Toaplan howling

[Captain]

It's well known that Toaplan was a great pioneer of their time. Their legacy even living on through other companies.

Sadly, while one can see Toa-ish elements in many post-Toa games, one of them was never properly replicated or paid homage to.

I am, of course, talking about their music.

What makes Toaplan music great? Well, it is more often than not very 'bright' and fast-paced, really telling the player what shmups are supposed to be about - constant action and adaptation (some different genres sprung up later, sure) .

Somehow, all the themes still fit the levels, despite having similar soundfonts or even directly sounding similar. At times you wouldnt even have a boss theme, but it would STILL be perfectly fitting.

And then, there's the howling, as I like to call it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDbmBXj0BHE&t=0m13s

Hoooly moly! This kind of sound is never quite the same in the games it appears it, but it always has the same effect. It's as if it's telling the player "You made it this far, now prepare for shit to get real over the sound of the souls of our digitized development team wailing in agony over the..." Yeah, maybe not that far. But it more often than not is encountered at a shit-gets-real moment. Be it a midgame difficulty increase, or soon before the last boss.

And I fucking love it.

So yeah, Toaplan music thread, although I'm sure that the companies that sprung up later, and are related to Toa are just as relevant here.

[BIL]

Yuge & Uemura were always prog rockers at heart

Hosoe's Dragon Spirit has a crazy-good guitar wail sound too. Graveyard is the best tbh. Also Volcano's solo is fn' sick too, but I like the punky simplicity of the first track.

[Captain]

Hah, it was an interesting read that Dogyuun (which mind you, is one of Toa's best soundtracks ! ) was originally designed as a full mech game.

I always had the sneaking suspicion, gotta say, well as sneaking as a giant robot can get.

Speaking of the wonderful Dogyuun, I daresay that it has one of the best opening songs in shmup history.

Its also one of those rare examples where both the jarring original and the more intense arrange are equally as good imo. (also this )

[Ruldra]

I don't know why but Tatsujin Ou has a very different kind of music compared to the rest of the usual Toaplan stuff. I even thought it was made by a different composer when I first listened to it. I honestly think that game's soundtrack is really bland. Really wish it sounded more like the original Tatsujin.

[Perikles]

I'm almost willing to believe they purposefully put in all those serene tracks in Tatsujin Ou in order to increase the difficulty - it's inconceivably difficult to stay awake in stage 2, the soothing music in combination with the hypnotic effect of endlessly repeating enemy waves puts you in a coma and then you die all of a sudden once a new pattern starts.

[trap15]

Dogyuun's soundtrack is probably my favorite, the chunky lo-fi sampled percussion (high hat particularly) really gets me goin'.

Too bad I hate playing the game.

[Ruldra]

I'm almost willing to believe they purposefully put in all those serene tracks in Tatsujin Ou in order to increase the difficulty - it's inconceivably difficult to stay awake in stage 2, the soothing music in combination with the hypnotic effect of endlessly repeating enemy waves puts you in a coma and then you die all of a sudden once a new pattern starts.

Stage 4 is the one that gets me. My God that track is so boring. And then suddenly the midboss appears and shoots you in the face.

[Mortificator]

Uemura's music is awesome, but Yuge's never clicked with me. Too sparkly.

[chempop]

I am, of course, talking about their pixel art.

I love the music in their games, but it's the backgrounds and sprites that make them a cut above what came out after they disbanded (visually anyway). Perhaps some of the early Raizing and DDP compete, but I don't think either necessarily surpass what Toaplan artists were doing with their pixels and design.

[Heavy Viper]

Toaplan's music is a huge inspiration to me. Truxton/Tatsujin was the first arcade STG I played, so that opening launch sequence/musical swell is practically engraved on my brain. I think in general their music captures the "spirit" of shooting games - really just gets the player pumped up and head into battle at full speed.

Recently though, I've been going through the Toaplan Shooting Chronicle and found myself quite drawn to Toshiaki Tomizawa's output for them. It seems like he was only involved with Zero Wing and Vimana (EDIT: looks like he worked on FIXEIGHT too), but frankly I'm finding these tracks in particular quite striking. Especially the Vimana track; "Like Raging Fire" indeed.

[louisg]

Oh yeah! I love Toaplan's music! The bouncy octave basslines, the rock-style music which was atypical for shmups.. it's great.

Why's this in off-topic? Seems pretty shmup-related to me!

[TransatlanticFoe]

Truxton II is the one that stands out as different? How about Twin Hawk? While I like the helper plane mechanic and that it can get pretty intense, the droning repetitive soundtrack really doesn't help alongside the "tanks and boats only" enemies. I think it's the only Toaplan music I really don't like, though I've never been able to get Fixeight working so that might be able to keep it company. The rest is pretty special... I have the FM Towns Break a Leg as my weekend alarm.

I like Truxton II's stage 1 theme, but a lot of the others seem to be going for variations on said theme without being as good. Stage 4 does at least have the Flying Shark take-off music in there.... if you're going to rip someone off, it may as well be yourself!

[Captain]

Speaking of ripoff and/or remix themes that never live up, i don't think any stage 1 theme in the ray series could ever beat the original's penetration (which, judging by how you fire off those lasers, aught to have been called something else)

Now I'd like to mention Outzone. I'm not really sure how it fares among you guys, it isn't quite like other Toaplan osts.

