Player 1 Push Start

To commemorate a Sunday spent playing videogames, here are a handful of videogame music tracks.

Capcom Sound Team - Rival Schools: UBF Opening Theme - This is the song that plays during the opening cinema of the PS1 version of the 3D fighting game. This track does not appear on the Japanese Project Justice (aka Rival Schools) OST, so I used a XA ripping and conversion program to pull the song off of the game disc. It's a quick slice of melodramatic J-Pop, and non-Japanese speakers should feel free to make up their own words. "Super cool teenagers kicking ass and busting heads/But we still have time for making kissyface!" (Check out the above screenshot to see what I mean.)

Nowlin & Weber - Johnny No More - The theme to Rising Zan: Samurai Gunman. Thrill as American session musicians stuggle with an utterly batshit premise! Gasp as they attempt to squeeze in more syllables than the music should allow! Listen close, and you too can take those first steps toward becoming a "Super Ultra Sexy Hero" like Zan!

Sonic Team - Burning Hearts - The theme to Burning Rangers, one of my favorite games (alongside Panzer Dragoon Saga) for Sega's failed Saturn console. This track was ripped from the CD single included with the import version of the game. It's more dramatic J-Pop with jazzy overtones, which was fairly common among Sega games of the late 90's.

Finally, something more current:

Katamari Damacy - Katamari on the Rock (Main Theme - Does this even need an explanation? Pure groovy pop love.