31-Day Video Game Music Challenge - June 2020

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

14 hours ago, rdrunner said:

Day 16 16-Bit: Castlevania: Dracula X - Stage 1 (ZeldaFreak)

I'm glad people seem to like Bloodlines. I feel like that track isn't as well known as stuff like Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears, Beginning etc, but I feel that it deserves to be up there with all those other classic CV songs. It's really good.

[AverageOliver98 | 719]

So far, for the "30-Day VGM Challenge 2", six categories will definitely be pulled over from this one, those being:  

• Title Screen
• 8-Bit
• Boss Battle
• 16 Bit (Now Including Neo Geo and Sega 32X)
• Final Boss
• Credits

There were about 4 more that I would like to pull over, but thought that you guys should have a voice in whether or not they should be included.

• Cover/Arranged/Remixed
• Licensed
• Indie 
• Calming

Also if you feel like another category from this list should be brought over to "Challenge 2" that isn't listed above, you can vote to bring it over as well. The ones that aren't currently going to be included (unless voted on) are:

• Console Exclusive Series(Even if Voted to be brought back, it will not. Why? Because "Mario Bros" and "SegaSonic the Hedgehog".)
• Sad 
• Hub/Overworld
• Shooter
• Puzzle
• Music You Like From a Game You Don't
• Music with Vocals
• Never Tiring
• Racing
• Frustration
• Town/Village
• Underrated
• Stuck in Head
• Music that Gets You Pumped
• Music from a Game You Never Played
• Handheld
• Nostalgic
• RPG Battle
• Game Over
• Opening Level

And as for new ideas, these are the ones that some of the participants and I have come up with so far:

• 32/64 Bit Era (Saturn, PS1, N64, 3DO, Jaguar)
• Unsettling/Creepy 
• Water Level
• Educational 
• Awful Music/Music You Hate
• Sports Game
• Fire/Extreme Heat Themed
• Ice/Cold Themed
• Unfinished/Scrapped/Prototype Music (Game Never Officially Released, Never Put to Use in Game, Different Arrangement  from Earlier in Development)
• Fighting Game
• Menus/Stage Select
• Arcade (No Home Conversions. ie; NES 'Contra', SNES 'Turtles in Time', Genesis 'Altered Beast'.)
• Mini/Bonus Game
• Outer Space
• Strange

If you see a category that should be on here but currently is not, or if it shouldn't be here, please say something . There are 15 listed up above, but I would like to reach at least 30 ideas in total so I can toss them in a random name picker for choosing the remaining day slots. 

 

I also thought that there should be more varied difficulty options. 

Freeplay

• Must Fit Category and Must Be From Game
• Multiple Tracks from the Same Game
• Previous Participants: Reuse as many songs from Challenge 1 as you like

Easy

• Multiple Tracks from the Same Game
• 5 Tracks from Previous List Allowed
• 15 Games from Previous List Allowed

Normal

• 2 Tracks from the Same Game Only
• 1 Track from the Previous List Allowed
• 10 Games from Previous List Allowed

Hard

• 1 Track Per Game
• No Tracks from the Previous List Allowed
• 5 Games from Previous List Allowed

Maniac

• 1 Track Per Series(Mario Kart and Super Mario are different series)
• No Tracks from the Previous List Allowed
• 1 Game from Previous List Allowed 

    
Lunatic

• 1 Track Per Franchise(Mario Kart OR Super Mario)
• No Tracks or Games from Previous List Allowed

 

I'm not too sure if the rules concerning returning tracks are too lenient so feedback would be nice. And that is currently it for now.

[Sumez | 2,949]

1 hour ago, ZeldaFreak said:

I'm glad people seem to like Bloodlines. I feel like that track isn't as well known as stuff like Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears, Beginning etc, but I feel that it deserves to be up there with all those other classic CV songs. It's really good.

