[Disclaimer: I received copies of both of these vinyls from Mondo specifically for review purposes.]
I’ve admittedly had a lot of opinions on the Mondo releases of the various Castlevania soundtracks on vinyl LP, but until now had not gotten the chance to do an in-depth review of any of them. Mostly I never reached out because I assumed my bias towards the franchise music would make my opinions too cynical, and it wouldn’t be fair. However, after four previous vinyl releases from Mondo for the series, and the announcement of both soundtracks to Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, I figured that perhaps now was the time to offer my critique.
The soundtracks from both games are held in high regard both with fans of the series and casual gamers alike. While far more have played through Castlevania Symphony of the Night than they have Rondo of Blood due to the latter’s limited release in the states via ports, the soundtracks for both offer different things while still bringing depth to the history of Castlevania music.
So, how do these releases stack up; both as individual offerings as well as compared to the other Mondo releases in the series?
Let it not be said that hype from E3 doesn’t spur reaction. Hot off the heels of their press conference at the electronics show going on now, developer Naughty Dog has teamed up with Mondo Records to release an LP of the music from their upcoming game, The Last of Us Part II.
With the game’s composer Gustavo Santaolalla playing the opening to the preview at E3, the game showcased the grittiness of the continuation of the action survival game, complete with somber banjo accompaniment. This will be one part of the vinyl released by Mondo, titled “The Last Of Us (Cycles)” along with side A track “Little Sadie” – Performed by Crooked Still. The vinyl with be released in two different versions; the standard black and blue swirl that is on pre-order now, and a limited edition red and black marble that is exclusive to the Playstation store at E3 for attendees.
You can pre-order the blue and black version on for $15 on Mondo’s website.
Ubisoft seems to want to push the heck out of Far Cry 5‘s release by offering a ridiculous amount of “special edition” releases of the game, all with accompanying goodies such as in-game items and so on. They also decided to team up with Mondo Records to have a special “Mondo” edition of the game’s release.
The Far Cry 5 x Mondo Edition includes a steelbox, box and a special vinyl release of the game’s soundtrack. The game’s music, created by film composer and songwriter Dan Romer, will be complimented by Mondo’s usual practice of original artwork inspired by the game. The vinyl will release with 12 tracks from the game’s soundtrack and will include a digital release as well. Only 4,000 copies of the Mondo Edition of the game will be released.
Far Cry 5 x Mondo Edition will be released on March 28th at the same time as the game itself and is currently available for $99.99 on pre-order from the Ubisoft store.
Mondo seems to be continuing with their video game soundtrack releases to vinyl; this time featuring the NES classic Konami shooter-platformer Contra. The new vinyl release will be premiering at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.
Contra was originally composed by Hidenori Maezawa (Goonies II, Adventures of Bayou Billy) and Kiyohiro Sada (Top Gun NES) for the NES version of the game and and arranged by Kazuki Muraoka for the arcade version, though they were all only credited under the Konami Kukeiha Club for years due to Konami’s fear of having their composers poached by other companies. Mondo sticks with the original composing credits for one reason or another. The Mondo release will feature both NES/Famicom and arcade versions of the game’s soundtrack pressed on 180 Gram Red & Blue Half-and-Half Vinyl for $25.
A limited version of the record (pressed on Yellow, Orange & Red vinyl) will be premiering at our San Diego Comic-Con booth (#835), but we wanted to give CONTRA fans the opportunity to pick up the soundtrack online, too. When doors open for Preview Night this Wednesday at 8PM (CT), our Red & Blue version of the record will be available at mondotees.com.
The vinyl artwork was done by Eric Powell, who worked on Mondo’s Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest release; in my opinion the best and most faithful artwork of their Castlevania line. It’s unfortunate Powell couldn’t work on all Mondo video game released, because certainly this Contra art does the game’s visual’s justice. Hopefully the music quality will follow suit.
You can purchase the Contra vinyl release starting tomorrow evening on MondoTees.com. You can also check out the limited edition variant if you’re perusing San Diego Comic-Con this weekend.
Mondo has announced that they will be making available the fourth installment of their Castlevania vinyl series with the appropriate release of Super Castlevania IV.
Hi all – this week, in anticipation of the newly announced Netflix Original Series, we will be releasing the next chapter in our ongoing CASTLEVANIA soundtrack series! It’s one of our favorites of the series, and quite possibly one of our favorite video game soundtrack of all time: the Super Nintendo classic SUPER CASTLEVANIA IV.
Unlike the previous iterations of Castlevania music on the NES games, the soundtrack for Super Castlevania IV was able to utilize synthesized instrumentation to achieve a darker and more atmospheric soundtrack, as opposed to the punchier sounds of the NES sound chip. Released in 1991 and one of the first games released shortly after the launch of the SNES, Super Castlevania IV and it’s soundtrack are considered to be some of the franchise’s best work.
Video credited to scigamerfan07
Looking at this pre-release, I wish I could say I was excited for this album, but I’m really not. While I’ve been critical of Mondo’s artistic choices for the Castlevania albums in the past (I thought the Dracula’s Curse front cover was ridiculously hipster and trying too hard to be artsy rather than recognizable), this particular album art comes off looking lazy. For an officially-released and licensed video game soundtrack album, the artwork looks dull and cartoonish and does not at all mimic the dynamic design of the original game box art. The back cover might be a bit more detailed, but it doesn’t make up for the poor design choice of the front. It’s simply an opinion since the game features my favorite soundtrack of the whole franchise and this is an design critique, but I believe the art choice fails to do credit to the legacy that is Super Castlevania IV.
It also makes me curious that the composers for Super Castlevania IV, Masanori Adachi and Taro Kudo (under pseudonyms Sotaro Tojima and Masanori Oodachi), are not credited properly. All of the Mondo albums simply list Konami Kukeiha Club with the music credits, which was Konami’s catch-all group listing for their sound team used at the time of SCV4 and other Konami games so that their musicians wouldn’t be poached by other game companies. However composer credits are widely available these days, even on Wikipedia, so why not give credit where it’s due? One wonders if this is dictation from Konami as part of the licensing agreement, or perhaps something else. Hopefully it holds no baring on the quality of the music itself, which has been (appropriately) criticized in the past.
Mondo will be releasing its Super Castlevania IV June 21st at noon (CST) on 2x 180 Gram Bronze and Gold Split Vinyl (Limited to 1,000 Copies) – or – 2x 180 Gram Silver with Red Splatter for $30. They’re also have copies of the Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse vinyl back in stock. Mondo boasts one more installment in their Castlevania line with Symphony of the Night to be likely announced later this year.
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