61 Frames Per Second : alternate soundtrack

Alternate Soundtrack: Adventure vs. Adventure

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Longtime readers had to know this one was coming. Pitting the legendary Atari 2600 classic Adventure against the self-titled album from an electronic musician of the same name was all too easy. What's more, it's all too appropriate.

Warren Robinett's groundbreaking Adventure features absolutely no music and only the occassional sound effect for picking up and dropping objects, slaying or being attacked by dragons, and returning the chalice to the gold castle. There's a lot of silence, which is good for atmosphere but bad for fun. Let's see what we can do about that.

Oh yeah, much better. Adventure (aka Benny Boeldt)'s music adds a whole new dimension of grandeur to the lonely pixel's quest, and the electronic bleeps, bloops, clicks and hums blend beautifully with the bright blocky colors of the Atari 2600.

As always, feel free to leave your alternate soundtracks in the comments!

Previously:
The Original Adventure, Now Portable
Alternate Soundtrack: Noby Noby Boy vs. Daft Punk
Alternate Soundtrack: Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Ratatat

Alternate Soundtrack: Noby Noby Boy vs. Daft Punk

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:00:00 GMT

As John previously mentioned, Spring is in the air here in New York. Coats and coffee have been replaced by t-shirts and...well... some people still have coffee. I've been rocking the cranberry juice myself. With all of this new life in the air, I find myself returning to my summer lover, Alternate Soundtrack, and where better to begin than with Bandai Namco's newest Springtime insta-classic, Noby Noby Boy.

As I'm sure you know, because you're all just that well-informed, oh wonderful 61fpsers, Keita Takahashi's Noby Noby Boy is a game all about relaxed play. In fact, the game's title is a pun on the japanese words for "loose" and "stretch," much like how the original Katamari Damacy was a visual pun in that the two kanji were nearly identical, but I digress. While Katamari was notorious for its ridiculously catchy and enthralling soundtrack, Noby's is much more subdued. Introductory tuba and bells clear the path for sedate acoustic guitar plucking. That's about it. Thankfully, Noby uses just about every feature of the PS3's Cross Media Browser, including the ability to play music from the hard drive, allowing you to make your own soundtrack with incredible ease. I found that the game works wonderfully with Daft Punk's Discovery.

Quite a leap, huh? Plucked acoustic guitar to pungent synth blasts, but it works. Much like Takahashi's sophomore game (let's face it, We <3 Katamari doesn't count) represents a shift in his own career, focusing less on "goals" and "craft" and more on the fun of play and freedom of youth, Daft Punk's sophomore album attempted to be more open-minded and playful than their previous material, and was as such named for the childhood psychological phase of discovery. Philosophically, the two works share a great deal of common ground: occassional moments of poignancy and introspection amidst an overall air of liberation and excitement, the carefree juxtaposition of elements from unrelated fields (cavemen did not have helicopters, but that makes the game more fun!), a deeper sense of connection with its intended audience and reliance on their reaction to achieve the works' goals. Oh yeah, and robots.

But it's all too easy to ramble about the meaning behind anything done by Takahashi and/or Daft Punk, let's just go to the video for a demonstration:

Oh yeah, that's the stuff right there.

Be sure to check back here in the not-too-distant future for more Alternate Soundtracks, and, of course, you're welcome to share your favorites and your ideas in the comments. If you sell me on a particular idea, it just might be featured later on, and I'm always happy to give credit where credit is due.

Previously on Alternate Soundtrack:
Castlevania III vs. Bush
Ai Cho Aniki vs. Xiu Xiu
Orbital vs. The Notwist
Altered Beast vs. Natalie Portman's Shaved Head
Kirby's Adventure vs. girlsareshort

Alternate Soundtrack: Fleet Foxes Meet RPGs

Bob Mackey — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 20:00:00 GMT

In trying to give one of my friends a good description of the awesome self-titled Fleet Foxes album, I told him that listening to it was like "wandering through a magical forest with your very own bard." It's not just my nerdy leanings that inspired the comparison; Fleet Foxes is a strange mix of James Taylor, Brian Wilson, and Yasunori Mitsuda. In fact, on the multiple holiday car rides I've suffered thus far, I've been known to crank Fleet Foxes and imagine some marvelous new RPG that taps into the power of a band whose music seems tailor-made for the genre--and I don't have a single car accident on my record.

To prove my point, I've taken one of the albums most RPGish songs, "Hear Them Stirring," and set it to some console RPG footage with my limited video editing skills. Hopefully, you'll see why I'm right.

And while I in no way get paid to promote Fleet Foxes, it'd be swell if you went and picked up their album for the meager price of five bucks. Thanks in advance.

Related Links:

Alternate Soundtrack Redux: Super Street Fighter II vs. The Go! Team
Alternate Soundtrack: Kirby's Adventure vs. girlsareshort
Alternate Soundtrack - Donkey Kong '94 vs. Les Savy Fav

No Alternate Soundtrack: de Blob

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

I can't stop playing de Blob. I've tried, honestly I have, but I'm convinced that de Blob will maintain control of my home console gaming time until LittleBigPlanet arrives and is likely for a powerful comeback even after that. Yes, as an art school graduate, I find a certain nostalgic rush in a game where the story involves splattering paint around a sprawling metropolis in order to take down an overbearing corporation with a military dictatorship over the land, and yes, the game's bright and enthusiastic roll-into-everything gameplay brings back the charm of the original Katamari Damacy, and yes, this game has easily the best art direction I've seen on the Wii since Super Mario Galaxy, but I'm not sure that those are what keep me coming back every day (though that is certainly enough, I imagine). No, what keeps me coming back, oddly enough, is the music.

