iTunes

Game Music

Hülsbeck Smashing The Undead With ZombieSmash! EP

August 9, 2010 | Audun Sorlie | 1 Comment Share this

Whoa! Seems like Chris Hülsbeck is a busy man these days. Last week he announced he would return to R-Type to make new music for the iPhone port while today, you can purchase his new soundtrack from ZombieSmash!. The game is a castle defense game with flocks of zombies trying to get in your door and it’s up to you to stop them by throwing them and shooting them off screen. Chris scored the game wonderfully with some great songs with obvious horror music cues and driving melodies. The sounds and feel is fittingly nostalgic of some of his earlier works.

While the soundtrack itself is only 4 tracks long, it includes the trailer music and 2 excellent arrangements of the main theme. One is exclusive to the EP and the other is from the Sounds of Games project that Hülsbeck contributed some arrangements for. Make sure to get the game on the App Store and the soundtrack from either iTunes or Amazon.

Visit Chris Huelsbeck Productions for more info and news.
Game Music

BAR OASIS: Why You Need This App. Immediately.

June 23, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 5 Comments Share this

Have I ever mentioned that I’m completely obsessed with game music from Korea? From Ragnarok Online, TalesWeaver, and La Tale to the DJMAX franchise, I can’t get enough of this stuff. In fact, Patrick Gann and I first got acquainted because we were looking for ways to reach out to composers in Korea about the amazing music they were writing. If you somehow haven’t delved into what’s going on over there, we’ve just caught wind of a cheap and entertaining way to get introduced.

BAR OASIS is an iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch title developed by Korean-based Aurora Games that puts you behind the bar mixing drinks by performing various touch and tilt-based gameplay techniques to progress through a story with the game’s “engaging” characters. It not only features some impressive anime-esque visuals, but it also sports 12 new songs created specifically for the game by TalesWeaver and DJMAX contributor Nauts. All of this, and it’s only $0.99! If that isn’t enough to entice you, just look at the freakishly large breasts and suggestive wink on that “engaging” female character above.

If you happen to check it out (and you should!), let us know what you think of the music. Are with with most of the reviewers on iTunes in thinking that they could have easily sold this app for $2.99?

[Thanks Taek!]
Game Music

Flower Soundtrack Available This Week… FINALLY!

April 5, 2010 | Gideon Dabi | 3 Comments Share this

According to the official Playstation Blog, Flower will finally be receiving an official soundtrack release on the Playstation Network on Thursday of this week! Priced at $2.99, this collection of eight tracks is said to clock at over sixty minutes. To say this is a must-buy and a steal at that price would be the understatement of the decade. As some of you may recall, Flower was one of my picks for the OSVOSTOTY awards. In fact, I cited the game not receiving the proper soundtrack release and treatment for us to truly indulge in it as the only thing stopping it from being the best of the year. No more!

Stay tuned to OSV for more coverage on Flower and Vincent Diamante!

[Source Playstation Blog]
Game Music, Reviews

A Huge Battleship is Approaching Fast: SAGAIA (Review)

March 17, 2010 | Michael Cox | 5 Comments Share this

Taito’s Darius series (of which Sagaia is a part) has always been regarded by the wider gaming public as somehow lagging behind the other big-name horizontal shooting series. As a steadfast supporter of the games, I’ve long thought of this as a disheartening and near-criminal injustice, but to be perfectly honest, the popular view is all too understandable. The first two Darius titles relied on their innovative triple-screen displays and their GIGANTIC SPACE FISH to impress arcade-goers in the late 80s, and upon revisiting them today, most players find them to be rather staid and sedate affairs with unadventurous whack-a-mole level design. It took 1994’s Darius Gaiden and 1997’s G-Darius to really prove the worth of the series to most shoot-em-up aficionados, but they certainly didn’t lay to rest the ghosts of its reputation. The truly disheartening thing about the relative unpopularity of the original games, though, is that it’s meant that scant few people have been exposed to the wonders of their music.

It seems Taito understand this well enough, as they’ve been busy releasing a slew of the Darius soundtrack and remix CDs on the iTunes service, with the soundtrack to the Game Boy version of Sagaia being among the most recent. But is this release likely to win the series any new fans?

Click the jump to find out! (more…)
Indie Music, Japanese

Dog Ear Records Announces 10 Short Stories in English

March 11, 2010 | Audun Sorlie | 1 Comment Share this

With the release of 10 Stories on March 10th, Dog Ear Records are going all out to give fans something special celebrating Uematsu’s anniversary in the game music world. First off is the album itself launching in 3 different forms, an English version, the original Japanese version, and a KARAOKE version all to be released on iTunes Music Store. The album is about having fun in life and based on compositions Uematsu did earlier in his life.

Secondly Dog Ear are holding a special event with guest artists performing. The event, named Inu-mimi Family Meeting vol.4 will be held at the Shibuya Duo music Exchange in Tokyo on March 13th 2010. You can expect names like Kenji Ito (Romancing SaGa composer) and Akiko Hasegawa (voice actress from THE IDOLM@STER) as well as the man himself, Nobuo Uematsu to perform at the event. Don’t be too sad if you can’t go, cause the entire event will be streamed on NicoNico Douga for those too far away!

For more info on both these events visit Dog Ear Records and NicoNico Douga.
Game Music, Reviews

From the Depths of the Sea: Darius II OST (Review)

February 24, 2010 | CF | 4 Comments Share this

Darius II, released to an unsuspecting world in 1989, followed the footsteps of original Darius – a strange, atmospheric arcade shooter with an equally unique soundtrack. While the OST was originally released in the late 80s, and is therefore very much out of print, it was recently added to Taito’s expanding iTunes catalog for digital distribution, making it cheaply and readily available once again.

Though the series has been mostly dormant since 1997’s G-Darius, it recently came back to life with the release of the brilliant Darius Burst. Taking a look back at the series and its accomplishments, it’s easy to see that the three-screen-wide Darius II was a landmark worth revisiting.

Hit the jump for an in-depth look at this strange and historically significant soundtrack. (more…)
Game Music

10 Stories: Two Singles We Neglected To Tell You About!

February 8, 2010 | Jayson Napolitano | 1 Comment Share this

Alright, our bad. We’re all looking forward to Nobuo Uematsu’s 10 Short Stories (the now-official album title), and while we’ve looked at “Here Comes Conga Boy” and “Coconut Castaway” in depth, we never got around to mentioning the two latest singles that have been released, “The Chef Who Used His Noodle” and “Gimme Gimme.”

While “The Chef Who Used His Noodle” has a rather unfortunate title, the playful Asian-inspired music and lyrics make it my favorite single from the album released to date. “Gimme Gimme” gets a little funky with acoustic guitars and Rhodes piano. It almost sounds like something out of de Blob, which is high praise coming from me! They’re both currently available via iTunes around the globe for $0.99, so be sure to check them out ahead of the March 2010 release of Nobuo Uematsu’s 10 Short Stories!

Are you looking forward to this album? What’s your favorite single released to date? Also, aren’t these cover images awesome?

[via DER Blog and VGMdb]