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Showing posts with label dodonpachi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dodonpachi. Show all posts

Monday, March 18, 2013

Favorite Tunes #51: Like a Boss

Another day, another edition of Favorite Tunes and this time it's boss themes. I could easily go beyond the usual 10 for something like this, but since I already did that for Favorite Tunes #50, I'll just stick with the usual number. Enjoy!




Sonic meets Chaos at the very start of his quest. As Sonic and Tails collect Chaos Emeralds, Dr. Robotnik, thanks to the duo's cut scene incompetence, acquires all of the hero's emeralds and feeds them to Chaos. With each Chaos Emerald gets, Chaos grows stronger. Chaos ver. 6, at this point has 6 Chaos Emeralds and you'd think the fight with the creature would be incredibly tough but in truth, he shatters like glass. Even so, the boss theme for this fight is one of the sickest boss beats in a Sonic game. Do I hear some Mission Impossible in this theme? 




Some players encountered their first SNK Boss in an SNK game. For me, it was Street Fighter II. I can't count how many loses this guy handed me. He wasn't the boss of the Street Fighter IV series but he did make a return and thanks to voice of Gerald C. Rivers, he seems more intimidating than ever.




Before there was Square Enix there was just Square and Enix. 1998 saw a large number of releases from Square, and many of those games weren't Final Fantasy titles. Einhänder is a fondly remembered shooter from the PS era that allowed the player to choose which type of ship or different Einhänder models they wish to pilot. The 2.5D gameplay and visuals made for some pretty impressive stuff as did the soundtrack. The voice samples in Shudder actually contains an F-bomb but the raping is done so fast that not everyone picks up on it in the first listen. That and I image most players are trying to stay alive since this game has some pretty ruthless bosses.

K.O.! The Strongest Foe - Bangai-O (DC)



Bangai-O was first released on the N64 but had a limited print run of only 10,000 copies. Not only that, the N64 version was only released in Japan, which makes it one of the toughest N64 carts to obtain. The Dreamcast version saw a worldwide release, making it the best option to play the original Bangai-O. Being a game developed by Treasure, it has that unique charm and innovation that are associated with nearly all of it's games. It can also get pretty difficult as I got stuck after passing only the first few levels. Regardless of the steep challenge, it's a fantastic mech shooter with a memorable number of upbeat themes. K.O.! The Stongtest Foe is the final boss tune so it's naturally more serious than other tracks.

Burn Yourself - Dodonpachi DAI-OU-JOU (ARC, PS2, 360)



Yet another shooter by Cave with a score by Manabu Namiki and a game that I've never played. This is the fourth game in the DonPachi series and I'd considered importing the PS2 version but I've never been able to find a copy. Namiki sans composes incredible music and I absolutely love his titles for boss tracks. Seriously, you can't anymore menacing than a name like Burn Yourself.

Moskito - Rayman (JAG, PS, SAT, PC)



I was rather surprised to discover that Rayman Origins, one of the best platformers in the current generation of gaming had heavy dose of Nintendo Hard. If the game ketp track of all the lives lost, I can imagine my death toll would be insanely high. The original Rayman was no walk down the street and is by far the tougher game. But even intermediate level players should be able to make it to Moskito and hear his rocking theme.

Battle with the Boss - Kirby Super Star (SNES, DS)



My second favorite Kirby game, Kirby Super Star's eight mini games offer so much to do that's almost not fair to call them mini games. Collecting all the treasures in The Great Cave Offensive can take hours and as can finding all the Copy Abilties in Milky Way Wishes. I've never completed this game 100% though I've come awfully close.

Femmes Fatales - Parasite Eve (PS)



Opera in your boss battles? Eh, sure, why not? Although if you went to the opera and the entire audience around your burst into flames, you might be scared off from ever going to an opera for the rest of the life. But Aya Bre doesn't let this faze her (too much) In fact, after everything she's been through in the game, she's seen at the opera during the game's finale.