Although Dracula XX's music of course can't hold a candle to the redbook audio from the PC Engine game it lifts most of its assets from, I do consider it one of the best examples (alongside DKC2 and Plok) of how to squeeze high quality audio out of the SNES sound chip, which otherwise has a tendency to sound muffled and muddy. They converted all of the tracks quite expertly - I wish more Konami games had been able to reproduce a similar sound.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

32 minutes ago, AverageOliver98 said:

So far, for the "30-Day VGM Challenge 2", six categories will definitely be pulled over from this one, those being:  

• Title Screen
• 8-Bit
• Boss Battle
• 16 Bit (Now Including Neo Geo and Sega 32X)
• Final Boss
• Credits

There were about 4 more that I would like to pull over, but thought that you guys should have a voice in whether or not they should be included.

• Cover/Arranged/Remixed
• Licensed
• Indie 
• Calming

Yup, I agree with bringing back those initial six categories. When it comes to those other 4, I think the cover/remixed day should definitely be brought over, but the other 3 I could take or leave, I don't have a strong opinion on them one way or the other. I feel like there shouldn't be too many returning categories, I think the majority of each challenge should be new, just to keep things interesting. The Licensed day in particular I don't really think should be brought back, I don't think it's that interesting/wide enough of a category to warrant bringing it back, but that's just my opinion. Calming and Indie I'd be fine with bringing back, I just think it'd be more fun to have more new days.

I do like all of the new categories we've come up with so far, I'll try to think of some more potential ideas later today.

I also don't think the rules on the new difficulties are too lenient either. I'd be fine with allowing some games to be re-used, since you can't use the same track regardless. I wouldn't want to limit our options by not allowing us to repeat games in succeeding challenges, we'd run the well dry pretty quick if we did that for all difficulties and not just Lunatic.

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

I think Startling/Scary could be another category on it's own. It's similar to Unsettling, but I think it's different enough to warrant it's own category, since there's definitely a fine line between creepy, unsettling music and in your face, shit your pants terrifying music.

I also still think Holiday music would be good, although since the next challenge is gonna be in the fall around Halloween, it's up to you on whether or not you want to make it a different category, or just lump it in with the creepy or scary days.

Cave/Underground music might be another good category.

Forest/Jungle/Swamp music is another potential idea.

Sky/Airborne music is another idea.

Epic/Grand music could work too.

Farming Game music could work as well

Recent music could work too. It's kind of hard to explain, but my idea with this would essentially be the opposite of a nostalgic day. Meaning, on this day, you'd select a track that you've discovered very recently that you've taken a liking to, rather than something you've been listening to for a long time like the Nostalgic day.

Triumphant music, Defeating music (A track that makes you feel like you failed at your one damn job,) Chaotic music, Happy music, Final Level music... Damn, I thought it'd be harder to come up with so many ideas.

Keep in mind I'm just spitballing here, so you don't have to implement all of these ideas, but I think a few of them have potential.

[fox | 1,667]

1 hour ago, AverageOliver98 said:

And as for new ideas, these are the ones that some of the participants and I have come up with so far:

• 32/64 Bit Era (Saturn, PS1, N64, 3DO, Jaguar)
• Unsettling/Creepy 
• Water Level
• Educational 
• Awful Music/Music You Hate
• Sports Game
• Fire/Extreme Heat Themed
• Ice/Cold Themed
• Unfinished/Scrapped/Prototype Music (Game Never Officially Released, Never Put to Use in Game, Different Arrangement  from Earlier in Development)
• Fighting Game
• Menus/Stage Select
• Arcade (No Home Conversions. ie; NES 'Contra', SNES 'Turtles in Time', Genesis 'Altered Beast'.)
• Mini/Bonus Game
• Outer Space
• Strange

If you see a category that should be on here but currently is not, or if it shouldn't be here, please say something . There are 15 listed up above, but I would like to reach at least 30 ideas in total so I can toss them in a random name picker for choosing the remaining day slots.

Digging a lot of the new themes more than rehashing old ones.

Some music based ones: "Heavy Metal" "Jazz" "Techno" "Western" could lead to some fun picks

Or if you are going for more broad themes what about "Heroic" and "Evil"

Maybe music from a tv show or movie based on a video game?

