#WeeklyGameMusic: To Catch an Owl (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)


Welp, this writer didn’t have a festive tune in their backlog of video game music, but this #WeeklyGameMusic, composed by James Hannigan comes close enough. To Catch an Owl is a video-game-original track for the book-to-movie-to-game adaptation, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, developed by EA UK. It’s a magical and celebratory tune fitting of the upcoming holidays, and manages to capture the movie soundtrack’s spirit.

Note: this writer does acknowledge the author of the Harry Potter series is notoriously transphobic. While the composer of this track is completely unrelated to J.K. Rowling, it should be stated that transphobia is immoral and wrong. This writer does not intend to promote such a position.

Within a few chapters of the fifth entry in the seven book (or eight movie) series, titular character Harry Potter and his non-magical cousin Dudley get attacked by the depression-inducing Dementors, well outside of the wizarding realm and within our realistic one. Thus setting the tone for what’s going to be a dark entry amongst the series, Harry uses magical spells Dudley can’t perceive to ward off the Dementors in self-defense. The problem? It’s illegal for an underage wizard student (which Harry himself is just into the fifth year of a seven year long career) to use magic in front of muggles, or normies by wizard lingo. This immediately kicks off a number of lawsuits Harry is forced to navigate, and while the ruling manages to fall into his favor, puts Harry into a legally precarious position as he enters Hogwarts wizarding school for the fifth year.

While story-wise, the video game adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix doesn’t stray from this story, it’s gameplay takes a much more interesting approach to the politically oppressive atmosphere the book presents. In short, Order of the Phoenix is an open-world game where players utilizes gestures on the right-stick of the controller to cast various spells. Said spells are used to handle various tasks given by minigames, or simple environmental puzzles to unlock new secrets in the labyrinthine Hogwarts. Exploration is key to both progressing the story and unlocking new abilities and upgrade to our hero as he navigates this magically dangerous place.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was released for the (wait for it…) Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, Wii, Nintendo DS, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation Portable, PC, and Mac (phew!)

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Skate Park Shuffle (Create)


Regulars of #WeeklyGameMusic know I often find some rather obscure game music pretty often. Here’s one from a little-known sandbox game called Create, developed by EA Bright Light. That’s right, we’re checking out Electronic Arts game music this week! Ian Livingstone’s piece, Skate Park Shuffle, is a bit corporate at the beginning, but soon mellows out to a rather calming (and more interesting) conclusion.

A bit like the The Incredible Machine, the most game-like aspect of Create involves the player to use the items and tools available in the pre-made levels to push, nudge, and navigate an object from point A to point B. Much of these levels take place in the 2D plane to provide a simpler interface, though lanes of depth can be added like LittleBigPlanet. And of course, much like LittleBigPlanet, Create allowed players to create and share levels online, though as of this writing, the servers has long been shut down.

Create was released on PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, PC, and Mac. As far as this writer can tell, there does not appear to be a way to purchase the game online easily, but the official game page is available here: ea.com/games/create

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Undertale (Undertale)


This theme needs no introduction: it’s Undertale by Tobi Fox. This particular piece of music is a bit of a stand-out for #WeeklyGameMusic, given its clear story-driven composition. The gradual crescendo in this theme helps build up to the final moments of your character journey.

Undertale starts with a bit of a legend: long ago, after a war broke out between the monsters and the humans, the monsters lost and ended up hiding under a deep cave. The two specious never encountered each other again. There’s still a hole, however, that humans sometimes accidentally stumble upon, and as luck may have it, today’s lucky winner to fall into said hole is you, the player!

Advertising itself like an old-school JRPG, Undertale utilizes a turn-based battle system when fighting against random encounters. Unlike old-school JRPGs, the battles plays out more like a visual novel where the player negotiates with the monsters. Monsters can attack via a shoot’em-up-like play-field where the player must dodge the bullets being fired. Ultimately, the player can choose to kill or befriend the monsters they encounter, with the latter concluding the fight peacefully. Naturally, the narrative updates itself to take these information into account in subtle ways.

