Favorite Tunes #216: Raging in the Streets

I'll bet you've never played a beat 'em up before and thus, you'll never guess what the subtitle refers to! Yeah, that is my pitiful attempt to add more to this intro. Some games from my favorite genre, shoot 'em ups, are getting some love this week as well as my main hedgehog, Sonic as well as another fellow that has Sonic in his name. And that and Dragon Ball, too!

Aqua Blue - Gunbird (ARC)

I'd heard of Gunbird but until recently, I'd never actually played it. This Psikyo arcade SHMUP was received a few home ports included a localized one under the title Mobile Light Force. Gunbird is also available on Steam and recently received a Switch port going by the name Gunbird for Nintendo Switch, which is my preferred method of playing this shooter. I love this game's art style and upbeat music.

Boss (Vs, Eggman) - Sonic Forces (PS4, XBO, NS, PC)

Sonic Forces is far from being a fantastic Sonic game but it isn't the crap fest so many people state it is. The music is actually pretty dang good. Granted Tee Lopes is a tough act to follow, but Naofumi Hayata worked his Genesis sound font magic and gave us some sick retro-style beats. Pity you only get to hear so little of this one as you'll damage Eggman so quickly that the theme shifts to a much more faster paced version of the boss theme.

Trunks - DRAGON BALL FighterZ (PS4, XBO, PC)

Kenji Yammamoto may not be writing the music for our DBZ fighting games anymore but we've still got plenty of good, energetic tunes to keep us hyped. DBFZ is packed with plenty of rock, some jazz and even hopeful tunes, the last one of which is very fitting for Trunks, who once again finds himself fighting to save his dystopian world in the future in Dragon Ball Super.

Dilapidated Town - Streets of Rage (GEN)

Yuzo Koshiro. The man is a music writing genius and a huge, huge fan of western music. While many will argue that the peak of Streets of Rage music is with the second entry, I kinda feel like that is a huge disservice to the first and third game. After the energy pumping first level theme that is Fighting in the Street, the second level tones it down a notch with Dilapidated Town.

Stage 2A - Zero Gunner 2 (DC)

Originally released on the Dreamcast, Zero Gunner 2 saw a remade re-release called Zero Gunner 2- for Nintendo Switch. Another Psikyo SHMUP, the source code was lost, hence why the Switch version was made from the ground up. The music may sound a bit flat or generic, but there's still some good jams to listen to outside of gameplay.

Space Station - Sonic Blast Man (SNES)

Originally an arcade game consisting of several target hitting stages, Sonic Blast Man was later ported to the SNES as a full fledged five stage beat 'em up. The target punching levels from the arcade version were included as bonus levels. Being a Taito game, Sonic Blast Man's soundtrack is of exceptional quality.

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Favorite Tunes #159: Rise of the Super Heroes

Tonight, season three of one of my favorite shows begins, The Flash! I've eagerly been anticipating it since the finale of season two and look forward to seeing how the show's version of Flashpoint will turn out. In honor of the occasion, this Favorite Tunes is super hero themed.

Theme of Captain America - Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (ARC, DC, PS)

Red, white and blue will turn you black and blue. Who doesn't love playing as Cap, throwing that shield around like a giant boomerang? Before Super Smash Bros. released, Marvel vs. Capcom was the biggest video game crossover. Mega Man and Spider-Man on the same team against Ryu and Wolverine? How awesome is that?

Fight! Alkaiser - SaGa Frontier (PS)

The SaGa games have never received the acclaim that the Final Fantasy titles did. Those Final Fantasy Legend games on the Game Boy? Actually SaGa titles under a different name. Regardless, the SaGa titles do have their good points, like splendid music. Kenji Ito is responsible for much of the series music and he did the first PS title a world of justice. Red, one of the seven playable characters has a super cool alter ego known as Alkaiser that he can change into during battle as long as his party members aren't watching.

Blade Master (Electric Sword Demon Alastor's Theme) - Viewtiful Joe (GCN, PS2)

Viewtiful Joe was a wonderful and punishing treat for old-school gamers. This cel shaded game was a throw back to beat 'em up fans that threw in some new elements to the genre like speeding up and slowing down time to have different affects on Joe's combat abilities as well as the certain parts of the levels themselves. The game was also a little harder than it needed to be by not giving you the option of saving after every level.

Boss - Sonic Blast Man (SNES)

Even by super hero standards, Sonic Blast Man is a weirdly dressed dude. I mean, boxing gloves? I guess that makes sense with punching being his thing. He also has no idea how to do the whole hero thing. Rather than remove people from oncoming danger like trains and trucks, he destroys said vehicles, killing the people in them in the process. And he still gets thanks every time for his actions.

Savage Land (Theme of Wolverine) - X-Men: Children of the Atom (ARC, SAT, PS)

Are the X-Men still getting good licensed deals on games? I haven't been keeping up with the mutants much these days. You really couldn't go wrong with an X-Men fighter back in the day. Well, unless you were playing the PS version. I know Wolverine is overexposed these days and I was hesitant to put his theme up here at first, but after hearing it again for the first time in a long time, I had to give Snikt Bub his due.

