Retro

Game Music, Reviews

Retro Requiem – Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon Soundtrack (Review)

July 13, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | 2 Comments Share this

I don’t even have a great introduction to this review, so I’m just going to open it up as thus; 2 years ago, Castlevania developers Koji Igarashi created a Kickstarter campaign for a spiritual successor titled Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, meant to be the Castlevania that Konami had denied him the ability to make. The campaign was so popular that it made over 3 million in just pledges and broke all its stretch goals. One of the stretch goal was for the creation of am 8-bit retro-style prequel bonus game to be made separate from the main game the campaign was created for. This game was going to be released prior to the main Bloodstained game, as a taste of what backers and fans could hope for. Recently the retro bonus game saw it’s debut, first on steam and then on consoles, titled Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon.

And let me tell you, it has every bit the classic NES Castlevania feel to it’s music that you would hope for, and more. (Warning: this review contains some spoilers)

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Experimental, Indie Music

Switched on SNES Returns with more Zelda Tapes, Secret of Mana Teaser

December 15, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Switched on SNES Returns with more Zelda Tapes, Secret of Mana Teaser Share this

If you missed grabbing a cassette copy of Switched on SNES’s analog synth rendition of A Link to the Past, they’ve got a little Christmas miracle for you. There are only 100 cassettes up for sale after filling the second round of pre-orders so if Zelda, synths, or cassettes fit the bill for you or someone on your shopping list, hop to it!

Alongside the new cassettes, Switched on SNES has released a preview track from their next album that focuses on another beloved SNES RPG, Secret of Mana. I wasn’t sure how Hiroki Kikuta’s score would sound with the analog synth treatment but “Into the Thick of It” definitely benefits from the extra boost of melancholy that the Switched On SNES style brings. Check it out, grab a tape of Zelda, and look for the Secret of Mana album to hit Bandcamp in January.
Experimental, Indie Music

Switched on SNES: A Link to the Past Cassettes & New Album Announced

August 30, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Switched on SNES: A Link to the Past Cassettes & New Album Announced Share this

Back in late Spring the initial run of Switched on SNES: A Link to the Past on cassette sold out pretty quickly. The selection of classic Zelda themes rearranged for analog synthesizers is still available on Bandcamp, Spotify, and YouTube but for those who missed the physical offering there is once again hope.

Pre-orders are up now for the second, limited edition run of 300 cassette tapes to be shipped out this Fall. The $10 purchase gets you the gold label cassette with a uniquely colored liner as well as a digital copy of the next Switched on SNES release featuring Secret of Mana.

Surprise, the next Switched on SNES release is Secret of Mana! We’ll be sure to let you know when that new release is out.
Experimental, Indie Music

A Link to the Past gets the Analog Synth Treatment

April 24, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | 2 Comments Share this

If Luminist’s Metroid: Resynthesized has left you wanting more Nintendo music on analog synthesizers, let me point you to Switched on SNES. It’s the first in a series from producer Will Patterson that aims to bring gaming’s musical masterpieces to new listeners by way of analog synths and drum machines.

The style fits quite well for A Link to the Past, smoothing out the instrumentation of the SNES original without sounding like a near-unrecognizable remix. Unfortunately, and just like Resynthesized, the album is painfully short and runs for just under 15 minutes. In its defense, the album doesn’t promise to rearrange the entire soundtrack and the themes that Patterson has chosen fit his minimal and subdued style in unison. I just wish there could be more of it!

<a href="http://switchedonsnes.bandcamp.com/album/switched-on-a-link-to-the-past">Switched On: A Link to The Past by Switched On SNES</a>

While he may never expand on A Link to the Past, Patterson does have plans to visit more SNES franchises. The album’s Bandcamp page mentions Secret of Mana, Earthbound and Donkey Kong Country as potential upcoming entries. Switched on SNES is available now for $5 on Bandcamp.

