In Game Music Showcase, I take a look at a few songs from a
particular category, like battle themes or title screen songs. The songs
are listed in no particular order, except for the last one which is my
personal favorite of the bunch. I love video game music more than any
other genre and with this feature, along with game music appreciation, I
hope to help you understand why.
So why bother with having two music features? Game Music Appreciation
is more in depth while Game Music Showcase is more of a microcosm of
one category of video game songs.
Merry Christmas and happy holidays, everyone. I'm in a festive mood so here's a special article about Christmas music featured in video games. Unfortunately, they're all songs from The Nutcracker, but they still count, dammit!
Game Music Showcase: Last Boss Music
In Game Music Showcase, I take a look at a few songs from a particular category, like battle themes or title screen songs. The songs are listed in no particular order, except for the last one which is my personal favorite of the bunch. I love video game music more than any other genre and with this feature, along with game music appreciation, I hope to help you understand why.
So why bother with having two music features? Game Music Appreciation is more in depth while Game Music Showcase is more of a microcosm of one category of video game songs.
It seems like a so many of the games I love have great boss battle music, and even greater last boss battle music. So great that it makes me wonder sometimes why they would save such great songs for the end where so few will hear them. A reward for perseverance I guess. Anyway, this list is only of last boss themes; specifically the last enemy you fight before the main story is complete. Also of note is that many last bosses have more than one form and a different song for each form so some of these aren't technically the last song you hear before the ending but it still counts as the last boss.
My Top 5 Games of 2001: #4 Max Payne (PC)
Published: Gathering, 3D Realms
Genre: Third-Person Shooter
Platform: PC (reviewed), Mac, PS2, Xbox, Xbox Live
Max Payne has the distinction of being one of the only games that I upgraded my computer to play. That should give you a bit of an indication of how excited I was coming into this game. I remember pouring over every preview for it that I could find. I was just blown away by how great it looked. Of course by today's standards it looks like shit but back then it was the best looking game that I had played up to that point. Max Payne follows the events of a single night in which the titular character, a police detective turned DEA agent, starts out undercover in a mafia family but ends up chasing after the person who kills his partner early into the game and eventually finds a conspiracy that leads to the top of a giant corporation. There's spoilers ahead so be warned.
My Top 5 Games of 2001: #5 Advance Wars (GBA)
Published: Nintendo
Genre: Turn Based Strategy
Platform: GBA
Advance Wars was probably the first game I played on the Game Boy Advance and I've probably logged more hours into it than any other game on the platform. It tells the tale of a small country known as Orange Star and its struggle against its oppressive neighbor, Blue Moon. It's a fairly lighthearted tale for a game about war that has a fun, colorful cast and simple but challenging gameplay that will have you hooked until the end.
My Game of the Year 2008: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 (PS2)
Published: Atlus
Genre: JRPG
Platform: PS2
Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 is a game that I love so much that I beat it again with the best ending just for this article. I clocked in at about 90 hours. Yes. I love this game that much. So if you've been wondering why this has taken me so long, there's your reason. Persona 4 is a JRPG about a murder mystery that a group of Japanese high school kids solve in their free time by going into an alternate reality that exists inside TVs where they fight monsters called shadows with monsters of their own called Personas. I like weird games. Really though it's actually one of my favorite game stories ever with perhaps my favorite cast of characters from any work of fiction. This is gonna be another loooong post that spoils the entire game so read on at your own risk. Just the notes that I took down while playing ended up at over 26,000 words long, so yeah. Get ready.
Game Music Appreciation: Final Fantasy V - Clash on the Big Bridge
In game music appreciation, I take a look at a song from a game that I probably wont be writing about in any other fashion. I always feature one or two of my favorite songs from each game in my top 5 articles, but not every game gets an article. To put it bluntly: this is where I put good songs from games that I either dislike or am apathetic about.