[nesmaster14 | 434]

I like the new categories so far.  Here's a few random ideas:

PC game music (basically anything pre-Steam)

Unlicensed game music (like Tengen,etc)

Game music which mimicks/borrows from real songs (Like Pictionary NES, etc. There's quite a few.)

Pause music? Might be more games with pause themes than we think, not sure though.

Ported/reworked music (like renditions of a song ported on different systems, IE an 8-bit version of green hill zone ported from 16-bit, or like in Sonic Generations with new versions of old songs,etc.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

45 minutes ago, fox said:

Or if you are going for more broad themes what about "Heroic" and "Evil"

Those are all good ideas, but I really like the Heroic and Evil ones in particular a lot. That's a really good idea

[Aguy | 772]

I like all the definites and maybes AverageOliver98 chose. I vote for Handheld, Racing, and First Level. Maybe Shooter can just change to Shmup? I agree Console Exclusive is no good, but what about PC exclusive? That seems a little more focused. I'll also throw in...

Cult Classics

Spinoffs

Arcade

Reboot/Remake

[rdrunner | 422]

Great ideas for new categories so far!  I'll throw in a few more, but I'm good with just about anything.

Intro/Teaser Screen

Stage Clear (ex: Contra) or Victory (ex: Final Fantasy) Jingle

Dungeon

Final Stage

Ending (before the credits)

Name Entry (could be for creating a character, signing a high score or entering a password)

Edited July 3, 2020 by rdrunner

[0xDEAFC0DE | 1,277]

I'm a little late with day 31, but better late than never.

