Photos from Flickr user beastandbean recently popped up in our RSS feed, titled "Wii Fit Jams: Music to exercise to!" Now, we never really got the appeal of listening to other music while playing a game, but then perhaps we're really old and fusty and out of touch (likelihood of this: high).
We can sort of understand it with Wii Fit, with its plinky-plonky elevator music (music which is designed to be nothing more than background noise), but some friends of ours actually play their record collections all the time with every game. Are we alone in thinking they're as mad as a hatter?
One of the many reasons we love Bionic Commando and want to see it on the Virtual Console so badly is for its awesome, 8-bit soundtrack. So, when Capcom released Simon Viklund's album for Bionic Commando Rearmed, which reworks the NES songs into a more modern-day sound, we had to have it.
We know that Rearmed isn't coming to the Wii, despite Wii gamers' pleas and petitions. Still, there's no denying the NES roots in Viklund's music, and just because we're not getting the actual game doesn't mean we should deprive ourselves of some great tunes, does it?
In fact, the folks at Capcom are releasing the soundtrack even though they think they'll lose money on it, simply because they love and believe in the music that much. After listening to it, we have to say that we can see why. If you're interested, you can get the full soundtrack on iTunes or at Sumthing Digital for $9.99 (or buy the tracks you like separately for $0.99).
Game|Life's Jean Snow, along with a very exclusive audience that naturally did not include us (we'd be happy just to be able to buy the CD), attended the launch party for the No More Heroes Dark Side CD, which features remixes of Masafumi Takada's excellent soundtrack by other game and chiptune musicians. The party took place at Shinjuku's 8-bit Cafe, a retrogaming-themed restaurant with displays of classic games, and even a bin full of games for customers to play at any of the systems set up around the shop.
Once the event closed, the celebration moved to another bar called 16 Shots -- as in Takahashi Meijin's button-mashing record. You'll never hear a geekier name for a business, at least until our loan goes through.
No More Heroes composer Masafumi Takada mentioned in his GDC talk that a remix album of music from the game would soon be available from Grasshopper Manufacture's online store. We now have details of that album, called No More Heroes Sound Tracks: Dark Side -- as well as its burning-Santa-Destroy-flag cover.
The album contains 9 tracks remixed by artists including Takada himself, Game Boy chiptune master 6955 and Metal Gear Solid's Norihiko Hibino. It'll sell for 2,100 yen ($20) when it releases on March 14th. We suspect awesomeness, even though there are only nine tracks on the disc. We're going to have to figure out how to get Grasshopper's online store to ship stuff to us!
In a slightly surprising move (wait ... baseball games have music?), 2K partnered with Pitchfork Media to make the soundtrack for Major League Baseball 2K8(which comes to NA this week). By "make," of course, we mean "pick a bunch of different pre-existing songs," but that's neither here nor there.
If you ask us, the soundtrack for the game is looking pretty damn sweet. Then again, this blogger has a musical taste that is often disliked by the norm, so many of you may hate the track list. But, don't worry too much: supposing bands like LCD Soundsystem and Dinosaur Jr. don't do it for you, there's also a lot of good bands on the soundtrack that are more well-known, such as The Cure, The Cars, and Modest Mouse.
To feast your eyes on the full track list, make sure to check past the break.
Remember all of those awesome songs in the Golden Axe series? No, we don't either, and we love Golden Axe. Pretty much the only music we remember is the tune that plays while those little gnome jerks are looting your campsite. But that song is great. Classic Sega. Most of the time, the game is too overrun by digitized screaming for us to get a good listen to the soundtrack. We get the feeling, however, that a game starring Ax Battler, Tyris Flare, and Gilius Thunderhead must have some rockin' music.
That's why we want to kick a little gnome thief guy until one of the new Golden Axe The Music CDs falls out of his bag. On February 21st, Sega Direct will release a collection of music from all three Genesis Golden Axes, the Saturn game Golden Axe: The Duel, and both arcade games. The collection will sell for 3,500 yen total ($31).
Check after the break for ten minutes of Sega Master System Golden Axe Warrior gameplay, for no good reason. It's Zeldastic!
If NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams turns out to be awful, we'll feel a little stupid for hyping it so much (though we always temper our enthusiasm with skepticism, because ... Sega). But even if the game ends up not being perfect, the music is pretty much a known quantity. If you like sappy, uplifing orchestral pop, then you'll probably enjoy the NiGHTS soundtrack. But would you enjoy it three discs' worth?
The NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams Official Soundtrack will be released in Japan on January 16th for 3,800 yen ($34) and will include 76 tracks, including nine versions of "Dreams Dreams." Some are instrumental -- perfect for karaoke!
We know that you were impressed by the opening video for No More Heroes, because, well, you told us so. The people behind the game must have degrees in tease-ology, though, because now you can download music samples from No More Heroes at the game's official website. Even though they aren't full tracks, it's easy to tell that the music for this game is going to rock our socks off. Now we're even as hyped for the soundtrack release as we are for the game itself.
To download the track samples, go to the bottom of this page and click on the orange buttons. Your ears will thank you.
Importers NCSX and Play-Asia are freeing us from the unavailability of awesome Japanese Club Nintendo exclusives -- presumably, by paying some Japanese people for theirs. Whatever methods they use to get these things, we cannot argue with the results. Because the result is the opportunity to preorder the Super Famicom Classic Controller.
Bothcompanies will ship the item in April (and the Super Mario Galaxysoundtrack in January) in April, but NCSX is taking preorders right now for $30. We don't know when Play-Asia will open preorders or how much they will charge. All we know is this: YES. Who cares if it's a freebie for Club Nintendo members? We're just happy to have a shot at it.
Just look at that. Isn't it glorious? What you're seeing above, folks, is a Wii-compatible SNES pad. Let's say that again, shall we? A Wii-compatible SNES pad. Don't get too worked up though, because unless you're a member of Club Nintendo in Japan, these are off-limits (not that using a SNES pad for your VC games is impossible, but still, this is the real deal).
Our scheme to slowly convert this site into ThereminFanboy continues with a video from Randy George, a clasically-trained chamber musician who recorded himself playing The Legend of Zelda's overworld theme with the synthy gadget.
For those of you who still aren't hip to the workings of a thereminvox, it's a fully electronic musical instrument with two antennas that control pitch and volume. Designed to be played without ever being touched, its harmonies have been described as "music from the ether." Sounds wild? This was all dreamed up by Russian physicist Lev Termen in 1919. He later went on to invent motion detectors for automated doors and KGB espionage devices. Head past the post break for video of Randy's performance.
We wander the Fanboy office's halls humming the catchy melodies we've picked up from the Wii's different channels, unintentionally mimicking the lives of our own Mii caricatures. There's something delightful about these minute-long loops that stay stuck in our heads like an attractive girl we saw in passing.
Electro-experimental group ROBOTOBOTS chopped up the music tracks and added its own flavor to the interface themes. The resulting three songs -- Breaking Points, Revolve Around Planets, and Built to Diistroy -- are just as fetching as the original tunes, albeit more complex and not as light-hearted. We wouldn't mind listening to these reinterpreted tracks in place of Nintendo's pieces, were it possible.
Thanks to some new screenshots of the upcoming launch title Excitetruck, it now indeed looks as though we called it. That's right: if the picture here is any indication, the arcade racer will be able to read .mp3 files from your very own SD card and insert them into the game, a la the Xbox and Xbox 360. It's a nice little feature, and the ability to rock out to our latest find on Pandora while catchin' some air is quite enticing indeed.
Does this feature matter to you guys? More importantly, how many games are actually going to support it? Only the flying spaghetti monster time will tell.