In true "fight the power" fashion, bringing color to the world of Chroma City also brings music. Each color of paint is a different voice in the song, so the more purple in an area of town, the more electric guitar you'll hear. As you paint the town, the soundtrack grows and swells in perfect harmony. Each restored landmark brings with it another enthusiastic section of the orchestra, and each ink stain muffles the glorious light and sound in its vignetted black chokehold. About halfway through any given stage I find myself tapping my foot and shifting my hips to the beat (I always play Wii standing up, I have no idea why). It's really an aspect of the game that needs to be experienced. Here's a little demo courtesy of the cool kids over at GoNintendo of just the first section (of three) of the second area in the game (please feel free to skip around, as its a bit slow-going):

Notice how vibrantly the soundtrack changed from beginning to end. Need I reiterate, that's just the first third of the stage. Imagine how lively this can get by the time you've reached the exit pool. The music integration is a truly compelling element to the gameplay that drives me to complete every challenge I can and paint every surface I can in as many colors as I can on a daily basis. I cannot imagine this game being half as much fun without the music and sounds. If you have a Wii, go get de Blob, and play it with the volume cranked up.

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Katamari In The Classroom part 1 and part 2

Alternate Soundtrack: Castlevania III vs Bush

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 15:30:00 GMT

So there's this election around the corner, right? All about choosing a new President for the United States or whatever, and I keep hearing people complain about how after this election they won't be able to rant about how much they hate Bush anymore. Personally I don't understand where they're coming from. I, for one, love Bush. Those guys rocked so hard throughout the 1990's and early 00's and anyone who hates on them just can't be my friend anymore.

I've always been particularly smitten with their 1996 sophomore record Razorblade Suitcase, an emotionally dense powerhouse of crunched guitars, squealing feedback and ominous negative space. This album cries out for monsters, as demonstrated in the music videos for singles "Greedy Fly" and "Mouth", and monsters it shall receive in the form of Konami's 1990 classic Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

There's a lot to love about Castlevania III, but I feel I couldn't possibly add to what's been said before aside from I love it to pieces. Instead, I will add that this marks the first Alternate Soundtrack video to be available in iPod video format. If you have a free Vimeo account, feel free to download your portable copy of today's video right here and let me know if this is something I should keep doing / find a less exclusive download source.

More Castlevania Love:
What's in my MP3 Player: Castlevania II "Castle of Tears"
Five Games That Will Be Awesome to Remake in LittleBigPlanet
Castlevania Judgment(s): Iga Continues to Show a Keen Understanding of His Franchise on DS, But His First Wii Title Misses the Point
Castlevania: Curse of the Stupid Red-Headed Kid
What Is a Man? More Than a 4Chan Meme

Previous Alternate Soundtracks:
Ai Cho Aniki vs. Xiu Xiu
Battletoads vs. The Blood Brothers
Super Star Soldier vs. MSTRKRFT
Orbital vs. The Notwist
StarTropics vs. Islands

Alternate Soundtrack: Ai Cho Aniki vs. Xiu Xiu

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:30:00 GMT

I'm just going to go ahead and assume that our readers are curious enough gamers to already be aware of the Cho Aniki series of games, popularly revered as the most homoerotic series to ever be published on home consoles. Exclusive to Japan for the past sixteen years, the first (and arguably least provocative) Cho Aniki game for the Turbo-Grafix 16/PC Engine was released for the North American Wii Virtual Console last week. The one that people really remember, though, was the 1995 sequel Ai Cho Aniki, in which you finally got to play as the musclebound meat cakes Samson and Adon, flying around psychedelic environments and battling, well, weird shit. The game's energetic mardi gras soundtrack is certainly charming, a wonderful bonus of being one of the early CD-based console games, but it lacks a certain sense of irony inherent in its source material.

I really had no choice but to play Xiu Xiu here. As a quirky, sexually ambiguous, provocative artist, Jamie Stewart routinely produces songs that are simultaneously pleasant and unsettling. It adds a bit of a serious tone to the otherwise outrageous gameplay, but that is definitely not a bad thing. I would warn that the video below is possibly NSFW, but if you're looking at Nerve from work, you're probably just asking for trouble already.

Xiu Xiu are also no strangers to mixing video games with their music as two of their recent music videos ("Muppet Face" and "Boy Soprano") have been set in fictional games, as seen below:

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Alternate Soundtrack: Battletoads vs. the Blood Brothers
Alternate Soundtrack: Super Star Soldier vs. MSTRKRFT
Alternate Soundtrack: Orbital vs. the Notwist

Alternate Soundtrack: Battletoads vs. The Blood Brothers

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 14:30:00 GMT

Here's another one born out of discussion in the comments. Hooray for audience participation!