Day 1 (Title music): Title and Ending Theme - Wizards & Warriors (rdrunner), almost picked Aguy's Mega Man II, but I did mention it in my post. For the spirit of this list, I'm not going to pick any songs that I had in my honorable mention either. Regardless, the W&W track is a good one that I hadn't heard before. 
Day 2 (Opening level): Beginning VRC6 ver. - Akumajou Densetsu (Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse) (ZeldaFreak), surprised I didn't think about this one. I think I just didn't realize it was an opening level.
Day 3 (8-bit): Jeroen Tel - Supremacy (C64) (nesmaster14), this was a hard one to pick. Sumez' Jeroen Tel - RoboCop 3 and rdrunner's Title Screen / Prologue - Air Fortress were close runners up, but Supremacy is the only one of the three that I regularly listen to.
Day 4 (Console Exclusive): Legend of Hunter - Dark Cloud (TriHart), another tough pick between two very different songs that I hadn't heard before, honestly the deciding factor was that this is the last of TriHart's picks. The runner up was nesmaster14's Shrine - Battle Mania 2.
Day 5 (Hub/Overworld): Overworld Theme - Super Mario Land (nesmaster14), I really love SML's music, so this was an obvious pick for me.
Day 6 (Relaxed): Island of Inisfree - Endless Ocean: Blue World (Aguy), this song came out of nowhere. I hadn't even heard of the game before, but this song is so beautiful. AstralSoul64's Lurelin Village (Day) - Breath of the Wild was another great choice, but I've already picked enough Zelda songs.
Day 7 (Indie): Quillshroom's Horrors - The Messenger (AverageOliver98), I'm sad I wasn't able to find a place for The Messenger on my personal list, but at least I get to include it here.
Day 8 (Shooter): Stage 2 (Purple Sea) - Gleylancer (AverageOliver98), don't care much for most shooter music, but this one was pretty good. nesmaster14's Tetra Star: The Fighter (FC) is pretty good too.
Day 9 (Licensed): Little Nemo: The Dream Master - Nightmare Land (ookii_risu), when first making my choices for this day, I completely forgot about Little Nemo until I saw ookii_risu's pick. I ended up giving a different song my honorable mention, but this is also a great one. Aguy's The Bottomless Well - The Smurfs' Nightmare was an unexpectedly good track.
Day 10 (RPG battle): Battle with Gilgamesh (Clash on the Bridge) - Final Fantasy V (nesmaster14), not much to say about it. I just like it the best from my choices.
Day 11 (Puzzle game): Bradinsky - Tetris (Tengen) (nesmaster14), I have never played Tengen Tetris, so I wasn't familiar with song. But like I said before, I like Russian music. 
Day 12 (Sad): Mother Earth - Mother (Aguy), lots of good picks for this category and I didn't even play any of these games (and therefore do not have any attachment to their context). Both of the FFVI songs get my runner up: ookii_risu's Celes's Theme and Sumez' Forever Rachel
Day 13 (Disliked): Spellbound - Rob Hubbard (nesmaster14), another hard category, but I love C64 music. My runners up would be fox's K.K. Cruisin' - Animal Crossing and AstralSoul64's Bloody Tears - Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Although I haven't played any of them, I feel like I would dislike Spellbound the most.
Day 14 (Vocals): Four Seasons - WarioWare Mega Micro Games (GBA) (nesmaster14), I feel like a broken record but these categories are just getting harder. This song is so weird and amazing that I had to pick it. Close runners up: ZeldaFreak's We All Lift Together - Warframe and rdrunner's End Credits - Double Dragon Neon
Day 15 (Boss): Boss Battle - Final Fantasy IV (ookii_risu), I don't really care much for Boss music and that trend continues here. But, this is by far my favorite of the choices.
Day 16 (16-bit): Stage 1-2 - Mega Turrican (nesmaster14), I don't care for most 16-bit music much either.
Day 17 (Never tire): Tal Tal Heights - Link's Awakening (Aguy), I couldn't not pick the Zelda song for this category.
Day 18 (Game over): Game Over - Shadowgate (Sumez), I like it. Runner up is Aguy's You Are Dead - Total Distortion. I completely forgot about this song until Aguy picked it. So dumb in the best way, but I do like the Shadowgate song better.
Day 19 (Cover): Mii Channel - Otamatone Cover (AstralSoul64), not only is the song great, but the video is very fun to watch as well. I checked out some of the other videos and they are just as hilarious.
Day 20 (Racing): N64 Rainbow Road - Mario Kart 8 (ZeldaFreak), love me some Mario Kart 8.
Day 21 (Frustration): Baby Park - Mario Kart: Double Dash!! (rdrunner), I like this even better than my pick. Although ZeldaFreak's Mappy (Arcade) is a close runner up.
Day 22 (Town/Village): Rito Village (Day) - Breath of the Wild (AverageOliver98), after Tarrey Town this is probably my favorite town theme from BotW.
Day 23 (Underrated): Cutscene #3 - Action Man: Search for Base X (Aguy), never heard of this game before, but loved this song.
Day 24 (Earworm): Fight Theme - Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! (Aguy), my favorite MTPO theme is the training theme, but this one is really good too.
Day 25 (Pump Up): Mount Vesuvius - DuckTales Remastered (rdrunner), love DuckTales' music as well.
Day 26 (Haven't Played): Main Theme - SkullMonkey (Aguy), no clue what I just listened to, but I quite enjoyed it. Runner up nesmaster14's Thousand Eyes - The Scheme.
Day 27 (Handheld): Green Greens - Kirby's Dream Land (Aguy), so much nostalgia for this one. ZeldaFreak's Lorule Castle - A Link Between Worlds is a close runner up, but it doesn't quite feel like a handheld song to me (which is probably a bit unfair).
Day 28 (Nostalgic): Title Theme - The Secret of Monkey Island (Sumez), I really wanted to chose ZeldaFreak's The Legendary Hero - Wind Waker since it's the only song that I do have true nostalgia for, but I had it as an honorable mention of day 1. I do enjoy the Monkey Island theme, it's just not a game I played growing up.
Day 29 (Final Boss): The Gadfly Suite (Shostakovich) - Little Big Planet 2 (ZeldaFreak), this technically was his honorable mention, but it's the one I like the best. (more Russian music, lol)
Day 30 (Credits Music): Ending Part 1 - Crisis Force (nesmaster14), as much as I love both the Zelda Staff Rolls (Skyward Sword from ZeldaFreak and Link to the Past from Sumez) I figured I should pick something different. The start of Crisis Force reminded me of Reset (Thank you) - Okami at 3:00. They both have two short repeated bits and then the exact same next couple notes as transcribed below (same key even).

