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CultureMorning MusicViva Piñata‘s Soundtrack Makes Me Happy To Be Alive
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we look back at a game that is the exact opposite of 2020: the nice, soft, fun, and colorful world of Viva Piñata and its fantastic soundtrack. Before Rare was making a game about pirates,…
By Zack Zwiezen Published September 27, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicSpyro the Dragon Was The First Game Soundtrack I Loved
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool sounds they make. Today we have a special treat: music created by one-third of The Police for an adorable purple dragon. Listen carefully, or you could Spyro out of control. Spyro the Dragon (playlist / longplay), released in 1998…
By Mike Fahey Published September 25, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicEndless Space’s Alien Music Makes Spreadsheet Management Feel Transcendent
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 sing the praises of Endless Space’s lowkey ode to micromanagement, which featured the only game soundtrack that’s ever made me feel equal parts noble and enlightened for spending hours fiddling with resource…
By Ethan Gach Published September 24, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicHades’ Godly Soundtrack Is A Natural Evolution For Supergiant’s Darren Korb
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool sounds they make. Today’s cuts are from a game that has much of Kotaku’s editorial staff in a vice grip: Hades, the story-driven roguelike from Supergiant Games, set in the underworld of ancient Greece. Wouldn’t you know it, the…
By Ari Notis Published September 23, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicShin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey’s Music Bombards You With Ominous Chants
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 Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey, specifically the way its soundtrack utilizes haunting, oppressive vocals to make this difficult RPG that much more distressing. Eep! 2010’s Nintendo DS SMT spin-off Strange Journey (playlist…
By Ian Walker Published September 22, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicSoul Blade Had Three Damn (Beautiful) Soundtracks
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 Soul Edge, which kicked off the Soulcalibur series and, with a total of three built-in soundtracks, may be the most deluxe arcade-to-home port Namco ever produced. One of the joys of the…
By Alexandra Hall Published September 21, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicRed Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare Is Music To Cower To
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re checking out the spooky soundtrack to Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, one of the best video game expansions ever released. Best? Yeah, I really mean that. If you locked me in a room…
By Zack Zwiezen Published September 20, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicStubbs the Zombie’s Bizarro Throwback Soundtrack Perfectly Mixes Old And New
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re checking out the odd and catchy soundtrack to Stubbs the Zombie In Rebel Without A Pulse. You know… StZIRWAP! Rolls off the tongue. Stubbs the Zombie (longplay) came out in 2005 and was…
By Zack Zwiezen Published September 19, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicThe Legend of Dragoon’s Sprawling Soundtrack Is What Every Epic JRPG Deserves
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today’s tracks come from The Legend of Dragoon, Sony’s attempt to emulate the prestige JRPG adventures of the late ‘90s. Surprisingly, for all its faults, The Legend of Dragoon (longplay, VGMdb) nailed both depth and…
By Ethan Gach Published September 18, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicDune 2000 Is A Good Soundtrack For The Coming Spice Wars
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. The year is 2000. Dune 2000 to be exact, and space gangs are fighting to the death while snare drums and ominous synth basslines blare in the distance. Won’t you join me? Good morning. Today’s…
By Ethan Gach Published September 17, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicBust-A-Groove? More Like Bust-A-Move, Am I Right?
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Might want to double up on your wake-up juice of choice this morning, as it’s almost impossible not to dance and sing along to the music of Bust-A-Groove… or Bust-A-Move, depending on your region. In…
By Mike Fahey Published September 16, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicYs VIII’s Music Gets The Adventuring Party Started Right
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today’s track is a Ys VIII tune that’s guaranteed to get you in the mood for an epic journey on a mysterious island, which is a thing we used to be able to do in…
By Mike Fahey Published September 15, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicRevenge of Shinobi Fused Dance Beats With Ninjas
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today’s subject of inquiry is Yuzo Koshiro’s very first soundtrack on the hardware that’d make him famous in the West, The Revenge of Shinobi 1989’s The Revenge of Shinobi (The Super Shinobi in Japan /…
By Alexandra Hall Published September 11, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicSuper R-Type‘s Space Funk Goes HAM From Stage One
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re checking out Super R-Type, a first-year SNES shooter that sounded like pretty much nothing else. Super R-Type (longplay), that weird not-quite-port of R-Type II (longplay), has a mixed reputation owing to its massive…
By Alexandra Hall Published September 10, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicAlien Crush Made Pinball Weird, Squishy, Gross
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’ll hit our first PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16 chip soundtrack, the brief but memorable Alien Crush. Weird pinball! (That was my nickname in high school.) In theory video games and pinball are a great…
By Alexandra Hall Published September 9, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicGate of Thunder Had A Weird Duran Duran Connection
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re checking out one of the more acclaimed CD shmup soundtracks of the 16-bit(ish) era, which has a surprising connection to ‘80s superband Duran Duran. Red Company’s 1992 PC Engine Super CD shooter Gate…
By Alexandra Hall Published September 8, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicPilotwings’ Mellow Jazz Showed SNES Had A Sound All Its Own
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today our ears will take flight with one of the very first soundtracks composed for the Super Nintendo. It was not a banger. Pilotwings (longplay) was one of the very first games for the Super…
By Alexandra Hall Published September 4, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicVVVVVV’s Old-School Chiptunes Are Flippin’ Fantastic
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. VVVVVV was one of the top indie games of 2010, and its tremendous soundtrack played no small part in elevating the already-great material. VVVVVV (longplay / VGMdb) is hard to pronounce, but easy to play:…
By Alexandra Hall Published September 3, 2020 -
CultureMorning MusicGyruss Remixed Bach, Then NES Remixed Gyruss
Welcome to Morning Music, Kotaku’s new, daily hangout for folks who love video games and the cool-ass sounds they make. Today we’re checking out Gyruss, which impressed early arcade-goers with its switched-on Bach, then sounded even better on the NES and its Japan-only disk add-on. 1983’s Gyruss (longplay), by Time Pilot creator and future Street…
By Alexandra Hall Published September 2, 2020
