Tuesday Tunes

SEGA Tunes: Sakura Taisen’s “Kimi Yo Hana Yo (Live)”

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As some of you may remember, we’ve covered Sakura Taisen on Tuesday Tunes before, featuring music from both the game itself and its stage show incarnations. As a musical theatre buff myself, I am extremely jealous of Japanese fans for the dozens of Sakura Taisen related stage shows they’ve had over the years. After all, the closest thing us westerners have gotten to a proper SEGA related stage show is that awful Sonic musical from Australia.

A Sakura Taisen stage show is rather fitting though, given that the game itself stars performers who actively sing and dance on stage. The above video is from the 2003 Shichifukujin show, which features all the voice actors from the Sakura Taisen video games and anime reprising their roles on stage. From what I’ve seen of the show it looks pretty cool, and the performers themselves are definitely talented.

The song “Kimi Yo Hana Yo” was originally composed by Kouhei Tanaka for the end credits of Sakura Wars 4. The stage version features all of the games voice actors reprising their roles as members of Flower Division, including Akio Suyama as Captain Ichirou Oogami and Chisa Yokoyama as titular character Sakura Shinguji.

Check below the fold for the version of the song featured in the game!

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SEGA Tunes: Ristar’s Du-Di-Da!!

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Planet Sonata is probably my favorite stage in Ristar. The first stage has you carrying metronomes to song birds and gradually activating the instruments for the stage’s background music. It all culminates in the stage’s boss fight, which attacks you to the rhythm of this theme! Planet Sonata is a perfect example of what makes Ristar special: it’s creative, unique, and introduces gimmicks and elements that are then discarded for the rest of the game in favor of other gimmicks.

If the early stages of Ristar don’t grab you, I would encourage you to at least try to stick around until Planet Sonata

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SEGA Tunes: Ecco The Tides of Time CD’s Motion E

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I really wanted to feature a track from an Ecco game this week. I thought about featuring tracks from the Genesis or Dreamcast games, but I’d really like to save those for something else later in the year. So I’ve decided to go with something from the SEGA CD!

The Ecco series is renowned for its amazing, atmospheric soundtracks and the SEGA CD tracks from Spencer Nilsen are no exception. These tracks are absolutely beautiful and go so far as to sample sounds from actual aquatic animals to compliment the game’s atmosphere. The quality of this music should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with Nilsen’s work on SEGA CD. He was the same man who produced Sonic CD’s spectacular soundtrack.

To make up for a few weeks of inactivity, I’ve decided to feature another track from the game below. It’s too short to warrant its own Tuesday Tune, but serves as a nice compliment to Motion E. It’s called “The Machine”. Check it out below the fold.

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SEGA Tunes: Fear (Rez Edit)

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The onset of a new year  will inevitably brings new experiences. Though a healthy amount of fear for new experiences never hurts, do not let it control you. Embrace the experiences of the coming year and embrace the challenges that you will face. Do not fear failure, because nothing is worse then simply refusing to try.

And if you are having an especially bad day, play a Dreamcast!

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SEGA Tunes: Ristar’s Planet Freon – Ring Rink

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As we near Christmas day, I knew a festive Tuesday Tunes was in order. The Sonic the Hedgehog franchise is filled with great wintery tunes, but I felt Sonic has been covered far too much on Tuesday Tunes (and for a good reason, Sonic music is awesome!). Christmas NiGHTS would be perfect, but it’s too obvious. Shenmue‘s Christmas tunes would be perfect, but we’ve aleady covered them. And that’s when it hit me, Sonic Team’s Ristar has an excellent winter tune. The game’s fifth stage, Planet Freon, is a planet made entirely of ice and snow. But you won’t find Imperial Walkers and Wampas on this ice planet, instead you’ll find downhill skiing and a bizarre alien enemy chucking snowballs. The music for the first portion of the stage begins almost as if you’re about to hear Jingle Bells, but what follows is a catchy tune with solid drum beats and a peppy tune perfectly suitable for a winter wonderland. So as the sun goes down on this Christmas eve, why not revisit this SEGA Genesis classic? It’s the best present you can give yourself.

