Is there any sort of consensus on the best shmup OSTs?

[pestro87]

Great lists guys! Also...

Battle Mania DaiGinJou (MD)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwv0SQ5UTJc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UskiuoHI-4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7D-HRRP7VU


Iridion 2 (GBA)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd9rJ7Lj90E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhZy55Ky658
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4HUzjR60LM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TUJ_zigSwo


And this game kinda sucks but the theme song is amazing:

Vapor Trail (GEN)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG1c2U4ld2Y

[chempop]

Iridian 2 is indeed superb! I love how the title screen allows you to remix the theme, rather brilliant little detail to a somewhat annoying game.

[pestro87]

Iridian 2 is indeed superb! I love how the title screen allows you to remix the theme, rather brilliant little detail to a somewhat annoying game.

Yes! I actually spent more time with that (and listening to the OST in the Jukebox) than actually playing the game, haha. I think I need to organize an Iridion II Title Screen DJ Mix Tournament on this forum at some point

[Aleksei]

Common wisdom states that Zuntata is the best, and then there's the rest.

^ DAT ^

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5NdROcGVDs

[MrOldSchoolCool]

No Offense. But a list of personal favorites doesn't really answer my question. Is that what those lists are?

Nobody has bothered to do a poll because instead of a single person's opinion, you just get a collection of opinions watered down by trends, but it doesn't really gain any value unless you want it for scientific curiosity's sake. Nothing wrong with sticking with stuff you like and finding people whose opinions you trust. Speaking of this, MUSHA has some pretty good tracks, but I'd choose Techno Soft stuff ahead of Compile on the Genesis any day.

I'll take either one any day. I think the soundtrack for Elemental Master is incredible. Too bad the game itself isn't better.

[heisenbergman]

Is there any way to actually get a copy of these OSTs aside from listening to them on YouTube?

[KAI]

You can buy some of them on places like CDJapan or AmiAmi

[Ed Oscuro]

Is there any way to actually get a copy of these OSTs aside from listening to them on YouTube?

Yes, some have been ripped, and of course some were released on CD - you can find copies of many on eBay.

[heisenbergman]

ayt thanks!

don't know where to start -_-

want to do a survey/poll to find out what the "consensus" really is.

[Pretas]

There is no consensus, everyone has their own opinions.

[Jonst]

I'll also add hellfire,Verytex and elemental master (MD)

[heisenbergman]

There is no consensus, everyone has their own opinions.

There being a majority consensus and everyone having their own opinion are not mutually exclusive though.

It's the same principle that points towards The Beatles, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Miles Davis and Bob Dylan being among the consensus great musicians of all time.

It's also the same principle that points towards The Godfather, Pulp Fiction, Seven Samurai, Casablanca & Psycho being among the consensus great films of all time.

I'd imagine there would also be a group of shmup OSTs that will similarly rise to the top if ever a survey or poll was organized.

[trap15]

The Beatles are overrated as fuck, and Bob Dylan can't sing.

[heisenbergman]

and as trap15 has clearly illustrated, there will also be a minority of outliers

(although it is true though, that Bob Dylan can't sing )

[Aleksei]

It's the same principle that points towards The Beatles, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Miles Davis and Bob Dylan being among the consensus great musicians of all time.

They were novel but that doesn't make them great musicians.

[pestro87]

The correct answer is that there is no consensus until someone creates a voting, discussion and results thread for "1st Annual Top 25 Shmup OSTs of All Time". Even so, I'm not sure if you could call that a "real" consensus since you need a large amount of statistics for that (also, not sure if the shmuppers in Japan and France would agree with our list).

[SuperDeadite]

Misirlou?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUS_5gCvHhM

[heisenbergman]

It's the same principle that points towards The Beatles, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Miles Davis and Bob Dylan being among the consensus great musicians of all time.

They were novel but that doesn't make them great musicians.

