#the 1st chapter

Smokin' In The Boy's Room

Bucky Barnes is the hyperactive, wayward drummer of The Marvel Crüe, spiraling out of control in a haze of drugs, booze, and any warm body he can find. Billionaire band manager Tony Stark is beyond worried so calls on his old friend Steve Rogers for help.

Steve Rogers, owner of highly successful security firm SHIELD doesn't want to babysit Tony's out-of-control charge, but it'll make a change from the usual sand-covered, high-risk jobs he and his team are usually sent to. And anyway, his crew deserve a plush, easy job like this.

Besides, how bad can it be?

Chapter 1 - Starry Eyes

Tony asks Steve for his help and he reluctantly says yes. Bucky isn't happy about it at all, until he lays eyes on his new security detail.

Lets take a step backwards and revisit the humble beginnings of Nintendo.

No I don’t mean the baseball cards, I’m talkin bout dis thing right HEE-YUH.

MMMMMM SOOOOON. YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS.

The Nintendo Entertainment System. Your parents help you hook it up.

For some, this is where all their earliest memories lie. One thing I noticed early on with playing through the NES library again is how freakin hard it is (See Also: how much i suck at classic games.)

But we’re gonna dive into one of the first games on the system and it’s earliest chapter. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you...

Not gonna be a whole lot to say about this bad boy. Sure it started in arcades but it soon made it’s home on our consoles. Now we could repeatedly chase that damned monkey up a scaffolding in the comforts of our own home. 

Snuggled in our feetsie jammies, bowl of cap’n crunch, in front of our huge 8 inch concrete heavy television sets we set records like none other.

So how did those early stages go again?

The game is established right away. 

You’re the fellah in the red overalls.

He’s the fellah in the Monkey suit.

She’s the fellah that’s a womanly fellah.

Go get’em.

Giphy has the perfect images for just about anything. Here’s a bite-sized view of the first stage of Donkey Kong. Make it to the top, save the lady. Save the cheerleader, save the world.

There’s obstacles a’plenty in your path to damsel rescuing.Living flames, rolling barrels, Satan’s Springs.

Eventually you reach the top and save the day!

Unless you don’t.

The second stage adds the obstacles of elevator platforms that move either up or down. 

Jumping too soon can kill you.

Jumping too late can kill you.

Jumping for them at all can kill you.

You can not ride these elevators. This game hates you me.

These are Paula’s (The girl you’re rescuing) things. She absolutely refuses to be rescued without you collecting them. 

They’re designer label, cost more than your car, and she loves them more than you. 

They’re also placed in locations you’ll likely die on your first few times trying to get.

Oh, also, she won’t stay your girlfriend after this game.

In the third and final stage, your objective is to walk over spaces holding the platforms together. Getting all of them without dying...

Is how you win.

Now you and Paula can live happily ever af-

Donkey Kong is a fun little snippet of the Arcade version. It lacks some of the in between cut scenes, the challenge from DK to chase him up the tower...

As well as a few extra stages...

Good god...

The funny thing here is that the 1st Chapter of this game, is actually all the content available. Only three stages, and afterwards, you start them over for a higher score.

Game mechanics aren’t super difficult to understand, it’s something of a trial and error.I didn’t mention the super hammer, or how jumping over obstacles give you points...

The music as well isn’t the most ear pleasing either. This was before game OST’s were taken seriously.

Eventually Donkey Kong would branch out into his own, much more sophisticated series... but that’s another review for another time.

The first chapter of Donkey Kong for the NES gets a:

Circus Maximus- Alive

even though they are the same band, same genre, same lineup, etc, it's still like comparing apples and oranges

the difference between them is the purpose

Isolate is a near-constant stream of faceblowing, mindmelting, powerful music, designed for you to rock out to. My dad and I are still trying to determine whether or not it is a concept album, as most of the songs seem to have some story, and some even seem to go together (Arrival of Love and Zero; the most powerful song pairing I've heard)

I'm still trying to figure out the purpose of Nine (seeing as how it only released yesterday), but it's definitely leaning more towards proggy, not as much power. it even seems a little experimental in places (the beginning of Last Goodbye is a good example). the feelings and themes of the different songs are vastly different, ranging from a war(?) (Namaste), to finding yourself and becoming independent (Reach Within), to a loved one dying (Last Goodbye)

Nine is actually almost closer to The 1st Chapter, which is way proggier than Isolate. The 1st Chapter was about showing off what they can do, using different styles and influences (if you say that Silence From Angels Above is not influenced by Silent Lucidity, you are a fucking idiot), and telling some different stories (Glory of the Empire is loosely based on the story of Gladiator)

one thing that's interesting is that Nine didn't have an awesome instrumental track, like the other two albums do (Biosfear and Sane No More). I mean, it has Forging, but that doesn't really count.