Songs of the soul

live your life - like a wild beast

fly - like a bird

set no boundaries - to confine you

swell - like an ocean

always - and forever

-Casey Rankin

The year was 2009

I first heard of one of Mr Rankins songs not long after I had broken up with a girl I had been dating for three years. We've all been through the pain of a break up and I of course was going through the motions that one would undoubtedly go through when dealing with the fact that the person you were with no longer wanted to be with you-well whatever.

Anyways while dealing with the pain I threw myself at my beloved hobby,gaming, at this point in the story I should tell you, dear reader, I have a hobby WITHIN,if that makes any sense to you dear reader. Well my hobby within a hobby is collecting and playing foreign video-game titles, most notably import titles from Japan.

This is acquired taste mind you, since I only know very little Japanese the games I get tend to be of the action variety (usually featuring giant robots) games that usually require very little if any knowledge of the language to play but every once in awhile I'll dabble in text having strategy games.

Anyways I was playing one of these titles which was based off the plot of throwing several different characters from various Japanese animation. Sort of...having some of the most famous cartoon characters join forces to face a common enemy. Anyways while playing this game I heard a theme song playing, the song,of course was in Japanese but through the internet I found out the name of the singer,Casey Rankin, A singer who was born in america and lived most of his life in Japan. Anyway-His song "Sky Hurricane" despite being in a complete alien language to me was uplifting and for a bit raised my beaten and battered spirits.


(The Song in question)
Anyways It seemed that Mr. Rankin lead an interesting life- he started his musical career right here in the stats, but because of his wife at the time (who was worried that he would go down the same path as his drug using friends) he moved away to Japan-I mean you can find his bio online-The man literally just left his house and home, called his friends and was like "I'm leaving town, the house is unlocked and the keys for the car are in the ignition" and he just left! just like that!

Granted to most sensible people this seems absurd "you're living a reasonably comfortable life, why leave it just like that?" This is why I love Casey he didn't care for worldly things in the way that some people do, he didn't cling to them he just upped and left for Japan for his wife and son. Now you're probably asking yourself "what does this have to do with video-games?" to be honest, not a whole lot-

The year I heard that song and decided to research and discover more about Casey, also ended up being the same year that the man passed away from cancer. It's just the fact that hearing a small riff of an artists music in a game which happened to cheer me up, prompted me to try and find out more about the artist and the life he lead while he was alive.

The man Himself!

Starting up your own website is tough..but your own magazine?! What may seem to daunting to some is actually fun for some of us-I interview Keith Lutener, owner and writer of "NesBit" I UK based magazine that focuses on Nintendo's first Home Console-The Nintendo Entertainment System or lovingly known as the "Nes"

Your Age and nationality, where you were born

I’m 31 (going on 60!) and was born in the UK.

A little about yourself growing up, what interested you and what captured your interests

I was just an ordinary kid growing up who happened to receive a Commodore 16 on his 4^th birthday, pretty much the start of my gaming career. Moving on to the Spectrum and consoles in later year I’ve been addicted to gaming ever since.

What drove you to become so invested in the NES?

For several years I had been a collector of pretty much everything retro. Consoles and games lining cupboards lots of which weren’t getting any use, every so often I’d have the urge to have a clear out. But each time it came to choose a system to keep I could never quite get rid of the NES.

I think it’s a strong mix of nostalgia and something I could never get hold of as a kid. Everyone else was crazy for the NES back then and I ended up with a Sega Master System, so a lot of calling round “friends” houses playing their NES.

Where did you get the idea to start NES-Bit-the site-and what finally drove you to go ahead and make an actual magazine?

For about 2 years I ran a fairly popular YouTube channel posting reviews and commentaries on random retro games. As time went on I started to wonder if there was anything else I could do and an idea for my own written site was born. Next thing I know I was trying to pick a system and realised just how little attention the NES received in the UK, hardly anything online dedicated to it. So NES-Bit was born.

Did the magazine meet your expectations? Did it turn out the way you wanted in the end?

