Konami

Game Music

Konami and Sumthing Else Music Works Release Bomberman R Vinyl Soundtrack

December 10, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Konami and Sumthing Else Music Works Release Bomberman R Vinyl Soundtrack Share this

Seems Konami still loves their fans and wants them to be happy, as the video game publisher has teamed up with label Sumthing Else Music Works to release the vinyl soundtrack to the most recent edition of one of their beloved franchised, Super Bomberman R.

Composer Seima Iwahashi of Elements Garden brings us the latest soundtrack in the beloved BOMBERMAN franchise. The album also includes the ‘HERO’ theme song featuring lyrics by RUCCA. The SUPER BOMBERMAN R original soundtrack is now available from Sumthing’s new direct-to-consumer merchandise store as well as Amazon.com.

SIDE A:
1. Ending Theme Song [HERO]
2. Title Screen
3. Main Menu
4. World Map
5. Get Ready
6. Planet Technopolis
7. Planet Timbertree
8. Planet Brainwave
9. Planet Lalaland
10. Planet Scrapheap
11. Clear
12. Failed
13. World Clear Result

SIDE B:
1. Five Dastardly Bombers
2. The Boss Robots
3. Elegant Dream
4. Great Gattaida
5. Ultimate Buggler
6. Go
7. Battle – Excite
8. Battle – Happy
9. Battle – Comical
10. Victory
11. Result
12. Draw
13. UP
14. Down
15. Ending Theme Song [HERO] (English version)

Super Bomberman R was released last year to console and PC to positive reviews, featuring brightly colored action and similarly colorful music by Iwahashi. The vinyl soundtrack release features 27 tracks on 1xLP from the game and is currently available for $29.99USD on the Sumthing Else store.
Game Music, Gear, Reviews

Mondo of Blood – Castlevania Rondo of Blood & Symphony of the Night OST Vinyl Review

November 16, 2018 | Brenna Wilkes | 2 Comments Share this

[Disclaimer: I received copies of both of these vinyls from Mondo specifically for review purposes.]

I’ve admittedly had a lot of opinions on the Mondo releases of the various Castlevania soundtracks on vinyl LP, but until now had not gotten the chance to do an in-depth review of any of them. Mostly I never reached out because I assumed my bias towards the franchise music would make my opinions too cynical, and it wouldn’t be fair. However, after four previous vinyl releases from Mondo for the series, and the announcement of both soundtracks to Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, I figured that perhaps now was the time to offer my critique.

The soundtracks from both games are held in high regard both with fans of the series and casual gamers alike. While far more have played through Castlevania Symphony of the Night than they have Rondo of Blood due to the latter’s limited release in the states via ports, the soundtracks for both offer different things while still bringing depth to the history of Castlevania music.

So, how do these releases stack up; both as individual offerings as well as compared to the other Mondo releases in the series?

(more…)
Game Music

Mondo’s CONTRA OST Vinyl Premiering at San Diego Comic-Con

July 18, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

Mondo seems to be continuing with their video game soundtrack releases to vinyl; this time featuring the NES classic Konami shooter-platformer Contra. The new vinyl release will be premiering at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.

Contra was originally composed by Hidenori Maezawa (Goonies II, Adventures of Bayou Billy) and Kiyohiro Sada (Top Gun NES) for the NES version of the game and and arranged by Kazuki Muraoka for the arcade version, though they were all only credited under the Konami Kukeiha Club for years due to Konami’s fear of having their composers poached by other companies. Mondo sticks with the original composing credits for one reason or another. The Mondo release will feature both NES/Famicom and arcade versions of the game’s soundtrack pressed on 180 Gram Red & Blue Half-and-Half Vinyl for $25.

A limited version of the record (pressed on Yellow, Orange & Red vinyl) will be premiering at our San Diego Comic-Con booth (#835), but we wanted to give CONTRA fans the opportunity to pick up the soundtrack online, too. When doors open for Preview Night this Wednesday at 8PM (CT), our Red & Blue version of the record will be available at mondotees.com.

The vinyl artwork was done by Eric Powell, who worked on Mondo’s Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest release; in my opinion the best and most faithful artwork of their Castlevania line. It’s unfortunate Powell couldn’t work on all Mondo video game released, because certainly this Contra art does the game’s visual’s justice. Hopefully the music quality will follow suit.

You can purchase the Contra vinyl release starting tomorrow evening on MondoTees.com. You can also check out the limited edition variant if you’re perusing San Diego Comic-Con this weekend.
Events, Game Music, Japanese

The Video Game Orchestra, Live In Tokyo, To Be Their Biggest Show Yet

February 24, 2017 | Patrick Gann | 2 Comments Share this

The Video Game Orchestra (or simply “The VGO” to the hip kids who follow their work) have taken their show on the road before … but never like this. Fans of the Boston-based orchestra, led by Shota Nakama, can start their drooling now: on March 25th, The VGO will be putting on a concert in Tokyo. The show is being promoted by Pony Canyon — which, if you didn’t know, is “big deal” territory, they are Japan’s equivalent of “Live Nation,” save that Pony Canyon has existed as publisher and promoter of entertainment products for far longer.

The 3/25 show will have music from almost all the major game publishers, including Konami, Namco Bandai, Square Enix, Sega, and more. We don’t know the full list of games yet, but here’s what we have so far:

CASTLEVANIA (series)
CYTUS
D4: DARK DREAMS DON’T DIE
DEEMO
FINAL FANTASY XV
GOD EATER 2: RAGE BURST
METAL GEAR SOLID (series)
SILENT HILL 2
SONIC (series)
TALES OF ZESTIRIA

On a personal/editorial note, I must urge the reader to consider the long-term value of this concert. To have a project with this many Japanese publishers sign on for a third-party entity (The VGO) to perform their work, in Japan, is a big deal. I have always advocated for collaboration among the game music artists and those who represent them, and whenever it happens, I can’t help but celebrate. This concert represents a big reason to celebrate.

