^ the feels ambush that is that film.
"Keep a memory of me. Not as a king, or a 'hero...' but as a shumps farmer. Fallible, and flawed."And yes!
THE LONG DISTANCE is a powerful tune! A martial beat driving a hook that tells of outrage and rising vengeful fury! With the story demo's sepia image of Musashi cradling his dying master continuing the Attract's spartanly impactful ethos.
(;`ω´;)
Sadness and RevengeThe Story Of Arcade Action Gaming (`ω´メ)
Also a strong contender for the Evocative VGM titles thread. Apt summary of Joe's understatedly mammoth trek across land, sea and air. The game's cinematic continuity is underrated, imo. There's always a plausible explanation for Joe being wherever he is (he's an efficient traveler and likes to annihilate ranking ZEED targets while passing through, ala st4's Terminator and st7's Godzilla... I presume st2 and st6's ninja bosses are ambushes swiftly struck down). And more often than not, you can infer if not outright see your next destination from the backdrops (st5's highway is seen from st4's junkyard; st7-2's battleship is moored at st7-1's docks).
As is the game's reserved, gunmetal/asphalt near-future style, it doesn't draw attention to itself, but it's most certainly deserving of it.
Lots of great stuff posted here. I got a lot of giffing to do!

Something this thread has emphasised is the critical role of sound in these things... but it's nice to have a quick visual reference.
8BA wrote:
Attract modes are a lost art.
Splatterhouse 2's scrolling pan of the West Mansion estate, corpses wrapped in burlap sacs hanging from the trees, dark clouds covering the sky, wicked Halloween funhouse music, and the sinister laugh of that awful mask.
Classic. Content aside, the uncompromising pace really stuck with me as a kid. A long, uneasy buildup panning across the countryside, finally a bloodening glimpse of horror... and then death stretches on, and on, and on - to the point I was less curious about the bodies, more WTF sort of pixel Jonestown aftermath I was witnessing. And at the very end, bracing for
something to scroll by too close for comfort™, a brief glimpse of a horrendously disfigured but quite dead face with an inscrutable expression and
CUT.Hmm. Well, that was certainly thought-prov
Oh
fuck you, mask.
Jonny2x4 wrote:
Super ContraWHAT IS THIS PLACE? KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED! *hiss* rat-ta-ta-ta!
Special mention also to Super Contra's COIN IN sound effect, the screech of a mortally wounded alien drone getting a coup de grace to its shiny black dong-dome from BIRU RIZER himself. As if the intro wasn't hint enough that this is one mean flame-belching coin-operated motherfucker!
What a hellacious step up from the first game's humble "woop woop" coin in sound. :O Gun Frontier's
(heard briefly in the OP post link) is very cool too, a resonant chord straight out of the mercurially longing/raging OST to come.
I've grown fonder of
Shadow Dancer MD's minimalist yet
ninja as fuck attract sequence. I used to find it overly spare - yo, where are my shaweet dashing ninja boots ala NES Ninja Gaiden?! - but having gained an appreciation of "missing" frames and implied movement, it's easily interpreted as a superhuman burst of speed and precision from Hayate.
Bam! You are already dead! Works particularly well as a lynchpin for otherwise icily controlled movement.
Aria of Sorrow's Game Over screen has always felt like it's referencing something. It's incredibly well done, regardless. Darkly alluring enigma.

I wish it had received a stand-alone illustration. Can be found in even more brutally-compressed form within the game, specifically adorning a wall in the otherwise dull Dance Hall area. The combination of repose and uneasy stare amidst abominable horror reminds me of FC Super Contra's endboss, Beast Kimkou. Maybe that was it?