Let me preface this by saying that I am a huge fan of music games as well as Rhythm Heaven for the Nintendo DS. That being said, it is no surprise that I was very anxious to play Nintendo's latest entry in the Rhythm Heaven series Rhythm Heaven Fever for the Nintendo Wii. So is this game a sharp masterpiece or does it fall flat?

I've had the PS Vita since it launched back in late February. After a month and a half of games, demos, videos, group chatting, and pretty much everything else, I feel confident enough that I could give a review on it.

Happy 20th birthday, Sonic! It's been 20 years since the speedy mammal ran for the first time on the Sega Genesis. Since Sonic hasn't exactly been considered great in the past few years, the developers decided to do something special. Take us back in time! (...to another world?)

The chubbier, shorter blue hedgehog from the days of yore has returned thanks to a creature called the Time Eater. The story isn't the greatest thing, but when it comes to Sonic the Hedgehog games, the story never is.

Anyway, thanks to the strange creature, we get to play levels as if they were in 2D (with 3D graphics, of course). The visuals are amazing with some parts that absolutely took my breath away. There are 9 different levels with 2 acts, one with classic Sonic, as mentioned earlier, and the other with modern Sonic with levels laid out similar to his newer games, especially Sonic Colors. The level remixes (including music remixes to match the era), were fantastically done. Aside from some visual issues which lead to a few cheap deaths, these levels were some of the best ones I've played in a really long time.

Five years ago, Asian Kung-fu Generation put forth an album called Fanclub and it remains to date my favorite album. I only have a few albums in my possession that I'm able to listen from the first note all the way to the last without skipping a song in between, the others being AC/DC's Back in Black and Green Day's American Idiot, but since leetNEET is all about the Japanophilia, I shall focus on that.

Based in Yokohama, Asian Kung-fu Generation made their mark on Japanese anime by creating the second opening of Naruto ("Haruka Kanata") before branching off in other popular series such as Full Metal Alchemist ("Rewrite") and Bleach ("After Dark"), even though they were on the playlists of local rock stations with their first single "Konayuki". Asian Kung-fu Generation, shortened to AKFG, or Ajikan by Japanese fans, has that balance with catchy rock riffs and mellow vocals from lead singer Masafumi Gotou that polishes up the album when it needs to. And Fanclub was made for the fans, specifically with the fans of any kind of rock in mind, hence the album title.

When it comes to the overall sound of the album, it's very nostalgic looking back, as I believe it was the transition between the upstarting band's sound of rough, power-driven rock exemplified in "Haruka Kanata" and how Ajikan sounds now; Fanclub could be the representation of its adolescence. But at the time, AKFG toned down that rawness from their previous two albums with Fanclub, yet the album still holds little references here and there. For example, "World Apart", the second single, the vocals were done not by Gotou, but guitarist Kensuke Kita, implying a style shift in how AKFG approached songwriting and arrangement. Not only were the usual song styles there, but there was more of a variety present, such as "Blackout" and "Gekkou", and the way the songs were laid out on the album made it seem as it had a central musical theme. I remember the first time I had the album on a mixed CD and went from start to finish; it was very ambient and yet attention-grabbing with the arrangement. The only constant throughout the album was Gotou's vocals, this soothing voice which feels like being on the edge of a precipice would totally snap back with its bite. And because Fanclub is the third full album, AKFG at that point had a solid musical style foundation to lean upon, and they continue to branch out yet maintaining their power rock roots. Not an easy feat to pull off, in appeasing fan expectations and balancing band growth and maturity.

With eleven songs in the album, it's less than one hour in length, but I do prefer quality over quantity. I can absolutely state I love each song and am able to listen to all of them (albeit some songs I repeat more than others), especially compared to most new albums out where I like just one or two songs that happened to be radio singles. Fanclub is the sort of album that focuses on the album, not having eleven songs that all compete to become radio singles. It's not thematically nor musically disjointed since AKFG typically only plays with guitars, drums, vocals, and occasionally some piano. In turn, the album also has a minimalistic aesthetic to it, just enough to keep the listener going, yet not too much to reduce it into mindless noise.

And with that I leave you readers with a potential album to grow into and to enjoy. It's definitely one of those works that you don't have to worry about the language barrier to enjoy. Fanclub is personally one of my top three albums, and to stick a rating onto it now probably wouldn't make sense. However, I will leave the readers with this: Fanclub made it to the #3 position on the Oricon charts, #7 on the World Chart, and "World Apart" was the #1 single for 2006 on the Oricon charts.

Sources: Wikipedia | Incomplete Playlist via Youtube

One more note: It has been a great journey for me and hopefully readers who have enjoyed reading my articles. Unfortunately I have decided that the journey's done for now and ended with probably the most touching and personal article I've written for leetNEET. Thank you all, and I hope readers will continue to enjoy the site!

—Phoeny

If you have some extra time on your hands and don’t mind watching old-detective styled anime, give Un-Go a try. It’s your average mystery series that focuses on the problematic issues of society in general. It starts off with the question of “Who killed the Butler,” although it’s really “Who killed the Master” at this point.

