The Video Game Mega Pack 4 (RELEASED!)

[MooMoo_Cowfreak]

Second set of reviews, link to my first set.

All the files in this pack are quality, so instead of reviewing each file I’m just going to note what I think are some of the standout files.

I play without mines because I’m a stubborn old curmudgeon. Sorry Tsuka, I did try a few files with mines on but I am just too set in my ways now.

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Dr. Wily Stage 1 (Scylaax) - Patterning was super fun
Castle Bleck (MTO): Really enjoyed this one, sick little bursts and patterns during holds
Factory Stage (cedo) - You’re killin it with these man

Fantastic Theater (Antronach) - What a jam. Your file was almost as fun to play as the song was to listen to

Fiercest Train (Nullifidian) - Well since there was already a Dream Theater file, it only makes sense that there should be a DJ Sharpnel file too! I enjoyed the majority of the file, felt it kinda lost steam towards the end though. Still a highlight for me

Final Boss (hi19hi19) - Fun 24th bursts and polyrhythms on the oni

Frontier Brain (Scylaax) - Now those are some inventive jumpstreams! Damn I really like this file, went back and played it on slower rates just to better understand and appreciate the patterns, great stuff

Gaze Out Over the Sea (Dj_Ossa) - Big fan of the oni, beautiful song, great sync, and fun one hand trill to cap it off

Gerudo Valley (Cedolad & MarioNintendo) - Fuck yea, I think that’s all I need to say

God's Garden (MacGravel) - Great song, fun, tasteful steps. I love me some PR.

Goon Twins (Nullifidian) - One of the crispiest feelings in SM is switching between 24ths, 16ths and 32nds, and this is chock full of that goodness. This file is brutal and maximalist in a good way

Ground Theme - Underground Theme (MarioNintendo) - You can definitely trust Nintendo to pump out the best remixes. Ground theme oni was godlike and crazy fun, polyrhythms like that just feel so good. Wasn’t so big on underground as a matter of personal taste, but ground made up for it tenfold

Hard Man's Theme (Tsuka) - I enjoyed the combination of jumpgluts and minijacks

High-Speed Beast (hi19hi19) - Great dump, will definitely be playing again. Very cool song, I think when it comes to dumps if I like the music I like the dump and this song works perfectly

Inner Goldfield (MarioNintendo) - Fresh file, hip bass

Jet Set Medley Future (MacGravel) - Good stuff, really enjoyed the bit with the holds on the right arrow. I want to make this into a pad file now!

Johnny C Bad (porkypink) - This file is chock full of goodness! Solos are definitely the highlight

Kara no Kyoukai (Gundam-Dude) - Props for stepping Melty Blood, Arcueid is my profile pic

Kingdom of Devotindos (MarioNintendo) - Well this little file grew on me. Deceptive sample music was tricky because this song was actually awesome

Krook's March (bmah) - I like surprise files like this one, the music didn’t really sound to me like it should offer much but you turned it into a great sim.

Life Flashing Before Ones Eyes (MarioNintendo) - A sound reminder that just straight 16th stream can be really hard too. Super fun to play those tempo changes. I am definitely interested in the game now!

Mag Mount (Choof) - Oh yea, this some good shit right here. Your files are kind of hit or miss for me, but when they I like them I usually like them a lot. Inventive patterns, insane polyrhythms that felt perfect despite the difficulty, and incredibly tasteful jacks. I actually remember you posting a little preview of this, glad it made it into the pack!

Magical Sound Shower (MarioNintendo) - I’m actually shocked that this was never in a previous VGMP. You did the song justice and then some, well deserving of the best sim award!

March of the One Legged Man (James May) - Chill as hell song, and really nice steps to accompany it. Very enjoyable!

Masquerade of Lies (Detrimentalist) - Top 5 file so far for sure. Great ass song and crispy jumpstream along with some nice solos makes for a winning formula! I hope the Dark Souls bg is a joke at the fact that this bg is lying about what game it’s representing, or something.

Minuit … Fond la Caisse (James May) - If there’s one step artist I can count on to choose unique music and step it in an entirely individual way it’s you. Love your style man

NameEntry - 2A03+N106 mix - (Nullifidian) - I love a file with good pacing, another top 5 file

Naval Battle (Tsuka) - Some hip rhythms in there, definitely enjoyed this file

Nemesis Ba'al Theme (XelNya) - Nifty song, very fun steps. I’ve said it before but I’m a sucker for minijacks, and this is one of those tempos that just feels sooooo good. Oni is an excellent challenge, love the ending there

Niagaro - Water Melody (Tsuka) - Big fan of the jumpgluts

[macgravel]

At the end of the day, it's all opinions. There's some harder stuff in here that would give you a challenge, and adding rates will help. There's also some easy and medium difficulty files for people not as good. 160 files, lots of variety. Download the pack and play the harder files, or just move on. No problems either way.

