After a brief hiatus, the Barrel Roll podcast is back to their old tricks. Jesse, Jonah, Wes, and Adam Milecki return for an in depth discussion of the burgeoning panda genre and what it brings to the table.

Jonah finally dips into Tokyo Jungle to try out its panda-related DLC. Jesse fights pandas with increasingly elaborate costumes in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Wii U Edition. Adam shares his experience with Hotline Miami… which might have a panda mask in it or something (maybe). And Wes travels into peoples’ memories (which might have pandas in them) while playing To the Moon.

The crew also talks about the Wii U, Nintendo Land, Street Fighter X Mega Man, Far Cry 3, Hitman Absolution, Red Rogue, Theatrhythm Final Fantasy, and XCOM: Enemy Unknown‘s multiplayer mode.

All this and more on episode #169 of the Barrel Roll Podcast, “Panda Games Are Their Own Genre”.

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We didn’t just get our old crew, though. We also invited Capcom’s Mega Man aficionados, Brett Elston and Greg Moore. We talk about the recently released Street Fighter X Mega Man and a slew of other random things that may include a Capcom FMV game on the original PlayStation.

Head over to the Mega Man Network to grab the episode.

I’ve been playing Mega Man almost as long as I’ve been playing video games. And I’ve been playing video games almost my entire life. The little guy’s been fighting evil for 25 years now. With any luck, he’ll mirror the longevity of pop culture icons like James Bond, living to celebrate his fiftieth.

But what IS Mega Man? Over the years, Mega Man has meant many things. Whether it’s side-scrolling action, competitive RPGs, or grandiose, 3D adventures, the Mega Man series has made its mark on the medium across an absurd amount of titles. Each have their strengths and their diehard fan bases.

Mega Man: Gaming’s Astro Boy

Like many people, my first introduction to the Blue Bomber was Mega Man II. My family was too turned off by the original game’s famously terrible box art to give it a chance. Perhaps that’s for the best as Mega Man II, love it or hate it, solidified a framework that would be used for years to come. Sure, no Robot Masters would ever be as iconic as those found in the original game, but in comparison to the sequel it just felt loose and overall less coherent than what was to come (not to mention a bit glitchy).

The classic series married the player freedom of tackling stages and gaining new weapons and items in any order with the incredible designs of mostly linear levels. And it did it all with some of gaming’s most memorable soundtracks and art direction that evoked the endearing style of Osamu Tezuka’s Astro Boy.

While the later series had their share of amazing games, they would never be the universally recognized icon that the original Mega Man character still is today.

Mega Man X: Let’s Get Angsty

Mega Man X marked the smartest sequel in the entire platforming side of Mega Man‘s legacy. Dashing and wall climbing changed the game substantially and would be copied and pasted verbatim into two series after it. The first game in particular built on the ideas of the classic games by actually having your chosen stage order affect the hazards you came across. Beat Chill Penguin and watch as poor Flame Mammoth’s stage get’s neutered with sheets of ice smothering the once deadly lava.

Adding collectible armor pieces, maximum health expansions, and reusable Sub Tanks made poking through every nook and cranny of a stage all the more interesting. To this day, I hold the original Mega Man X as the greatest Mega Man game ever made and my second favorite game of all time, just under Super Metroid.

It’s just a shame I can’t say the same for its later entries. The X series did have a few good games in X2, X3, and X4, but once it hit X5, things took a noticeable hit in quality. X6 and X7 are damn near unplayable (though that didn’t stop me from completing them) and X8, while a step in the right direction, still felt incredibly loose compared to the early games.

Mega Man X represents both the best and the worst that Mega Man has to offer, all in a single sub series.

Mega Man Legends: Saturday Morning Charm

Before there was Ocarina of Time, there was Mega Man Legends. 3D combat aided by Z-Targeting, a huge, interconnected world to explore that was packed to the brim with secrets, and vibrantly animated characters helped draw in players willing to give this huge departure a chance.

It’s easy to fall in love with Legends. It was like playing a cartoon long before cell shading was a common visual style in games. It may have been low-poly, but a vast array of facial expressions plastered onto each character along with an impressive amount of fully voiced dialogue brought the game’s cast of colorful characters to life.

But its charm didn’t just come from the aesthetics. Characters, even among the antagonists, had a strong sense of family. Their playful interactions left lots of room for humor. And yet all the lightheartedness was sprinkled (and later flooded) with lots of mystery, intrigue, and plot threads about the origin of life itself.

