Review: Get Equipped by The Megas

This is the first post in the review category. I may, at times, choose to review an album or movie, things like that. The first up is Get Equipped by The Megas.

There is a good chance you have not heard about them before. The Megas are a rock band themed around the video game series Mega Man. All of their songs are based around the music from the games and, for the most part, the songs relate to the character. Each song is sung as a different character from the games; since there really isn't much of a story to the games, this means that most of the songs are from the point of view of the bosses. In that case, the song itself is their stage music.

The Megas currently have two albums out, with a third on the way. Get Equipped is their debut album, and all of it's music is from Mega Man 2. (Their sophomore work, That's Megatainment, is about the first game.)

I like this band. This is one of my go-to albums when I want to listen to something for a while. Their music is energetic and (much like the colorfully killer robots that are the inspiration for the music) is neither too light or too dark, making for good listening no matter what you are feeling like at the time. This is music you can really dance too.

Sample songs:

Metal Dance /Metal Man

The Quick and the Blue / Quick Man

Song ranking (least to best*)

11. "Lamentations of a War Machone /End Song": Too slow paced for my liking. I know it's basically an epilogue, but I don't get why they didn't replace it with the boss theme (most renditions of the music from Mega Man 2 put that near the end).

10: "The Annihilation of Monsteropolis /Air Man": His personality is based upon a bad pun. Less technical than the riffs from some of their other songs, which I don't like as well, and a general bias against the song it's based off of (a common theme for this list).

9. "Blue Like You /Flash Man": Compared to the arrangements of some of the other songs, this one I don't like as well as the original. It may be the pace, or the lyrics,but I am kinda 'meh" about this song.
8. "Programmed to Fight /Crash Man": This is like, the third time that Crash Man is depicted as a heroic character (Bob & George and Crash & Bass being the other two). It seems to be a general fandom consensus. Anyway, pretty dark considering that, if these songs were the Justice League, Crash Man's stage music would be The Flash. It's energetic and lighthearted in the same way.

7. "Promise of Redemtion /Bubble Man": Consider yourself lucky you're not in last place, Bubble man. You are basically Evil Aquaman. It's mostly the part at the end that I like, and why it nabs the #7 spot.

6. "Carved From the Mighty Oak / Wood Man": Not terrible; it's just that I think that there are better songs on the album. It;s a testament to the overall strength of the record when you have to choose which songs you like the least. Blame it on me not liking Wood man's music all that much. (that and slight lyrical weakness at times).

5. "I Wanna Be the One / Dr. Wily 1-2": Many people consider Wily Castle 1 to be the best song in that game. The Megas somehow made it even more awesome than it was previously. Also, note how Mega man's attitude changes between this and 'Lamentation of a War Machine."

4. "The Quick and the Blue / Quick Man": This narrowly beats out the previous song mainly because of my love for the original song (despite never having played the game). Love the horns, breakdown, and the personality they gave Quick Man.

3. "Man on Fire / Heat Man": I'm guessing this song gets a lot of audience participation live. Considerably slower than the original piece, the beat remians steady and generally cool (no pun intended).

2. The Message from Doctor Light / Level Select": Great energy. Especially love the hamminess of the singer (my love of over-the-top singing will be further explored when I review The Protomen) and the breakdown.

1. "Metal Dance / Metal Man": this is what i love about The Megas: fast rocking, and energetic.

* "The Beginning of the End" and "A Fate Forged in Steel" are both little more than sound effects, and so are not included in this ranking.

The culture of Pop Culture

I know every song from Mega Man II by heart. I also know the names of all of the robot masters, and I have memorized the weaknesses of more than a few of them.

Which is weird, since I have never picked up that game in my life.

Rather, I have absorbed it through the Culture of Popular Culture. I am a fan of Mega Man. I have played Mega Man ZX Advent, Battle Networks 3, 5, & 6, Star Force 1 & 2, and I plan on someday picking up Mega Man Zero Anniversary Collection. I am, to a certain extent, a part of the Mega Man community. and with that, I have absorbed the history of the community; from Mega Man (released in 1984) to Mega Man 10 (released in 2009), and all of game released in between. I also am a big fan of two Mega Man themed rock bands, The Megas (who do covers of the music from the games and fleshes out the characters) and The Protomen (who turn two-line back stories in to epic rock operas).

I also enjoy Doctor Who. This is especially nice, as Doctor Who’s popularity is comparable to that of Star Wars, if the series was released with the frequency of Star Trek. It currently has been going on for 31 seasons(and 11 actors playing The Doctor) and counting, and still going strong. Not a week goes by that I do not hear something that somehow relates to Doctor Who.

