It was the next step in the evolution of game music. After the hardware-created “chiptunes” of the NES era, the sound banks of FM synth reigned supreme on the SNES. And while we don’t find as much chic or nostalgia for the super lo-fi synth restrictions of the 16-bit days as we do the hardware emulation of chiptunes, it’s great to see today’s composers make use of that strange and wonderful musical palette.
I am talking about the music of Keith Burgun and Blake Reynolds, both of Dinofarm Games, in their first major title, 100 Rogues (available on PC and various mobile platforms). After the jump, our review of the game’s soundtrack. (more…)
We can say we’re very curious about NOX Audio’s Admiral headset that we saw at Comic Con last year, but while they’re still working on finalizing that beast, we wanted to take a look at NOX Audio’s Scout Portable Headset. While they appear to be earphones more than a headset, the compact design offers more than a few surprises.
Find out if you’re worth picking up in our review after the jump. (more…)
In addition to releasing a ton of great music by composers Shinji Hosoe, Ayako Saso, and the rest of the team at SuperSweep, the SuperSweep label has been host to a number of great music releases, some of which we’ve covered here on OSV. Another benefit that the gain by owning their own label is that they can take more risks, as is the case with their many original composition series that they’ve developed over the years.
We’re taking a look at the most recent batch from these series, including the electronic NanoSweep 12 and 13, the experimental overdrive hell 5 and 6 (sampled above), and Trash007 and Trash 008.
For their 300-500 Yen asking prices, are they even worth your consideration? Find out after the jump. (more…)
I cannot get over the level of genius and creativity that comes from these one-man indie production teams. Among them, I’ve really come to love the work of Superflat Games (essentially, Jasper Byrne). Last year we reviewed the soundtrack for his stellar, free Flash game Soul Brother. That was a funky drum-n-bass kind of album, like a mix of Daft Punk and other forms of avant garde Euro-pop. In sharp contrast, we have the soundtrack for Byrne’s latest project.
Lone Survivor is a psychological horror / survival sim, and the game itself is excellent, I assure you. As for the music? Well, that’s why we’re here.
Find out about the soundtrack for Lone Survivor, including how to get it, after the jump! (more…)
Well, this one is really from out of nowhere. Sengoku IXA Senjin Souran –Shutsujin- is a web-based historical strategy title released by Square Enix and Yahoo. While we wouldn’t normally expect to see an official soundtrack release for such a product, here it is.
As it turns out, each in-house Square Enix sound team member contributes a track along with licensed music by Shuhei Kurosaka (PAX JAPANONICA GROOVE). But is this short collection of songs worth the 3,000 Yen asking price?
Remember that one time Hiroki Kikuta sent us hentai games? It seems like everyone’s joining in on the fun now, as Basiscape recently released a two-disc soundtrack titled Maji de Watashi ni Koishinasai! S Music Collection (Oh! Samurai Girls!) for a computer-based light eroge title that actually acts as a sequel to the 2009 original. While I’ve never heard of the series, it was apparently popular enough to warrant its own televised run in Japan.
The story focuses on a tightly-knit group of high school students who come from a town that has strong ties to its samurai ancestry. Basicape was tapped to work on the score this time around, and they’ve released the soundtrack on Basiscape Records much to the surprise of fans, with music primarily by Azusa Chiba and Yoshimi Kudo along with contributions by Kimihiro Abe and Masaharu Iwata.
Is this a sexy eroge musical adventure worth partaking in? Find out after the jump. (more…)
Rather than go on at length about five discs of music that I have no nostalgic attachment to (I never played any of TOAPLAN’s famed shmup titles, unfortunately), I thought we’d just show off the snazzy packaging. You can see in the still above that the way they’ve put this one together is rather unconventional, and I had fun putting this video together to show off the collection being offered by SuperSweep. Many of these soundtracks were originally published in the early 1990s, so I’m sure fans will appreciate this collection.
