One of the things that I've come to appreciate in the last generation of consoles is really the music of video games and especially the theme songs thereof.
Video game music has really come into it's own in the last few years especially with websites like OCRemix and the like really showcasing to the world what alot of gamers have known for years. My first real musical experience within a video game comes from the SNES classic, Chrono Trigger and the theme of Zeal and how much I would play that over and over again. I really started to pay attention to what was going on and so here are some musical pieces I'd love to share with you.
One of the themes that really struck me as actually beautiful is the theme from EA's Mirror's Edge called "Still alive" sung by Swedish pop star Lisa Miskovsky.Its just such a pleasant song to listen to and infact is song that I used to listen to every night to fall asleep when I was college. It's rare that a song catches like "Still alive" and instruments especially the piano really make the piece for me. I get so many mixed feelings when listening to it and thats what I think really makes the song unforgettable because it has that power to conjure up so many emotions and memories.
Take a listen this and enjoy something a little different
Another great tune is the theme song from Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Snake Eater is a throw back to the 60's era musical ballads that are similar in tone to the James Bond themes of the day and really hits it out of the park. Singer Cythia Harrel belts this theme song and while some of the lyrics are references to the game such as "feed on a tree frog" but occasionally some really heartfelt lyrics such as "I give my life, not for honor, but for you.". The aspect that really brings "Snake Eater" as a video game classic song is the feeling that it really invokes about the game and it's context of themes. Snake Eater has one of the best soundtracks of the series and this vocal theme song really set it apart from the other entries in the series and thats why it's up on my list of tunes. If you haven't had a chance to play Snake Eater and experience that then I highly recommend that you do.
Take a listen and see what you think
I have never thought of the Street Fighter series that particularly strong music when I was younger and alot of the changed when I heard some of the themes remixed such as this GREAT version of Ryu's theme Seriously check that out. I had all of but forgot about Street Fighter till Street Fighter 4 came out this year and my love of all things Hadoken came back a thousand times stronger then before. The Japanese band EXILE got the gig to do the SF4 theme song and when it came out and i saw the intro movie to go with it, it was like going back to the arcades and days of "I've got next". The theme is definately into that whole J pop / rock thing and I honestly love letting the game play it out everytime before I start into fighting with SF4 and rawking my Ken out on XBL or PSN.
Lastly on my list is one that will likely not be expected at all. I love alot of licensed games because I love playing as my favorite characters and one of those universes that I absolutely go nuts over still to this very day is Dragonball Z. Last year we got our first next generation Dragonball Z game called Burst Limit. Burst Limit wasn't anything super special and wasn't particularly great but I did think it had a cool theme song. Its funny how much I still enjoy alot of the Japanese music and occasionally even the English version still sounds pretty solid. However I will also love and dig the "Rock the dragon" DBZ style song used in the intro of the show
Still, this is fun little song and feels like it totally belongs the Dragonball universe
I'd love to hear what other suggestions are out there and grab some great new video game music.
On my next blog entry, the last installment of my holiday gift where we go all out and break the bank across all sorts of madness!
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