The SHMUP music sharing game.

[Lander]

This specific version of BURNING HEAT from the Sharp X68000 rendition of Gradius II. Still FM, but with synth voices just a little punchier and more cohesive than the arcade.

[BIL]

Memorial Fragment, from Mahou Daisakusen. Gorgeously melancholy rock n' roll; suits its elegiac stage down to the title. The Mahou trilogy espouses high-octane fantasy metal, and accordingly, all know how to throttle back for scintillating effect. Atsuhiro Motoyama set a dynamic standard for Sakimoto, Iwata, Koyano and Namiki to follow!

Dimahoo/GMD - The Genius of Battle. Extremely fast, intense, and still fits the fantasy aesthetic. It very much feels like a faster version of an RPG battle theme, and now I'm stuck listening to it.

Only just realised, mucking around in ShotTriggers Mahou, the intro references OG Rival BGM "Devastating Disorder."

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Speaking of the smoulderingly dark-hued! With ACA Super Dimension Fortress Macross drawing near, I've been enjoying HIDE-KAZ's juxtaposing of his smouldering post-punk anger with lovably goofy idolisms. Kyuu, kyuu! ZERO-G RABU makes a great Standby BGM! Also liking the Boss BGM's nods to the iconic DOGFIGHTER eyecatch theme! But sure enough, there's that three lads in a freezing garage FURY THAT BURNS FROM INSIDE, boyeee! An odd middle ground is found in its XTRA-aggressive Fairlight hits - used to unmistakably jackboot funkin, bass machinegunnin' Gunnail style, in st2 + st3's ferocious yet exquisitely-shaded percussive attacks.

Such fiery tunes need tracknames - but then, so do Gunnail's! Solid OST, all the better for its dusting of bubblegum.

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Ohshi Only just realised, 25yrs after Naoto Shibata's arrangement of it melted my fuckin face, Metal Yuhki's Dog Fight III isn't named for nothin. ta momihog @ YouToob!

Dog Fight from Super Star Force [Air Battle]
Dog Fight II from Raiga [Stage 5]
Dog Fight III from Thunder Cross 2 [Stage 4]

Vividly fiery triptych, the very image of indomitable shooting valour. Loving the cataclysmic intensity and struggle of Raiga's Part II; an archetypal middle chapter, opposite Part III's cathartic release. Part I seems a popular song in the Japanese VGM community; found lots of arrangements both professional and amateur. Particularly liked this one, by Gopi. Super Star Force is a gap in my FC STG knowledge; I seem to recall writing it off as a Gamp no Nazo-style curio. Probably time to give both another look.

I would love to ask either great man what it was like sharing space on those incredible Konami Battle ASTs. Shibata arranged a bunch of Yuhki's tunes! Was he tempted to bitch-slap him for stealing Bound To Break? Or does real recognise real?

So Hyakutaro Tsukumo isn't the only STG music stalwart with a cross-game trilogy. ("The Justice Ray" Parts 1, 2, and 3 from Blast Wind, Thunder Force V, and uh... Broken Thunder >_> look BT's music is good! FULL METAL GODDESS and MOON OF MIND some good shit! it's just the game that's shite. how about an eXa redo? :3 nah some things are just irredeemable XwX)

[BIL]

Naoya Kamisaka's absolutely balls-out arrangement of Falsion's OST via A-JAX's sound driver. Found it a while back, have been blasting it at floor-shaking volume all day. BONERIZING Seriously, if you've even the remotest fondness for Konami STG music of the era, give it a listen; the boundless optimism and iron-hard tone pair sublimely well. Possible caveat for Fairlight Hit allergy sufferers.

[Lemnear]

This is one of the many BGMs that come back to mind from time to time, like I wake up in the morning with one of these at random.

[BIL]

Rare footage of heavy metal icon pickpocketing Metal Yuhki, instead of the other way round.

Gemini Wing - Stage 5 Boss
Glenn Tipton - Baptizm Of Fire

Pretty generic chord progression ofc. IIRC it's in SMB3's airship theme too. And Diamond Head's epochal Am I Evil, which was a cover of "Mars," from Gustav Holst's "The Planets" suite. Still, odd occurrence for a longtime metal+VGM fan. I've long suspected Gemini's bleakly enveloping st2 outro was another Sabbath riff by Yuhki, specifically "E5150" off Mob Rules.

