Kirby: Planet Robobot's Soundtrack Finally Gives My Favorite Kirby Games Some Love

Kirby: Planet Robobot came out recently in Japan, and I wanted to share how fucking awesome the sondtrack is. Why is it awesome, you ask? Because it's got so many great rearrangements of music from classic Kirby games that done't usually get any love. My favorite ones! I'm talking Dreamland 2, and 3, as well as Crystal Shards. They're all represented here, and it's glorious. I honestly kind of wish they'd gone all out and just filled the game with classic tunes because the new stuff, in my opinion, is mostly forgettable like the last two main-series games. But I'd say a good chunk of the music is a trip down nostalgia lane. Let's listen together, shall we?

Seven of My Favorite Corny Game Themes

There's a lot of video game music out there, but every so often we get some lyrical themes. Sometimes these are awesome (like in Portal or Metal Gear) but other times they're incredibly cheesy or goofy. Deep down inside, though, we all know that's the best kind. The recently released Xenoblade Chronicles X is like a Mecca for this kind of music, with many of the games songs being so corny they're awesome. That got me thinking of other cheesy game themes, so I've compiled this list with some of my favorites.

Oh, and sorry about the weird formatting. I don't really want to attempt changing it.

Over & Under: Bomberman Hero

Over and Under is a series where I highlight my favorite video game soundtracks that are overlooked or underrated. In this installment, I’ll be looking at the one-of-a-kind soundtrack of Bomberman Hero.

The soundtrack for Bomberman Hero feels like the culmination of Jun Chikuma’s body of work. She had been composing music for Bomerman since the original game’s NES release in 1985, and Bomberman Hero would be one of her final games before she moved on to other projects. Released in 1998, Bomberman Hero was a radical departure for the series and was obviously developed as a response to the boom in 3D platformers that was brought about by Super Mario 64. Bomberman could jump in this game, for one, and the game had no multiplayer component whatsoever.

BOOTYs 2012: 5 or Less Best- Audio

Funfact: The audio aspect of a game is 1/3 of the experience. The other 2/3 are visuals and gameplay. In this all-important category, I'll award the five or less best games in a number of eartastic categories. Eartastic?

Ring in the Apocalypse with this Majora's Mask fan album

You need to listen to this. Like, right now. You survived the end times, now celebrate with this fantastic tribute album to Majora's Mask. There's ten excellent arrangements to be found here, but Theophany, the album's creator, intends to adapt the whole soundtrack eventually. Give it a listen below. You can download it for free, but why would you not support this with a Christmas donation?

What's Happening: November 2012

Novembers are always nuts. But this year? This year? Completely bonkers. Let's take a look at all the good stuff going down.

Right now: Wreck-it Ralph is now in theaters! It's totally awesome and you should totally see it. What could be more great than a video game movie made by Disney? Not much.

Playlist: Yesterday Today

A followup to yesterday's playlist using the lastest music from each of those (amazingly still around) artists. The stuff you don't hear on the radio.

Yesterday Today from Fuzunga on 8tracks.

Playlist: Back in my day...

When they used to play good stuff on the radio.

Back in my day... from Fuzunga on 8tracks.

Check This Out: Zelda on banjo and saw

These two country dudes play a variety of Zelda tunes with a banjo, saw, and a variety of weird keyboards. It works surprisingly well.

Check This Out: Animal Crossing ALL the time!

Some dude by the name of Brian Lee made a website that plays Animal Crossing's hourly music and refreshes the song every hour. This is amazing. Now my everyday life can be as relaxing as Animal Crossing! Oh, by the way, it's music from the first game, which makes it automatically 10x better. Check it out!

Edit: Apparently, you can now switch between the music of the original and that of City Folk. Nice addition.

The List: Zelda Overworld Themes

And when I say that, I mean themes that aren't the Zelda series theme or a variation on that theme. Believe it or not, that's used in a ton of the games: The Legend of Zelda, A Link to the Past (though not the Dark World), Link's Awakening, Majora's Mask, Oracle of Seasons and Ages, Four Swords Adventures, and The Minish Cap. The other seven games are fair play!