It broke my heart to see the third game get cancelled, especially considering the cliffhanger the second game left off on. Sorry, Mega Man, but it looks like you might be stuck up there for a little while more.

Mega Man Battle Network: Gotta Catch ‘Em All

Like many Mega Man games, the Battle Network series often got slammed for reusing the same systems over and over again. But I can’t stress enough how impressive the battles in this RPG spinoff were when I played the first game in the series. Using a combination of real-time, grid-based movement and consumable attacks, Mega Man Battle Network created a battle system that I’m shocked hasn’t been ripped off by anything (other than its successor series).

It was speedy, yet strategic. And collecting new attacks scratched the collector itch to the point that later games started splitting versions similar to Pokémon. The battle system also lent itself well to being a social experience with players fighting against each other to see who had the strongest Mega Man.

Longtime Mega Man fans were rewarded with re-imaginings of their favorite Robot Masters from the classic games while younger players concentrated on the addictive mechanics. It was a clever idea, but my attention switched when the next form of Mega Man game was introduced.

Mega Man Zero: Everybody Hurts

If you thought Mega Man 9 was hard, wait until you see what Inti Creates was doing earlier with Mega Man Zero. Best known for its punishing difficulty, the Zero series requires a bit of bravery to get through, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. The games had flaws, for sure, but all four of them are worth your time.

X took a more serious tone than Classic while Zero started cutting everything in half. The Japanese versions of the games even had inexplicable blood flashes (or oil if you want to try to bring reason into this). What was once a kid-friendly series had become a very bleak tour through a desolate future where items are creatures who died when you used them and a boss begs you to kill him as he loses control of himself.

Mega Man Zero was not afraid to play with new ideas. Weapons that level up and ranks that reward your performance with power ups were just a few experiments that came and went. It also excelled at providing context, especially in the first game, using actual characters of varying military ranks and divisions as bosses instead of throw-away bots.

Best of all, though, it actually ended with dignity. For a game as surprisingly story focused (for a platformer) as the Mega Man Zero series, providing a short arc with a deliberate beginning and end was the right move.

Mega Man ZX: R.O.C.K. On!

Mega Man ZX is the half-baked version of my dream Mega Man game. It combines the fast action originally laid out by Mega Man X with the exploration of Metroid. At least it wants to. The problem is that the user interface for referencing where you are in this map is atrocious. Also, there are far more key card gates than there are ability gates. I call this the lazy man’s approach to open map design.

Yet, I still really enjoy both ZX games. What it lacks in map design it makes up for in an evolution of Mega Man‘s most iconic feature: power stealing. Rather than changing colors and getting a new weapon, ZX let’s you essentially transform into different characters which can be powered up individually. The second game increased the number of these forms drastically. And while not all forms are practical for regular play, the amount of freedom you have to switch in an instant to different characters is hard not to love.

Mega Man Star Force: The Guy with the Space Glasses

Mega Man Star Force is the weaker little brother of the Battle Network series. The streamlined nature of its RPG battles may make melee attacks more useful, but it comes at the cost of a far less strategic, twitchier experience. It also has a painfully unlikeable main character that whines his way through the entire first game. The good? He has Space Glasses™, so I guess he can’t be that bad.

The Brother Band system is Star Force‘s best idea. By connecting with other friends, the Brother Band allows players to get stat boosts and even share attacks, further encouraging people to seek out other players. The wireless (and limited online) capabilities of the DS also helped make connecting up less of a hassle than the link cable of the Game Boy Advance.

Star Force is easily my least favorite Mega Man series, but there’s still fun to be had with it. The third game in particular actually has some rather engaging character customization options and a better variety of fights.

Mega Man’s Future

With talk of brand confusion by Capcom U.S., it’s hard to say what form Mega Man will take in the future. We’re assured that the brand isn’t dead and Capcom is understandably reluctant to announce anything too early after the cancellation of both Mega Man Legends 3 and Mega Man Universe.

Whatever happens, I’ll be there to see what the plucky blue robot is up to. In the meantime, I have some Street Fighter X Mega Man to take care of.

