SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs - "April Showers Bring May VGMs" Edition

Welcome to the first edition of SuperPhillip Central's Favorite VGMs for the month of May! Last month brought tremendous rain showers, just as the saying goes. Now, instead of just May flowers, SuperPhillip Central is giving you the gift of groovy video game tunes!

We begin with a recent release, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe before speeding onto another kart racer, Pac-Man World Rally. Next up, the much improved Super Bomberman R blasts onto the scene, handing things off to Super Double Dragon for some retro goodness. Finally, Kirby & the Amazing Mirror delivers a charming and rousing ditty to cap things off.

As always, click on the VGM volume name to hear that song via YouTube. And check out the VGM Database for all previously featured VGM volumes. Now, let's get on to the music!

v1386. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (NS) - GBA Cheese Land

A remix in both music and track design, it's Cheese Land from Mario Kart: Super Circuit, which makes its grand reappearance in the newly released Mario Kart 8 Deluxe! Cheese Land's once flat Super Circuit self is remixed in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with great valleys, huge expanses, and tight turns. It's accentuated by this peppy and catchy saxophone-driven theme.

v1387. Pac-Man World Rally (PS2, GCN, PSP, PC) - Arctic Iceberg

We move from one racing game to another, though one that's much less popular, Pac-Man World Rally. Arctic Iceberg's theme sounds more fitting for a surfing safari than an ice cold track, but that's exact what the composition team behind the game delivered. You also get a taste of the Pac-Man leitmotif thrown in for good measure. It's all-around a groovy song.

v1388. Super Bomberman R (NS) - World 2: Planet Timbertree

Super Bomberman R has been getting a steady stream of updates since its initial release that SuperPhillip Central reviewed. This includes patches to improve game performance, AI changes, and many other issues that the original review of mine harped on. It makes for a game that is really well worth buying now. Something that didn't need changing was the awesome soundtrack, as you can hear with this second world theme in a forested world.

v1389. Super Double Dragon (SNES) - Mission 04 (Transport Truck)

We're going back to the 1990's with this Favorite VGM volume. It's for Mission 04 from Super Double Dragon, a synth delight to listen to with its great beat and melody that makes you want to bob your head along with. The mission mostly takes place on a moving transport truck where falling off is a considerable possibility. Hang tough, Billy and Jimmy!

v1390. Kirby & the Amazing Mirror (GBA) - Rainbow Route

Concluding this edition of the Favorite VGMs is the theme for the starting area in Kirby & the Amazing Mirror, Rainbow Route. It's a cheery and spirited tune perfect for beginning Kirby's adventure to collect all of the mirror shard pieces. Kirby & the Amazing Mirror had a sprawling overworld of interconnected areas, each housing a boss to take on to acquire a piece of the mirror shard. This nonlinear format remains exclusive to Amazing Mirror.

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.