[MarioNintendo]

Originally Posted by Dinglesberry

I'm not saying it's a bad pack, it's a great pack, has good graphics, charts and stuff, I dunno tho lol I just wanna play some nice earthbound songs with bomb jumpstreams I suppose

Your expectations are just incoherent, though, that's my issue! I'm all for playing hard files and getting better (I stepped TAKE OFF and such for that). But if you're downloading this pack expecting bomb jumpstreams on earthbound songs, you're off to a bad start: Giygas Battle was already stepped in VGMP1!! What else in earthbound is there to step at this point? Blue cultists? oh wait... that too is in VGMP2! There's even the shopping theme, lol. It's all been done before!

This being a more balanced pack than nuclear yolomania and such, it's obvious the difficulty will cover a wider spectrum, i.e. not all files will make you skill boost. I get that. I also get that xmod is not for everyone. What baffles me is that you came in expecting to play what I assume are certain songs that were already stepped to death in previous packs of the same series... This pack is not only a gold mine for songs old and new that few people have heard yet are still worthy of your time, but it's also a gold mine for games other than stepmania to actually try out. I mean, it's fine if you don't like a chart, no biggie. However, I don't understand why you wouldn't read from which game each song comes from and not be interested in the least.

I don't know if your post was addressed to me or not, but yeah, just had to vent this, lol. There's a reason why I (almost) only sent charts to this pack in my whole stepping career: it's about video games! It's a way for me to show new games I love to people in what I think is an interesting and enticing way.

[tosh]

Not all of the way through the pack (a few files into the Fs), but I figured I would list some of the files I liked.

Baba Yetu (hi19hi19) - Wasn't sure what to expect going into this, but I actually enjoyed playing this long and easy file. gg

Battle! Deoxys (porkypink) - dude this is super fun.

Battle! Lugia (hi19hi19) - dude this is also super fun.

Dark Demon's Song (MarioNintendo) - didn't like the 64th [23] trill, but other than that this was awesome. I actually much prefer this over Magical Sound Shower, but apparently I'm alone in that sentiment. The BG changes were also a nice touch.

Escape of the Infidels [Heavy] (hi19 and mina) - The file is reminiscent of the emotions going through your head during that part of the game. Also, it's the only file I have played so far that is physically challenging.

Factory Stage (pedoload) - This was pretty solid. good job, cedolad.

[Dynam0]

I find stepmania has turned into this treadmill for most players (hell i'm guilty of only playing for scores 99% of the time) but this pack isn't glove's stepmania gym, it's about capturing the music in creative ways and designed for casual play.

Like if you actually enjoy playing stepmania for the music+rhythmic experience then you will get a lot of enjoyment from this pack.

I'm cursed to rage-quit if I flub a perfect on an 8th note or something though, kinda sad because it's fun to just mess around and not care about the score. I'll probably have a blast playing this after a shot or nine

[Fantasticone]

I actually find it pleasing to see a pack that isn't just difficult shit. It gives me stuff to just relax on and not break my shoulders.

[Dinglesberry]

Lol sorry marionintendo I didn't mean to insult ur pride n joy

I played some more songs, there's definitely some bomb files there, sorry for the miss understanding this pack DqAnK AF homie swag

I dunno though my fingers channel pleasure to my brain by trying to move at 400bpm

[moches]

it's definitely nice to have a pack that has some of the harder files but largely caters to intermediate players as well!! i think part of why the game's struggled to keep a following in the past is that there's by and large a gap where the beginner-friendly files should be (Stepping Stones is great to have around for this reason); i hope that people keep making files that serve players of all skill levels.

by the way, LOVED Swamp Stage and Gaze Out! Johnny C. Bad was also a ton of fun, my favorite porkypink file i've played to date. working through all these files is taking a good while but i'll keep going with updates

[tosh]

Originally Posted by Soul Evans

I'm really unsure if i should get this pack, i mean if the only strong thing is chart quality over difficulty then i don't know if there is a point for me to get this pack, i played tons and tons of quality charts in osu and they were not fun to me at all, stuff like the yolomania or NBSJ or hi19 packs were a hella fun tho, and they still had some quality but had it's way around to being ''hard'' (p.s, hard x semi quality =fun in my book) so yeah, maybe i can use this pack as a Judge 7 practice?

