Monday, February 2, 2015

SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs - That Rat Bastard Groundhog Edition

Today is Groundhog Day, and apparently Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow. Therefore, there will be six more weeks of winter. Well, this Phil says that groundhog is a rat bastard. That said, his "weather report" is hardly going to ruin this week's edition of SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs. Instead, I have great tunes for you guys this week, including themes from Parasite Eve, Boom Blox, and Mario Kart: Super Circuit! I see my own shadow, but that's because I'm standing in front of a lamp right now. Anyway, let's get to the cool tunes!

v806. Parasite Eve (PS1) - Primal Eyes


Yoko Shimomura to me is the female equivalent of Nobuo Uematsu. Her composing skills and compositions for the video games she works on are out of this world. She is on a totally different level, just like Uematsu. Her work on Parasite Eve is also fantastic, offering tense, melodramatic, and spacey themes all in one soundtrack.

v807. Boom Blox (Wii) - Blockland


Let's shift gears completely from sci-fi horror to wacky puzzle goodness with Boom Blox. It was part of a supposed three game deal with Hollywood director Steven Spielberg and Electronic Arts. At least Boom Blox made it out, and I'm grateful, as the game is a ton of party goodness fun. The soundtrack was composed by Mark Mothersbaugh, whose music I was first introduced to with his Rugrats cartoon score.

v808. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn (DS) - Weyard


Golden Sun: Dark Dawn was set 30 years after the events of The Lost Age. It saw the children of the heroes from the first game embark on their own adventure. Motoi Sakuraba was brought on board to compose the music for this third Golden Sun game, as he is known to be Camelot Software Planning's go-to composer. While the soundtrack isn't his best work, it still features plenty of excellent tracks, including this world map theme.

v809. Shadow the Hedgehog (PS2, GCN, XBX) - GUN Fortress


We go from a heroic theme to something relaxing and chill with the GUN Fortress level theme from Shadow the Hedgehog. Laced with guitar and percussive beats, GUN Fortress does not have nearly the amount of edge as the other themes in the game. It is a welcome change, as GUN Fortress itself as a level is a much slower paced one.

v810. Mario Kart: Super Circuit (GBA) - Cheese Land


To finish off this edition of SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs, we go to a place where the streets are paved with cheese. No, this isn't "An American Tail", this is Mario Kart: Super Circuit's Cheese Land, a ridiculously zany track concept for even Mario Kart! The song is suitably catchy and will have almost anyone finding the theme bopping around in their heads as they race on this cheesy track.

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