All that talk of ocarinas, boleros and sonatas last week had us walking around for days with Zelda music stuck in our heads, so it only made sense that this week's show be about our favorite game music. We love it. You love it. We love you. You love Chad, and Chad loves to conduct undersea performances with his all-dolphin symphony orchestra.
So how about it? What are some of your favorite songs and soundtracks from back in the day? Hit the comments and hum them to us, we'll try to figure out what they are. It'll be like a game show. Or you could always just, you know ... type the name of the game. Whatever, it's all the same to me. I've got a pack of Starburst here and strawberry is next, so I'm going to stop writing now.
Also, we have an extra awesome prize for this week's contest, made possible by an extra awesome guy called Piano Squall. If you're extra smart, you might win it. Hit the jump already!
Mmm ... strawberry.
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Contest:
5:00 PM on 10.21.2007
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You know what else had an excellent soundtrack? Earthbound. I can still hear the Onett music in my head, after all of these years. The music in that game was pretty unique; it never tried too hard to be epic or anything, it was just playful and fun.
I also really liked the menu music in NHL 95 — in fact, I can still hum it: do-do-de-de-de-de-de-de-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun... And of course, there’s the classic FOX football music from Madden NFL ’96: do-do-do-do-do-doo-do-do-do-do-do-dooo-do-do-do-do-do-doo, dun-dun-dun-dun-dunnnnn...
followed by Gemini man's stage
'Nuff said.
Contra is one of my favorites.
It's about time. I've been waiting for this topic to be discussed. I'm actually in the process of writing this extensive blog on the music of Streets of Rage, more notably SoR 2.
I could go on forever about music in games. The music is actually a critical element of a game that keeps me coming back.
To name a few...
Mega Man (1-7, but 2 was awesome sauce)
Streets of Rage (1-2, 3 was the bastard, house/noise-techno child)
The Legend of Zelda (I always find myself humming the theme for Hyrule Temple a la Zelda 2)
good times... [tear]
Super Mario Brothers 1 & 3 (screw you SMB2!)
And a new favorite, the end song in Portal, Genius.
Also, the Super Mario Brothers 2 music kicks the asses of all other Mario soundtracks. I'm not even fucking kidding.
Koji Kondo's Hyrule castle music from Legend of Zelda: ATTP was one of the first pieces that really inspired me musically. Lots of Uematsu's music inspired me back in the day, but only up until the FF7 soundtrack, then his scores from the FF games all started to sound the same. I'm glad he's doing more rockish stuff like his Black Mages music and the rock tracks to Blue Dragon. I dug those.
Add me as another fan of the Monkey Island soundtrack too. I hadn't played Monkey Island until just recently and I loved the soundtrack (Michael Land).
I guess it would be cool if you guys talked about people like Koichi Sugiyama and Mr. Tallarico for their contributions to retro games too.
I'm sure I'm missing more...
I also like the Doom soundtrack, even if the songs are rip offs of real life songs. Oh and i also love Kraid's theme.
You should do a musical like episode =)
If we ever hang out, I'm buying you 4 pints of Guinness, a bee costume, and a bag of Skittles.
Also Earthbound ftw.
Also Boomer Kuwanger (very old song, the guy is much better now, but still cool).
Earthbound ftw.
Also, BFeld13, I’m sure you’ve seen it already, but there’s a pretty good performance by a bunch of guys on band instruments (clarinet, trumpet, trombone, bass guitar, etc.) playing the Chemical Plant Zone music. It’s somewhat slower and two steps lower key-wise (the original from the game is in F-sharp minor, but they play it in D minor), and it starts out kinda rough, but it sounds pretty solid overall. Check it out here. Of course, there are also numerous versions of the theme on guitar and keyboard...good stuff.
Also, another vote for Chrono Trigger, particularly Frog's Theme and The Trial, and a special mention to Grim Fandango for just being cool as fuck.
you took the words right out of my mouth
I'd also like to add Yo Noid!
Uematsu is pretty much a given. FFVII is one of the more memorable soundtracks. FFVI Grand Finale is amazing.
I also really enjoy Keiki Kobayashi's work on the more recent Ace Combat soundtracks. Zero, from Ace Combat Zero stays in my playlist.
Honorable mentions to Akira Yamaoka, Michiru Yamane and Motoi Sakuraba.
Other songs I would mention would be Wing Fortress from Sonic 2, along with most other songs in the game, the Deku Palace, Ikana Castle and Stone Tower themes from Majoa's Mask, and Ridley's theme from Metroid.