What SNES soundtrack would you love to hear given the analog synth treatment? Let us know in the comments below.
Game Music

Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment OST Now Available

April 6, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment OST Now Available Share this

The newest DLC for retro-platformer Shovel Knight, titled Specter of Torment where you take control of the ghoulish Specter Knight to traverse the game and new areas of the original campaign, has been out for Switch for a few weeks now and just dropped for PC/Steam. As such, the DLC’s soundtrack by the game’s composer Jake Kaufman has also released for the low price of whatever you want!

Specter of Torment nearly doubles the OST track list of the game’s previous DLC, Plague of Shadows, boasting 25 tracks featuring both new original tracks as well as macabre-tinged arrangements of previous Shovel Knight tunes. Kaufman worked on the Specter tracks almost exclusively during regular Twitch streaming, giving avid fans a preview of what was in store for the devilish DLC.

“This is the first time I’ve streamed the composition of an entire soundtrack from beginning to end! A whole bunch of people got to watch this music being written, and you can watch in our archives at youtube.com/mintpotion and follow us every day as we do our jobs at twitch.tv/mintpotion — it’s a really fun experience for everyone, and I love having company while I write music!”- Jake Kaufman, Shovel Knight Composer

<a href="http://virt.bandcamp.com/album/shovel-knight-specter-of-torment-ost">Shovel Knight – Specter of Torment OST by Jake Kaufman</a>

You can stream the Specter of Torment soundtrack on Kaufman’s Bandcamp or purchase it for yourself at a voluntary rate. You can also follow Kaufman on Twitter to learn about future Twitch streams for upcoming Shovel Knight music and other musical projects.
Game Music

Throwback Ent. is bringing Acclaim Games & Soundtracks back to life

February 23, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Throwback Ent. is bringing Acclaim Games & Soundtracks back to life Share this

As a fan of late-90’s techno and drum & bass music I made a lot of crummy recordings from games that never stood a chance of getting an official soundtrack release. Nearly 20 years later I assumed it would only be me who made the next highest quality recordings so I was surprised to see that Throwback Entertainment beat me to it. The Canadian studio made headlines in 2006 after they bought up nearly 200 of Acclaim’s properties when the publisher went bankrupt. It’s been a long time coming but Throwback is finally bringing some of those old games back to market.

The first with a focus on the music is TrickStyle which was originally released on Dreamcast and PC in 1999. The futuristic hoverboard racer from Criterion Games was quite a sight at the time but the music by Richard Beddow stuck with me much longer. The version that Throwback released to Steam on February 21st includes the 11-track soundtrack as free DLC in OGG and MP3 formats. For those wondering, both the Dreamcast and PC versions had the same soundtrack.

Things are a little more complicated for Throwback’s April release of Extreme-G 2. Probe’s 1998 combat racer was released on both Nintendo 64 and PC where its soundtrack from Simon Robertson and Steve Root exist in similar but unique forms. On PC there are vocals, samples and more layers to the trancey music, not to mention a few extra tracks. The Nintendo 64 version is much simpler but it’s still one of the most impressive soundtracks to come out of the console and the version that I personally know by heart.

When I asked about Extreme-G 2’s upcoming Steam release on their Facebook page, Throwback teased that “we are planning a little surprise . . . with the soundtracks”. Hopefully that results in a complete package with both PC and N64 versions represented but we’ll have to wait a little while longer to find out.
Featured, Game Music, Interviews

Cosmic Star Heroine / HyperDuck Interview and Giveaway!

October 5, 2016 | Patrick Gann | Comments Off on Cosmic Star Heroine / HyperDuck Interview and Giveaway! Share this

Earlier this week, we had the opportunity to catch up with everyone’s favorite Irish musical duo. Okay, maybe not everyone’s favorite … there are probably loads of Irish musical duos out there. But if we narrow it down to Irish VGM duos, it might be safer to say that Chris Geehan and Dan Byrne-McCullough of HyperDuck SoundWorks top the category.

In the past few years, their work on Dust: An Elysian Tail and Penny Arcade’s On The Rain-Slick Precipice Of Darkness 4 have defined their sound and given them a strong fanbase. In the following interview, we get set for what’s to come, as well as how you can win a free digital version of the upcoming Cosmic Star Heroine OST when it arrives (digitally, via Bandcamp) on December 7th of this year. (more…)