Pokemon Red & Blue's 20 Year Old Soundtrack Still Rocks

Pokemon Red and Green were released in Japan on February 27, 1996 and September 28, 1998 in the US. Pokemon is a Role-Playing Game (RPG) in which a player will capture Pokemon and use them to fight to earn gym badges and become the region champion. The game was published by Nintendo and was available on the Game Boy. These games in 2004 would under go a remake for the Game Boy Advanced and as of today is available for the 3DS Virtual Console in its original form. I will be taking about the soundtrack from the original game not the remake.

The man responsible for the soundtrack of this game and all of the other Pokemon games is Junichi Masuda. Masuda has also directed 10 out of the 25 main series Pokemon games. He has been working for the Pokemon's game developer Game Freak since the beginning.  Throughout the companies rise he also has moved up to now be on Game Freak's board of director and is one of few employees that approves or rejects Pokemon designs. Masuda said with an interview with Game Radar that most of his Pokemon music was inspired by classical musicians like Igor Stravinsky, Dmitri Shostakovich and Gustav Holst. You can hear in the soundtrack the small classical sound to big orchestration pieces. I will be talking about some of the most memorable songs in this game, but because of its RPG nature the songs are short because when they play in game they will repeat because that is how the song is designed.

The first thing you notice when you turn on your Game Boy is Game Freak's logo and then the music starts and you see two Pokemon battling on the screen and its "The Opening Theme." The Pokemon, Gengar and Nidorino or Jigglypuff depending on the game version Red or Blue, are trading blows and the music builds as Nidorino or Jigglypuff goes in for a damaging attack. Right as the music finishes swelling and goes into the main theme the screen changes into the title screen. The music that plays before the title screen during the battle is intense and changes to triumphant on the title screen.

The next themes that I will talking about are all the different battle themes that exist in the game. The reason these songs are all together is because these songs all start the same. The battle theme that you will hear the most will be the "Vs Wild Pokemon Theme." This song will be play every time you run into a wild Pokemon in the tall grass. The next theme will play when you run into a fellow Pokemon trainer, 'Vs Trainer Theme." The last two battle themes I will mention are "Vs Gym Leader" and "Vs Last Battle Rival." These themes as I listed them go from least intense music to the extremely intense music of the final rival battle in the game, which is the toughest battle available in the game. All of these themes also share similar music ideas through them as well as how they start.

The last theme that I will be talking about is second most theme that you will hear throughout the game, the "Pokemon Center Theme." A Pokemon Center for those you who haven't played are places throughout the game that can heal your Pokemon to full health and revive them if they have fainted. The song is very sweet and almost nursery like music. This theme is the most memorable for me because I would constantly be here in the game because this healing was free.

Masuda has not repeated any of the battle themes throughout all of the Pokemon games and he wants to make them all feel special and distinct. This was one of the first series that I really feel in love with when I was younger and I still have affection for it today and with the next generation of Pokemon announced we can be sure that Masuda has a soundtrack ready to amaze. The original soundtrack is hard to buy but you can listen to it on YouTube or buy the remake version of it on iTunes. Thanks for ready everyone and keep rocking.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon's Neon Oozing Music

Blood Dragon's teaser trailer was released on April Fool's Day to the internet's confusion. People debated if it was real, until the publisher Ubisoft confirmed its authenticity two weeks after the trailer. Blood Dragon is an expansion of Ubisoft's game Far Cry 3, but has a completely different design and story. Blood Dragon pays homage to 80's action movies by having over the top characters with cheesy one liners, a retro-futuristic world and neon colors everywhere. The game is a First Person Shooter (FPS) in an open world environment. The games was released on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. The plot of the game can be described as stop the bad guy, get the girl, and save the world and the protagonist name is Sergeant Rex "Power" Colt. Dean Evans, Far Cry developer, was quoted saying to GameInformer that the overall attitude for the project was shock and awe.

The musicians that Evans reached out to do the soundtrack was Power Glove. Power Glove is an Australian band that is under the genres electronic and synthwave. Synth music was the best choice for this game because synth music was heavily used in 80's movies. Evan said that the soundtrack was the first completed part the the game. Power Glove would send Evan songs during development and the songs would be exactly what they asked for. Evans said about Power Glove is that one of those glorious things about working with people who are into the same thing is they instantly click and get it.

I have a personal love for 80's action movies and how cheesy and over the top they are the soundtrack for the game is perfect. I will be talking about a few of the songs that make up the soundtrack. 

The first of these songs will be discussing is the theme to the game called "Blood Dragon Theme." This theme is actually what you would expect to hear when the title of an 80's action movies comes on the screen. The song is heroic, upbeat and fast paced. The song has layers for beats on beats with some electric guitar in the background between building up beats. 

