Silent Hill – Silent Hill (Intro Theme, PS1, Konami, Akira Yamaoka)
Ah yes, it’s been all too long since we’ve talked about Akira Yamaoka. He almost landed a spot on Tunage this year, but I wanted to do some more obscure musicians. Anywho, this introduced gamers to the world of Silent Hill back in 1999, and what an intro! Beautiful instrumentation, Yamaoka’s amazing guitar work, and unsettling melodies combine to define the ominous feeling the series would become famous for. Stunning work.
There will be no Music Wednesday from me this week; sorry!
The Last Story – “Theme” (Title Screen, Wii, Nintendo/Mistwalker/XSEED,Nobuo Uematsu)
I’ve been greatly enjoying my time with The Last Story. Every time I start it up I’m greeted by this delightful, emotional piece. It fits the mood of the game pretty well, methinks. Uematsu did a pretty solid job on the overall soundtrack, so expect some more Last Story picks down the road.
Banjo-Kazooie – Freezeezy Peak (N64, Nintendo/Rare, Grant Kirkhope)
If you want to roam around in an icy platformer level this holiday season, may I recommend, for maximum festivities, Banjo-Kazooie’s Freezeezy Peak. Not only does the music sound like some long lost Christmas tune, but the whole level is ripe with Christmas imagery. Kirkhope did a smashing job on the whole soundtrack, but this is one that truly fits the level it belongs to like a glove. How could I not pick this to be a Song Highlight this time of year?
Music is such a wondrous feature of games, and it’s easy for me to get completely embroiled in the medium of game music when I hear something that truly blows my mind. It took a couple of listens, but I think Xenoblade Chronicles’ title theme stands as Yoko Shimomura’s masterwork. It’s captivating, heart-wrenching, and jammed so full of emotional weight. Even before starting the game proper, it sets you up for a stirring epic. This is truly a song highlight, and I am going to need to amend my Top 100 Gaming Songs to include this.
Welcome to the new Song Highlights format! It’ll be operating similarly to Music Wednesdays from now on, and will appear on Wednesdays either alongside MW or on its own. I can’t guarantee it will pop up every Wednesday, but some sort of music will happen on Wednesday! Let’s begin!
This lovely orchestrated song plays at the title screen of Uncharted 2, and it certainly geared me up to go out on an adventure! It has a lovely atmosphere to it that conveys a lot of different emotions. Ultimately, though, it’s just a beautiful song that is well suited for the game. It fits Nathan, I think. Great work.
It’s 9-9, so it’s clearly time for the annual “LVLs. Loves the Dreamcast” festivities. This year will be a little more subdued than the last couple due to school needs, but I’ve got plans to do this and an Artistic Discussion to properly remember Sega’s final console. Let’s showcase some musical memories!
Grandia II – Carbo (DC, UBI Soft/Gamearts, Noriyuki Iwadare)
I may have just removed this from my Top 100, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad song! No, in fact it is an extraordinarily great village theme in a game loaded with solid music for its towns. This was a hard one to remove, that it was. I may have been disenchanted by my last replay of Grandia II and no longer own it, but I’m still digging its music.
Jet Grind Radio has one of the more eclectic and fresh soundtracks in any game, and this is a solid representative of its Japanese-infused sound. Hyper yet chill at the same time, quite the feat.
The Last Blade II – Swordsmen (Select Screen, NeoGeo/Dreamcast, SNK/Agetec, Neo-Geo Music Performance Group)
While the Dremacast port suffers from a less dynamic soundtrack choice (it went with the original cart’s music over the grander CD tracks), the tension this song creates is still incredible. It sets the mood for The Last Blade so well that I think it could be the best Character Select screen music out there for a fighter.
Resident Evil: Code Veronica – The Code is Veronica (DC, Capcom, Takeshi Miura, Hijiri Anze, Sanae Kasahara)
I really like the mood of this one, although the context is long lost. XD It’s got a nice heroic touch to it.
The original song Wise performed is nice, but I really do enjoy listening to Naruke’s arrangement. It has great instrumentation that take the original composition into peppier places, and I am a big fan of the way it sounds. Shame I don’t like the DK level it plays on.
Mario Party – Peaceful Mushroom Village (Yasunori Mitsuda, Main Menu theme, N64, Nintendo/Hudson)
A short loop but a really good one. Very relaxing, very mellow, and is the best thing I can recollect from this game. My palms still ache, Nintendo. :p
Rayman Origins – Lost Beats (Christophe Heral/Billy Martin, Desert of Dijiridoos stages, PS3/Xbox 360/Wii/PC/3DS/Vita, UBISoft)
The musical talents of Heral cannot be ignored. I don’t know how much Martin did, but most of this soundtrack screams out Heral to me. :p This is a lovely mix of instrumentation that is just amazing to listen to. It’s 10 minutes long, so it’ll keep you entertained for a bit.
It’s been a little while since I did a spotlight post on a game, and recently I sampled the entirety of the Hotel Dusk: Room 215 soundtrack, and it’s so good. CiNG’s Yuhki Mori and Satoshi Okubo did a spectacular job capturing the film noir vibe with their compositions, and it’s a major reason I love the game so much. Here’s eight examples of its excellence.
Desert Highway
A great introductory track that establishes the mood nicely.
Secrets
A great example of bringing sadness into a soundtrack. This game has a truly underrated musical score, and this is further evidence for how great it is. (more…)
Terrain Swamp, Heroes of Might and Magic IV (PC, 3DO/New World Computing, Paul Romero, Rob King, Steve Baca, Paul James)
Man, I forgot how lovely the Heroes music was until I was listening to a few of the songs recently. This is among one of my favorites from the game. I love the overall ambiance of the instrumentation and vocals. Great song.
Temple of Fiends, Final Fantasy (NES, Square-Enix, Nobuo Uematsu)
I heard a remix of this Darangen did (I’ll put it up later on this week as part of the Spring Break Remixfest) and was reminded of how great the original Final Fantasy music actually is (apparently, this is a “something reminded me” type of post. XD ). Anyway, this is menacing and well-tempoed. A good way to build the tension on the way to Chaos.
Angel City, Blast Corps (N64, Nintendo/Rare, Graeme Norgate)
Surprisingly rocking stuff on the N64 soundchip. Rare was no stranger to making that thing rock, but this is one of the better examples of a hard-hitting tune.
Chun Li’s Theme, Street Fighter II (Arcade, Capcom, Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, Yoko Shimomura, & Tetsuya Nishimura)
Another piece from the SF2 STK, this time the theme to Chun Li’s stage. I like the distinctly Chinese sound this song eludes.
I can thank the Advantage for making me realize how awesome this song is, and a recent playtest of the game with Grace connected the two pieces together and made me go, “ah, so that’s where that’s from!” A nice piece of early arcade tunage. Go in a 1:50 to begin hearing the song in question.
“Title Screen”, Donkey Kong Country (Super NES, David Wise, Nintendo/Rare)
While the games themselves fail to impress me much, I can’t deny how great the music is for the DKC franchise. This in particular has always stood out to me. Wonderful segue into the “modern” take on the classic DK theme.
Yes, this is cheese metal to the XTREME but I don’t care. It’s fitting, it’s catchy, and damn if I don’t listen to this any time it pops up on my iPod.
A great example of bringing sadness into a soundtrack. This game has a truly underrated musical score, and this is further evidence for how great it is.
