MIDI Week Singles: "Re-Fusion" - BIT.TRIP Presents Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien (PC)

 

"Re-Fusion" from BIT.TRIP Presents Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien on nearly everything available in 2013 (2013)
Composer: Matthew Harwood
Album: Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien Original Soundtrack
Label: Bandcamp
Publisher: Gaijin Games, Choice Provisions
Developer: Gaijin Games

First off, if you check out the official soundtrack on Bandcamp, the songs "Moldy Drops" and "ReFushion" have been swapped, but every other version of the soundtrack I have seen has "Re-Fusion" as the title for this song.  Plus, this is one of the two songs that plays in the BIT.TRIP levels and "Moldy Drops" play in The Mounting Sadds levels.  I can't say why it's like that on the soundtrack page, but that's the way it's titled.

Moving on.

I've been playing a lot of Runner2 recently and if you've been keeping up with us here, you'll know that this is one of the games that The Squire requests/demands that I play every morning.  He likes the cartoon-like intro, he likes the fake advertisements (recently quoting the one about Tim's Tomato Grinds) and he thinks it's funny when I bonk; but only the first time, then he gets frustrated when it happens again and again.  Only recently have I been able to play more than the opening level in each stage, which means that I can now hear more than one of the themes in the BIT.TRIP stages, for which "Re-Fusion" is the second and likely my favorite of the two themes.

This theme doesn't have as much of the BIT.TRIP theme in as some of the songs, but there's just something about how well this song matches up with more of the physical elements of the game that really resonates with me.  When you have that third beat after 2:21 when you're kicking down the stop sign barricades, it really makes wanting to skip that final + very tempting just to have the song continue without the EXTRA bonus.  But I'm compelled to grab all of the bonus +'s and the gold bars because it just feels empty not to, and so the music mellows out just as it does in the last 27 seconds.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

What Ain't Real, I Do Not Wish To See

MIDI Week Singles: "The Sky" - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (NS)

 

"The Sky" from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom on the Nintendo Switch (2023)

Composers: Hajime Wakai, Manaka Kataoka, Maasa Miyoshi, Masato Ohashi, Tsukasa Usui

Album: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Original Soundtrack

Label: Nippon Columbia

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo EPD

When I first started writing this article at the beginning of the month there was still no official soundtrack for Tears of the Kingdom, although a few days later, an OST was announced with a tracklist.  I used Google's Translate app to look at the tracklist. I only saw one song that could be titled "Sky Island," but since I couldn't tell which song plays while you're in the sky, I am going to keep "The Sky" as the simplistic title of this song. However, I might come back and update the title after the soundtrack is released in July.

For a large part of the first half of my time playing Tears of the Kingdom, I didn't spend a whole lot of time on the sky islands.  Sure I would use the Skyview Towers to blast into the literal stratosphere but after leaving the Great Sky Island, or briefly returning to convert zonaite into battery charges, my time spent exploring the sky islands was very minimal.  Once I did return to complete side quests like searching for Zonai history tablets, I really fell into this song.

Like a lot of the music in this and Breath of the Wild, the music is very unassuming and mostly in the background.  "The Sky" holds true here too as there is just about as much if not more silence between the musical punctuations than there is music.  But it works.  It works really well.  Somehow this music made exploring chunks of floating island where there was likely not a lot to collect apart from a few sundelions feel so much more enchanting.  

Lastly, maybe it's just me, and I don't know if it's intentional or not, but I hear a lot of John Williams' score from Raiders of the Lost Ark here, specifically in tracks like "The Map Room: Dawn," and "The Miracle of the Ark."  For me, it adds this sense of exploration in a place that hasn't been visited in hundreds or thousands of years, without being interrupted by enemies or companions.  Just solo exploration.  Just the way I like it.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental

MIDI Week Singles: "Ruth" - INDIKA (VSD)

 [Semi-Disclaimer:  I received a review copy of INDIKA through Keymailer, a 3rd party website that connects publishers and developers with content creators.  While I did receive a free review key for the game, I purchased the soundtrack with my own money and I could only access the soundtrack through Steam if I already had access to the game.]