It surpassed my expectations if I’m honest; I was actually surprised how popular it has been. The requests for printed copies have been almost overwhelming. The main aim was to bring more people to the site and I’d had a few offers of donations to keep the site running. Rather than put up a begging section I thought a good way would be to offer something extra for those who wanted to contribute.

From the start I was hoping for even more pages but sadly the world of printing is a bit of a mine field and we had to trim the content in places. This means we have more articles to be done for Issue 2.

What are your future plans for the Magazine and Nes-Bit.com?

The biggest is to get Issue 2 finished and well underway.

Eventually I’d like to complete all of the database section for the site (all the game releases and hardware/accessories) and thanks to a recent trip to a retro trader we had the biggest update ever. Hundreds of photo’s of games and gear, pretty much filled 2 thirds of the database. I’m forever working on it these days and recently uploaded over a 100 game play videos and screenshots for every game ever released. It’s funny looking at it all just how much effort

Narrative-A short excerpt from a Sc-fi short Story I'm working on.

It was a frighteningly cold night, the winds had picked up and were kicking early winter snow drifts across the barren lands,The nuclear winter that the earth had been under for the past 3 years had yet to show any signs of clearing, despite the new tech the scientists had promise would take care of the global problem.

It had been three years too long for Robin skyes, three years of flying recon over what was left of northeast California, desolate cities stretched out under her Xarma 7 PRFS (Powered Recon Flight Suit) the biting cold was staved off by her X7PRFS’s internal heating system. Though her body felt warm her heart remained as cold as the land she flew over.

“Three years, Three Goddamned years” Robin thought to herself, three years since THEY appeared over earth, Three years since they launched their campaign against her home planet. In nearly seven days, the creatures known as the Tyuifon(tie-fon) had swiftly launched an all out offensive on every continent on earth, the attacks had come so fast and so swift the Tyuifon had effectively suppressed any sort of counterattack that could be mounted against them.

No demands were made, no threats, nothing, just complete destruction and if that wasn’t enough there was one simple transmission from the unexpected arrivals. One and it had read simple this “Suffer” …Suffer… not even five hours after this transmission was received worldwide all satellites on earth picked up the presence of “Apothis 1919” an asteroid that was thought to be of a “Collision Class ” back in the early part of the last century was now on a direct course with the planet earth.

What was worse the Tyuifon had attached “something” to Apothis, causing it to lurch its way from the outer solar system towards earth-It was unstoppable, crashing it’s way through the planet’s atmosphere and landing in the middle of Europe, gouging out an area of land comparable in size to the state of Pennsylvania. The aftermath was exactly what scientist had forecasted, a giant cloud of ash and dust spread across the Atlantic and eventually engulfed the whole world, the storms,Tsunami’s and weather changes were all by earth scientist who had theorized what an asteroid impact would do to the earth forseen.

What the scientists did not for see was the incumbent. “Incumbent” Robin, despite the heating of her power suit, shivered at the thought. Incumbent was at one point used to describe a politician in power. Now it was the designated code name for a massive creature that crawled out of the crater made by Apothis 1919. At first its presence was not apparent. Much of the worlds organizations were too busy dealing with the disaster.

It wasn’t until reports of a giant creature started making it’s way through the channels did the politico’s took the time to investigate. What they found truly astonishing. A creature, which would best comparable to tick was slowly making it’s way east bound trough Europe. What military might that could be mustered at the time to meet the beast was easily swept aside by the incumbent, It was almost unstoppable, Not only was the creature of immense size-it carried hundreds of smaller creatures on it’s body,which helped in the creatures defense.The devastation wrought by the behemoth was unfathomably since it’s “arrival” thousands had been killed and millions more have had to relocate

A Gaming How To-How to get DECENT at Fighting games

Before I get started I want to say just one thing-Practice-Before there was easy access to the internet,gaming websites,gaming blogs, Fighting game enthusiasts used to get together at arcades and watch top fighting game players take on the CPU or other skilled opponents thus learning how to read each others moves and come up with advanced strategies to counter those moves.
Since then games have moved from the arcades to home consoles and from there to the online arena where millions of players can connect from all around and face each other in online duels. Though the tech has changed and the games are now much varied the same simple rule from above still sits. Practice makes you different from Scrubs and can only help you in the long run....

and with that said,Let's start this How To-

How to get DECENT at Fighting Games

Now don't be scared because I said "Decent" and not "Great" to become Decent at a fighter is an accomplishment in and of itself. To get decent one must be at least fairly familiar with their chosen games controls, which brings me to the first part of this post.

