Podcasts by Singing Mountain, A VGM Podcast

Winter VGM: Grand Finale from 2021-12-30T23:20:08

I know I said in the previous episode that there would not be another Singing Mountain winter VGM episode. I lied. This episode — a two-hour, ”all music, no talk” collection of 16-bit winter VGM...

My Save Point Is a Hot Shower from 2021-12-21T04:34:11

Given that Christmas is upon us, you might be expecting a 2021 edition of Singing Mountain’s ice music episode. Unfortunately, it turns out I used all the tracks ...

The Final 16-Bit Halloween from 2021-10-24T07:47:40

Here it is: my last effort at celebrating the spooky season with VGM. I don’t have much to say other than that that this is a mix of new stuff and stuff I’ve play...

Cruise Into Sunset from 2021-09-20T07:52:41

Some of you bemoaned the loss of the Singing Mountain Patreon because it also meant the loss of the ”all music, no talk” versions of episodes that I sometimes posted there. Never fear: the files...

Afternoon Drive 2: Revenge of the Afternoon from 2021-09-13T06:09:17

You’re still driving. It still doesn’t have to be a race.

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Sunset on a Mountain from 2021-08-28T01:24:17

The good news: Singing Mountain is back. The bad news: It’s only coming back for a few more episodes before ending. Due to reasons I explain in the episode, I’ve ...

The Forest of Remarkable Chill from 2021-03-06T03:09:06

This is an experiment. What you have here is ninety minutes of 16-bit forest music, drawn from all four forest episodes of Singing Mountain, only slowed down, pit...

Pixelated Light Shining Through Pixelated Trees from 2021-02-28T23:32:03

I’m going back to my roots, and no, that is not a pun about trees. I decided to revisit the “relaxing forest music” theme that I first did back in the fifth episo...

Christmas Eve in an Ice Cavern from 2020-12-21T20:26:16

Yes, it’s the annual Singing Mountain episode about chilly winter music. The big difference is that this year I’m actually allowing a few tracks that have sleigh ...

A Road Walked by Heroes from 2020-11-30T21:41

A sequel of sorts to the “Lonesome Journeys” episode<...

Attack of the Cutie Pie from 2020-11-16T02:20:44

The episode I intended to put out this week isn’t done yet, but I decided to toss you guys an episode that was previously a Patreon-exclusive. Last year, around the time Singing Mountain hit one...

My 16-Bit Horror Movie from 2020-10-29T07:43:57

This year, I tried to pick tracks that sound like they could be from a horror movie — and not just any horror movie, but a solid B horror flick, watched on VHS, with a synthy score that’s way bette...

Game Over / The Return of Peach from 2020-10-22T19:55:36

It’s a Halloween miracle! As Singing Mountain preps to transfer over to a new hosting site, some of the Patreon-only bonuses from back in the pre-16 bit days are getting folded into the main feed m...

Devil City from 2020-10-19T23:38:15

The sun has gone down and the moon has come up, and it’s not a good time to be in the city. This is part three of a three-part series that began with a drive into the city and led to a fight throug...

Gritty City Sounds from 2020-10-13T06:15:27

Back in the 16-bit era, urban streets were littered with no-good punks who would attack in wave after wave, leaving a group of musclebound heroes no choice but to keep on punching — and hope there ...

Drive Into the City from 2020-09-28T06:03:16

In the grand tradition of Singing Mountain episodes that make driving music of VGM that’s not from driving games, here’s a new one: the soundtrack for a drive into the city that starts out laidback...

The End… as a Beginning from 2020-09-15T10:33:08

Singing Mountain is back. I said it would be back and I meant it. And to contrast this new run of the show from what I left you all on months ago, I decided to put out something a little more hopef...

The Sealed City from 2020-04-14T08:55:11

A disclaimer: This episode won’t be for everyone. It’s been an odd few weeks, and for some reason I’ve been finding comfort in sad stuff rather than just trying to flood my brain with relentlessly ...

All I Want for Christmas Is a Frost Dragon from 2019-12-25T08:58:50

Welcome to this year’s installment of my “Christmas Eve in an ice cavern” series. Do you think winter music could do with fewer jingle bells and more cool, clear chimes that call to mind a lonely, ...