"Ruth" from INDIKA on Windows, Linux, Xbox Series S/X, & PlayStation 5 (2024)
Composer: Mike Sabadash
Album: INDIKA: ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK
Label: 11 bit Studios
Publisher: 11 bit Studios
Developer: Odd Meter

Related to Friday's article as we look at religion in INDIKA, I did look up to see who Ruth was in the Bible and to see if there could be any specific link between the character of Ruth and Indika, the events in the game, or something to do with the music.  Well, I have some bad news on a couple of fronts.  First, I could not find a genuine link between Ruth and Indika, and I cannot remember specifically where this music cue happens in the game.  Is the cue used in its entirety or only portions of it?  I think it might have been used in the "Kudets" chapter when Indika and Ilya cross through the wood mill (I think it's a wood mill) and run across the large wolf again.  Maybe it has something to do with Indika's kindness towards Ilya, but if there is any significance between Ruth, Indika, and where this song happens I cannot say for certain.

What I do like about this song on its own is that more than most songs on the soundtrack incorporates the beautifulness that you find in songs like "Genesis" and some of the unsettlingness from songs like "Joshua" or "Isaiah" with their dissonance used to create a stark contrast between the Indika's movements and the overall somberness of the visuals.  Like "Genesis," there is an etherealness and otherworldliness to the song that nearly invokes something closer to Vangelis' score for Blade Runner, but more foreboding and less optimistic.  Maybe I'm wrong or just reaching.  

As much as I don't like a fade-out, I am normally fine with them on video game soundtracks where the songs will typically loop, but I like what was done here instead, with just a harsh cutoff that fits well within the soundtrack itself, and the overall tone of the game.  I'm not normally a fan, but it works here contextually.  Or at least I think so.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Damnation My Insane

MIDI Week Singles: "Johnny Guitar" - Fallout: New Vegas (PC)

 

"Johnny Guitar" from Fallout: New Vegas on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows (2010)
Composer: Victor Young
Performed by: Peggy Lee
Album: Johnn Guitar Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, and Songs from the Mojave Wasteland - Music as Heard in Fallout: New Vegas
Label: Citadel (3), and X5 Music Group
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Developer: Obsidian Entertainment

I've never seen the film Johnny Guitar and likely like a lot of people who played Fallout: New Vegas, this was my introduction to this song.  Where I am currently in New Vegas, there are only a couple of accessible radio stations to listen to, and it seems like "Johnny Guitar" gets air time easily twice an hour, maybe more as I haven't tabulated it out.  Aside from being bathed in Peggy Lee's vocals, this song sounds like it could easily be used in either a Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez flick.

I just really like the mellowness of the whole song and how it fits in well with my usual play style.  Wandering the Wasteland alone, surrounded by nothing but rolling hills and dust.  Until of course, Juanita is ambushed by the Khans or the Legion who must have all been hiding behind a solitary tumbleweed.  I've honestly not paid very close attention to the words to apply the song's meaning to my in-game predicament and that would probably be reaching for an analysis that isn't there.

So let's just appreciate "Johnny Guitar" while we do our thing out in the Wasteland.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Alle Menschen werden Brüder

MIDI Week Singles: "Zen Garden" - Plants vs. Zombies (∞)

 

"Zen Garden" from Plants vs. Zombies on nearly everything that played video games between 2009-2013, except the Wii and Wii U.
Composer: Laura Shigihara
Album: Plants vs. Zombies Soundtrack 
Label: Bandcamp
Publisher: PopCap Games
Developer: PopCap Games

Every so often, The Squire asks me to play Plants vs. Zombies and that so often recently has been every morning for the last week or two.  Before we jump into the melee of horticultural warfare (before EA bought the franchise and gutted the soul of the game), we'll go into the Zen Garden and water our rows of potted tower defense plants.  We've stopped giving the plants that ask for bug spray their request because that stuff is too expensive and the rewards are not worth the investment when you have 20+ plants to water.

