Weekly Game Music: The Angarian Journey (Golden Sun)

Posted on May 6, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. Let’s get those nostalgic glands running, shall we? Here’s The Angarian Journey by Motoi Sakuraba. It’s an amazing and epic overworld music for the equally sophisticated game, Golden Sun. Despite the hardware limitation on the Gameboy Advance, this music still proves that composition really is the king.

Golden Sun starts with a traumatic childhood memories of Isaac, Garet and Jenna. During a big storm, the three attempts to help and save a few lives around their town. During these heroic risks, they learn of a plot of two mysterious figures attempting to steal a certain gem from their temple, who’s trap system triggered the storm. Unfortunately for the trio, Jenna’s brother and parents gets caught in a terrible flood, followed by a gigantic boulder. A few years later, shaken but still strong, the trio attempt to retrieve the jewel the two villains tried to steal, and learn of an interesting plot that turns into a long journey.

Golden Sun plays like an old-school turn-based RPG, complete with random encounters. What the game did different, however, was the introduction ofDjinns, elemental creatures that, combined with the element of its magic user, creates new abilities. Equipping a water Djinn on the rock magic user, Isaac, for example, allowed him to use plant-based magic. Similarly, using a rock Djinn on fire-based Garet allowed him to use lava-based magic. Unequipped Djinns can be used for summoning as well, leading to screen-filling, glorious special effects that obliterates the on-screen enemies. For its time, the game had spectacular 3D sprites and special effects.

Golden Sun was released on the Gameboy Advance in 2001. One of it’s sequel can be played on the Nintendo DS.

Extra!

Title: Forest’s Requiem
Game: Golden Sun
Composer: Motoi Sakuraba

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Weekly Game Music: Tetrobot (Blocks That Matter)

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. Here’s a soothing chiptune-like music from the puzzle game, Blocks That Matter. Tetrobot is the title character’s name, who’s theme is composed by Yann Van Der Cruyssen — the same composer as Cave Story+. It’s relatively non-serious tone sets stage for a hilarious indie game about two kidnapped game designers, and their robot to save them.

Blocks That Matter has a self-referencing story: in the magical land of Sweden, renowned game developers Alexey Pajitnov (of Tetris fame) and Markus Persson (of Minecraft fame) were working on a project that, decidedly, was not game related. Lo and behold when a bunch of darkly hooded men with guns kidnap them to an unknown location, and it’s the role of Tetrobot, their secret project, to go save them.

Blocks That Matter is a 2D puzzle game that borrows ideas from Minecraft, i.e. digging blocks to move them to a different location. Unlike Minecraft, however, our robot can only place the blocks it carries in a Tetris-block formation. You know, the usual stuff. The game levels, of course, progresses in a predictable manner: go through a pre-set level, and reach to the black-hole-like portal.

Blocks That Matter was released on the PC, Mac, Linux and Xbox 360 in 2011. It’s available for download on Steam and Xbox Live.
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Weekly Game Music: Mii Channel (Wii)

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. Lets try something different, shall we? Here’s the Mii Channel music from the Nintendo Wii console. It’s composed by Kazumi Totaka: the composer who frequently drops the Totaka Song Easter eggs in his games.

Well, there isn’t a whole lot to talk about the Mii Channel, let alone the Wii Console, but…according to the Iwata Talks interviews, the developers has intended to make it a simple, fun character avatar creation that anyone can use. The music is composed to be inviting, in that sense.
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Weekly Game Music: Opening Credits (Little King Story)

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. Like classic music, with a modern twist? Here’s an a cappella remix of Ravel’s Boléro: the Opening Credits for Little King Story, composed by Yutaka Minobe. The royal music helps set the stage for the toybox-like environment in this dictator-takes-over-the-world game.

Little King Story starts with a little boy who comes upon a crown that magically turns him into a king of a country. A shoddy, failing country. Taking a bold leadership role, our king directs the civilians to rebuild the country, and eventually take over neighboring lands and their princesses.

Little King Story is frequently described as Pikmin, if it were themed aroundPsychonauts. As the king, you approach and charm workers to follow you to quests. Each worker can be thrown to handle a certain task correlated to their profession, including building, digging, and of course, fighting. The boss battles you encounter when invading rival countries are widely varied, including straight-up fights, answering questions from trivia shows, and even a ping-pong tournament. Despite its childish graphics, the game frequently delves into the surreal and disturbing imagination of a child’s mind.

Little King Story was released on the Wii in 2009. No other ports exist.

Extra!

Title: King Jumbo Champloon
Game: Little King’s Story
Composer: Yutaka Minobe
Comments: Remix of The Infernal Gallop from Offenbach’s opera, Orpheus in the Underworld

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Weekly Game Music: Prime #19 (Echochrome)

Posted on April 8, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. Here’s a soothing café for a mind-bending puzzle game: Prime #19, composed by Hideki Sakamoto. The music is intended to soothe the player to an otherwise bizarre and confusing puzzle game,Echochrome.

As a puzzle game Echochrome offers no story. Despite this, the aesthetic of the game tells a lot. In a world outlined by solid black lines and a white background, the player must guide an artist’s mannequin across the MC Escher-like level. As the player, you control the camera, and command the mannequin to stop or start walking. That’s it.

Yet, controlling the camera itself proves vital to our hero. See, our clueless mannequin lives in a 2D world. Us with the camera live in a 3D world. By simply moving the camera around, we can easily cover gaps in a path with a dangling plank, and the use of perspectives. The forced perspective can even be used to cause the mannequin to fall at locations that are, in 3D, higher than the original falling point.

Echochrome was originally released on the PSP in 2008. It’s available for download on the Playstation 3.
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Weekly Game Music: Redial (Bomberman Hero)

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Taro Omiya

New week, new music. Let’s go old-school, this time, with the spectacular music from Bomberman Hero. Redial, by Jun Chikuma, is a simple techno-like melody with an addicting beat. It’s oddly calming for an epic adventure of an old mascot.

Bomberman Hero has a simplistic, if familiar, story of an intergalactic evil organization emerging from the shadows. In an attempt to foil their plan, a princess manages to steal their plans, but gets caught in the process. Instead, she sends her loyal robot to take the disks, and inform Bomberman the trouble that’s brewing. Hence begins our hero’s journey through 5 different planets.

Bomberman Hero is a 3D platformer, where the camera doesn’t turn. As Bomberman, your method of attacking is — you guessed — throwing bombs. He has a few different maneuvers for this, useful for solving a few puzzles: he can drop a bomb, roll it, or throw it. In his travels, Bomberman will also don different gadgets, including a snowboard, jetpack, and submarine. Each level has a point system, where perfecting it unlocks the real ending.

Bomberman Hero was released on the Nintendo 64 in 1998. It’s now available on the Wii on the Virtual Console.

Extra!

Title: Milky
Game: Bomberman Hero
Composer: Jun Chikuma

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