Meet Karateka, the Prince of Persia Creator's New Old Game

Punch, kick, and block to the rhythm of the audio clues the music gives you for maximum ass-kickery.

You may think you’ve been playing video games for a long time, but I can almost guarantee that Jordan Mechner has been making them even longer. The Prince of Persia creator got his start as a teenager, crafting the legendary beat-‘em-up Karateka (it’s pronounced “care-uh-teek-uh,” by the way) in 1984. Though eventually overshadowed by the game that would one day become a blockbuster Jerry Bruckheimer movie, Karateka earned a legendary reputation amongst veteran gamers as a challenging classic that wasn’t to be trifled with.

Fast-forward almost 30 years and Mechner – looking remarkably youthful for a man who’s already spent an entire lifetime coding in front of a computer – is bringing Karateka back for consoles, PC, and iOS. The game is functionally unchanged. You’re still a monk who forsakes his vows to rescue an imprisoned girl, Mariko, whom you love. You’ll have to fight through waves of guards and dodge hawk attacks, except now it won’t be so brutally difficult. In the original version, if you died you had to start completely over at the beginning of the game.

Yes, fans of the original game: the hawk returns to torment you.

In the 2012 high-definition edition, you’ll get three lives in order to make it through (it takes about 45 minutes to finish it on your first try, at least in our play session). Once the first monk dies, you’ll assume the role of another suitor. Each would-be contender for Mariko’s heart is a big stronger than the last, making it more likely you’ll finish the game with each life you lose.

What makes Karateka intriguing in its new incarnation is the combat. What seems extremely simple – rough up a series of progressively tougher thugs on your way up and into the palace – is actually incredibly nuanced. And not like you’d expect. It’s not a fighting game, like a button masher, but more a rhythm-based game where you'll want to block, punch, and kick at the right time – using the music as your cue – to earn a counter attack.

Obviously, Karateka's visuals have been updated since its Apple IIe days.

Here’s how it works: the game gives musical tells that let you know how many attacks there will be (one, two or three). Block them all and you get your counterattack and build up your Chi. It’s halfway between Guitar Hero and a fighting game. With full Chi, you can stun the enemy, then pull off a special heavy attack that takes them down much quicker.

For a 45-minute game, the replayability comes from – again like a music game – your improved technique. You will get better as the campaign progresses, and you’ll be shocked at how much better you do on your second play-through.

The fact that Mechner’s design holds up three decades after its inception is a testament to his original vision. The console and PC versions of the new Karateka are out this week, with the iOS edition due out a couple weeks later. Stay tuned for a full review.

Ryan McCaffrey heads up IGN Xbox. He used to own a DeLorean, which is weird. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, on IGN, catch him on Podcast Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

Source : ign[dot]com

Xbox Music Is Useless on Xbox

When Xbox Music -- goodbye, Zune Marketplace -- launches on your 360 on October 16, the ad-supported streaming service will debut globally with a song library of 30 million, 18 million of which will be available instantly for United States users on a free or subscription-based basis. The catch (of course there’s a catch!) is that Xbox Music is a fantastic application for a very specific kind of person.

Beyond the broad scope of “the music lover,” Xbox Music is built with the Microsoft fanatic in mind, someone committed to the idea of owning Windows 8, a Surface slate, and a Windows Phone. Ironically, no matter what the name implies, the person Xbox Music is engineered against is the Xbox 360 owner.

So, it’s October 16, you’re an Xbox owner, and you want Xbox Music’s free tunes. You love the idea of streaming Pixies, Black Keys, Boston, Bruce Springsteen, and obscure Canadian artists like Plumtree, Imaginary Cities, and Michael Bernard Fitzgerald. You happen to have impeccable taste, as it turns out. Here’s how it goes down:

You must be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber. From there, you can build playlists and stream all the Weezer and Lana Del Rey you please for 30 days, after which you’ll start paying the $9.95 fee to become a Pass member. To become a full-fledged Xbox Music user, you’ll need to pay $60 for Xbox Live Gold and another $120 for Music per year.

If you’re keeping score, that’s nearly $200 per year simply to have access to Xbox Music on your Xbox.

Ouch.

Windows 8 is the only platform on which you’ll be able to stream unlimited music for free – and for the time being, Microsoft says there’s no ceiling on the number of tracks you can listen to. Better still, you can skip as many junk tunes as you want. Take that, Spotify.

Microsoft isn’t buying much more goodwill with the majority of its audience, though, especially those who’d likely want to use Xbox Music most. Want to use SmartGlass? It won’t be available just yet. Surface? Also unavailable at launch. Oh, you’re an Android or iOS user? Sorry, support for those devices is coming “within a year.”

Even PC users need to wait for Windows 8’s launch on October 26 to take full advantage of the program. The only user who can use Xbox Music out of the gate is the one who gets the raw deal.