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SEGA Tunes: Panzer Dragoon Orta’s Eternal Glacies

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The goal of any good video game soundtrack is to compliment the atmosphere and improve the immersion. As far as I’m concerned, few soundtracks accomplish this better then Panzer Dragoon Orta’s. Given that it’s Christmas time, it seems only fitting that we feature a track from a snow level, Orta’s lonely, beautiful Eternal Glacies. Much like the level itself, the track is beautiful, subdued and majestic.

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SEGA Tunes: Super Fantasy Zone’s Water Melody

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Praising SEGA arcade games for their spectacular music is kind of like applauding a cat for being furry: it’s just something you come to expect. So really, the superb quality of Fantasy Zone’s soundtrack should not shock anybody. It’s happy, laid back and a joy to listen to.

The definitive Fantasy Zone soundtrack is probably the music from Super Fantasy Zone, the obscure Genesis-only sequel to the series. A lot of people tend to insult the Mega Drive’s sound capabilities, but there’s no doubt in my mind that the machine was capable of some sick tunes, SFZ being a prime example. Though not technically an arcade game, SFZ’s soundtrack has all the trappings of a classic SEGA arcade OST, making it worth a listen to any SEGA music connoisseur.

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SEGA Tunes: Mario & Sonic remixes Super Mario Land World 1-1

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It’s not every day we get to feature a Mario track on Tuesday Tunes. But given the love affair between Sonic and the Big N lately, it seems only fitting to celebrate the recent release of multiple Sonic and Mario titles with a soundtrack that combines the musical stylings of both.

Though this is a remix of a Mario song, it currently feels like something SEGA would produce. The structure of the song is more complicated then what you would typically find in a Mario track, which tend to be more simplistic, though no less fine to the ear, as the Mario Galaxy OST can surely attest to. This is an excellent remix of a track I could barely remember before hand. If this is indicative of Mario & Sonic 2014’s overall soundtrack, I will certainly be seeking out the rest of the OST in the future.

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SEGA Tunes: Sonic Heroes ventures into Hang Castle

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Those who follow us on our social networks have likely seen our seasonal spooky posts and know full well that the Sonic the Hedgehog series and Halloween-inspired creatures and settings have crossed paths numerous times. Thanks to the common platforming trope of a scary setting, we’ve seen ghosts in Sonic & Knuckles Sandopolis Zone, referred to as Hyudoro. We’ve also seen ghosts in Sonic Adventure 2, though this time the ghosts were called Boo and they had a leader named King Boom Boo. These Boo ghosts were Knuckles’ worst nightmare as he ventured into Pumpkin Hill, a stage which featured fantastic music accompanied by some pretty funny lyrics including “I’m walkin’ through valleys cryin’ pumpkin in the alley”. Most recently, Sonic Lost World saw the return of Sonic Adventure 2‘s Boo ghosts.

Despite all of these spooky stages and enemies, no Sonic stage came closer to Halloween than 2004’s Sonic Heroes which featured a full haunted house stage called Hang Castle. Featuring invisible walkways, levitating platforms, pumpkin-headed ghosts, and changing gravity, Hang Castle was truly bizarre. To this day, it is the only Sonic stage that scared me thanks to a creepy skeleton that peeked around a corner. Run towards where the skeleton should be and… he’s gone! Silent Hill has nothing on Hang Castle. Accompanying Hang Castle is a great soundtrack that fuses hip-hop samples and instruments that wouldn’t be out of place in a 1930’s cartoon featuring a haunted house and dancing skeletons. Give the track above a listen, and after the break… Pumpkin Hill. Because we can’t do a Halloween themed Tuesday Tunes without it!

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SEGA Tunes: Soul Calibur’s Light and Darkness (Soul Mix)

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It’s impossible to talk about the Dreamcast without eventually talking about Soul Calibur. Still arguably one of the best 3D fighting games ever made, the original Soul Calibur was absolutely groundbreaking in its day both in its spectacular next generation visuals and its supremely fluid and accessible game play. On top of all of this, the game had a presentation that was surprisingly grandiose for its time. While many of its contemporaries either tried to play themselves off as silly, over-the-top, or ridiculous, Soul Calibur presented itself with dignity. It was not just a fighter, it was “the stage of history!” You will not find a kick boxing kangaroos, bouncy boob physics, or gory fatalities here: only fighters battling their way toward their ultimate destiny.

