and/or sound effects sounded like. On Sega Ages Volume IV, the game isn’t that sonicly impressive. Simple sound effects and repetitive music cycle throughout gameplay.

After playing Space Harrier for an hour or so, I’d have to say … this game doesn’t seem that exciting anymore. Shoot, move, shoot, move, shoot … that pretty much sums it up. In 1985, quickly moving 3D graphics alone may have been enough to earn our quarters, but in 2003 it just doesn’t cut it anymore. The graphics and sound aren’t updated enough to make the game exciting any longer, which leaves the game to stand on it’s gameplay — which doesn’t seem that exciting any longer either.

The eighth volume in the Sega Ages 2500 series is V.R. Virtua Racing. For those unfamiliar with the series, the Sega Ages line is a collection of classic Sega games (Space Harrier, Golden Axe, etc.) that the company has reintroduced to 20th century gamers by improving graphics and tweaking gameplay, usually for the worse.

Without harping on the issue once again, I’ll only briefly rehash the flaw I have with all the games in the Sega Ages series, and that is the fact that these games have little to no target audience. These are old games with “newer” graphics. The gameplay on most of these games is so simple it would bore even the youngest games of today. And likewise, fans of the classic versions most likely have emulators or even classic gaming consoles to play the originals on.

V.R. Virtua Racing was the first arcade game made completely of polygons. Your car, the track, the trees (lovely green pyramids), and even the people were completely constructed of single colored building blocks (there was no cell shading back then). One of the game’s gimmicks was the ability to choose between four different viewpoints on the fly (cockpit, chase, 3/4 arial and overhead).

Despite being 10 years its junior, gameplay is basically the same as Pole Position. Race around a track. In arcade mode, you get to keep going until you don’t make a checkpoint. In Grand Prix mode, you’ve got to win a race to continue to the next track.

Those who love the intricacy of racing games such as Gran Turismo will be disappointed to find your controls in Virtua Racing limited to gas and brake. For a little added excitement you can pick a manual gearbox, but be warned; shifting buttons (L1/R1) are precariously close to view shifting buttons (L2/R2). I made it half a race because I was dizzy and nauseous, and quickly switched back to automatic.

Indy 500 for the Atari 500 had a game select mode where you could race on ice. Apparently someone at Sega loved the idea so much that they built the entire engine for Virtua Racing around it. Drivers should prepare for turns at least a week in advance, as cars are continually slipping and sliding their way around corners. The way cars handle throughout the game are as funny as they are frustrating, handling more like hovercraft than indy cars. Even slightly touching a patch of grass will instantly drop your speed in half — at least it’s easier to steer on. Touching grass isn’t as detrimental as touching another car. Tap bumpers with another racer and your cars will stop dead in their tracks and spin around in circles. Like the afore-mentioned Pole Position, there is no leeway here when it comes to tapping another’s bumper.

Apparently the programmers spent so much time getting their “gray ice” driving engine to work that they only had time to squeeze in two sound effects: screech one, and screech two. Screech one is played in every turn, screech two appears when you hit grass. Swing a corner wide and you’ll be treated to both of them. Screech one is more like a bad parrot than a sound effect, really. It repeats over, and over, and over, on every single corner. There might have been some other sound effects, but it’s been an hour since I played the game and that’s all I can remember.

The Playstation 2 is quite capable of handling a polygon-based non-shaded game, so why is there pop-up? Like a bad adult website, there are pop-ups everywhere in Virtua Racing. On every corner you will get to watch the grandstands draw themselves one section at a time. Everything else runs pretty quickly and very smoothly, so I’m not sure why the programmers weren’t able to fix the pop-up issues. Hell, they even managed to make the map spin wildly as you race around the track. Your map always has you facing “up”, so on every corner the map whips wildly as you attempt to slide your way to victory. Other than the frame rate, Virtua Racing doesn’t even look as good as many PSX/N64 titles.

Before I click “save” on a review I always like to scan the web for any other reviews to see if I was on target or not. IGN says that if you’re only going to own one game from the Sega Ages 2500 series, this is the one to get. I’d counter that by saying if this is the only game from the Sega Ages 2500 series I could get, I’d pass. Once again, Sega has picked a game that originally had a selling point that no one cares about anymore. A polygon racing game in 1992 might have been big news then, but it was old news by 1994 and not impressive in 2004. Kids these days want games like GT4 and Midnight Racing, games with cars that look real and handle realisticly, not wedge-shaped trianglemobiles with octogon wheels driving around on a gray slip-n’-slide.

If you’re ready for a night of nostalgia and frustration, by all Sega Ages 2500 Volume 8 – Virtua Racing is for you.

In August of 2001, IGN ran a preview of a new, yet-to-be-released Dreamcast game. The title of the game was Propeller Arena, and the game allowed players to fly planes and dogfight in various locations.

In September of 2001, terrorists flew planes into the World Trade Center, crashing them both to the ground and killing thousands of people.

The game Propeller Arena was quietly shelved. Despite being finished, it was never comercially released. Other than by a few lucky insiders and privledged game reviewers, the game was never seen again.

Until this month.

Apparently, one of the original, internal copies of Propeller Arena was sold to a private individual for a whopping $1,500. That copy quickly made its way into the hands of some talented Dreamcast hackers. From what I’ve read, the original plan involved selling copies of the game to recoup the group’s original $1,500 investment. Of course, if you know anything about how the internet works you know what happened next. Before the so-called “investors” got their discs, copies of Propeller Arena hit file sharing programs everywhere. What just a month ago was an extremely rare and sought after game for the Dreamcast became candy for the taking.

Which brings us to my review of Propeller Arena.

Propeller Arena is an arcade-style flying game where one or more players dog fight one another in WWII-style propeller powered planes. Controls are extremely simple to pick up and master. L and R control your plane’s speed. One button shoots while another uses special weapons. Other than fancy, special maneuvers which can be pulled off using stick/button combinations, that’s pretty much it.

Up to four players can dogfight one another in split screen mode. While cruising above towns and famous landmarks, pilots can scoop up power ups which hover in the air — that is, if you have the time. Most of my personal flight time involved shooting others and avoiding (or at least attemping to avoid) being shot.

The third landscape players can choose is called “Tower City”, and yes, the landscape closely resembles a pre-9/11 New York skyline. No, you can’t bring down the towers in the game. Honestly, there’s not much in this game that reminds me of 9/11. You’re flying WWII planes, and your goal is to shoot other planes, not buildings. If the thought of flying over NYC was so bothering, I don’t see why they didn’t just yank the offending level. Again, the focus of the game is dog-fighting other planes. The landscape over which these take place is rather moot.

It’s a shame Sega never released Propeller Arena. I know I for one would have gladly payed for it. The graphics are top notch, rivaling the PS2’s in my opinion. The game also contains some great sound, from a pop-punk soundtrack to constant one liners from both your and other pilots.

If you can find a copy of Propeller Arena, I highly suggest snagging it. It’s a great opportunity to see a great game that almost was.