Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight – Chaconne c. moll (KCE Nagoya Sound Team)

Here is a simply fantastic baroque organ piece from Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight for the Sega Saturn (1998). The game is commonly known as Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in the US (PlayStation, 1997), but the Saturn version was only released in Japan (and quite frankly, aside from this song, it’s not really worth tracking down). That being said, some heavy organ music is an excellent choice for this time of year, and this song in particular is one of my favorites from the game. You can almost see the passion of some crazed nobleman storming into the keys!

Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight – Chaconne c. moll

“Chaconne c. moll,” or “Chaconne in C Minor,” is composed in a musical style that originates from Spain in the 16th Century and later finds its way into the hands of such baroquian masters as Bach and Brahms. The form is characterized as “variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line.” This form thus seems particularly suited for videogames, which are replete with repetition and variation, but more importantly, it allows a small set of notes to be explored in great detail, creating some excellent surprises for the listener.

I’m actually not 100% sure who the composer of this track is. Most of Symphony of the Night’s score was composed by Michiru Yamane, now famous for her work in the rest of the Castlevania series,

Luigi’s Mansion (rem. Shogo Sakai)

Wow! I was so involved in a new translation project that I almost forgot today’s Daily! Today I chose a medley of Luigi’s Mansion music (2001). Luigi’s Mansion gets a lot of dismissal, mainly because it was a Gamecube launch title that failed to live up to the gold standard set by Super Mario 64. Still, it’s a short, sweet game and well worth the $10 you can pick it up for these days. This particular remix is also from Super Smash Bros. Brawl (2008) and was done by Shogo Sakai (Heavy Barrel (1990), Mother 3 (2006)).

Luigi’s Mansion (rem. Shogo Sakai)

Luigi’s Mansion was originally composed by Kazumi Totaka and Shinobu Tanaka. The comedy-horror of the music perfectly matches the hapless scaredy-cat Luigi who must capture ghosts using a Ghostbusters-esque vacuum cleaner while searching for his more famous brother, Mario. The original soundtrack uses simple variations of the main theme depending on the nature of the room (dark and gloomy or well-lit; claustrophobic or open). At times Luigi will even nervously hum the tune, bridging the gap between diegetic and non-diegetic audio (basically, can characters in the film or game hear the music being played). This theme-and-variation is also a hallmark of Super Mario World and Virtual Boy Wario Land (the latter of which was also composed by Totaka). Shogo Sakai’s remix places a more sinister, gothic style to the music, but still retains the comedy and ‘safeness’ inherent to the original. It’s up there with other Mario ghost house themes, and a perfect addition to the Halloween lineup.

One final note: this track fades out when normally it would loop back at the beginning. Some game tracks have natural ‘fade out’ points where the composition ends and the loop begins. In this instance, I simply faded the track out a little earlier to give it a cleaner closing.

Metal Slug 3 – Light ‘Em Up (rem. Protricity)

Wednesday turns out to be Zombie Day, and you can help fight off the zombiepocalypse with flamethrower-wielding Marco and Tarma of the PFSF (zombies burn real good). Metal Slug 3‘s (2000) “Midnight Wandering” (Hiya!, Bero-ou, Hohi_Hohi, Q_Jiroo, Maitaro) plays in the second level when the soldiers come upon a crashed airplane that Morden’s stahlhelm-wearing soldiers had been conducting zombie experiments in. Or maybe it’s coming from the alien Stonehenge at the end of the level; it’s a bit unclear. The infection has taken over civilians as well as soldiers and it’s a grim task of wiping them out. Get hit with zombie goo, and you turn into a zombie yourself. You’re immune to bullets, but not fire or explosions; a second hit from the zombie goo will cause total body meltdown. So strap on your propane tanks and get torchin’! “Midnight Wandering” was remixed by Protricity as “Light ‘Em Up” and is available through OverClocked ReMix’s website.

Metal Slug 3 – Light ‘Em Up (rem. Protricity)

“Light ‘Em Up” has some great guitar progression and nice references to Metal Slug 1‘s “Main Theme from Metal Slug (Stage 1)” and “Final Attack (Stage 6)”, now mainstays in the series. The heavy minor key works fairly well in conjunction with the major scale of these two tracks. I also like the acoustic guitar at about 2:00. By the way, that ‘telephone’ ringing that happens at around 1:25 is produced by simulating a ‘chord’ by playing a square wave rapidly as an arpeggio. This unique sound was a hallmark of the Commodore 64′s three-channel sound chip and sprung from the limitations of the hardware.

