GET HYPED! 10 Old-School Ass-kicking Game Tracks

Music is fuel for emotions. It creates, enhances,manipulates them. At it’s finest it’s like magic, coursing through our ears and minds. The best games developers know this and use it to great effect; a series like Final Fantasy is wfamous for its classic themes, creating stirring epics and evoking mournful reflection. Other tunes are playful and fun, such as the simple Dig-Dug ditty or the joyful Kirby compositions. These score our adventures and stay in our hearts. There are even concerts dedicated to the playful, wonderful melodies that soar from our speakers when as we game.

Here are ten tracks that get you hyped, pumped, psyched AND charged to kick ass the moment they drop their beats. These are ten adrenaline-injecting, audio-explosions of old-school skill that still have the power to push you to the edge of your seat. For the purposes of the article I limited myself one track per series and eliminated games after 1998. Read on!

HEAVEN OR HELL? LET’S ROCK!

TRACK ONE: Shiva’s Fight – Streets of Rage 2 (Mega Drive/Genesis)

Composer: Yuzo Koshiro

Streets of Rage is a game that is literally all about ass-kicking. You walk to the right and you beat the living shit out of everything that appears, animate or not, and all the while you’re doing it to some of the most badass tracks the Mega Drive/Genesis ever had. Not one moment in the series isn’t about some combination of limb-backside interaction and so picking a single track to represent that was tough. My instincts were to go with the theme for Mr X, the final boss, but that is well known and I felt that this list should highlight some of the less obvious pieces out there.

So it’s Shiva’s, the penultimate boss of the second game, who gets the nod for his fast beats and raw energy. It begins with high, ominous, opening notes floating over a dirty, distorted bassline and then quickly gives way to hard drum kicks that tell you one thing: FIGHT OR DIE. There’s a real intensity to this track, fitting perfectly with it’s narrative position right before the finale; no matter how tiring the journey has been, there’s no time to rest, keep that blood pumping and those fists pounding.

TRACK TWO: The Pit – Mortal Kombat (Mega Drive/Genesis)

Composer: Matt Furniss

This track is an anomaly, since it only exists in the Mega Drive/Genesis version of Mortal Kombat and is entirely unlike the arcade or SNES versions. It’s also a hell of a lot better. The original music was a strange but decent attempt at creating a tense track that stuck to the Eastern influence permeating the game. It wasn’t particularly memorable and, for whatever reason, the Mega Drive composer, Matt Furniss, replaced the track entirely.

What we got instead was this funky, dark number that kept to the gleefully brutal atmosphere of the game, and The Pit in particular, while turning the badass dial to eleven. It’s a showdown track that fits against the cloudy dark sky, above the spikes, it’s the kind of track that plays when two fighters, both who know they’re good, smile at each other before unleashing a barrage of cool action. When this fires up you know the battle is going to be good, and you’re ready.

TRACK THREE: Legacy – Throttle (PC)

Composer: The Gone Jackals

Switching gear, let's move on to the full licensed track for the classic PC adventure Full Throttle, an adventure game about a biker fighting a corrupt car manufacturer, set to the backdrop of a tune that drips with that iconic sound.

When this plays with the lead character, Ben, riding high on his hog at the head of his gang, you feel an undeniable sense of identification with a takes-no-shit, tough-as-leather, secret-heart-of-gold character who gets the job done. He’s all muscle, all power and for the duration of the game, you're controlling him. The track invites you to the fictional biker world, the distillation of the good parts with just the right hint of the rough. One listen and you’re ready for the road.

TRACK FOUR: Beginning – Castlevania 3 (NES)

Composers: H. Maezawa, Jun Funahasi, Yukie Morimoto

Castlevania is a franchise so in love with music that five games so far have incorporated musical themes in the titles. It’s a series with such an absolutely astonishing number of fantastic  tracks that there’s even a top 100 countdown on YouTube.

I picked this track, out of all of the, because it represents one of the peaks of the NES sound library. It’s got incredible ambition, the catchiness that defined the era, the gothic sound and the sense of adventure. It wastes no time; the drums instantly driving hard while the chords slam out like a one-two punch, pausing only to switch into the catchy, yet complex, melody. It’s a song that says “I don’t care if you have no skin, if you’re a demon or a goddamn medusa head, I am going to whip you so hard you’ll explode.”

Which is precisely what you do.
 

TRACK FIVE: The Oracle (Dark Lich) – Secret of Mana (SNES)

Composer: Hiroki Kikuta

Secret of Mana has a truly magnificent score, one that used the SNES’ sound chip to its fullest potential. It has the warm and fluffy forest theme, the magical water palace music and the hilarious dwarf village cheer.

