61 Frames Per Second : ost

Henry Hatsworth Prototype Not as Awesome as Final Game, Still Awesome

John Constantine — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 23:30:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, I saw a trailer for Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure. Then I freaked out. Because it looked fantastic. Last week, Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure came out. Turns out it isn’t fantastic. It is totally fantastic in every possible way there is to be fantastic and sweet.

Okay, in fairness, I’ve only played the first few levels, so I’m not sure how deep it is or how good it is overall. (Derrick tells me it gets hard near the middle. We’ll see.) From the start, though, the platforming’s methodical and silky smooth, the puzzling simple but oh so satisfying. You already know the music’s great. Its sense of humor is everything the trailer promised as well. Hatsworth is a funny, funny game. I want to tell you about Tea Time in the game, but I also don’t want to ruin it for you. Tea Time made me laugh out loud on a crowded subway. I can, however, show you what the prototype of Tea Time looks like without ruining anything!

I’m not positive where or when this footage was shown — the YouTube video is dated February 24th, 2008 — but, as you can see, the game was very, very different early on. The trademark humor is there but the visual style is much more spare, recalling Craig McCracken Powerpuff Girls and Foster’s Home For Imaginary Friends cartoons. Very, very cool. I wonder what else changed between this early prototype and the final game?

More on Hatsworth as I get deeper in.

Related links:

OST: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure
Trailer Review: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure
Portrait of the Prince Pre-Persia

OST: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure

Derrick Sanskrit — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 21:00:00 GMT

I've been playing Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure for just under a week now and am utterly stunned by the quality of the product. The art is appropriately vibrant, the story is wonderfully goofy and the gameplay is nostalgically frustrating (seriously, the action is hardcore not unlike Mega Man and Castlevania). Of course, this finely-crafted other-worldly goodness would all be for naught without an accentuated atmospheric soundtrack to tie it all together, and Henry Hatsworth does not skimp in this department either.

Take, for example, "Pompous Adventurer's Club Theme" which plays on the overworld map:

My word, but that is hilariously pompous! The air of militaristic pride in the snare, cello, and trumpets is countered marvelously by the vocals, a mish-mash of drunken voices with stuffed sinuses, each trying to sing the incomprehensible "la," "nah," "yah," and "dahn"s louder than the adventurerer next to him.

Or what of "Go, Go, Golden Robo Q!" which plays every time Hatsworth activates Tea Time and dons his giant suit of robot armor:

The switch from harpsichord to electric guitar within the first six seconds perfectly encapsulates the voice of the game, using traditional adventurer stereotypes from television and film for comedic fodder and parody. Also, it's totally awesome.

Both of those tunes are presented wih tongue planted firmly in cheek, but here's one that just out and out rocks.

"Molotov on the Rocks" plays when Hatsworth enters puzzle mode during particularly tense parts of the game. The funky slap bass creates a driving rhythm while the ochestral blasts generate excitement, two things the puzzle mode at these times would not be fun without.

All in all, it's hard not to agree with the good adventurer Hatsworth when he enthusiastically exclaims "Good show!"

Related articles:
Trailer Review: Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure
OST: Big Bang Mini
OST: de Blob
OST: Everyday Shooter

OST: Big Bang Mini

Derrick Sanskrit — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 20:00:00 GMT

I finally completed Big Bang Mini's "Arcade" mode today. The final boss was somewhat of a lifelong dream come true for me, so that was magical, but the part that really impressed me was the entire world preceeding the final boss, Abyss.

You see, if Big Bang Mini is "about" anything, its shooting off fireworks all around the world, and a major part of the experience of globe-hopping is the complete overhaul of graphics and sound between worlds. The graphics and sound are generally fantastic all around, but it was in Abyss that I would often just stop shooting to sit back and ponder on the sounds surrounding me. Embedded below, the music that accompanies you on your journey underwater:

It certainly helped, of course, that Abyss was also the world that made me completely rethink the way I was playing the game. Earlier worlds allowed you to fire frantically into the top screen, though at your own risk as fireworks that missed enemy targets would burst shrapnel back down into the lower screen for you to avoid. Abyss, however, featured both jellyfish-like mines that would explode and end the level if hit too hard/often and oxygen bubbles that you needed to catch just to stay alive. Suddenly I was slowing down, aiming carefully, and sending a lot of time just avoiding enemy fire and catching air bubbles. This new focus is amplified by the minimal electronic blips and coos of the soundtrack. Warm wahs and brushed snares slowly build urgency, and the music waits long enough to guarantee you're actually fighting something somewhat intense by the time the lead synth solo kicks in like Kanye West freaking out on his auto-tuner. Like fireworks themselves, this tune is both beautiful and devastating at the same time.

