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CultureMorning MusicI’m Not Yet Sold On Paradise Killer, But Its Soundtrack Is Unforgettable
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, let’s dive into the OST from Paradise Killer, the deliciously weird puzzle-mystery game from developer Kaizen Game Works. Let me kickstart your day with some inside baseball: We plan Morning Music picks ahead of time, and…
By Ari Notis Published December 10, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicYakuza: Like A Dragon’s Best Boss Theme Makes Me Wanna Break Stuff (In A Good Way)
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, we’re looking at what I think is the best boss battle theme in modern history. Yakuza: Like a Dragon (playlist /longplay) is an incredible game that arguably improves on its beloved predecessors shifting to a…
By Ian Walker Published December 9, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicCrisis!! Super Street Fighter II Turbo Weird-Version Music Deathmatch!
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, a knock-down, drag-out brawl to the death between two little-heard arranged versions of Capcom’s most enduring fighting game. Fight! 1994’s Super Street Fighter II Turbo (playlist / longplay / VGMdb) was the final form, at…
By Alexandra Hall Published December 8, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicOnly One RPG Has Music From The Rocky IV And Transformers: The Movie Guy
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re listening to music from an indie RPG composed by Vince DiCola and Kenny Meriedeth. DiCola of course, is best known for the synth-driven soundtracks to Staying Alive, Rocky IV, and (lest we forget) 1986’s…
By Mike Fahey Published December 7, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicSplinter Cell: Chaos Theory’s Soundtrack Was Perfectly Chaotic
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today I’m talking, quietly, about Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory’s soundtrack. You might not think Tom Clancy games from Ubisoft have great soundtracks, and for the most part you’d be right. That’s not to say the music…
By Zack Zwiezen Published December 6, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicStar Ocean: The Second Story’s Killer Final Song Comes Out Of Nowhere
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re listening to “We Form In Crystals,” an absolute banger of a credits song that is way better than it had any right to be. “We form in” what? Yes, “we form in crystals.” I’ve…
By Ethan Gach Published December 4, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicNothing Takes Me Back To 1987 Like The Legend Of Zelda
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today’s object of aural inquiry requires no introduction, so what am I even writing here? Let’s get to it. Sometimes I’ll think back to a fascinating music/gaming/cultural scene and think, “damn, I wish I had been…
By Alexandra Hall Published December 3, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicAny Place Is Where I Want To Be When I’m Listening To FTL: Faster Than Light’s Otherworldly Tunes
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today it’s time to jump through hyperspace with the whiz-bang chiptune-y goodness of the soundtrack to 2012’s strategy roguelike masterpiece FTL: Faster Than Light FTL: Faster Than Light (playlist / longplay / VGMdb) is a game…
By Ethan Gach Published December 2, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicTempest 2000 Was The Rare Jag Game Worth Crankin’ The Volume For
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re listening to the Atari Jaguar game that sounded like a rave at a llama ranch, Jeff Minter’s psychedelic retro update Tempest 2000 Since 1993’s ill-fated Atari Jaguar was billed as a 64-bit Interactive Multimedia…
By Alexandra Hall Published December 1, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicBully Doesn’t Sound Like Your Typical Rockstar Game
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today I’m here to educate you all about the wonderful music in Bully. Rockstar video games tend to have soundtracks filled with licensed music, like Max Payne 3, Grand Theft Auto V, or the Midnight Club…
By Zack Zwiezen Published November 30, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicBorderlands 3’s Final Song Makes Me Miss The Heck Out Of Live Music
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today I’ve a very specific pick to share: the song that plays during the end credits of the fourth expansion for Borderlands 3 Borderlands 3’s string of downloadable content has been hit or miss. In fact,…
By Ari Notis Published November 25, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicWake Up, Get Up, Get Out There With The Persona 5 Soundtrack
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re gonna steal your heart with some tunes from the Persona 5 soundtrack. I’d never played a Persona game before Persona 5 (playlist / longplay / VGMdb). The game came highly recommended by friends, so…
By Ash Parrish Published November 24, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicI Don’t Actually Play Melty Blood, I Just Listen To It
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. The other day I mentioned to someone that I was going to write up Melty Blood, and they replied, “wtf is ‘Melty Blood,’ that’s such a metal name!” Well. It’s a good thing you don’t have…
By Alexandra Hall Published November 23, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicAstro’s Playroom Made Me Love My PS5’s GPU
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today I’m here to discuss the music in Astro’s Playroom, which might be one of the best video game soundtracks of 2020. Astro’s Playroom (playlist / longplay) is a cute platformer that comes pre-installed on every…
By Zack Zwiezen Published November 22, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicFly Me To The Moon And Let Me Play Among The Bayonetta Soundtrack
Welcome to the Friday edition of Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for all of Hell’s angels and Heaven’s demons. Today we’re attacking and dethroning god with a deep dive into the Bayonetta soundtrack. Bayonetta (playlist / longplay / VGMdb) was one of those games that got me on aesthetics alone. I missed out on Devil…
By Ash Parrish Published November 20, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicSinistar’s Roars Were So Terrifying They Still Inspire Songs
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re talking about Sinistar, the antagonist of which likely gave nightmares to a generation of kids with its howling banshee shrieks. Sinistar (longplay), released to arcades by Williams Electronics in 1983, is a simple game.…
By Ian Walker Published November 19, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicGris’ Ethereal Soundtrack Fits Together Like An Extremely Pretty Puzzle
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Let’s start today off slow with the soundtrack from Gris, Nomada Studio’s ethereal, contemplative platformer. Maybe you’ve heard that playing through Gris is like playing through a poem, or a painting, or just a really, really…
By Ari Notis Published November 18, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicSega CD Silpheed Was Largely Just Spectacle, But That’s Okay
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. I was hoping to write a quickie today, but Silpheed is so interesting that wouldn’t have done it justice. Ready to blast off? (Spaceship metaphor.) When I was a kid my shit-filters weren’t yet calibrated, so…
By Alexandra Hall Published November 17, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicBlaster Master’s Composer Wrote Sheet Music For Sunsoft’s ‘Performers’
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re checkin’ in on one of the great sleeper hits of the early NES library, a little ditty called Blaster Master Quiz for any capitalists who might’ve stumbled in here: It’s 1988. How do you…
By Alexandra Hall Published November 16, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicHuh, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag’s Fantastic Pirate Tunes Are By The Tokyo Drift Guy
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we jump aboard our pirate ship and search the seas for Templars and loot in Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag. I’ll admit that when 2013’s Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (playlist / longplay / VGMdb) first…
By Zack Zwiezen Published November 15, 2020