Of course, this is a short term problem. Look ahead six months or so. Assume Xbox Music is on your iPad and iPhone and Windows 8 has any launch kinks straightened out. You've adopted a new operating system or tablet and they can all talk to each other. The cloud is great for shooting tracks between devices. In the near future, Xbox Music will be excellent -- possibly outdoing its competition at every corner. It has the edge over competitors like Grooveshark, Pandora, and Spotify because it shares similar features (Smart DJ is your radio), plus it adds Vevo-powered music videos and Pass members can download albums for free. And if you’re streaming on your phone you shouldn't have any interruptions – progressive downloading stores the song without saving it to your device, allowing you to listen to tracks on your tunnel-filled commute even if you lose signal.

But will this be enough to create an audience out of built-in Xbox users as well as tear the Spotify- and Pandora-obsessed away from what’s working already? At launch, probably not. Looking ahead a year, though, and this could be the one and only music service we need.

Mitch Dyer is an Associate Editor at IGN. As a Canadian, he appreciates Microsoft launching Xbox Music in the motherland. Read his ramblings on Twitter and follow him on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com

Watch a Music Video for Adele's Skyfall

Check out this new music video featuring the full theme song for Skyfall, co-written and performed by Grammy winner Adele:

Skyfall opens October 26 in the UK and stateside on Nov. 9.

Source : ign[dot]com

Opinion: How Punk Rock's Past Inspires the Future of Indie Games

As the controversy between Fez creator Phil Fish and Microsoft began to unfold, I couldn’t help myself but think of a certain moment in rock music history. In 1976 England, the early punk rock band Sex Pistols signed with EMI records after a rise to stardom by way of audaciousness and controversy. In just a four short months, for reasons including a profanity-laden interview on national television and protests from the conservative right, the band was dropped from the label. And yet, they continued inspiring and intimidating an entire generation of music fans.

Why the quick music history lesson? Well, the similarities between where rock music was in 1976 and where games are today cannot be denied, and by studying those links, we can get a good idea of the future of indie games.

In the mid-70s, the biggest acts in the world tended towards the theatrical and over-produced. This was the era of KISS, Queen, and The Eagles. Today, their gaming equivalents are Call of Duty, Gears of War, and Halo. All are great in their own rights, but they’re undeniably big-budget and corporate.

The Sex Pistols’ rejection of their major label masters was a defining moment in music, proving that the artist could thrive without corporate help. Even if done unintentionally, their actions not only made the world aware of punk rock, they also became anti-corporate figures.

Fez creator Phil Fish is cut from much of the same cloth. He willingly signed a contract with a corporate entity to put out his work (Microsoft, for those not following), and railed against that company when he believed them to be treating him unfairly. If the history of music has anything to say about the maturation of the medium, he’ll be remembered as a jerk who somehow managed to become an anti-corporate symbol.

Sure, there have been important indie developers before Fish. Just as the Sex Pistols were predated by Patti Smith, Television, and Iggy Pop, Fish was beaten to the intellectual indie punch by folks like Jonathan Blow (Braid), Edmund McMillen (Super Meat Boy), and Markus “Notch” Persson (Minecraft). But, just as the proto-punk bands never reached national attention, none of these indie devs clashed so publically with a huge company like Microsoft.

So where do we go from here? If the second wave of punk rock during the early ‘80s is any indication, it’ll be in a more do-it-yourself direction. When the Clash, the Ramones, and their contemporaries began to fade into history, bands like Minor Threat, Black Flag, and the Dead Kennedys took the underground, independent mindset that those bands laid out and took them to the extreme. They pressed their own records, created their own labels, and booked their own tours. They weren’t dependent on major labels to get their music out there, and as such weren’t beholden to appease any corporate ideologies.

And now, independent games are poised to do the same thing. Hell, they’re in an even better position. With the advent of the Internet, it’s much easier to get your work to the general public, and because gaming is a digital art form, the costs of putting something out there aren’t too crazy. Taking things underground allows for more creativity, more edge, and more advancement.

But there’s a problem. Punk rock during the early 80s thrived because of communities in various cities. When a band like the relatively obscure 7 Seconds went on tour, they would be supported by folks who knew what the music was about, and were willing to help. There was a community there.

Gaming doesn’t really have an equivalent. Game jams almost serve this purpose, but they’re more for creators than fans. For a real community to form, we’re going to have to figure out a way to break down the barriers between the audience and the creators. In punk rock, that took the form of the hardcore singer handing the mic to the audience, essentially saying that they’re just as important as the people on stage.

With the advent of tools that allow the common folk to create games with little to no prior knowledge, gaming is again following the DIY music model. Our three-chord punk rock song is the game made with GameMaker, RPG Maker, or Unity. The tools to make games are becoming more and more readily available, and with them come the future of indie games.

Expect gaming’s Dischord Records to appear. Expect our Fugazi. Expect ideologues to come along, making art that would never succeed under the umbrella of traditional game distribution. Really, in people like Jason Rohrer or Anna Anthropy, they’re already here. Just expect them in greater numbers. The barriers between the artist and the audience are beginning to break down, and we’re lucky enough to see it happen.

Taylor Cocke is a Bay Area-based freelance games writer who talks way too much about music, coffee, and Kids in the Hall.Follow him on Twitter.

Source : ign[dot]com