Chiptune Friday: Spring Into Spring With Sonic

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Though it's been feeling like Spring here in NYC for a couple of weeks (global warming has its occassional perks), the vernal equinox actually hits us at 11:44 am today. As the ice stages thaw, making way for beautiful fire flowers, should you happen to feel the urge to go outside and enjoy the world, we here at 61FPS are of course enouraging. However, since you're clearly somewhere with internet access, let's make this just a bit brighter and sunnier to get us all in the mood for months of sunshine and gaming. I can't think of a better way to kick the season off than with the theme to Spring Yard Zone from the original Sonic The Hedgehog:

(this loops for ten minutes, so feel free to hit play, jack up the volume and go for a good solid strut)

Oh yeah, that's the groove right there. You can practically hear the robot sunflowers in bloom.

Have a happy Equinox, everybody!

Previous Chiptune Holidays:
Christmas
Halloween
Independance Day

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 Coats and coffee have been replaced by t-shirts and...well...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

61 Frames Per Second : spring

Chiptune Friday: Spring Into Spring With Sonic

Alternate Soundtrack: Noby Noby Boy vs. Daft Punk