Final Fantasy V was actually the third Final Fantasy game that I beat and God damn did I hate the game by the end. And this is coming from someone who enjoyed Final Fantasy VIII. Yeah. I hated FFV that much. I may have to do a Good Games that I Hate article on this one some time actually. One thing that I didn't hate however, was the music; particularly the song I'm featuring in this article: Clash on the Big Bridge. This is the theme of recurring boss Gilgamesh who, unlike in most Final Fantasies, is kind of a joke character in FFV. His theme is freaking incredible though. It's arguably the best battle theme in the whole series in fact. I'm featuring two versions here. The first is the original version from the game itself, composed by Nobuo Uematsu of course. The second is one of the most amazing violin players I've ever seen doing his version of the song. He goes by the nickname TAM and no, I'm not taking credit for discovering this video. Destructoid featured it a while back. Anyway, here you go, the first video is courtesy of the great PeyserConley, who has uploaded just about every game soundtrack ever, and the second is courtesy of TAM's YouTube channel, violinpiano2:
Final Fantasy V was actually the third Final Fantasy game that I beat and God damn did I hate the game by the end. And this is coming from someone who enjoyed Final Fantasy VIII. Yeah. I hated FFV that much. I may have to do a Good Games that I Hate article on this one some time actually. One thing that I didn't hate however, was the music; particularly the song I'm featuring in this article: Clash on the Big Bridge. This is the theme of recurring boss Gilgamesh who, unlike in most Final Fantasies, is kind of a joke character in FFV. His theme is freaking incredible though. It's arguably the best battle theme in the whole series in fact. I'm featuring two versions here. The first is the original version from the game itself, composed by Nobuo Uematsu of course. The second is one of the most amazing violin players I've ever seen doing his version of the song. He goes by the nickname TAM and no, I'm not taking credit for discovering this video. Destructoid featured it a while back. Anyway, here you go, the first video is courtesy of the great PeyserConley, who has uploaded just about every game soundtrack ever, and the second is courtesy of TAM's YouTube channel, violinpiano2:
Game Music Showcase: Dumb Songs That I Love
Woohoo, another filler feature. In Top 5 Game Songs Game Music Showcase, I'll list 5 a few songs in a particular category like top 5 battle themes or top 5 title screen songs. (EDIT 3-7-12: lol feature change) I love video game music; it's probably my favorite thing to listen to while I write. Hell, the only music genres outside of video games that I really enjoy are metal and classic rock, so I don't have as much to chose from there. I kinda like how they have it in Japan. In music store over there you can find an entire section devoted to video game OSTs. I can't even begin to imagine that over here in the US. Hell, iTunes doesn't even have a section for it. They just lump them in with soundtracks from other stuff like movies and TV shows.
In this installment I'm gonna talk about dumb video game songs that I love for one reason or another. Some of them are just infamous for how terrible they are while others are just so hilariously out of place that I can't help but love them.
In this installment I'm gonna talk about dumb video game songs that I love for one reason or another. Some of them are just infamous for how terrible they are while others are just so hilariously out of place that I can't help but love them.
Good Games That I Hate: Tales of Symphonia (GCN)
From the opposite end of the spectrum of my last article, I bring you Good Games That I Hate. I almost called it Good Games That I Dislike because hate's maybe too strong a word in some cases but it just sounds better. The title of this feature is fairly self explanatory as with it's sister feature but I'll clarify it a bit. Unlike Bad Games That I Love, this feature will be more about games that the community loves than review scores, though both will be a factor.
Tales of Symphonia is a game that I swear to God I have never seen a negative word about. The absolute adoration that I have witnessed for this game is almost nearly unequaled by anything that doesn't have Mario or Zelda in the title so of course I had to play it for myself. I beat this whole game, and let me tell you, I don't get it. At all. To me, it was a mostly forgettable RPG with a few fun characters and a plot that was way too close to Final Fantasy V to be called anything original but it was at least engaging enough to keep me interested to the end. God, I'm gonna get it for this one. I haven't had a single comment yet but this may be my first article to get them if only for cries of "TROLL POST" to be declared.
Bad Games That I Love: Home Alone (SNES)
Time for another new feature: Bad Games That I Love. Pretty self explanatory but I guess I'll elaborate one thing. By "bad games" I mean games that either have mostly low review scores and/or I have witnessed a decent number of people expressing their hate for said game.
I first played Home Alone pretty soon after it came out. I saw the film in theaters so I was already a fan before I played it. The game is a fairly simple platformer. In each stage you run around a section of Kevin's house, collect valuables so the crooks can't get them, and put the valuables in the basement safe.
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