Regardless of what anyone thinks about them being great musicians, it's still more or less the consensus in pretty much everywhere where music gets discussed.

The correct answer is that there is no consensus until someone creates a voting, discussion and results thread for "1st Annual Top 25 Shmup OSTs of All Time". Even so, I'm not sure if you could call that a "real" consensus since you need a large amount of statistics for that (also, not sure if the shmuppers in Japan and France would agree with our list).

Though I would think that a "Shmups Forum 1st Annual Top 25 Shmup OSTs of All Time" is at the very least a decent-enough starting point as far as the thread topic is concerned.

[evil_ash_xero]

No, but the Musha and Thunder Force soundtracks are quite well liked by most.

[Leandro]

Manabu Namiki is the Yuzo Koshiro of STGs... Battle Garegga's soundtrack made the same impact on me as SoR's

[Despatche]

stuff like iridion ii and battle mania daiginjou and musha aleste and so on are cool for the most part, but i'm bothered by this perceived "incompleteness". i think iridion is hurt the worst by it.

really solid stuff off the top of my head:
-power strike ii (??????????)
-hyper duel (arcade sound please)
-salamander 2
-hellsinker
-recca (i think?)
-touhou hujinroku and chireiden
-raiden fighters jet
-minishoterrs⊿ (aside from the use of multiple trackers)
-tobe! polystars
-daioujou and ketsui, daifukkatsu/black label, saidaioujou

[To Far Away Times]

There are so many shmups with great music:

Anything Touhou
Anything Zuntata
Thunderforce series
M.U.S.H.A.
Ikaruga
Most Cave games

And that's just a small sample.

[brentsg]

DFK Black Label
Dangun Feveron

[EmperorIng]

Anything Zuntata

The soundtrack of Darius Gaiden is partially what got me interested in shootemups in the first place (as soon as I heard CLOSE YOUR EYES I loved the game). Something about watching ELECTRIC FAN boogie across the screen to some wacky Euro-disco[?] just drew me in.

[KAI]

K.H.D.N.
HOSOE+Supersweep
TSUKUMO
NAMIKI+Basiscape
the old ZUNTATA

meh the rest

[ZaKa-tokyobassist]

This is thread is going to ugly real quick. Music taste is so sensitive and subjective. I love rockin' ass synth rock tunes of stuff like Gradius III, Thunder Force V, Battle Garegga, etc. but I also have a taste for stuff like Ikaruga, R-Type Delta, Ketsui, Border Down, etc.

But here's the thing, I absolutely fucking can't stand that cliche anime sugar rush DnB nonsense that plays in 90% of Cave games. I detest it from the bottom of my heart lol. Shmups soundtracks need to make you feel like a badass who's the only person capable of saving the world not like you're in some lame ass AMV from Youtube with cookie cutter JPOP/JROCK playing over it.

So yeah subjectivity is a bastard.

[Special World]

eschatos and ginga force have the best soundtracks imo

battle garegga's is also v good

[pablumatic]

The most memorable soundtracks to me are U.N. Squadron, Thunderforce III, and Darius Gaiden.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

But here's the thing, I absolutely fucking can't stand that cliche anime sugar rush DnB nonsense that plays in 90% of Cave games.

I have absolutely no idea what games you're even ranting about here. Cave's games tend to have such distinct musical styles (see: Guwange, Dangun, Mushi, Akai, all very different) that really each series is significantly distinct in terms of how it sounds. Hell, they've got seriously varied styles within series, just look at how different each of the *pachi soundtracks are to one another, or how Deathsmiles sounds vs Deathsmiles II. If you don't like DnB, fine, but considering Cave's games all sound quite different from one another, that whole "90% of Cave games" smacks of an overgeneralization.

[Squire Grooktook]

I think the one consensus that I've seen, even from people who aren't fans of the genre, is that shmups in general have really lucked out with good composers over the years.

Personally, my favorite osts are Ketsui and Dodonpachi DOJ.