Previous OSTs:
The Great Mitsuda Music Heist
de Blob
Mother
Ducktales
Bubble Bobble
Chrono Cross
Soul Blazer
Everyday Shooter
Rule of Rose
Treasure of the Rundas

Video Game Music that "Brings You Back"

Bob Mackey — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Because I've been playing video games since I started retaining memories (roughly age 3), a disturbing amount of my personal history can be linked to my lifelong hobby. The past, for me, is not defined by important world events, but rather, what I happened to be playing at that moment in time. Case in point: September 11th was the first day I was able to get my hands on the original Advance Wars. Coincidence? I really hope so.

That being said, going back to Mario Kart 64 (which has aged pretty terribly) recently reminded me how much of my goddamned mid-to-late teenage years were spent playing this game. Let me point out that A.) I didn't own an N64 until said teenage years had passed and B.) I never even owned Mario Kart 64. But just upon hearing one specific song from the game's soundtrack, I'm immediately brought back to my days of teenage nerd solidarity replete with endless pizzas, soda, and other body-destroying substances we used to shield ourselves from the outside world. The funny thing is, back when there were only two Mario Karts in the world, I preferred the SNES one by a pretty big margin. Yet I still distinctly remember accompanying one of my friends to Toys R Us to buy the game nearly 12 years ago, as well as the pizza that was consumed afterwards. I'm honestly surprised that I didn't grow up to be a 400-pound shut-in.

So what song from Mario Kart 64 whisks me away to the wonderful and awkward world of puberty?

Ahh, I can feel the loneliness and rejection of being a teenage nerd wash all over me like an oatmeal bath. While I go out and search for a rope, please feel free to share your own nostalgia-inducing tunes. I'm sure I'll be fine.

Related Links:

Bad Games With Good Music: Eternal Sonata
OST: Treasure of the Rudras
OST: DuckTales

WTFriday: The Splash Woman Rap

Bob Mackey — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Note to readers: WTFriday is a weekly feature where I find something stupid about video games and get you to laugh until it goes away. Please try to forget this is what I normally do every day of the week.

"Sometimes it's hard to be Splash Woman..."
- Tammy Wynette, "Stand By Your Mega Man"

Thanks to the kind folks at Game Music 4 All, I've become obsessed with some of the more creative video game remixes out there, like the Mother mashup I posted about yesterday. The weekly WTFriday falls on something just as awesome, but far more bizarre: an original Mega Man 9 music video featuring a completely-original rap set to Splash Woman's stage music. The lyrics to said rap shine a little more light on the obvious sexual tension between Mega Man and Splash Woman, and also give us a disturbing look into an alternate universe where Sonic Team somehow became responsible for creating Mega Man's music. But rest assured that Knuckles' rapping abilities fall short when compared to this fan-made project.

Related Links:

WTFriday: The Super Mario Bros. Anime
WTFriday: The Soothing Sounds of Yoshi
WTFriday: Bob's Game Is a Big Ol' Slice of Psycho

What's In My MP3 Player: The Mother Mashup

Bob Mackey — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:30:00 GMT

If it wasn't clear by this point, I basically use 61FPS as my platform to talk about the Mother series (known to us Yanks as Earthbound) as much as humanly possible. But because of my professionalism, I'm forced to at least make my Mother chatter relevant; otherwise, I'm sure you'd be reading the 100th or so blog post about why I'm so obsessed with an obscure Japanese RPG series--and I swear I've only made 80 entries on the subject so far.

That being said, today I bring you exciting--and more importantly--not completely irrelevant--news from the mother fan community. SpamM, a member of the fan music community Earthbound Crew, has just released an awesome 40-minute mashup named Earthbound Zero, which mixes the original Mother soundtrack with some highlights from the history of hip-hop. Unsurprisingly (to me, anyway), Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka's funky, catchy soundtrack serves as the perfect backbone to music that couldn't possibly be more different. Go here to download it for free, and get ready for a completely unexpected experience.