I don't have a full garden of plants yet, so I probably spend just over a minute watering everything multiple times until after I've used the phonograph on all the plants that ask for it, which usually amounts to just over $1,000 on a good day, then it's off to the Mini-Games and Puzzles.  But that minute or two in the Zen Garden, listening to the track of the same name is a nice little quiet before the proverbial storm of pea squishes, zombie moans, and giggles from the Squire each time the Gigantaur appears.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Dig Yourself Up From Your Grave

MIDI Week Singles: "Maybe" - Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game (PC)

 

"Maybe" from Fallout: A Post-Nuclear Role Playing Game on Windows, MS-DOS, macOS (1997)
Composer: Allan Flynn, Frank Madden
Performed By: The Ink Spots
Album: "Maybe" Single & Fallout
Label: Decca Records, & GOG [discontinued]*
Publisher: Interplay Productions
Developer: Interplay Productions

Conklederp and I are going through the Fallout series on Amazon a lot slower than other people/news outlets which means we've only just finished episode five last night.  I couldn't help but use "Maybe" by The Ink Spots from the intro of the first Fallout game and was later used in episode 3 of the Amazon series, "The Head" as the main character Lucy MacLean is walking towards, presumably what is left of The Hub (aka Los Angeles) featured in the first Fallout game.  In the game, the song is used to help juxtapose the quaint nostalgic feelings (by those privileged enough to be in the position to feel nostalgic) of the 1940s as the camera pulls back to reveal the remains of Necropolis (aka Bakersfield) and the world of Fallout. 

Since we haven't finished the show, I can't fully comment on the meaning behind using "Maybe" at the beginning of episode 3 although I can speculate out the keester.  It could be Lucy thinking about her family back in Vault 33, or about the condition of her father.  Or maybe the song is just used there as a gigantic easter egg for everyone who has played the first Fallout?

Maybe?**

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Have No Fear and Don't Look Back

*I say "discontinued" because the soundtrack used to be available through GOG as an extra when you purchased the game, but at some point, the soundtrack itself was pulled and is no longer available through GOG.

**P.S.  Sorry.

MIDI Week Singles: "A Trader's Life" - Fallout: A Post-Nuclear Role Playing Game (PC)

 

"A Trader's Life" from Fallout: A Post-Nuclear Role Playing Game on Windows, MS-DOS, mac OS (1997)
Composer: Mark Morgan
Album: Fallout, & Fallout: The Soundtrack
Label: GOG [discontinued], & Interplay Productions
Publisher: Interplay Productions
Developer: Interplay Productions

It's been a while since I last played Fallout, so 10 years.  If you had asked me yesterday I would have said that this was the music played either in every settlement except for the vaults and Necropolis or during the randomized encounters while out wandering the wasteland.  I likely would not have guessed that it played exclusively in The Hub, although The Hub itself is a sprawling five-map area that is a central trading hub of what was the Southern California basin.  And I know I didn't count "A Trader's Life" among my favorite songs from Fallout when I last played nine years ago, but listening to this now does bring back memories of that trimetric wasteland of brahmin feces and death.  I also want to bring attention to the instrumentation, using a lot of instruments that could hypothetically have been played during the time of this game: flutes, drums, sitar-adjacent string instruments, brake drums, didgeridoos (maybe?), some kind of electronic instrument-thing.

You could probably also guess that we're featuring music from Fallout because of the release of the Fallout series on Amazon Prime tomorrow (Wednesday, April 10th, unless you already watched it on Twitch), and I have high hopes for that series because of course I do.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Instrumental

P.S.  "A Trader's Life" is also featured in Fallout 2 

MIDI Week Singles: "Pokémon Center" - Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow

 

"Pokémon Center" from Pokémon Red/Green/Blue/Yellow on the Game Boy (1996-2000)
Composer: Junichi Masuda
Album: Pokémon Red·Green Super Music Collection
Label: The Pokémon Company / OVERLAP, Inc.
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Game Freak

I probably could have used a slightly more obscure song, but that's not entirely what this article series has been about.  When I listen to "Pokémon Center," I hear, I think, around Spring/Summer 1999 after The Kid had introduced me to the Pokémon series and I had purchased Pokémon Red to offset her Pokémon Blue along with a game link cable so we could trade; I don't recall us being too concerned about collecting all 151 Pokémon though.  "Pokémon Center" was one of the few songs, along with the battle theme ("Battle! (Wild Pokémon)") that remained consistent throughout the whole game as the music changed depending on what region you were in and was a welcoming song every time you entered a town; the only thing missing here is the Pokémon healing sound effect that interrupts part way through.

