Game Music Now

Game Music Now! The Game - Darius Gaiden The Track - End Titles The Composer - Zuntata I might be taking a social media break for awhile, so I’ll just post this beautifully haunting song in case I decide on it. Really, Darius Gaiden is a great soundtrack is great all around, one of Taito’s best. As for now, see you when I see you.

Game Music Now! The Game - Mega Man 3 The Track - Wily Fortress 3 The Composers - Yasuaki Fujita and Harumi Fujita Just thought today would be a good day to post some dread music. Ee-yup.

Game Music Now! The Game - X-Men: Mind Games The Track - Unknown (levels 1, 2, and 3) The Composer - Jesper Kyd Jesper Kyd created some of the greatest music on the Genesis for my money, and he would have had a great soundtrack for the 32X if X-Men: Mind Games weren’t scrapped. An extremely rough demo of the game exists, although maybe “demo” is a bit generous. It barely qualifies as an alpha build, as only the Hand stages have ninja enemies in them and Bishop is the only playable character. It’s an interesting look at what could have been, but I guess the 32X was on the outs around the time this was being planned.

Game Music Now! The Game - Turrican 2: The Final Fight The Track - The Wall (please don’t sue, Roger Waters) The Composer - Chris Huelsbeck It’s Turrican, the game everyone knows best from the Amiga. I can’t think of a lot to say, so enjoy!

Game Music Now! The Game - Tecmo Knight/Wild Fang The Track - Stage 3 The Composers - Mikio Saito and Mayuko Okamura Here’s a somewhat obscure beat-em-up by Tecmo that’s worth a play. It’s quite gory, what with all sorts of beastmen’s heads turning bloody until you punch them off. It’s a strange game that’s worth your time, and it’s certainly better than the arcade Ninja Gaiden. It doesn’t do that weird slow autoscrolling thing, for starters.

Game Music Now! The Game - Global Gladiators The Track - Bonus Level The Composer - Tommy Tallarico That’s enough creepy stuff for now. Enjoy this nineties-as-all-get-out bonus track for one of at least two McDonald’s-based games for the Genesis. I’m wagering it’s less good than the one Treasure made starring Ronald, but likely not as bad a game as it may seem. At least its music is rad.

Game Music Now! The Game - Splatterhouse 3 The Track - Unknown title (plays for stage 2-2 and 5-3) The Composer - “Milky” Eiko Kaneda Halloween may be over, but why not one more creepy track for now. Gave Splatterhouse 2 another playthrough after Castlevania 3 yesterday, and it may be a blood simple game, but dang if it ain’t fun. The music for the series has always been strange and sometimes groovy, and this is both strange and groovy if you ask me.

Game Music Now! The Game - Earthbound The Track - Heartless Hotel The Composers - Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka This is the track that gave me the extreme willies as a kid. So much, that when I played Earthbound again, I’d mute it when I came to this part. Just something about distorting a familiar catchy theme makes it sound like the work of the Devil. A bit of an odd pick for most traumatizing music, but I stand by it. Have a fair Halloween.

Game Music Now! The Game - Doom 64 The Track - Staging Area The Composer - Aubrey Hodges I still feel Doom 64 was the Doom 3 of its time, and the game released several years later as “Doom 3″ is more a re-imagining of the original series. At least, I am glad more people nowadays are exalting Doom 64, due in part to its much more unsettling atmosphere and Aubrey Hodges’ ambient Hell soundtrack. I couldn’t decide on which track to draw out, so I just went with the first in hopes it’ll disturb and/or inspire anyone.

Game Music Now! The Game - The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening The Track - Southern Face Shrine The Composers - Minako Hamano and Kozue Ishikawa Can’t say a lot about Link’s Awakening, one of the best Zelda games for my money. I’ll just say this music always unsettled me, playing during the revelation of the game’s big twist. It’s... sad.

Game Music Now! The Game - Streets of Rage 3 The Track - Bad Ending The Composers - Yuzo Koshiro and Motohiro Kawashima  This is unlike anything else I’ve ever heard in Streets of Rage. It sounds like you’re being consumed by the base essences of failure and despair, and all you hear is this mangled mishmash of notes to emphasize how badly you screwed up. You’re a lot less likely to hear this horrorshow in the fairer Japanese version of the game, that’s for sure.

Game Music Now! The Game - Hotel Dusk: Room 215 The Track - The Last Sleep The Composer - Satoshi Okubo I’m going to file this one into being seasonally appropriate for October. It’s beautiful in a haunting and unsettling way. This plays during the last major puzzle in the game, and dear lord, I was creeped out when I got to there. Don’t want to say much more for those who haven’t played Hotel Dusk yet, which I highly advise if you like adventure games in the least. I still need to get on its not-released-in-North-America sequel Last Window myself.

Game Music Now! The Game - Super Metroid The Track - Maridia 2 (Sandy Desert) The Composers - Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano The Metroid series has no wealth of unsettling musical accompaniments, so one of them had to be posted for Halloween. Here’s one that makes me think I’ve discovered a dead body and I’m panicking trying to figure out what to do with it. Thankfully, a situation I’ve never been in, but a track like this is more than enough for me.

Game Music Now! The Game - The Binding of Isaac The Track - Apostate The Composer - Danny Baranowsky I haven’t played it in awhile, but many hours have I spent attempting to do well on the Binding of Isaac and not always succeeding. While I think Rebirth is excellent and its new soundtrack is quite good, Danny B’s original is hard to beat. I’ve always liked the track that plays when you end up in The Womb. It makes you sound alone. Lost in the flesh. Your cries die at the walls. Hope is fleeting. Your life is not far behind. Mmm... whoops, zoned out a bit.

Game Music Now! The Game - Final Fantasy VII The Track - Who Are You The Composer - Nobuo Uematsu I remember posting Lunatic Pandora at least two weeks ago, possibly more, but I’d argue THIS might be the most disturbing track from any FF game, maybe except for Trail of Blood, also from 7. Say what you will about 7 (and so much is still being said about 7 today), but I feel most would agree it’s the most horrifying of the series by far, mostly due to Jenova and the freaky crap that monster’s responsible for (like those awful mutants in the flashback Mako Reactor, ugh). In fact, this music plays when Cloud finds the headless Jenova at Shinra. It’s the sort of music that makes you think you’re going insane, and he sure did do that.