Beware the most awkward animation you will ever see lies ahead.

Plot - 2/5

Un-Go is your typical detective anime that starts off with your average murder, judging from the first few episodes. If anything, it even pales in comparison to Detective Conan and Majin Tantei Nogami Neuro. The only thing that differentiates Un-Go from the other anime is that it bluntly exposes corruption from the social aspect. The cases, even from the audience’s point of view, were simple to solve just by looking at the character designs. Unfortunately, there’s not much to the plot as of yet and the story's pace is excruciatingly slow. As a watcher, there’s no connection between myself and the tasteless characters or even the plot; I am just watching events unfold. But I’ll remain optimistic about this show and hope that, at least by the fifth episode, there will be a hint of story development due to the constant mention of a previous war. If all goes well, the mysteries of all the episodes would tie in together. At least, there’s a political and supernatural theme?

Catherine is the latest game from Atlus, and is by far their most original and ambitious project since Persona 3. It's a story driven puzzle game, if you can imagine that, but it contains so much of the charm Atlus is known for, that fans will feel right at home from the start. The game tells the story of Vincent Brooks, a simple man who has a job, a girlfriend, and a bunch of friends to go drinking with. His girlfriend begins to question whether their relationship is moving forward, implying she wishes to be married. While all of this is happening, Vincent meets a girl at the bar, and suddenly wakes up in bed with her the next morning. On top of his new burden, rumors are floating around about young men who wake up mysteriously dead. Vincent begins having nightmares about climbing complex walls of blocks, occasionally running away from morbid creatures. While it may strike you as a strange plot for a video game, it's extremely well written, well paced, and it leaves you caring about the characters from the start, despite the game being a fraction of the length of the brand's other games.

The gameplay in Catherine is split into two portions. The game is split up into days, similar to the Persona series, and each day includes a different series of events, fleshed out through cutscenes both animated, and in-game. After the cutscenes end, usually at the end of the day, Vincent is at the Stray Sheep bar, drinking with his buddies. This is the first part of the gameplay. Vincent is able to talk to his friends, as well as strangers who come to the bar almost every night. They come at different times, so talking to some may mean missing the conversations of others. Each character in the bar has their own story, and you can only learn about it if you speak to them often. Vincent also receives text messages while at the bar, and the player can respond to them using different dialogue options.

Many of the dialogue options in Catherine lead to a change in Vincent's morality meter, which ultimately decides the ending you will receive. The second portion of gameplay involves Vincent's dreams, where the puzzles take place. Vincent must climb a series of puzzles every night, usually ending in one that involves running away from a boss. The gameplay here can get extremely difficult on the normal and hard difficulties. The normal difficulty, however, allows you to undo your actions, albeit limited to about 9 times per section. In these portions, the player has to push and pull blocks to form pathways up to the top of each level. The blocks defy gravity and connect at their edges, and there are some special blocks like ice blocks, bomb blocks, and spike traps. Vincent can only climb up one block unless he is augmented by special items. He can also hang from blocks, which allows him to travel around the puzzles. These portions are really well designed, and in the later stages can be extremely frustrating, but satisfying to finish.

There are a few problems, however. You can't really see the back of the puzzle, which can be frustrating since Vincent's controls reverse when he's on the other side. Also, checkpoints make the game a bit easier, as you can respawn there when you retry, but in one case in a later boss level, I reached the checkpoint as the blocks under me were about to fall, leaving me forced to restart the level. Another thing, which really isn't a problem but would have saved a lot of frustration (especially in hard mode) is that the game doesn't tell you if you're out of possible moves. But like I said, this isn't exactly a problem, but more so a design decision. Also, some of the morality meter questions are unclear, and neither of the options seem to be good or bad, but there's usually another opportunity to get your moral points back.

The game was developed by the Persona team at Atlus, so it retains much of the same art style and morbid themes that the Persona series is famous for. This was an excellent choice by them, since that style fits Catherine so conveniently. The music was done by Persona composer Shoji Meguro, and is a crazy mix between pop, jazz, hip hop, and classical. Amongst the original tracks, there are rearrangements of classic classical scores, from composers, such as Gustav Holst, and Frederic Chopin. It's a very nice soundtrack. Overall, the presentation is unmatched by most games on the market today.

Catherine feels like it was made with a lot of love. The presentation is excellent, the gameplay is very original, and the plot is genuinely interesting. Despite the handful of problems it has, it's a must have game for anyone, and an experience you won't soon forget.

Overall Score: 8.5/10

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is an important game for many gamers. Being the first game in the already popular series to include 3D graphics, the game is noted for being one of the best transitions from 2D to 3D. For perfecting the Zelda formula in a new dimension, and being one of the biggest games made during its time, it's often revered as the greatest, or one of the greatest games of all time. That's why many fans were (and perhaps, still are) skeptical when Nintendo announced they would be releasing it for the 3DS, complete with new graphics and extras. After playing it since its release date, I can say one thing: don't be.