Unfortunately, it isn’t something that I can celebrate … not in person. I won’t be able to attend the Tokyo show. But hey, maybe you can! The details for the show are found here: vgo.jp — and, if you want to purchase tickets, the website to do so offers information and instructions for ticket purchase in Japanese, English and Chinese! You’ll find that here!

And if anyone among our reader-base makes plans to attend the show, please let us know in the comments! We’d love to hear about your thoughts after the event.
Game Music

Ship to Shore Releases Konami’s Lagrange Point OST to Vinyl

November 18, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | 1 Comment Share this

You can’t say that the current fad of releasing video game soundtracks to vinyl isn’t having a big impact on game music distribution recently, especially when it results in previously-unreleased soundtracks exclusive to Japan ending up finally reaching our shores.

That’s exactly the case with the soundtrack to Konami’s Lagrange Point for the Famicom. Released only in Japan in 1991 and never being ported to the NES for American and European gamers, Lagrange Point is a pretty typical science fiction/fantasy role-playing game, but it has the unique quality of being the only game ever released with Konami’s VRC7 sound generator integrated circuit.

Konami’s Lagrange Point is often seen as the high technical watermark in Famicom/NES chiptune music. This Japan-only release contained a special memory mapper chip (the VRC7) that enabled the cartridge to produce FM synthesis, giving it a quality that no other Famicom/NES game can compete with. – Ship to Shore

Composed by the famous Konami Kukeiha Club, Ship to Shore managed to get exclusive rights to release the Lagrange Point OST for the first time in North American to three different variant vinyl editions; each for around $25.00. You can check out the variants and more about the Lagrange Point OST on the Ship to Shore page. Here’s hoping for more oddities and unique VGM releases from them in the future!
Editorial, Game Music

Game Soundtracks for Your Soul – Castlevania 30th Anniversary Edition

October 1, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | 3 Comments Share this

This past Monday was the 30th anniversary of Castlevania, a franchise that has been a cornerstone of video gaming for so many of us since our childhoods. On September 26th, 1986, Akumajo Dracula, or Demon Castle Dracula as it translates, was released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan, and the legendary feud between the Belmont clan and Count Dracula was born.

For me, Castlevania was not only an indulgence of my childhood love of vampire stories and movie monsters, but the music of the series became the baseline for which I rated so many game soundtracks through my life. Granted, I loved my Sonic the Hedgehog and Golden Axe as a Genesis kid, but the soundtracks from the Castlevania series stuck with me, and impacted a lot of how I perceived game music from childhood to adult hood. If I played it at 8 or 28, the series soundtracks are hands down my favorite of any game franchise.

Thus, in a bit of self-indulgence and as a tribute to 30 years of whip-cracking, wall meat-finding, vampire-slaying goodness, I’ve made a list of my favorite music from each game in Castlevania‘s lifetime; from the very first game all the way through to Lords of Shadow. (I’m omitting the Pachislot games as they’re basically all re-used music and Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate since I never played it) Granted, OSV has covered the music of Castlevania several times before, but consider this a brief perusing through of the history of the franchise’s music in all its iterations.

Be ye warned; here there be fangirling.

(more…)
Doujin, Game Music

Community Question: What’s Your Favorite Remix of Vampire Killer?

July 8, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | 3 Comments Share this

Here at Original Sound Version, we truly ask the burning questions that any true fan of video game music has discussed at one point in their lives or another. Michael started the question of what favorite versions of some of the most popular and heavily remixed tunes from iconic gaming franchises are your own, starting with Donkey Kong Country‘s “Aquatic Ambiance“. Now it’s my turn to pick your brain about arguably the most well-known and therefore remixed track from the Castlevania franchise – the original Castlevania‘s iconic stage 1 music, “Vampire Killer”.

It was hard for me to choose which Castlevania track I wanted to use for this question, as “Vampire Killer”, Castlevania 2‘s “Bloody Tears, and Castlevania 3‘s “Beginning” (Or the “Big 3” as I call them.) are almost equally arranged in proportion across both the Castlevania franchise itself, as well as within the remixing community. However, it feels right to start at the very beginning (No pun intended) with “Vampire Killer”, which was composed by the duo of Kinuyo Yamashita and Satoe Terashima in 1986.

“Vampire Killer” – Castlevania

The tune is catchy and full of determination, which made it perfect for first-time players and veterans alike to start off their journey to Dracula with. It’s had several iterations within the Castlevania franchise over the years, showing up arranged in later games such as Dracula’s Curse (As castle track “Deja Vu”), Super Castlevania 4, Rondo of Blood, Legends, Dawn of Sorrow and more. It serves as that constant reminder of the series’s ties to one another and of that first faithful trek we took as Simon Belmont. If I had to choose my favorite iteration of the track from within the series, I’ve grown to truly love Castlevania: The Arcade‘s part-organ, part-rock synth version played during the first boss fight.

Video credit of Nyx Cyan

The track has also been remixed by the fan community in just about every style imaginable, from the jazzy swing of Nostalvania to the electric grooves of Zircon and everywhere in between, to the point of near-exhaustion. Yet “Vampire Killer” persists as one of the most recognized video game tracks in gaming history, and still manages to inspire creativity and energy from musical vampire hunters to this day.

So what is your favorite version or arrangement of “Vampire Killer”? Do you have several? Let us know in the comments!