Ah yes. So a few days ago, I loaded a remix from Blaster Master (1988), so here’s the original thing! This is the famous “Area 1″ theme by Naoki Kodaka. This one actually didn’t see an official release – which is kind of surprising!
Blaster Master – “Area 1″ (Naoki Kodaka)
“Area 1″ is another perfect opening stage theme. The music is upbeat and hopeful, perfect for exploration! After jumping into the hole, there’s this tank down here, so what’s a kid to do who’s looking for his frog but jump inside and go after it! First, it’s got a great opening for the tank, Sofia, to roll out to. Then there’s the quick beat of the drum accompanied by the bubbling bassline has a nice ‘move forward’ feel that also matches the personality of Sofia (not quite Metal Slug level, but hey! this is 8-bit!). Main melody has this nice fluctuation from the long wavelength of the notes – it’s almost as if it’s playing several notes at once. Again, great progression here, but kept together by the core beat.
This track has seen a bunch of remixes (though surprisingly not as many as you think!), but I have to say that the original is probably the best. Probably because most mixers only seem to want to do dance versions of the song (which I can see, but don’t agree with). Silverline did a symphonic remix, and while it has a lot of charm, it misses the ‘get up and go explore!’ feel of the original. There was also the remixed version from Blaster Master: Blasting Again (2000), which isn’t too bad in a kind of techno rock way.
