Absolutely familiar with Buddy Rich, man! My father-in-law is actually a jazz critic, so he's got all sorts of awesome rare recordings of Buddy Rich (among others; Max Roach in particular). You can't mess with the original!
Sometimes I wish I could erase my memory of playing it so I could play it all over again, new. The DS version had a little of that feeling to it, since the dialogue was different and spoken, and the music was remastered. But it wasn't quite the same...
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When it comes down to it, probably my favorite Final Fantasy as well. I probably rented it 100 times as a kid (couldn't buy it anywhere by the time I knew I wanted it). The moon is always weird to me... The game is very fantasy, and then suddenly you take a spaceship to the moon. A taste of what was to come... I guess the first Final Fantasy had that blend of technology and fantasy, too... what with robots and floating castles.
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Glad to know it, and very glad to have you here :) Hopefully I'll be able to blend the mechanics and life experiences as the blog continues.
Let me be the first to second (HOO BOY, sometimes I slay myself!) that Rydia was money. Also, her return? Easily the highlight of my young gaming experience. I remember during the battle with Golbez, when "?????" starts talking, me and my friend Tim were like "huh?" Then she rolls in with the change in music, and it is ON! Love it!
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Along similar lines, one of the reasons I like him is that he's very judicious in his use of the double-bass; most of his awesomeness comes from those busy hands! In my opinion, once the double-bass entered metal, things started getting a little out of hand. I love guys like The Atomic Clock, but sometimes, it's like "dude, caaaalm down". Anywho, that's why I love me some Brann Dailor. :)
I've been looking for a suitable Leviathan shirt for some time; the artwork for those four elemental albums is siiiiick!
Tomas Haake and Meshuggah are awesome! If I'm not mistaken, he writes a lot of the lyrics for Meshuggah, just like Neil Peart, right? The past ten years of metal have been amazing from a polyrhythm/drumming perspective... My personal fave is Brann Dailor, of Mastodon. Definitely not on the same technical level as someone like Haake, but he can still beat the skins with style.
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I have a drumset I play for stress relief, but guitar is really my instrument. That being said, it is worth going to see Rush solely to see Neil Peart. Dude is awesome. Plus he's the band's lyricist, which is pretty tight, as well. Here's a drum solo he did at the show I was at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4fWIElPnA4
He maps some pretty neat bell/synthesized effects to his electric kit and goes to town. (btw, totally aware how ironic/hypocritical it is for me to rail against people recording a show then link to it in the comment section ;))
It's all good, I was a mad cheater back in the day, as I hope was conveyed by my writing here. Pretty much every game I played from age 6 - 9 was played through a Game Genie. Glad I grew out of it though; it made gaming so boring.
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Thanks, man! I don't mean to come off as a hater, I was just pretty blown away, because, the duration of the concert, there were thousands of people holding up phones. It was like a sea of screens. The people around me more or less filmed the whole thing. No moshing at a Rush show, unfortunately ;) I guess one could moss for YYZ... but, eh, prog rock? Not so much.
I'll be moving back toward game mechanics as we progress to FF6 and onward. FF 1 and 4 have fairly similar mechanics, and there's not quite as much to talk about as with the newer titles, so I went in a more abstract direction... Glad to have you following along! :)
I wouldn't mind re-buying Punch Out!, Fusion, and Minish Cap, but Super Mario RPG was one of the first games I saved up my own allowance money to buy... I'm attached to the physical cart itself. I have it on my virtual console; at this point, it's the principle, dammit! I'm driving my wife nuts tearing apart our attic and basement looking for it, so I'll just wait until we move and hope for the best ;)
Also: You have a GameBoy Player? Awesome! That bad boy is high up on my wish list! I can't believe I missed it when it was originally released. A 1up article mentioned it a year or so ago, and I was like 0_0 whooooooa.
Good times, man. And good luck finding Pinball!