Besides this, the final Bowser battle music form Mario 64 was also awesome, as well as basically every song in Wind Waker. Lets also not forget the classic Final Fantasy opening fanfare, and all of the work from the Black Mages even though technically their music isn't from any of the games.
if you haven't noticed I have a long list of these things. Metal Gear andMetal Gear Solid are also very great, even though I unfortunately haven't finished MGS3 yet. Smash Bros. Melee had some of the best recreated music that I've heard, notably the Fountain of Dreams, and it seems like Brawl is also shaping up to have a great soundtrack.
I'm going to stop here before people start shout WALL O' TEXT.
Nearly every song mentioned here has been covered or is being covered by The OneUps. Or Dale and I have covered it through OneUp Studios.
SHAMELESS SELF PROMOTION
Get on that. Watch for "Boomer Kuwanger," Chrono Trigger, "Crashman," Sonic 2, Streets of Rage 2, Final Fantasy VI, EarthBound, Super Mario Bros. 2, and so much more on the next album (2 disc set).
As for me?
Secret of Evermore
Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy IV
Contra 3: The Alien Wars
Streets of Rage 2
Some of my favs fo' sho'.
I'm going Link's Awakening as well. Ballad of the Windfish. ;_;
Oh, and Bloody Tears, from CV2. And Metroid music. And F-Zero's Mute City theme.
And Street Fighter II. Goddamn Street Fighter II. Ken's Song, Guile's Tune, Ryu's music, Cammy's castle stage. The end credits. Hell, even the opening theme still gives me shivers.
Damnit, now I'm going to be listening to Rock the Asphalt again.
Going back even more Retro,
Double Dragon Boss Fight Music, and Ninja Turtles: Turtles in time Stage 1.
I'll also throw love at the Mystic Cave zone from Sonic 2, and all the Yuzo Koshiro Streets of Rage stuff.
Megaman 2 (Bubbleman, Crashman, Dr. Wily stage 1)
Streets of Rage 2 ("Go Straight", hell almost anything from Yuzo Koshiro was badass!)
Final Fantasy 2 ("The Red Wings" and "Golbez, Clad in Darkness")
SFII (Ryu, Ken, Cammy)
Metroid (Brinstar, that is in my head all the time!)
While on the subject of music, who else hear has listened to the streaming video game music from the site gamingfm.com? I'd always tune in for my fix of retro game music and they had a huge selection, but they have been down since the past few months :(
Zombies Ate My Neighbors has some good stuff.
Donkey Kong Country, especially the first one: water and factory levels, the mines, the treetop Ewok village ripoff level music. The final boss music was also pretty cool, going from sea shanty to epic march right as the fake credits rolled if you did it right. The bramble music from the second one is also fantastic.
The first level music from Treasure Master on the NES is great. It's pretty complex for NES stuff. I hum it in my head a lot.
Startropics!
Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins had a lot of great stuff (including the moon level, witch was super catchy though not as epic as DuckTales' moon music.)
Ballad Of The Windfish!
All of Mega Man X's music was fantastic, not just Boomer Kuwanger. I love the password screen music actually, it almost brings a tear to my eye.... I find it kind of bittersweet, it's beautiful. X2 had a lot of stuff I liked as well, including Bubble Crab's stage.
Ninja Gaiden!
Marble Madness!
You guys have recorded already, why am I blathering on!
Oh well. Listening to beautiful people rave about beautiful musics will be my reward for waiting. And that's plenty reward. I look forward to this RFGo! with intense fervor.
Megaman Series, Battletoads 1/2, Ninja Gaiden, Final Fantasy series, Mario series, Sonic series, Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Secret of Mana, Donkey Kong Country, Metal Gear, God of War games, Halo games, etc. I could probably mention some less "obvious" choices but I'm tired. I'll be back later. Colette and Dyson. please sing some game songs in an upcoming episode!
To digress from Zelda, I wanted to add most of the music from Golden Sun, but mainly the Venus Lighthouse theme (the last lighthouse from #1). That song was amazing.
On the topic of great music, I just wanted to add that I love it when composers add that sense of suspense to a game just because of the atmosphere the music adds. I found that Shadowgate had a pretty good soundtrack in that category. I also wanted to add Metroid 2 (Gameboy) every time you encounter a metroid. I just thought it great that a boss' music could actually make me jump (and heart race) just because of the sudden change in music. I think I'll stop there for now before I make too long of a comment.
its fucking brilliant.
oh, and the music when you complete a link to the past, and the music from the lost woods makes my grow tight in the loins.
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