Related Links:

What's in my MP3 Player: Shadow's Theme
What's in my MP3 Player: Endless Skies
What's in my MP3 Player: Kindred

The Best of Wintry Video Game Music

Bob Mackey — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 17:00:00 GMT

When you live in something called "the snow belt," your tolerance for inclement weather wholly determines your sanity. We've gotten so much of the fluffy white stuff recently that traveling anywhere in my town now involves following a carved-out snow trench to its logical end, all while hoping you don't end up in another state or the fabled Canadas. But even with nature trying to snuff me out under a thick pillow of precipitation, I've gone through most of my life without hating this time of the year; in fact, winter-themed video game levels have always been a favorite of mine, despite their irritating qualities. And for some reason, they always seem to have great music--which I'd like to share with you today.

The following are some of my favorite winter-themed video game tunes; they evoke the spirit of the season perfectly without such real-word drawbacks as windshield-scraping, frostbite, and heating bills which spiral out of control.

Super Mario 64 - Snow Mountain

"Snow Mountain" is just a take on Super Mario 64's main theme--which itself is an odd inverse version of the original Super Mario Bros. theme--but the bouncy accordian mixed with traditional tingly instruments makes the perfect soundtrack for bouncing through the snow. If city parks played this on a nonstop loop from December to March, I assume we'd have one more weapon in the fight against seasonal affective disorder.

Donkey Kong Country - Nothern Hemispheres

I don't have many good memories of Donkey Kong Country aside from the snow levels, and "Northern Hemispheres" is probably the reason why. Music in winter-themed video game levels is usually playful, but Donkey Kong Country took a completely different route by including a song that evoked the feeling of aimlessly wandering through a vast, snowy wasteland. Very effective.

Earthbound - "Winters"

All of the music in Earthbound is amazing, and "Winters" is no exception. It has the same sort of bittersweet, nostalgic tint as the rest of the soundtrack, but the jingling bells and oddly trilling organ really make it a highlight of the game. The song has a strange, hopeful feeling that really matches both its location in the game and its specific point in the story.

Final Fantasy VI - The Mines of Narshe

"The Mines of Narshe" is one of the first songs you hear in Final Fantasy VI, and it matches the somewhat-mournful tone of the game perfectly. From the tinkly piano to the breathy sound effect interspersed throughout the track, you get a sense of the gloomy atmosphere and an ominous feeling of what's to come. It always annoyed me a little that the Narshe theme went away after the transition to the World of Ruin.

So, did I miss anything important? Let me know in the comments. Also, links to the songs would be nice if you could dig them up.

Related Links:

OST: Treasure of the Rudras
OST: Rule of Rose
OST: DuckTales

Bad Games With Good Music: Tales of Legendia

Bob Mackey — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:30:00 GMT

No one really expected Tales of Legendia to have any redeeming qualities; from the beginning, it was clear this game was going to be a low budget exercise in filling Namco-Bandai's money vault until the next real Tales of game could be released. And Legendia certainly did revel in its lack of budget; not only was the first part of game roughly 25 hours, this installment in the beloved series also featured a second quest that involved replaying most of the game in a new context just to learn more about the characters--who were far from compelling. Even the battle system, the one saving grace of the Tales series, was marred by the constant "Hoo! Hah! Take that!" of the main character, which persisted even after turning off character voices. But even with all of these problems, Legendia can't be completely written off--and its amazing soundtrack by composer Go Shiina is more than proof of that.

You may be familiar with Shiina's work on the amazing Mr. Driller Drill Land soundtrack, which is undoubtedly the best music ever produced for a puzzle game. His work on Legendia is a little more "RPGish," but Shiina carries a sense of eclecticism to the music that's distinctly his. And once you listen to a few samples, you'll agree that his name really needs to be up there with Mitsuda and Uematsu in the Video Game Composers Hall of Fame that someone has yet to build.

