GAME SOUNDTRACKS FOR YOUR SOUL: Level Six

In this edition of Game Soundtracks For Your Soul I look back as some character building music. I consider music character building in the sense that it’s music I had to listen to many times, over and over again because I was playing a game that had a time limit or underlying sense of urgency to the music.

The soundtracks I discuss this week is the music of the classic Rare Nintendo 64 exclusive title Blast Corps. The other game was also an exclusive to the Super Nintendo and a one of a kind classic Uniracers.

Blast Corps is a game I owned for Nintendo 64 growing up.  If you have never experienced the game its all about a advanced wrecking crew team’s task to destroy a series of buildings using a variety of unique demolition vehicles, mainly in order to clear a path for a truck carrying a pair of defective nuclear missiles. The truck cannot be stopped because it is…well I am not sure exactly, but most likely because Sandra Bullock is driving and Keanu Reeves is riding shotgun and usually when that happens if the vehicle drops below 50 mile per hour, boom! As a player its your job to clear everything out of the trucks path before it gets there.  If you can’t and the truck is about to hit something you are alerted with a warning, and this music. Urgent percussion and strings and a high pitched tone. In the game you encounter this music over and over again as your struggle to destroy and blow things up, and often just before you die. The music to Blast Corps was released on a Nintendo produced CD titled Nintendo 64 Greatest Hits and the tracks have been uploaded to YouTube by user Curtis Martin. The urgent music comes from the Blast Corps title track “Title Tune”.

The music for this game is unique and catchy. One of my favorite themes in the game is a track called “Simian Acres”. This track is featured during several levels in the game and usually preceded by the in game boss saying “Time to get moving!”. The track is catchy because it features the banjo, tambourine and jaw harp. The other tracks in the game are also worth a listen. Composer Graeme Norgate wrote the music and really knew how to mess with players musically. Because the level themes are so light and catchy, when the urgent “Title Tune” begins to play its very much the opposite of what you’ve been hearing and is very effective. The music in Blast Corps is something you come to know very well if you attempt to complete the games many challenging levels to earn ranks of Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum.

The music of Uniracers creates a sense of urgency or adrenaline surge in a different way.  Colin Anderson composed the music and was one of the five composers who worked on the sound and music of the original Grand Theft Auto games.

Rock guitar and guitar solos rule the musical world of Uniracers which is a multi-player racing game that incorporates stunts, time trials a medals.  As a result you also have to play the levels over and over again.  The cool thing about this game was you had to perform tricks during your race to increase your speed.  If you took more risks and pulled off some serious landings you could easily best your opponents. My brother regularly won our races together because he could land some serious combinations.

The soundtrack has been uploaded to YouTube by use SNESosT.  My favorite tunes are the “Title Screen” and “Race 5”.

Do you have any character building game music memories?