MIDI Week Singles: "Burns' Mansion" - The Simpsons Wrestling (PSX)

 

"Burns' Mansion" from The Simpsons Wrestling on the PlayStation (2001)
Composer: Christopher Tyng
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Fox Interactive, Inc.
Developer: Big Ape Productions, Inc.

I've had this article on the back burner for a while in the hopes of interviewing Christopher Tyng about this particular composition.  I was trying to find out if he had written songs for a Simpsons video game and the songs were plugged in after the fact, or if he had written specific songs for specific locations, knowing ahead of time how they were going to be used.

Because!  While I really like this song and find it super catchy, I find it hard to actually place this song within C. Montgomery Burns' massive mansion east of Springfield Gorge, just outside of town.  I can't really see either Mr. Burns or Smithers sauntering out to the wrestling ring to this song, or even when Mr. Burns chucks a nuclear bomb into the ring.

The song is high energy, if somewhat subdued during the actual gameplay, and works well with the campiness of the entire game, i.e., Simpsons characters beating the crap out of each other in a very slapstick manner, so I'll give it that.  And while having a theme performed on an evil-sounding harpsichord is more appropriate for the characters and setting, it makes for bad video game wrestling music.

Which is probably why I'm not the producer or sound designer picking out music at a video game company.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Nothing You Can Say, But You Can Learn