Traditionally, I find the kart racing genre as fun as I do frustrating. In the effort to embrace players of all skill levels, genre giants like the Mario Kart series go overboard with weapons, punishing players for being better at driving with unavoidable weapons of mass destruction.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, on the other hand, continues its predecessor’s finely tuned weapon balance while vastly improving on the groundwork it laid two years prior. Between the core systems, track diversity, game modes, and great use of classic franchises, developer Sumo Digital has (barring a few technical issues) created what is quite possibly the best kart racer I have ever played.

Weapons aren’t just balanced, they’re cleverly designed. The Hot Rod, for example, will give players a three-phase speed boost that can be manually disengaged to create a circle of flame to hit enemies. But wait too long to cut it off and it will overheat and slow you down. The risky nature of the item is far more interesting than any Blue Shell or Bullet Bill could ever hope to be.

The pace, a strong point of the first game, is as good as ever. Weapons never slow you down long enough to drive you crazy and falling off a cliff will respawn you almost instantly while still putting you at a big disadvantage. There’s nothing that annoys me more than being stopped in a racing game and it’s great to see a weapons-based racer understand this so well.

Easily the biggest change Transformed brings is the feature of its namesake. Fly through a blue ring and your vehicle will transform into either a car, a boat, or a jet. Rather than the subtle change found in Mario Kart 7‘s similar mechanic, Transformed completely alters its feel with each vehicle type. Waves throw your boat form around in open areas akin to Hydro Thunder. Jets move in all directions, bringing to mind the aerial, racing action of Digital Reality’s SkyDrift. And yet each of the three vehicles still have enough common elements to avoid feeling jarring despite their vastly different handling.

The track design uses these ideas to great effect. In most cases, each lap will actually change large sections of track. Bridges fall away to let your jets take over and floods happen giving your boat time to shine. In addition, split pathways and secrets are everywhere and sometimes cause you to use different vehicles than your opponents. Since the jet is the fastest form, this can sometimes make all the difference.

While it stands on its own without the present themes, Transformed is a loving tribute to longtime SEGA fans. Sonic is there, of course, but I was even more taken with tracks that span through games like Shinobi, After Burner, Skies of Arcadia, Panzer Dragoon, Golden Axe, and even Burning Rangers. Better still, each track features fantastic remixes of classic themes by SEGA music veteran, Richard Jacques. Just wait until you hear that Golden Axe remix.

The fairly sizable roster is also enhanced by unlockable mods for each character. The more you use a character, the more stat variations you’ll be able to select. Later mods aren’t necessarily “better” so much as they are additional options to tweak things to your very precise play style.

Similar to the Wipeout series, Transformed divides its career into singular events across numerous types (though a standard Grand Prix is available, too). There’s a great sense of diversity in the events with everything from Boost Races that strip away weapons entirely to Pursuit Challenges which have you shooting down a giant tank while dodging waves of attacks.

Best of all, you can bring other players in (for a total of five on Wii U) on practically any mode. Whether you’re going through career events to unlock characters or playing online, you can do it all alongside friends. It’s the feature I always look for in racing games, but is rarely actually there.

Of course, the game isn’t without a few flaws. An initial patch broke some significant portions of the game for a couple weeks before a fix was released. And even after the fix, I had two times where the game froze on the initial load screen. There’s also a small handful of design flaws in certain tracks. One specific pathway on the Golden Axe stage still causes you to bump into a ceiling and stop completely when playing on the unlockable, final speed class. The occasional audio glitch also rears its ugly head from time to time. But after the second patch, the problems are in the minority.

Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed may at first glance look like a “me too” experience after the release of Mario Kart 7, but SEGA and Sumo Digital is blowing Nintendo out of the water in regards to game balance, feature sets, and even respect to their source material. Technical issues aside, SEGA has earned the crown of kart racing king and it’s time for their former rival to step up their game.

This review is based on the Wii U version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed provided to the reviewer by SEGA.

Back in 2004, game remixing super-site, OverClocked ReMix showed their love to the music of Donkey Kong Country with Kong in Concert. Years later, the community banded together again along with composer, David Wise, himself to bring us an album of the sequel titled Serious Monkey Business. Now the eight year journey has come to an end.

OCR is back. David Wise is back. And Donkey Kong Country 3: Double the Trouble! is finally here. Covering both the Super Nintendo and Game Boy Advance versions of Donkey Kong Country 3, the album is practically bursting at the seams. 5 discs, 77 tracks, over 5 hours of music, and a barrel full of awesome. And as always, it’s all free. Swing on over to the official site and grab it.