Dr. Wily Stage Boss - Mega Man 7 (SNES)



"The sprites are too big! The music isn't as good as the 8-bit games!" Meh, to all of that noise. I  still love Mega Man 7. We got Bass, Treble, a memorable (if not controversial) ending and in my humble opinion, a great set of tunes. I still say this is one of the better Wily Stag Boss themes. Come on, Capcom, how about a Virtual Console release?

Andross - Star Fox (SNES)



After a short (but very dangerous) trek through the Lylat System, you come Arwing to face with Andross. Yes, the big bad threatening the galaxy with a genius intellect is a primape. Said monkey tries to inhale you and shoots polygonal rectangles your way. It's quite the gripping fight and one that still makes me sweat even today.

Favorite Tunes Database

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Favorite Tunes #16: SHMUP Themes

For those of you not in the known, SHMUP is short for shoot 'em up. You know, those games where you're flying in a ship and shoot stuff. Alternatively, we can also just call them shooters. One of my favorite genres since I was a kid, SHMUPs are the ultimate form of reflex gameplay. They also have some pretty kickin' tunes.

Dual Moon - Metal Black (ARC, SAT)



Being a fan of the Darius games, it was nice to play more of Taito's shooters. My first encounter with Metal Black was when picked up Taito Legends 2 for the PS2. It quickly became one of my favorite games on the collection. Metal Black's score was composed by the great Yasuhisa Watanabe and Dual Moon is the track I love the most from this game.

Sensation - Salamander II (ARC)



You could also call this game Life Force II since it's a sequel to the arcade game Life Force (the NES version of Life Force has quite a few differences). For years I had heard the music of this game but never played it. I was actually able to pick up the Salamander Deluxe Pack on the Saturn and if it's any indication, Saturn imports are going to be a key part of my library. As blasphemous as it may sound, I actually like Salamander II better than Life Force. If you finish the game it starts over again with remixed tunes of the original Salamander. Quite nice. Sensation is such a majestic piece of music. Salamander II has such an incredibly awesome score so this certainly won't be the last time I mention music from it here in Favorite Tunes.

Chase - Einhander (PSone)



Games like this make me wish Square Enix would think outside of the RPG box. Sure, it doesn't always pay off but with Einhander, we were given one of the best shooters on the PlayStation. The 2.5D graphics were quite stunning and the soundtrack was right on the money. You can actually hear this theme as early as the first level.

Colony - Axelay (SNES)



One of the earliest SNES games and still one of the most impressive both from and audio and visual standpoint, Axelay has aged remarkably well, showcasing some incredible mode-7 scrolling effects. At only five levels, you may find it shooter than most SHMUPs, but Axelay is still worth checking out. Many a great theme can be found in Axelay but Colony is probably the one that wows me more than any other.

Black Hole Anomalies - Space Megaforce (SNES)



Known as Super Aleste in Japan, this is a fantastic shooter from the defunct Compile. That company really knew how to make good SHMUPs and it kills me that they are no more. MUSHA saw a Virtual Console release (another game by Compile) and I really think a release for Space Megaforce is longer overdue. The entire soundtrack to this game is amazing but if I had to pick one theme from this one, Black Hole Anomalies is it.

Biophotron - G.Darius (ARC, PSone)



There have been numerous games released in the Darius series but this one ranks as my all-time favorite. The unique ability to capture enemies and have them fight at your side was a great innovation but playing tug-o-war with bosses using huge beams that would make the crew from Dragon Ball Z proud? Awesome! Each time I listen to Biophotron, I can clearly see that Petra-don from Zone B flying gracefully in the background.

Chapter 3: Faith - Ikaruga (ARC, DC, GCN, XBLA)



I wasn't into the import scene when Ikaruga saw a console release on the Dremcast but I made sure to pick it up when it released on the GameCube. Physical copies aren't easy to come by these days so I'm glade more players are getting able to experience this groundbreaking shooter through digital distribution. Even by SHMUP standards Ikaruga can be pretty freaking difficult. To this day, I still don't think I've earned an A rank on single stage.

