Shenmue

Year: 1999
By: Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, Yuzo Koshiro, Takeshi Yanagawa, Osamu Murata, Ryuji Iuchi

Shenmue was supposed to be the biggest game of all time, of unprecedented ambition and scope, the ultimate AAA title for the new millenium. A commercial failure, it turned out to change the face of video game forever, defining what an open world can and should be, before GTA 3 — it did also coin some less fortunate trends, such as the QTE frenzy of the entire 2000s.

SEGA made use of a whole team of in-house composers to come up with a nearly cinematographic soundtrack, worthy of creator Yu Suzuki’s ambitions. Led by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (the guy who composed and sang on Daytona USA), the team put together a soundtrack sounding like no other — thanks to the use of traditional Japanese and Chinese instruments, such as the erhu (chinese fiddle), heard throughout the soundtrack. It was a work of crazy proportions, too: sure, you get memorable themes for the main characters and events, but each and every store in the game got its own theme as well!

Unfortunately, the official soundtrack release only features a few tracks, mostly focused on the most epic and orchestral themes — leaving behind more melancholic, ambient and funny tunes altogether, although a few piano tracks stayed. Shenmue II, its direct sequel set in China, also didn’t get the full release it deserved, with most of its incredible atmospheric tracks featuring only on unofficial game rips.

Best picks

Shenmue -Sedge Tree-
The Night Falls
Nozomi’s Confession
Earth and See
Dawn
Parting Tears
Departure on a New Journey

Full soundtrack

on streaming services

@historyofpunkrock
Iggy Pop Monster men.
https://inv.nadeko.net/watch?v=UW8n8TJ6zsA
#pouetradio

Chrono Cross

Year: 1999
By: Yasunori Mitsuda

Chrono Cross proved to be a controversial sequel to Chrono Trigger, one of the most acclaimed RPGs for the SNES. As Squaresoft achieved the translation to 3D realms with Final Fantasy VII, it didn’t manage to do the same with its short-lived Chrono series. Admittedly, Chrono Cross went for a more dramatic tone than its predecessor, a battle system that failed to convince players, and a somewhat confusing plot tied to an obscure Satellaview text-adventure game from 1996: Radical Dreamers. Redeeming qualities include its beautiful environments, overarching sense of dread and nostalgia, and of course, its soundtrack.

Yasunori Mitsuda was still relatively new at the time ; Chrono Trigger was his first soundtrack, and even then he was so overwhelmed by the daunting task that he ended up plagued by ulcers, needing the help of Nobuo Uematsu to complete the job. Chrono Cross feels more personal somehow — leaving the limited capabilities of the SNES allowed Mitsuda to introduce realistic-sounding guitars, piano, violins, flutes, as well as bagpipes, mouth harps, giving it a “worldwide“ flair.

Best picks

Chrono Cross - Scars of Time
On the Beach of Dreams - Another World
Termina - Another World
Voyage - Another World
Radical Dreamers - Unstolen Jewel

Full soundtrack

on Archive.org (flac/mp3)

Shadow of the Colossus

Year: 2005
By: Kow Otani

Another boss rush, but arguably more poetic and bittersweet than Furi. From Team Ico, Shadow of the Colossus puts you in control of Wander, who’s ready to kill massive beasts in order to bring back his beloved to life. Battles of epic scales ensue, as you struggle to find the weakness of your enemy by climbing on them, holding on for your life, hitting repeatedly until you bring a colossus down. Rince and repeat. As you put an end to those ancient and sacred lives, only accompanied by your horse, you feel the pain and destruction you leave behind your path.

For this, Sony picked Kow Otani, a composer well-versed into kaiju movies (he scored for Godzilla, Gamera…). He strikes the perfect combination of powerful fighting themes and heart-wrenching anthems, with full orchestra and choir.

Best picks

Prologue -to the Ancient Land-
The Opened Way
Revived Power
Swift Horse
The Sunlit Earth
The Farthest Land (Reprise)

Full soundtrack

on streaming services

Jet Set Radio

Year: 2000
By: Hideki Naganuma, Richard Jacques, Toronto

In the early 2000s, SEGA was in the middle of a creative golden age. Artsy experiments such as Rez would release alongside huge innovative and expensive masterpieces such as Shenmue. At the same time, the studio was dying, plagued by the poor sales of both the Saturn and the Dreamcast and terrible business practices. Jet Set Radio came out in this very peculiar moment in time. An arcade game about graffiti, youth and subculture, it popularized cel-shading (a technical way to make 3D graphics look like cartoons) and influenced the video game for decades to come — ever heard of Splatoon?

A big part of JSR’s attitude came from its crazy soundtrack, Hideki Naganuma’s very first work as lead composer. Taking inspiration from funk and big beat genres, and making use of advanced sampling techniques, he made a soundtrack that sounds like no other. Maybe because sampling was barely ever used in video games before (Sonic CD being a notable exception).

