Just what it says on the box. Video game music never fails to cheer me up and move me off my butt to do something constructive. Or semi constructive...like blogging about them. Heh... 

10. Mother - Mother 3
This piece of music is asskicking, in that it made me tear up over a few pixels on a 32 bit system.( I mean, they don't even have expressions! Or noses! ) While being warm, and mellow and understated. Yep. Truly asskicking indeed, and very worthy of this top ten list. You see, Mother 3 is one evil game. It lets you name the family upon which the story is centered. So obviously, I named the whole family after my own family, including my dog. More importantly, I named the mother after my own mother.
...Assholes.
*edit: I entered Dom's name under "favourite thing" at the beginning of the game...so giggled everytime I had to use "PK Dom" hahaha.

9. Frog - Chrono Trigger
This is from SNES times. So simple and yet so full of win. Frog is the most badass frog...EVER (as you can see from the video). He even married a princess in one of the endings for godssakes. As a frog. I guess badass is really sexy.

8. THE ENTIRE CHRONO CROSS SOUNDTRACK Battle Theme, Boss Battle Theme, Star Stealing Girl, Dream of a Shore Near Another World - Chrono Cross
The first two made fighting FUN cause the arrangements are very intense, and are a perfect match for the battle system, whereas the last two are just...truly brilliant compositions. Yasunori Mitsuda is awesome! (The Forest of Lapis Lazuli from the Kirite album doesn't really belong here cause it isn't associated with a video game...but omg. That song makes me want to dance around a campfire or something.) 

7. Aerith's Theme - Final Fantasy VII
(I linked to her actual deathscene, but here is the most awesome remix of Aerith's Theme together with Tifa's from AC!  )
While not really associated with asskicking and more with getting one's ass kicked...I was truly very sad when Aerith died...even though I knew it was coming it really didn't lessen the emotional impact at all! (I mean, I even trained her up and tried to get her final Limit Break and everything...) I started tearing up just as the Holy materia bounced off the steps, through the battle with the giant squid and her subsequent watery farewell...then I started tearing up again after reading Cloud's speech: "Aerith is gone. Aerith will no longer talk, no longer cry...or get angry..."  Poor, poor Aerith. And the most epic deathscene in video game history. EVERRRRR.

6.One Winged Angel - Final Fantasy VII
Actually, FF7 isn't my favourite FF...*ducks tomatoes* but one cannot deny Sephy's awesomeness. Like when he razed Nibelheim to the ground and stalked around looking fierce! Or when he killed Aerith! (See above.) Or his mind-blowing fight with Cloud in AC! Sephyyyyyy! *waves banners*

5. The Man with the Machine Gun
LAGUNALAGUNALAGUNA. This song is probably just here cause I love Laguna, the most loveable dumbass ever. That is, including Mrbillbill. Well actually I liked Laguna's Battle Theme loads more than the usual FF8 one, cause its just so bouncy. It's even in sync with Laguna's Limit Break! And back when I first heard it...it was also in sync with our munching on oily pizzas.

4. You're Not Alone! + toned down but still awesome vocal remix here - Final Fantasy IX
Why is this song here? Because, Zidane...you're not alone! And this moment only comes second to "Bring my beloved Dagger to Me!" in terms of super duper asskicking heartwarmingness!

3. Liberi Fatali - Final Fantasy VIII
I am sort of running out of synonyms for "asskickery" or "awesomeness" or "epicness" etc. So I can only say Liberi Fatali is full of epic asskicking awesomeness. It begins with soft, mysterious Latin chanting, and culmilates to an explosion of sound candy which is wellmatched with the introductory FMV scene. It can only be said that it is basically just pure ear sex. MMmmmmmmmmm.

2. Simple and Clean and Passion - Kingdom Hearts 1, 2
It's actually quite funny how the lyrics to Simple and Clean don't really mean that much to the storyline...and it could be said that part of it is about sex. In a game with Disney characters. Hahahahahaha. That it is still worshipped for its magnificence speaks volumes about how much it kicks ass. As is Passion. But then it may be a stretch to interpret the skewed phrase "I need more affection than you know" as expressing sexual frustration. That might be taking it tooooo far. It is still a very pretty song, though.

(Sorry Tev, if you're reading this...I still have your KH1!)

And last but not least...

1. Otherworld - Final Fantasy X
Jecht is a really badass but well meaning asshole. If you see the comments under the linked video, someone says "Jecht makes Chuck Norris look like Kuja." And if you haven't played FF9, Kuja is the ultimate bad guy...who wears a purple thong. Well... I guess the well meaningness kinda detracts from his assholish behaviour, but Tidus did grow up with severe daddy issues. I mean, he even jumped into the sea to chase after his grotesque and enormous monster daddy, who had just massacred  a bunch of guys who were trying to kill it using swords and stuff. They did have this huge cannon some geeks salvaged from the bottom of the ocean, but it just toppled into the ocean after Jecht poked it a little. I guess this is sort of going off tangent, but yeah.
This song made for a truly breathtaking opening. No kidding. Its awesomeness cannot be expressed using words, you HAVE to see it!

Awesome that didn't quite make the Asskicking Awesome list

White Wings - Breath of Fire II
Another example of pixellated awesomeness. "I won't shed any tears, until this all over."

Auron's Theme - Final Fantasy X 
This dead guy is the coolest thing since sliced bread. I felt so happy for him when the gang decided to give Yunalesca a giant middle finger in the form of some major ass kicking. Oh Auron. You are awesomest zombie ever! And thats a pretty big compliment, considering that Jehova goes around headless and spawning all sorts of crap, or that creepy Deling replacement on the train in FF8 that scared me shitless...without all that fancy voiceacting stuff.

