shmups.system11.org

Whether they're genuinely provocative or a charmingly cheesy melanges of engrish, what game music track tiles really stick out to you?


Of the top of my head:

Long Way- As an end-game / final dungeon theme for an 80 hour adventure, the name concisely conjures the grandeur of a long and difficult journey reaching its end.

The Battle For Everyone's Souls- Probably my favorite final boss track title. Stakes don't get much higher than that!

Under Heaven Destruction- Charming engrish; that's supposed to be Under Heaven's Destruction! One of those missteps I consider a keeper.

The Discoloured Wall - A vaguely menacing title for an overtly menacing song. With Vampires around, you know what those stains are.

Evildoer- Falcom has a knack for these. Concise, non pretentious titles that tell you exactly what you're in for. Here's the big baddie, motherfuckers.

Always been a fan of "Hunger Made Them Desperate" in Thunder Force III (though I prefer the arrangements...) which fits the mood the song sets really well.

Still Love You - an exact fit (title, song, stage), somehow

Could also get away with just a hyphen.

Motoi Sakuraba's osts are classic sources, VP in particular. This guy was really into his stuff lol.

Ninja Gaiden Black (XboX)

Stand in the Way Of what? The bus? A fire truck? Do not cross!

An Easy Enemy No such thing. Any enemy is lethal. Protect your nuts, little squirrel.

Battle With the Dead TO THE DEATH!

Listening to this gives me the itch back...

Bonus Round:

Lightning and Grenades, Xenophobic Organs, Under the Feet - Super Contra/Super C

Tan Tan Ta Ta Ta Tan - Thunder Force IV

Bioshark, Jungle of Blood - Shinobi 3DS

Rad thread. I remember a Metallica interview from when I was a kid, where they mentioned Budgie had the coolest song titles ("Crash Course In Brain Surgery") and thinking "Yeah! I dig a snazzy title listing too!" There's millions, especially from the tirelessly characterful maestros of Zuntata, Tecno Soft, DECO and Konami. I'm forgetting hundreds, but here's a few.

BLACK ANGEL Apropos a bringer of biblical, multiple stage-spanning destruction.
BURNING HEART Tecno Soft aesthetic: "Take your irony and shove it..."
CHAOS BREAKER ...valorous souls at work."
STRANGER Fittingly blunt name for BGM as sudden and jaw-jackingly brutal as the massacre it heralds.
STAND UP AGAINST MYSELF No it's not about an exceptionally raging boner! It's a paean to selfless endeavour!
STEEL OF DESTINY I really like the TF soundtracks' use of classical knightly imagery...
DUEL OF TOP ...and this TFIV redux clanks a bit sans context, but fuckin scintillates with it. ("This is where it all began")

BLOODY ROAD
SLAUGHTER MACHINE: DESTROY Did I stutter, motherfucker?
OPERATION THUNDER ZONE
HOT FRIENDSHIP Give your wounded buddy a shoulder to bleed on.
OH SHIT! The most succinctly-named boss BGM.

DEATHBED
HOTTER THAN HELL
NO ESCAPE Super Contra Arcade BGM has no time for your bullshit.

IT'S HAPPENIN'!
FULLY SET UP FOR PENETRATION
WE GOTTA DO IT Did Urushihara pen Valken's tracknames too? Gotta love the innocent earnestness.
Armed Ghost Understated techno-menace

ERUPTOR
STAB AND STOMP Gleefully cathartic violence². Stab an iconic name and track alike.
Marginal Consciousness
Subversive Awareness
Tunnel Vision Redolent of punishing g-force and superhuman resolve.

INVADE YOUR MIND INVAED_UR_RAEV
TASK FORCE GET IT DONE

Ceramic Heart "Only one thing cannot be mine / And I wish it with all my heart" ;-;
SLAUGHTER HOUR Somewhere in the depths of Judah Central System...
THE MOTHERLESS CHILDREN Nice double meaning in its android-ravaged, war-torn world. AC Ninja Warriors is legit one grim joint.
Say "Papa" Affecting little invocation of the series' existential plight and exile war.
Visitor Chilling.

HEADLESS Brutal trackname! Archetypal catchy, fiery Falcom hard rock makes me think of Dullahans.
The Lost Ones PC-88 ver, absolutely plaintive.