The next song is title "Sloan." Sloan is the name of the bad guy in the game so this his theme.  This song plays then the player gets their first close introduction to the antagonist. This tone of the song is dark and evil with low toned sounds. There are fewer layers in this song and the song is more reminiscent of a 80's horror movie with mystery in the sound. 

The last song that I will be talking about is "Resurrection." This song plays in the final confrontation in the game after Rex is injured, but overcomes his wounds to fight. The song starts very quiet and simple, but then leaps into a repetitive beat that makes the player feel powerful because the beat doesn't stop throughout the rest of the song even as more and more layers. This is one of my favorite songs because of how layers just keep compiling and compiling. 

This soundtrack is on my short list of video game soundtracks that I listen to and it is definitely worth. This game was one of my favorites for just running with a theme and sticking to there guns and the soundtrack drastically helps. If you want to listen to the entire soundtrack you can find it here on YouTube or purchase you can it on iTunes or Amazon if you really like it. With a rumored sequel on the way, why not pick it up. Thanks for readying everyone until next time keep jamming. 

Undertale: A Soundtrack With "Determination"

Might be minor spoilers in here, Warned

Undertale is the most recent critically acclaimed indie game that the internet and myself have been obsessing over still even after its September 15, 2015 release. Undertale was created, written, designed and composed by Toby Fox with additional artwork done by Temmie Chang. The gameplay of Undertale is similar to two of Fox's favorite games Super Mario RPG and The Mother series. These games are all RPGs, if you didn't get that already, and Undertale is designed to look like these games did on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES). Undertale is the story of a human child who falls into the underground world of monsters where the child has to make a choice on how proceed through the underground. Undertale is so beloved because of its story and characters and how they interact and how the game changes up on how gamers traditionally play RPGs, which it was why it got the attention it deserves.

The most powerful aspect that Undertale that uses to enhance the gameplay is the soundtrack. Undertale has over 101 total songs on the soundtrack and each song was created by Fox. Each song on the soundtrack has a specific place that it was played in the game and in those moments you can feel joy, sadness, silliness, victorious, or fearful. The video game/pop culture site Kotaku named Undertale one of the best soundtracks of 2015. Since there are 101 songs, I will be covering a few that are mine and fan favorites.  

The first song that I will be talking about is titled "Bonetrousle." "Bonetrousle" plays in the boss fight of one of my favorite characters Papyrus. Papyrus is a skeleton who lives in the underground with his brother Sans. Papyrus is the goofy, flamboyant and very kind and all he wants to catch you so he can be promoted to Royal Guard. "Bonetrousle" has a very serious beat at first, but the rest of the song is bouncy and silly, much like Papyrus himself. An interview with Fox on website The Existential Gamer quoted Fox saying that "Bonetrousle" was composed before Undertale, but was absorbed into it because it fit so well.

The second song I will talk about is simply titled "Dummy!". This song the boss theme to a boss fight were you fight a possessed dummy call Mad Dummy. The music has a strong sound to the 1920's-1930's jazz swing sound to it. This song isn't just a song designed to loop over itself when over it is a true complete song which is slightly different than most of the songs on the soundtrack because most are about a minute song that can be looped forever and still sound great.

The last song I will be talking about is my favorite one on the soundtrack and it is "MEGALOVANIA." This song will play when you fight Sans, the brother of Papyrus. Sans is the complete opposite of papyrus, he lazy, likes making bad puns and can be eerily serious at times. This boss fight is the toughest in the game and the soundtrack shows that. The song has hyper rock music playing to keep the player on his toes because this part needs complete concentration. Fox, like "Bonetrousle", had created this song before Undertale, but unlike "Bonetrousle" he had used it in other places before. He used it in a game hack he made of EarthBound call "The Halloween Hack" and the game "Homestuck." 

Fox's soundtrack for Undertale has left its mark on the internet because if you search YouTube for a specific song will find that song covered in various styles ranging from metal to jazz. If you are interested in purchasing the soundtrack you can by it from bandcamp. 

Thanks for ready everyone, and if you have any suggestions put them in the comments below! Have a rocking day!

How Nakamura Rolled Around With Sonic

As stated in my previous blog, I talked slightly about Sonic The Hedgehog's composer and producer Masato Nakamura briefly, but I still wanted to tell more about Nakamura and this career before, during and after his work for SEGA. Even though Nakamura only worked on the first two Sonic games he is strongly remember for them in the gaming community.

Before Nakamura was created iconic music of Sonic, he was, and still is, the bass guitarist for the Japanese Pop (J-Pop) band Dreams Come True. Dreams Come True debut self-titled album in 1989, which would go on to sell more than a one million copies. In 1990, SEGA picked Nakamura to compose Sonic's soundtrack and Sonic was painted on Dreams Come True's tour bus revealing Sonic for the first time. Nakamura was quoted by Sonic City, defunct webiste, saying that he really wanted to sign on because he saw SEGAs passion to beat Nintendo's Mario. All was going up for Nakamura musical career.

