Which shoot 'em up game have the best soundtrack?

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 3:34 pm

zimeon wrote:
Shatterhand wrote:everyone who did NOT say Apidya obviously never played the game
You're really getting me interested. Format? Only arcade?

No, only Amiga. And the game is very worth playing, as not only the music's outstanding.

[shameless self-advertisement]

There's a review of the game at shmups.com.

[/shameless self-advertisement]

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 3:46 pm

I hope we do agree here that Apidya is not Hulsbeck's greatest work. If you like what you hear, definitely play Turrican II and Jim Power on Amiga. Jim Power Duo is another must for Hulsbeck's fans.

As much as I worship him, I do think Michiru Yamane and Miki Higashino do rank higher with their Twinbee and Gradius/Salamander works. Sakimoto's Radiant Silvergun is also a serious competitor.

Herr Schatten · Post by **Herr Schatten** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 3:53 pm

Turrican wrote:I hope we do agree here that Apidya is not Hulsbeck's greatest work.

We definitely agree here, but Apidya is certainly his best work on a shmup.

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:08 pm

Herr Schatten wrote:We definitely agree here, but Apidya is certainly his best work on a shmup.

Yeah, it most certainly is. You know, I would have liked more Apidya music and less "random stuff" on that OST

Although I admit I do like "Crazy Lover" quite a bit

elbarto · Post by **elbarto** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:23 pm

Turrican wrote:You know, I would have liked more Apidya music and less "random stuff" on that OST

You and me both, heh.
Was there a Turrican II OST CD?

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 4:32 pm

elbarto wrote:
Turrican wrote:You know, I would have liked more Apidya music and less "random stuff" on that OST
You and me both, heh.
Was there a Turrican II OST CD?

Grr...

No, there isn't a single "proper" OST for Hulsbeck games. There's the Turrican Soundtrack CD, but it's remixes. I do love some of the remixes, but the original game soundtrack is just superior in any way.

zimeon · Post by **zimeon** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:19 pm

blip wrote:The music of Apidya.

Thanks for the link.
Great music, but as far as I am personally concerned, I stand uncorrected. I love Hüelsbeck's music (anyone who knows me knows that) but Zun's music is just a bit more catchy.

These are not his best, but is at least available on the net:
http://www16.big.or.jp/~zun/data/mp3/th1_04.mp3
http://www16.big.or.jp/~zun/data/mp3/th3_05.mp3

AntiPasta · Post by **AntiPasta** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 5:21 pm

Radiant Silvergun, Ikaruga, Tyrian and the high-but-not-the-highest-score music from Thunderforce V

DarkWolf7 · Post by **DarkWolf7** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 7:11 pm

zimeon wrote:Thanks for the link.
Great music, but as far as I am personally concerned, I stand uncorrected. I love Hüelsbeck's music (anyone who knows me knows that) but Zun's music is just a bit more catchy.

These are not his best, but is at least available on the net:
http://www16.big.or.jp/~zun/data/mp3/th1_04.mp3
http://www16.big.or.jp/~zun/data/mp3/th3_05.mp3

For the PC-98 Touhou games, it is fairly easy to rip the music straight from them. The music is in PMD format, which there exist a variety of players, and is stored in a .DAT file in each game. I have archived of all the 86 board PMD music -> http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~fehlaude/[P ... n_(86).rar They all make use of the YM2608 rhythm set ( http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~fehlaude/YM ... hm_Set.rar )

For a player, I recommend MDXWin ( http://home.att.ne.jp/blue/moonlight/do ... tml#mdxwin )

King Slime · Post by **King Slime** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 9:49 pm

Einhander
G-Darius
Super R-Type
Gradius5
R-Type Final
Life Force
R-Type Delta
R-Type(Boss theme)

Not in any specific order.

kemical · Post by **kemical** » Tue Feb 08, 2005 10:42 pm

NebulasRay !! the first level's music is awesome + the dialog.. really crazy back when I first played it. 'exeo' is the song name i think.
*edit* found a link to a midi version of the song that somone made, not as good as the real thing though

http://www.gmgiga.com/mididata/oldmidi/ ... l01xgz.lzh

ranger-x on genesis, although most genesis music is great due to the FM synth and stuff, well only japanese-composed music is great on genesis

..thunderforce etc..

the ibm-pc shooter 'Overkill' by epic megagames, had really good music from what I remember. Actually it probably relates to more of the demoscene musicians and stuff since other games by epic featured tracked/mod music.

raiden 2 / dx / etc

there are a couple pce/tg16 games with great music, i think it might have been Soldier Blade, maybe lords of thunder too, I'm not sure.. plenty of others but I just can;t think of them.

