My Favourite Music In Video Games Part 1

Howdy ladies and gents, time for some nostalgic chaos! For a while now I’ve been thinking about how badass music is in the world of video games. I mean there are some REALLY good songs/themes/soundtracks that people outside of that realm wouldn’t comprehend. With that in mind I’m gonna start a new series of posts dedicated to some of my favourite tunes in video game history that have touched me personally and I feel like everyone else should hear too. So here we go with part 1:

Streets of Rage

The Sega Mega Drive/Genesis may have been inferior to the SNES with in terms of sound quality but hell it did a frigging good job with some of its titles and Streets of Rage is living proof. Not only was it one of the best beat-em-up games of the 90’s but it also had one oft he best soundtracks too. From the time the game starts with the introduction you’re in for a treat. But it is when you start the first stage when you get treated to some truly awesome sounds with sexy beats and sounds that become instantly classic. It’s like electronic dance music for video games, you could dance to it all. Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 7 and the Stage Boss are personal favourites. I would include music from Streets of Rage 2 but I’m overly familiar with it and didn’t grow up with it, but I have to rate Stage 1-1 (Go Straight), that song is badass!

Favourite song – The Last Soul (Stage 8):

I LOVE THIS SONG! This has and always will be my favourite song, ever since I was a kid this was the song that stood out as it was the one that sounded really final and made you feel like you were nearing the end. It just a nice mixture of doom and coolness rolled into one.

Street Fighter

The SF series is full of incredible music and trying to sing it down to any specific game would be hard as hell considering that there is like 1000 versions of SF after SF2 came out. One thing to note about the series is its music and how amazing it is. That was one of my favourite aspects about playing SF2, it is after all my favourite game in the series. To many songs to choose from including the Opening Theme, Ryu’s Theme, Guile’s Theme, and M Bison’s Theme to name a few.

Favourite song – Ken’s Stage:

Nothing compares to this song for, it has been my favourite SF song since childhood, there is just something about this song that screams cool and sets my fire alight. Besides the epic SF4 version, the SF2: Champion’s Edition on the Mega Drive/Genesis is the one!

Tetris

You may wonder how can you include something as simple and basic as Tetris? Well it is quite simple, because its AWESOME. Even though there’s only 2 really well-known songs I feel the need to highlight them. Type A is classic and I love it ever so much. The dubstep remix is one of the coolest/filthiest things ever and the remix in Super Smash Bros. Brawl by Yoko Shimomoura sounds so much like Kingdom Hearts that I’m surprised I never realized years ago.

Favourite song – Type B:

Honestly after I came across this song in SSBB there was never a doubt in my mind that this was the definite song from the Tetris series, even though it’s an updated remix it is one of the most gorgeous songs ever. Somehow Masafumi Takada found a way to update a game song and turn into some crazy Mexican festival tune complete with crazy guitars, men shouting in the background and music from the old game too.

Donkey Kong

This is a series that I have a lot of memories with even though I never technically owned any DK game until I got Donkey Kong Country on Virtual Console around 5 years ago. I mainly have memories with that game, DKC has one of the coolest, atmospheric and varied soundtrack of any 16-bit game ever and to deny that is madness. There are many good songs to enjoy from the DKC theme to Simian Segue and then there’s. And there’s the remixes from SSBB including Jungle Level, Jungle Level Ver.2 (crazy) and Bramble Blast to name a few.

Favourite song –  DK Island Swing:

This is just my jam yo. When you first start a level and see the environment and experience the gameplay for the first time, it is a beautiful feeling, and this song ushers you into that world with its gorgeous sound with great beats, piano-like notes and cheeky yet melancholy sound. It’s upbeat at first and builds only to then break down into a quiet little tune before cycling around again.