How I'd explain it is that a usual Toa soundtrack has two parts.
One of them is all the upbeat rockish stuff that states "It's space, man! Action in space!"
The other is the more mysterious and gloomy bits: "Space is chill, space is awesome" (awesome, you may wonder? Well, part of it is calming or even a tad gloomy, as i said, the rest is straight up monumental, and i'd rather not use the e word to describe anything) .


With Outzone though, that second bit is removed completely, and this allows the first to spiral out of control.
SPACE ACTION ACTION SPACE SHOOT ALIENS EXPLOSIONS ACTION SPACE ACSPACEXALSHPASCASASF)#@JTK_0

The wonderful part about it is that it fits the game perfectly. Without the atypical soundtrack, Outzone wouldn't ever be the same.

Favorite track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIGDXoTpeq0

Edit: Also nominating "Gift of the bullet to guys" on the list of best shmup song names in history, right after "Let's ass kick together".

[geosnow]

yep, outzone has some very fine tunes. But I also like the Twin Hawk ost.

[EXMaster]

I'll just leave this here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYmoEXePKCw

[Captain]

I'll just leave this here...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYmoEXePKCw

Why not Hellfire

[gameoverDude]

For Kyukyoku Tiger II, Masahiro Yuge is listed under Original Staff - PROGRAM on Sega Retro's article about KTII, but the sound credit goes to " BLASTMAN･F". Could this be an alias he used here? I am thinking it's possible because he was involved with Giga Wing, except under his real name (listed as "M.YUGE" in the credits).

[Squire Grooktook]

Toaplan music to me was always by a very upbeat sound and tone. Much like Gradius, though a bit less fanciful perhaps.

[trap15]

For Kyukyoku Tiger II, Masahiro Yuge is listed under Original Staff - PROGRAM on Sega Retro's article about KTII, but the sound credit goes to " BLASTMAN･F". Could this be an alias he used here? I am thinking it's possible because he was involved with Giga Wing, except under his real name (listed as "M.YUGE" in the credits).

http://vgmdb.net/artist/3013

Different guy.

[Vludi]

Truxton II is the one that stands out as different? How about Twin Hawk? While I like the helper plane mechanic and that it can get pretty intense, the droning repetitive soundtrack really doesn't help alongside the "tanks and boats only" enemies. I think it's the only Toaplan music I really don't like, though I've never been able to get Fixeight working so that might be able to keep it company. The rest is pretty special... I have the FM Towns Break a Leg as my weekend alarm

I like Twin Hawk's OST, it has a pretty cool militaristic vibe (even more so than other titles) that fits well in the game. Meanwhile some themes in Truxton II sound like a cute 'em up lol.

Worst Toaplan OST is either Knuckle Bash or Fixeight.

[Captain]

Imo Fixeight has a very fitting ost.

Thing that makes it stand out is that it is far too monotone, slowed down and less energetic than most other Toaplan games.

Funny, how the same can be said of Fixeight, which sadly cannot archive Outzone's simple adrenaline rush.

Still has this really cool track though, but there's lots of boring songs in there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5YJXJKRcd4

Edit: another "howling" example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTvSRQhOWGQ&t=0m37s

[MX7]

I love Truxton's octaving bass and clanging leads. My stoner friends and made up (awful) lyrics to all of it. Since the whole game is about rythm and pixel perfect safespot manipulation it feels pseudo-bemani in places.

Twin Cobra and Zero Wing (particularly the MD port ) also have amazing OSTs but Outzone probably takes top spot for me. Shame the board we had in The Casino only had half the soundtrack...

[Captain]

That must've been horribly depressing @halftrack

Don't tell me that the game just stopped playing music at half, literally leaving you hanging

[OmegaFlareX]

But I also like the Twin Hawk ost.

Same here, it's very melancholy and fits well with the post-war destruction thing it has going on. I think the PC-Engine (HuCard) port is the best-sounding. The CD version is interesting, but the tone is completely different. Speaking of PCE, I absolutely love the simple drum track they (Taito?) put into the Tatsujin OST.

Tatsujin Oh is so goddamn happy and doesn't really fit. Kyukyoku Tiger and Zero Wing MD ports have better music than the arcade. Same with X68k and (especially) FM Towns Hishouzame. Dogyuun is probably my favorite overall Toaplan OST. Batsugun's really good too.

[Heavy Viper]

I can understand disliking Tatsujin Oh for its snail-paced gameplay, but I'll stand up to bat for its soundtrack. It's certainly more upbeat than Toaplan's standard fare, but it still has its fair share of nice pieces. Stage 2's main hook - the stereo FM guitar riff - is bloody killer, for one.

[Skykid]

I really like Tatsujin Oh's ST and I really like Tatsujin Oh. What's wrong with me!?

[Captain]

You haven't gone full shmup yet, have you

[emphatic]

Stage 2's main hook - the stereo FM guitar riff - is bloody killer, for one.

Sounds like Jean-Michel Jarre was an influence here.

[szycag]

平沢進　P-MODEL　論理空軍
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MaYy2Spctg

end of thread