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CultureMorning MusicPhil Collins, Leonard Nimoy, “Sugar Tit’s,” And A Kick-Ass Double Dragon II Vocal
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. So, you want a kick-ass Double Dragon II arrange album? Got you one right here. Plus, uh, some other things. Buckle up. 1990’s NES version of Double Dragon II: The Revenge (playlist / longplay) was a…
By Alexandra Hall Published November 13, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicNo Wonder Billie Eilish Likes Ilomilo So Much
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re checking out music from Ilomilo, a puzzle game so overwhelmingly delightful that Billie Eilish wrote a song about it One of my favorite games of all time, Southend Interactive’s Ilomilo (playlist / longplay /…
By Mike Fahey Published November 12, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicWorld Of Warcraft Had The Perfect Playlist To Kill Hogger To
Good morning children of the Alliance and welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make.. Today we’re vendoring trash, cleaning out our bank tabs, and disenchanting for dust as we prepare for the launch of World of Warcraft: Shadowlands with a musical nostalgia roadtrip…
By Ash Parrish Published November 11, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicAkira Yamaoka Signed Every Shadows Of The Damned Soundtrack Sold In The West
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re revisiting 2011’s Shadows of the Damned, which has one particular track that flies in the face of its goth, heavy metal aesthetics. Grasshopper Manufacture’s Shadows of the Damned (playlist / longplay / VGMdb) is…
By Ian Walker Published November 10, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicThe Best Guile Theme Isn’t Actually In Street Fighter II
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re checking out a little off-brand Street Fighter series that was far better than it had any right to be. 1996’s Street Fighter EX marked the first attempt to translate Capcom’s 2D fighting moneymaker into…
By Alexandra Hall Published November 9, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicSquare’s Awful PS2 Racer Had Good-Ass Music, At Least
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 a terrible driving game you should never play, only listen to. Early PlayStation 2 was rough, no doubt. Even the PS1 royalty at SquareSoft had issues adapting to Sony’s hard-to-program new console.…
By Alexandra Hall Published November 6, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicI’m Finally Playing Phantom Dust To Avoid *Gestures Broadly At Everything*
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today…well, you know how it’s been going. Ugh. And I’m playing Phantom Dust to try and think about something else for little stretches. Yep, Phantom Dust (playlist / longplay / VGMdb), 2005’s late-release Xbox fan favorite…
By Alexandra Hall Published November 5, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicDemon’s Souls Understands There’s Beauty In Silence
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today, we return to one of the most influential games of the last decade on the eve of its PlayStation 5 remake. From Software’s Demon’s Souls (playlist /longplay /VGMdb) became the template for many games to…
By Ian Walker Published November 4, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicAlundra, My Big Beautiful Elven Son, Play Us Some 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 listening to the soundtrack from Alundra, a 1998 PlayStation game in which you invade people’s nightmares and solve Zelda-like dungeons to help them wake up. Alundra’s a weird one (playlist /longplay /VGMdb). It was…
By Ethan Gach Published November 3, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicI Love How Banjo-Kazooie’s Music Changes As I Play
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re hopping into a blue backpack that is…being carried by a bear? Rare’s Banjo-Kazooie (playlist / longplay / VGMdb), released in 1998 for the Nintendo 64, faced the near-impossible challenge of measuring up to another…
By Stephen Totilo Published November 2, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicHalf-Life’s Music Was Just As Brilliant As The Rest Of It
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we grab a crowbar and go hunting headcrabs in the PC shooter classic, Half-Life. Half-Life (playlist / longplay / VGMdb) is a game that has already had so many things written and said about it…
By Zack Zwiezen Published November 1, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicLunar’s Beloved Composer Scored A Game About Angels Fighting Alien Dicks
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’ll fly with angels, which in Gynoug is far, far grosser than it sounds. Early Sega Genesis was weird Sega Genesis, at least until Sonic raised the system’s profile in mid-1991. Western development, particularly from…
By Alexandra Hall Published October 30, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicGet Equipped With Pretty Good Mega Man 9 Arrange Album
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 is not Mega Man 9, which I didn’t really care for. Its arrange album, however… Yeah, I bounced off Mega Man 9 (playlist / longplay / VGMdb). In my defense(?) I…
By Alexandra Hall Published October 29, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicLet’s Petition The Galactic Federation To Declare Galactic Pinball An Honorary Metroid 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 seein’ red: Virtual Boy red, as we’re checking out a soundtrack of unusual provenance on Nintendo’s misbegotten 1995 misstep. (Hey, that was also my nickname in high school!) Galactic Pinball (playlist / longplay) stands…
By Alexandra Hall Published October 28, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicRayons de l’Air’s Gorgeous Remixes Retroactively Justify RayCrisis’ Existence
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’ll check out a game I respect more than like. But its remix album…yeah, that’s the good stuff. Musically speaking, Taito’s mid-’90s arcade trilogy of “Ray” shooters—RayForce, Raystorm, and RayCrisis—was a one-woman show, scored in…
By Alexandra Hall Published October 27, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicU.N. Squadron Has Some Great Tunes, Which Is A Boring Headline But
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today set your wayback machine to the dawn of the SNES when Capcom delivered an early shoot ‘em up classic, U.N. Squadron U.N. Squadron (YouTube / longplay / VGMdb), which hit just a month after the…
By Alexandra Hall Published October 26, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicPlants vs. Zombies’ Viral Single Was So Weird People Thought It Was A Joke
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today the zombies are coming—and bringing some funky, cute tunes with them—in the original Plants vs. Zombies. 2009’s Plants vs. Zombies (playlist / longplay / VGMdb) is an all-time classic tower defense and a game that…
By Zack Zwiezen Published October 25, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicSayonara Wild Hearts’ OST Is Basically Chvrches From A Parallel Vniverse
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool sounds they make. Today, let’s shine a dreamy neon purple light on one of the most confident video game soundtracks in recent years: Sayonara Wild Hearts, the arcade rhythm game that developer Simogo even describes as a “pop album…
By Ari Notis Published October 23, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicFake MMO CrossCode Sounds Like A Real SNES RPG
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 soundtrack from CrossCode, a 2018 game that sounds like an early ‘90s RPG classic. Radical Fish Games’ CrossCode (playlist / longplay / VGMdb) is a thoroughly modern action role-playing game that’s…
By Mike Fahey Published October 22, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicIf I Die In Space Please Play The Among Us Theme At My Funeral
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Prepare yourself, things are about to get spooky. Today’s soundtrack comes from the recently exploded-in-popularity murder-mystery party game Among Us There’s really only one extended piece of music in Among Us, and it’s the main HQ…
By Ethan Gach Published October 21, 2020