Games to play with a subwoofer?

[Obiwanshinobi]

No matter how old titles, there should be some particularly subwoofer-friendly, the less obvious the better (I'd rather listen to the [rʌf] WORLD OST with or without a sub than revisit the very game these days). Out of the usual suspects, I've already sampled Gardius V, S&P2 and Under Defeat*. Willing to revisit Omega Boost, R-Type Delta, Super Aleste and perhaps Ibara (following my hunches and notions hailing from places such as these boards).
*) Under Defeat still sounds quite underwhelming.

[Heavy Viper]

Rez.

I recall hearing that Fire Shark MD has bassy explosions to die for.

[Obiwanshinobi]

For the record, I consider WipEout and Rez pretty "obvious" examples.
The music ripped from CRYING/Bio-Hazard Battle sounds terrific via 2.1 speakers, so I hope they do all of the game sound justice too.

I recall hearing that Fire Shark MD has bassy explosions to die for.

I knew that one Toaplan vert not letterboxed on MD had more to its presentation than orange tanks... Now I remember the explosions even with humble TV speakers were something else. Thanks!

P.S. I was actually thinking of Kyuukyoku Tiger when posting the above.

[Heavy Viper]

For the record, I consider WipEout and Rez pretty "obvious" examples.

Allow me to recant that and replace it with Contra: Shattered Soldier/Shin Contra instead, then!

[Skykid]

For the record, I consider WipEout and Rez pretty "obvious" examples.

Allow me to recant that and replace it with Contra: Shattered Soldier/Shin Contra instead, then!

Hell yeah.

Does Bare Knuckle fall into the too obvious category?

[Xyga]

Shining Force

[Stevens]

Earthworm Jim (MD). Tommy Tallarico at his fucking finest.

Haha. Last three answers are MD games. Z80 in the right hands was amazing.

Adding the Adventures of Batman and Robin, particularly the opening theme.

[Heavy Viper]

To throw something more modern into the mix, I'm certain Dariusburst Chronicle Saviours sounds brilliant with a proper sound system.

[FinalBaton]

I'd say a good chunk of GEN/MD games do. A lot of them make good use of the thundering FM bass the system can dish out.

As Skykid said, Bare Knuckles with dem club beatz and dat pumping bass is a great choice. Same for Revenge of Shinobi. And same for friggin Contra Hard Corps, with it's super cheezy but oh-so-much-fun energy fuelled techno tracks (with explosions SFX on top of it).

Castlevania Bloodlines uses a lot of very low tones, to great effect. The theme to The Munition Factory, Germany is a standout that comes to mind off the top of my head. But deep bass notes are used throughout (intro, boss theme, etc). It really helps give the game a forebonig atmosphere

[Specineff]

Thunderforce III and the first Sonic.

[Mischief Maker]

Cho Ren Sha 68K. Especially the mid-boss explosion sound effect.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Took me surprisingly long to think of Silent Bomber. There are many games where things explode a lot*, but there's only one Silent Bomber (and only one Apocalypse). I believe Criterion tried to do something of the sort with Black, but I have my share of problems with the latter (among them - I expect an FPS to sound GOOD with stereo headphones**, and so I like my car games when played with bumper cam, thus I feel they dropped the ball a bit with the sound of Burnout 2 in that respect as well).
*) Under Defeat keeps bothering me, but this may as well be brought to Shmups Chat.
**) Luckily, my preferred (Sennheiser 495) headphones are both comfortably usable for many hours and letting enough external sounds through for me to make sense using them with 2.1 AND TV speakers at once (sometimes).

[atheistgod1999]

Far Cry 3 has tons of low-pitched sounds.

[OmegaFlareX]

Raiden II and Giga Wing.

[Lord Satori]

Don't forget to crank up the volume and open all windows before you start. Bonus points if it's at an ungodly hour of the night/morning.

[Ji-L87]

Ridge Racer, obviously

I'm having a hard time coming up with just a handful of games which sounds better with a sub as my experience is that pretty much everything sounds better with a carefully tuned subwoofer added in. Unless your speakers are big, hulking full-range monoliths, subs are great. And even in the case of a proper tower speaker, a good sub might be a sensible addition anyway.

[Heavy Viper]

It just occurred to me to suggest Pixeljunk Eden, but I might have to turn that down to a "maybe" given how fucking massive the kick drums are in baiyon's soundtrack...

