Street Fighter IV (8.7/10)

I’ve been a fan of the Street Fighter franchise since way back in the day when they were still huge draws in the arcades.  (Yes, there were places back in ancient times when you could bring some quarters and play games for hours.)  The arcade battles were as fierce as the on screen counterpart.  In this iPhone rendition of Street Fighter IV, Capcom attempts to pack as much game into a handheld device as possible.

Graphically, it’s awesome.  Beautiful graphics pop off of the iPhone’s screen, as do the sounds.  However, the game falls quite short in the gameplay category.  Unless you are rocking some unknown, unmade controller, SFIV suffers a bit from the touch screen.  Capcom incorporated as much as possible into the game, but the most glaring strikes against the game lie within the lack of moves and characters.

If you’re a fan of SFIV, you’ll definitely enjoy this game.  Just don’t expect it to stand up to its next gen counterpart.

Fang Island – Self-Titled (8.3/10)

Fang Island, Fang Island…  Your bouncy, fist raise rousing music has infected my iPhone, my car, and everyone within earshot.  Triumphant to the point of hoisting a trophy is a feeling invoked by a listen of Fang Island’s latest self-titled offering.

Fang Island, Fang Island…  Your bouncy, fist raise rousing music has infected my iPhone, my car, and everyone within earshot.  Triumphant to the point of hoisting a trophy is a feeling invoked by a listen of Fang Island’s latest self-titled offering.

Well orchestrated chords which they’ve described as “high fiving everyone,” is in full abundance throughout this excellent album.  “Daisy” is a standout track which had me nodding my head in pure approval upon first (and tenth) listen.

Fang Island, Excelsior salutes you.

Related articles:

• [Video] Fang Island: “Life Coach” (iguessimfloating.blogspot.com)
• New band of the day – No 763: Fang Island (guardian.co.uk)

MoeTrainsTracks.com Version 2 (Pt. 2)

Here’s part 2 of the MoeTrainsTracks.com transformation:

• Album Reviews: We know. “Everyone’s a critic these days.” MTT has always been independent and uncensored, and our reviews will remain that way. No long, drawn out, wordfests that you have to sift through just to hear if we thought the album was Excelsior or not. We’ll keep it short, so you can get to the listening.
• Tracks’ Tweets: Yeah, we use Twitter. You can follow Moe Train (@MoeTrainsTracks) and King B (@MTTracks_KingB) on your own Twitter app, or read our streams on the front page of MTT.com. We’re constantly updating our Twitter streams, so keep an eye on it to know what we’re up to at all times!
• iPhone App Reviews: Excelsior is a big fan of our iPhones, and we’ll let you know some of the apps that get us through everyday life (and those which you shouldn’t waste your money on!) This section will just be a small added bonus on MTT.com, but don’t worry, the tech geek side in us will stay pretty quiet.
• Music News: We’ll always have the latest world music news streaming on the right sidebar on MTT.com.
• Photo Galleries: Our photo galleries will feature photos that we’ve shot, as well as outside contributors’ pics. We’d like to showcase individual photographers, so if you feel that your pictures are especially Excelsior, contact us, and you may be featured on the site!

  

  Image via CrunchBase

Thanks again to our 130,000+ listeners worldwide, and the tons of readers who have stuck with us since day one. We have a blast creating new content for all of you, and will continue on the same path for years to come. Don’t forget! Festival Season is upon us, and we’ll be seeing you out on the road very soon!

To Excelsior!

- Brian “B” Kracyla and Monty “Moe Train” Wiradilaga

Twittelator [8.7/10]

Twittelator – [8.7/10]

For those who feel that being connected to the world at all times (or most of the time) is a must, Twittelator is a very functional Twitter client that will fulfill your needs.  If you think that a function is necessary, then Twittelator probably has it covered.  Lists, video/photo posting, geotagging, and my most useful function (due to the fact that we run a music show/website), song tagging.  The main gripe that I have with this app is the tweets don’t always “refresh” when they should.  Besides that, Twittelator is a pretty seamless application.

One could purchase quite a few separate apps for many of the options packed into the Twittelator package, so if you need an all-encompassing Twitter app… Twittelator will be a very competent choice.