We extensively covered Bionic Commando: Rearmed, the 3D remake of Capcom’s classic NES game, around the time of its release. The soundtrack, written by the game’s creative director (Simon Viklund), used re-arranged and up-sampled chiptunes from the original game and built an astonishingly fun soundtrack using these tools.

Viklund took on a new role, as sound effects coordinator, for the new Bionic Commando (PC / 360 / PS3). Swedish developer GRIN assigned other members of their sound team to the project: music director Erik Thunberg, and composer Trond Viggo Melsen. These two members of the GRIN team were courteous enough to answer our questions about the new Bionic Commando and other recent projects from GRIN.

Check out our interview with the Bionic Commando sound team after the jump.

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To most gamers, whenever the name Cho Aniki comes up, it’s usually at the butt end of a joke. The first time the title really came to light in the West was in an issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly during 1996 reporting on Cho Aniki: Kyoukyoku Muteki Ginga Saikyou Otoko, the 4th game in the series released on PSX. Just by a few screenshots and a small blurb, gamers in the West were now aware of an extremely strange game series, using gay stereotypes and imagery without any shame, something that was completely unheard of for most Western gamers.

But Cho Aniki isn’t simply a game that uses gay jokes and questionable characters to shock. Underneath all the wacky humor there’s actually a game, and sadly because of all the articles focusing solely on the gay material, very few have ever sought out to actually sit down and play these games. And while the Cho Aniki games will probably never be known as amazing games due to their gameplay, there is one thing they do have that stands out: amazingly diverse, and surprisingly good soundtracks.

Find out why Ai Cho Aniki is our soundtrack of the month for July 2009. (more…)

Game music fans were the first group of people to get to hear the sounds of an upcoming music box called the Kanadeon, a product which is still under development and not yet available on the retail market. Thanks to Noriyuki Iwadare getting an exclusive opportunity to use a prototype model of the device on-stage during the Ace Attorney Orchestra Concert, he’s been able to provide valuable feedback to the SRIC Corporation about the product’s abilities and development.

Iwadare-san agreed to answer some questions about the planning of the 2008 orchestral concert, the alterations which needed to be made to the arrangements, and his overall experience working together with the Tokyo Philharmonic. He also reveals more details behind the upcoming Kanadeon, which has also made an appearance on the bonus disc of the Gyakuten Kenji DS Limited Edition game package bundle.

Find out all the details in our full interview after the jump. (more…)

Shinobi fans, you better get ready for this one.

Wave-Master has just recently announced it will release LEGEND OF JOE MUSASHI ~SHINOBI MUSIC COLLECTION~. It will include many soundtracks never before released in CD form, such as Shadow Dancer, Cyber Shinobi and Alex Kidd in Shinobi World.

Yuzo Koshiro is responsible for many of the Shinobi soundtracks, and that alone should justify a purchase for any VGM collector. For some reason, it seems Richard Jacques’s Shinobi Legions soundtrack was left out however, which was released as Shinobi X in Japan. Wave-Master also cut some western talent off Daytona USA’s collection box in April, but if it is based on the same issues, is hard to say.

The set will be 4 discs and goes for 5040 JPY. You can be sure I will be running down to the post office in my white pj’s with my white dog Poochie tagging along to pick this one up. Actually now that i think about that, I only own a pair of pink pj’s…

Have you ever heard of a shmup series called Gradius? Well, I’ve only heard music from Gradius V, composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, but recently, a WiiWare game, entitled Gradius ReBirth, featuring music arranged by Manabu Namiki of Basiscape. Although you can only get the Gradius ReBirth Original Soundtrack from the Konamistyle store, I was more interested in this arrange album that was also being released around the same time. Entitled Gradius House Remix, it features, as you’d suspect, arrangements of classic Gradius themes, mostly of the first game. Even though I’m not familiar with the source material, I figured I’d take a chance with the remix album. I might not dance, but I love music that makes it easy for me to at least bob my head!

Get your turntables ready and meet me after the jump for the review! (more…)

We aren’t quite sure if Hibino was channeling a 30’s mobster or Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor costume from the original Superman movie with his outfit, but he sure can play the saxophone. This is from the most recent Video Games Live in concert in Singapore, an instrumental version of the title track from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. I always felt the song had such Bond-like flair to it right up until the “Some day, you’ll feed on a tree frog” line….

A second video features a rather enthusiastic female audience member getting disturbingly excited about the “One-Winged Angel” segment from Final Fantasy VII. Click on the jump to check it out!

Also, thanks to Tommy Tallarico for shooting these videos over. (more…)

I’m a big fan of Amon Tobin, so when it was announced that he was involved with inFAMOUS, I was immediately intrigued. Interestingly, this isn’t Tobin’s first game project, as he was also involved with the Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell 3: Chaos Theory soundtrack. While I’m not familiar with that work, he certainly manages to pull off a more cinematic style with inFAMOUS that contrasts with his solo work.

It also turns out that Tobin didn’t work alone on the inFAMOUS score, although his name has been used extensively to promote the game’s soundtrack. There is actually a large list of artists involved, including Jim Dooley, Mel Wesson, JD Mayer, Martin Tillman, and Working for a Nuclear Free City. A big team for sure, but each of their individual styles truly meld into a cohesive listening experience through the 20 tracks on this iTunes release.

Our review of the inFAMOUS Original Soundtrack is waiting for you after the jump. (more…)

Hopefully by now you’re familiar with the names of Tetsuya Shibata and Yoshino Aoki. We talked to Shibata at GDC about his role as Sound Director at Capcom Japan. Not only was he responsible for a lot of the music heard in the Devil May Cry series, but he was also responsible for putting together the amazing Breath of Fire Special Box and countless other projects during his tenure. Yoshino Aoki, on the other hand, is the lovely voice behind the Breath of Fire III soundtrack, as well as the composer of Breath of Fire IV and other title during her time at Capcom.

Well, we’re here to break the news to you. Shibata and Aoki have both left Capcom to form their own studio, Unique Note, and we have the first interview with the two about the move and what we can expect to hear from them in the near future.  Join us as we learn more about Shibata and Aoki’s background, why they’re heading out on their own, and what their goal is with Unique Note.

Find the joint interview after the jump. (more…)

In case you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a new trailer out for Dragon Quest IX: Protectors of the Starry Sky. The game is hitting Japanese store shelves on July 11 (it’s sure to cause lots of missed work, and maybe a street riot or two), with an OST release coming August 5.

Until now, we had heard precious little from the game’s audio: mostly just the “Overture.” But now there’s plenty more to listen to. So suck up the game’s audio, and visuals, and gameplay elments, in this sweet seven minute trailer. Thanks to our friends at Destructoid for the heads-up.

I’ll be honest. Aside from knowing that Yuji Naka, Basiscape, and SuperSweep were involved with Let’s Tap, I barely knew anything about the game. Based on some videos I watched prior to its release, I thought it was mostly focused on running and jumping through a variety of mini-games using tap controls, but it turns out that this description only applies to the “Tap Runner” portion of Let’s Tap. There are actually a number of different games and modes to check out, with “Rhythm Tap” being my favorite.

So what is “Rhythm Tap,” you ask? It’s exactly what it sounds like, and that’s a rhythm game that utilizes tapping as the sole input mechanism. I know it sounds much too simple, but it’s actually really engaging and a whole lot of fun. Plus, with an amazing soundtrack provided by Basiscape and SuperSweep (you can win yourself a copy in our contest here), there’s no reason not to give the game a chance for the $30 asking price.

Read our impressions of “Rhythm Tap” and the other mini-games inlcuded in Let’s Tap after the jump. (more…)