Melfes: Shining Blue

Run in the Middle of the Storm

Tomorrow Will Surely Be Sunny

Related Links:

Bad Games With Good Music: Eternal Sonata
Wii Music: A Rare Miss For Miyamoto?
Whatcha Listening To: The Earthbound Soundtrack

Bad Games With Good Music: Eternal Sonata

Bob Mackey — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:15:00 GMT

Fun fact: I'm such a video game music nerd that I'll usually slog through the worst of experiences if the tunes happen to tickle my fancy. This should serve to explain why I spend so much time with mediocre titles better left unplayed--and also why I keep the contents of my iTunes library far, far away from people who respect me. One game this past summer is a perfect example of this phenomenon: Namco's Eternal Sonata, a pretty-yet-underdeveloped JRPG with one of the more embarrassing plots I've ever had to sit through. Because I've played many Tales of games, I was familiar with composer Motoi Sakuraba's previous work; though most of the time I found his soundtracks to be a little too droning and bombastic for my tastes. I guess it shouldn't be too shocking to find out that a game about one of history greatest composers would have such a fantastic soundtrack, but I was definitely surprised and highly impressed by Sakuraba's work on Eternal Sonata. It's kind of a shame that this soundtrack might get overlooked in the future, what with it not being in Sakuraba's top-tier Tales of and Star Ocean soundtracks, but it's definitely worth a listen.

Here's a little sampler of the music from the first disc of the Eternal Sonata soundtrack. If you'd like to find more, you'll probably get more results by search for the game's Japanese name, Trusty Bell.

Related Links:

OST: Mother
OST: Chrono Cross
OST: Everyday Shooter

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

OST: The Great Mitsuda Music Heist

Bob Mackey — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Charles Caleb Colton once said "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," but it's important to remember that he coined this aphorism far before the invention of modern copyright laws and Japanese RPGs. That being said, Breath of Fire III composers Akari Kaida and Yoshino Aoki must've had Chrono Trigger composer Yasunori Mistuda dead in the sights of their flattery gun (it shoots flattery, you see) while composing at least one of the tracks of Capcom's long-running RPG franchise; the similarity between the piece in question and one of Mitsuda's own is unmistakable.

If you're wondering why I've kept this news to myself for over a decade, here are some answers: A.) Chrono Trigger DS is out, so this is semi-relevant, and B.) The existence of YouTube means it's finally easy for the lazy (i.e., me) to easily provide such a comparison. Square-Enix, when the lawsuit is over, I'll gladly take a generous "legal consultant fee."

Anyway, here are the songs in question:

"Secret of the Forest," composed in 1995:

"Forest Theme," composed in 1997:

Shocking, I know. When I first played Breath of Fire III in 1998, I picked up on the similarity between the two songs, too. But back then there wasn't anyone around me nerdy enough to care. Thanks for making my dreams come true.

Related Links:

Your Way: Chrono Trigger and The Glory of Options
The Chrono Trigger Port: Are You Excited or Disappointed?
Where is Yasunori Mitsuda?

OST: de Blob

Derrick Sanskrit — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:00:00 GMT

A few weeks ago I brought a stack of my favorite Wii games to a friend's house to celebrate her new Wii. Boom Blox and WarioWare: Smooth Moves were crowd pleasers. Super Mario Galaxy delighted and disoriented. Smash Bros. Brawl was an all around hit. When de Blob was popped in, I insisted that we turn off the George Clinton on the stereo to properly enjoy the game and was promptly turned down, so I removed the game. I love me some P. Funk, but de Blob's progressive soundtrack is right up at the top of a long list of reasons to love what is quite possibly the best third-party game Nintendo's little white wunderbox has got, and to play it without listening to what it's got to offer is like trying to enjoy a BLT without the tomato, lettuce or bread. Yeah, bacon's still (really) good on its own, but there's so much more you're missing out on!

I've already raved about de Blob's incredibly engrossing sound design. John Guscott gets a good solid spotlight in the game's end credits for "Sound" and he really steals the show. As I mentioned before, each session of the game allows you to choose Blob's mood, which has its own song associated with it. That song is built out of the paint colors you douse the town in, with a different voice for each color. The more yellow you paint, the more maracas you'll hear. More purple, more electric guitar, and so on. On the game's official CD soundtrack, John arranged one track for each of the mood's in the game, bringing in each voice as he saw fit. Each track on the CD could very easily be recreated in the game, but the beautiful thing is that you can arrange these songs however you want just by painting different colors at different times in different densities of buildings.