Kirby

This is a series that while it has a dedicated fanbase, seems to be snubbed by the rest of the world of gaming. Maybe because some oft he games are a bit easy or maybe it’s because they can’t handle the cuteness of Kirby. Either way it doesn’t matter. The music is still awesome. Trying to pick an individual song is HARD because there are loads to consider. I do like Green Greens from Super Smash Bros. Melee and I love the remixes of Gourmet Race, Butter Building, The Legendary Air Ride Machine (gorgeous) and Checker Knights from SSBB.

Favourite song – Fountain of Dreams:

While I do love the Green Greens original from Kirby’s Dream Land, this song from Melee is one of the most beautiful pieces of music I have known since I was twelve and was one of the few songs that opened my eyes to the genre of classical music.

So there you have it, my first five picks. Tell me if you’re familiar, like or dislike my choices in the comments below. Also if they’re any that you’d like to see in the future let me know. Other than that make sure to come back for some more music madness in the world of video games. Bye bye for now! 😀

 

Month of Nostalgic Game Reviews: Tetris (Game Boy)

Howdy ladies and gents and welcome to Day #4 of my Month of Nostalgic Game Reviews where I’ll be giving you reviews of some of my most nostalgic video games from my childhood. And today we have one of the most classic, legendary and most addictive games in history; Tetris (the Game Boy edition).

This is one of those games that truly doesn’t need any introduction. I mean everyone’s played it right? It’s a proven fact. Everyone’s mother, father, brother and sister, auntie, uncle, granddad and grandmother and your friends have played this game in some way shape or form. I mean it’s frigging Tetris. It’s been everywhere since the mid-1980s and if you owned a Game Boy in the past that I’m sure you had Tetris, I mean it was the mandatory game that was in everyone’s collection. All I can say is that if you’ve never experienced the addictive madness that is Tetris then I say for shame!

So what is Tetris? Well it’s a puzzle game where you take blocks and drop them into the playing field to make lines. There are seven different types of blocks to use. In order for you to advance you have to clear a set goal or clear a certain number of lines before moving onto the next level when the goal number reaches zero. As you move up levels the game speeds up requiring faster thinking and react times.

I first came across Tetris on the Game Boy and it was one of those kinds of games you couldn’t put down. It was so simple in design that anyone could play, but it was hard to master. Once the levels started to speed up it was all about seeing how far you could get in the game before you became overwhelmed and got a screen full of blocks. I just loved playing this game; I remembered exactly how it looked and the music, damn. The music in Tetris is so brutal and legendary that it’s been covered so many times over the years that it’s awesome. One my favourite versions of the “Type A” tune is the version that Doctor P did and my favourite version of “Type B” has to be the version form Super Smash Bros. Brawl, it’s just pure awesomeness! It was a great game to play as a kid because it required a lot of focus and when playing around your family or friends you want to see how far you can go and get a score that they can’t beat. Though as much as I loved the Game Boy edition I would say there is another I version of Tetris I love more so… Tetris DS!

The best version of Tetris in my opinion yo 😀

When I got this game for my DS I became addicted, all of the new modes and Nintendo-themed levels and visual and audio presentation on these new modes was insane and so nostalgic! I honestly played for ages and playing the Metroid-themed one wasn’t even proper Tetris but that mode was honestly the most fun out of all of the entire game was definitely the most addictive!

Anyway to summarize Tetris is a game that anyone can play, but its great fun especially when multiplayer is involved. Competitive Tetris is like Mario Kart, you will fall out with your friends and family over it if you lose lol. Anyway I just wanted to say that I loved Tetris as a kid and still love it thanks to the DS version which I highly recommend yo! 😀

Well that’s the 4th review done, check back tomorrow for some more nostalgic games people. 🙂

 

The Brutality of Quasar!