1. Chose a fighting game that's right for you!

Mortal Kombat does not play anything like Street Fighter and Tekken and Soul Calibur may 3D fighters but their play mechanics are totally different from one another. Choosing the right game is essential since you're going to be playing this game alot and you should find your chosen game to be ENJOYABLE and not aggravating. The only way to do this is to play as many fighting games as you can-Don't Like Virtua Fighter? Give Dead or Alive a shot! Dont like the flashiness of BlazBlue? There's Always Guilty Gear!

2. Know Thy Self

Every person is different when it comes to fighting games, some people are aggressive, others may play conservatively and a select group may toggle in between and mix and match depending on the given situation. This all ties into the Character you have chosen and how much of that characters moveset and abilities you've memorized. Knowing how your chosen character works is the difference between skilled maneuvers and perfectly timed and executed inputs to just simply flailing about and mashing the buttons on the controller. Therefore memorizing and understanding button inputs and initiating specific attacks can only be a great boon to you-Example Ryu's signature "Fireball" or "Hadouken" is executed by inputting -Down,right,Fierce punch-



Of course the inputs for more damaging attacks can become more complex so it's imperative that you start from simpler inputs and work your way up to more complex ones as you master them.

3. Know Thy Enemy

After mastering your favorite characters it always helps to know how they'll lay against other characters in your game of choice. Now I'm not saying you should memorize every character in the game but it's best to be able to at least gauge an opponents character and know what they can and can't do to you in any given situation. Though this one tactic only doesn't guarantee your victory, remember that one saying from G.I. Joe? "And Knowing is Half the battle?" Well the same rings true in fighting games if you're able to use the information that you have and apply it to your given situation you're giving yourself a leg up,especially if the other person/persons your facing is not as familiar with your character.Of course if you're facing another person on the same footing you're in for a more spectacular fight.


4. Get out there and Face the world!

The only way to get better (outside of constant practice) is to face other players!you can only fight the CPU for so long and you'll end up reaching a skill ceiling. It maybe daunting at first and of course you'll lose a great deal of your first matches but this brings us to the final part of this how to list-Persistance- It will get frustrating,trust me, to lose over and over and not seem to catch a break-but the time will come when you start winning your matches and you'll realize that you're getting BETTER and that realiztion will drive you to become better at your game. All of the great tournament fighters had their humble beginnings and sometimes some fighting games are harder to get into than others but with practice and guides like these? you'll do just fine..

Go Get Em Kid...

Hold on to your butts-Because Dark Souls will make you kiss yours.

Back in my day, beating a difficult game was like having a badge of honor, this mind you was back in the day of PRINTED magazines(yes those were very common) and basically depending on word of mouth from billy in the lunchroom cafeteria the landscape of gaming has changed into a world of in-game tutorials,online faqs and of course easy mode.

This day and age can be very disparaging to the gamers of yesteryear, so when DemonSouls was released for owners of Playstation 3's the hardcore crowd rejoiced,This was a game where there was no hand holding, A game that would not only whoop your ass time and time again but also get even more difficult every-time you DIED. Instead of the random mindless shooting and run-gunning of most titles.

Demon Souls forced the player to have to slow down and think about his/her next move and if they didn't? humph much gnashing of teeth would commence. Needless to say Demon Souls was a sleeper hit and became much loved within the hardcore of the gamer community.That image of the forlorn looking fellow? yea that is the face of an uninitiated gamer who thought they could tackle Demon Souls har har.