Nakamura during the time he was creating music for Sonic Team, he quoted by Sonic City saying it was the perfect time to make the soundtrack because it was the turning point in music industry where it was shifting into the computers and the soundtrack was made on an Atari computer. Nakamura would continue to compose and produce the sequel Sonic The Hedgehog 2. Much like the first Sonic soundtrack, Nakamura composed the soundtrack was if it were a movie by creating music based on atmosphere and feeling of the zones. Sonic Team gave Nakamura almost complete musical control over Sonic's soundtrack. Nakamura would continue to knock Sonic 2's soundtrack, but this would be his last composed and produced Sonic soundtrack.

Sonic Team would drop Nakamura from composer of their next game Sonic The Hedgehog 3 because of financial disagreements. Nakamura would continue his music career with his band Dreams Come True, but he didn't leave SEGA on bad terms. Nakamura in 2006 remixed his song "Sweet, Sweet, Sweet" from Sonic 2 for the Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) game. He also allowed Wave Master to remix his music for the game Sonic Generations. Nakamura's music still lives on in Sonic soundtracks that are released today and will continue to in the future.

Sonic The Hedgehog's Beat Cannot Stop

As one of the first games that I remember playing, Sonic the Hedgehog for the SEGA Genesis has a really special place in my heart. This game was released on June 23, 1991. This was back when SEGA and Nintendo where the two big video game system companies and SEGA needed something to rival Nintendo's Mario, thus Sonic was created. Sonic The Hedgehog's soundtrack was composed and produced by Masato Nakamura. Nakamura later went on to compose the soundtrack to Sonic's sequel, Sonic The Hedgehog 2, but these were the only two Sonic games that he composed and produced.

For those of you who don't know, Sonic the Hedgehog is a 2-D platforming game with a total number of six levels or zones with three acts to each zone and at the end of act three Sonic will fight series antagonist, Dr.Robotnik. Every zone has a specific soundtrack for it aptly named after the zone and also when you fight Robotnik it has a specific theme. There are also three other themes in the game that are the Title screen music, Special stage music and Final Zone music.

When you first boot up the game you are treated to this bouncy energetic beat as you see Sonic waggling his finger ready with anticipation on the screen and it makes you ready for the adventure ahead. The music for the first zone, Green Hill Zone it's exactly how it sounds, is fast and uplifting, which is exactly what the player needs to feel at the beginning of this game, like they are invincible. At the end of act three of Green Hill Zone you are treated to a boss fight against Robotnik with ominous and shadowy music during the fight. The music for every boss fight at the end of every third act is the same. The player will then move on to Marble Zone which has roman buildings and architecture around and dangerous lava beneath them. The song for this zone is slower than the last, but for very good reason. This zone cannot be ran through like the last because this zone needs a level of precise platforming over lava pits and the music represents this with a more somber and dangerous sound to it. You will then enter the Spring Yard Zone which is very bouncy and vertical with many springs and pinball bouncers. The song here reflects the dark city that you seen the background of the game and the lighter notes are the bounces Sonic does off of the springs and pinball bouncers. Well we have reached half way now.

The fourth zone of Sonic is the Labyrinth Zone. This zone is based in ruins that are partially submerged in water. The music to the zone is different than the rest it is more eclectic to match the ruin setting of the zone. The second to last zone is the Starlight Zone, which takes place in what appears to be outer space. The music would match this idea being very floaty and dream like. The last zone is the Scrap Brain Zone and the most fits this very intense final zone. The zone is very fast paced to make the players heart beat faster and faster. The music is very mechanical sounding which matches the industrial look of the zone. This is also my favorite song in the game. The final fight song with Robotnik is a slightly different than the other boss music because it is longer and arranged differently but keeps the same beat . This music gives you the boss music from before but lets you know this is different and this is the finale. The last music track I will talk about is the Special Stage music. This music like Starlight Zone, it is floaty and dream like, but at an even slower pace which fits the color changing and crazy backgrounds. To access this zone the player need to end an act with 50 or more rings which you collect throughout the act.

Overall, this soundtracks matche the atmosphere of each level perfectly, it might not have complimented the game play 100% because of having to precisely platform around some levels, but you can really tell the Nakamura really wanted this music to be cinematic like when the boss shows up the music takes a sudden turn. Its music will forever be stuck in my head, from its iconic Green Hill zone to it's engaging boss fight music and if you haven't played Sonic before or heard the soundtrack take a listen because Sonic isn't just a good game it has some the best music too.

Thanks for reading everyone, if you have suggestions for game soundtracks you want to listen to and maybe play through let me know in the comments below.