Welcome to my personal blog for retro video gaming, movie and television reviews as well as a lot of other junk from the 80's and 90's. Thanks for stopping by! When you're done reading check out my webpage to the right for my art and other projects.
Man, it's a hot Summer this year. In case you're hiding in the AC to beat the heat, here are some summer themed video game tunes you can enjoy indoors and still keep that summer spirit. Okay so some aren't exactly Summer themed per se but they remind me of Summer for personal/nostalgic reasons. What are some of your favorites?
You can't go wrong with anything from Out Run.
Speaking of driving games. Daytona USA's sound track is a summer favorite of mine.
Marina Madness from Knuckles Chaotix is easy to get stuck in your head on a relaxing boat ride.
This is what it sounds like to surf from the Florida Keys back up to New York.
The entire Super Mario Land sound track is a bit different than the typical music found in Mario games, giving it a sort of summer vacation vibe to me personally. That and because I played it so much in those long car rides to the beach!
Got a summer carnival on your agenda this year? Maybe it'll remind you of this.
Finally, wrap up the day with a good nights sleep to some Aquatic Ambience from Donkey Kong Country (seriously there's a 10 hour extended one out there).
Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're enjoying your summer!
Summer time is here and it's a hot one! It's the best time of year to run and jump and swim and play, or row and go on trips. My personal favorite way to beat the summer heat is to swim. But what do you do when you don't have access to your favorite way to stay cool? If you're reading this blog, chances are your last resort is usually hiding out in the ac or underground lair to enjoy some video games.
But just because you're protecting your delicate nerdy skin from the deadly UV rays of the Sun doesn't mean you have to miss out on some summer fun. There are tons of games out there with summer time stages and themes.
Here are some of my favorite video game music examples, in no particular order, that capture that summer time spirit for me.
X-Men: Children of the Atom - Iceman's theme/Ice On the Beach
No one knows how to stay cool more than Iceman of the X-men. In this case he chose to do so by creating a giant glacier at the beach.
Sonic CD - Palmtree Panic Zone theme
Whether you prefer the US/EU or Japanese soundtrack, both Palmtree Panic cuts fit the tropical resort like landscape of Palmtree Panic perfectly.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project - Scene 1 theme
This upbeat tune sets the stage as the turtles are attacked by the Foot Clan while on vacationing in Miami.
Super Mario Sunshine - Delfino Plaza theme
...and pretty much the entire soundtrack in general strike that Summer time cord.
Streets of Rage 2 - Wave 131
Axel and the gang take the battle to the beach!
Sonic Adventure - Emerald Coast theme
This high energy theme is perfect for racing down the fictional Emerald Coast outside of Station Square.
Mega Man 8 - Aqua Man's theme
This smooth yet upbeat tune is perfect for an underwater adventure.
Knuckles Chaotix - Door Into Summer
Not only does this theme have Summer in the name, but actually makes for a great Summer theme too. Really the entire game, with its amusement park island setting, makes for the perfect Summer time adventure.
I actually found this list to be a bit of a struggle to create once I started digging through my library for appropriate themes. Fact is, there are a plethora of Summer themed video games and stages, many of which I may have failed to rediscover that definitely belong on this list.
Halloween is my all time favorite holiday and so of course I really enjoy games, stages and music with a Halloween theme.
So, in no particular order, I'd like to present my favorite video game themes that I feel capture the spirit of Halloween:
Castlevania series
It'd be very easy, and typical, to fill the list with Castlevania tracks, because let's face it, Castlevania IS the game series that captures the Halloween vibe strongest in general. There's no way I would just leave it off the list though, so instead I'm going to just list my personal favorite Castlevania tracks.
Castlevania Symphony of the Night: Dracula's Castle
Akumajou Dracula III: Mad Forest
Castlevania HD - Simon Belmont Theme (I actually like this one better than the SNES original)
Castlevania II: Simon's Quest - Bloody Tears and Monster Dance. I feel like these two are obligatory for any Halloween or Castlevania list.
Sonic the Hedgehog series
Sonic Adventure 2, Pumpkin Hill Theme - One of the few Halloween rap songs that I know of, fits perfectly against the jack-o-lantern filled landscape of Pumpkin Hill
Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Mystic Cave Zone - The Mystic Caves themselves are particularly Halloween related but the theme certainly sounds like it.
Mega Man 7
Shade Man theme - The perfect theme for Mega Man's first encounter with a Dracula/Vampire-esque robot master.
Super Mario World
Ghost House Theme - Also fits as the theme song to anything spooky related.
Resident Evil 2
Police Station, Main Hall Theme - This theme has a sort of tranquility to it, in that you just escaped a city of Zombies into what is hopefully a safe haven. But at the same time it's chilling enough to remind you that you're not out of the woods yet.