Here, for example, is one of my favorite possible tunes for the game, a snappy little bossa nova number associated with the mood "Blissful":

Related Articles:
Whatcha Playing: de Blob
No Alternate Soundtrack: de Blob
The Revolution WILL Be Colorized
OST: Mother
OST: Ducktales
OST: Bubble Bobble
OST: Chrono Cross
OST: Soul Blazer
OST: Everyday Shooter
OST: Rule of Rose
OST: Treasure of the Rundas

OST: Mother

Bob Mackey — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Everyone knows that Earthbound has some godly music, and we've all recently come to discover that Mother 3 is no slouch in this department, either. But what about the first Mother, AKA Earthbound Zero? Sadly, this is the one game in the trilogy that's almost always overlooked; it may be the least fun to play out of all three Mothers, but the soundtrack by Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka helped lay the foundation for some of Earthbound's best tracks. American gamers had no idea back in 1995, but the sleepy, heartwarming music of Ness' house is a direct callback to one of the overworld themes of the first Mother; makes sense, given the connection with childhood homes and nostalgia.

The greatest--and at the same time, strangest--thing about the first Mother is without a doubt its Japan-only (duh) soundtrack. Instead of putting out the simple NES tunes on a CD, the producers went one step further by creating "complete" versions of Suzuki and Tanaka's songs with full instrumentation and lyrics. I'm not going to lie; most of these lyrics are pure Velveeta straight out of the late 80s--but at least a native English speaker is singing them. Embarrassing or not, these songs give us a peek into an alternate universe where Mother was a Disney musical instead of a Japanese 8-bit video game.

And notably, two of the OST's songs are far more sweeping and epic than any Celine Dion Titanic single could ever be. In order to show you just how mindblowingly awesome this soundtrack is, I now present "Wisdom of the World," which, along with "Eight Melodies," is one of Mother's best songs. Try not to giggle at the sexual subtext in the lyrics:

And, in case you want to hear the original 8-bit tune, here it is:

In closing, click here for a version of the song that, while beautiful, may scare the pants off of you.

Related Links:

The Reason Why Mother 3 Never Came to America
"Have You Heard the News? He's Gay!"
What I'm Playing This Weekend: Mother 3. Doi.

ONST: Square-Enix’s Rad Original Non-Soundtracks

John Constantine — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 20:00:00 GMT

When talking about the good ol’ Square-Enix days, back when most every game they published was either very good or at least interesting, it’s impossible not to note their stable of composers. Nobuo Uematsu, Yasunori Mitsuda, Yoko Shimomura, and a number of other remarkable musicians have received more international acclaim and love from listeners of their videogame soundtracks than most Japanese traditional musicians. You may have noticed that we ourselves have something of a penchant for these composers. It’s rare, however, to hear work by any of them that isn’t related to videogames. There’s Mitsuda’s Kirite, but even Uematsu’s lone solo album, the prog-as-hell Phantasmagoria, closes with an arrangement of Final Fantasy’s “Prologue”. Little did I know that Square-Enix themselves realized their musical masterminds needed broader creative outlets. The Square-Enix Official Bootleg series, launched back in 2006, is comprised of three EPs spotlighting totally original songs by S-E composers and they are uniformly awesome. Highlights include “Aquarius Option” by Kumi Tanioka (Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles), “Feel Gravity” by Ryo Yamazaki (Front Mission 4), and pretty much everything by Mitsuto Suzuki. Suzuki’s work on the Bootlegs was actually so well-received, S-E put out his entire solo album In My Own Backyard, which sounds like a pleasant mixture of Air and Brian Eno’s Ambient Works. All the bootlegs are iTunes exclusives, so you don’t have to worry about the absurdly high cost of importing physical copies, and all four collections will run you twenty dollars. Go check ‘em out already.

Previous OSTs:
Duck Tales
Bubble Bobble
Chrono Cross
Soul Blazer
Everyday Shooter
Rule of Rose
Treasure of the Rudras

Related links:
Make the Music With Your Games, Kids!
Infinite Mega Man 9: Composer Ippo Yamada Talks Living Up to a Serious Musical Pedigree
You Can't UNhear It: Time's Scar
Kirite: The Secret Best Yasunori Mitsuda Soundtrack

Kirite: The Secret Best Yasunori Mitsuda Soundtrack

Bob Mackey — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 16:00:00 GMT

I spent a long time bitching and whining about composer Yasunori Mitsuda's (Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears) lack of presence in current-gen RPGs, only to find out that he's still putting out music, albeit on quite a few games that have yet to make it to the states. But there's something about his work on the DS--a system he seems pretty comfortable with these days--that feels a bit watered down to me; I eagerly await the day when he pens his next soundtrack for a system that can support the stellar work he did on titles like Chrono Cross and Xenosaga.