Just a punchy and happy song for this first Wednesday in April.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Told Me I Got What It Takes

MIDI Week Singles: "Underwater BGM" - New Super Mario Bros. Wii (Wii)

 

"Underwater BGM"* from Super Mario Bros. Wii on the Nintendo Wii & Nvidia Shield TV (2009)

Composers: Shiho Fujii, Ryo Nagamatsu, Kenta Nagata

Album: No Official Release

Publisher: Nintendo

Developer: Nintendo EAD

I never played Super Mario Bros. Wii and I'm now just kind of realizing that this game and New Super Mario Bros. U on the Wii U and New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe on the Switch are all two different games with two different, albeit at times similar soundtracks.  But what I really like about this track are four specific things.  

First, at 0:04, after the intro, is that the first three notes immediately invoke both the underwater variant of the "Overworld BGM" from Super Mario World.  There is an automatic feeling of nostalgia for that game that was released 19 years earlier.  Second, the song is in the form of a waltz, something that the original Super Mario Bros. established as an ideal meter for an underwater stage.  Maybe that was why the underwater theme from New Super Mario Bros. U, "Sparkling Waters" didn't grab me like this song does.  Thirdly, the use of marimbas, played in this way (or at least through the mixing process) purposefully sounds like bubbles, again to draw on the underwater environment, maybe to maintain that the music is also a part of the environment.  Lastly, there is the jingly/"bling" sound that plays to which several of the enemies on screen react/dance/spin to.  This all just creates a cohesiveness between past Super Mario Bros. games, the music, and the environment that I really enjoy.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Dead Rivers

*P.S.  Since there was no official soundtrack, I wasn't sure what the name of this particular song was.  A lot of YouTube videos have this titled "Swimming," but a couple of videos also had "Swimming" as the title for the underwater music from Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros., and I know that that song is titled "Underwater BGM."  So I figured why mess with a perfect title and decided to use that instead.

MIDI Week Singles: "Music 2" - Tetris (NES)

 

"Music 2" from Tetris on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1989)
Composer: Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo R&D 1, Alexey Pajitnov

"Music 2" from Tetris is a bit of an outlier between the NES and Game Boy releases.  Hirokazu Tanaka wrote the original music and arrangements for both games, but "Music 2" is the only in-stage music featured in both games.  "Dance of the Sugar Plumb Fairies" was "Music 1" on the NES version while "Korobeinki" was "Music A" on the Game Boy. The third respective songs, "Music 3" and "Music C" were original compositions from Tanaka and while they had similar vibes, they were both different songs.

Because I am neither a musicologist, a music historian, or someone who has a major in Russian Folk Music, I feel only a little bad/guilty for saying that something about "Music 2" just feels like a traditional Russian folk song, or at least composed by someone familiar with Russian music tropes.  On a different note, I also felt bad since I often skipped over "Music 2" despite liking it because I thought the sped-up version was difficult to listen to.  When your blocks reached a certain height, the music became too frantic and got under my skin, making me panic even more than I already was.  But I still enjoy "Music 2" as a song by itself, likely more outside of the context of Tetris than actual in-game music, but that's something too.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental

MIDI Week Singles: "Destroyer" - Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth (PC)

 

"Destroyer" from Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth on Windows, mac OS, Linux, Steam OS (2014)
Composer: Geoff Knorr
Album: Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth (Original Soundtrack from the Video Game)
Label: 2K
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Firaxis Games

I decided to use "Destroyer" sandwiched between our two articles for Frontiers Reach because when I was first making a trailer, I had this song in mind and actually made a short trailer.  A week or two ago when the Squire asked what a video was on my computer, I said it was "a boring video I made," thinking that he wouldn't want to watch it.  We now watch "the weird boring video you made Daddy" three to four times in a row nearly every morning.  I then made a longer video using the entirety of "Destroyer" so that both Conklederp and I wouldn't have to listen to the same 25 seconds over and over and over again.

Just like the first time we used music from Beyond Earth, I still haven't played the game and have zero context for its use in the game, but it does come pretty early in the soundtrack so my headcanon has taken that into account too.  The scene I conjure is a combination of a lone ship escaping an armada of aggressive ships and/or an entire planet entry sequence full of questioning and fearful looks without any dialogue.  However this song is used in-game, I just love how unabashedly dramatic it is, and that's it.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Pass Judgement on Humanity

MIDI Week Singles: "It's Going to Change Everything!" - Human Resource Machine (NS)

 