Battletoads is the notoriously challenging beat 'em up platformer developed by Rare before their more questionable forays into the worlds of pre-rendered apes, Mii substitutes and anthropomorphic candy sacks. Though conceived as an over-the-top competitor to Konami's popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games, the extreme attitude and legendary difficulty of the games made them a pop culture phenomenon of their own right in the early 1990's. I was happy to leave this one alone for a while, but the Angry Video Game Nerd reminded me of my biggest problem with this game, that the catchiest music on the whole cart is on the pause screen! This situation must be rectified.

This sounds like a job for the Blood Brothers, post-thrash-hardcore quintet of skinny screaming poets who, much like Battletoads, hide incredible complexity behind a brash and loud exterior. Their final album, "Young Machetes," was released fifteen years after the game, so the 'Toads would probably be of appropriately angsty years to appreciate lyrics like "the taxi's are jaguars throwing fits, subways are subterranean bullets," and "don't look away from the clouds leaking rust, the kingdom of heaven reeks of burning witches and dust." Yeah, go ahead and make fun of how cliché it sounds, but that's pretty f'ing extreme right there, and imagery that perfectly describes the horrifying sci-fi nightmare the Battletoads inhabit. Just be sure to pause the music along with the game to rock out to that sweet pause music.

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Alternate Soundtrack: Super Star Solder vs. MSTRKRFT
Alternate Soundtrack: Streets of Rage 2 vs. Test Icicles

Alternate Soundtrack: Super Star Soldier vs. MSTRKRFT

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:30:00 GMT

I said it was one for another day, and I meant it.

In celebration of Labor Day, I wanted a game that felt like mindless work, so I went with one of the most celebrated shoot 'em ups (or "shmups") of all time, Super Star Soldier for the Turbo Grafx 16 (PC Engine outside of North America). As the most popular entry in the most popular shmup series in gaming history, Super Star Soldier pretty much sets up the formula by which all other great shmups apply: you fly around, pretty much never stop shooting, destroy waves of enemies, collect power-ups that turn your ordinary gun into varying degrees of screen-filling destruction festivals, memorize increasingly complex enemy movement patterns, and then face a big bad boss with obvious weak points. It sounds simple until you fall over in an epileptic fit. Despite the fact that the game routinely kicks my ass every time I play it, I still come back because its just so much fun. My only qualm, as always, is the music, which just seems far too upbeat and standard. It sounds like Street Fighter II, which worked in the fighter because it was so goofy, but just comes across as out of place in a galaxy-hopping shooter.

Enter MSTRKRFT, the club-banging dancefloor duo of James Keeler, formerly of Death From Above 1979, and Alex Puodziukas, formerly of girlsareshort (whom you may remember). Much like some other Alternate Soundtrack alumns, the boys of MSTRKRFT often appear in press photographs wearing gold hockey masks, like some sort of glamorous serial killers. MSTRKRFT's heart-pumping, hip-shaking beats have already earned them a spot on Nerve's list of the 50 sexiest music videos of all time, but when you take that raw sexual aggression and apply it to destroying alien starships, oh my, you have a good time in store.

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Alternate Soundtrack: Kirby's Adventure vs. girlsareshort
Alternate Soundtrack: Mega Man X vs. The Knife
Alternate Soundtrack: Orbital vs. The Notwist
Alternate Soundtrack: StarTropics vs. Islands

No Alternate Soundtrack: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Nearly a full year before the first Guitar Hero introduced gamers to the now all-too familiar concept of game controllers shaped like musical instruments, Nintendo released Donkey Kong Jungle Beat for the Gamecube worldwide. The game was a platformer in the vein of Donkey Kong Country that overlooked the Gamecube controller in favor of the DK Bongo peripheral used earlier for Donkey Konga, a rhythm game that aped (oh god, sorry about that) its own development team's Taiko Drum Master series of games. Rather than come off as gimmicky as a result of this peripheral use, though, Jungle Beat felt fresh and intuitive and was praised by critics for its innovation. Years before the Wii would get gamers off their butts, Jungle Beat was moving players and causing them to work up a sweat, all while playing a traditional platformer.

It couldn't have been much simpler. To move DK left, you tapped the left bongo. To move right, tap right. Hit both the jump. Clap or hit the sides of the bongos to cause DK to pound his chest, which sent out powerful vibrations. That was pretty much it, with a few more specialized moves taught along the way. Incredibly easy to learn, and so thoroughly well designed that there was never a dry well of possibility in the adventure. The music in the game itself was typical Donkey Kong Country fair, but none of that mattered because the sounds of the game were utterly muffled by the slaps, pounds and claps of yourself, the player, getting downright primal in your control of the hairy hero. Yes, the bongo controls were merely remapped Gamecube controller button presses, so you could play more quietly with a standard controller, but that defeated the entire purpose of the game, and sucked a huge chunk of the fun out.

If your palms aren't sore watching that video, you obviously haven't played this game yet.

Three reasons to pick up Donkey Kong Jungle Beat:

1 - It was the first game developed by Nintendo's EAD Software Group Tokyo development team. Their second game? Super Mario Galaxy.