To say just a few words about the set, I particularly enjoyed the Hellfire and Zero Wing soundtracks, especially the latter with its amazing eight and a half minute long second stage theme (heard in the above video). There’s also the rockin’ Ninja Gaiden-esque Vimana, the upbeat pop-oriented Truxton II, and the vibrant Grind Stormer that caught my attention. Finally, the sixth disc contains hundreds of pages of design documents, artwork, interivews, and is honestly one of the coolest things about the collection. The bonus disc for purchasing directly from SuperSweep shows high-scoring playthroughs, so don’t feel too bad if you can’t get your hands on it. It’s available at CD Japan if you’re interested.
Let us know what you think about these soundtracks, the packaging, and the bonus discs!
Back in 2005, the Japanese doujin game group FLAT created a bullet-hell game called eXceed: Gun Bullet Children in the same vein as Touhou Project. It covered a lot of the typical bases – cute girls, vampires vs. the church, and lots and lots of shooting and bright colors. While primarily underground, the game spawned two sequels that became much more popular – eXceed 2nd – VAMPIRE in 2006 and eXceed 3rd – JADE PENETRATE in 2007. However FLAT eventually decided to pass the torch and handed its copyrights over to Tennen-Sozai.
Now you’re up to date with exactly what theeXceed series is and where it came from. However, that’s just one portion of the tale. Tennen-Sozai eventually made remakes of both eXceed 2nd and 3rd, making improvements and expanding the lengths of the original games. Thus were rebirthed the titles eXceed 2nd – VAMPIRE REX and eXceed 3rd – JADE PENETRATE – BLACK PACKAGE, and with these re-released and updated games came recomposed soundtracks that featured re-tooled tunes taken from their original version.
Find out more about the soundtracks after the jump! (more…)
Many know the name Shnabubula. His virtuosic piano skills coupled with his talent for chip music have been explored in the past in releases such as Free Play and Game Genie, respectively. Now the two come together in NES Jams. This album’s story picks up immediately where Game Genie’s leaves off. A young boy, Tommy, has just defeated his Game Genie, and in its place is a mysterious NES cartridge. Upon placing it in his NES, something wondrous occurs; the message “PREPARE TO JAM” appears and Tommy approaches his brother’s keyboard. Suddenly, the game and his fingers begin to play music together! Now, this is just a brief summation of the album’s story; the real beauty is the album itself.
Join us on an aural tour through the album’s 11 tracks after the jump. (more…)
I really missed the boat on this one. I was turned on to KOKIA through her work on our 2011 soundtrack of the year, Final Fantasy XIII-2. She was responsible for singing “Noel’s Theme,” and when I saw that she had recently put out a collection of music featuring her work from other games and anime titles, I wanted to check it out.
As it turns out, KOKIA has been around for awhile, singing on one of my favorite arrangement albums, Genso Suikoden II ~Orrizonte~, Demon’s Souls, and other titles over the years that I already knew and loved. Are her various contributions collected here as impressive?
With the release of Around Past in 2010, C-jeff along with Megus illustrated a fully realized vision of his blend using chiptune music combined with live instruments, a combination that has been done before, but not with the rather unique way in order to seemlessly craft a very expressive and organic soundscape that stands out among the many great releases of Ubiktune. Around Past was something of a defining moment in terms of C-jeff’s stylistic approach to the chiptune genre, and with the promise of a solo album using many of the same elements as found in the Around Past album, excitement couldn’t have been higher for the young Russian’s brave new album.
Finally, in January 2012, the album saw light, and Prechstale set out to truly define C-jeff’s sound and style. With suprise guest performers and a story to tell, Prechstale hopes to be one of the true musical experiences you have in 2012.
Click the jump to enter the world of Preschtale! (more…)
Izumi Tsukushi and Akio Shiraishi told us there would be several music releases over the course of 2012 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy. We’ve already reviewed the first PIANO OPERA album, but this DVD recording celebrating the anniversary of Final Fantasy XI was actually the first release in this celebration.
Recorded on November 11, 2011 at the Vana Con event in Japan, this is a live recording of the one-off concert that took place to commemorate nine years of Final Fantasy XI.