[DJ Incompetent]

Battle Bakraid. I do this often.

[Leandro]

Street fighter III: Third Strike, those drum and bass beats and the thunderous sfx and voices sound awesome on a subwoofer

[pegboy]

Thunder Force AC: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8U8pzAf6GI

[dan76]

Defender or Stargate.

[atheistgod1999]

Cory in the House.

[szycag]

Spelunky. Make the room shake when the boulder trap rolls out!

[Lord Satori]

Cory in the House.

Boy, you are so funny! This is the freshest, most original type of post I've ever seen! It is neither unwanted, nor irritating and is a welcome addition to this topic!

Anyway, Brutal Legend might be fun to play with a subwoofer. With kickass selection of songs, I imagine it'd be quite the experience. Star Wars games like The Force Unleashed might be fun. The enhanced lightsaber effects would be neat.
Also Space Invaders because I'm curious. Has anyone done this?

[atheistgod1999]

Cory in the House.

Boy, you are so funny! This is the freshest, most original type of post I've ever seen! It is neither unwanted, nor irritating and is a welcome addition to this topic!

It was acceptable when cave hermit and soprano1 recommended it to me...

[Obiwanshinobi]

Toaplan vertical scroller not letterboxed on MD with trippy colours and exceptional explosions I thought of was actually Kyuukyoku Tiger (rather than Same! Same! Same!). That being said, playing the former with a sub higlights the fact every explosion sounds the same, which feels a bit hacky (just like the colour scheme, in all fairness). It's the Same! Same! Same! that seems like more "serious" (or "appropriate") a port at the end of the day...
When did that Twin Cobra port come out? Being a very early MD game would explain some of its weirdness. Later Toasplan verts on the thing were typically pretty solid, but KKT's dementia was something else. Who did the porting job?

[BIL]

MD Same Same was handled by Toaplan themselves, just like Tatsujin, Hellfire, Daisenpu, Zero Wing and Snow Bros. Kyuukyoku Tiger and the others were by outside personnel, per GSK's handy guide to MD Toaplan port developers.

I actually bought the MD port, sold it after deciding its 4:3 crash zoom just didn't do the arcade game justice... then started intensely missing it after getting fellow MD hardcase Undead Line, haha. Got it back and would never let my copy go now. It's undeniably crunched and compacted into something entirely different from the 1:1 PS1 port, but its sheer aggression and intensity make it a personal MD essential. And with the arcade game being a relatively calculating, relaxed example of the "fast aimed shots & sniper tanks" STG, the MD's fury makes for a fun Arrange mode (even moreso with the much punchier SFX+BGM).

It wasn't a particularly early release, no - 1991, well after the first wave of big-name MD arcade ports. Not a very graceful port, but I kinda like the sense they just chopped & shoved the PCB into a cart. Insert coin!

[azmun]

I agree MD games tend to benefit more from strong bass than SFC. However, Axelay bucks the trend and seems to have been designed with 2.1 speakers in mind. The subwoofer of my Altec Lansing ACS45.1 is put to good use as I very much notice the low-fequency effects coming out of it.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Not sure why, but one of games I revisited in search of new aural sensations clicked with me for good this time - Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. I should dig out Samba de Amigo Wii port one of these days as Billy Hatcher's presentation gives me impression strongly reminiscent of that one (rather than any 3D Sonic game I might add).
Mind you, Super Monkey Ball (I've played way more of, admitedly) doesn't benefit this much from a sub (or my current state of mind) - it is just as I remembered. Oughtta revisit F-Zero GX as I've been neglecting it for mayhap over a year now (its sound had never done much for me... except for the drivers' yell of despair whenever sent off with side attack, followed by the sound of explosion).

[BryanM]

Boy, you are so funny! This is the freshest, most original type of post I've ever seen! It is neither unwanted, nor irritating and is a welcome addition to this topic!

I think its soundtrack is at least 2% better than those built-in MIDI songs electric keyboards from the 80's came with...

It also brings up a esoteric topic nobody is really aware of - you can take the DS and plug it into an amp and take these games designed to be played through rinky-dink 1 cm speakers, and blast them out at 30,000 million decibels.

Something as metal as Etrian Odyssey's soundtrack might be worth it. Those games are famous for music that's better than the games deserve. Or pretty much any game.