Incidentally, I always thought Baptizm of Fire would make for a killer full-throttle Mahou airship raid, ala STRATO STORM. And lo and behold, that's pretty much Giga Wing's fifth boss, a prop-driven behemoth over a moody grey sky. Actually, it's one of the earlier (1987) examples of the setpiece I can recall, offhand. There's fellow 1987 landmark 1943's huge battleships, but that's the closest that come to mind.

You wouldn't guess from the Fantasy Zone-cheery opening duo, nor stage 3's grand overture and Stage 4's spiralling dark Baroque fires, but GW packs a brace of diehard power metal, as heard in that ST5 Boss. Not unlike the balancing of fellow Yuhki work Ninja Gaiden, now I think of it.

Stage 6 BGM - Super catchy and tight, yet with a scintillating foreboding. Sounds like a sombrely valorous Dog Fight 1.5; was driving me nuts wondering why it seemed so familiar.

Stage 7 BGM - No slight to Yuhki, but the sheer excellence makes me wonder if he nicked it off someone. An indomitable, tangibly heavy gallop to the final target over treacherously time-shifting ground.

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

Semi-shmup post (Or is it? You fight some bosses shmup-style, and some ports had full on shmup stages).

Found a wonderful tribute album to Chris Huelsbeck today, and on it, this modern remix of the stage 3 theme from Jim Power. Also titled Mutant's Forest on some OSTs, since the game had a LOT of ports. Anyway - considering that this seems to be more of a remaster than a new take - it's now probably the best quality this song is available in. it was also one of the more memorable songs from the game to begin with, which itself had a really experimental soundtrack for the composer's standards, being far more upbeat and rich instead of the usual feel Chris is known for in games (on-the-nose action themes, classic cinematic tracks and dark atmospherics come to mind, with very few upbeat songs inbetween). Mutant's Forest is an extremely unique song that, i'd say, doesn't even fit the game or stage it plays for - that being a fast and snappy action platformer, while the song is extremely melodic and immersive, even in its original incarnations. This was also the only song included in the original genesis prototype of Jim Power before some fans finished it. Purely adding this for posterity, but after posting the fanmade genesis ost, it feels prudent to also include the best one available, which is the PC Engine CD version. (And yes, that's a free excuse to share some cool songs, but is it really an excuse if that's what the thread is for? :3)

I've yet to listen to that new X-Out Resurfaced soundtrack, but finding this reminded me of it as well. Maybe there's some nice stuff in there. (The original X-Out was not particularly outstanding sound-wise imho).

[LordHypnos]

I know the soundtrack has already been noted many times in this thread, but as I was practicing stage 5 of Elemental Master, I felt like it would be worth bringing it up again to share these two tunes:

Terror of the Glacier
Calling on the Dark Dragon King

[BIL]

Evergreen, like all of Tecno Soft's MD and Saturn work. Ultra-beefy power chord tone from Toshiharu Yamanishi (edit: not Ootani! my mistake ^w^) on Dragon King. (can't hear it without my brain adding the HENSHIN POWWA transform sound ) The subtle tremolo on the chorus always stands out, buddy and his colleagues were TRVE metal craftsmen.

Incidentally, discovered this recently. Wasn't too surprised, knew about the Yngwie lift from my old VGM paisano Cecil.

[LordHypnos]

Evergreen, like all of Tecno Soft's MD and Saturn work. Ultra-beefy power chord tone from Ootani on Dragon King. (can't hear it without my brain adding the HENSHIN POWWA transform sound ) The subtle tremolo on the chorus always stands out, buddy and his colleagues were TRVE metal craftsmen.

I agree on all counts!

Incidentally, discovered this recently. Wasn't too surprised, knew about the Yngwie lift from my old VGM paisano Cecil.

That's pretty interesting! I can see why they would want to lift that particular riff, as it really works well for the staff roll. Always love to hear these bits of trivia!

[LordHypnos]

Surprised only one song from Radirgy has been mentioned yet.

A Day in the Park (Stage 2)

On a pretty much unrelated note, I had been meaning to add this particular track from Blazing Star to the thread

Ascenseur (Stage 3)

And one more that I'm surprised I didn't post yet, from Raiden Fighters Jet. Apparently this plays during the "installation" phase of the PCB and thus uses pure FM synth

RFJ01 Menu