Minzoku · Post by **Minzoku** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 9:47 am

I will put in a plug for Platypus

though I'm only up to Area 2 so far...

Acid King · Post by **Acid King** » Wed Feb 09, 2005 7:26 pm

I'm gonna say Einhander because it is the only game I have ever played that made me consider buying the sound track. Other than that, Psyvariar 2 is great and Darius Gaiden and Life Force have some really memorable songs. I've been playing music over my video game soundtracks lately, wishing that more games would include the ability to turn the soundtrack off and keep the sound effects loud. Favorite combination right now is Ikaruga+Venetian Snares 'Winter in the Belly of a Snake'.

EDIT: Clips of this Venetian Snares record can be found at this addy, if you've never heard them. http://www.planet-mu.com/ziq066.html

Skyknight · Post by **Skyknight** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 4:17 pm

Blast Wind (especially the songs for stages 3-5 and their bosses)
Thunder Force IV
G-Darius ("Adam": best final boss theme of all time. I know some of you, like Jp, will weigh in for Blast Wind's "The Justice Ray", but I still favor "Adam"'s vibrance)
Tatsujin-Ou
Zero Wing (Genesis version)
Raiden II
Raiden D/X (PSX version)
Strikers 1945 II

Darkcomet72 · Post by **Darkcomet72** » Fri Feb 11, 2005 11:37 pm

Skyknight wrote: G-Darius ("Adam": best final boss theme of all time. I know some of you, like Jp, will weigh in for Blast Wind's "The Justice Ray", but I still favor "Adam"'s vibrance)

I love Adam too! Too bad they used the music during the Attract mode, By the time you get to the final boss, It seems almost anticlimatic...

Still my second favorite from G-darius(Favorite being Kimera II)

Hetdegon · Post by **Hetdegon** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 9:27 am

Ah, hi there again. It's ol' Fenrirkun (I had no time to read the forums so I was a bit out
until today...I had some free (in cash) time in the net to post).
Well...Pulstar had a nice soundtrack...and I have nice memories of the first Mahou
Daisakusen...specially the ruins stage. Games by ZUN (Perfect cherry blossom, etc) have
nice musics too, and I liked some Cotton tunes (I don't remember which ones now). Esp.Ra.De
had some good musics too, I loved the boss theme.and the ending. There are many more,
but those are the first ones to come to my mind...Oh, Thunderforce V was quite good too!

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 11:16 pm

I'm putting a bid for these:

Arrow Flash (who doesn't like Sega-type music?)
Zero Wing (of All your Base Fame, but the Legrous stage is good music)

And does Zone of Enders count as a Shmup???

ccovell · Post by **ccovell** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 3:47 am

Hi, folks. Always a good thread.

I agree with most of the above games mentioned, so I'll include my favourites from the less-mentioned, commonly overlooked games:

Recca (Famicom): driving rave music out of the NES!
Gyruss (FDS): the best version.
Falsion (FDS): great Konami tunes!
Red Alarm (VB): a borderline shmup, but nice techno from a weak sound chip.
NEXZR (Duo): the first stage music (among others) is really driving and catchy!
Shubibin Man 3 (Duo): yes, it's a platformer, but it has a shooting stage, and some of THE BEST music on CD.
Terraforming (Duo): I didn't expect it, but this game has some really nice synthy-rock music!
Elemental Master (MD): isn't this considered a shooter? Great music.
Steel Empire (MD): the first stage's music stuck in my mind for years.
ASO II / Alpha Mission II (Neo-Geo): GREAT, driving FM music.
Magical Chase (PCE): cute but wonderful arpeggiated songs.
Kyukyoku Tiger & Tatsujin (PCE): they're arcade games, but I think the PCE versions sound best.
Silpheed (MD-CD)

That's all I can think of for now...

Blade · Post by **Blade** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 4:34 am

zimeon wrote:Great music, but as far as I am personally concerned, I stand uncorrected. I love Hüelsbeck's music (anyone who knows me knows that) but Zun's music is just a bit more catchy.

I'd like to know a little more about this Zun game, I've never played it, the music is great!

Thunder Force · Post by **Thunder Force** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:25 pm

I can think of 50+ shmups I enjoy the music in - to save us all time I'll just post 10 of the most important

Thunderforce V
Ray Crisis
Whip Rush
Psyvariar
Blast Wind
Axelay
Xenon II: Megablast
Thunderforce II
G-Darius
Kyukyoku Tiger II Plus

k2 · Post by k2 » Mon Feb 14, 2005 12:59 pm

It's got to be Battle Garegga in arrange mode.

k2

Ord · Post by **Ord** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 4:29 pm

1. Guwange
2. Esprade
3. Batsugun
4. Espgaluda(arrange)
5. Shikigami No Shiro II
6. Ikaruga
7. Ketsui
8. Gradius V
9. Psyvariar 2

That is all.