2 - It's a workout. Your muscles will be more sore after three kingdoms of Jungle Beat than several hours of intense Wii Sports. The only other video game to make me sweat this much has been Wii Fit, specifically the long runs around the island. Plus, as it's actually a traditional game and not a casual sports/fitness simulation, you'll feel like you're actually accomplishing something.

3 - As a Gamecube game (which still plays on your Wii just fine), it's dirt cheap these days. I was able to get both the bongos and the game brand-new for under twenty dollars total.

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No Alternate Soundtrack: Chibi-Robo
Alternate Soundtrack: Orbital vs the Notwist
Make The Music With Your Games, Kids
The 61FPS Review: WiiFit

Alternate Soundtrack: Orbital vs. The Notwist

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Orbital was one of the seven bit Generations games released in Japan for the Game Boy Advance in 2006. The bit Generations series was intended to demonstrate the artistic side of games by using graphics and sound that were simplified to the state of retro-stylish and controls that were basic yet compelling. Developed by skip ltd, Orbital has often been described as "Katamari Damacy in space" and that is not an entirely bad description. As the smallest object in a solar system, you must collect other small moons, planets, stars and whatnot in order to increase your own mass and gravitational pull until the galaxy's own sun orbits you. The challenge, though, comes from the fact that you do not directly control your movements but rather the charge of your gravitational field, either pulling you towards or away from nearby stars. Brilliant in its simplicity and so thoroughly addictive.

The sparse sound and graphics do a wonderful job of leaving the player feeling weightless, drifting in space with loose control of their actions and no control over their surroundings – an uncomfortable position to be in for sure. It is this very feeling that draws the game's experience so closely to "Shrink," the 1998 album by German songsmiths The Notwist. "Shrink" saw the band wafting gently away from their prior efforts in heavy metal and indie rock towards jazz and electronica, thanks in no small part to new member Martin Gretschmann, an established electronic musician. Martin's gentle clicks and beeps create an uneasy sense of order and well-being while Andi Haberi's percussion tethers the listener to the confused reality. Michael Acher's basslines instill a calm sense of urgency while brother Markus's vocals present a pleasant and melodic dread of the uncertainty of their environment.

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Alternate Soundtrack: StarTropics vs. Islands
No Alternate Soundtrack: Chibi-Robo
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Alternate Soundtrack: StarTropics vs. Islands

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:30:00 GMT

Some of our readers may recognize this pairing, as it was suggested by Rob waaaaaaaaaaay back in May.

Yes, StarTropics holds a special place in the hearts of many Nintendo fans. Conceived as a western sister game to The Legend of Zelda, StarTropics was a linear adventure about an American teenager (he was a Seattle high school baseball star!) exploring the monster-filled caves of tropical islands in order to rescue his archeologist uncle from aliens. Proving how very western the game was, neither it nor its sequel Zoda's Revenge were ever released in Nintendo's native Japan.

Islands is a Canadian pop band fronted by Nicholas Thorburn (formerly of The Unicorns) who are credited with with repopularizing the Paul Simon Graceland sound that has seen a resurgnace in the indie-pop scene as of late. There's really not much more to say on the subject, so let's go straight to the video:

Let us know what your alternate soundtracks are in the comments below. Clearly, we are listening.

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Alternate Soundtrack: Altered Beast vs. Natalie Portman's Shaved Head

Alternate Soundtrack: Altered Beast vs. Natalie Portman's Shaved Head

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:30:00 GMT

Altered Beast tells the story of a Centurian raised from the dead to rescue Athena from blahblahblah whatever. Altered Beast was an arcade beat 'em up from Sega in the 1980's, back when stories in video games existed but really served no purpose. Why did Donkey Kong kidnap Mario's girlfriend? Who cares? Climb to the top of the tower! And since when are Sega games known for their stories? Sonic the Hedgehog has a story, but all you care about is running real fast. NiGHTS has a story, but all you care about is flying around in circles. Crazy Taxi probably has a story, but it's even less important than the one in Sonic.

In Altered Beast, you are a dude in a tunic who beats up zombie monsters. You collect power-ups which first transform you into an oiled-up beefcake of homoerotic manliness and then into one of several powerful man-beasts. The game is short, shallow, and somewhat ridiculous. Amazingly, this running joke of a game was the pack-in software for the Sega Genesis until 1991, when Sonic the Hedgehog gave a whole new generation a reason to sit too close to the TV. It seems only fitting to partner this hilariously awkward but arguably fun game with the music of Natalie Portman's Shaved Head, Seattle's synth-pop answer to Electric Six who voluntarily chose to name themselves after an element from a Wachowski-produced film of an Alan Moore comic. Bad decisions all around, but its just so much fun!

Hey, you know what? That photoshop up there was kinda fun, too. How about another one?

Okay, that's enough of that.

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No Alternate Soundtrack: Chibi-Robo

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:00:00 GMT

There's no denying that music is an important part of games. There are some fan-favorite scores that initiate warm feelings outside of the games that bore them (Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Mega Man). There are some games where the music IS the gameplay (Rock Band, PaRappa the Rapper, Elite Beat Agents). And then there are a distinct few in which the sound is so irrevocably tethered to the gameplay that removing those sounds would render the game dull and lifeless. It is these games that I hope to spotlight in this new irregular feature – NO Alternate Soundtrack.