But until then, we'll always have Kirite, Mitsuda's absolutely beautiful orchestrated concept album from 2005. Square Haven gives a nice description of this amazing album:

Kirite is a combined effort between Yasunori Mitsuda and Chrono series producer/writer Masato Kato. It adds a musical illustration to the accompanying novel Kato wrote, "Five Seasons of Kirite", which tells the story of a boy named Kirite, and the girl Kotonoha. The music plays out like Mitsuda's other standalone non-game albums such as Sailing to the World, with a gentle introduction comprised mainly of explorations of the album's main theme, followed by an element of mystery and unveiling, then capped by dynamic battle-style pieces and closed off with what amounts to an ending theme. Indeed, the album progresses much like your average videogame soundtrack.

But really, you don't need to understand Japanese to get the most from Kirite; the music speaks for itself. Here's "The Market In Volfinor," which is one of my favorite songs from the album. Listening to it makes an RPG happen in your brain.

All in all, Kirite feels like a true successor to Mistuda's Chrono Cross soundtrack, and it's definitely a nice snapshot of what the composer can do. I shouldn't be spiteful about all the work he's putting out on the DS, but damn it, just listen to Kirite! This is something we need more of.

Related Links:

Where is Yasunori Mitsuda?
OST: Chrono Cross
OST: DuckTales

You Can't UNhear It: Time's Scar

Bob Mackey — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 15:00:00 GMT

It's true; the Chrono Cross soundtrack is one of the most ass-kickingest collections of music to ever exist in our unworthy world. And the pinnacle of said soundtrack--at least, in my opinion--is the opening song, "Time's Scar;" Yasunori Mitsuda's stirring mix of wistfulness with a sense of urgency may be the highest point of his career. That's being said, I've probably heard the song hundreds of times in my life; and because I'm such a big fan of Time's Scar--and anything Mitsuda--something very minor about the recording of the song makes me cringe every time I hear it.

Crank up your speakers to 11 and wait for the sound at 00:16.

Did you hear that tiny little thump? It has haunted my dreams for the past decade.

I have no idea what it is, but it certainly can't be part of the composition. Was something being plugged in? Was a music stand kicked over? Did the conductor drop his Big Gulp? Whatever the case, every time I listen to Time's Scar, I tense up until that little thump comes and goes. It's a pretty big blemish on an otherwise awesome recording/song--and if you think I'm being a tad crazy about this, just remember: I wouldn't be a gamer if I didn't get psychotically obsessed over meaningless details.

To calm my nerves, and make you less worried about me, here's an awesome guitar arrangement of Time's Scar that's played using official Procyon Studio (Mitsuda's HQ) sheet music. I would pay for an entire album full of stuff like this:

Related Links:

OST: Chrono Cross
Where is Yasunori Mitsuda?
The End of Time and the Beginning of Fan Drama

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

John Constantine — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:00:00 GMT

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. Mega Man 9’s tunes may not reach the unimpeachably lofty heights of Mega Man 2 or 3, but they manage to eclipse the majority of those found in Mega Man 4 through 6. (The majority, mind you. Mega Mans 4 through 6 have a lot of great songs in their own right.) From the urgency of Magma Man’s theme, to the rave up of Tornado Man’s, composer Ippo Yamada has tapped into a melodic fount of digital sound and come away with something that captures the essential spirit of Mega Man. He chatted with Siliconera about making the soundtrack and how Mega Man 9’s presentation, and its stripped down play, dictated the soundtrack’s sound:

Siliconera: There were aspects of even the late NES titles that were not allowed in Mega Man 9. In terms of gameplay, there is no sliding and no charging of the mega buster. What kind of restrictions were enforced on the soundtrack?

Ippo Yamada: Taking away sliding and charging was a way of returning to the framework of Mega Man 2. The game’s sound effects reflect the same approach. The sound of charging the mega buster blocks out other square waves, so by eliminating charging from the game we could introduce a lot of other sound effects that would have been obscured, such as the enemy laser shots. This one choice opened the way for a lot of freedom in composing the music, which would have been curtailed by charge-related restrictions.