FatCobra · Post by **FatCobra** » Mon Feb 14, 2005 10:23 pm

All of the Raizing games

R-Type Delta

Ikagura (very epic)

Gradius V (when I am in that generic techno mood)

Post by **Shatterhand** » Tue Feb 15, 2005 6:45 am

I agree that Apidya is not Huelsbeck best work - This indeed goes for Turrican 2 (Hell, Turrican 2 has the BEST SOUNDTRACK EVER, nothing can compete with it), and both Jim Power and Turrican 3 also has a better soundtrack.

Still, being the "4th best soundtrack by Huelsbeck" still makes it the best soundtrack ever in any shmup.

I like some of Zuntata work (Mainly in Raystorm, I love the music of Raystorm), but IMO it's not good as Huelsbeck work.

And Apidya is a fine game. It's my fav horizontal shmup ever together with Space Manbow and Gradius Gaiden. It's only available on Amiga, and everone should check it out

Turrican · Post by **Turrican** » Wed Feb 16, 2005 1:24 pm

Shatterhand wrote:I agree that Apidya is not Huelsbeck best work - This indeed goes for Turrican 2 (Hell, Turrican 2 has the BEST SOUNDTRACK EVER, nothing can compete with it), and both Jim Power and Turrican 3 also has a better soundtrack.

Still, being the "4th best soundtrack by Huelsbeck" still makes it the best soundtrack ever in any shmup.

I like some of Zuntata work (Mainly in Raystorm, I love the music of Raystorm), but IMO it's not good as Huelsbeck work.

And Apidya is a fine game. It's my fav horizontal shmup ever together with Space Manbow and Gradius Gaiden. It's only available on Amiga, and everone should check it out

That's exactly the reason why I'm reluctant to give Apidya first prize for shmups category: It basically would mean that Hulsbeck wins all, even when he doesn't surpass himself.

And, another thing with Apidya's music is that really just a bunch of tracks are awesome. The intro is nothing special, the first two stages are excellent, and the credits theme is truly one of Hulsbeck's best.

I have no problems with the game, however. Truly a gem, and the best shmup on Amiga by far.

Shatterhand wrote:(Hell, Turrican 2 has the BEST SOUNDTRACK EVER, nothing can compete with it)

So true.

Post by **Shatterhand** » Thu Feb 17, 2005 2:07 am

Turrican wrote: It basically would mean that Hulsbeck wins all, even when he doesn't surpass himself.

Well... I think that's the point really. I try not to be a "Huelsbeck fanboy", but thing is, he made some of the most memorable gaming soundtracks ever. I can't remember any soundtrack made by him which is not at least excellent.

What's funny is that I had lots of his games as my "fav soundtracks" , but didn't know they were all made by the same guy (I only aknowlodged his name after I met Internet

)

Dylan1CC · Post by **Dylan1CC** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 7:18 am

For me it's a tie betweenh Radiant Silvergun and Soukyugurentai.

Radiant's music is as epic as the game itself and would make a fine soundtrack for a sci fi/anime movie. Imagine it done in a full orchestra!

Souky has excellent moody tracks that sound futuristic without being too techno. I especially love the soundtrack for stage 2 (the booming dramatic music as you gradually descend down through the clouds) and stage 4 (the gritty asian sounding techno beats as you fly over the harbor/ocean dodging ships and little gray mechs, too sweet)

aurang · Post by **aurang** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 6:35 am

Sky Shark (personal fav)

Honorable Mentions in no order
Area 88
Task Force Harrier
Gradius (pretty much any)
Twin Cobra
Turrican (any)
Macross Scramble Valkyrie
Dragon Spirit
Dragon Saber
Soukyugurentai
Carrier Air Wing

gunbird18 · Post by **gunbird18** » Sun Feb 20, 2005 2:53 am

Okay, here we go again...

Dangun Feveron

The composer/composers broke the traditional "okay, we either need some good crotch-rock tunes or some euro-techno trance tunes" attitude.
The songs on this OST sound so much more disco than the disco tunes of the 70's do themselves. (did that make sense?)

tehkao · Post by **tehkao** » Tue Feb 22, 2005 7:54 pm

1. MUSHA
2. Thunderforce 4
3. Thunderforce 3
4. Forgotten Worlds
5. Elemental Master
6. Darius 2
7. Gakujo Parodius
8. Rayforce/Layer Section
9. Armed Police Batrider
10. Gradius V
11. Sokyugurentai
12. Salamander
13. Sol-Feace (CD)
14. Android Assault
15. Super Star Soldier
16. Soldier Blade
17. Thunderforce V