Via Purifico - Final Fantasy X
This is also really creepy. I was genuinely scared half the time while this track was playing...cause it was my first playthrough and Yuna was reaaaaaaaally weak. She only had this little stick and some animals to protect herself with :(

Theme of Love - Final Fantasy IV
It's a very pretty song...I didn't even snigger at Rosa's weird Bikini-thingy when I first watched the DS opening scene cause I was too distracted by its prettiness.

Please check this out - I don't own a PSP so cannot play it, but omg. I have rewatched the opening about 10 times cause it is just like one giant eye orgasm.

                                                                              ---

Actually, after reading what I just wrote...I have just realised where all my time went during my secondary school days. To pictures of people that don't even have fingers or noses. /sad

                                                                              ---

 Please look at the following pictures.

This is Patrick Wilson in Angels in America. Yummy.

And this is what he looks like in the Watchmen. Unyummy.

Okay, I lie. I found the second image by googling "big fat hairy belly" - its not aaaactually Nite Owl II's belly in the Watchmen. But pretty damn close! Patrick Wilson had to put on 25 pounds of PURE FAT for the role of retired, going bald, chubby Nite Owl II. It was a bit of a shock to see him all chubby after Phantom of the Opera and Hard Candy (wherein he also had...hm...performance problems, though for different reasons. Heh heh heh.)

Actually, this has little to do with the actual review of the movie itself. So here goes!

The Watchmen is set in an alternate timeline in which the Americans won the Vietnam War. The consequences: continued re-elections of Nixon, escalation of the Cold War, (no hippies), and ultimately the driving point of the story - a world on the brink of nuclear war. But how did this happen? Through the emergence of "superheroes" - all of which were little more than masked vigilantes with no special powers at all...with the exception of one, who was known as Dr Manhattan. The youngest generation of superheroes, some of which inherited the names of past heroes, were known as the Watchmen. Apart from Dr Manhattan and one other "hero", The Comedian, all other superheroes were banned following the passing of a government act.

The story of the Watchmen begins with death - that of the Comedian, who is thrown out of a window from his high-rise apartment, years after his stint in the Vietnam War. Another Watchman, Rorschach, decides to examine the strange nature of his death, believing that it represented a beginning of an attempt to kill all retired superheroes. And so the story follows his quest to uncover the mystery which began to unravel with the murder of the Comedian.

As a fan of the graphic novel, I was worried that important details which made the Watchmen so great would be neglected in the movie. I have to say that my fears were misplaced - and yet, at the conclusion of the film, the thought that was running through my head was this: I liked the eyecandy, but perhaps the Watchmen would never have worked as a film.

Acting/Casting: Not bad, not good, average. Spoilers start here: ( I liked the casting for the Comedian - who juggled BADASS and CONFUSED BADASS quite well. I hated Ozymandias' weird, faux German accent that only surfaced every now and then, and sounded ridiculous during his monologues - and there were loads of those. I also hated how he was oh so very skinny. I liked how Patrick Wilson really did look like fat Nite Owl II, and I liked how Dr Manhattan spoke very softly and gently. However, Malin Akerman's portrayl of Laurie was bland at most - though you can really blame the script for that - and although Rorschach was suitably raspy, he did overact a little - particularly when he was set up. I giggled all through his No, No Noooooos!)

Music: With a flair for the overly-dramatic and the overuse of popular tunes, I'd have to say it was poorly done. (The Sound of Silence)

The ultimate annoyance: THE ENDING. WHERE THE HELL ARE THE ALIENSSSSSSSSS?

General:  Zack Snyder of the 300 fame did create a faithful adaptation of the Watchmen - I can give him that, apart from the changed ending. However, I'm not so sure that non-fans of the Watchmen could appreciate his efforts to stay true to the novel. Or fans for that matter. The running time of the movie was 2 hours and 40 minutes: 2 hours and 40 minutes of film crammed full of plotlines that led to one ultimately anti-climatic ending, details that were hard to follow for the non-fan, and details that were needlessly emphasised and annoying (in my opinion) for the fan - fat sex! fighting! empowerment through fighting!dialogue...but spoken by the wrong characters!I suppose that is the trouble with adaptations - get rid of minor storylines for the sake of deeper development and easier understanding to please the everyday moviegoer and risk angering fans, or pay greater attention to details in the storyline as opposed to depth of such detail and bore your everyday moviegoer to death and please the fans.

Unfortunately, in an attempt to please both Synder has pleased neither - fans like myself found the action scenes too jarring and long, non-fans found the plot too confusing. Then again, I reckon any Watchmen fan would be able to find something he or she disliked about ANY film adaptation of the Watchmen itself - perhaps Synder ought to have risked our ire and created something that felt less like a panel-by-panel adaptation of the graphic novel.

If you love someone, and they are being unreasonable, there are two things you can do. You can let them continue with their selfish behaviour, or you can tell them no. Really, there is no right answer - sometimes it is better to tolerate their selfishness, and sometimes it is better to let them know where the limits are. Tolerating someone does not mean you love them more, telling them no does not mean you love them less. Is it really stubborn of me to believe that both options exist?

I am really, really angry. Thank god I am not the favoured one or else I will probably never grow up. I feel slightly suffocated, but he is living in an Auschwitz gas chamber.