A Relatively Brief Special Announcement from 2019-11-11T06:42:27

This is just a quick post to inform you that Singing Mounatin is going on hiatus for the rest of November — and beyond that too, despite some episodes in December. But no worries — I’ll be back....

A Relatively Brief Special Announement from 2019-11-11T06:42:27

This is just a quick post to inform you that Singing Mounatin is going on hiatus for the rest of November — and beyond that too, despite some episodes in December. But no worries — I’ll be back. Listen

The Dark Side of Nintendo from 2019-10-28T07:39:20

Nintendo may have a reputation as being family-friendly, but even its sunniest franchises have their dark moments. The second Halloween episode of 2019 looks at some of Nintendo’s more sinister mus...

16 Bits From Beyond the Grave from 2019-10-18T09:34:15

Because horror always begets sequels, I’m giving your a follow-up to last year’s creepy 16-bit music episode. It’s all Hallloween-appropriate VGM from the Super Nintendo, Super Famicom, Sega Genesi...

The 100th Episode from 2019-10-08T10:26:19

Against all odds, this podcast persisted and endured, and now we’re at the one-hundredth episode. The best idea I had to celebrate this milestone was sharing all the lesser-known VGM tracks I came ...

Whiskered Eggplants (Songs I Haven’t Played Yet) from 2019-10-04T07:05:53

We’re ninety-nine episodes in, and I’m taking the moment to share some tracks I haven’t yet featured on the show. Some got nixed from the final cuts of previous episodes, and others haven’t even go...

Through Creamed Spinach-Colored Glasses from 2019-09-25T21:55:52

Lifelong gamers might like to reminisce about video game consoles past, but just by the numbers, system that got the most play back in the ’90s was the Game Boy. It outsold every console in its day...

16-Bit Ruins from 2019-09-18T08:13:55

If I made the things you know to suddenly seem different, would that be good? Think about that while you listen to this episode of celebrated 16 bit-era VGM made to sound weird, dark and maybe a li...

Bravely Default 1.0 from 2019-09-05T22:56

Released in 2009 for the Nintendo DS, Final Fantasy: The 4 Heroes of Light is the game that ultimately ended up leading to Bravely Default in 2012. And while Bravely Default improved upon the core ...

Sunset Drive from 2019-08-29T08:35:16

What does a sunset sound like? This episode may well fail to answer that question, but what you might get anyway is the third installment in the (so far) trilogy of Singing Mountain episodes about ...

Choo Choo! (Yeah, It’s a Train Music Episode) from 2019-08-22T06:21:15

Hey, who likes trains? Because I do, and this episode is all about how different VGM composers interpret the sound of the train into actual music. Track listing: 0:25: Charge Man Theme / Mega Man 5...

Welcome to Our Town! from 2019-08-16T08:09:34

Three hours of classic RPG town music. Enjoy. Track listing: 2:13: Town / Final Fantasy (PSP) / Nobuo Uematsu 3:59: Village / Dragon Quest III (Super NES) / Koichi Sugiyama 5:35: Birth of the Peopl...

My Village Is Number One: RPG Town Themes from 2019-08-14T01:16:13

This is not a definitive list of the best-ever RPG town themes. This is the first in what will be a regular feature on Singing Mountain in which I look at various town themes and talk about what I ...

Four Flavors of Forest from 2019-08-08T07:52:58

Do video game composers speak a language that video game players understand? I’d like to think so, and maybe there’s some small proof in the way they score forest scenes. In this episodes, I talk a...

Save Point: Sixteen Bits from 2019-07-31T08:02:13

An hour of relaxing video game music — a pixelated hideout from the world. For this go-around, all tracks are taken from the Super NES and Sega Genesis. The original Save Point episode: https://sin...

David Lynch in Nintendo Land from 2019-07-24T21:06:52

In a departure from the typical Singing Mountain episode, this one isn’t focused on video game music. There still is VGM, it’s just that the episode is more of a deep dive into a very niche subject...

Let’s Get Creative, Mario Maker-Style from 2019-07-19T08:19:01

Every version of the stage themes in Super Mario Maker 2 has both a regular, in-stage version and then a sort of remix you here when you’re in edit mode, building the stage. They’re cool, and they ...