Eternal Darkness – Black Rose (Steve Henifin)

“Three thirty-three…” Ah yes, Eternal Darkness. Made in 2002 and one of the most underrated games of the era, this is the classic psychological horror title for the Gamecube, complete with zombies and an insanity meter that causes the character to hallucinate when it reaches a high level. The hallucinations can at times be hilarious (sinking through the floor, a blue screen of death) and at others disturbing (a dead woman in a bathtub full of blood). Settings include Medieval Europe, Colonial America, Cambodia, and World War I. The game has excellent writing and fantastic dialogue, solid play control, and of course a good soundtrack!

Eternal Darkness – Black Rose (Steve Henifin)

“Black Rose” is the theme of Maximilian Roivas, the hapless Colonial-era doctor who happens upon the Lovecraftian monsters that have set up home inside his Rhode Island mansion (or rather, that his mansion was built over). This once renowned medical doctor is eventually condemned to an insane asylum when nobody will believe his story (“May the rats eat your eyes! The Darkness comes! It will damn us all!!!”). The track has a great violin lead which when coupled with a guitar and bells gives a mix of not only 18th Century America but also oddly enough the American West. There are also some great sfx such as the storm outside and the flights of bats. I’m kind of torn between gothic Colonial and gothic Western for this, but it’s a great track either way.

The Dark Side of Phobos – Hangarmageddon (“e1m1″ rem. Evil Horde)

What Halloween week would be complete without a reference to everybody’s favorite love it/hate it FPS, Doom (1993). The game has been blamed for just about everything, from the genesis of an entire genre to the fall of Western civilization to one of the worst movies of all time to one of the most important videogames worth preserving at Stanford University (and here I just thought it was a game!). Doom (1993) was composed by Bobby Prince. This remix of the classic first level theme, “At Doom’s Gate – E1M1″ (Episode 1, Mission 1), is from The Dark Side of Phobos (2005), another album project from Overclocked ReMix.

The Dark Side of Phobos – Hangarmageddon (rem. Evil Horde)

“Hangarmageddon” is a wonderful guitar cover of the original. The track is heavily guitar-driven, with plenty of variation on just a few basic notes. While it ends up being a bit long in places, it has some nice breaks, such as the shotgun load sfx at around 1:32. Incidentally, in the official soundtrack, DOOM Music (1997), “e1m1″ had been remixed with a complete set of sound effects from the game. Sadly, the track was not featured in the soundtrack to the cringingly awful DOOM motion picture.

Ultimate Ghosts ‘n Goblins – Makaimura Theme Song (Tsunemoto and Kotani)

This week I’m kicking off with a set of Halloween-related music! There isn’t exactly a shortage of creepy games on the market, but one of the originals is Ghosts ‘n Goblins (1984). Capcom’s arcade classic is notable for its insane difficulty as well as its complexity – and its music! This version of the “Makaimura Theme Song” from Ultimate Ghouls ‘n Ghosts (PSP, 2006), is by Masaya Tsunemoto and Kazuhiro Kotani, both working at Tose. I have also included the World Map Screen, as the two tracks are pretty much inseparable. These are from the album Gokumakaimura Original Soundtrack (Ultimate Ghosts ‘n Goblins, 2006).

Ultimate Ghosts ‘n Goblins – World Map Screen (Tsunemoto and Kotani)

Ultimate Ghosts ‘n Goblins – Makaimura Theme Song (Tsunemoto and Kotani)

The “Makaimura Theme Song” is the traditional Stage 1 theme for the series while the “World Map Screen” plays before every level in the game. While the composer of the original soundtrack is largely unknown (often referred to as ‘Capcom Sound Team’), the Nintendo version of the game was composed by Ayako Mori, so he may also be the original composer. Sadly, this is a situation that is all too common with early vgm because credit standards for videogames were often poor at best, and all too often absent. Many game credits often had pseudonyms to prevent rival companies from stealing their star developers.

Braid – Downstream (Shira Kammen)

Following last night’s VGM Daily is a second Braid track, “Downstream” by Shira Kammen. The song was originally published in Music of Waters, 2003).

