PixlBit

Bing Image Mad Libz:

After playing through Sonic '06, Tiger Woods becomes highly upset by the crap gameplay, and his rage, mixed with the fast-paced sections of the gameplay acting on his psyche, cause his testosterone to once again increase tremendously, resulting in an affair with now-grown little girl from Remember the Titans, whose current body gives me mixed feelings about my childhood, Hayden Panetterie. Instead of assaulting him with a golf club, his Swedish wife resorts this time to sending a tower of Rothschild Giraffes after him. They do not care that he has a golf club, and nearly beat him to death.

Sonic '06 is a game I have in fact never played, but having played Sonic Adventure for Dreamcast, owning Sonic Adventure 2: Battle on Gamecube, realizing simply by watching it that it is an overstuffed and buggy Sonic Adventure 3, which got rushed out to celebrate the 15th Anniversary of the character, and watching unfavorable video reviews, as well as what adds up to about twelve hours now of this:

I feel like I may as damn well have played thing.

Oh, and if you're wondering why I'm up now, this Let's Play featuring Goldeneye, Donkey 64, and Banjo Kazooie composer, Grant Kirkhope found me just as I was heading to bed. I've been on Youtube and various websites since, and have decided to cure my insomnia by reversing it, meaning I plan on staying up all day. Unhealthy as all hell? Yes, but sometimes extreme measures need to be taken. It's worked for me in the past. Of course, I wouldn't have to be doing it if that bloody hilarious, and often hard to understand for my American ears, British accented man hadn't caught me right at 2300 Hours Central Standard Time, but I digress. I need a second job....

But we're not talking about my insomnia, we're talking about something said in that video I just embedded, above the previous paragraph and sentence, that caught my attention and made me go, "hey yeah, I do notice that in games a lot." It's at around 7:07 when Arin, better known as egoraptor to the online world (whose cartoons I don't much care for, but I do love his Sequelitis series) says to Jon, better known as internet videogame reviewer JonTron, that Jonathon Blow had announced his videogame The Witness would have over a thousand footstep sound effects, leading Arin to ponder that most games overuse the hell out of sound effects, especially character phrases.

Now, Sonic '06 is of course guilty of this, as are Sonic Adventure 2: Battle (Knuckles sounds constipated EVERY time he digs under the ground) and Sonic Adventure. Here is a montage of proof Sonic '06 is guilty:

Ok, not the best "proof," as it has only one of the fights with Silver where "It's no use!" is spouted, but trust me, it's not the editing making it seem more repetitive than it is, though there are a lot of cuts; it genuinely is that bad.

But you might be thinking, "well no shit, companies recycle voices and sound effects all the time; hell half the different sounds in games you hear may just be pitch corrected or slowed down as a space-saving measure; just cause one game overdoes it doesn't make it unacceptable entirely." You'd be right, and I'm usually ok with it when it fits the context of how it's used, but Arin goes on to say how it's awkward that even doing a mundane task like breaking a pot to get the item inside prompts Silver's growl. Again, I know exactly where he's coming from, only because he used pots as an example, my mind went to a different game.

Link: Steals Twenty Rupees, Gives Zero Fucks

Even in a game as polished as Ocarina of Time, or most 3D Zeldas for that matter, regardless of why Link is swinging his sword, be it defeating a Stalfos or breaking a pot, he makes the same "Xena Warrior Princess is Coming to Kill You" noise every time, and in my opinion, there is something to be said about it taking something, though minor and nitpicky, away from the experience. Does it ruin my whole game? Not by a long shot, but it certainly gets grating and feels out of place after a while. And almost every game has something like this.

When it's merely a sound effect, I usually can't complain, because I'm not going to bitch to the people that make Call of Duty that the bullet noises sound too similar every time I shoot a particular gun, that just makes sense to recycle. It's when a character says a phrase over and over and over again that makes me want to rage quit in disgust in some games, as those fights with Silver in Sonic '06 seem to make everyone want to do.

Then again, even sound effects that come from objects and not characters' mouths can be infuriatingly common. I'll give props to Zelda for using the sound of walls to differentiate ones that can be bombed from ones that can not, but not all uses are as inventive. I can't think of any examples at the moment, so here's Slippy the Frog, not to be confused with Mitch Hedberg's psychedelic firefighting friend, Smacky, to distract you from my poor job of backing up the things I say, and the irony of the repetitive nature of what I just wrote:

You don't really have to watch this; I'd actually recommend you not

What's been your worst experience with overused sound effects/character phrases in games? Best? Do you care at all?

Anyway, major thanks once again to Nick, messages and notifications are now separate and can be deleted in groups. Request: ability to select which messages to be and not be deleted. You just keep making this place better, sir.

Finally, your alternative songs for today:

The term "YOLO" may come from Drake's "The Motto," but I for one much prefer The Strokes' song with much the same sentiment, "You Only Live Once." However, when it comes to First Impressions of Earth, "Ize of the World" is probably my favorite track off of it, so lets go with that one.

The Strokes - "Ize of the World"

You might recognize the Interpol song "Heinrich Manuever," the one that goes "how are things on the west coast?" etc., from that AT&T 4G Network commercial I can't find, which also features a song with the lyrics "all my exes live in Texas," which apparently I wrote, cause all of mine do!

And that's why I'm giving you the song "Public Pervert" today.

Interpol - "Public Pervert"

Finally, here's some Eagle Eye Cherry. Happy Tuesday!

Eagle Eye Cherry - "Save Tonight"