Today, a personal favorite of mine, skip's quirky Gamecube platformer Chibi-Robo. While there is a minimal musical score in the game, the vast majority of sound is actually produced by the characters, often in a whimsical and melodic manner. Every footstep of Chibi-Robo's is a musical note, changing depending on the surface he walks upon. Every action he takes makes its own music, with different sounds for different items. While playing the game without these sounds certainly wouldn't be impossible, it would suck a huge portion of the charm and fun from the experience. Cleaning doggy footprints with a toothbrush would seem like the real-world chore it is without the delightful acoustic guitar.

So, 61FPSers, what games do you think have soundtracks that are an integral part of the gaming experience? Let us know in the comments!

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Alternate Soundtrack: Mighty Final Fight vs. Radio 4

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 14:30:00 GMT

Conceived as a sequel to the original Street Fighter, Capcom's Final Fight was an admitted take-off of Technos' Double Dragon side-scrolling beat 'em ups. Already a hit in the arcades and 16-bit consoles, Capcom took the next logical step with its new gang violence franchise: rebuilding it with super-deformed style anime graphics for the 8-bit and obsolete Nintendo Entertainment System in 1993.

Comically playing through the story of a city under siege by roving street gangs and the three dudes who fight it (including the burly bodybuilder mayor), Mighty Final Fight plays wonderfully with Radio 4's 2002 sophomore LP, Gotham!, a post-punk opus to a ravaged and dilapidated New York City. From the virulent guitar slashes of "Start A Fire" to the echoed fallout of "Pipe Bombs," the deafening pounds of "Dance to the Underground" to the screeching distortion of "New Disco," Gotham! crafts the tale of a post-disaster metropolis and the squalor of youth culture that fills its freshly exposed cracks. Produced by an as-yet unknown DFA (The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem, Hercules & Love Affair and many others), the album is considered one of the early building blocks of the NYC dance-punk scene.

In one of my favorite moments in 8-bit gaming, the first boss in Mighty Final Fight actually gives you the opportunity to acknowledge his rule. I've made a special call out of that in the video below. Please enjoy, and let us know what your alternate soundtracks are in the comments!

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Alternate Soundtrack Redux: Super Street Fighter II vs. The Go! Team

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:30:00 GMT

There's just way too much going on with E3 to complicate things even more by bringing up yet another classic game, so this week I've gone back and made a video to go along with the very first Alternate Soundtrack piece we ran, Super Street Fighter II vs. The Go! Team's "Proof of Youth". Especially fitting, since we're all super pumped for both Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix and Street Fighter IV, which are being played by crowds of excited gamers in Los Angeles as you read this.

So enjoy the video below, click here to read the original write-up, stay tuned for more of our E3 reactions, and let us know what your alternate soundtracks are in the comments!

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Recent Alternate Soundtracks:
Streets of Rage 2 vs. Test Icicles
Kirby's Adventure vs. girlsareshort
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Alternate Soundtrack: Streets of Rage 2 vs. Test Icicles

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 15:00:00 GMT

The city that had been plagued with crime and violence was safe and peaceful.
However, evil has once again cast its shadow over the city.

So begins a Sega classic.

In the 1990's, it seemed like all console games were desperately trying to ape one of three games. All platform games tried to be Super Mario Brothers. All fighting games tried to be Street Fighter II. All beat 'em up games tried to be Streets of Rage. And like all 1990's games, the story in Streets of Rage was present but completely unimportant. You chose a character, walked towards the right side of the screen, and beat up anybody who stood in your path. Pleasures don't get much simpler than this.

Test Icicles were an incredibly short-lived band whose sound fell so deftly between the realms of dance punk and thrash rock that you didn't know whether to cut a rug or pick a bar fight when you were listening to them, but either would have complimented the sound nicely. When the band split mere months after their album's release, member Devonte Hynes was quoted as saying that the boys "were never, ever that keen on the music." It should have been a sign that the band was formed mere days before their first gig, opening for another famously short-lived indie rock band – The Unicorns.

There were three games in Sega's Streets of Rage series on the Genesis. Aside from being ported to every other Sega system of the time, all three games have recently become available on the Wii Virtual Console, and Streets of Rage 2 (the one shown in the video below) is also available on XBox Live Arcade.

Recent Alternate Soundtracks:
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Alternate Soundtrack: Kirby's Adventure vs. girlsareshort

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:00:00 GMT

The sun is baking New York and tourists are everywhere all the time. Summer is definitely upon us, so this week's alternate soundtrack takes one of my favorite upbeat, bubbly platformers and one of my favorite upbeat, bubbly albums to make one delightfully bright summer experience.

Though it was the second game in the Kirby series, Kirby's Adventure served as the introduction to what has become Kirby's signature ability: copying his enemies powers (only a select few items gave Kirby special powers in 1992's Kirby's Dream Land). Released very near the end of the Nintendo Entertainment System's lifespan, 1993's Kirby's Adventure really pushed the NES as far as it could go with lush graphics, a vast soundtrack, and dynamic gameplay.

girlsareshort were an electronic pop group from Ontario. Originally conceived as a full band by members Alex Puodziukas and Daniel Zabawa, they soon realized that they worked best as an two-man electronic act. Releasing two LPs – 2002's contactkiss on Hi-Hat Recordings and 2003's earlynorthamerican on Upper Class Recordings – the band split up after producing Death From Above 1979's 2004 album You're A Woman I'm A Machine. Fans' hopes for a reunion were dashed when Alex found great success teaming up with DFA1979's Jesse Keeler as the dance club powerhouse MSTRKRFT.

