Sunday, March 28, 2010

Game Music I Like (Part Deux)

Journey To Silius
This is a depressingly average game. If you've played any Mega Man or Contra game, you've played something better than this. There is one exception though, the music is amazing. Oh yeah, this was originally going to be a Terminator game until the licensing deal fell through.

Here's a rocking cover of the Stage 1 music done by The Onion Knights.

Dragon Quest VIII
I'm not a big fan of the DQ soundtrack. Though they're always full of nice songs, I don't really find a whole lot of moving songs like I do in Final Fantasy soundtracks. There's a few exceptions though like this beautiful piece. Special props goes out to the American version of the game for getting a fully orchestrated soundtrack.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Jake wanted to know why I didn't have any Mario music on here. Even though I love Mario music, everyone knows Mario music and I feel like talking about great music that everyone already knows and loves is a little boring. So. Here's one of my favorite, lesser known pieces from the series.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
The TMNT games always had good soundtracks. There's something that so distinctly 90's Konami about this song that I can't help but love it. It reminds me of the days when anything from that company was guaranteed to be a classic.

The final boss theme is pretty awesome too.

Final Fantasy
Yeah I know, Final Fantasy hasn't gotten any love yet. But here goes! Clash on the Big Bridge is probably the best track in Final Fantasy V.

As for Final Fantasy IV, I always liked the Red Wings theme.

And finally, there's Dancing Mad which is a fucking operatic masterpiece as far as I'm concerned. Make sure you listen to both parts.

Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Rounding things out is Double Dragon II. Nothing special here really, just really solid music.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Mega Man 10!

So, Mega Man 10 came out earlier this week. For those of you who don't know, a little over a year ago, Capcom released Mega Man 9 as a downloadable title for Wiiware, XBLA and PSN. The game was developed by Inticreates who made the brilliant decision to make the game in a faux 8-bit style. Aside from instantly appealing to dorks like me, it also showed smart game design. Mega Man was at his best when his games had simple, tight gameplay. The retro design, combined with over 20 years of hindsight created a pretty damn good game, right up there with Mega Man 2 or 3 in my opinion.

So Mega Man 10 was announced a few months back and I found myself surprisingly skeptical. Early previews had dull music and the gameplay didn't look so hot either. Still, I kept my hopes out and when the game came out I downloaded it immediately.

I can't lie, I'm a little disappointed. Though the 8-bit design and sensibilities are still there, it's just not as fresh as it was with Mega Man 9. Don't get me wrong, this is still a great game, but it's more in line with some of the later Mega Man games like 5 or 6 than say 2. Some of the stages, like Sheep Man and Chill Man's stages have some nifty platforming puzzles, but other levels like Pump Man's are simply infuriating. Graphically, it's nice, but the colors are darker and uglier this time around and the portraits of the Robot Masters just don't look right. The music is kind of dull too considering Mega Man 9 had a fantastic soundtrack.

The plot is once again vintage Mega Man. A disease called Roboenza infects a bunch of robots, including Roll and it's up to Mega Man to find a cure. Naturally Wily denies his involvement, but you find out it's him all along. Pretty standard stuff, but the ending just sucks! It's a really short cutscene, then some no-frills credits. I'm not expecting much from a faux 8-bit Mega Man game, but at least 9 had nifty pictures to go with the credits.

I'm bitching a lot, and I feel like there's a part of me that wants to dislike the game, but I just can't. I beat the game yesterday and I started another playthrough immediately, so Inticreates is doing something right. A slightly disappointing Mega Man game is still better than 90% of the crap out there. The only thing I would advise Capcom to do is to wait a few more years before making another sequel. Let's not see the series fall into the same trap as it did in the 90's.