If you want files that are similar to what would be found in yolomania, nuclear blast, or hi19's packs then Crescent Island Boss Theme (probably on like 1.2 or something) and maybe Fiercest Train would be fun. I still have 110 more files to go through though, so that's obviously not an exhaustive list. Personally, I'm like you in that regard where I prefer mostly new harder charts. This pack and ODI3 don't appeal to me that much, but I understand I'm not really the target audience for a pack like this.

[hi19hi19]

Originally Posted by MooMoo_Cowfreak

High-Speed Beast (hi19hi19) - Great dump, will definitely be playing again. Very cool song, I think when it comes to dumps if I like the music I like the dump and this song works perfectly

I want to clarify, this file is definitely not a dump, it's actually layered pretty carefully and has justifications in the music 100%.
Sure it's as hard/harder than some dumpfiles but that doesn't make it a dump itself.

Glad you enjoyed tho!

Originally Posted by tosh

Baba Yetu (hi19hi19) - Wasn't sure what to expect going into this, but I actually enjoyed playing this long and easy file. gg

mission successful boys

[MooMoo_Cowfreak]

Yea, even when writing that I wasn't sure to call it a dump. But it felt appropriate because you go so hard the whole file. I've definitely played other dumps that were similarly musically justified, which is why I went with the term, but I totally get what you're saying.

[Dj_Ossa]

Originally Posted by MooMoo_Cowfreak

Second set of reviews, link to my first set.

All the files in this pack are quality, so instead of reviewing each file I’m just going to note what I think are some of the standout files.

I play without mines because I’m a stubborn old curmudgeon. Sorry Tsuka, I did try a few files with mines on but I am just too set in my ways now.

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Dr. Wily Stage 1 (Scylaax) - Patterning was super fun
Castle Bleck (MTO): Really enjoyed this one, sick little bursts and patterns during holds
Factory Stage (cedo) - You’re killin it with these man

Fantastic Theater (Antronach) - What a jam. Your file was almost as fun to play as the song was to listen to

Fiercest Train (Nullifidian) - Well since there was already a Dream Theater file, it only makes sense that there should be a DJ Sharpnel file too! I enjoyed the majority of the file, felt it kinda lost steam towards the end though. Still a highlight for me

Final Boss (hi19hi19) - Fun 24th bursts and polyrhythms on the oni

Frontier Brain (Scylaax) - Now those are some inventive jumpstreams! Damn I really like this file, went back and played it on slower rates just to better understand and appreciate the patterns, great stuff

Gaze Out Over the Sea (Dj_Ossa) - Big fan of the oni, beautiful song, great sync, and fun one hand trill to cap it off

Gerudo Valley (Cedolad & MarioNintendo) - Fuck yea, I think that’s all I need to say

God's Garden (MacGravel) - Great song, fun, tasteful steps. I love me some PR.

Goon Twins (Nullifidian) - One of the crispiest feelings in SM is switching between 24ths, 16ths and 32nds, and this is chock full of that goodness. This file is brutal and maximalist in a good way

Ground Theme - Underground Theme (MarioNintendo) - You can definitely trust Nintendo to pump out the best remixes. Ground theme oni was godlike and crazy fun, polyrhythms like that just feel so good. Wasn’t so big on underground as a matter of personal taste, but ground made up for it tenfold

Hard Man's Theme (Tsuka) - I enjoyed the combination of jumpgluts and minijacks

High-Speed Beast (hi19hi19) - Great dump, will definitely be playing again. Very cool song, I think when it comes to dumps if I like the music I like the dump and this song works perfectly

Inner Goldfield (MarioNintendo) - Fresh file, hip bass

Jet Set Medley Future (MacGravel) - Good stuff, really enjoyed the bit with the holds on the right arrow. I want to make this into a pad file now!

Johnny C Bad (porkypink) - This file is chock full of goodness! Solos are definitely the highlight

Kara no Kyoukai (Gundam-Dude) - Props for stepping Melty Blood, Arcueid is my profile pic

Kingdom of Devotindos (MarioNintendo) - Well this little file grew on me. Deceptive sample music was tricky because this song was actually awesome

Krook's March (bmah) - I like surprise files like this one, the music didn’t really sound to me like it should offer much but you turned it into a great sim.

Life Flashing Before Ones Eyes (MarioNintendo) - A sound reminder that just straight 16th stream can be really hard too. Super fun to play those tempo changes. I am definitely interested in the game now!

Mag Mount (Choof) - Oh yea, this some good shit right here. Your files are kind of hit or miss for me, but when they I like them I usually like them a lot. Inventive patterns, insane polyrhythms that felt perfect despite the difficulty, and incredibly tasteful jacks. I actually remember you posting a little preview of this, glad it made it into the pack!

