Unsolicited Game Recommendation: Gunman Clive

In a time where it seems less and less likely to ever see another Mega Man game or even more so a Mega Man Legends game, it’s crucial to discover and support games like Gunman Clive. The sole creator, Bertil Horgberg, sees the potential in classic game play with the polish of modern graphics. Although Gunman Clive may be built on the difficult platforming and shooting bones of Mega Man, its old school roots doesn’t end there. The game also combines weapon power-ups and a run-and-gun style of Contra with platforming elements pulled from the great Mario games, and even Donkey Kong Country. 

Showcasing the art style of a sepia toned Wild West poster coming to life, Gunman Clive looks like no shooter before it. The game plays up the Wild West theme with town shootouts, bad guys on horse back and even gunplay on speeding locomotives. But what makes the game unique is when the Once Upon A Time in The West themes are left behind and the more fantastical elements are added. One of the boss fights is with a dancing steam locomotive and you even get to fly to the moon in a SHMUP inspired rocket ride level.

Gunman Clive is short but the game boasts tons of replay-ability, I played through the game on Normal difficulty with Clive and then again on Hard difficulty with Mrs. Johnson (the other playable character). There is also a third way to play the game once you complete it and this interesting addition just backs up how great the level design is. The game is also difficult, but not impossible, and every time I died I knew it was because I made the mistake not because the game was being cheap. Gunman Clive is available for $1.99 on Android, iOS and 3Ds eShop. I have my copy on the eShop and although it was the last version to come out it’s already more popular that any of the previous versions. I think anyone who can play the game should buy it for what ever platform they prefer but if you have the choice get in on the eShop. I also hope that the success of Gunman Clive on the eShop proves to developers that a successful indie game can to well on the 3DS and maybe more games that would have only seen Android and iOS would come our way.

Stay Classy,

Travis (Jarv)

 

music of the year: 2012

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to top my music purchases of 2010; I had acquired close to 70 albums that year. It was a perfect storm of great sales, great releases from bands I know and a flood of great music from bands I’d recently discovered. I even wrote in my opening that the amount of albums I bought in 2010 doubled any of the previous years.  

So like every year the way I present the albums, of said year, have changed…a bit.  Similar to 2010 where I did a straight forward numerical list and still keeping with the tradition of listing a few greats from previous years, that will all be the same but, everything will be drastically shorter. So, I present to you the top 12 of 2012 and a couple honorable mentions. Enjoy.

12. Murder by Death – “Bitter Drink, Bitter Moon”

Great album, I even just listened to it today with my wife but, I got the album so close to my cutoff on doing these lists that I really didn’t have the time to fully appreciate it. I’m sure it will be on next years Top Albums not from 2013 list.

11. Lamb of God – “Resolution”

This was my first metal album of 2012 and my first Lamb of God album since Ashes of the Wake.  Resolution was a great way to start out the year and rekindle a love for a band I thought was lost to me.

10. Between The Buried And Me – “The Parallax II: Future Sequence"

I always love Between the Buried and Me and I’m always excited for their new albums to come out. But, sometimes their albums take time for me to fully absorb which is not a bad thing; it’s actually a quality that makes for some of favorite albums of all-time. Look for this one to creep into a musical list of mine in the future.

9. Grizzle Bear – “Shields”

An album mixed with tracks I immediately fell in love with and tracks I’ll full in love with down the road Shields is the perfect mix of Grizzle Bear's Veckatimest that I devoured from the beginning and Yellow House which I savored over a long period. 

8. High on Fire – “De Vermis Mysteriis”

It was a long road without some new metal from the time Resolution dropped until April when High on Fire came to save me. This is one of those albums I’ll put away and forget, like a fool, and then one day play it and remember how truly great De Vermis Mysteriis is. I know this album will grow with me over the years and like all the albums I hold in high regard change and hold different meaning at different times in my life. I look forward to rediscovering this album again and again.

7. Converge – “All We Love We Leave Behind”

I’ve always liked Converge but this is the album that made me love them, and now those previous Converge albums have a whole new meaning to me now. It was a fluke I even picked up this album considering I was looking for The Parallax II (Number 10 on the list) but I’m so thankful I stumbled across it. This is simple a powerhouse of a hardcore album and shows a band growing and expanding with the miles they’ve worn not the other way around.  

6. Rise and Fall – “Faith”

Faith is the first album on this list from a band that I’ve never talk about before. I discovered Rise and Fall off Deathwish Inc. and instantly wanted their album. A raw hardcore experience that kept me going through some long training runs, Faith was on a constant loop this summer. But, it was months later when I heard the song Escapism and it felt like my first time hearing it, I knew then that Faith wasn’t an album I’d forget or simple remember for the one or two heavy songs on a workout mix but truly an album that would stand the test of time. 