Siliconera: To what extent did level designs and character art influence the direction of each stage’s musical themes?

Ippo Yamada: Consideration of stage design and character design were fundamental to the process of generating the music. The Jewel Man stage music shares with the design of the robot master a certain aloof quality, the Hornet Man stage tune has a bright and cheerfully quality to reflect the atmosphere of the flower park location. The Magma Man song was created with the idea of an impassioned anime theme in mind, while Galaxy Man has the kind of retro futurstic spaceage quality you might associate with a UFO.

He also discusses the upcoming Mega Man 9 Arrange Soundtrack which will feature versions of the game’s songs arranged by many previous Mega Man composers, including Manami Matsumae of Mega Man 2 and Yasuaki Fujita of Mega Man 3. The rest of the interview is chock full of delicious insight, so head over to Siliconera and take it all in.

Related links:

Mega Man 2 Vs. Mega Man 3: The Eternal Battle for Everlasting Peace
Mega Man 9 Goes Back To Your Roots. Way Back.
The Delights of Continuity in Mega Man and Abroad
The Ten Greatest Classic Mega Man Levels
My Last Mega Man 9 Post, I Swear
Mega Man 9: IT'S OUT NOW

OST: DuckTales

Peter Smith — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:00:00 GMT

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. (Not surprising, since Sakaguchi also worked on the soundtrack for Mega Man II, probably the most revered NES soundtrack of all.) Start with the stage-select music. Clocking in at three seconds, it's about as simple as you can get, but it immediately sets a mysterious tone with its pizzicato melody and arpeggiating bassline. From there, head to Transylvania, where a spooky minor-key tune builds to a quick descending series of syncopated chords. I may be imagining things here, but somehow even the basic square waves that comprise this track (and every track on the NES) seem to be tweaked for a ghostly shimmering effect. Listen closely to the chorus section, from 0:30 to 0:41 or so, to hear what I mean. (Interestingly, the beta version of DuckTales had a completely different track for Transylvania; it's got a less-melodic hook, but it's pretty cool on its own right, and features the same spoooooky square waves.)

But of course, the highlight of the DuckTales soundtrack and one of the greatest tracks on the NES is the theme from the Moon level. Evoking the bittersweet melodicism of Yasunori Mitsuda (think "To Far Away Times," the wistful track that concludes Chrono Trigger), this theme loops a celestial sixteenth-note pattern under a melody that stays just on the sweet side of cloying via a perfectly considered key change at 0:36. In its mixture of triumph and yearning, this classic song captures the spirit of wanderlust in a way its source material never could.

Previous OSTs:
Chrono Cross
Soul Blazer
Everyday Shooter
Rule of Rose
Treasure of the Rudras

OST: Bubble Bobble

John Constantine — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:00:00 GMT

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.

It keeps going and going and going for one hundred levels straight. It’ll change every now and again. It’ll speed up to let you know you’re about to be devoured by some gruesome ghost whale with a blood-red eye, but as soon as your freakish lizard body re-appears, the lilting tempo returns and you’re one step closer to madness.

Fukio Mitsuji hates people. He wrote this song and he clearly hates humanity.

Previous OSTs:

Chrono Cross
Soul Blazer
Everyday Shooter
Rule of Rose
Treasure of the Rudras

OST: Chrono Cross

John Constantine — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:00:00 GMT

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. Chrono Cross’ soundtrack is a sonic mélange of every style Mitsuda composed in previously, alongside folk rock (“Radical Dreamers”) and Caribbean modes (“Fields of Time *Home World*”) that perfectly suit the game’s archipelago setting. As opposed to his previous work, whose compositions were typically based in jazz combo or symphony orchestra arrangements, the majority of songs in Cross are based in solo acoustic guitars (“Beginning of a Dream”), and acoustic guitar melodies layered with exotic instrumentation (“Guldove *Home World*”). Mitsuda didn’t completely turn away from the new age, “gamey” style of compositions found in his work on Trigger and Xenogears, but they are rarer and more elaborate in Cross (see the ominous, industrial “Chronopolis” or the tribal “Death Volcano”). As much of a stylistic departure as his work on Chrono Cross is, Mitsuda visits the same themes that typified his work in Chrono Trigger, songs that evoke a melancholic tenderness even at their most triumphant.

