By now, if you haven’t heard of Random, I don’t know what else to say. I’ve blabbed about the guy enough times already, so if you still haven’t given him at least a quick listen, shame on you!
Our good buddy Mega Ran has worked with the sounds from Mega Man, Final Fantasy, and various Nintendo classics; he even cut a Jeremy Lin rap that received a bit of airplay on ESPN. Also, until his music career really took off, he was a middle school teacher. The man has come a long way and accomplished much since his days growing up in Philadelphia, so it’s about time to apply all that knowledge and experience into one massive project, his magnum opus.
Language Arts is a three-headed dragon: a hip hop album trilogy, a comic book, and a videogame. The album, split across three volumes to be released in May, August, and November, will involve many of Ran’s frequent collaborators such as K-Murdock and MC Lars, but it will also feature special guests like composers Bear McCreary (The Walking Dead, Dark Void) and Danny Baranowsky (Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac) and voice actor Kyle Hebert (Kamina in Gurren Lagann, the narrator in Dragon Ball Z). The backing tracks on the albums will be a mix of traditional hip hop styles and chiptunes — chip-hop, if you will!
The comic book, courtesy of J1 Studios, will be released online and later compiled into an 88-page graphic novel. Then there is the videogame, developed by Lunar Giant Studios, which is being billed as a cross between Mega Man and River City Ransom with some hints of Final Fantasy. You can even catch an animated GIF of Ran’s adorable little sprite avatar in action here! The completed game will be released on PC for free, as well as on iOS and Android devices, and will arrive alongside a standalone soundtrack of original chiptune jams.
Years of work have already been put into Language Arts, but Ran needs just a little more help to make the final project even more awesome. He’s been running a Kickstarter that’s about to hit $11k. If he can hit $15k, he’ll be able to whip up a couple of music videos and release Volume 1 of the album free of charge. There are many other incentives for donating, including some of Ran’s old game systems, so go drop some dough his way! This is gonna be big!
Mega Ran’s “Language Arts” Video Game and Comic project! [Kickstarter]