The Retro Sounds of Super Mario Maker 2 from 2019-07-18T01:36:17

One of the not-so-obvious functions of the Mario Maker games is as history archive for the Super Mario series. The newly released Super Mario Maker 2 boasts a whole lot of music, much of which look...

What Does America Sound Like? from 2019-07-11T23:05:36

Video games allow American gamers to see depictions of America that don’t always line up with how they might see themselves. But how do VGM composers shorthand the U.S.A.? I listened to some of the...

Gimmick! in 30 Minutes from 2019-07-04T01:07:58

Released late in Nintendo’s 8-bit run — and even then, only in Japan and Scandinavia — the Sunsoft platforming game known either as Gimmick! or Mr. Gimmick has one of the best soundtracks of that e...

Summer Vacation for People Who Play Video Games All Summer from 2019-06-26T19:28:05

It’s the sound of summer.... specifically for people who’d rather not put on sunscreen or deal with beach traffic. Everything in this episode reads as summery to me, and I will try my best to justi...

Monster World IV in 30 Minutes from 2019-06-21T08:14:31

So there is the Wonder Boy series, the Adventure Island series and finally the Monster World series, which are all related but separate. But in 1994, Sega released Monster Hunter IV for the Mega Dr...

Mario Artist in 30 Minutes from 2019-06-17T09:36:21

Did you know that Japan got a spiritual sequel to Mario Paint in 1999? An entire suite of programs released under the name Mario Artist, it was released for the 64DD peripheral, which never made it...

Your Favorite ’80s Action Movie from 2019-06-13T06:23:35

Because console video games hit mainstream around the same time that America was watching a lot of B-grade action movies, there’s a more-than-occasional similarity between the way ’80s video games ...

Ric Ocasek in Moonside (Reprise) from 2019-06-06T11:26:23

It’s not a rerun; it’s a special edition. This is redo of the fourth episode I ever did on this podcast. I thought that original was good. but being relatively ignorant about podcast-making back in...

My Boiling Blood Bubbles for Battle from 2019-05-30T10:08:57

Samurai Shodown has a lot to offer… just not that one missing W. SNK’s fighter had samurai and non-samurai alike swinging weapons in one-on-one combat, and though it once appeared to be a moribund ...

Lagoon in 30 Minutes from 2019-05-24T07:49:32

An early Super NES title, Lagoon is a Zelda-ish adventure that is today most remembered for its soundtrack. But here’s the thing: That music was initially composed for the game’s first incarnation ...

Winners Don’t Use Drugs from 2019-05-20T06:55:34

Back before mainstream pop started sampling video game music willy-nilly, The Pixies went a step further and wholesale covered a VGM composition: the theme from NARC, a 1988 arcade game. This says ...

A Different Kind of Desert from 2019-05-16T19:19:07

Not every desert sounds the same. The sitar and tabla are Indian instruments that, in video game music, are almost always used to signify the desert. Not every composer buys into this trend, howeve...

Arc the Lad Battle Music in 30 Minutes from 2019-05-10T18:40:57

A big hit in Japan during the PlayStation’s early days, the Arc the Lad series hasn’t endured quite as well as other JPRGs. However, the soundtrack to the first three games — masterminded by Masahi...

Sleepy Time With Squaresoft from 2019-05-02T11:05:47

This is the sound of low-key, 16-bit JRPG, before Enix got all involved. This is for when it’s time to check into the village inn. Track listing: 0:12: Epitaph / Final Fantasy VI / Nobuo Uematsu 2:...

Midnight Mass at Our Lady of Pixels from 2019-04-24T09:07:29

Who likes pipe organs? This episode offers up some of the best pipe organ (or pipe organ-like) music in the history of video games. In almost every instance, this instrument is used to signify the ...

The Groove Is in Space: Lady Miss Kier vs. Ulala from 2019-04-18T09:12:09

What could the 1990 dance hit “Groove Is in the Heart” possibly have to do with video games? It’s kind of a weird story, involving the Sega series Space Channel 5 and — in the context of this episo...

The Minus World (More Mario B-Sides) from 2019-04-11T09:26:31

There’s the Mario music that gets remade time and time again with each new game, but there’s also a great deal of other tracks that don’t. They're good too, however, and a lot more eclectic than yo...