Music of Braid – Downstream (Shira Kammen)

This track plays in the first game world, which is filled with lush greenery, flowers, and a lazy sky. The calmness also helps prevent the player from feeling frustrated while solving the puzzles.

Kammen describes the inspiration behind the song:

Braid – Maenam (Jami Sieber)

Today I went to a lecture by John Sharp on videogames and art. The lecture is a preview of what he will present at next year’s Game Developers Conference and was given to the IGDA Colorado chapter. It was quite interesting and thought-provoking, and opened up a new area of thought on games and art. Essentially, his thesis is that art is dead (and has been for at least the last 40 years) and that games should just insist on being games. Case in point: the Mona Lisa is still pretty 500 years after it was painted, but Wolfenstein looks terrible when compared with modern game graphics. At the same time, Wolfenstein is still just as fun to play as it was 20 years ago – and will still be 200 years after today (that is to say, it’s still quite fun). Within this art discussion, I present a soundtrack from one of the art games John discussed in the lecture, Braid (2008).

Braid – Maenam (Jenni Sieber)

Braid was produced by Jonathan Blow for the XBox 360 Live Arcade, and it is now available over Steam for the PC (there is also a Mac version). The soundtrack, Music from Braid (2009) may be purchased through the fantastic online music store, Magantune, whose slogan is “We are not evil.”

Bound Together – This Drugstore Sells Sparks! (Ailsean)

Today’s Daily tune is “The Drugstore Sells Sparks!” a remix of the EarthBound (1992) ‘shop music’ by Ailsean (2005). The original track is “Humoresque of a Little Dog,” originally composed by Hip Tanaka for the Japanese prequel, Mother, 1989. EarthBound’s Japanese title is Mother 2, and this game also features a version of this song.

Bound Together – The Drugstore Sells Sparks! (Ailsean)

Contrary to popular belief, shop music is NOT fun to listen to while you’re working retail (not that retail is usually fun to begin with!). It makes me wonder why videogame shopkeepers are forced to listen to this stuff all day (maybe that’s why their worlds are so screwed up!). It might be fun to listen to if you’re shopping, but I have yet to try putting a bunch of shop music together and walk through stores with an mp3 player. Just thank God you don’t work at Mallo Mart…

Ailsean’s rendition of the theme is loads of fun, and one of my favorites on the Bound Together album. It does a great job of capturing the quirky feel of the series, and  I really enjoy the off-beat percussion, which sounds like some guy built a banjo out of trashcan lids.

EarthBound is the second, and so far only game released in the US was elegantly and extensively reviewed by Tim Rogers). Actually, the album is now called Bound Together: Rebound – An EarthBound Remix Project (2006), because the music was updated with several extra tracks. It was produced through a collaboration of vgm remix artists from Overclocked ReMix, the premier site for vgm remixes in the US.

Korobeiniki, aka Tetris Type A (Arr. Hirokazu Tanaka)

The “Type A” theme from the Game Boy version of Tetris (1989) is arguably the third most-popular videogame song of all time. The reasoning behind this is twofold. First, the Game Boy version was played by well over 35 million people (Super Mario Bros, in comparison, holds the record at over 50m copies sold). Second, the song, whose actual name is Korobeiniki, or The Peddlers, had been a popular Russian folk song since its composition in 1851 by the poet-writer Nikolay Nekrasov. (The Game Boy versionwas arranged by the legendary Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka of Metroid fame – more on this later.)

This video of Orchestra Ossipov playing Korobeiniki is fantastic. There is something simply mesmerizing about the shot at about 2:30 with all the balalaika players in direct sync (it’s a kind of russian guitar) – it’s mechanical, but at the same time it’s human. This song is fun, playful, and demonstrates the joy of music. It isn’t stuffy orchestra – it’s professional musicians who enjoy music and are playing a folk song and enjoying every minute of it, as they should (as is the audience). In comparison, here is the original Game Boy version:

Tetris – Type A (remix: Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka)

Notable remixes include the Super Smash Bros. Brawl remix by Yoko Shimomura (2008); “Tetris Type A” from Game Boy Music ~ G.S.M. Nintendo 2 (1990), which intersperses Game Boy SFX with an orchestral synth remix by Kei Takanishi; and a fantastic surf-rock remix by Ozma (2001) (the cool music video has some fantastic retro CG of Soviet spacecraft and nuclear explosions).