Colors | The Wired Fish Network

So many colors, so little time.

Namco Bandai, in their continuing bid to earn my undying affection and sexual favor, have announced today that JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Eyes of Heaven will release “In the Americas” sometime in Summer 2016 on the PS4. This announcement actually comes less than a week after the game’s release in Japan.

For those who don’t know, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is an extremely long-running manga series in Japan, focusing on the, well, bizarre adventures of the Joestar family, as they take on vampires, ancient Aztec demigods, superpowered mafia dons and time-bending clergy. This of course is a grievous oversimplification of the plot, which spans hundreds of chapters and eight individual parts over more than 20 years of publication, but all you really need to know is that it’s a shounen action story that embraces a colorfully gaudy aesthetic to create one of the most flamboyant, and amazingly fun, fighting series ever, where characters are likely to vogue while explaining their powers to each other and contort like dance-models while battling. Think Ru Paul’s Drag Race meets Fist of the North Star, mixed with Shaman King, and just meditate on how amazing that is. Continue reading →

And this cover is the most normal aspect of the game.

Ah, the rhythm game. Nowadays, everyone knows the “Modern Music Genre” games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band. But there is a certain sense of sadness that washes over me when I remember the pre-Guitar Hero days. The sense of experimentation and new-ness that permeated the then-small genre is all but gone now, replaced by big plastic instruments and woefully similar sounds.

This is, of course, not to say that I don’t like them. I have had many a good time playing Guitar Hero (it’s almost a tradition to go a few rounds with my friends in III every year on my birthday), but consider the trailblazers of yesteryear: Parappa the Rapper, Space Channel 5, Samba De Amigo. So much creativity in every one of them, be it through strange play styles or just plain odd music choices. Today, we are going to talk about one that has both: a strange and challenging gameplay style and a selection of songs that must be heard to be believed. I am talking about the early 2000s cult classic, Gitaroo Man.

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