Kirby's Adventure has recently been rereleased twice, as the Game Boy Advance port Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land in 2002 and on the Wii Virtual Console in 2007. Though tracking down cds of both girlsareshort albums proved difficult (yet rewarding) a few years ago, both albums are now readily available on the iTunes Music Store. MSTRKRFT kicks mucho butt too, but that's a soundtrack for another day.

Alternate Soundtrack: Mega Man X vs. The Knife

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 15:00:00 GMT

It may be hard to believe at this point in the Blue Bomber's long and increasingly complex history, but 1994's Mega Man X was the first spin-off from the original Mega Man series. Set in an even more distant – and this time, dystopian – future, the X series saw a whole new Mega Man face off against waves of "Mavericks", intelligent robots that have gone human-killing crazy. The game played more or less identically to the previous Mega Man games, but X could upgrade parts of his robot anatomy in addition to gaining enemy abilities. New boots allowed X to dash, a new chestplate increased X's defense, et cetera. The music in Mega Man X, while in keeping with Capcom's fantastic production values, always struck me as being out of place. The technopunk soundtrack seemed a little too upbeat for the setting and story.

The Knife are a notoriously reclusive electropop brother-sister duo from Sweden. They are hardly ever seen or photographed without intricate masks hiding their faces, have never attended any of the award ceremonies they have been nominated for, and they only started touring in 2006 after incredible demand. During that one-and-only tour, they announced a three-year hiatus. Their despondent, atonal, rhythmic compositions pulsate with the sleek veneer of a post-apocalyptic speakeasy. Perfect for this game, in my opinion:

How about the rest of you 61FPSers? What are your alternate soundtracks this week? Let us know in the comments!

Make the Music With Your Games, Kids!

John Constantine — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:00:00 GMT

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. A recreation of the music giant's legendary MS-10 synthesizer, the portable Nintendo DS version includes two patchable dual-oscillator analog synth simulators, a four-part drum machine using sounds created with the analog synth simulator, a six-track/16-step sequencer, and more effects than you can shake a stylus at. Plus, as all good portable music "games" should, it supports multiple DSes for simultaneous play, so you can have an electronic jam session with your friends or set up a sweet DS DJ rig like this guy right here:

Plus, Nintendo's getting in on the DS music fun this summer with DS sequels to its cult favorites Rhythm Tengoku (think WarioWare meets PaRappa the Rapper; characters shown above) and Daigasso! Band Brothers. There are no videos available for either of those yet, but if you've played or heard of their previous iterations, you already know how blissfully sublime they are as both games and as musical instruments.

Daigasso! Band Brothers DX comes out in Japan June 26th. Korg DS-10 comes out in Japan July 25th. Rhythm Tengoku Gold comes out in Japan July 31st. Korg DS-10 has already been confirmed for an international release, but there should be little to no language barrier on any of these games, and since the Nintendo DS is region-free, that means music-loving gamers like myself should have no problem importing these soon-to-be cult hits and rocking out all summer long.

Related links:

OST: Soul Blazer and other OSTs
Alternate Soundtrack: Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Ratatat and other Alternate Soundtracks
Whatcha Playing: Keeping the Beat, Drum Master Style

Alternate Soundtrack: Uniracers vs. Think About Life

John Constantine — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Video and words by Derrick Sanskrit

My fellow 61FPSers know that I'm a big fan of the quirky 1994 SNES racer, Uniracers. Aside from starring self-aware, unmanned unicycles and having appropriately psycho-geometric backgrounds, the game ran at Sonic the Hedgehog speeds. It pioneered the whole doing-tricks-earns-points-and-makes-you-go-faster mechanic later popularized by the Tony Hawk: Pro Skater series and borrowed by every racing game from SSX to Mario Kart Wii.

A lot of Uniracers' charm is explained by looking at the other work by its developer, DMA Design Limited. They broke onto the scene with the wildly popular Lemmings in 1990. That, along with Uniracers, won them some favor with Nintendo, who helped DMA with Body Harvest, a 3D vehicular action game for the Nintendo 64. DMA took everything they'd learned from Body Harvest to build the extremely controversial, unexpected hit Grand Theft Auto. Soon enough, DMA was bought out and renamed Rockstar North, where they continue to make Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt games to this day.

So yeah, Uniracers is the senseless SNES racer by the people who made Lemmings and Grand Theft Auto 4. Interested yet?