This attitude is reflected in the game’s spectacular soundtrack. The game is filled to the brim with beautiful orchestrated themes meant to compliment the diverse characters and locations in the game. Back in its day, this soundtrack helped give the game a special epic quality that other fighters lacked. I confess, I do find the soundtrack to be a little dated by modern standards: these tracks were clearly produced on a budget with a limited orchestra, but that doesn’t mean they don’t still sound damn good. For your benefit, I’ve decided to feature the far superior “Soul Mix” version of the game’s epic theme song. You can check out the original track below.

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SEGA Tunes: Sonic Adventure, merging past and future

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My very first experience with the Dreamcast took place at a crowded Toys R Us demo kiosk, the system launch being mere weeks away and with a poster for Sonic Adventure having caught my eye.

I picked up the controller to find myself in some sort of futuristic bumper car hall. Momentarily confused as to what to do, I did what all little kids do when they’re stuck in a video game; I had Sonic jump around aimlessly until he hijacked one of the bumper cars and drove it out onto an outer space race track.

Simply put, my mind was blown, and the Twinkle Park stage became one of my favorites in the series, a place that it still holds to this day.

I was in for another surprise in the final product, when I got to play the Twinkle Park stage on my own TV with the sound up. The music, an epic remix of Panic Puppet Zone Act 1 from Sonic 3D Blast, was incredible. Crazily enough though, despite being a remix, the Sonic Adventure version unquestionably takes on a life of its own and fits the game just as well as an original track would have, if not better.

Sonic Adventure made several major changes to the series, there’s no doubt about it. But the game also had many nods to the character’s past, all integrated seamlessly into Sonic Adventure’s next generation shell.

To hear the original Sonic 3D Blast version of the song, hit the jump.

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SEGA Tunes: Samba de Amigo’s Samba de Janeiro

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In Samba de Amigo, every day is a dance party, with and endless parade of singing, shaking and Latin music. Few songs in the game embody the spirit of Samba’s visuals as well as Samba de Janeiro does. This is what a wild party sounds like and it’s always a joy to shake maracas to. This carefree party atmosphere also makes Samba de Amigo one of SEGA’s quintessential summer games.

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SEGA Tunes: OutRun 2’s Splash Wave

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Nothing screams summer fun like driving a Ferrari along the coast of some random tropical paradise, with a pretty girl at your side and rocking guitar music filling the air. Outrun 2, having all of these things, is pretty much SEGA’s definitive summer game. Splash Wave is one of my favorite tunes in the game because it perfectly matches the atmosphere Outrun 2. It starts out fast and frantic but quickly slows down with a lazier, more relaxing beat. As fast and frantic as Outrun 2’s game play can be, you are still a dude driving a Ferrari through some of the most picturesque scenery in gaming and Splash Wave aides that feeling beautifully by alternating between the exciting synth and the slower, lazier guitar.

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SEGA Tunes: “Door into Summer” from Knuckles Chaotix

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I’ve always thought of SEGA as the video game company of the summer. Many of their most memorable games start off in bright and sunny tropical paradises with endless blue skies. Stuff like Daytona USA, After Burner, Out Run, NiGHTS into Dreams, Sonic the Hedgehog and Ristar invoke the spirit of summer like few other games do.

I’ll be featuring a few of “songs of the summer” over the next month or so. Hope you enjoy them! Figured I’d start with something I’ve wanted to put up for a little while: Knuckles Chaotix’s “Door into Summer”. It not only has an appropriate name, but also has a nice, memorable tune.

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SEGA Tunes: TrickStyle

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Back before Criterion was developing the critically-acclaimed Burnout series along with, more recently, their successful Need for Speed reboots, they released a little-known Dreamcast launch title called TrickStyle. It was a racer featuring hoveboards in futuristic versions of New York, London, and Tokyo, and though the racing physics engine and trick systems felt rough, what was unquestionable was Criterion’s artistry. The game’s art still sticks out as vibrant and incredibly detailed even to this day, and its soundtrack set the scene and gave the game a very cool feel.

This tune played on a racetrack inspired by New York City’s Central Park. It’s both ambient and also fairly melodic. Other music in the game is a bit more intense, but this one fit perfectly for a quieter race as you hovered through Central Park under the moon’s glow.

For another (very different) tune from TrickStyle, hit the jump.

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