My Obligatory Top 10 Soundtracks for Video Games...

Lately, I have been feeling like I should blog more even though Twitter has pretty much taken over. So I might as well do another obligatory top 10 list in relation to games, which is for my favorite game soundtracks for now (Keep in mind - Mostly recent stuff, no RPGs, and licensed stuff, sorry - plus this list could change anyway).

10) Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike

Even though I'm not that good at 3rd Strike, this game is still a crowd favorite even though SF4 is out. The music for the Street Fighter games underwent a new direction with 3rd Strike being more hip-hop, which is something that's worth it. Certain standouts from the soundtrack are Elena's theme, "Beats in My Head," and Ken/Alex's theme "Jazzy NYC 99."

9) WipeOut HD

Okay, maybe we are starting to get a theme going with the hip-hop/electronica, but I love the soundtrack for WipeOut HD. It fits the futuristic theme and makes u want to blast the sounds way up. Even though custom soundtracks are more preferrable to this game for more electronica music, the base soundtrack alone is still worth listening to while racing at breakneck speeds.

8) Super Smash Bros. Brawl

What happens when a soundtrack gets the ultimate Nintendo fan service treatment, you get Super Smash Bros. Brawl. A great mix of new and old tracks from Nintendo games of the past and the present. Even the third-party franchises, Metal Gear and Sonic, had a great selection of tracks in this game. Then again, if you're a serious player, you are probably sick of the Final Destination theme since that stage gets played a lot in tournament-level events. Despite whether or not the fans love or hate Brawl because of the gameplay changes, it is still an amazing package and the soundtrack is one of the reasons why its amazing.

7) Bionic Commando Rearmed

BCR's soundtrack is arugably the greatest example of how a remake should be done. The remixed tracks just sound amazing from the theme song or the albatross theme at the end of the game. It has the sense of both old and new for the fans of the original game on the NES. I just hope Grin will deliver on the 3D Bionic Commando soundtrack as well when the game is out next month.

6) Super Mario Galaxy

Once again, another example of a soundtrack consisting a bit of the old and the new making it special. If u remember, Super Mario Galaxy is my favorite game of 2007 despite the stiff competition from Halo 3, COD4, and Mass Effect, because the game is that damn good. The soundtrack is the main reasons why SMG is such a special game with the orchestral tunes at Battlerock and Gusty Garden to the nostalgic remixes of the Airship theme from SMB3 and the Bowser theme from Mario 64. Every song this game offers just puts a smile on your face because it is that special and epic.

5) Street Fighter IV

Love or hate the intro song, "The Next Door" by Exile or "Indestructible," Street Fighter IV's soundtrack is still another great mix of the old and new from the remixed character themes to the some of the other stages' music. Personally, its the character themes that make the soundtrack special and #5 on the list even though they rarely get played (only in single player rival battles and online lobbies).

4) Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion

I still think the Tekken franchise offers the greatest soundtracks for fighting games and Bloodline Rebellion is another example of that. There is lots of variety contained in this soundtrack within the stages from the Electric Fountain theme of techno reminding u of Maximum Tune, to the random yodeling stage of awesomeness, which is the Hidden Retreat.

3) Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune (franchise)

Alright, I'm counting the entire Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune franchise as one spot in my top 10 because Yuzo Koshiro is too awesome and this is just an example of his greatness with his music. Maximum Tune 3 DX does contain some new songs, but also contains the soundtracks of the previous 3 games, which is cool hearing stuff like "This is My Destiny," "Blue Blazes," "Get You Cornered," and more. This soundtrack is too good that I sometimes blast it while driving in my car because its actually relaxing music for me to drive to that I don't need to change track on my iPod that much. Even though it feels like driving electronica music, it is also randomly club music in some way as well, which is crazy.

2) Rez / Rez HD

I finally showed this off to friends last night (Even though I showed them area 1) and yeah, they don't get the awesomeness that is Rez, aka agruably my favorite game of this decade. I already put up a video of the greatest level in all of gaming, area 5 in previous posts, so might as well post the video for the second greatest level in all of gaming, area 4. If u played Rez before, Area 4's song just keeps building and building to the main event, aka the boss battle, which is one of many reasons why Rez is awesome in so many ways. I just wished I can show off these areas to more people because even though it is still trippy stuff, it is one of the greatest games ever among the hardcore crowd.

