Favorite Tunes #160: Here Comes a New Challenger

Aw yeah. You know what those five words mean. A new opponent has entered the ring. Yup, we've got music from fighting games this week. The only thing better than kicking the crap out of your opponent is doing it to some dope beats.

Those Who Fight (Version 2) - Ehrgeiz (PS)

This 3D fighter, released in 1998 and was famous for it's Quest mode. It was also notable for including Cloud, Tifa, Yuffie and Sepiroth from Final Fantasy VII as playable characters. It didn't get a digital release on the PSN outside of Japan and it isn't easy to track down a physical copy so expect to pay through the nose if you do. The game has some really cool and memorable music tracks, including an arrangement of FFVII's killer random battle theme. This track could have been in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Totally missed opportunity.

Jun Kazama - Tekken 2 (Arcade)

The first Tekken game I played, Tekken 2, left a huge impression on me, helping me fully embrace 3D fighters. The PS had some killer arranged tracks from the arcade versions music, but the arcade score was also quite good. Hearing this kinda makes me wish Tekken's composers would go back to this style of music.

Hitohira Reminiscent of Ketsui No Toki - Dead or Alive 2 (ARC, DC, PS2)

Talk about girl power. DOA is primarily known for it's hot chicks with huge boobs and said boobs jiggle physics. I haven't played a DOA game since DOA2 so I've been out of touch with the series for a long time. I can still recall that game's fantastic soundtrack, however, which let to the first inclusion of music from the DOA games in Favorite Tuns. Kasumi was always my favorite of the DOA gals.

An Empty Tome - Castlevania Judgement (Wii)

Back on the Wii, Konami took a stab at turning Castlevania into a fighter. The results proved to be disastrous, but hey, at least they were doing something with the franchise back then. Besides, that game gave us some pretty sick remixed tracks.

Theme of Jeffrey - Virtua Fighter (ARC)

I wouldn't really get into Virtua Fighter until the release of Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution on the PS2, an updated version of VF4. The game included a bonus 1VF 10th Anniversary game as a bonus, which was how I became familiar with the classic VF themes. Pai is my VF main, but I love me some Jeffrey theme music.

Flash Train - Street Fighter EX2 (ARC)

With the subtitle for this Favorite Tunes, you'd think I would have gotten to Street Fighter a lot sooner. It was really tempting to fill this Favorite Tunes with Capcom fighters, but I thought I'd be more diverse and give fighters from other companies some time in the sun. The EX series are Capcom's 3D fighters co-developed by Arika, a company that unfortunately owns the rights to the non Capcom fighters. This is why we've never seen Skullomania or Doctrine Dark in SF games since SFEX3 in 2000. Anyway, the music in the EX games is nothing short of fantastic. EX2 Plus has arrangements of EX2's music, but EX2's original themes are still incredible.

Favorite Tunes Database