Then it has this.

A raving, dissonant burst of fear and fight. It jumps from ear to ear, chanting quickly, incoherently. The drum pounds fast, the background screams. It dances around you malevolent, your heart pounding, your mind spinning.

Unlike the prior tracks this gets you ready to kick ass because it’s all about your survival. You’re not the powerful badass taking out the weak henchmen, you’re up against the evil itself and it’s going to tear you limb from limb unless you fight with the same ferocity the music displays. You’re not choosing to kick ass, you have to kick ass.

TRACK SIX: BRAVE OR GRAVE – Street Fighter Alpha 3 (Arcade)

Composer: Anarchy Takapon

Only slightly removed from The Oracle we have this roaring Street Fighter Bison number. Not quite so fearful, not quite so warped, but still possessing the driven (psycho) power that suggests this is a fight for your life.

What works so well in BRAVE OR GRAVE, which I believe should always be capitalised, is the vast amount of layering. There are so many sounds going at once, competing for your attention, just take a moment to listen to and identify them all. It’s a fantastic feat of balancing that takes all the disparate elements and melds them into a cohesive explosion of sound.

TRACK SEVEN: Wilderness – Golden Axe (Commodore 64)

Composer: Jeroen Tel

To know the SID chip is to love the SID chip. It was the technology that powered the sound of the C64 and it brought, and continues to bring, a huge amount of creativity out of people working with it. It’s a long story and it’s worth having a read over the wikipedia entry to see just how important it is. Suffice to say I felt compelled, by its importance and my love of its sound, to give it a representation here.

It may seem unusual to pick a SEGA game that was more at home in the arcades or on the Mega Drive, to represent the machine, but this version of the main theme of Golden Axe is truly the best there is. The warm, round sound of the opening waves of the song are incredible, stronger than you would imagine, and they lead to an adventurous epic tune, befitting of this game of sword and sorcery. It’s a song to quest to, to fight fantasy foes to, to win the day to!

TRACK EIGHT:  The Final Fight – Turrican II (Amiga)

Composer: Chris Hülsbeck

Sadly my own experience with the Amiga platform was limited in its heyday, but I have since grown to love the unique sound that defines it. Listening to some of the scores of past classics on the platform feels like delving into the history of dance music, there’s a joy in the synthesis and an appreciation for the inimitable sounds that can be achieved through it.

This particular track is a sweeping electronic epic, a cyborg symphony that bids the eighties adieu and welcomes in the strange new world of the nineties. It’s the sound of sci-fi’s recent past, writ large across your speakers, and it’s got the hopeful, questing kick that hypes you up for a journey you’ll never forget.

TRACK NINE: Final Boss – Sonic 3 (Mega Drive/Genesis)

Composer: Hard to say exactly

The final two tracks on this list I’ve taken from the largest, yet not so normally kick-ass associated franchises; first up is the final boss music from Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

This track is immense. The musical themes of the ‘original trilogy’ Sonic games are all great, with a serious level of funk and power, but it’s this track that is the standout. This is the music of the resolute hero, the warrior in the final battle, unrelenting in the bringing of swift, well-earned justice.

Its foreboding opening morphs into high-speed drums and drama that somehow fits, despite the series’ more cheerful nature. It’s hard to take a giant blue hedgehog with any seriousness even with SEGA’s appalling (and sometimes disturbing) attempts to do so, but this is the closest we’ll get. Listen to it and, for a brief moment, remember why Sonic was once cool.

TRACK TEN: Koopa’s Road – Super Mario 64 (N64)

Composer: Koji Kondo

Maybe it's just me, but I find this to be one of the best pieces of music in the entire Mario franchise. Perhaps that's sacrilege, because there are so many classic, unforgettable tracks throughout the franchise, but none have the same evocative power of Koopa’s Road.

Much like the Sonic track, this comes from such a usually cheery world, where even the darker days are usually scored with a smile in their heart. To hear something so dark, so simple and yet militaristic in sound, is quite jarring, but perfectly used.

The levels scored by this are harder, more perilous than the regular worlds. They’re the road to Bowser, the boss, the bad guy, your nemesis. The music reflects this raising of the stakes, these narrative climaxes, with a constant build that is only broken when you finally emerge into his lava lair. When you finally do arrive, the road behind you, this music has prepared you for the challenge, and you stand ready kick his ass, and take his stars.

 

What do you find the most motivating track in video game history?