Magical Sound Shower (MarioNintendo) - I’m actually shocked that this was never in a previous VGMP. You did the song justice and then some, well deserving of the best sim award!

March of the One Legged Man (James May) - Chill as hell song, and really nice steps to accompany it. Very enjoyable!

Masquerade of Lies (Detrimentalist) - Top 5 file so far for sure. Great ass song and crispy jumpstream along with some nice solos makes for a winning formula! I hope the Dark Souls bg is a joke at the fact that this bg is lying about what game it’s representing, or something.

Minuit … Fond la Caisse (James May) - If there’s one step artist I can count on to choose unique music and step it in an entirely individual way it’s you. Love your style man

NameEntry - 2A03+N106 mix - (Nullifidian) - I love a file with good pacing, another top 5 file

Naval Battle (Tsuka) - Some hip rhythms in there, definitely enjoyed this file

Nemesis Ba'al Theme (XelNya) - Nifty song, very fun steps. I’ve said it before but I’m a sucker for minijacks, and this is one of those tempos that just feels sooooo good. Oni is an excellent challenge, love the ending there

Niagaro - Water Melody (Tsuka) - Big fan of the jumpgluts

There's no oni in Gaze O_O Also you skipped Go! Go! Novice Alchemist or you just didn't care lol

[MooMoo_Cowfreak]

Hmm, not sure what made me mention Oni...

If I didn't review a file then it wasn't a standout for me, as I said at the top of my post.

[James May]

Originally Posted by MooMoo_Cowfreak

March of the One Legged Man (James May) - Chill as hell song, and really nice steps to accompany it. Very enjoyable!

Minuit … Fond la Caisse (James May) - If there’s one step artist I can count on to choose unique music and step it in an entirely individual way it’s you. Love your style man

I'm flattered ;3;

[Kalre]

https://www.twitch.tv/kalrej Playing some videogame manias for a while

[kommisar]

tu sais Félix, j'était tout excité lorsque j'ai vu à ma grande joie une chanson de mecha ritz; un véritable cadeau de MarioNintendo.

Mais pourquoi me faire souffrir ainsi?

[YoshL]

i'm going to probably stream some vgmp playthrough and offer up biased and jaded opinions as i go

( http://twitch.tv/djdai )

feel free to request songs to play beforehand, otherwise i'm going in reverse alphabetical order

[DigitalS3r4ph]

Originally Posted by kommisar

Those rhythms are the shit bro lmfao

[pedolad]

That's like 80% of Overdrive lol

[IamMe90]

some reviews:

v3X3CU73 (Tsuka & MacGravel) - oni - some minor syncing issues near the beginning sorta near the end. this would have been cool if it weren't for the repeating sets of 5 jacks which don't make any sense musically. also why did you step like 7 seconds of silence after the song ends... does not compute. 5/10 only because of the innovative approach to mines

A Beautiful Day For Golf (MarioNintendo) - oni - virtually perfect. really, that was awesome - a great little accurate and fun MA file. i will have to play again w/o the background tho as it completely distracted me. for now, 9/10

Abyss Stage (Phase 3) (cedo) - there's nothing wrong with this file, per se, but it is fairly uninteresting. i think you could have had some fun with freezes going to the flanged synth in the background to spice things up. 6/10

Airship Stage (cedo) - well, this one was a little more interesting than the last, at least. still, i think this would have been more interesting with some minifreezes on the cymbal hits, and a couple parts felt a bit underlayered. 7.25/10

Alien Lair (MarioNintendo) - i'm... i'm speechless. this file was superb. challenging, fun, well structured, precision accuracy.. holy shit. who is this guy? 10/10, hands down.

Alien's Lair (cerdo_claro) - i appreciate what you're trying to do here, a pretty stark contrast from the other alien's lair file. i think this is fairly successful as far as easier files go. I enjoyed it, although it was definitely not captivating like marionintendo's version. ill give it a 7.5/10

All Over the World (cerdo_claro) - enjoyable enough, although i think this could have been a little more fun and challenging if you had blended the triplets and sixteenths at some points. 7.5/10

Angel Island Zone (bmah) - oni - reaaaally not a fan of those trills. would have been an 8.75 if not for them, gonna say 8 though. fun jacks and i like the way you incorporated the jumps and hands to follow the guitar leads.

Armor-Plated Armadillo (Nullifidian) - very fun. not a fan of the angry guitar videogame tracks in general, but you did a good job. not sure the slow downs were warranted though. 8.4/10

Art Through Adversity (MacGravel) - oni - gay and terrible quit immediately
heavy - boring. something in the middle between the two levels of difficulty in this file would have been nice.