 

1) Streets of Rage 2

So my favorite gaming soundtrack for now is Streets of Rage 2 because it is just filled with memorable tunes from beginning to end with "Go Straight," the greatest song in all of gaming, "Dreamer," and the hype fest that is "Expander." I just love this game too much I guess as u just want to blast the music loud while beating up fools and perhaps even dance to it at a club, which is the case in the video below. (Skip to 4 minutes for "Dreamer") Quite simply, Yuzo Koshiro is still my favorite video game composer and SoR2 is a showcase of his greatest work and WMMT is most of his recent stuff.

Okay, this post is getting long. Might as well end it here. More obligatory top 10 lists coming soon.

UPDATE - Honorable Mention: The Mortal Kombat movie theme song!!

Okay, it is in this clip that YouTube user TheSwitcher made featuring the awesomely bad movie, Mortal Kombat Annhilation (Hey, it was cool when I was young). This video is actually the movie in ten minutes in case u have never seen this thing called a movie (Actually the first movie was pretty good).

Plugging something special about the SF4 scene again.

The fighting game scene is still pretty strong and perhaps the strongest it has been in a while with the console release of Street Fighter IV. I might as well plug something amazing about the scene again with this trailer for a documentary called I Got Next. Yes, this is real stuff and it is indeed a beautiful thing. This documentary features Final Round XII and Sinstation Fight Club along with the players like Justin Wong, Gootecks, Combofiend, Mike Ross, and many more. If you're really serious about SF4 like I'm trying to be, this is just an example of how beautiful the fighting game scene is and it will never die.

Anyway, here's the main highlight from last month's Final Round XII. The HYPE is everywhere!!!

Didn't realize this thing is already a year old...

So this blog is already a year old... and it will still roll on for more.

And apparently, I'm 22 in about a hour... So yeah.

Okay, I'll end this post with a song...

Music Video Roundup for 3/25/09

First off the gaming stuff - My thoughts of Nintendo's GDC '09 Keynote are on my Twitter, so read that. I'm also still considering typing up a Ratchet & Clank: Quest for Booty review even though I beaten it on Saturday. If I'm not reviewing it, here's the short version: Buy it at the discounted 10 bucks and its worth it if you're never played any of the other games in the franchise like me. Also, I traded in Skate 2 and some Wii accessories for Buzz Quiz TV and apparently I can dominate at some categories, but suck at everything else (Doesn't matter, it is a worthy purchase anyway).

Okay off to the music...

First up is "Love, Sex, & Magic" by Ciara featuring Justin Timberlake. These two make a great duo together and it shows in this video.

Keri Hilson featuring Kanye West & Ne-Yo: "Knock You Down"

Pretty straightforward video considering the song...

Arcade Infinity Ranbat 2.1 Madness!!!!

Yesterday was a long day being at Arcade Infinity for the Ranbat 2.1 tournament. There were so many people in one place that the tourney was capped at 64 entrants and lasted 12 freaking hours ending at 1:20 am on Monday (Craziness indeed). As a special intro to the Ranbat, the hosts Sanchez and Shoo did some special introductions with the first time entrants like me (See video) asking us random questions and I think I answered wrong (could of picked a better cartoon). The picture above is from Gootecks's Twitpic (see if u can spot me there) as I had a great pleasure to meet that man, aka the SoCal SF4 ambassador and chatted with him for a bit. Anyway, I at least won my first match, which was my goal for the tournament (better than going 2 and out on Tekken 6 BR). My first match was against some average Viper player and the first round was the first double K.O. of the day. I never felt the tournament atmosphere had some kind of rush, but it was intense. Then I lost to Bebop, aka the best Vega player in SoCal as I rarely fight awesome Vegas, so I didn't know how to play the matchup. After Bebop sent me to Losers, I lost to Moval's Blanka in a fun yet close match. Unfortunately, Blanka's Ultra was too much for me in the end. I finished tied for 33rd out of 64, but I was there for the rest of the tournament and the hype was everywhere.

There were so many awesome close matches and funny "hype" moments from Sanchez "Hulk Smashing" the 1P machine breaking the strong punch button for a bit after doing Bison's Nightmare Booster Ultra during Rufus's EX Messiah Kick (played by Bobino) to a little kid by the name of Private Link winning a Losers Bracket match beating an average Zangief player by his Ken, but in one match he did I think EX Hadouken to Ultra and the place went crazy. I hope these moments were on tape as there was an awesome setup for direct feed footage on YouTube as well as commentary by Sanchez and Shoo during Top 8. Gootecks was also handing out posters throughout the day for Street Fighter Bar Fights on April 5 at Pasadena showcasing key fights among SoCal's best players. 

