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“Ok, so in this stage, players fight off a horde of cannibalistic mole people living deep within the underground tunnels of post apocalyptic New York. What sort of music would set the scene?”

“An upbeat, jazzy as hell piece?”

“...Sure, why not.”

Game - Undercover Cops

Song - Redtailed Cat

Composer - Takushi Hiyamuta

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It’s cool, just chill out at the base and watch the robot transform. It’s all good.

Title- Menu

Game- Vortex

Composer-  Justin Scharvona

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One of the best things about (or as a fair amount of people would be quick to tell you, the only good thing about) NieR was it’s soundtrack. Popular enough to spawn not one, but FOUR arrange albums in addition to the base soundtrack, it’s a sweeping, often melancholy affair. At the center of these are vocals by Emi Evans, who performs these in a fictional language, sung in a different style/dialect imitating an existing language depending on the track in question (in which she “tried to imagine what they’d sound like after 1000 years of drafting”, keeping in line with the game’s “humanity just barely starting to recover from an apocalypse” setting). In the case of The Wretched Automatons, it’s faux-English amidst the sounds of assembly line, busy constructing...well, the song’s namesake.

Game - NieR

Song - The Wretched Automatons

Composers - Keiichi Okabe, Kakeru Ishihama and Keigo Hoashi feat. Emi Evans

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An exquisite, unforgettable melody brought to us by the aural masters at Midway and Atari.

Title- Rave Rush

Game- San Fransisco Rush

Composer- Gunnar Madsen

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G-G-G-G-GET READY FOR SOME GOODVGM

Title-  Untilted (Stage Music)

Game- Kablooey/Bombuzal

Composer- Kemco Sound Team

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I know posting super recent/well known stuff is kinda against the spirit of the blog but 1: this is sick as hell and 2: it’s been stuck in my head all night and needs to become someone else’s problem.

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Tropical electronic. Tropitronic. Yeah, that's a good description for this standout track from a game series known for consistently solid BGM.

Title- Blue Topaz

Game- Rave Racer

Composer- Takayuki "J99" Aihara

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Ryuichi Nishizawa (creator of the Wonder Boy and Monster World series) is working on a spiritual successor called Monster Boy. Here's a track from the SMS version of Wonder Boy 3, I haven't heard much from the SMS but this one's pretty rad!

Track- Final Dungeon

Game- Wonder Boy 3

Composer- Shinichi Sakamoto

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“Death left its old tragic heaven and became the lyrical core of man: his invisible truth, his visible secret.” - Michel Foucault

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Somewhat unknown amid Konami's bigger name titles in the same genre (i.e. X-Men, TMNT, and what have you), Violent Storm is a fun, fast paced beat em up that's much, much goofier than it's post-apocalypse setting would initially lead you to believe.

Title - The Final Technique

Game - Violent Storm

Composers - Kenichiro Fukui and Seiichi Fukami

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Zuntata at the top of their weirdo ethereal game. Spacey synth rock with breathy vocals and operatic warbling soundtracks Darius Gaiden's post-apocalyptic-cyber-fishtopia.

Song: Visionnerz

Game:Darius Gaiden

Composer: Hisayoshi Ogura/Zuntata

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No need for tears. Dry your eyes. It's only Tetris.

Song: Level 0

Game: Tetris (Philips CD-i)

Composer- Jim Andron

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Waichiro Ozaki's MobyGames page doesn't even list his work on this weird near-launch Majora's Mask-esque PS2 RPG. It doesn't list much of anything. He's worked as a sound designer on a variety of Konami PS2 games, contributed music to Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes, and may have composed a few PS1 Yugioh games. His soundtrack for Ephemeral Fantasia is the highlight of the game, heavy on guitar and Mitsuda-esque mystery. Makes sense for a game about a bard (with clunky Guitar Freaks minigame) to have an exceptional OST.

Song: Castle Town

Game: Ephemeral Fantasia

Composer: Waichiro Ozaki

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What better way to help get through your seasonal affective disorder than listening to the soundtrack of the ultimate Flying Disc Game?

Song: Shoot!

Game: Windjammers

Composer: Seiichi Hamada

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Let's make Jun Chikuma a household name in 2015. The woman can write a god damn jam, okay?  

Song: Boss Theme 1

Game: Bomberman '94

Composer: Jun Chikuma

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Not sure why it took me so long to post this, it's one of my absolute all time favorite soundtracks and this is probably my favorite song from it. I'll probably post some more from this game in the future. I absolutely love this game. I missed the hype completely seeing as I didn't own a Dreamcast until 2003 or so. I was just looking for new racing games to play and ended up grabbing this one, the timing was just perfect and it really grabbed me immediately. I've enjoyed most of the Project Gotham Racing followups (I could go on for a long time about how you need to play 4) but there was something amazing about their progenitor I just never felt with any of the other titles. I'm willing to attribute a great deal of that to Richard Jacques amazing soundtrack. This is pretty obviously a followup to Jacques work on the Sonic R soundtack and in my opinion his high point. All of the songs work amazingly in and out of the game, it really feels like he was very comfortable and understood exactly what he was shooting for here.

Song: Am I Only Dreaming?

Game: Metropolis Street Racer

Artist: Richard Jacques

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I don't usually get all that excited about pokemon music. Don't misunderstand, I find a lot of it intensely nostalgic and it generally does an amazing job of fitting the tone of the game and complementing the whole experience, it's just that a lot of it doesn't impress me on it's own. There are some exceptions however and this track in particular is at the top of the list. I just find it brilliantly put together and it hit me hard enough that I had to just stop and listen to it for a while the first time I entered the area. That little ramp up into the chorus is just spot on. Seasonal as well as we head into December!

Song: Route 216 (Day)

Game: Pokemon Diamond/Pearl

Artist:  Go Ichinose