Vertigo (Stage 5) - DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu (ARC)



I wouldn't feel right posting some of my fav SHUMP themes and not having a track from Manabu Namiki. Vertigo is the final stage of DoDonPachi Daifukkatsu. What's better than some good bass? This tune comes loaded with a healthy dose of slap bass goodness.

Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Favorite Tunes #14: Arranged Themes

This installment of Favorite Tunes covers some of my fav arrangements of video game tracks. These arrangements are unique in that you won't hear any of them in the games from which they are based off of. Each track comes from an album.

Adrenalyne Kick (Hurry!) 



Final Fantasy VII has some of my least favorite music in the series, but on the whole, I still enjoyed the score. You end up hearing Hurry early on in the game and from there on out, it gets played numerous times throughout your quest. Hurry has been the name of a few tracks throughout the Final Fantasy series, but I honestly think FFVII managed to pull off the best version of it. This OverClocked Remix arrangement of it from the FFVII album Voices of the Lifestream is one of the few instances where I found the remix superior to the original.

Outride a Crisis -Mickey Arrange Ver.-



Super Hang-On is one of my favorite SEGA arcade games and I was very excited to see it get released on the Virtual Console. Like OutRun, you can select your music before you begin racing. You can choose from four songs but the one I pick the most is Outride a Crisis. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Hang-On series in 2007, Wave Master released the Super Hang-On 20th Anniversary Collection album. It contained the music from the arcade versions of Hang-On, Super Hang-On and arrangements for all four BGM race themes for Super Hang-On. It would have been nice if they included the Game Boy Advance version music of Super Hang-On from the Sega Arcade Gallery, but it still ended up being a fantastic album.

Remebrance ~Cammy Stage~



It took Capcom a few years, but they finally realized that they needed to add some more females to the roster in Street Fighter II. Cammy made her debut in Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers. She may not be as popular as Chun-Li, but she's always been a fan favorite and I absolutely LOVE her theme! This arrangement from the 1994 release Street Fighter II Alph-Lyra with Yuji Toriyama is but one of the finest remixes she's ever received.

Girls



Policenauts is game from famed game producer, Hideo Kojima. But unlike the Metal Gear series, this is one of those games that fewer gamers have played, which is a real shame. The theme Girls is extremly calming. This particular version comes from 1996 album Policenauts F/N. Policenauts did get an unofficial fan translated patch released in 2009 and the game can also be purchased on the Japanese PlayStation Network.

East Asia (Stage1)



I firmly believe that East Asia is one of the greatest first level themes from a video game. Manabu Namiki's scores awlays managed to impress me and I've heard numberous arrangements of this theme. But none of them come close to toping Yayushisa Watanabe's rendtion of it. Some beleive that when you stray too far from the source material, you ruin the song. In this case, I think going for a different feel paid off. Most remixes of this song play it safe. Watanabe opted for a different approach and I am ever so greatful for that. This song comes from the dodonpachi DAI-OU-JOU [arrange album] that released in 2009

Unleashing the Ogre



Ever wonder why Double Dragon II carried the subtitle "The Revenge"? That question gets anwsered pretty quickly. In the opening scene (in the arcade version), Billy's gilrfriend is gunned down. Harsh. For all the original Double Dragon did for gaming it hasn't aged very well at but Double Dragon II still holds up nicely. Titled after the game of the same name, Double Dragon II The Revenge contains no music from the actual arcade game, instead housing arranged music across the board. Though it was released in 1990, the quality of these arrangements is mighty impressive.

TECHNOTRIS



I have no clue why Diverse was always getting into fights but since the results of those versus matches were some sweet albums, who am I to complain? From Diverse vs 8bit, Technotris is a techno-infused version of one of the classic BGMs from Tetris.