We interrupt this program...
Wednesday, December 17, 2008 »
...to bring you this important image:
More here.
Here's the LittleBigPlanet soundtrack
Saturday, December 13, 2008 »
So LittleBigPlanet has been out for a while now and while everyone's gushing over the robust level creation tools and the amazing community levels (and associated controversy), they're overlooking one of the other amazing aspects: the soundtrack! There's no official soundtrack CD out (yet?), so, similar to what I did with Braid, I've collected links where you can download many of the songs from. They're all Amazon MP3s when possible, since that's my preferred method of downloading singles. For a couple that Amazon didn't have, I grabbed the iTunes link instead. A lot of the Daniel Pemberton songs are only available on iTunes at the moment, as part of his album LittleBigMusic. And finally, there are a few tracks that just weren't available at either place (including all the interactive tracks composed just for the game). Hopefully the rest will turn up later on.
A few notes on the Go! Team's "Get It Together": This is the song that was in a bunch of the early LBP trailers and what many probably consider to be the LBP main theme. The version of it on Amazon is part of an EP and is a different recording than the one in the game. The mix is a little harsh and I recommend skipping it in favor of the iTunes version (which appears in the game and is from the album Thunder, Lightning, Strike), but if you really like the song it might be worth it to check out the other version.
Finally, if you're a fan of Kinky, I recommend checking out their albums Kinky and Atlas.
I tried to include the first level the song appears, when available. Enjoy!
Songs as listed in the manual:
- DJ Krush - Song 2 (from Sensei's Lost Castle)
- Café Tacvba - Volver a Comenzar (from the Wedding Reception)
- Kinky - Cornman (from Boom Town)
- Battles - Atlas (from the Construction Site)
- The Go! Team - Get It Together (from Skate to Victory)
The Go! Team - Get It Together! (alternate version) - Jim Noir - My Patch (from the Meerkat Kingdom)
- Serge Prokofieff - Alexander Nevsky Op. 78 "Battle on the Ice"
- James Pants - Rhythm Trax 07 (from Lowrider(?))
- Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra - Tapha Niang (from Swinging Safari)
- Noveltones - Left Bank Two (from introductory level)
- Ananda Shankar - Dancing Drums (from the Dancers' Court)
- Daniel Pemberton - The Orb of Dreamers
- The Daniel Pemberton TV Orchestra - Leaders of Men
- The Daniel Pemberton TV Orchestra - The Appliance of Science
- The Daniel Pemberton TV Orchestra - Girly Goodie Two Shoes
- The Daniel Pemberton TV Orchestra - Rock the Jungle
- The Daniel Pemberton TV Orchestra - Tricky Business
- The Daniel Pemberton TV Orchestra - Cries in the Wind (from the Collector)
- The Daniel Pemberton TV Orchestra - Rainbow Warrior
- The Daniel Pemberton TV Orchestra - My Advice - Parts 1, 2 and 3
Tracks from LittleBigMusic by the Daniel Pemberton TV Orchestra (some tracks repeated from above):
- The Orb of Dreamers
- Sleepy Head
- Flirty Cha Cha
- Leaders of Men (Little Big Planet dub)
- Horny Old Man
- Rock the Jungle
- Rainbow Warrior
- Get Your Boots On
- Sepia Tones
- My Advice, Pt. 1
- Cries in the Wind
- The Appliance of Science (Little Big Planet dub)
- On the Waves
- Girly Goodie Two Shoes
- Clouds Observer
- Tricky Business
- My Advice, Pt. 2
- My Advice, Pt. 3
Songs appearing as in-game music objects:
- Mat Clark / Kenneth Young - Gardens iMusic
- Mat Clark - Savannah iMusic
- Mat Clark - Wedding iMusic
- Mat Clark - Canyons iMusic
- Mat Clark - Metropolis iMusic
- Mat Clark - Islands iMusic
- Mat Clark - Temples iMusic
- Kenneth Young / Mat Clark - Wilderness iMusic
- Kenneth Young - Saregama Sun
- Kenneth Young - Skipping Syrtaki (from Tie Skipping)
- Kenneth Young - Disco'n'Tinued
I don't have all the music objects yet so there are probably a few original tracks not listed here. I'll add them as I collect them.
» comments: 1
My favorite new thing about Animal Crossing: City Folk
Monday, December 1, 2008 »
I just got around to reading this Animal Crossing City: Folk interview that Leigh linked to recently. It's a discussion between Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, and a bunch of directors who worked on different components of AC:CF, including Hisashi Nogami, Isao Moro, Ryuji Kobayashi and Aya Kyogoku. They explain a bunch of cool behind-the-scenes details about the development team's goals for the new city area and wi-fi interaction, but best of all was this explanation of a new feature in the game that I didn't even know existed:
Kobayashi: Around the town, there is what I suppose you could call undergrowth. There's green grass, but underneath it, there's earth. This time, we stuck the grass on so it feels a little like it's floating on top of the earth. When a player walks on the grass, it wears it away so you can see a little bit of the earth below.Iwata: So there is data for each square of earth in the grid in Animal Crossing, and the information about whether each of the squares has been stepped on is retained?
Kobayashi: Exactly. So as the player walks around, the grass is gradually worn away. We made it so that it starts to grow back after a day has passed. But if, for instance, you were to go to Tom Nook's store every day...
Iwata: I see! You would leave animal tracks.
Nogami: Well, the player controls a human character, so I suppose you would call them footprints. (laughs) So if a player is doing nothing but going fishing, the grass on the path from their house to the seashore or the river will be worn away. And where there's a bridge which everyone has to walk across, the grass will be completely worn away.
They go on to say it will take a couple weeks to several months to develop a well-defined path. I've only been playing the game a little bit daily for a few weeks so I'm definitely not seeing anything like that yet (plus I'm still learning all the best paths around my town), but it's definitely something I'll be looking out for from now on.
The reason I like this so much is that, while it has zero effect on what little gameplay there is in City Folk, it's an incredible contribution to the illusion that each player's town is a living, dynamic environment. It's also something that takes place over a long period of time, which perfectly suits Animal Crossing's style of play. And it's also a type of new feature that I never expected while I was brainstorming new features for a Wild World sequel.
So, while many (including myself) have criticized the game for adding seemingly little on top of Wild World, discoveries like this make me wonder what else the developers might have done to secretly improve the Animal Crossing experience while everyone was looking for new catalog items and tools.