Undertale is available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch, PC, Mac, and Linux via Steam.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Mamazon (Dandy Dungeon: Legend of Brave Yamada)


This week’s #WeeklyGameMusic, to be honest, leaves me more baffled than I can ever describe. Here’s Mamazon‘s theme, composed by Hirofumi Taniguchi from the very meta mobile game, Dandy Dungeon: Legend of Brave Yamada. And yes, for those listening to it now, I, too, have no idea what’s going on. But it sure sounds special!

True to the Onion Games brand, Dandy Dungeon is a bizarre and at moments, creepy game featuring a 30-something programmer developing a game in only his underwear. In a prior life of just-yesterday, Yamada skipped over going to work to instead delve into his own pet project just a bit longer. The very next day, he’s fired. He takes his self-fulfilling prophecy newfound freedom to go right on ahead to finish his dungeon crawler game, and asks you, the player, to beta test it.

Dandy Dungeon is a rogue-like, touch-based RPG where the player traces a path for the hero (who else?), Yamada, to defeat monsters, collect treasure, and exit the floor. While the gameplay itself is nothing to write home about, it’s the bizarre nature of real life and fantasy slowly blending into each other that defines this game’s quirkiness. For example, the “princess” virtual Yamada is rescuing in-game is none other than Yamada prime’s next door neighbor. The great evil boss is none other than the same manager who fired Yamada prime. And despite the virtual game’s fantasy, the very-final-dungeon looks eerily similar to Yamada’s old office.

Dandy Dungeon: Legend of Brave Yamada was originally released for iOS. It’s now available for Nintendo Switch, PC, and Mac via Steam.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: A Quick Break (Cuphead)


Ready for a hard-to-find tune in a hard-to-play game? This week’s WeeklyGameMusic has you covered with A Quick Break by Kristofer Maddigan from the indie game classic, Cuphead. This acapella piece from Studio MDHR Entertainment Inc.’s debut title encourages the player to…put the game down. Huh. Interesting.

Cuphead‘s story takes the 30’s animation approach of starting awfully dark. Our titular character, Cuphead, and his brother, Mugman, goes off one day to do what all kids love to do: gamble. Well, OK, neither kids nor adults should gamble, and to really drive home that lesson, the devil himself raised a deal with the pair that should they lose the next game, he’ll be taking their souls. Not being the brightest lightbulb in the Christmas tree, Cuphead gleefully accepts this deal, and promptly finds himself losing the very next game. Begging for forgiveness, the pair makes a deal with the Devil (which, again, this blog does not endorse doing) where they need to collect all the soul contracts out there on Inkwell Isles before the end of the day.

Cuphead is a action-platformer in the same vein as the Megaman series. Both Cuphead and Mugman runs, jumps, and fires bullets from their fingers to fight against a wide cast of bosses and levels. Unique to this game is the counter mechanic: an aerial attack that defuses projectiles of a specific color, and regenerates the pair’s special-attack. That said, much of the accolade this game has revolves around it’s animation quality, and its utterly-uncompromising difficulty.

Cuphead was released for Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PC, and Mac via Steam.

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#WeeklyGameMusic: Discothéque Rouge, After Hours (Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine)


Need a little more chiptune in your life? The absolutely talented Chipzel has you covered with this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic. Her remix of Discothéque Rouge, After Hours, from Pocketwatch Games’s multiplayer heist game, Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine is some of the tastiest gems out their to savior. Enjoy it…while it lasts…

They can’t keep us locked in! Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine begins with a group of criminals breaking out of prison, and sneaking out. The triumph is short-lived, however, when the company realizes they’re penniless and wanted. After much deliberation, the party comes to a decision: escape to Monaco, by every means possible. Thus begins their long journey of gathering more criminal connections to assist their freedom.

Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine is an award-winning cooperative heist game. You and three other skilled thieves infiltrate heavily guarded buildings to — what else? — steal everything valuable. The innovation kicks in when every player realizes they’ll need to share information between each other as they deal with each character’s limited vision and hyper-specialized abilities. It’s pretty normal for something to go wrong during the heist: alarms triggering, guards taking notice, etc. After all, much of the fun is trying to figure out how to deal with the escalating situation amongst your group of friends.

Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine is released on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Xbox 360, and Nintendo Switch. It’s also available on Steam.

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