The Magic Effervescence of Athena Asamiya from 2019-04-01T07:07:02

How many versions of Athena Asamiya’s theme can you listen to before you give up? Is Athena the businest high school student this side of Laura Palmer? Is this whole episode an April Fool’s joke? Y...

Afternoon Drive from 2019-03-28T09:09:34

You’re driving, but it doesn’t have to be a race. Track listing: 0:11: Grand Bridge / Yoshi’s Safari / Yoshiki Nishimura, Miyuki Uemura and Yasushi Tokunaga 1:29: Grass Land / Yoshi’s Safari / Yosh...

Link and Mario Go to Coachella from 2019-03-22T10:22:34

Indie rock was one of the biggest genres of the early 2000s. This episode looks at some of the more notable instances of video game music influencing the indie sound, with stories of Super Mario, L...

Valis III in 30 Minutes from 2019-03-15T07:38:21

The Valis series stars long-legged, sword-swinging anime girls, and the third installment has more than one to choose from. This entry in the series also boasts a kickass soundtrack by Jun Hasebe, ...

Hard Rock Minus Guitars from 2019-03-13T08:25:32

Back in the day, video games could rock without featuring anything close to a real guitar. It’s actually a testament to those composers’ ingenuity that they could conjure something from those sound...

Kirby's Dream Land 3 in 30 Minutes from 2019-03-06T03:02:14

The music of the Kirby games is cheerful but not relentlessly so. In fact, Kirby’s swan song on the Super NES, Kirby’s Dream Land 3, has some slightly more down-tempo tracks. This quickie episode i...

Elec Man’s Journey from 2019-02-27T09:04:01

The third installment of Singing Mountain’s look at how VGM interacts with mainstream music focuses on the Elec Man theme from the first Mega Man game. It sounds a lot like a track by Journey, but ...

Power Litany (With Special Guest Star My Roommate!!!) from 2019-02-21T10:44:58

Can you guess how a piece of VGM was supposed to be used in a game you’ve never played? This week, I’m giving you an experiment, and you will decide if it becomes a regular feature on Singing Mount...

Square Over There from 2019-02-15T10:21:46

The 16-bit era of Squaresoft RPGs helped teach a generation of gamers what this style of game could be. But as celebrated as titles like Final Fantasy, Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger were, their...

Throughout the Universe, in Eternity from 2019-02-08T07:25:38

The second installment of the VGM+pop music series looks at Eternal Champions, a 1993 entry in the canon of fighting games that was created by an all-American team of Sega employees. Eternal Champi...

Wizards & Warriors in 30 Minutes from 2019-02-01T09:59:26

The previous episode looked at David Wise’s music before Donkey Kong Country, but purposefully spared on the Wizards & Warriors just because this long-neglected Rare franchise had too much good mus...

David Wise Before Donkey Kong Country from 2019-01-29T08:46:12

In 1994, David Wise became a video game hero as a result of his soundtrack to Donkey Kong Country, but he’d actually been composing music for video games for nearly a decade. This episode looks at ...

Michael and Janet in Video Game Land from 2019-01-21T08:07:06

The first Singing Mountain of 2019 is also the first in a new series looking at the interactions between mainstream pop music and video game music. Though this episode focuses on Michael Jackson an...

Slip Off a Ledge and Die in a Hole from 2018-12-27T09:05:35

Hey, remember winter? The season we’re in right now? In response to audience requests, I decided to get in one more episode about non-jolly winter music. And unlike Episode 33, I talk less on this ...

A Harvest Moon Winter in 30 Minutes from 2018-12-24T00:27:44

Seasons come and go in the world of the Harvest Moon games. This episode is all about the music you hear when snow covers the landscape. It’s all peaceful, but with a twinge of sadness, because it’...

Another Winter from 2018-12-19T22:16:02

Last year, I celebrated the season with a trove of icy blue tracks from wintery video game levels, with none of the mirth and jingle of most Christmastime music. This year, I intended to go cheerie...

Live a Live in 30 Minutes from 2018-12-14T08:43:55

It never left Japan and it’s not the best known of Square’s 16 bit-era RPG outings, but Live a Live should be notable to VGM fans at least for having a great soundtrack composed by Yoko Shimomura. ...