Download the album: OverClocked ReMix

UPDATE: The patch is live. I’ve tested it myself and the boost challenges now load with the proper checkpoints and the final Burning Rangers stage loads with water just like it should.

Original Post: A word of warning to owners (or would be owners) of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed. The patch that released for the Wii U version of the game on launch day has a few nasty bugs. In addition to several reports from users, I’ve found many of these bugs in my own time with the game as I play it for review.

Boost challenges in the career mode load without checkpoints, making them impossible (and here I thought I was just terrible at them!). This particular bug can be temporarily bypassed by failing the course 3 times and choosing the “skip” option. You’ll then be able to continue on with the career mode, but not be able to get 100% completion.

Battle and party modes also have issues where players will fall endlessly until the match ends. Race modes, however, work just fine in the 13 hours I’ve spent with the game thus far; that is except a certain post-game event. After the credits roll and you make your way through an additional tier of challenges, you’ll find what’s quite possibly the ugliest glitch. The mirror version of the Burning Rangers track loads you into boat form with no water and a door in front of you that won’t open. Since you can’t fail that event under the circumstances, you can’t skip it either (thus bringing the rest of your post-game career progress to a halt).

Reports indicate that only the Wii U version is affected by these glitches. Developer Sumo Digital has stated that a new patch addressing these issues is awaiting certification by Nintendo right now.

Links: Support Thread, Video Evidence, Additional Reports, Sumo Digital Comment

After a brief hiatus, the Barrel Roll podcast is back! We’re here to ask the hard hitting questions about controversial games like Animal Crossing: New Leaf. Does it let you marry cats and koalas? You’ll have to listen to find out.

Jesse, Mike, and Adam Anania manage to set aside their animal related differences long enough to talk about all the latest video games… like a real ass pinball machine. Jesse and Mike discuss their time with Halo 4 and Smartglass. Adam tells us why Assassin’s Creed 3 makes him consider quitting the series entirely. And we talk all manner of other games including Code of Princess, Paper Mario Sticker Star, Mechwarrior Online, and Epic Mickey: Power of Illusion.

All this (and ramen discussion) on episode #168 of the Barrel Roll Podcast, “How Many Cats & Koalas Have You Married?”

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Feske is no stranger to the Atari scene and it shows. With contributions to YM Rockerz and a number of solo albums already under his belt, Feske was able to use his experience to create a diverse sound set out of aging hardware. You can grab Interlude on (where else?) Bandcamp right now for four euros (that’s just over $5).

Buy the album on Bandcamp (via Ubiktune)

Impulse marks the site’s fifth indie soundtrack release. It contains all of Meteo Xavier’s contributions to the PC game along with a couple of remixes. You can grab it on both OverClocked ReMix and Bandcamp. The soundtrack is free, much like the game itself

Described as “Super Meat Boy meets Lunar Lander“, Impulse evokes the simplistic design philosophy of older computer games while emphasizing the importance of variety. Similarly, Meteo Xavier’s score goes in many interesting directions while maintaining a common thread of electronica. You can read more about the album on its OCR thread.

Download the Album at OverClocked ReMix or Bandcamp

Not all Kickstarters are merely ideas. Born Ready Games has already put loads of work into their space combat game, Strike Suit Zero. They just need you to help them afford to actually finish it.

Originally announced over a year ago, Strike Suit Zero promises to bring back the space combat genre while taking inspiration from classics like Wing Commander, X-Wing, Freespace, and Colony Wars. But the Strike Suit you pilot during these large scale space battles is no ordinary ship. Like the Veritech/Variable fighters of Robotech and Macross, you can transform your ship into a humanoid mech allowing you an extra layer of combat and mobility options.

Ship design fuses eastern and western ideas thanks to the experienced hand of Junji Okubo (Appleseed: ExMachina, Infinite Space, Steel Battalion) and Paul Ruskay (Homeworld) is creating the games score complimented by a main theme by Kokia (Tales of Innocence).

Reward tiers for early backers can get a copy of the game for as low as $15 (normally $20). Higher tiers span everything from digital art-books and soundtracks to collaborating with Junji Okubo himself on your own mech design to be 3D printed into a custom figure.

Source: Kickstarter (via Joystiq)