Nintendo

Game Music, Japanese

Kirby 25th Anniversary CD, DVD, Blu-ray Announced for Japan

October 17, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | 1 Comment Share this

Of Nintendo’s longest running franchises Kirby is one of the youngest, playing little sibling to the likes of Mario, Zelda, and Metroid who all recently celebrated thirty years. Nevertheless, Nintendo is giving the pink puff an impressive 25th anniversary package in three colorful varieties on CD, DVD, and Blu-ray. All three versions of Kirby 25th Anniversary Orchestra Concert will be released in Japan on December 20th. Here’s the rundown on what’s included.

The 2-disc CD album features a recording of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra performing ‘The Kirby 25th Anniversary Concert” from July on Disc 1. Kirby Memorial Arrange makes up the second disc and contains live performances, vocal tracks, and other arrangements of Kirby themes that weren’t featured in the concert. Also included with the colorful packaging is a Kirby 25th anniversary pin badge with the whole thing on sale for about $30.

Stepping things up is the CD+DVD bundle that includes the 2-disc album and pin badge as well as a video recording of ‘The Kirby 25th Anniversary Concert” performance. There’s also some interview footage with long-time Kirby developers to reminisce on the series anniversary. This $70 bundle comes with an interchangeable case with three designs and a classy cover box to store the CD and DVD in.

Finally, there’s the $80 CD+Blu-ray edition that includes all the same footage from the DVD in higher quality, edited with direct feed footage of the gameplay that was projected behind the orchestra during the performance. The 2-disc album, pin badge, and classy cover box are all included with a unique design on the Blu-ray disc. It’s not a massive bonus but the big deal about the Blu-ray edition is that it will only be available to order online between November 8th and the 24th. After that it’ll be paying exorbitant prices to resellers.

If the price is too steep but you love the look of this 25th anniversary artwork, check out the official anniversary site. It’s in Japanese but you don’t need to read the language to bask in the adorable artwork and the mountain of character goods piling up in Japan. If you need a little musical accompaniment while browsing, check out the recently released tribute album Kirby25: A Chiptuned Retrospective.

Any Kirby fans planning on picking up the CD, DVD or Blu-ray? How about one of those LED humidifiers?
Doujin, Game Music

Listen to Classic NES Tunes Reversed in Stemage’s RETROGRESSION

July 7, 2017 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on Listen to Classic NES Tunes Reversed in Stemage’s RETROGRESSION Share this

Here’s a fun little treat to close out your holiday week. Grant “Stemage” Henry of Metroid Metal and Viking Guitar Live renown has decided to take some of the most iconic tunes from the NES library and literally spins them in reverse with RETROGRESSION VOL.1. The resulting reversed tracks prove that the musical library of many NES games, such as Super Mario Bros. and Punch Out! are just as amazing backwards as they are forwards.

<a href="http://stemage.bandcamp.com/album/retrogression-vol-1">RETROGRESSION: VOL.1 by Stemage</a>

Henry proves the legitimacy of his retro reversals by also releasing the tracks themselves reversed into their original compositions in order to hear exactly how on-the-mark he hits with the backwards transcriptions.

You can grab RETROGRESSION VOL.1 (meaning we could see more volumes in the future) at the name-your-price tier on the Stemage Bandcamp site.
Game Music, Miscellaneous

Check Out Shigeru Miyamoto Play Mario Theme with The Roots

December 8, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | 3 Comments Share this

If you’re a Jimmy Fallon fan, you probably caught Shigeru Miyamoto suddenly pop up with hip-hop group The Roots to play the theme from Super Mario Bros., and if you didn’t you can now!

To help showcase the Nintendo Switch being debuted on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, the Mario legend was the night’s musical guest along with The Roots, strumming away as Fallon acted appropriately.
Game Music

The Legend of Zelda 30th Anniversary Album Available Now

September 30, 2016 | Shawn Sackenheim | 4 Comments Share this

Just like they did last year for Mario’s 30th anniversary, Nintendo has just released a massive 2-disc album chronicling the history of the Legend of Zelda series. The 30th Anniversary: The Legend of Zelda Game Music Collection contains 93 tracks and hits every major release in the series including the Game Boy Color editions and the most recent installment of Tri Force Heroes. The first pressing also comes in a deluxe package with sixteen interchangeable covers, one representing each entry in the series. Play-Asia still has copies available for $38.99 as of this writing.

And if you’re in the mood to reminisce about the Zelda’s of yore while listening you can pick up the dazzling Legend of Zelda Hyrule Graphics 30th Anniversary Book for $54.99. It’s filled with over 2,000 character images and illustrations from the same landmark entries in the series as the music album.

Check out some more details on the album from vgmdb and some images from the art book inside.

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Doujin, Game Music

New Super Guitar Bros Album “Nice” Now Available

September 21, 2016 | Brenna Wilkes | Comments Off on New Super Guitar Bros Album “Nice” Now Available Share this

The acoustic duo known around as the Super Guitar Bros. (aka. Sam Griffin & Steve Poissant) have at long last released their second full-length album as a follow up to their self-titled premier album in 2013. The new album, “Nice”, features 17 tracks spanning several classic games such as Donkey Kong Country, Chrono Trigger, Castlevania III and of course several Super Mario titles. It also features some of the most interesting album art for a VGM release I’ve seen since entering the community, which can take as you may.

<a href="http://superguitarbros.bandcamp.com/album/nice">Nice. by Super Guitar Bros</a>

<a href="http://superguitarbros.bandcamp.com/album/nice">Nice. by Super Guitar Bros</a>

The album is currently in digital format on Bandcamp at a “Pay What You Want” price, or as a physical CD for $10. The duo recently performed at San Francisco Comic-Con and PAX West 2016, and, you can also catch the Bros. streaming regularly on their Twitch channel for live practice, mini-performances and other shenanigans.
Featured, Game Music

Game Soundtracks For Your Soul: Level 15

July 23, 2016 | Ryan Paquet | 1 Comment Share this

With Nintendo announcing its planned November 11, 2016, release of the Classic NES with 30 games last week I was hit with a flurry of video game audio flashbacks. Learning that the new mini Nintendo could not have any additional games added to it, I thought about some of the games I still had in my NES collection that I wish were included.

So in this edition of Game Soundtracks For Your Soul I’m looking back at a few NES games that had some incredible soundtracks. Come on in to relive some of my personal favorite NES game scores which include music to robots, soldiers, and space animals.

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Anime, Game Music, Japanese

Squid Sisters Live Album Pre-Order and Details

June 4, 2016 | Shawn Sackenheim | Comments Off on Squid Sisters Live Album Pre-Order and Details Share this

Following up the Splatoon soundtrack album from 2015 comes a new official collection of live performances from the in-game idol group, the Squid Sisters. The tracks come from two shows that the duo put on earlier this year in Japan which the majority of the world was only able to see over livestream archives.

Along with recordings from the Niconico Tokaigi and Choongakusai music festival venues, SPLATOON LIVE IN MAKUHARI will include in-game music not included on the original soundtrack as well as a demo version of “City of Color” and two bonus songs: “Tokimeki * Bomb Rush” from Callie and “Sumisoae no Yoru” from Marie.

Play-Asia has the CD up for pre-order now for $29.99 and it’s expected to ship on July 13th. If you can’t wait for more jammin’ Splatoon music you can always fall back on GameChops’ fan arrangement album, Splatunes, from last June.