THE SHOWDOWN Max Incisiveness, apocalyptic pressure. Die here, and humanity dies with you. Also Predator+Aliens rip JUSTIFIED

Advance "GRANADA" As bluntly imperative as it gets. GET IT DONE x2

I DEFEND STM One of the genre's great "sup motherfucker?" jams, fat and obnoxious.

Red Out Speaking of punishing g-force (btw, I love that this is basically the evil doppelganger of beloved OutRun tune Magical Sound Shower!)

Prisonic Fairytale Wonderfully evocative neologism!

EDIT: YT uploads are such transitory things ;-;7 Patchin' up a few URLs.

Poison of Snake.

Ah, classic. From the Salamander series I'd also mention All Is Vanity. Thoughtful title for the BGM to a classic "flesh nightmare" stage.

No love for To Make The End of Battle?

Other good ones:
Strange Memories of Death
Hoist the Sword with Pride in the Heart
The Power of Darkness
Cry! Scream!!
Pump them With Bullets

Special The Scheme omake:
Hardy is the Strongest
The Force Rotted Away
Angry Fist
The Emperor was Steeped in Vice
I'll Save You All My Justice

Oh sheeit, Gimmick! is loaded with 'em. Really rounds out the game's sunny but subtly wistful "living toy" theme. Aporia, Lion Heart, Happy Birthday and especially the Phillip K. Dick-referencing Strange Memories of Death all ring out. Identity Believer always brings to mind Blade Runner/Electric Sheep too, haha.

Of course let's not forget's Recca's "THROBBIN' YOU"

Fuck yessss. Was searching my mind for this one when I made the thread. Plaintive as fuck.



On the other end of the spectrum, you have the more vulgar but accurately visceral "INTESTINES" from Shattered Soldier / Shin Contra.

Another Konami offering that's been on my mind lately is "Don't Wait Until Night". Brings to mind classic gothic themes and the final scramble to stake the Count before nightfall in the eponymous novel.



Not the only excellent composition with that title either! The Fate fighting game's track of the same name is befittingly melancholic and mysterious.

So I was going through some old game soundtracks. Cotton, Nexzr and some others. Names were boring, possible my files don't have the right names XD.

Anyway, pretty fun thread. BIL your contributions were magnifique.

Ta! Also, I'd be remiss to neglect "SHADOW OF REICH" from Strikers 1945, having recently borrowed it for my side gig. Not really into the track itself, but what a formidably ominous title! For my money, the series' real title/track synergistic highlight is the soaring yet stoical "DEVIL'S TOWER" (Arrange ver) from Strikers II. "BATTLE OF EXTREME NORTH" isn't quite as outstanding but that title is just nails-hard.

I always found Toaplan's OST tracklists superbly characterful. Twin Cobra (GEN) was one of those games with a fully-titled sound test that made an impression on me, long before I had any notion of VGM regularly getting dedicated album releases in Japan. Offhand I'll mention Same Same's "From The Sun To Me," a valiant frontline charger with a mildly enigmatic, devil-may-care title. Brings to mind their company philosophy of "Reckless Valour" or GAMUSHARA. Out Zone's "PRESENT OF BULLETS FOR THE CROWD" is a very apt summation of run/gunning action in general!

blackman.txt from zenohell ost

Yeah seeing that trackname in the HUD was a standing ovation moment for sure.

At first I was



but then the bass dropped and I

Asa kara Zusshiri Milkpot's soundtrack has the most evocative titles in VGM history
Gaze at my Sour Cream Burrito
Fling Out my Funky Whey
Heiming on my Boudin

great ost btw


Dance Without Malice or Mercy (VP2)
Eternal Engine of Linguistic Massacre (VP1)
<3

Someone actually pointed that out to me a month or two ago and my mind was completely blown. It is a heater with a great title, too.

On the subject, Getsu Fuuma Den's map theme "Go! Getsu Fuuma" kinda blags MSS too. (Doujin arrange ver from the superb Iten Hadou Kagura)



I'm partial to "The Jaws of Ice" - a starkly yet multifariously menacing pairing.

Snatcher is a big personal favourite I completely forgot. Conjures much threatening cyber-noir imagery shaded by human fraility. Tracknames vary slightly between versions and album releases, sometimes not appearing at all - these are cobbled from the PC-88 original's staff roll.

