Beetle-Mania Week: Spiny and Lakitu

Lakitu isn’t a Beetle. He’s a turtle. That much is obvious. The Spinys he tosses however, I believe qualify. So here we are on the last day of Beetle-Mania Week.

Here’s what Lakitu looked like in SMB. He flies above you throwing Spinys to cover the landscape. He can be taken out with a fireball but his high position on the screen makes getting near him a difficult proposition. His behavior didn’t change much in the change over to SMB3 but when he’s such a perfect character why would he want to?

Spiny takes the danger of Buzzy to a new level. Fire can get to him but stomping can’t. When Lakitu is filling your screen with these bugs, you can quickly run out of room to live.

Beetle-Mania Week: Spike

Some people might claim that Spike isn’t strictly a beetle but they’re crazy. Look at that shell! Spike acts a lot like Buster except he has an infinite supply of projectiles. You see… he vomits up spike balls. That has got to hurt.

Beetle-Mania Week: Parabeetle

:The Parabeetle only appears in one level of the whole game. That sounds crazy but that is what makes SMB3 great. The fact that such a cool, unique and iconic character was just a throw-away idea is just amazing. In their one appearance you have to use the beetles at platforms to traverse an airborne course.

Music Review: Dan Black – Un

I’ve been a fan of London band “The Servant” since they first popped up on my radar as the music for the Sin City trailer. Great music. Too bad they broke up in 2007 without ever performing in the US. Since then I’ve been waiting patiently for their lead singer and creative mastermind, Dan Black, to release his first solo album. That’s why I feel like a fool for missing the release of his album “Un” when it came out in July. It still hasn’t seen a physical release in the US but it’s available for download and it is worth the listen.

The best parts of The Servant have survived the transition. The music is catchy, precisely produced and well written. The precision of the music is in direct conflict with my usual tastes. I prefer down and dirty garage rock to electronica any day, but Black’s fidelity doesn’t take away from his energy like so many other pop artists. In fact Dan Black’s meticulous debut album is one of the best releases I’ve heard in a long time.

Beetle-Mania Week: Buster Beetle

Buster Beetles are quick and dangerous. They can pick up and throw ice blocks. Thankfully their shells aren’t as strong as Buzzy Beetles as they only take one stomp to take out. They are quite dangerous is you let them get a hold on any ice blocks to deal with them as quickly as you can.