#WeeklyGameMusic Archives - Page 15 of 26

Weekly Game Music: Zombies on Your Lawn (Plants vs Zombies)

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Taro Omiya

Last on my Christmas video game music rush is full of zombies. Literally. Laura Shigihara’s Zombies on Your Lawn does an incredible job describing PopCap’s tower defense game, Plants vs Zombies. Get ready defend against those zombies, especially those with helmets, screen doors, and…butter on its head?

Plants vs Zombies doesn’t even bother to explain its ridiculous premise: you’ve got zombies approaching your house, and only your garden of animated plants can save you. So, yeah, plant a lot of flowers that shoots pellets at these undeads, and make sure they never reach your front door.

Plants vs Zombies was released on 2009 for the PC and Mac. It was later ported to the iOS, Android, Windows 8, Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Nintendo DS, and Playstation Vita.

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Weekly Game Music: Setting Sail, Coming Home (Bastion)

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Taro Omiya

Third on my Christmas video game music rush has some lyrics! Set Sail, Coming Home is Darren Korb’s excellent combination of his 2 other music,Mother, I’m Here and Build That Wall, both featured prominently in the game,Bastion. In context, this song depicts the decision of taking on a new direction in life. It does a great job conveying a hopeful but mysterious and unnerving outlook on the future ahead.

Bastion begins right after a catastrophic event know as the Calamity, where every land is torn apart and nothing is held on solid ground. The player directs the Kid, while Rulf the engineer narrates every action he takes. They both work hard to get Rulf’s time-reverting machine, Bastion, back up and working.

Bastion plays like a top-down action RPG where the Kid switches between a variety of different weaponry, all with well-calculated pros and cons. At any one point, the Kid can carry two, along with 2 special attacks. The enemies you encounter are varied, and require different tactics to kill, thus requiring a lot of wit from the player to take out efficiently.

Bastion was released on 2011 for the Xbox 360. It’s also available on Google Chrome’s Webstore, PC, Mac, Linux, and Steam.

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Weekly Game Music: Reclaiming the Island (The Oil Blue)

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Taro Omiya

Second on my Christmas video game music rush is a much more mellow music from The Oil Blue. Reclaiming the Island by Jonathon Geer is a calming music for a game about digging oil, and retaining a level head as one operates a dangerous machinery.

The Oil Blue describes a plausible future where oil becomes scarcer, and people are making a mad dash at taking over islands and digging up for more oil. As an oil miner yourself, you have to keep track of where you’re going to dig, how you’re going to operate the machinery’s intricate buttons and levers, and finally deciding on the price for the liquid gold you’ve just mined. Money you make can be used to purchase new power-ups to increase the productivity of your mines.

The Oil Blue was released on the PC in 2012.

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Weekly Game Music: Mushrooms (Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP)

Posted on December 23, 2012 by Taro Omiya

Looks like I’ve missed 4 weeks from the massive crunch month I’ve had with developing SWARM! So it’s only fair I share 4 musics in quick succession. First one up is Mushrooms from a former indie rocker, Jim Guthrie. It plays when the Scythian eats — you guessed it — a mushroom in Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP. A very hypnotic music, I assure you.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP tells a story of a warrior, only known as the Scythian, who accidentally awakens the evil spirit, Gogolithic Mass. Promising peace for the nearby citizens, the Girl, LogFella, and Dogfella (very creative names, there), the Scythian seeks for great mythical powers to seal it. Even if the it costs her own life…

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP is a hybrid of two games: a point-and-click adventure, where one taps to navigate the character and observe interesting things, and a Punch-out style rhythmic combat system. Both work in harmony to create a puzzle game where the rules are vague, and the solutions are magical and nonsensical. Despite its shortcomings, however, Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP stands tall as a bold experience, and an even bolder attempt to widen the iPad audience.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP was released on the iPad in 2011. It’s also available on Android, PC, Mac, Linux and even Steam.

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Weekly Game Music: moony [advanced] (Futari No FantaVision)

Posted on November 25, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. Since the holidays is just around the corner, here’s a little festive trance music from the Japan-only puzzle game, Futari No FantaVision. Introducing moony [advanced] by Soichi Terada.

Futari No FantaVision is actually just a 2-player version of a game that was released in the US, FantaVision. In FantaVision, you control a ray that can detonate rising fireworks if you’ve successfully aimed at three or more like-colored fireballs. The game becomes a sort of rhythmic puzzle game, where you attempt to detonate as many fireworks as possible.

Futari No FantaVision was released only in Japan on the PS2 in 2002. It’s “prequel,” FantaVision was released in the US on 2000.

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Weekly Game Music: Inugami Village (Shadow Hearts: Covenant)

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. Don’t have a good turkey day music, but I will break the electric trend and go with a relaxing piano solo. Here’s Inugami Village(better translated, Village of the Dog God), composed by Yasunori Mitsuda. It’s from the JRPG, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, which has a strange retelling of World War I with demons and monsters.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant starts where its prequel left off: the former game’s hero, Yuri Hyuga, stays within the town of Domremy, defending it from German invaders. Unfortunately for Yuri, an Inquistor from the Vatican (Nicolas Conrad) breaks through his defense, and worse, curses him to an incredibly weak state. It turns out the so-called Inquistor is actually a sorcerous from an evil clan, Sapientes Gladio. Before the sorcerer finishes him, though, Karin Koenig and the villagers saves Yuri. Once they’ve both gathered some strength, they devise a plan to get their revenge back on Nicloas.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant is a turn-based, random encounter JRPG. The player can have up to 3 characters in its party, placed on a 3-by-3 grid. The farther away the character is placed from the enemies, the less likely they’re going to get hurt at a cost of diminishing their attack power. To spice up the old formula, Shadow Hearts adds a Sanity Meter per character. If it reaches 0, the player loses control of that character. Lastly, most attacks and magics uses the Judgement Ring, a spinning dial where one must stop its spinning needle to a colored area to execute damage. The smaller the area, typically the better the attack.

Shadow Hearts: Covenant was released on the PS2 in 2004.

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