Love it. Everyone loves a visual bracket for competitions.
Have I mentioned how much I love this whole activity? So great. Music makes me nostalgic.
Also- could we link Craig’s “brackets” and Thraeg’s compiled list in the first post so I don’t have to hunt for it? :)
It’s interesting to compare this thread with the generic ‘favorite game music’ thread.
I guess a little interactivity goes a long way.
Group B Results
Advancing
- Diablo II: 18
- Ace Combat Zero: 13
Eliminated
- Saint’s Row 3: 8
- DoDonPachi: 6
Group C
YU-NO (PC-98) - Prologue: Movement 1
Last Express End Credits
Donkey Kong Country Music SNES - Jungle Groove -
Jet Grind Radio Soundtrack - Humming the Bassline
YU-NO, Last Express
Group C: Last Express and Donkey Kong Country
I really wanted to like YU-NO, because of the … you know, implication. You know? But in the end it had that sound of trying to be a funky, jazzy, disco beat … on midi. Which I never liked the overall sound of during that time period. Some things sounded great on it, some just sounded a little overdone, like this. Jet grind should have made the cut because of its originality, but I felt like the theme didn’t actually go far enough. It was a lot of loop repeats.
Last Express and Donkey Kong Country.
The YU-NO song was a little too ambient (but still good). And the Jet Grind Radio one was unique, I just don’t think it’s a good song.
I hadn’t heard the Last Express one before and liked it quite a bit. And the Donkey Kong Country one is just so catchy! I haven’t played the game in twenty years, and I still get that tune in my head sometimes.
The Last Express and Jet Grind Radio for me.
I love that JGR track… it’s literally humming the bassline. :) Skater selection screen for those who have played it.
Jet Grind Radio and Donkey Kong Country. I dig the Yu-No one, though.
YU-NO (PC-98) - Prologue: Movement 1
Last Express End Credits
Donkey Kong Country and Jet Grind Radio
Love the Donkey Kong tune. Didn’t have strong feelings for either Last Express or JGR until I read Dave’s comment – for me anyway, the context matters, because while I’m not a huge fan, the JGR track strikes me as a very fitting “character selection menu” track.
YUNO and Donkey Kong Country.
I’d have picked The Last Express, but I feel opening and ending musics are a bit of cheap choices, and I’d rather vote for something you actually hear while playing the game.
The DKC track sounded surprisngly good, considering it feature the Super Nintendo’s ominous “submarine” soundscape.
As far as context, the YUNO track (which I picked really randomly from the superlative soundtrack, as you will be able to make out with this comment) is the ambient one that plays during the first half of the game when you are walking around in day time, and nothing special is happening.
Should have picked probably something more bombastic, but I love when a composer is brilliant even in the mundane.
For what it’s worth, that music does recur throughout The Last Express, but the end credits is where it appears in its entirety and was the best I could find on YouTube.
Bugger, I missed the Group B vote, not that it would have mattered looking at those numbers! Tough group as well. I’d only played Saints Row so the rest were unfamiliar to me.
Tristram is really atmospheric, evocative and textural so I think it’s great as an ambient piece but I’m not sure I get much from listening to it directly. I love the lead-in to the Saints Row: The Third main theme. It’s just got this sleek, big beat swagger to it that suits the game perfectly. So the (copy + paste) Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu Black Label stage 5 tune doesn’t do much for me overall but I’m in love with its bassline and those synths are dreamy. I can’t help but be reminded of the Ridge Racer Type 4 soundtrack. The Ace Combat Zero track… yeah, this makes a lot of unexpected turns! What a weird mix but I think it kind of works.
I think I would have voted Ace Combat Zero and Saints Row: The Third. Or Diablo 2. I don’t know. Tough group.
Anyway, on to Group C!
The YU-NO track is perhaps too smooth! It’s got a nice ambient groove to it which I can imagine suiting an intro or prologue perfectly. I did not expect The Last Express to feature electronic sounds! That was a surprise. The track didn’t do much for me overall though. Jungle Groove has a great structure: a tribal drum lead-in building up to the great Donkey Kong Country theme before settling into a more ambient jungle sound. Nice. This track grew on me the most so I’m going to say Donkey Kong Country - Jungle Groove.
The last one was easy! Jet Grind Radio - Humming the Bassline. I love that breakbeat funky street sound and the bassline is delicious.
Donkey Kong Country and Jet Grind Radio. Coincidentally, I can’t listen to Jungle Groove without humming the baseline.
Donkey Kong Country and YU-NO. DKC was an obvious shoe-in, and I didn’t find myself caring much for either of the other contributions so YU-NO got the spot on borderline indifference.
The coolest thing is the skaters even dance to the beat as you move through the room making the selection. :) That whole game is an amazing fusion of graphic style, funky music and excellent offbeat gameplay.
It may make me a terrible person, but I think the only game I can really vote for here is The Last Express. The other three just didn’t do anything for me (and DKC in particular just gave me flashbacks to repeatedly dying in every 16-bit era game ever).