The MVPs of the tournament to me are Slinkun, a Guile player from out of town, and Kyrojenix's Viper, an A.I. regular and has improved (The best Viper player in SoCal I personally have seen). In the end, at 1:20 in the morning, Mike Ross, the best Honda player in the country, won the tournament beating Ronstoppable's Balrog (The OG SF4 Balrog of SoCal). Keno's Balrog finished 3rd and Bobino's Rufus finished 4th. Funny note about Mike Ross, I played him at his old game, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and he perfected me, but I didn't mind it. Despite all the claims he stopped MvC2 seriously for SF4, he's still got it. The character selection was basically charge character heavy with lots of Blankas, Bisons, Balrogs, and some Guiles and Vegas. El Fuerte was only played once, since Kai, the best Fuerte player in SoCal, wasn't there. Basically, the whole roster was playable at least. The Tekken community also showed up in numbers from Rickstah's Dhalsim, who was tearing it up for a bit, MYK's Sagat who finished 9th, and others like Rip, True!, and Chojin. Despite the tournament lasting as long as it did due to the big turnout, it was arguably the best time I had regarding Street Fighter IV. It just feels good to be the premier arcade at SoCal playing and hanging with the best SoCal SF4 players like Mike Ross and Keno (cool dudes). I hope I can make it for the next Ranbat, but that day was pretty hype!!!

Even though videos of Top 8 will be posted soon with commentary by Sanchez and Shoo, the hosts of the tournament, here's one match earlier in Winners Bracket with Kyrojenix's Viper and Jack's Sagat. Too bad the cheering was left out, oh well.

Music Video of the Week for 3/18/09

This week's music video roundup features one song and it is a club banger. Admit it, you would go crazy when this song gets played.

Okay, a bonus one since I'm in a Pitbull mood for this post.

Appreciation for the Power Rangers franchise

When I read on the SRK (Shoryuken.com) forums that the Power Rangers franchise has been cancelled, it felt like another end of an era for me as that series has been a part of my childhood for a while and I admit I was still watching it in my high school days. In the 90s, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers era was pretty awesome and nothing has really come close to topping that in recent seasons except for taking advantage of CG in some cases with the Disney takeover. After the Space season ended, that was then Power Rangers was at its peak and it went downhill from there even though I kept watching. The OG show brought many memorable moments like this:

At its 17th season on ABC / Toon Disney called R.P.M., its pretty much over for the franchise. I remember watching clips of some Power Rangers convention that happened two years ago, which was pretty crazy. This whole series brought us lots of badassery from certain rangers (usually the red ones and bonus "6th" ranger) along with sexual fantasies if anyone went down that dirty path with the female rangers. The last season I seriously watched was Dino Thunder with the return of Tommy (the Green and White Ranger from the OG season) and pretty much stopped caring catching time from time with S.P.D., Mystic Force, Operation Overdrive, and Jungle Fury. When it was on Fox, it was good times, but I think with Disney taking over sometime during the Wild Force season, something special was missing. Usually the can't miss episodes are when the sixth ranger gets introduced, a team up of a current season that's going on and the one previous to that, and the finale. Then again, certain episodes came out that were awesome were "Forever Red" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg1Uf_gj4Nw from Wild Force and "Once A Ranger" from Operation Overdrive.

Yeah, I also watched the first movie when it also on theaters and that was basically an extended everyday episode. Some of them have moved on from those days, but certain rangers had more successful careers like Adam (OG Black, Zeo Green) played by Johnny Yong Bosch, who moved on to do voiceovers for lots of big animes and even Nero for Devil May Cry 4. Okay, I feel like I rambled enough for this while getting nostalgic for it at the same time. Here's the SRK thread remembering the good times from certain moments to debating who's the hottest girl in the franchise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg1Uf_gj4Nw

Okay, I'll try to rank them (I'm probably wrong)

1. Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
2. Space
3. Zeo
4. Turbo
5. Lost Galaxy
6. Dino Thunder
7. Ninja Storm
8. Time Force
9. Lightspeed Rescue
10. Wild Force
11. Operation Overdrive
12. S.P.D.
13. Mystic Force
14. Jungle Fury
15. R.P.M. (Haven't watched it)