61 Frames Per Second

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• Infinite Mega Man 9: Composer Ippo Yamada Talks Living Up to a Serious Musical Pedigree

  You would think that, two weeks out from its release, we would cool our metaphorical jets and stop talking about Mega Man 9 quite so much here at 61 Frames Per Second. You would be wrong. Dead wrong. So wrong, that after you thought this thought, we would show up at your house, defeat you in single combat, and get your secret weapon to put to our own heroic uses. Probably not, actually. You are a powerful robot master, dear reader. I would need many energy tanks to take you down, but frankly I’m not made of bolts, so defeat’s inevitable. Let us agree, instead, to ride my robot dog into the sunset with one another and continue to discuss the most glorious and improbable creation that is Mega Man 9. More specifically, let us discuss its quality collection of crunchy jams, that soundtrack that hops between thematic reference and impressive original melody writing with veritable ease. Read More... Posted Oct 06 2008, 05:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, capcom, ost, mega man, ippo yamada

• OST: DuckTales

  Licensed games have never really worked for me. Somehow having an explicit tie to another medium damages the game's claim to its own reality; the sense of place that makes a game unique is diminished if you know it's just a digital recreation of a film set. Games even seem to lose something when I find out they're based on some obscure manga, even if I'll never read it. This may make me crazy — it's been said before. But in any case, adaptations from the NES era could occasionally circumvent this effect. Maybe it's because the technology of the time had a naturally abstracting effect. You could at least count on a game, whatever the source, to have more architecture than plot — which was good, because if you'd wanted plot, you would've just watched or read whatever the game was based on in the first place. Moreover, since pulling music from the source usually wasn't an option, you sometimes (if you were lucky) got a delicious batch of tunes, which always helped give the game a feel of its own. Here I'm thinking of Yoshihiro Sakaguchi's score for DuckTales, probably the best of Capcom's late-'80s Disney adaptations. With the exception of the DuckTales theme — which plays only over the title screen and the ending — the DuckTales score is completely original. And with all due respect to the beloved cartoon, the game soundtrack does a better job suggesting globetrotting adventure and exploration. Read More... Posted Aug 06 2008, 06:00 PM by Peter Smith with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: peter smith, capcom, ost, chrono trigger, mega man ii, yasunori mitsuda, yoshihiro sakaguchi, ducktales, to far away times

• OST: Bubble Bobble

  It’s strange how Bubble Bobble, one of the mid-80s’ most bizarre games (which is saying something), has endured over the past couple of decades. Bub and Bob, the young men transformed into bubble-vomiting dinosaurs, have kept their co-operative antics running across almost every console under the sun. They even crossed over into whole other games (read: the totally awesome Bust-A-Move). I don’t think it’s the adorable character designs that have kept these icons in people’s minds. It’s not the novel mechanics, the creepy multiple endings. I think it’s this insipid song that plays through the entire god damn game. Read More... Posted Jul 09 2008, 06:00 PM by John Constantine with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, ost, bust a move, fukio mitsuji, bubble bobble

• OST: Chrono Cross

  Many weeks back, when 61 Frames Per Second was still being molded into what you’re reading now, the OST feature was conceived (at least by me) as nothing more than a venue for talking about Yasunori Mitsuda. Music was the source of my first real emotional engagement with videogames; the frenetic excitement of early Mega Man soundtracks and the somber coda of Mega Man 2’s ending, the desperate minor key of stage 5 in Bionic Commando. These melodies sparked my imagination, created a foothold for my experience with these works beyond the visceral rush of successfully playing them. But it was Mitsuda’s work in Chrono Trigger that made me, for the first time, physically put down the controller just to listen. It was "Guardia Castle", a booming march whose synthesized horns implied fading grandeur more than patriotism. I sat on the floor of my bedroom, eyes closed, and let the song loop for close to twenty minutes. Mitsuda gravitates towards the same styles in his game soundtracks, specifically jazz fusion (Chrono Trigger), punctuated baroque symphony orchestration (Chrono Trigger, Xenosaga), and celtic (Xenogears, Tsugunai). But my personal favorite Mitsuda work, the soundtrack to Trigger’s divisive sequel Chrono Cross, is his most adventurous and strange. Read More... Posted Jul 02 2008, 11:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: john constantine, ost, chrono trigger, xenosaga, chrono cross, xenogears, yasunori mitsuda

• Make the Music With Your Games, Kids!