Similarly, Think About Life is a very odd band. Members of the Alien8 family of Canadian experimental pop musicians, Graham Van Pelt and Matt Shane produce tunes that sound like a Casio keyboard exploded under the weight of one-thousand anthropomorphic Jolly Rancher candies, some of whom were having a party and some of whom were very sad to realize they were made of such sweet delicious fruit flavored candy. While Van Pelt has had more success recently with his Miracle Fortress side project, Think About Life developed a solid fan base by opening for indie-rock powerhouses Wolf Parade and Art Brut. The steady rhythms, flanged triangle waves, and sheer eccentric wackiness of their music makes it a perfect soundtrack for the nonsensical racer from the EXTREME era of the mid-1990s. Please enjoy:

Previous Alternate Soundtracks:

Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Ratatat
Donkey Kong '94 vs. Les Savy Fav
Need for Speed: Underground vs. Justice
Super Street Fighter II vs. The Go! Team

Alternate Soundtrack: Sonic The Hedgehog vs. Ratatat

John Constantine — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Words and video by Derrick Sanskrit

Anybody who was a gamer during the 16-bit era remembers the intense rivalry between Nintendo and Sega. Much like Burger King today, Sega marketed itself as the hipper, more extreme company full of attitude compared to family-friendly Nintendo. Their mascot, Sonic the Hedgehog, was the embodiment of the Sega image. He was fast. He was pointy. He was naked except for his sneakers. Most importantly, he had attitude. Just a few seconds of inactivity in his games and the blue hedgehog would stare at you through the screen. Sonic glared, tapping his foot, his furrowed brow exclaiming, "I'M WAITING, DUDE! COME ON, LET'S GO BREAK THINGS!"

Ratatat are college radio's Sonic the Hedgehog. Mashing up the lap-pop electronics of the Postal Service with the arena-ready electric guitars of Van Halen, they've got the edge and the attitude to destroy all the robot animals in Green Hill Zone without breaking a sweat. Instrumental anthems built on distorted electronic guitar loops are practically custom built for gaming.

As an added bonus, I've broken down today's video so that each Genesis-era Sonic game matches up with each Ratatat album: Sonic 1 with 2004's Ratatat, Sonic 2 with 2006's Classics, and Sonic 3 with 2008's LP3 (coming this July. I used my sweet connections to get my hands on this advanced copy. 61FPS does not support or condone piracy). There's even a Chaos Emerald bonus stage from Sonic 1 mixed with a b-side from one of Ratatat's singles.

Enjoy the video, try it at home, and let us know your alternate soundtracks in the comments!

Alternate Soundtrack - Donkey Kong '94 vs. Les Savy Fav

John Constantine — Tue, 27 May 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Words and video by Derrick Sanskrit

The original Donkey Kong is justly considered one of the great landmarks in video game history. It popularized the now all-too familiar concept of platforming and introduced two of the most memorable video game characters of all time: the titular villainous ape and the overalls-clad carpenter named Jumpman, soon rebranded as the lovable plumber known Galaxy-wide as Mario. Even though the game was only four stages long, it demonstrated a clear story - ape abducts pretty lady, climbs up skyscraper, hero gives chase, avoiding obstacles - that resonated in the hearts of millions.

After thirteen years, Donkey Kong was starting to feel a bit restricted and, as all teenagers do, decided to branch out to seem more exciting and relevant. The result was 1994's Donkey Kong for the Game Boy. It starts off with the original four stages but then continues for an astounding ninety-seven more that see Mario struggle across cityscapes, jungles, icebergs, valleys, and more outrageous environments. The soundtrack is sparse, with only a few sound effects for your actions and gentle musical clues to make you aware of time constraints. It is so elegantly simple that it induces a zen-like state; it invites a calm focus on the tasks ahead so you can rationally solve the puzzles before you. The only problem with this is that it’s completely unrealistic to be calm and rational when jumping across one-hundred-and-one stages in pursuit of your girlfriend and an enormous ape! Thankfully, this minimal soundtrack allows me to choose my own mood music without having to eliminate those all-important sound effects like I do with other games.

Les Savy Fav are a lot like Donkey Kong, and not because their lead singer is a wild, hairy ape who climbs scaffolding (see Coachella 2008). Les Savy Fav are genre pioneers themselves, credited with creating the Brooklyn dance-punk sound that made bands like Liars and The Rapture famous years before their respective breakthroughs. While they are best known for their frenetic live shows and for 2004's Inches, it is 2001's Go Forth that is their best music for alternate soundtracking. Go Forth actually manages to take the innocently bizarre narrative scenario of Donkey Kong '94 and transform it into beautifully desperate drama.

Seth Jabour's skyscraper-tall guitar arpeggios look down on you with contempt and disdain. Syd Butler's crunchy, angular bass lines brim with the steady virulent aggression of an ape carrying away your lady friend. Harrison Haynes' drums are a pendulum, swinging between the steady march of a man at war and the rebellious rat-a-tat-tat of a thinking man taking action. Maybe I'm just reading into this, but Tim Harrington's lyrics paint the portrait of a man on the verge of desperation, battling for his livelihood against seemingly insurmountable odds. Sound familiar yet? This is most apparent in the mantra-like lyrics that Harrington uses to close his songs. "Reprobate's Resume" closes with the repeated pleading, "Please, go easy on me." "Pills" ends with a few aching refrains of, "You and I, we were meant to be together. You and I, we are gonna hang together. You and I, we are going down together." And "Bloom On Demand", the album's final proper song brings it all home with two minutes of Harrington worrying, “This giving in is wearing thin." It’s repeated as he, along with the rest of the band, are slowly washed away by the cold, unfeeling rain clouds of synth keyboards. At the close, despite the previous thirty-seven minutes of flexing their muscles and proving their might, the environment is just more powerful than the band had imagined. Les Savy Fav have become Mario, trying desperately to evade the obstacles in their path that only increase in breadth the further they travel.