Sekai-Ichi Hatsukoi is a romance anime (airing originally on April 8, 2011) between two individuals working in the exciting world of shoujo manga publishing. The anime centers on characters Onodera Ritsu and Masamune Takano.

Onodera Ritsu resigns from his father’s publishing company due to snide comments from his coworkers, who attribute his success due to nepotism rather than Ritsu’s own hard work. Ritsu leaves his father’s company to create his own success. He applies to work as a literature publisher, but winds up being stuck as a Shoujo manga publisher. As he copes with the difficulties of his new job, Ritsu encounters Masamune Takano who is the head of the Shoujo Manga Publishing group known as the Emerald Department.

Apparently all of the Shoujo Manga Publishers are male. Go figure! Takano convinces Ritsu to stay in Shoujo publishing by calling him “useless,” effectively manipulating his pride. However, Takano has ulterior motives. Takano was Ritsu’s childhood crush and they had a love affair. Due to a misunderstanding, they broke it off and never spoke to each other again. Since then Ritsu has become embittered and forces himself to never accept love into his heart. Takano vows to Ritsu that he will get Ritsu to fall in love with him again. The anime focuses around the Shoujo Manga editor's department and their own individual love problem. There are several arcs containing various characters that are uniquely different from Ritsu and Takano.

Plot: The plot is deep, considering it is a shonen ai. It is interesting and the characters are distinctive and easy to connect with, but it’s also straightforward and doesn’t hide many things. Ritsu fits the stereotypical anime female archtype, always suspecting an ulterior motive and gets into hilarious hijinks as well as coming up with delusional fantasies that are quite entertaining.

Music/Voice acting: Both are aptly chosen and are well done and well represented. Although I do not know the voice actors individually, they represent their characters well. Ritsu’s voice actor is a bit whiny and nasally, fitting his immature personality, while deeper voice acting for Takano, which works for his cool, aloof personality. The opening and endings are both great songs and nice to listen to over and over again.

Graphically everything is clean and smooth. Characters have distinctive appearances and change their clothing. The graphics for the anime have a high production value, and were produced by Studio Deen. It’s how an anime ought to be.

The anime is vastly different from the manga. This anime is surprising, because it has a very strong plot like one you’d find in most shoujo romance. It isn’t a yaoi smut anime, with the dainty feminine men; like shoujo-esque interpretations of yaoi. There are conflicts, well fleshed out characters, and great voice acting. This original series is created by Shungiku Nakamura who is also accredited with creating famous Junjo Romantica Series.

It’s got great depth and is probably one of the better yaoi animes out there with a deeper plot than most in the genre. It really does fit the genre well and redefines it, giving it greater depth. The only critique I have about it are the really blatant shoujo style scenes that occur rarely in the anime.

I give this yaoi anime 4.8 out of 5. I recommend this series to individuals who like the romance genre, to fans of yaoi, and finally to individuals who just like a nice story with great animation.

Disclaimer: The anime is great to watch, however the Manga has really EXPLICIT images. Just a warning.

From left to right: Ruiko Saten, Mikoto Misaka, Shirai Kuroko, Kazari Uiharu

“Academy City is the best place to be – it’s where we can be ourselves. Things we can’t do by ourselves, we can do together with everyone." -Mikoto Misaka.

People encounter challenges everyday because of limitations, emotions, and expectations that are set against them. Having friends that will support one another through their struggles creates an empowering relationship, enabling a person to improve themselves from the bonds they share together. Toaru Kagaku no Railgun/とある科学の超電磁砲（レールガン） (“A Certain Scientific Railgun”) is a side story to A Certain Magical Index/Toaru Majutsu no Index. The anime revolves around four main heroines: Mikoto Misaka, Shirai Kuroko, Kazari Uiharu, and Ruiko Saten. Together they encounter challenges and problems in the technologically advanced city that they live in, called “Academy City”. Many people go to Academy City to become ability users, or espers as they call it, which leads to many conflicts in the city because of the powers people have. Through the conflicts that the four heroines overcome, their ties of friendship become stronger and they help each other get through each of their own problems. Viewers will be entertained by the interesting setting and concept of Academy City, along with relationships between the four girls. This setup creates a strong plot with action, sci-fi, and comedic elements. The anime aired from October 2^nd, 2009 to March 19^th, 2010. Spoilers will be little to none in this review, as people generally do not like spoilers after all!

(This review is spoiler-free.)

The first Portal was a brilliant game. Despite being short, it introduced a silent character that you cared about, a robotic antagonist that made you laugh and became one of the greatest video game characters of all time, introduced a brand new concept to the world of first person gaming, and blew everyone's minds by being somehow related to the world of Half-Life. Now Portal 2 is out, and there couldn't possibly be more hype to live up to, but it does. Oh, it does. Before I say anything else, I will say this. Portal 2 is a direct sequel to the first Portal. So please play that one first if you haven't. You won't understand 80% of the writing in the sequel if you don't play it.