You can check out the full soundtrack at Galbadia Hotel right here.

Previous OSTs:
Soul Blazer
Everyday Shooter
Rule of Rose
Treasure of the Rudras

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

OST: Soul Blazer

Peter Smith — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:00:00 GMT

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? Dave, where I come from, sounding like Rick James is a good thing. Rick James rules.

Granted, Soul Blazer's soundtrack is quite different from the epic orchestration of its spiritual predecessor ActRaiser. (Although the town theme seems like a clear homage.) Yukihide Takekawa's soundtrack is one of the few of its era to feature a clear funk influence. (Off the top of my head, I'm only coming up with Toejam and Earl and Tim Follin's awesome score to the otherwise unbearable Spider-Man and the X-Men.) Most of the dungeon themes are tight, synth-bass-driven funk-rock. Like Soul Blazer's gameplay, whether you find them repetitive or hypnotically satisfying may come down to taste. The rest of the tracks range from straight-ahead rock tunes to humbling fanfares. I really love the latter track's evocation of a chilly cathedral — it's a perfect fit for the game's dark existential undertone. Then there's "Koibito no Inaiyoru", the plaintive ballad that accompanies Soul Blazer's haunting ending. (Sidenote: avoid the vocal version of this track if at all possible. It's flat-out gruesome.) All in all, the soundtrack is an odd little gem, much like the game it accompanies. Head on over to SNESmusic.org and give it a listen.

Previous OSTs:
Everyday Shooter
Rule of Rose
Treasure of the Rudras

OST: Everyday Shooter

John Constantine — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:00:00 GMT

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.

You can read more about Jonathan Mak and Everyday Shooter at Queasy Games.

Previous OSTs:

Rule of Rose
Treasure of the Rudras

OST: Rule of Rose

John Constantine — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

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. Her eighteen compositions are the sorts of string and piano arrangements that wouldn’t have been uncommon in a radio drama of the 1930s, but are modernized to truly unsettling effect. The sixth track marks a distinct moment in the game itself when the protagonist, helpless and hunted to this point in the game, gains a bit more confidence in the narrative and the player is offered a bit more freedom to explore their environment. The string melody lilts along the piano’s rhythm, almost comfortable, until there are staccato scratchings on the piano strings themselves. It’s a sonic cue that all is still not well. The soundtrack's tone as a whole recalls Angelo Badalamenti's work on Twin Peaks, a mix of the familiar and the sinister that defies the audience's expectations to keep them engaged. Minobe’s score is actually recommended over the game itself. Rule of Rose is an atmospheric masterpiece, but it plays like absolute garbage. You can check download the full OST at Galbadia Hotel and be sure to check out the vocal theme “A Love Suicide” in the trailer below.

OST: Treasure of the Rudras

Peter Smith — Wed, 14 May 2008 17:00:00 GMT

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.

I've never played through Rudras — a translation patch is available here, if you're curious — but the game follows four main characters, each with his or her own musical theme. Sasai weaves these four themes through the score. "Sword of the Valiant," "Between Two Worlds," "Crime of the Heart," and "Take the Gold and Run" all have "day" and "night" versions; they also get rock arrangements (battle music, presumably), as "Strange Encounter," "The Spirit Chaser," "The Flame and the Arrow" and "Blazing Impact" respectively. They also get reused again in the ending music, "Beyond the Rising Moon." All are rich with Sasai's usual catchy, melodic sensibility, and are probably the tracks that'll score highest with Mystic Quest fans.

But the soundtrack has other, quieter pleasures, which are more satisfying than the mellow tracks from Mystic Quest. "The Mysterious Stone" hums with sinister premonition; "Whistle Down the Wind" evokes wanderlust beautifully in a short melody; "Dance with the Zombie" is an eerie, jaunty waltz with what sounds like the SNES equivalent of a jaw harp in the background. Like Nobuo Uematsu in his prime, Sasai hops across a wide range of genres and styles, always building off a strong melodic idea. On the whole, it's a choice group of tracks, made all the more pleasurable to explore by its "lost" status. Point your browser to the indispensable SNESmusic.org and check it out.