Religion is not the unifying force that it once was. In a globalized world, everyone has a different religion. and with different religions come different icons; the stories and characters of one religion may be unheard of among people of other religions. Furthermore, people in the first world are simply less religious than they used to be.

But if I showed you a picture of Batman, you would probably recognize him.

And that is the Culture of Pop Culture: in a world where people are less religious than they used to be, people join fandoms to fulfill their need to feel like they belong. Sure many people probably won’t admit it, but rooting for the Cincinnati Bengals is no different than saying that Naruto Uzumaki could beat Harry Potter in a fight. Old reactions still apply as well: though toned down quite a bit, the rivalry between Team Jacob and Team Edward. is similar to the animosity between Catholics and Protestants. (likewise, the need to have someone to hate has been projected onto Twihards in general).
This is why I spend what is probably an unhealthy amount of time on Kotaku.com. It is why I am a Troper (have fun on that site all day!). It’s why I can recite the original Team Rocket Motto by heart. all of these are components of the fandoms I am a part of, and in the case of TV Tropes, it is a fandom I am in. I feel like I am a part of these communities. I fact some people become part of an activity for the community (I started researching Doctor Who so I could understand the references months before I actually started watching.) Part of the reason many people watch sports is to have something to do with their friends on the weekends, and talk to other people about come Monday Morning. For many people, their fandom community has replaced their religious community in their hearts. Ultimately, this explains the prevalence of pop culture references. They remind you that you are not alone in your interests.

The Culture of Pop culture is here; and it’s power level is over 9000.

Yu-Gi-Os! (yes, they really made those)

So yesterday I decided to actually use my closet for it's intended purpose (holding the clothes you wear) instead of what I've been doing (holding random things. I decomissioned Robots in Disguise Optimus Prime, who had lost his head some years ago. I also found the other half of Armada (iirc) Omega Supreme (who is also lacking a head). Added to my Alternators Smokescreen and Animated Soundwave, who are both missing an arm, then you would understand my suprise when I found RiD Wedge was still in one piece:

I also found something more unusual that that: An old box of Yu-Gi-Oh Cereal. It has an Expiration date of May 13, 2004, so it would be long stale by now if it wasn't empty. I'd date it to the point when Yu-Gi-Oh was actually mainstream among kids my age then. Here are the pics:

Note that the front says "Millenium Medallion shaped honey sweetened cereal. So basically, it's Cap'n Crunch in a triangle shape. Yami and Exodia are in stock poses, and there appear to be psuedo-heiroglyphs on the cereal bowl for some reason. Also, they couldn't take two seconds to find out what the pyramid around his neck is called? It's kinda important to the story.

The text on the side says (their allcaps, not mine):

Yugi's ALPHA THE MAGNET WARRIOR is a formidable force all in itself, but its true strength lies in combining with two of it's buddies...

The tough trio of ALPHA THE MAGNET WARRIOR, BETA THE MAGNET WARRIOR, AND GAMMA THE MAGNET WARRIOR pull their parts together to meld into the magnetic monster VALKYRION THE MAGNA WARRIOR! Armed with its stunning sword, VALKYRION slices through cadres of monsters!

When all five pieces of EXODIA are assembled, the unstoppable EXODIA THE FORBIDDEN ONE emerges and obliterates its way to victory!

If any one monster represents Yugi, it's DARK MAGICIAN! With magical staff in hand, he blows his opponents away with his Dark Magic Attack!

With the magic of POLYMERIZATION, GAIA THE FIERCE KNIGHT and CURSE OF DRAGON fuse together into the winged warrior GAIA THE DRAGON CHAMPION!

SUMMONED SKULL shocks its enemies into submission with a fearsome lightning strike!

Why they felt the need to end every sentence in an exclamation point I will never know. By the way, it says King of Games on top and all of the monsters are labeled.

The side has a puzzle. On top says "How Much do you know?" Under that is a blurb - "In the Duel Monsters, Yugi and Joey must battle each other. Fill in the blanks to answer the corresponding questions of Joey and Yugi's monster and you will discover the force that bonds these two duelists.

1. MYSTICAL ___
2. ____ MAGICIAN
3. TIME ______
4. RED ____ B. DRAGON
5. GAIA THE FIERCE ______
6. BABY ______
7. SUMMONED _____
8. ________ DRAGON
9. ______ GUARDIAN
10. GAIA THE DRAGON ________

Each line has assorted blank spaces. one square and a bunch of circles. The squares are set so that they are vertically aligned. The answers are:

elF

daRk

wIzard

Eyes

kNight

Dragon

Skull

tHousand

celtIc

chamPion

Yep, the answer is the generic friendship. By the way, the blurb has terrible grammar, making me wonder if it was written by the target audience.

Well that was nostalgic. At least now Yu-Gi-Oh cereal will not fade into obscurity! No need to thank me.