Battle Princess Madelyn (PS4)

From Kickstarter to Kickstarted "Battle Princess Madelyn" by CBit Games was promptly delivered as promised, and on multiple gaming platforms. The story driven, and oldschool gameplay inspired platformer which took ideas of Chris Obritsch's daughter's vision for a Ghouls 'N Ghosts themed adventure was given life in such a beautifully rendered, and audibly enjoyable way with a handful of options made readily available to tweak the experience to your liking. Along with a couple visual/audio style options it offers two different ways to play the game including a traditional story free Arcade Mode with 10 stages, and several branching paths within each along with epic boss fights as well as a protagonist modeled after Madelyn, the daughter of Chris. In addition to the arcade mode comes a Story Mode with comic panel style animations telling a tale of a sickly Madelyn being read a fairy tale story by her grandfather. A story about a princess knight who takes up arms to save her kingdom, and avenge the death of her loyal canine companion, Fritzy. A dog who comes back to life in ghost form to assist her on her journey to topple the ultimate evil. It is a story that is mirrored, if every so slightly, in both modes of platforming play.

Crowdfunding - "Good or Bad?"

As you likely know I just got through watching AlphaOmegaSin's Youtube video regarding Square Enix's crowdfunding/Kickstarter ambitions. My opinion about said topic respectfully mirrors that of Alpha's in that I think "Triple A" companies have no business turning to fans to fund a game especially when they can stand on their own two feet as a company. Square Enix, in particular has done, and is doing alright for themselves. They still have the money to publish, and produce 'Triple A' games. For them to ask fans to give them money for translations of Japan only video games is almost robbery, in my opinion. Translation, as tedious as it may be is nothing like making a game from scratch. It's not. Even if they were using a service like Kickstarter to create a game from the ground up I'd still not back them in their efforts, because time is the most uncertain thing in this world. We don't know what the next minute, or even second holds for us let alone the future outcome of a Kickstarter that is basically a gamble of time and money itself. Time has shown that Kickstarters, and crowdfunding are indeed a gamble. Even when some studios meet their goals the games still never come to fruition. That 'Red Riding Hood' indie game comes to mind.

The String Arcade (CD)

It has been a very long time since I've covered music of any kind on this blog. Between game reviews, and dvd reviews it just hasn't been possible for me to seek out new artists like I hoped I could. Thankfully though a certain PR contact came to the rescue recently, and brought to my attention a new CD release that incorporates two things that I'm very passionate about. These two things include both the gaming genre, and the classical music genre. The CD in question which is appropriately titled, "The String Arcade" began as a kickstarter campaign by Dren McDonald in order to support a cause he's passionate about himself. Unlike most kickstarter developers though this guy doesn't want to make a profit for himself, but instead aims to do something very noble with the money that is gained from sales. All of the funds gathered from the sale of this special CD soundtrack will go to the "Alameda Music Project" in order to get children to start participating more in the music field. If that isn't awesome I honestly don't know what is. That's why I'm here today to share the details of this CD, and hopefully get you to join in on supporting this noteworthy cause.

Boot Hill Heroes - Kickstarter

Normally I'm not someone who is willing to promote something I know little about, and 'Kickstarter' definitely applies to that. With that being said I received a very nice email from 'Dave Welch' of (Experimental Gamer) concerning his upcoming release of 'Boot Hill Heroes (XBLIG)'. He complimented my site, and my support for the indie game market which I greatly appreciated. I thought it was very kind of him to let me know how he felt about my blog, and my reviews. I thought I'd share the actual email that Dave sent me with you guys, and gals. It has some links to their website, their kickstarter, and even a link to their youtube promotion video.