Metroid Series
Super Metroid, Item room theme - This might sound strange to some, but there has always been something creepy about playing Metroid for me. Maybe it's the isolationism and claustrophobia that comes from being trapped in the depths of an alien world with no human contact.
The Metroid series in its entirety has astounding music composition that always builds up the atmosphere of whatever area you're about to explore next. A few themes have stood out as particularly creepy over time for me though and that's the item rooms.
Metroid, Item room theme - This one in particular gave me chills while playing my nes late at night. It's the perfect theme for being gored by an unimaginable alien creature in the dark. Those Chozo statues creeped me out on nes too.
Phantasy Star series
Phantasy Star Online, Weird Night or Halloween Lobby Theme - This was the theme that took over the lobbies during the Halloween season. It puts a nice Halloween spin on the typical PSO lobby tunes.
---------------------------------------
And there you have it for my favorite Halloween related video game themes. Most of them anyway. What are some of your favorites?
With winter in full swing, sometimes I find myself craving winter stages in my favorite games. Strange, because you'd think I would seek something with a warmer theme during these chilly days to evoke a false feeling of warmth on myself but that's not the case. Typically I tend to prefer ice themed segments to fire or lava type themes anyway.
It feels nostalgic to me to play ice themed stages in the evening when there's snow on the ground and no where to go. It reminds me of being snowed in as a kid, you know, when you'd like to have been enjoying the snow some more but night had already fallen.
Anyway, I was thinking today about what it takes to make a good ice stage. To be honest, many ice or snow themed stages in games are terrible, with icey platforms causing you to slip and slide, the risk of equipment being frozen or even being frozen yourself, on top of the overwhelmingly chilly atmosphere that goes along with such a stage.
One thing that redeems such experiences for me is a well done music piece to compliment the stage. Below are what I consider my top ten ice or winter video game themes. This selection represents those themes catchy enough to keep me coming back to those treacherous ice stages.
Note that these are in no particular order. I like them all so well I just found it too difficult to decide which I like best.
Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow - Pitch Black Intrusion - This track blends the haunting atmosphere of a Castlevania with a winter chill.
Mega Man X4 - Frost Walrus theme - This theme captures a below zero underground Mavrick base perfectly.
Super Mario Bros 3 - Ice World theme - If there's one theme out there that screams frozen tundra it's this one.
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Ice Cap Zone Act 1 - Another great upbeat Sonic theme with an arctic chill. I also believe Michael Jackson had something to do with this tune...
Donkey Kong Country - Snow theme - I find this theme haunting and that it quite effectively makes me feel cold.
Mega Man 1 - Ice Man theme - It's an 8-bit blizzard!
Phantasy Star Zero - Snowflake - A great and chilling theme for exploring a frozen tundra with friends.
Metroid Prime - Phendrana Drifts- Now you know what winter sounds like on an alien world.
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 2 - White Park Act 1 - This track reminds me of a winter carnival I used to attend as a kid.
Ninja Gaiden 2 - Act 2-2 - It's debatable whether or not this is actually snow blowing in this windy stage, but for me it always was. Not only does this theme work perfectly with the look of the howling wind and snow but it works as an awesome action theme for just about any kind of Ninja Gaiden stage.
There you have it. I hope you've enjoyed listening and reminiscing with my list of favorite winter themes.
One thing that helps make or break a traditional style turn based RPG for me is the battle music. I mean, if you're going to be doing a lot of fighting then the battle music has to be good right? Fortunately this is one thing most RPGs actually get right, but I wanted to share a few examples of what I feel are the best battle themes of all time.
A good battle theme for me needs to be upbeat of course, and follow a score that can convey a struggle or challenge for the characters. Double points go to those games that actually have different themes depending on how well you're doing or how far you've progressed in the game.
Below, in no particular order, are my favorite battle music themes from turn based RPGs:
Chrono Trigger main battle theme: Whether you're fighting those Imp things in Guardia forest or storming Magus' castle, this theme always sounds like the battle is of epic importance.
Suikoden Confrontation with monsters: I love how at first this theme sounds like you've been ambushed or something and the party is in serious trouble and eventually changes to a sort of triumphant tune that suggest you're making a comeback. When the song is ready to loop again it sounds like things are swinging in your enemies favor again.
Phantasy Star IV battle theme: This theme screams mutant/cyborg/demon that's ready to savage your body and make a meal out of you if you don't stay on your toes!
Phantasy Star II Rise or Fall: These theme actually evokes the same feelings in me as the Chrono Trigger one. Appropriately titled Rise or Fall, it makes every battle sound of epic importance.
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest: This music in this game was too epic sounding for the silly game itself. It makes all the battles feel like serious business indeed.
Final Fantasy IV: This theme never lets you forget that you've embarked on the ultimate quest.