5. mewithoutYou – “Ten Stories”

It’s beautiful and a rare thing in modern music to grow along side the bands we love. Comparing mewithoutYou’s first album A to B: Life along side their latest album Ten Songs would be almost impossible without placing the three albums in-between navigating where they started to where they’re at. Ten Stories tells the tail of a 19-century traveling circus crashing in the hills of Montana and all the intertwining folly and fancy that takes place. Over the tens years of creating music mewithoutYou’s lyrics have grown from literal depictions of life to imaginative folk tails that still manage to create as much gravitas as any of their earlier works.    

4. The Chariot – "One Wing”

Not very often can a band catch lightning in a bottle, so to speak, with me from album to album. When a band releases an album that completely engulfs me like The Chariot did with Long Live the follow up has to contend with regular expectations along side the mammoth expectations of their predecessor which most often doesn’t end well. But, One Wing holds it’s own against Long Live and comes away a unique piece of music blending melodic yet gritty tracks like Speak, thought provoking moments in Cheek and even pushing the boundaries of how a song should be presented in First.  

3. Every Time I Die – “Ex Lives”

I dig anything new by Every Time I Die and although I wasn’t the biggest fan of their previous two efforts, The Big Dirty and New Junk Aesthetic, I was excited for Ex Lives.  And all of my excitement paid off from the opening track all the way through to the closing track. Ex Lives has all the ingredients that make a great Every Time I Die album from the blistering dueling guitars, thought provoking lyrics, and song structures equally melodic as they are maniacal making such a beautifully thunderous noise. I love every minute of this album and love that an Every Time I Die album is being played as much as Last Night in Town, Hot Damn and Gutter Phenomenon.

2. Deftones – “Koi No Yokan”

Just like with The Chariots One Wing I was a bit nervous when I first listened to Koi No Yokan after the Deftones completely knocked it out of the park with their previous album Diamond Eyes. But, once again, I was pleasantly proven wrong. Diamond Eyes is often compared to the Deftones second album Around the Fur and I would dare compare Koi No Yokan to their third release White Pony. Both albums are melodic and heavy and both albums show the band growing together and exploring what they can do musically yet keeping pure what the Deftones do great. And similarly to White Pony this new album, Koi No Yokan, will age well.  But, I don’t mean to simple say that Koi No Yokan is a rehash of White Pony just as much as Diamond Eyes wasn’t a rehash of Around the Fur. It’s just refreshing to see a band release a seventh album and ignite a passion as hot and fresh as the music they where releasing more than a decade ago.   

1. Baroness – “Yellow and Green”

I was a bit late to the Baroness party and it was really hard to pick a number one album for 2012 with a Deftones album in the mix. I finally had to figure it out by the amount of plays for each album in my iPod. And, Baroness’ Yellow and Green (double album) destroyed albums from summer even though I bought Yellow and Green in November. I think Yellow and Green was the right Baroness album to discover at the right time. They where often put into my amazon.com list because of bands like Mastodon but I never really gave them a look until now and, I’m thankful I did. Yellow and Green is a double album full of heavy rock songs wavering from smooth melodies and layers of metal and even stripped down rock. Yellow and Green has me belting lyrics like “Take me too a lazy Sunday morning,” rocking out to Take My Bones Away and felling introspective with Twinkler and that’s just Yellow. Another big bonus is Green, after I’ve exhausted Yellow I have another masterpiece waiting for me and after a few weeks off I’ve begun scratching the surface.

Honorable Mentions of 2012

Motorhead – “The World is Ours Volume 2: Anyplace Crazy as Anywhere Else"

What can I say, it's Motorhead, they're live and they play Rock'n Roll...loud.

Mumford and Sons – “Babel”

Got this album way to close to my cut-off and couldn't give it a fare shack. Look for this one, definitely, next year.

Over the past few years I've notice that I've delved into musical history and plucked out a band to fall in love with. Even though I may know their popular work I take it many steps further and really become a fan. In 2010 the band was Motorhead, last year it was The Talking and Heads and this year it's Thin Lizzy. Which leads us into...

Music of the year not from 2012

3. Fucked Up – “David Comes To Life”

2. Voodoo Glow Skulls – “Southern California Street Music”

and no surprise if you've read the previous paragraph...

1. Thin Lizzy – “Vagabonds Of The Western World”

This year of music could simply be summed up as a year of discovery and future discovery.  Considering the amount of albums I know I’ll pick back up in the future I’m confident I’ll be writing, sharing and recommending these albums far in to the future. Like I stated previously, some of my favorite albums aren’t ones I love right off the bat but sometimes are albums that take longer to uncover all the little moments that truly make up a great musical work. What ever 2012 lacked in numbers it more than made up for in quality.