Up-Beats in a Beatdown – Treachery in Beatdown City Ep.1 OST (Review)

You know life’s pretty awesome when you get more Inverse Phase popping up in the video game music and chip music scene, and it’s fantastic when it’s right during the start of the new year. Why slug through a cold winter, right after grand events like MAGFest, and be jonesing for new tunes to keep spirits high?

Case-in-point here is Treachery in Beatdown City: Episode 1, which pays tribute to all the sidescrolling beat ’em ups of the 8 and 16-bit era that most of us ’90s kids grew up on, such as Double Dragon and Bad Dudes with some RPG aspects thrown in for good measure. There’s nothing like a good beat ’em up game, and this particular one allows us gentle listeners a delightful cadre of chip music courtesy of Mr. Brendan “Inverse Phase” Becker.

If you’re looking for something short, sweet and catchy as all hell, then the Treachery in Beatdown City Episode 1 EP is going to satisfy your craving. Sit back and relax as you are treated to a 17-minute album that drips NES nostalgic sounds all over your ears (that sounds far grosser than I meant it to). It’s very easy music to get stuck in your head and end up replaying over and over even after the album is finished, and does exemplify the old feel of the beat ’em up genre back when your character was only made up of a handful of pixels.

Of the 12 tracks,  only two go over two minutes, so everything but the tunes assigned to stage music or interaction with other character is brief. “The Streets of East Fulton” and “Energetic Fist” are the main stage themes, with heavier melody and greater focus on a complete song rather than short tune, as it should be for the meat of any game’s soundtrack. “Out of My Way!” is one of the tracks I enjoyed over the others for it’s foreboding and, dare I say, treacherous overtones that signify enemy encounters. It does what it sets out to and does it well. “Get Ready to Block” and “End of the Road”, the mini-boss and boss themes respectively, also do great convey that classic feeling that shit is about to get real.

“Ninja Dragon Terrorists” is probably my favorite track of the album, and the one I found myself actually swaying back and forth to with the timing the most and reminds me of several Ninja Gaiden tracks back in the day. Plus actual ninja dragon terrorists is right up there on the coolness charts with vampire robot zombies, in my opinion.

The album is a mere $2 on Inverse Phase’s Bandcamp, and since you probably spend that getting crappy coffee from a vending machine at work, why not instead spend it on something that will be sure to get you pumped up without leaving a nasty aftertaste in your mouth? Go grab Treachery in Beatdown City Episode 1 EP and have yourself a pleasant work day, or non-work day. Either or works just fine.