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

2 hours ago, 0xDEAFC0DE said:

Day 29 (Final Boss): The Gadfly Suite (Shostakovich) - Little Big Planet 2 (ZeldaFreak), this technically was his honorable mention, but it's the one I like the best. (more Russian music, lol)

Yeah, that one's definitely amazing as well. I just have a soft spot for Battle on the Ice, due to the nostalgia, and how much that particular song influenced my taste in music over the years. I do agree though, them Russians sure as hell know how to make music

And real quick fun fact about The Gadfly Suite! Much like Battle on the Ice, they decided to speed up the version used in-game for whatever reason (I suppose the developers preferred a more fast-paced approach, considering they both played during final bosses) but the actual song is a lower tempo (And, again much like Battle on the Ice, I prefer the slower version, but technically the slower ones aren't VG tracks, so I couldn't use them.)

And I would've picked a lot of the older Game Boy era tracks that some people picked in my 31-Day list, but I'm just not personally a big fan of the original GB's music. Normally I'm obviously fine listening to older VG music, but for me GB music is where it starts to get a little ear-piercing. (Even stuff like Tal Tal Heights, as much as I love that song.)

[AverageOliver98 | 719]

 As of 07/06/2020, the first 9 confirmed categories for The 30 Day VGM Challenge Strikes Back will be:

• Title Screen
• 8-Bit
• Remix/Arrangement/Cover
• Boss Battle
• Stage Clear/ Victory
• 16 Bit (plus Neo Geo and 32X)
• 32/64 Bit (3DO, Jaguar, Saturn, PS1, N64)
• Final Boss
• Credits

The remaining 21 categories will be randomly picked from the list below:

• Unsettling/Creepy 
• Startling/Scary - Horror/Jumpscare
• Water Level
• Educational 
• Awful Music/Music You Hate
• Sports Game
• Fire/Lava Themed
• Ice/Snow Themed
• Unfinished/Scrapped/Prototype Music  - Game Never Officially Released, Never Put to Use in Game, Different Arrangement from Earlier in Development
• Fighting Game
• Menus/Stage Select
• Arcade - No Home Conversions. (ex; NES 'Contra', SNES 'Turtles in Time', Genesis 'Altered Beast')
• Mini/Bonus Game
• Outer Space
• Strange/Weird
• Cave/Underground/Mines
• Forest/Jungle/Swamp
• Sky/Airborne
• Epic/Grand
• Farming/Gardening
• Games Made Since January 01, 2010
• Chaotic 
• Happy
• Defeating
• Heavy Metal
• Rock & Roll
• Jazz
• Techno
• Country/Western
• Heroic
• Evil
• Computer Games(Pre 2003)
• Unlicensed Games
• Music Using Samples/Inspired by other Songs (ie: Sonic 3 "Ice Cap", Pictionary "Mini Game Theme 1")
• Ported/Reworked Music - ie: NES Music Ported/Reworked for the SNES, ('Super Mario All Stars', 'Ninja Gaiden Trilogy') or Sonic Generations Act 1/2's and Boss Tracks
• Ending/Epilogue
• Final Stage/Area
• Dungeon
• Introduction/Prologue
• Cult Classics
• Spin Offs
• Reboots/Remakes
• Funny/Hilarious
• Sewers
• Ruins/Temple
• The Great Indoors
• Name Entry/High Score Screen
• Grass Lands
• Desert
• Mechanical/Factory
• Ambient
• Nintendo Exclusive - For at least 1 Year
• PlayStation Exclusive - For at Least 1 Year
• Sega Exclusive - For at Least 1 Year
• Acapella

I will hand pick some should similar topics both get picked (ex; Startling/Scary and Unsettling/Creepy). All leftovers(along with popular List 1 categories) will be set aside for the eventual 3rd VGM Challenge. Just to be on the safe side, if 2 or more users can agree that a category shouldn't be on this pick list, that category will be removed(say something before 12:00 AM VGS Time on July 11th).

