Wednesday, January 29, 2020

MIDI Week Singles: "Parts Shop" - Cyber Stadium Series: Base Wars (NES)



"Parts Shop" from Cyber Stadium Series: Base Wars on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1991)
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Ultra Games
Developer: Konami



I played Cyber Stadium Series: Base Wars (Base Wars from here on out) a lot throughout the '90s.  I probably rented it a few times from Placer and then later bought the game used, from somewhere in Jr. High/High School.  Then I lent the game to a friend (the same one who borrowed Zelda II: The Adventure of Link) in High School who then disappeared and went to college back east, never to be heard from again; although I did try contacting him back in the days of MySpace, but we seriously digress.

Base Wars was a great game, combination baseball game, RPG, and science fiction story.  The gimmick in the game was that as you played through baseball games, you earned money and with that money, you could upgrade your players' weapons and convert them from one type of robot to another.  This is the music that would play while customizing your team.  Because balancing out your team was so important and integral to the game, I spent a lot of time agonizing over what type of weapon to affix to my robot, whether to change a player from a Flybot to an MCycle, or change the Hand Gun to the Fire Gun or the Battle Gimmick?  Should I spend the money on the Laser Gun for the Tank 1st Baseman or the basic Cyborg pitcher?  So much time spent on this screen, and it is a good thing that the music used here is as catchy as it is.

Maybe it is because the music was composed for a Konami game on the NES, but this music (as well as a lot of the music from this game) reminds me of the music Jun Funahashi composed for Konami's 1989 release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, also on the NES.  Maybe it is the guitar sound and the bass/snare drum kit used is similar/identical to the one used in TMNT, but I get familiar vibes from this song too.

Now if this game received a remake along with updated music (using the same score mind you), that would be something to throw money at.



~JWfW/JDub/Cooking Crack/Jaconian

No comments:

Post a Comment