"It's Going to Change Everything!" from Human Resource Machine on Windows, OS X, Nintendo Switch, Android, Wii U, Linux, iOS (2015)
Composer: Kyle Gabler
Album: Human Resource Machine Original Soundtrack
Label: Self Released
Publisher: Tomorrow Corporation
Developer: Tomorrow Corporation

Leave it to me to not finish a game after putting a couple of hours into it because I'm apparently too stubborn and prideful to look up a walkthrough to help with some, for me at least, very complicated puzzles.  But that was me with Human Resource Machine from The Tomorrow Corporation.  But why does that self-admission have to do with today's song?  Because this is the last song on the soundtrack and the title alone I feel like hints at the outcome of the story.  In the game, you are using single-function coding language tiles to solve puzzles to help automate a number puzzle.  For example,

"For each two things in the INBOX, first subtract the 1st from the 2nd and put the result in the OUTBOX. AND THEN, subtract the 2nd from the 1st and put the result in the OUTBOX. Repeat." 

Often there are optional challenges like "Use 10 or fewer commands" and "Complete in 40 or fewer steps."  When things click, the game makes you feel like a genius, and other times, you feel like you're just learning how to add 1 + 1 while the whole class is waiting for you to finish so they can start long division.

I'll likely go back to this game because I love The Tomorrow Corporation and I really want to see how the Blade Runner adjacent synth plays into the story.  I just love Kyle Gabler's music as there's often a depth of emotion that you may not have been expecting when you started your first day at work.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
No Compromise

P.S.  I'll leave this here just in case.

MIDI Week Singles: "Jungle Battle (Main BGM)" - Contra (NFC/NES)

 

"Jungle Battle (Main BGM) from Contra on the Nintendo Family Computer and the Nintendo Entertainment System (1988)

Composer: Kazuki Muraoka

Arranged By: Hidenori Maezawa, Kyouhei Sada

Album: Contra  Soundtrack (FC Version)

Label: Konami

Publisher: Konami

Developer: Konami

Nine and a half years into writing MIDI Week Singles, this is the first time we've covered this song and any song from the Contra series.  Likely because this song (and the Contra series) comes with so much baggage and legacy, we're only covering it now.  Just Google or search on YouTube for "Contra Jungle Theme" and you'll come back with umpteen thousand hits, so what is it that we could possibly add to this 34-year-old discourse?  Not much really.

But I want to mention why we're crediting the arrangers here when we normally only list the composer.  Because of the work done from the original music composed on and for the 1987 arcade release to the 1988 release on the Famicom with an entirely different sound chip and playing environment, I find that I like this version over the original arcade since I can not only hear the music over the tinniness of the background sound effects but there is also additional weight to the music and instrumentation.  It could very well be nostalgia-related and because this is the version that I am most familiar with, but I genuinely believe (biasedly) that there is a quality to this song that is rarely matched in background music for side-scrolling platform shooters from the late 1980s.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplanman/Jaconian

You Will Never Disappoint Me Again

P.S.  I know that in some instances there are differences between the Famicom and NES versions of music, such as with the Castlevania series, but I couldn't find any known differences between the music from the Famicom and NES versions of Contra.  Just wanted to throw that out there.

MIDI Week Singles: "Title Theme" - Amida (DMG)

 

"Title Theme" from Amida on the Nintendo Game Boy (1990)
Composer: Yōri Kon, Jouji Tsukamoto
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Coconuts Japan Entertainment Co., Ltd
Developer: Sofix

First off, a couple of notes about the composers.  I do not know for certain that either Yōri Kon or Jouji Tsukamoto wrote the music for Amida.  There is very little information about this game which was only released in Japan although there appear to be English translations of the title screen and the end credits.  During the credits, it appears that everyone who worked on the game was listed under "Produced By" and then everyone's name.  After looking at who was credited, only Yōri Kon and Jouji Tsukamoto had any music or sound department credits to their name, which is why I am listing both of them as the composer although I do not know 100% for sure if either of them were for this title.

The second thing is that because there was no official soundtrack released, but after watching a couple of playthrough videos, this song would always play during the titles, hence the name.  But you're also able to select what song you want played during the actual game stages (like in Tetris and Dr. Mario), with both videos deciding on "Music No 1" which is different than this song.  I bring up the obvious because I frequently see this song labeled as "BGM #01" which is technically true, but I feel that I don't often see title music labeled as "BGM."