When Smash Bros. Remixes Improve Upon the Originals from 2018-12-04T10:26:06

Nintendo’s Smash Bros. series has become not only an altar to worship the gods of video games past but also a place to pay our respects to video game music. In this episode, I anticipate the arriva...

Unused and Unheard from 2018-11-30T10:56:55

Sometimes great video game music doesn’t end up in the finalized video game, but that doesn’t mean it's gone forever. Singing Mountain celebrates its fiftieth episode (!) with a playlist of lesser-...

Naptime With Nintendo from 2018-11-15T07:05:30

Relax with all your favorite Nintendo franchises except F-Zero, because that one is never relaxing. But hey, Fire Emblem is here and even Metroid. There’s even Panel de Pon! But with this podcast, ...

Little Nemo in 30 Minutes from 2018-11-09T08:08:47

Little Nemo: The Dream Master was a NES-era Capcom platformer that didn’t star a robot or a gargoyle or a millionaire duck. This title was one of the tougher 8-bit platformers, but it was also one ...

My Stepdad Is the Game Master from 2018-11-05T06:45:51

In a Singing Mountain first, this episode features a person who is not me: Katherine Spiers, friend and business partner, comes in to talk about TableCakes, the Los Angeles-based podcast network we...

Street Fighter But With Vampires and Werewolves from 2018-10-29T06:30:13

Singing Mountain’s celebration of Halloween comes to an end with the most Halloween-appropriate fighting series in history, Darkstalkers. This is a “music only” episode befitting the season, but Dr...

16 Bits of Terror from 2018-10-25T06:04:13

The horrors of the Halloween season never sounded creepier than when they were channeled through the audio processors of the Super NES and Sega Genesis. Welcome to my 16-bit nightmare. Track listin...

Cursed Spinach (a Game Boy Halloween) from 2018-10-16T07:03:41

Why does creepy music sound even creepier when channeled through a Game Boy? Maybe it’s that we still think of the Game Boy as a system we played on family trips. Maybe we think about it being more...

An 8-Bit Halloween, Part Two: The Sequel from 2018-10-08T06:30:38

It’s October, and Singing Mountain celebrates the Halloween season with the first actual, fully fledged sequel episode: a follow-up to Episode 10: An 8-Bit Halloween from October last year. Like th...

The Legend of the Haunted Arcade from 2018-10-05T08:01:28

Horror-themed games are relatively rare in the arcade, but this first October episode looks at a handful of ’80s titles that sound spooky in the good way. This Friday episode features tracks from H...

A Beautiful Place by Moonlight from 2018-09-28T08:24:46

Night doesn’t have to be scary. This episode brings together video game music that suggests the ways night can be the most exciting part of the day. I’m calling this a sequel to Episode 11, Moonlig...

Doshin the Giant in 30 Minutes from 2018-09-22T21:09:14

It’s a game you maybe haven’t heard of. And if you have heard of it, you probably haven’t played it. And even if you have played it, you probably still haven’t heard the “full” soundtrack. Spend th...

Save Point from 2018-09-13T07:01:20

Sometimes you just need a break. This episode is all about relaxation… and I promise I’ll do an episode where I intro every track next week. For now? Just kick back and go to a pixelly place. Track...

Super Adventure Island in 30 Minutes from 2018-09-07T07:02:02

Streets of Rage and the Ys series most likely top most VGM fans’ lists of the best-composed Yuzo Koshiro games, but they'd likely be leaving out his unlikely turn in Super Adventure Island, where h...

The VGM Dance Mixtape from 2018-09-04T07:09:14

It's a super megamix of the dance tracks featured in episodes 29, 30 and 31, plus some extras from previous episodes, all adding up to just under two full hours of video game music you can dance to...

Samurai Shodown in 30 Minutes from 2018-08-31T08:17:06

The classic SNK hacking and dicing fighter finally gets its Singing Mountain spotlight, and everyone is going to lose a limb. In roughly thirty minutes, you'll get traditional Japanese compositions...

The Problem With Chai Kingdom from 2018-08-28T08:18:04

Mario’s first-ever adventure on a portable system has a great soundtrack, but its final world, Chai Kingdom, features an example of a certain melody that has long been a shorthand for all manner of...