So those are my particular favorites. What are some of yours? This is only the tip of the iceberg of battle themes out there. I'd love to hear what other people out there feel are the best in their opinions.
Time for some more video game tracks from my childhood that seem to pop into my mind at the most random of times. These are some that creep in when I'm not in the best of places.
For the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is any DMV location:
For any not so nice gas station, or at Walmart around 3 in the morning when the Morlocks start crawling from their hiding places:
For the back warehouse/retention area at work. It's a large unfinished portion of the building where extra/old office furniture and stuff gets stored. Seems like a nice place for some Gremlins to dwell.
Bonus:
Thanks to Street Fighter 2, as a kid I decided that Brazil in it's entirety was made up of docks and grass huts. Anything mentioning Brazil in the slightest triggered the following obligatory theme:
Here are just some random thoughts that crossed my mind today. I may continue to write these if they spark conversation.
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was created as a sort of beginners Final Fantasy to introduce new players to the series and for those who may find the other Final Fantasy titles at the time to be too difficult. It shows too, the game is really easy and with only 2 members to the party at any given time it severely lacks in depth in comparison to a traditional Final Fantasy. But again this is what they were going for. So why should you ever play this? The music in this game is awesome! Especially the battle and boss themes (give a listen to the Youtube links below). Even if you never play it, give the soundtrack a listen sometime, you wont be disappointed. The story isn't all that bad either...
Protip: Heal the last boss. Seriously, his class is Zombie, so use your best cures on him to watch him crumble from massive 99999999 hits. Stupid easy.
Where the hell is Sonic CD? Seriously why haven't there been any plans to port this great game to Xbox Live Arcade and PSN? All of the 16-bit era Sonic games are available on multiple platforms but this game but the last time this title was available was on the Sonic Gems collection for Gamecube. I'd love for this game to be available to the masses.
I shouldn't have to explain why this game is so great if you like the 16 bit Sonic games. It's more of that great stuff but even faster.
I wouldn't care if they do upscaled HD graphics or not, I just really hope that they would consider an option to play with either the NA or Japanese soundtrack (the Japanese soundtrack sounds a bit more like traditional Sonic music and seems to fit the stages better in my opinion).
Come on Sega!
The Sonic Generations Demo is available now but only for 18 more days. The demo shows you the "classic Sonic" side of the gameplay by letting you play through the first act of Green Hill (assuming they will do acts again). The physics are a lot closer to the classic games than Sonic 4 was. The jump physics actually feel pretty close to Sonic CD's. Maybe that's why they used the Sonic CD jumping sound effect. I also love how you can press the x/square button at any time during a run to make Sonic rev up the spin dash rather than having to stop completely and duck, though you can still do that if you want to. It keeps the action at a more consistent pace.
Anyway, it's not fair to go into a full on review game as this is still a work in progress. I can say that the stage that's available is really fun though and I'm pretty sold on the game now just from this. But don't take my word for it, go get the demo today, it's free but for a limited time only!
Megaman Universe was unfortunately canceled earlier this year. Some people aren't giving up though. I just read this morning that some people are not ready for Capcom to let it go. Check out this story here: http://www.themmnetwork.com/2011/06/25/megafying-your-wear-to-support-mega-man-universe/ Here's hoping it'll make a difference, but it'll probably take many many people to convince Capcom. My hope is that The Mega Man Network will get something going for Western fans to participate in.
Has gaming affected the way you think or even how you act? Before I share, this isn't going to be one of those posts attempting to explore the long term affects of gaming on behavior or anything. I'm more interested in the quirky ways gaming may have snuck into your life.
Here are a few of mine.
Street Fighter 2010, get out of my head Whenever I read or hear someone say "a little background" the Street Fighter 2010 opening theme immediately begins to play in my head.
Back in my school days, whenever we had a field trip I would find myself pretending that I had some sort of alternate agenda for going, a secret mission of sorts. Sometimes I would try to sneak away from the group to try and get into areas where we weren't particularly allowed. The coolest thing I ever achieved from this was when we were at an aquarium and I found my way to an area where a woman was preparing some kind of food for the fish and I got to chat with her for a second. Usually a theme from Chrono Trigger would accompany on adventures like this, such as the factory ruins theme or the forest theme.
Sometimes when I'm putting things in my messenger bag I try to envision what the inventory screen might look like for the bag.
For some reason when I pick up my car keys I kind of think "got keys" or "found car keys" as if there was some sort of on screen text. I seem to only do this with my keys, lol.
Sound strange? Perhaps. I'm anxious to see if anyone else does anything similar.
Welcome to my personal blog for retro video gaming, movie and television reviews as well as a lot of other junk from the 80's and 90's. Thanks for stopping by! When you're done reading check out my webpage to the right for my art and other projects.
Whenever I read or hear someone say "a little background" the