Lastly, I really like this song.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

There's Nothing Left To Perceive

MIDI Week Singles: "Infectious Love [Live House Stage]" - KOF: Maximum Impact (XB/PS2)

 

MIDI Week Singles: "Infectious Love [Live House Stage]" - KOF: Maximum Impact on the PlayStation 2 & Xbox (2004)
Composer: Toshikazu Tanaka (Studio Aqua)
Album: KOF Maximum Impact Original Sound Tracks
Label: Scitron Digital Contents Inc.
Publisher: SNK Playmore 
Developer: Noise Factory

It's Valentine's Day today, so I thought it would be appropriate to feature a love song, and what better love song is there than "Infectious Love [Live House Stage]" from The King of Fighters franchise entry, KOF: Maximum Impact.  This song will make a maximum impact on your love life that's for sure.  With this heart-pumping house beat from 2004, "Infectious Love [Live House Stage]" for series newcomer Mignon Beart will be sure to bewitch the heartstrings of that special someone in your life as she kicks and pummels her way to world peace.

Not really being an aficionado of disco or house music, I can't really explain why a "witch in training" has what looks like a Saturday Night Fever-inspired dance floor as her home base, or if this song would classify as either disco, house, or a fusion of the two.  I guess I could picture it being played in an early-mid 2000's club if the bass was brought up about 147%.  But watching a couple of fights in the Live House Stage, I found it difficult to pick up on the music, which I feel is par for the course with both arcade games and fighting games.  It's always a little disappointing because fighting games with somewhat relative frequency often have really good soundtracks.  This is just the song that stood out to me, which is why you all get to share in this with me on this most crucial of Valentine's Day, 2024.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

With the Little Blazing Fire

MIDI Week Singles: "Main Theme" - OneBit Adventure (AND)

 

"Main Theme" from OneBit Adventure on Android, Windows, iOS & macOS (2019)
Composer: Jonathan Concepcion-Rodriguez
Album: OneBit Adventure
Label: Self Released
Publisher: Galactic Slice
Developer: Galactic Slice

In the game, the song doesn't loop perfectly.  When you hear the song start to repeat for that one second at 0:58, that's where the song ends in the game before it repeats back from the beginning, and there is a brief one-second repeat of the first second of the song.  I bring that up not in an attempt to shame Mr. Concepcion-Rodriguez, but only because I noticed it while listening to the music both in and out of the game.

The second thing is that when I first started playing, I thought that the section that plays between 0:22 and 0:39 played much more frequently than it does.  I think it's because the music that plays before and after is there to drive you forward since all of the action is based on the character's movements.  The enemies only move once you do.  You only attack when you move your character.  The music needs to help drive the player up the screen toward greater loot, more kills, and an ever-increasing step count.

This is a great chiptune though, and like I said in my First Impressions article, the tones used and the intentional quality of the music fit the visual aesthetics perfectly and I wouldn't change a thing about either.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

Instrumental

MIDI Week Singles: "Sorry! Menu Theme" - Battleship/Connect Four/Sorry!/Trouble (NDS)

 

"Sorry Menu Theme" from Battleship/Connect Four/Sorry!/Trouble on the Nintendo DS (2006)
Composer: Mark Cooksey (?)
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: DSI Games
Developer: Gravity-I

Mark Cooksey is credited with audio and sound for Battleship/Connect Four/Sorry!/Trouble, and I couldn't find anyone else credited in that department, so we're going to go with Mr. Cooksey as the most likely person to have composed this menu theme for Sorry!  What I actually like about a lot of the menu themes from this game (which I've never played, likely because of my existing paranoia about playing board games against a computer opponent) is that they are quite good while the in-game music is still reminiscent or at least in the same wheelhouse as the menu theme.  You can tell they're in the same family using similar instrumentation, and rhythms to have some semblance of connective tissue between the different games; although Sorry! and Trouble are variations on Parcheesi.