Ashley's Song [JP] (cedo) - fun file. however, were the 64th swing notes at the beginning correct? they felt good to me. if so, i have to wonder why you switched to 24ths when the percussion didn't actually change? is it because it would be harder to step it that way? 7.8/10

Baba Yetu (hi19hi19) - well.... you did what you could with what the song gave you. unfortunately, it didn't give you enough to make this interesting. i actually enjoyed the song itself, but its just not a really good choice for stepping. zzz/10

Balloon Fight Medley (MarioNintendo) - solid, but a bit underwhelming. also -.1 points for blue arrow syndrome. could have utilized hands more. 7.8/10

Battle (moches) - great file! really enjoyable. i love your use of freezes - especially on the jumps where they're slightly tapered - i can't put my finger on why it fits so well but it does. 8.5/10

Battle! Deoxys (porkypink) - awesome file! very, very fun, good MA challenge, fuck yeah. 9/10

Battle! Ho-oh (hi19hi19) - wow, you guys are killing it with these pokemon files. this one really brings me back, i always loved this theme. very enjoyable, the only thing that i think might really push this just slightly further is some sparing, tasteful integration of freezes. otherwise, excellent - 8.8/10

Battle! Legendary Pokemon (hi19hi19) - good - but a bordering a bit on "generic jumpstream" type file. 7.5/10

Battle! Lugia (hi19hi19) - not quite as fun as the ho-oh theme, but i think thats because the song just isn't as good. you did a great job stepping it - 8.5/10

Battle! Trainer Battle (Flossy) - eh... its okay i guess. you ignore some string 16th runs in the background which could have made this more interesting. and, although its kind of nit picky, near the end, with the 32nd drum rolls, you repeat the same jumps even though the lead is clearly shifting down in pitch and that just really takes me out of the song because it doesn't make any sense. 5.5/10

Betrayal (hi19hi19) - WHY, hi19, WHY did you pass up the opportunity to make the climactic ending really pop by making it all jumps when the piano kicked in?? at that bpm and length of time it wouldn't have even been stupid hard. giving 7.9/10 because blue balls.

BGM II (Tsuka) - oni - fuuuck yeah that was fun. THAT'S how you utilize jacks in a way that isn't akin to gouging yer eyes out. -.1 points for that mine cluster mid-song that totally ruined my flow and made the arrows hard to see. 8.9/10

Big Blag's Lair (Tsuka) - oni - love the swing parts. however, i'm not sure i agree with the minijacks being 16ths. Even if they are musically 16ths, it really takes me out of it because the swing is so blatant, but i also don't actually think they are 16ths. They sound like swing to me. 7.3/10 mostly because of the choice to use 16ths for those minijacks

Black Rain (MarioNintendo) Well, it's as good as an S.S.H. file is gonna get. 8/10

Blade's Stage (MarioNintendo) - i got a little bored for parts but very pitch-conscious patterns which i appreciate a lot. 7.3/10

Blue Field & Catch'em Theme (MarioNintendo & MacGravel) - solid, but im not a huge fan of files that consist of only triplets. it starts to feel a little same-y by the end. 7.4/10

Boss Theme (wv) - everything about this made complete sense - yet it still left me wanting more. 7.2/10

Can You Really Call This A Hotel, I Didn't Receive A Mint On My Pillow Or Anything (CyclopsDragon) i think this could have been dialed up a bit in difficulty without being stupid and it'd have been more interesting. 7/10

Carnival Stage (cedo) - im upset that you didn't step over half the sax grace notes - (i don't think the ones you did should've been 64ths either) - but otherwise, great job. 8.3/10

Casino Area (MacGravel) - reminds me of yessss's "cruising" but unfortunately this song isn't as interesting. 7.1/10

Chelnov Theme (MarioNintendo) - do you play an instrument? because I'm continually impressed by your pattern use, it mirrors the pitch very well. very entertaining file. 8.4/10

City (MarioNintendo) - oni - a file this easy to AAA should not be labeled a 17, and this is coming from one of the olden players. anyway, clearly you are very good at stepping, this song is not well suited to stepping though - it turns into a bland dumpstream. 6/10

Coeur de Céramique (MarioNintendo) - hint: flashman wasn't a good file and neither is this. at least this one's synced well. zzz/10

Collision Chaos (Jombo) guhhhh another one swing/10

Colress Battle (Kommisar) bro this was tight. i loved the ending mines. 8.7/10

more to come . . .