Mega Man 3 in 30 Minutes from 2018-08-24T21:04:42

Today I'm rolling out a new feature on Singing Mountain: a regular Friday afternoon "mostly music" episode that gives you a solid thirty minutes of music. This first week focuses on the NES classic...

Least Likely to Be in Smash Bros. from 2018-08-21T08:26:40

A history lesson (with musical aids!) that explores lesser-celebrated Nintendo games by pointing out which characters are probably not going to be playable in the upcoming Smash Bros. game, from Sk...

Return to Big Ape City from 2018-08-13T07:02:04

Long live King K. Rool! In Donkey Kong Land, the Donkey Kong Country games had spinoffs on the Game Boy that tread into weird territory not covered by the Super NES version of the series. This epis...

Rhapsody in Creamed Spinach from 2018-08-08T08:06:04

This is a celebration of the sounds of the classic, green screen-era Game Boy, which can be as beautiful as what you'd hear on any fancypants console system capable of displaying full color. Thanks...

Beyond River City from 2018-08-01T07:09:29

Though probably most familiar to North American gamers as the series that gave us River City Ransom and Crash and the Boys, the Kunio-Kun series is one of the longer-lived and more varied in video ...

Dancing With Mi Amiga from 2018-07-26T07:04:07

The third and final installment in Singing Mountain’s series on dance music in video games takes a detour into the wild world of the Amiga, and the many kinds of electronic genres that you can hear...

A VGM Dance Party from 2018-07-17T11:37:04

Rad! Another look into dance music in video games that probably wasn’t meant for dancing but you totally could if you wanted to. This episode pulls from dance music of all types, including EDM, fun...

Disco Night at Club Sugar from 2018-07-08T22:03:38

Dance-y. Synth-y. This is what nostalgia sounds like. Anyone who grew up in the 1980s knows that there’s a great deal of that era’s music echoed in video games. This episode looks at one style of ’...

Have a Pixelated Summer! from 2018-06-25T07:35:33

Pixelated waves crashing onto a 16-bit shore. Welcome to summer, or at least a reasonable video game reproduction of summer. Track listing: 0:07: Summers, Eternal Tourist Trap / Earthbound / Hirosh...

Wario and the Golden Pyramid from 2018-06-11T07:01:25

The last handheld Wario Land outing had one of the best and weirdest soundtracks ever featured in a Nintendo title. But while this episode is a showcase for composer Ryoji Yoshitomi, it’s also a gi...

The Overworld Mixtape from 2018-05-29T07:13:45

Here is what it sounds like to be a tiny person traversing a big world. This is a remix + extended cut of the previous episode that started out as a side project and quickly grew into a full-fledge...

Lonesome Journeys from 2018-05-24T09:27:08

A hero’s journey can be lonely. Think about what it was like to start a new game, see your tiny sprite on the map screen for the first time and then wonder about what all you might be doing in this...

Staring Into the Stars and Seeing Something Staring Back from 2018-05-15T07:11:27

This is an experiment in which I'm trying to tell a story using video game music. I'm not sure if the story will translate, but even if it doesn't, you're going to hear some awesome, spacey tracks....

Dixie Kong's Double Soundtracks from 2018-05-09T11:02:27

The third Donkey Kong Country title is the black sheep of the series for a few reasons, but I'm here to sing its praises. It's especially unique in that it got two different soundtracks: one by Eve...

Super Mario B-Sides from 2018-05-02T10:04:35

This is a celebration of the less famous songs from Mario games and Marioverse games. These are not the familiar, nostalgic tracks that get redone again and again. No, these are the catchy, weird a...

Night Fight in Facepunch City from 2018-04-25T11:11:03

The Streets of Rage series had one of the best soundtracks ever, and that music helped define the early '90s era of muscled vigilantes walking city streets and punching bad guys. This episode celeb...

Hey, Gang! Let’s Explore the Music of the Commodore 64! from 2018-04-17T10:16:23

If you're like me, you encountered the Commodore 64 as a classroom edutainment tool only. But if you did, you missed out on a whole library of "real" video games and some of the most epic and most ...