Sword & Sworcery LP goes old school

Sword & Sworcery LP: The Ballad of the Space Babies is the soundtrack to the critically acclaimed Sword & Sworcery EP. The album's been available to download from composer Jim Guthrie's Bandcamp page for quite some time now for. If you want to kick it old school, there's a $30 vinyl edition available for sale that comes with a digital download as well as an original art print (pictured right) by Pendleton Ward, the creator of Adventure Time. This batch is limited to 1,000 copies and started shipping earlier this month. But lots of things come in vinyl nowadays. After all, it's retro chic. But there was also something I wasn't expecting.

Video Game Winter Song Playlist Go!

Merry Christmas everyone! After the stress of the holidays, relax with this cool mix.

Celebrate the Zelda 25th Anniversary with 25YEARLEGEND

Of all the awesome Zelda tribute stuff I've seen for the series anniversary, I have to admit that 25YEARLEGEND is probably the best. Sponsored by OC Remix, the album contains arrangements by Indie game composers spanning the entire history of the Zelda series. It's awesome in that it's not what I was expecting at all. You should go grab yourself a copy and get to listening!

Album Review: A Thousand Suns

I don't understand it either.

A strange thing happened, Linkin Park's A Thousand Suns caught me completely off guard by not sucking. It's strange because upon hearing the first single off ATS, "The Catalyst," I had given up on the band. It was way too... crap to have come from my former favorite band. Then I heard another song LP released called "Wretches and Kings" and thought it was garbage. I heard a third called "Blackout" and thought it was loud and repetitive. Then "Waiting for the End." With that song everything changed. I began to think of the songs less like individual tracks and more like pieces of a puzzle. "Waiting for the End," "Blackout," and "Wretches and Kings" are all one after another on the album in that order. Listen to them together and they don't suck so much. Listen to the whole album together and you have something that's actually much more consistant and coherent than Minutes to Midnight. Track breakdown inside lies ahead.

Uh-oh: Metroid: Other M soundtrack is bad

So Metroid: Other M got mixed reviews, but it still looks like a hugely fun game to play. I personally haven't played it yet, but as soon as it released I rushed online to check out the next awesome Metroid soundtrack. Except there was no awesome Metroid soundtrack. It was more like a bunch of ambient sounds strung together. Almost every track had no recognizable melody to it save for the few that were ripped from previous Metroid games. In short, it's almost as if the composer was so afraid or screwing up that he reused some old Metroid tunes and didn't do anything specific for the rest of it. So it looks like we'll have to wait for the next Metroid game to get a decent new soundtrack. Shame, because the Prime series was brilliant musically.

Random Song For Today

The only good song by White Rabbits, "Percussion Gun." Trust me, I've listened to the other ones.

Get that awesome Deus Ex music NOW!

Remember that super kickass trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution? Remember how awesome the music was? Well now you can download it for free from the official website. Awesome.

Music Preview: Night Train by Keane

So Keane is coming out with a new EP on May 10th. It was recorded while on tour promoting their last album, Perfect Symmetry. From what I've heard so far, this is pretty much the opposite of that. It's not quite like Hopes and Fears or Under the Iron Sea, but it's closer to them than Perfect Symmetry. Hell, as long as the synth is gone, it's better by default. In fact, the four released songs (with is actually about half the album) are already better than the majority of the tracks on their previous effort. Two of the songs collaborate with K'Naan, a Somali-Canadian rapper. It seems like it's a set up for utter failure, yet it sounds natural. Another track incorporates the sounds of Tigarah, a Japanese Ballie Funk emcee. Strange? Yes. But that doesn't mean it won't come out sounding well. I've never heard of half the people on Plastic Beach, yet it all worked out just fine. Listen to the four released tracks after the break.

Review: Plastic Beach by Gorillaz

It's been five years since the masterpiece that was Demon Days. If you're looking for more of that, keep looking. Plastic Beach cannot be compared. It's not that it's better or worse, it's just so completely different, both from Demon Days and Gorillaz's self titled debut. The first Gorillaz album without a producer, this one is handled by Damon Albarn himself. That's probably one of the reasons that Gorillaz has an ever changing sound, with Dan the Automator at the helm of the first, Dangermouse at the helm of the second, and Albarn at the helm of the the third. Whatever your expectations, throw them out the window. If there's one thing you should expect about Gorillaz, it's the unexpected.