I've done two or three perfect runs of this game by now, over the years- no deaths, all the levels on both branches and the extra tidbits. It's a really exceptional game.

Hydorah really makes me conflicted with regard to shooter design, though. Games with music and atmosphere as incredible as Hydorah's really shouldn't be hiding behind such obnoxious difficulty! I can make it through Galactic Inferno with most of my lives and upgrades intact, but it's such a brick wall on the difficulty curve that I get the feeling a lot of people who love what they see aren't even able to make it to the more beautiful levels on the second branch.

Path of Scylla is absolutely one of the coolest settings I've ever seen in a video game.

doop doop.

Phlogiston! He's one of my favorites.

He did the music for Super Crate Box and a bunch of other soundtracks.

I Was In The War is one of my all time favorite tracks.

There's a speedrun of La Mulana on SDA.

The game was beaten in less than two and a half hours in a single segment, which is pretty fucking crazy.

Oh my god, this entire thing is solid gold.

I think my favorite so far is the first panel of Squiggly_P's page.

Edit: Holy shit, pencerkoff 

Genesis games in general had good music.

Case in point: Asterix and The Great Rescue.

Title Theme
Rome
Germany

Why do licensed games have music this good?

my worldview has been shattered

Guys!

More La Mulana Soundtrack Clippings!

Subscribing to Nigoro's Youtube channel was an excellent idea.

you should give this one a shot.

The final boss is nearly impossible due to changes made in the way KS handles scene transitions, but it's still one of the most interesting levels.

That clears it up nicely, thank you.

I don't have any particular gripes with what you're saying, but I couldn't know for sure until I actually knew what you were saying 

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I think my conclusion from all of this discussion and from Ebert's thoughts is that games are just a different kind of art from other mediums- instead of the developer expressing himself, it's the player expressing himself.

From his post, I expect Ebert is equally disdainful of abstract forms of art, as they follow similar paradigm- it being the observer's job to derive meaning from a work of art rather than the painter's job to deliver it. Ebert thinks too much from the painter/developer's viewpoint, instead of from the observer/player's viewpoint (which is a bit strange, considering that he's a critic of movies and not a director/writer of them).

Also, more specifically on the topic: I think we're all looking in the wrong direction.

From the definition of art that Ebert posted at the end of his post, I think he would be more likely to respect things like Little Big Planet and Everybody Edits. They're games that focus more on allowing players to express and apply themselves. In a way, they're much higher art by Ebert's terms than the books and movies that he himself prefers, because they extend the creation of art to everybody.

the concentration and the centrality of those works (in terms of 'brand', promotability, travelability (now a word)) is such that their potential for impact, and their importance and significance in general, completely blows away that of all video games made to date

Could you please clarify this statement? I'm just not sure what you mean by it, especially about "centrality of those works".

I'm worried that this is the kind of thing that is fueled more by spectacle than by specific merit, but this is still definitely interesting news.

Personally one of my favorites is I Was In The War, from Phlogiston, but I'm not sure many people would agree with me 

These sales have me spending way more money than I usually do 

So of the new piety system, I'd say Tiki is currently by far the weakest of all of them. It's the only one that I will always pass up without reason. This is mostly because it only has one boon that really boosts your character (the 10% dodge bonus), and the first strike boon is mostly useless when you already pretty much have to have first strike to gain piety in the first place. The gold boon is also mostly pointless, because it costs gold to worship Tiki, and Goblin Wizards still gain gold at a significantly faster rate than anything else.

On the other hand, The Earthmother went from basically useless to my favorite with its revamp. I like the gods that really change the way you progress. She and Dracul are the two strongest, Dracul because the lifesteal + damage boost + resistances means you'll be a tank no matter what class you start with (and there's no magic restriction apart from healing, which makes it basically entirely better than Binlor and Taurog). The Pactmaker and Jehora are both generally above average, The Pactmaker because the high mana/health boosts mean you'll basically always have a decent game with him, and Jehora because while faith is easy to earn and the boons are all excellent, the restrictions are a bit troublesome at times. Binlor and Taurog are generally average (I could use them to win on normal mode with the first few characters, but the special maps are all pretty much impossible with them).

I haven't played with the Glowing Guardian enough times to make a decent analysis of it yet, mostly because it's hard to get the circumstances right (the first few times I tried converting to him, I didn't get close to the 100 necessary for absolution, even in the crypt). I might try abusing the Halpmeh glyph some time to see if I can make absolution work decently.