SLAVE TO METAL Rad SYBER PUNK styling... and sets up those music references nicely too.
BIO HAZARD
INNOCENT GIRL Ala Valken, I love the blinding earnestness. Frequent candidate for the "Occupation" field of my profile, bahaha!
CREEPING SILENCE
CRIMINAL OMEN
DANGER DANCE & JUSTICE ALL A one-two punch of cute alliteration and stone-facedly grave Engrish!
DECADENCE BEAT
THE ENTRANCE TO HELL
ENDLESS PURSUER
BEYOND SORROWS
MASTER OF PUPPETS AMONG THE DISEASE Just the Metallica reference to accompany "Justice" wouldn't rate, but the full title has an evil Engrishy grandeur.

Theme of Ending (We Have to Struggle for Our Future Against Our Doubt)

^^^ beautiful. Grand song too, via Konami SCC+ goodness. Sublimely warm tone with juuust the right hint of buzz.

Speaking of, Space Manbow's "Memoire" is an endearingly odd little spelling - or perhaps it's the French mémoire? Great title for a similarly impeccable SCC+ sound voyage, regardless. I dig its boss theme "HYDRA" too, a furious barrage apropos its formidable namesake.

Last Springsteen - Bruce Springsteen is also know as the 'the Boss' so...

Trashard in the cave - Castlevania: FM Metal edition

Laughter

Welcome to the Machine - A song about a cute Dolphin fighting through a horde of Ginger-esque aliens inside a meat grinder

A searing struggle - Falcom has never struggled with it's soundtracks, that's for sure.

Tears - Perhaps unusual for a vs.Fighting game, but still amazing nevertheless.

Damn, Snatcher's track names are badass. Slave to metal? get out of here! that's insanely awesome


That's a fucking epic and violent tale of retribution. lol. awesome

THE BREAKER Nautical theme aside - this is the singularly imposing subject to Thunder Zone's "OH SHIT!"
SEA OF FLAME A vista of unbothered grandeur straight out of Yellow Submarine.
WARLIKE REQUIEM (^Thunder Force IV) Formidable graveslab of a track name! Strikingly juxtaposes the bellicose and the elegiac in title and content alike.
THE RITUAL Menacingly-titled stage/boss pair; this one is musically quite benign...
SODOM ...but this is balls to the wall Satanic Panic™ metalling, as relentlessly aggressive as the boss's madly careening attack!
THE JUSTICE RAY So nice they reused it more than twice! Sequels aside, the exemplar of STG endboss tracknames.
THE LONGEST VOYAGE (^Blast Wind) Lighters in the air motherfuckers! Yearning hair ballad to interstellar dreamers.

FULLMETAL FIGHTER
GALVANIC GEAR
ARMED ARMOR Metal on motherfucking metal with chops to match.
DIVINE DEVISE ("Device?" Radder left as-is, imo)
OFFENSIVE OVERDRIVE
PRESSURE POWER
STRATOSPHERIC STRUGGLE
Vanish Into The Night (^Musha Aleste)

IT'S TIME FOR REVENGE Spirits trades Super's bone-jarring kick for more calculated menace, but regardless its tracknames have no time for your bullshit.
BLOODY STORM
MEGALOPOLIS
BATTLE RUNNER Humanity's ultimate existential contest is its champions' ultimate affirmation.
DAREDEVIL Breaching enemy HQ's outer perimeter requires 1) motorbike 2) helicopter 3) pants-shitting acrobatic terror.
HELL MESSENGER Recalls CV Bloodlines' killer "Message From Devil," only here it's the protagonists carving a grim swathe toward the enemy gates.
GO FORWARD UNDER FIRE As with the opening city raid - better to shear through the hordes than let death encroach on all sides.
NO HOPE NO LIFE Most emphatic of Game Over tracknames for a desperate hope denied.
RETURN IN GLORY (^Contra Spirits) Or not at all.

LOCKED AND LOADED The quest for granite-jawed yet fiery-souled tracknames continues!
CHARSHOE X Whatever this means, it sounds hard as fuck and liable to melt your soles to the asphalt.
THE HARD CORPS
ZEPHYR God of winds, apropos a highway battle turned ad-hoc dogfight.
GUILLOTINE A creepy yet verving squall as singularly unwholesome as the name suggests.
MOONLIT ARMY Vision of forces massed under cover of night, awaiting their ghastly orders as commando units rush to intercept.
AC VIOLENCE
CONTRA OVERDRIVE "Contra" = superhuman commando performance (cf Famicom attract mode). Contra beyond Contra.
A SPIRIT OF BUSHI RIP a certain persistent fucker who lived by his twisted Bushido until the bitter, brutal end. ;-;7
THE HARD CORPS BLUES (^Contra The Hard Corps) "Strong men (and women, and beastmen, and robots) also cry, Mister Lebowski!"

