Games Revue

I'm one of those weird folks who plays old games as often as they play new ones. You've probably heard of us. Maybe even crossed the street to avoid us. Castlevania 4 (A.K.A. Super Castlevania) is one I get regular mileage out of, arguably the best of the classic Castlevanias (and in my opinion, one of the best in the series, even if you include the Metroidvania games). Today's track is the game's update of Simon's Theme, a mainstay of the early games. It's hard to see it now, but its 16-bit upgrade was a major deal back then, offering the programmers an opportunity to push their soundtracks to heights they hadn't been able to reach til then. Coincidentally enough, that was also the point game soundtracks started to be regularly released on CD. Funny that.

Okay, not strictly in keeping with the theme of these videos, but it’s my list so shut up.

Everyone has at least one song on Guitar Hero or Rock Band that they like to play simply to show off: that one song that you can 100% with ease. This one would be mine.

(I do vocals in case you’re wondering)

This video doesn’t involve me, before anyone asks, but it’s surprisingly hard to find decent quality vids of this song which are also worth watching, so much kudos to the folks involved.

Okay, not strictly in keeping with the theme of these videos, but it's my list so shut up.

Everyone has at least one song on Guitar Hero or Rock Band that they like to play simply to show off: that one song that you can 100% with ease. This one would be mine.

(I do vocals in case you're wondering)

This video doesn't involve me, before anyone asks, but it's surprisingly hard to find decent quality vids of this song which are also worth watching, so much kudos to the folks involved.

Bionic Commando: Rearmed was really more of an extended advert for the reboot game that came a few months after its release. However, irony of ironies, it not only proved to be more popular than its big brother, it was also a hell of a lot more fun. A remake of the 2D classic, it was a real labour of love, from the references to the original, to the music, which was largely updates of music from the earlier version. There's very little on the soundtrack that isn't worth listening to, but this, the theme to the last couple of stages, sits head and shoulders above the rest.

Earthbound has a reputation that precedes it by several light years or more. It's funny, it's subversive, it's creepy and twisted in a way that you can't quite pin down. If you know anything about the game at all, it'll no doubt be about how the final boss, Giygas, is the very personification of mind rape. Literally, since it was based on a traumatic experience the writer/director had as a young boy when he walked into the wrong cinema.

Today's track, as you've probably guessed, is the final boss theme from the game, and it's... well, it's probably a little different from what you'd expect from such a game. Then again, Earthbound's a little different from what you'd expect for an RPG, let alone a SNES game.




What's that you say? Still not traumatized enough? Made of sterner stuff than that, huh? Well then. Look upon the true face of madness, and know suffering, mortal! You cannot comprehend the true form of... Ronald McDonald?!

Something a little different today. Bands covering game music are nothing new anymore, let's be honest. It's getting to be a played out formula: grab some random game from the NES (because it's always the NES, no one ever had a Master System back then), throw in some guitars and let nostalgia take care of the rest. Simple.

Okay, that's perhaps a little too cynical, but there's very few bands who actually bother to do anything more than a straight cover. In Japan, they cheerfully fold, spindle and mutilate the originals til they bear only a passing resemblance to their parents. Over here in the West... not so much. The Adventures of Duane and BrandO, however, were something of an exception. If you know anything about them, it'll probably be their version of the various Mega Man 2 tracks. Rather than the typical cover shenanigans we're used to, they would rap over the music, telling the story of the game they were covering in a roundabout sort of way. I use the past tense, because they split messily earlier this year. They're both continuing to do their own thing but it's pretty much agreed that it just won't be the same.

This here's their version of Duck Hunt. And yes, the dog gets it. You're welcome.

I know I give Final Fantasy a hard time: the games, the endless remakes, the character designs in recent years, the fact that Square Enix are physically incapable of going more than 3 months without releasing or announcing a new game in the series, it's all fair game as far as I'm concerned. It used to be that a new Final Fantasy game was an Event, something to get excited over. Now, you'd be as well getting excited over it being Tuesday.

That said, the one department Square has never once dropped the ball in, is the music. Say what you will about the legions of androgynous girlymen, When it comes to the music, Square has never once lost its teeth. Crisis Core, while exemplifying many of the problems I have with current-day Square Enix, also had a solid OST, featuring a mix of redone themes from FFVII and Advent Children, as well as a variety of original work. This track, The Summoned, is a redux of the classic FFVII boss theme, arguably as it should always have been. If this doesn't get the blood fired up, nothing will.

“A 13-year-old boy is invited into a magical fantasy land by a spirit, a world eerily close to Earth that’s under the rule of a dark sorcerer.”

Famous anime studio Ghibli, responsible for such animated masterpieces as Princess Mononoke, Totoro, Spirited away and many more has joined with games developer Level 5 to create a rpg adventure game with their trademarked beautiful designs sensibilities. The games feature movie quality animated cutscenes and the in game design by the Ghibli artists

Hopefully it will be released worldwide soon, and will start a trend of game collaborations with talented artists and creators.

Rez is another game I reviewed this year, which proved itself to be more than the sum of its samples. While the in-game music basically consists of various samples that are eventually combined to make the full song, the alum, Gamer's Guide To, takes all the samples and mixes them properly to create a fully-finished song. It's different from what you get in-game, but no less listenable for it.

This time around, we've got the first stage music, Buggie Running Beeps. As I said back then, even if you don't dig dance music, give it a shot, it's still fantastic stuff.

No More Heroes was very much like Devil May Cry 3 in that a lot of the soundtrack was variations or remixes of a central theme. Here, however, it was taken a step further, where it seems like virtually every track in the game features the same central section, heard here at the 'chorus'. The soundtrack was composed by Masafumi Takada, who's best known for his work with Suda51 on killer7, and while it arguably lacks the variation of the previous game, due to the insistence of adhering to the same themes, that doesn't make it any less listenable.

Again, we avoid going for the obvious shot, everyone and their grandmother having heard Pleather For Breakfast a billion times by now. Instead, we bring Ten Tons of Titanium to the table. And no, it's not just you, yes, it does sound familiar, and yes, it is deliberate.