This week's song is from another game I had lots of experience with growing up.
Desert Strike is a really innovative game in that it takes the traditional 3rd Person aircraft shooter game, and turns it into a sandbox/open world type experience where you get to determine how you wish to complete the objectives necessary for a successful mission.
Often brutal, and certainly time consuming, this game really hit the spot back in the 90s by riffing off of the collective consciousness of Americans who had been glued to TVs watching the First Gulf War play out in front of them.
It also had music that entirely captured the 'tude mindset of the decade.
Hello all. Sorry again for not posting on schedule, but school is straining my abilities to keep up on everything. So to catch up, here is an all-in-one post for last week.
First the Song of the Week:
This gem of a track comes from one of my personal favorite games, Earthworm Jim. This is the Sega Genesis version of this song, "Use your head", by esteemed composer of many games, and the brain trust behind the concert series Video Games Live, Tommy Tallarico.
This is a little different from art I've previously showcased here, as this a direct copy of the Age Of Empires box art. I selected this piece because one, it has a really wonderful sense of balance and color, and two, the original Age of Empires doesn't get nearly the love it deserves. I understand why, since AoEII was a RTS masterpiece, but still the original deserves some love.
Finally, we have last Saturday's (Oct. 6th) Replay!
In this Replay! we get to hear an intriguing debate about the merits of Banjo Kazooie vs. Mario 64, Ben Hanson declares his favorite N64 game is one he never played half of, and Tim Turi faces off with an obscure Japanese computer adaptation of Super Mario in a new installment of Stress Test.
This is one of the best Replay episodes we've gotten in recent months. ENJOY IT.
This week's song is in honor of the amazing referees who gave my Seahawks the win tonight.
This is the introduction to the Arcade/NES classic Tecmo Bowl. In it are virtual referees who would put the one's calling the games this last week to shame.
Apologies for the lack of interesting dialogue, or back story, but I'm just so emotionally exhausted from watching this Hawks-Pack game that I don't really want to think. I'll do better next week, I promise.
To be honest, I've not played too much of the Castlevania series. I have a copy of Castlevania II: Simon's Quest, but it confuses me too much so I've never gotten into it. I also have a PSN download of Symphony of the Night, however once I got HALF WAY (those who've played will understand what I'm referring too) my jaw fell on the floor and, overwhelmed, I set it aside... however I do plan on picking it up again soon.
Despite this lack of deep intimacy between my self and the Castlevania series, I can say I have some knowledge of it's music. With ease, the series has some of the best tracks from any video game of any period. Konami just doesn't screw around with it's soundtracks...
So I present to you one of the more popular tunes, which originated on the very first Castlevania for the NES:
"Vampire Killer" composed by Kinuyo Yamashita
And as a bonus, an orchestral version:
"Vampire Killer" performed by Nazo^2 PROJECT with KONAMI SYMPHONIC ORCHESTRA
Sorry for the late post, but the last couple days have been crazy (School, Internship, SuperSonics).
The song for this week is from a game that I've really come to adore, the somewhat recently released Rayman Origins.
This classic-style 2D platformer is absolutely gorgeous. It is case study number one for how a 2D platformer can succeed in this modern era of video games, standing up against triple-A 3D titles and providing equally, if not more, compelling game play.
It also has an epic soundtrack. Case in point:
"Inferno Mariachi" - composed by Christophe Heral & Billy Martin
Following the hype from the most recent Metal Gear announcement, it seems only fitting that I focus on a song from the series. In fact, I'm so excited, I'm going to post two songs, because shut the hell up its my blog.
First, the "Theme of Tara" from Metal Gear (MSX2, 1987):
This piece was composed by Iku Mizutani, and got it's name from the "Ta-ra" sound that ends each phrase at the beginning of the song. It's not my favorite song in the MSX version of the game, but it is certainly the song you hear the most while playing. I played Metal Gear earlier this Summer, and heard this song loop so many times that I couldn't perform normal daily functions without it thumping along in my head.
Next, "Level 1 Warning" from Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake (MSX2, 1990):
This piece, and the entire soundtrack, was composed and produced by the KONAMI KuKeiHa CLUB. This music accompanies you at the very beginning of the game, as you infiltrate the first facility of Zanzibar land. With ease, no other track has ever immediately immersed me into the atmosphere of a game like this one.
And just because it's awesome, here is the orchestral remake that came as a bonus in Metal Gear Solid 4:
Ok, so this post basically became Metal Gear song history of the week. However, Metal Gear's music rocks, and I can't think of a better way to celebrate the news of another entry in the series than looking back at some of its great music; a staple of any Metal Gear game.
This is the first song of the week piece I've done for this blog, so excuse me for being sentimental and selecting something a little obscure.
As I noted in my very first post, one of the first games I owned was Vectorman for the Sega Genesis. Vectorman was a real eye-opener for me. At four years old, I hadn't really been around long enough to understand what the sci-fi, futuristic, post-disaster Earth genre was really about. And I certainly knew nothing about techno.
By far, my favorite song from the Genesis era came from this robotic side scroller. After a frenetic start, blasting through sludge pilots, downing a HUGE hover plane, and a VectorTrain vs. WarHead fight, you are suddenly dropped into an ocean world. The sun is setting, and the waves are strangely majestic. Then the music hits:
The composer for Vectorman, Jon Holland, is even more obscure than the songs he wrote. I know literally nothing about him except his name and association with this amazing music. However, after some digging, it seems after Vectorman he didn't do anything else of note. Well, except for the equally intriguing music for Vectorman 2.
After BlueSky Software, the developers of Vectorman, shutdown in 2001, Jon Holland was out of the video game soundtrack business.