It’s totally amazing how something as simple a game of Quasar (Laser Tag) can become so much more, and then turn into something out of this world… Given the right circumstances. And luckily enough we were under some of those “circumstances” yesterday when me and several other people ventured through the streets of Sheffield to the local Quasar place for some good old fun. There was so many of us, but we all got in with a game of 17 people versus 17 other people on the red and blue teams. We got the suits on, picked our sides and were told the rules of the game. Most it was obvious and standard procedure, though there was a funny rule that was mentioned was when we were told that “This isn’t Call of Duty, so don’t take it too seriously.” And everybody just laughed and roared in excitement, so you could already tell that the atmosphere had changed to ‘First Person Shooter mode’. We then proceeded upstairs and while heading up someone said exactly what I was thinking, that we all looked like people from Tron: Legacy and that we were heading to “The Grid”. At that point I was totally thinking “Sweet!”

To be honest going into Quasar I felt our battles were going to be as brutal as the disc wars from Tron: Legacy.

So we loaded our guns, walked into the dark, low lit room and started getting into position with a mix of excitement and fear in our minds. That’s the impression that I got personally and what I could see in eyes of my comrades (the red team). So then around 5 minutes later the other team (blue team) came in and the shooting began and I lost a life almost immediately after it started and I was like “What the hell!?!” So then most our team defended our forte from enemy fire while taking out any enemy who ran into our side. We defended pretty well, but the blue team had mad tactics and were pretty crazy and moved around the area in a kamikaze-like fashion, so it was hard to read their movements. Sometimes they just came running in groups and shot down our base with only 3 people. It was mental! And there I was running around like a nutcase trying to avoid enemy fire, but also just going crazy at the same time. I went over-the-top with the acting, yelling all over the place and telling my teammate that I got hit and I was injured. It was hilarious. And all the time there was Daft Punk playing in the background from the Tron: Legacy Soundtrack, it felt so good and felt like it fit into our scenario so well.

Daft Punk you saved my life again! 😀

And so the battle continued and at one point I went corrupt with power and went on a shooting streak and actually shot down a few people and I felt incredible, but then got hit soon after 😦 Eventually the battle ended and the blue team won, much to my dismay; however I felt obliged to do well for the next round. So feeling lonely on the red team I converted to the blue team with the rest of my mates and hoped to bring a new type of pain on a different team.

And so… Round 2 Began!!

With faster shooting ammo and much swifter settings put in place we went in and strangely enough the Daft Punk sounds had left the stereo, but what was playing at the time was even more incredible, it was a heavy metal cover of the Lance Theme from Pokémon Red & Blue. It sounded amazing and I was freaking out. However amidst all of this nerdy freaking out I was getting destroyed, I was losing lives even faster than I before which bugged me immensely. I was even getting hit while behind walls, I was like “What is happening!?” So after around 3 minutes I just gave up and became even more corrupt than the last round and ran out to shoot anyone on the red team, I even ran into their base area and got a few hits in here and there. But unfortunately I was still getting owned and losing lives fast. While this was going on the music that was playing via the stereos was awesome! Firstly I could hear the song “Encounter” from the first Metal Gear Solid and people were getting well happy and then there was the classic battle music from Final Fantasy VII, when that came on I was totally living in memories and felt totally energized to defend our base.

But then the unimaginable came happened… They played the main song from the first live-action Mortal Kombat film. And everybody on the blue team went mad! Me included.

Mortal Kombat FTW again, it’s totally invincible!

We all just started dancing and raving out to the music! Regardless of whether the enemy was firing at us or not we danced away. Obviously we did our job and got shooting, but we were mainly dancing the entire time. Whether we were on our own or in small group, we just ran to where the party was and just started dancing and giving high fives. It even came to the point where there was a massive group of us dancing and then we lead a charge into enemy territory dancing the whole way, it was just incredible. And not long after the battle ended. And when the our team (blue team) saw the score we thought we’d won by a landslide score, however it was misleading scoreboard as we found out that the red team had acquired around 400 more points than we had, hell even my score was worse than the last time. Even though I had a ridiculous amount of fun bouncing along to the sounds of Mortal Kombat, the fact that I lost twice on both teams lead me to believe that I shall never succeed in any form Quasar lol. Oh well at least I still have gaming and sketching 😀

Well that’s it for a another blog post, hope you enjoyed reading it ladies and gents. Peace out! 🙂