Or I could totally just be projecting here. What do the rest of you 61fpsers think? What are your alternate soundtracks? Let us know in the comments.

Alternate Soundtrack: Need For Speed: Underground vs Justice's †

John Constantine — Tue, 20 May 2008 14:00:00 GMT

Written by Derrick Sanskrit

Until 2003, the most serious racing game I'd played was probably F-Zero. This became a problem with my roommates, who LOVED racing games, and so I was baptized into the world with Need For Speed: Underground on the Playstation 2.

Now, if your experience with this game was anything like ours, you loved every minute of gameplay to be found in NFS:U. The characters felt human and you felt genuine affection for Samantha and disdain for Eddie. The city felt alive, and oncoming traffic was a plaything to use to your advantage. Circuit races were intense, drift races were ego boosts, and drag races separated the hardcore from the wimps. Everything about the game just bubbled with glowing, neon awesome.

Except for that soundtrack! Ugh!

Turning on the game meant being assaulted by the full-blast synth whoops and inebriated grunts of Li'l Jon & the Eastside Boyz' "Get Low", an obnoxious club banger that would later be resurrected as Usher's "Yeah" and, subsequently, EVERY OTHER SONG EVER. The mute button quickly became our MVP. The problem then became finding music that would keep our blood pumping fast enough to win races without being distracted by an avalanche of crap pooling out of the speakers.

What was aurally difficult to achieve in 2003 has become easy with the rise of “new rave”. Moronic as that name is, this new genre inspired by the brilliant electronic music of Daft Punk and the dance-punk scene of the early-aughts is perfect for just such a racing game. 2007's Need For Speed: Pro Street's soundtrack of Chromeo, Cansei De Ser Sexy, Datarock, Foreign Islands, MSTRKRFT, and The Rapture, among others, would indicate I'm not alone in this opinion.

My personal favorite for street racing has got to be † by Parisian electronic duo Justice. The slap bass and wild, squealing synths of "Let There Be Light" call to mind the heart-pounding moments at the start of a drag race, when engines are roaring and tires are screeching against black top. The relentless oscillating sirens of "Stress" induce a cold sweat as you scream around a narrow overpass at illegal velocities. The fuzzed out synth guitars that blanket most of the album's tracks are like the gentle purrs of your exhaust exploding with full tanks of nitrous oxide. And then, of course, there’s "D.A.N.C.E.", "The Party", and "DVNO". The only tracks with discernible lyrics, their cocky, self-assured swagger seems to say, "Oh, I'm sorry, are you trying to race me? I've been ahead of you this whole time having a tea party. How rude of me! Ah, is that what passes for a body kit these days? Your mom does terrible work when she's not in my bed." The entire album plays like the DJ set at the best club in town and sets a fantastic atmosphere for the dark and sexy world of illegal street racing.

There's plenty of other great tunes you can swap in while you race, but I find that † is just about perfect. But then, what do I know? Feel free to disagree in the comments!

Come back next week for a new Alternate Soundtrack featuring hot video action highlighting just how kick ass these soundtrack combos are and be sure to check last week's Alternate Soundtrack right here.

Alternate Soundtrack: Super Street Fighter II vs. The Go! Team

John Constantine — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Written by Derrick Sanskrit

I've developed a nasty habit that I like to call "Alternate Soundtracking". I think it stems from my wanton desire to multi-task as much as possible. Most of my gaming these days is on handhelds while I ride the train and when I've got an iPod full of new and classic tunes vying for my attention, the games' soundtracks just become redundant.

This is a slightly different beast, though. Alternate soundtracking, for me, involves sitting down with a familiar game, turning down its volume, and queuing up my music library to find music that actually enhances the gaming experience.

For the first entry, I'm going to keep things simple. This one's all about the raw youthful energy. Super Street Fighter II is one of the most popular fighting games of all time, but its popularity isn't thanks to violence. There were plenty of louder, bloodier, more extreme fighters around when it released sixteen years back. Super Street Fighter II's claims to fame are its lightning-fast speed, precision controls, and its bright cartoony cast. More than any other fighting game franchise, the Street Fighter games are legendary for their charming characters and their respective special moves. And nothing aurally compliments SSFII quite like The Go! Team.

There's something inexplicably gratifying about pulling off Dee Jay's Double Rolling Sobat to "Doing It Right"'s handclaps and xylophone bridge. And the victory-dance horn section of "Titanic Vandalism" demands an endless barrage of Hurricane Kicks (or whatever the crap you kids are calling that flying kick move that Ryu and Ken do these days). "Grip Like A Vice"'s relentlessly sharp drums and female empowerment lyrics are practically an anthem for Cammy crushing every muscle-bound martial artist in her path! Public Enemy's Chuck D makes "Flashlight Fight" ideal for the final battles against Sagat and M. Bison. With horn blasts and Chuck D at your back, you'll feel like you are truly leading a revolution with your joypad.

Of course, that's just my experience, and we all know that games and music are both subjective art forms. Let me know what your alternate soundtracks are in the comments!