DEAREST The grimdarkest Contra doesn't give a fuck if you find its glass-gargling title BGM's name a bit cuddly.
VENUS Deigns to reach down and shred mortal faces. Wicked intro CG to match.

ACCREDITED PLAYER CHARACTER BILL RIZER

Spoiler: show

RISK Even the options BGM is not safe for noobs!
FORTRESS Monster guitars like slab upon slab of blast-hardened concrete.
SLAVE BEAST TAKA A rhythmic racket as tormentedly pulsating as the unfortunate creature itself.
HELL DRIVE
BATTLE TRAIN
MAXIMUM SPEED Vroom vroom motherfucker! A productive day intercepting speeding trains full of apocalyptic bioweapons.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST Cruel, irresistible! Unfortunately the alien has failed to adapt to urban combat, and is now headed feet-first and screaming into a meat grinder.
DESTINY CONFRONTATION No burden so back-breakingly heavy as fifteen years of manfully-suppressed 1P Envy, given a psychotic, xenosymbiotic jolt!
THE DUSK GATHERS
CRITICAL MOMENT OF CONTRA
A TRUE LAST BOSS
ORION
S-POWER (^Shin Contra) A-Power? No TLB for you son.

DREAM CHASER (F-Zero X) Indomitably soaring vanquisher of doubts. Many fond memories of chasing friends' ghosts to this on Silence 1. I still have a few archived!

Below are more story-oriented games, beware spoilers in YT comments


THE MOVEMENT OF CLOUDS (Policenauts) Formidable yet detached, evoking some grave showdown beneath a vast ambivalent sky.
DUEL (Metal Gear Solid) Irreducibly perfect trackname for Metal Gear's "boss rush" ethos.
SOLDIER VS GHOST Unofficial! From a Twin Snakes gamerip. But the succinct evocation of this particular conflict and all its baggage is pro-standard.

The Wait
My Justice For You
Kill Angels
My Heaven Immaculate retribution, stomach-churningly enacted.
Not Tomorrow (^Silent Hill) Technically Part 1, but ala The Justice Ray I prefer the singular. Spent, disintegrating, no tomorrow.

Alone In The Town Fragile warmth as well-observed by classic SH, the second game most of all -
Ashes and Ghost
Black Fairy - as private hells roil within.
ANGEL'S THANATOS Musically weakest of the game's ending BGMs, but one brooding stormer of a title!
Betrayal A synergistic pair of late tracknames...
Promise ...tersely prismatic and loaded to the hilt. "You made me happy." ;-;
TERROR IN THE DEPTHS OF THE FOG (^Silent Hill 2) Knowingly titled and composed for b-film spooks and RIDDIM. Gotta decompress a bit after these games.

OH FUC. This thread is awesome.
For now:
DEVIL'S CALL IN YOUR HEART. From F-Zero X.

Tons of gems on that ost. I think one is CLIMB UP! TO GET THE LAST CHANCE
Will be back later when not on dumbphone.

..Christ this ost keeps on giving!

Fall Down to the Scream

Decide In the Eyes

The Long Distance of Murder

Crazy Call At Cry

All Need Is 30 Deaths

Fuuuck yeah. Also THE LONG DISTANCE OF MURDER. A tracklist as bristling with deadly intent as the lethal contest it soundtracks. X GON GIVE IT TO YA



Whole lotta emotional baggage bound up in that song, Super Hiruko was an absolute motherfucker to take down! Only the slightly mad need answer the call!




One of the most indelible from a VGM house of legend. Actually quite a verving tune too, which I always found cool - you're stepping into an iconic place of fear and grueling trial, there's no need for overt menace.

Great picks for metal black and ACFA, Zaarock!
I remember being taken with 'Someone is Always Moving on the Surface' when listening to that ost before.

Also Waste Days From Metal Black

I really love these titles from Ketsui-

Armored Green

Day of Judgement

Also Strange Dance From DDPDOJ
Thankyou based Furry Fox.