  Written by Derrick Sanskrit Yes, I'm paraphrasing Biz Markie in that title. Thanks for noticing. It should be obvious to readers of 61FPS that I love games where play and music collide. A personal favorite of mine,  Gunpey DS, is an engaging puzzler, but I would be lying if I said that the primary reason I picked it up wasn't its built-in sequencer (click the bottom-most button on the left hand side of this page to see it. No YouTube vids, somehow.) Well, after a year-and-a-half of misuse, it may well soon be time to give up my copy of Gunpey, because Korg DS-10 is coming out soon. Read More... Posted Jun 18 2008, 12:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: alternate soundtrack, derrick sanskrit, ost, warioware, gunpey, korg ds-10, parappa the rabber, band brothers, rhythm tengoku

• OST: Soul Blazer

  As we've noted before, Kurt Kalata's Hardcore Gaming 101 is an invaluable resource, with thoughtful, graphic-heavy reviews of dozens of underappreciated games. I do have to take issue, though, with one of David DeRienzo's comments on the soundtrack to the poetic SNES classic Soul Blazer. "The dungeons have this crazy '80s synth thing going on. Some of them are slightly catchy, but most are just silly and cheesy to the point of being laughable. I was just waiting for Rick James to start singing during a few of them." Um, and? Read More... Posted Jun 04 2008, 03:00 PM by Peter Smith with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: peter smith, actraiser, ost, hg101, tim follin, soul blazer, spider-man and the x-men, kurt kalata, toejam and earl, david derienzo, funk, rick james, yukihide takekawa

• OST: Everyday Shooter

  It might be cheating to spotlight Jonathan Mak’s Everyday Shooter in our OST feature. After all, Mak’s guitar instrumentals aren’t used to provide color and tone to Everyday Shooter’s gameplay; they are the gameplay. Yes, Everyday Shooter is a twin-stick shooting game in the tradition of Smash TV and Geometry Wars but it is also, as Mak puts it, an album. Each of the eight songs is a distinct composition the player influences by their actions, whether in success or failure. Survival brings evolving melody while death brings a dissonant clang. The sweet melancholy of “Porco in the Sky”, the vicious roar of “Bits of Fury”; Everyday Shooters' songs endure in the mind beyond play but listening to them, engaging the music itself, demands play. While Mak’s game is often compared to Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s games Rez and Lumines, Mizuguchi’s brand of synesthesetics is still rooted more in gameplay tropes than in musical traditions. Thanks to its structure and adherence to form, Shooter creates a musical expression unique to both games and pop music. Hit the jump for a listen and look at "Porco in the Sky", the fourth track on Everyday Shooter. Read More... Posted May 28 2008, 11:00 AM by John Constantine with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: ost, everyday shooter, jonathan mak, queasy games

• OST: Rule of Rose

  Horror lives and dies by its ability to create an atmosphere that unsettles the basic human state; it must confine, pursue, and isolate. It must be desperate, wrong. Even more so than in other mediums, sound is essential to horror in games since it must constantly envelope its audience in a way that keeps them moving through the world. A horror movie takes its audience with it but a horror game must rely on its audience’s willingness to keep going of their own accord and its aural landscape must antagonize and sooth a player in equal measure. Music itself typically takes a back seat to ambient noise. Akira Yamaoka is the torch bearer for this genre maxim. His work in the Silent Hill series, while not devoid of melody or traditional song structure, is predominantly dissonant squalls, distortion laden static, and the thick organic sounds of things that go bump in the night. Punchline’s Rule of Rose, a cousin of Silent Hill in the horror genre, takes a decidedly different route in creating a soundscape of dread and wrongness. Incidental sound takes a backseat to Yutaka Minobe’s chamber music score. Read More... Posted May 21 2008, 03:00 PM by John Constantine with | with no comments Filed under: john constantine, ost, silent hill, angelo badalamenti, rule of rose, yutaka minobe, akira yamaoka

• OST: Treasure of the Rudras

  OST reviews original soundtracks, arranged albums, remixes, and game related music. Everyone hates Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, and despite my nostalgia-warped fondness for the game, I admit it's a pretty lame addition to the series. The 1992 "beginner's RPG" — known insultingly in Japan as Final Fantasy USA — has a parodically generic storyline, preschool gameplay and bland-as-hell graphics. But there's one thing to love about it: the soundtrack. Even Mystic Quest's most fiery detractors tip their hats to Ryuji Sasai's ass-whooping hard-rock score, which pushes the SNES's sound chip to its limits of its metalosity. Sasai must've pissed off one of his bosses, because the few games he scored — including Mystic Quest, Final Fantasy Legend III, and our subject for today, Treasure of the Rudras — were all kind of stinkers, by general public consensus. Maybe that contributed to his early exit from the game industry; he's currently playing bass in a Queen tribute band. Treasure of the Rudras never made it over to the U.S., so its soundtrack is even more obscure than Mystic Quest's. But if you've got a yen for some choice, melodic hard rock, it's a real buried, uh, treasure. Read More... Posted May 14 2008, 01:00 PM by Peter Smith with | with no comments Filed under: rudra no hihou, final fantasy mystic quest, treasure of the rudras, ost, final fantasy legend iii, ryuji sasai, music