Then,in 2011, Dark Souls happened, See that link to wikipedia? yea that article doesn't do the game any justice, This game,THIS GAME-Will make you want to kick over your home console,rip out the disk and snap the evil sucker in half. Usually when a sequel is released for a game the developers usually take into account that there may be some new players who have never played the original title and in the case of the Original Demon Souls being a Playstation 3 exclusive and the new Dark Souls being available for both the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.

You would think that there would be some option for the game difficulty to be adjusted for the newer players...NOPE NOT AT ALL, in fact the difficult of Dark Souls Exceeds that of it's predecessor. Now I've rambled on about how hard this game is-I can't stress it enough, in fact the following video will give you just a TASTE of the ridiculousness that is Dark Souls




Please PLEASE tell me you didn't think any of that was ridiculous?Yes you did, now imagine being that player? yea, feel the anger flow through you. But let me remind you, this game is loved by many, the joy of Dark Souls is that,despite it's difficulty it CAN be beaten, you just have to know the rules and avoid being over zealous. In fact several Japanese players have sped right through Dark Souls In Under An Hour-Like the last video this one will have your Jaw Dropping to the floor.



That's right a speed run..on this goddamn game...Dark Souls is formulaic,but it can be beaten at it's own game (So to speak) It's not by any means impossible but it will test the limits of your patience as a gamer..and if you're not one for head scratching,be warned this make will make you tear your hair our by the roots!

Star Fox-A review

"When you have Animals Staring you down on the box cover you know it's time to get down"



Star Fox-
I remember being a kid back in the early 90's MTV still played music,Clinton was in office and all was right with the world. I also remember the release of everyone's favorite space shooter, Star Fox.

Now the original Star Fox was a technical achievement of epic proportions- I mean geez it fielded one of the first 3D graphics accelerator available to consumers at the time. That Story of Star Fox is of the typical space action shooter fare-Evil genius wants to take over the lylat syste, Team of Anthropomorphic animals who are part of an elite star fighter squadron known as Star Fox . Now Don't let the part about animals flying Spaceships throw you off-They game, at the time was an excellent example of a challenging 3D shoot em up that worked well.

-------You're our Only HOPE for our WORLD--------

Being a kid and playing Star Fox for the first time..was basically going to see Avatar at Imax(Ok maybe I'm exaggerating) but boy before the advent of the graphical quality of today's current games Star Fox was where it's at. The game literally had you zooming through cities, Barreling through asteroids and hurtling over deserts. Not only were the graphics top notch but the soundtrack helped to get my childhood blood pumping.



However, This game hasn't aged too well, but for it's time it was a joyride for any kid who wanted to fly through space blasting starfighters and giant robots...

Top 5 revolutionary videogames

1. The Legend of Zelda -Created by the legendary Father of mario,Shigeru miyamoto, The Legend of Zelda can be touted as one of the most revolutionary videogames of all times. It was THE first title to allow the player to openly explore their surroundings,everything from caves to dungeons to tricky forests. The Legend of Zelda was the first of its kind to let the player really get into the games world.





2. Mario Bro's 3 -Of course I could have gone with the original Mario Bro's, but what that one did MB3 took it further, with a large colorful map,more powerups and lots of hidden secrets for the player to uncover, Mario Bro's 3 was one hell of a fun game if not difficult.





3. Gears of War -Originally released for the Xbox360,Gears of war was the first to bring about several novel innovations to 3rd person shooters, such as the extensive use of cover,using dodge rolls, and sticking grenades to your opposition. Released in 2006 many games since then have implented some of the ideas present of Gears of War





4. DOOM- The great granddaddy of all modern first person shooters, Doom is the one that started the wests craze for first person craze. If you grew up in the 90's you most likely played this game either at home or at a friends or if you had some moolah, you threw land parties and took on your friends.





5. Final Fantasy-This one is a tough choice, it was either Final Fantasy or the ever present Dragon Quest-But the title goes to Final Fantasy, FF popularized The Japanese Role Playing Game through much of the late 80's through much of the 90's and beyond. Many Conventions found in modern RPG's can be traced back to Final Fantasy in some way or form.