Funky Skater Beat of Jet Set Radio Future Keeps on Grinding

Looking at the cover art for the games as a young boy, I was immediately draw in because of the look of it Tony Hawk plus some kind of weird Japanese rebel spray painting. This game is called Jet Set Radio Future (JSRF) and it is a kind of sequel/remastering of the Sega Dreamcast game Jet Set Radio. JSRF was released on the original Xbox in 2002. The game is 3rd person and the graphical style of the game is called cell shaded  , which means the games as almost a hand drawn quality. 

In the game you can play many different characters that are apart of your crew called the GGs. You recruit more people to your crew as you play the game, but you need to beat them in a race to get them to join. Throughout the game the GGs have to fight against the enemies gangs that are causing trouble to the city. The city in the game is loosily based on Japan itself. The games setting has a real 1990s Japanese punk setting and the music of the game matches it perfectly.

The soundtrack to this game was made by Hideki Naganuma and Richard Jacques, who were the same duo that created the music that was in the original Jet Set Radio. Some of the songs that are in the game were not released on the original soundtrack of the game because they were made by other lesser known bands. Some of these bands were BS 2000 (Adrock from Beastie Boys), Scapegoat West, The Latch Brothers (Mike D from Beastie Boys) and the Prunes. I am noticing a pattern here. I will sadly not talking about these song since they were not on the official song track of the game, but in a different blog post I might. In this post today I will be discussing three of my favorite songs from it, but they are all extremely great songs.

When you put in the disc and the logos of developers and producers fly by, the music starts up with this heavy guitar rift that is pure 90s punk and the song name is "The Concept Of Love". On screen it is showing some of the characters in the game skating around everywhere and doing crazy tricks. This music and title screen video gives the player the exact feel of what this game will be. The song is extremely well made and almost sounds like something that is commercial, but then again most of the songs on here sound very well made. This song like most of the other songs on the soundtrack is very repetitive which makes it addicting.  If you are not into this heavy music don't worry every song on this soundtrack is different.

The nest song I will talk about is i think my favorite out of them all and it's "Oldie But Happies". This song uses old time television voices for most of the lyrics of the song and has this extremely happy-go-lucky beat to it that strangely matches up to skating around. The song near the end develops into  this chanting part that really keeps building and you almost feel inclined to chant along to because of how simple and cheeky the song is. 

The last song I am going to talk about is titled "Let Mom Sleep (No Sleep Remix)". This song is a remixed version of the song that appeared in original Jet Set Radio. The song starts out with this siren against a really funky beat that leads into some very intense bass lines. This song almost makes you want to dance more than anything else. Much like the last song I talked about this song also utilizes old television dialogue for the voices in this song. I don't know what it is about that idea, but I really enjoy that. I think it has to do with the fact that it is completely out of context and sounds ridiculous. 

This album, along with Halo, was one of the first that I really just sat there and just listened ot the music instead of playing the game. I loved everything in this game from its quirky graphics to it extremely silly idea of using graffiti to fight against the powers of evil and also inspired me to learn graffiti art which may not be the best thing. Thanks for reading and have a nice one!

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.