 

Edited July 8, 2020 by AverageOliver98

[ZeldaFreak | 3,600]

16 minutes ago, AverageOliver98 said:

 As of 07/06/2020, the first 9 confirmed categories for The 30 Day VGM Challenge Strikes Back will be:

• Title Screen
• 8-Bit
• Remix/Arrangement/Cover
• Boss Battle
• Stage Clear/ Victory
• 16 Bit (plus Neo Geo and 32X)
• 32/64 Bit (3DO, Jaguar, Saturn, PS1, N64)
• Final Boss
• Credits

The remaining 21 categories will be randomly picked from the list below:

• Unsettling/Creepy 
• Startling/Scary - Horror/Jumpscare
• Water Level
• Educational 
• Awful Music/Music You Hate
• Sports Game
• Fire/Lava Themed
• Ice/Snow Themed
• Unfinished/Scrapped/Prototype Music  - Game Never Officially Released, Never Put to Use in Game, Different Arrangement from Earlier in Development
• Fighting Game
• Menus/Stage Select
• Arcade - No Home Conversions. (ex; NES 'Contra', SNES 'Turtles in Time', Genesis 'Altered Beast')
• Mini/Bonus Game
• Outer Space
• Strange/Weird
• Cave/Underground/Mines
• Forest/Jungle/Swamp
• Sky/Airborne
• Epic/Grand
• Farming/Gardening
• Games Made Since January 01, 2010
• Chaotic 
• Happy
• Defeating
• Heavy Metal
• Rock & Roll
• Jazz
• Techno
• Country/Western
• Heroic
• Evil
• Computer Games(Pre 2003)
• Unlicensed Games
• Music Using Samples/Inspired by other Songs (ie: Sonic 3 "Ice Cap", Pictionary "Mini Game Theme 1")
• Ported/Reworked Music - ie: NES Music Ported/Reworked for the SNES, ('Super Mario All Stars', 'Ninja Gaiden Trilogy') or Sonic Generations Act 1/2's and Boss Tracks
• Ending/Epilogue
• Final Stage/Area
• Dungeon
• Introduction/Prologue
• Cult Classics
• Spin Offs
• Reboots/Remakes
• Funny/Hilarious
• Sewers
• Ruins/Temple
• The Great Indoors
• Name Entry/High Score Screen
• Grass Lands
• Desert
• Mechanical/Factory

I will hand pick some should similar topics both get picked (ex; Startling/Scary and Unsettling/Creepy). All leftovers(along with popular List 1 categories) will be set aside for the eventual 3rd VGM Challenge. Just to be on the safe side, if 2 or more users can agree that a category shouldn't be on this pick list, that category will be removed(say something before 12:00 AM VGS Time on July 11th).

 

Looks like a good list to me! Very excited to see what new songs people will be bringing to the table

[rdrunner | 422]

On 7/1/2020 at 6:34 AM, nesmaster14 said:

rdrunner - 

Tail of Beta Lyrae Intro - That's a really cool intro and song, especially for the humble Atari 8-bit computer!  My dad had an Atari 800 in high school, which was sent to me recently from storage. I'll have to find a floppy for this game and check it out

Forgot to mention, but glad you liked this song enough to try the game.  It's a bit rough around the edges (be ready to die a lot), but it's a ton of fun!

[rdrunner | 422]

On 7/2/2020 at 9:35 AM, ZeldaFreak said:

I'm glad people seem to like Bloodlines. I feel like that track isn't as well known as stuff like Vampire Killer, Bloody Tears, Beginning etc, but I feel that it deserves to be up there with all those other classic CV songs. It's really good.

Totally agree!  It's every bit as good as all the other first level tunes from other CV games, which is high praise given the competition.  Song of Simon (SCV4), Dracula's Castle (SOTN), and whatever opens COTM are all up there.

[AstralSoul | 502]

I don't know if the list for more categories is full try, probably is, but I was thinking... One for horror, one ambient, one for Nintendo exclusive game, one for exclusive PlayStation, one exclusive to Sega, one for an acapella rendition.