AM In Your Head All Day

Zelda: An Auracle Assault

A SUBLIME SOUNDTRACK

Here’s an interesting tribute album of Zelda: Oracle of Ages tunes:

Essence of Lime is a remix album covering the soundtrack to The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages. The project was originally a one-man endeavor that evolved into a community project. Having been introduced to the Zelda series through Oracle of Ages, I noticed the lack of Oracle remixes and decided to take on a solo remix project in early 2008. I planned to remix Oracle of Ages’ entire soundtrack by myself, assuming there would not be enough interest to organize a full-fledged project. After receiving several unexpected offers to help out, I opened the project as an unofficial community album with headquarters at OverClocked ReMix. I am deeply grateful to everyone who helped me tackle the project despite its unofficial status; this would have never been finished without them.

With 42 tracks by 17 remixers, the album contains over two hours of music. Seasons fans, you’ll have to forgive the fact that tracks from Oracle of Seasons have only been included if they appeared in both Oracles. I hope you’ll be satisfied to hear that we haven’t forgotten Seasons, and we have some exciting things planned for it in the future. For now, I present a complete album for Oracle of Ages. Enjoy it, or else.

It’s pretty cool and you can pull them down via these links:

Full Soundtrack (MP3)
Full Soundtrack (FLAC)
Torrent

Thanks to Zero for the tip.

Dude In Dress Plays Some Mario Music

No, really (he’s very good, too):

If he can play like that, he can wear all the pink, Peach-inspired, plush dresses he wants.¹

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^{1 As long as he stays out of my zip code.}

Some Things About Twitter Drive Me Nuts

Taking the occasional good with the mostly harrowing

Like, for example, random people following me that I don’t know and/or don’t care about what I’m doing, that are only following in the hopes that I’ll be interested in whatever product or service¹ they’re offering.

However, once in a while, someone will follow you because (of course) they want you to pay attention to whatever it is they’re doing, but, on occasion, it turns out that what they’re ‘selling’ is pretty cool.

Case in point:

Yep, this dude is playing various video game compositions on the ukulele and they actually sound pretty great! (Personally, I’d love to hear some of these done up Spanish guitar-style, but this is still pretty neat.)

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1 Kind of like that kid in grade school that just had to be your friend only you don’t know this kid and he’s trying to sell you naked photos of himself.

CHECK IT OUT!!!

Commandeth Final Fantasy composer supremo, Nobuo Uematsu:

You heard the man: CHECK IT OUT!!!¹

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1 Odd how so much of Japan seems to still be stuck in the pre-GeoCities days as far as the Internet is concerned, isn’t it?

New to Me, Maybe Not to You

It’s not the best game, but the soundtrack is solid

Here’s a brief interview with Hitoshi Sakimoto, conducted around the time Opoona came out on Wii:

Jayson: Opoona appears to be one of the most quirky titles that you’ve worked on, and the score seems to be upbeat and playful. Tell us a bit about how the unique visuals and storyline factored into your compositions for the title.

Sakimoto: When I saw the designs for Opoona, I was really impressed by Mr. Majima’s unique approach. The atmosphere of the game is wholly original and the characters are really cute, too. However, since the game is at its heart a traditional drama about Opoona and his siblings, I arranged the music in an orthodox manner, but the sound has a more “futuristic” flavor. I wanted to focus on having the music and sound gently “wrap around” Opoona and his siblings.

It’s a little ‘gearhead-ish’ (or maybe harpsichordhead-ish??), but it’s interesting nonetheless and, since I need to get something up here, well, here you go.

(It’s a somewhat timely ‘reprint’ since the Opoona soundtrack is–finally–getting a release in the not-too-distant future.)

(Speaking of game music, have you picked up Pitch to Pixel yet?)

Geek Demigod, Presumed Dead, Shows Up On XBL Indies

That voodoo that Yuzo

Remember Yuzo Koshiro? The composer wunderkind behind such memorable soundtracks as Streets of Rage 2 and 3, Actraiser, the original Ys (pre-Redbook), and the man that runs the game studio Ancient (Beyond Oasis, et al)?

Well, he’s back:

Just in case you thought Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE Indie Games program was just for amateur developers, legendary game music composer Yuzo Koshiro has something to show you:

That’s a screen shot from Mamotte Knight (“Protect Me Kngiht”), the first Xbox LIVE Indie Games title from Koshiro’s development studio Ancient. Announced today, the game will be available for download this Spring.

Mamotte Knight is a 2D action RPG with Famicom-style 8-bit visuals. You select a knight from one of four jobs and make use of barricades to protect the princess from monsters. As you defeat the attacking beasts, you earn love points from the princess which can be used to upgrade your barricades and increase your character’s skills. The game supports four player simultaneous play.

Indie games? Um…have we actually reached a point where an outfit like Ancient can’t get paying work? I mean, they can’t even get on XBLA but have to slum it in the Indies section? (No offense to the handful of great games on XBL Indies but, c’mon, Yuzo Koshiro and Ancient?!)

Grim tidings, indeed. (There’s an English option at link that is not quite, um, live yet.)