In-house composers Tomonori Sawada (under the alias Toronto) and Richard Jacques also contributed to the original soundtrack under the supervision of Naganuma, and SEGA added a few licensed tracks to the final game — making the titular “radio“ of the game a tasteful, underground blend of hip-hop, rock and electro.

Best picks

Let Mom Sleep
Humming the Bassline
Everybody Jump Around
Rock It On
Grace and Glory

Full soundtrack

on streaming services

Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise

Year: 2008
By: Grant Kirkhope

As video game composers go, Grant Kirkhope has a reputation of doing quirky, zany tunes overused as background music by YouTubers (think Banjo-Kazooie or Donkey Kong 64). But don’t you think that’s all there is to his work, because he’s absolutely competent at more “serious“ soundtracks, back then: GoldenEye, Perfect Dark… and the Viva Piñata series. Only two games came out of it: the original one, as well as Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise (the later builds upon the story of the former, but gameplay-wise, it feels more like a big update than anything else). Despite Microsoft’s best efforts to turn Rare’s games into a full-blown IP for children (going as far as to produce a tie-in TV show, a la Pokémon!), it never really struck a chord with gamers, and quickly disappeared.

Anyway, Viva Piñata is one of the first and most prominent examples of Grant Kirkhope’s work with an actual orchestra (he’ll double down later with the Mario + Rabbids series). On his website, Grant Kirkhope explains that the creative process behind Trouble in Paradise was very “emotional“ for him: back then, everything was going awry at Rare, and he knew that he was going to leave the studio as well, even though he didn’t tell anyone yet. This feeling of nostalgia and sadness can be felt throughout the soundtrack, sometimes taking over the game’s expected uplifting tone. Case in point: the beautiful Bedtime Story — which Kirkhope credits as the last recorded tune from the soundtrack, and thus his very last piece for Rare before leaving.

Now, the legal situation of this soundtrack is a bit confusing. The second game reuses a lot of tracks from the first one, but there are many additions. A soundtrack under the name “Viva Piñata“ used to feature tracks from both games, but it’s nowhere to be find anymore after its record company, Sumthing Else, disappeared overnight. My picks are therefore limited, and mostly come from samples out of Kirkhope’s website.

Best picks

Bedtime Story
Growing Under Moonlight
Snowy Blankets

Full soundtrack

(unavailable for now; I’ll update later if I find a good source for it)

Castlevania III: Dracula’s Castle

Year: 1989
By: Konami Kukeiha Club (Hidenori Maezawa, Jun Funahashi, Yukie Morimoto)

The Castlevania series is noteworthy for its baroque-infused tunes. The third major entry in the series for the Famicom went a step further by making use of the VRC6 soundchip, right into the game cartridge. This allowed for deeper saw bass and complex harmonies thanks to the extra audio channels. Unfortunately, this is only true of the Japanese version — the NES counterpart had to be cut down significantly, but still retains some charm thanks to the strong original compositions shining through, as well as some clever adaptation tricks and choices.

Comparisons between the two versions would be worthy of an entire blog post, but for the sake of this selection, I’ll only feature the original Famicom soundtrack here.

By the way, this is not the only time you’ll hear about Castlevania in this thread…

Best picks

Beginning
Clockwork
Mad Forest
Aquarius

Full soundtrack

on Chiptune.app
on Archive.org (mp3)

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World: The Game

Year: 2010
By: Anamanaguchi

Serving as a tie-in for the movie adaptation by Edgar Wright, the game was a decent beat’em up by Ubisoft, very fun with 4 players, but plagued by its slightly grindy XP mechanics. It made up for it with its pixel art style, closer to the comics, and of course, its music.

At the core of this half-joyous half-banging soundtrack, Anamanaguchi are a bunch of hipster nerds from New York, fusing tight NES chiptune with pop-punk rock. Think Weezer meets the NES DuckTales soundtrack. This breakthrough release allowed the band to reach even bigger levels of fame, opening for Hatsune Miku shows in the US, and much later, scoring parts of the newer Scott Pilgrim anime series on Netflix.

Best picks

Another Winter
Suburban Tram
Rock Club
Gideon Wrath, Pt. I
The Dark One

Full soundtrack

on streaming services

Sun Ra - Journey Among the Stars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZRKI_MAkQ

#Music
#PouetRadio
#SpaceIsThePlace
#CosmoBidule
#Mastobada #Star #Etoile

duster - Stars will fall

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C1zMWc4ihUY

#Music
#PouetRadio
#SpaceIsThePlace
#CosmoBidule
#Mastobada #Star #Etoile

John Coltrane - Sun Star

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wa6RKS4Pqk

#Music
#PouetRadio
#SpaceIsThePlace
#CosmoBidule
#Mastobada #Star #Etoile