But the menu theme from Sorry! I just really dug.  I like that the first 10 seconds sound like it's going to be an upbeat jazzy little ditty, but then six seconds later the listener is like, "Oh, we're in a minor key.  I guess that makes sense with Sorry!"  I really love that about this song, since the whole premise of Sorry! is that you're encouraged to be antagonistic to the people you're playing against, knocking their pieces off the board and sending them back to the start when your piece lands on theirs, prompting the player to say "sorry."  Maybe that wasn't everyone's experience playing the board game growing up, but I think the bouncy beat in a minor key is a perfect theme before you jump into the actual game and the computer always happens to have the right card to take you out of the game.  Every time.  Because they will.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
A Clydesdale's Best Friend

MIDI Week Singles: "Main Theme" - Bobby is Going Home (A2600)

 

"Main Theme" from Bobby is Going Home on the Atari 2600 (1983)
Composer/Arranger: Unknown*
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Bit Corporation
Developer: Bit Corporation

The main theme in Bobby is Going Home is another example of one of the earliest uses of continuous music in a home console video game.  While not an original composition for the game, something you find semi-frequently, what is impressive is that you can still tell that this is "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," or at least you can tell if you're already familiar with the song.  Remember that the Atari 2600 was capable of only producing two distinct sounds at any given time, so having a game with background music along with sound effects needed to work a bit of magic.  Something else that is interesting that isn't captured in the music above but in the linked game play video is that at times the music slows down and speeds up, which seems like a deliberate choice, possibly to throw off the player with the timing of their jumps, and if that is indeed the case, then kudos to Bit Corp. for throwing that in there.

I couldn't find any credits for Bobby is Going Home outside of what is known/available on Wikipedia and Moby Games interviews with Bit Corporation about why this particular song was chosen.  It might've just been that the song was in the public domain and that it was still simple enough that it worked with the melody and bass line with the bass line being cut for the jumping sound effect.  Whatever the reason, just another great example of 40-year-old video game music.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Is It Worth The Time?

MIDI Week Singles: "Stage 3" - League of Light (INT)

 

"Stage 3" from League of Light on the Intellivision (1983/2001)
Composer: Russ Lieblich
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Intellivision Productions Inc.
Developer: Activision

Today's MIDI Week Single is a bit of an odd one for a couple of reasons.  First, it is not often that a game from the Intellivision, or really any home console system in the early 1980s is going to have a music score apart from an opening jingle.  Sure there might be a series of tones that would be classified as music in early games like Space Invaders on the Atari 5200.  Having a dedicated music track was exceedingly rare in those days since the Atari 2600 had only two sound channels, the Atari 5200 had a whopping four sound channels, and the Intellivision had only three sound channels; for reference, the NES had five channels, the SEGA Genesis had 10 channels, and the N64 had between 16-24.

The only real context I have for League of Light is that it was developed for the Intellivision in 1983, but wasn't released until the 2001 compilation, Intellivision Rocks on Windows and Mac.  It could have been due to the video game crash of '83, but that is purely speculation on my point as I couldn't find any evidence to back that hypothesis up.

This particular track is from Stage 3 in League of Light as the second stage builds on the complexity of the first stage.  I don't have a good enough ear to say if there are any differences between Stage 2 and Stage 3, but the visual component of the game does look to be more complicated than Stage 2, so it could just be that the same track is reused.

That's really it as I just wanted to share this bit of almost lost video game music history, and even though it was released 23 years ago, I only heard about League of Light's existence about a month ago.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
The Music Washed Away All The Hate

P.S.  I highly recommend watching a playthrough of the game to get a better idea of what is going on, but even then without some context, it's pretty confusing since you're not watching what the player is actually doing.

MIDI Week Singles: "Beware the Forest's Mushrooms" - Super Mario RPG (SNES)

 

"Beware the Forest's Mushrooms" from Super Mario RPG on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1996)
Composer: Yoko Shimomura
Album: Super Mario RPG Original Sound Version
Label: NTT Publishing, POLYSTAR
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Square

It's been what, 17 years since I last played Super Mario RPG and while watching a lot of trailers with The Squire for the new remake, I thought, "Yeah, this song is awesome" although I don't 100% recall where it is specifically in the game although the song crops up before Mario and Co. enter Rose Town.  Regardless of where this song plays, it's a chill foresty-tune that has elements of mystery, adventure and exploration in a way that is not often accomplished in the Super Mario franchise (or at least wasn't up until this point in the mid 1990s).

Maybe with the release of the Super Mario RPG remake and her recent work on Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope, there might be some additional work offered to Yoko Shimomura because I often love the music she's composed over the years, regardless of the franchise.

Also, don't even ask me to guess what the instrumentation is supposed to be because all I here is warm feelings.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

There's An Interesting Way To Look At It