The Won-Stoppable Wonderful 101 - The Wonderful 101 (Wii U)

Some people seem to be under the belief that The Wonderful 101 is a third party game because Platinum developed it. This is a Nintendo IP. Yes, Platinum did make it, but the game, characters and whatnot are all owned by Nintendo. Sadly, the game was not advertised well and because of Nintendo fans not knowing it was a first party title, it was a retail bomb.

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Favorite Tunes #22: SNES Music

The SNES, what is widely viewed as the greatest Nintendo console of all time is 21 years old today. To celebrate, I'm featuring nothing but SNES music in this installment of Favorite Tunes. On top of having a library of fantastic-looking and playing games, the SNES had some out of this word audio capabilities.

Robot Museum - Mega Man 7

Mega Man 7 takes a lot of heat. It's sprites a huge, which makes some of the precision platforming from the 8-bit games more difficult. But even so, this one is still one of my favorite Mega Mans. The Robot Museum stage is an arrangement of three robot master stage themes, Snake Man, Guts Man and Heat Man. The track starts out with Snake Man's theme, quickly moves into Guts Man's theme, transfers to Heat Man and finally goes back to Snake Man's intro before it loops. 

Main Theme - Final Fantasy IV

This isn't my favorite Final Fantasy, but it is one of my favorites. It has my favorite Main Theme/World Map theme of any Final Fantasy game. Final Fantasy IV was originally released as Final Fantasy II in America in 1992 but this has since been corrected to it's original numbering. I didn't play this one until early 1998 and even then, it's story and especially the music mesmerized me. Since the random encounter rate is quite high in this game, I had to stay still a number of times to hear this beautiful theme in it's entirety.

Beware the Forest Mushrooms - Super Mario RPG

Before Square jumped ship to swim over to the side of Sony in the late 1990s, they gave the SNES one final RPG sendoff, Mario-style. All enemies can be seen on the field, meaning some battles can be avoided. But battles were more than just button mashing affairs. The use of timed hits let you deal out more damage or take less damage if you pressed the buttons at the right moments. Throw in a catchy musical score by the brilliant minds of Yoko Shimomura, Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu and you have an RPG that even those that aren't fans of the genre can get into. The name of this track, actually carries quite a literal meaning to it. Some of the mushrooms come alive and attack. You can pick up some of the mushrooms that you see in the forest, and while some of theme are good, some are poisonous.

Sand Ocean - F-Zero

A thrilling sensation of speed thanks to superb mode-7 effects made F-Zero a racing game to remember. It might seem bare bones compared to the sequels, but this one still plays quite well. You may be wondering why Sand Ocean is here instead of Mute City. Mute City is an awesome track. In many ways, it's the theme of the F-Zero series. But Sand Ocean never seems to get enough love.

Thunder - Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen

Years ago I made the bonehead decision to trade int he PlayStation version of Ogre Battle. So when I saw it was available on the Wii's Virtual Console service, I thought that would be the best way to pick it up without having to fork over an insane amount of cash for a single cart. Annnnd I still haven't gotten around to playing it. But the brief time I spent with the PSone version was enough to get Thunder stuck in my head. The PSone version sounds more fleshed out, but I can still dig the SNES version.

Metropolis - SimCity

One of the reasons the SNES version of SimCity is such a standout game is the music. Soyo Oka put together a score that made each evolutionary stage of the city you're building and managing feel very unique. When you begin breaking ground on your city, you're given a very humble, almost lonely tune. Once you get a sizable amount of people living in your city, you get Metropolis, a track that perfectly demonstrates the busy, on the go nature of city life.

Factory - Sonic Blast Man

Originally an arcade beat 'em up, Sonic Blast Man was ported to the SNES in 1992. While I can appreciate Sonic Blast Man's Super Sentai homages, this isn't my first choice for a SNES beat 'em up game. The levels tend to drag on and on. And seriously, what kinda super hero wears boxing gloves? It isn't a terrible game, but it really isn't a good one either. But I will defend the game's soundtrack to the death.

Remains of a Factory - Chrono Trigger

Yasunori Matsuda proved he was a music composing genius with Chrono Trigger's soundtrack. There are dozens of memorable tracks in the game so I thought I'd go with one that seems to go under the radar. Your trip to the future takes you to the year 2300 A.D. 300 years after Lavos wreaked havoc on the world. As you can guess, the world is very bleak and the remaining survivors are just barely surviving.

Sanctuary Dungeon - The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

It isn't hard to see why the third entry in the Zelda series (going by release, not the convoluted timeline) is such a fan favorite. The story is more involving than the previous games, the set of weapons and items you collect (Hookshot!) are extremely useful and the despite not having nearly as many tracks as later entries, the soundtrack is still held in high regard. Sanctuary Dungeon makes me wish there were more dungeons in the Light World. A mere three compared to the Dark World's seven.

Stickerbrush Symphony - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

Called Super Kong Kong 2 in Japan, the second game in the Donkey Kong Country SNES trilogy is considered to be the peak of the series by many. David Wise wrote the entire score this time around and like the previous game, it does not disappoint. How do you help a player relax when they are surrounded by thorns for an entire level? Play the relaxing tune known as Stickerbush Symphony.