The Queen of Trees from 2018-03-30T19:22:37

I want you live in the 16-bit fantasy world you used to dream about, but giving you the soundtrack for that world is the best I can do at the moment. This is a mix of music that I can only call "me...

Race to Your Death! Or Don't! from 2018-03-19T06:30:05

Think about what a racing video game sounds like and you'll come up with an answer pretty quickly. But what about VGM tracks that kinda-sorta-maybe sound like they're from racing games when they're...

The Laidback Fighting Game Mixtape from 2018-03-10T04:20:54

This is a music only remix of my last episode, about laidback music in fighting games, in which "laidback" = relaxed, cheerful, atmospheric and in any other way unusual for the background music of ...

A Most Chilled-Out Fisticuff from 2018-03-05T20:54:08

Typical fighting music is exactly what you'd want as a soundtrack to two people kicking the crap out of each other, but sometimes composers throw in a random laidback track. This episode is all abo...

Disney Afternoon, Presented by Capcom from 2018-02-22T10:10:09

Capcom gave us a generation of NES games inspired by Disney’s animated series but set these games to soundtracks that were wholly original. Sure, games like DuckTales and Rescue Rangers also have 8...

Bad Girls Club from 2018-02-15T03:03:57

I'm celebrating Valentine's Day with the video game characters I love most: bad girls. This is a collection of music associated with big bads, supervillainesses, henchwomen and general badasses who...

Music From When I Missed Video Games from 2018-01-29T09:57:20

Hey, do you need to listen to some low-key, ambient video game music? Half a lifetime ago, your host was a college freshman sorely in need of both video games and downtime, and he made a mix to get...

Terra / Tina from 2018-01-20T00:22:32

In this short episode, I talk about how Terra's theme is reused throughout the first half of Final Fantasy VI, and how that might trick players into thinking she's the main character and that there...

The Best Saxophones in Video Game Music from 2018-01-09T00:50:33

"No, there atcually *are* some kickass saxaphones in video game music," Drew said, responding to no one. Yes, this is an unabashed appreciation of saxophones and their digital reproductions as they...

Diamond Dust from 2017-12-23T10:22:31

What if you celebrated Christmas in a 16-bit ice cavern? That's the mood this episode wants to create for you. In this end-of-year installment, I'm trying to get together the best of the less holly...

Bonus Episode: The Cuphead Vinyl Mixtape from 2017-12-07T20:17:01

Cuphead features an old-timey aesthetic that is well-matched with a retro throwback soundtrack by Kristofer Maddigan. However, it was pointed out to me how great the game's mostly big band soundtra...

Moonlight Drive from 2017-12-05T09:50:32

What does a nighttime drive through the city sound like? Here are thirty video games that attempt to answer that question. Starting with the theme to Toad's Turnpike from Mario Kart 64, this episod...

An 8-Bit Halloween from 2017-10-26T23:56:45

Halloween + video game nostalgia. If your old NES was haunted, it would sound like this. This extra episode features music from Castlevania, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Megami Tensei, Splatterhouse ...

The Vengeful Ghost of Super Mario from 2017-10-16T20:03:31

Yes, the Mario games have often been relentlessly cheerful, but sometimes Nintendo allows the mustachioed one and his pals to tread into darker territory. And the music that accompanies these ventu...

Let's Journey Together! from 2017-09-18T19:20:15

Seiken Densetsu 3 was never officially translated and brought to the U.S., but you can still enjoy the game's soundtrack. In this episode, Drew talks about how this sequel to Secret of Mana sounds ...

The Legend of Deep Purple from 2017-08-13T21:40:44

Discussed herein: The likely (but not yet proven) connection between the original Legend of Zelda and the British rock band Deep Purple, as well as Koji Kondo's past in a cover band, those people w...

One Toot on This Whistle from 2017-08-08T22:28:49

The flute noise from the original Legend of Zelda has resurfaced in later games, woven into the soundtrack in sometimes hard-to-notice ways. In this episode, I'm attempting to round them up, all wh...

Bonus Episode: The Forest Mixtape from 2017-08-02T00:38:41

A little something extra! Here's all the tracks from episode five (plus a few more that got cut from the final edit) mixed together into one uninterrupted longplay. Think green. Chill out. Norfest ...

What the Forest Taught Me from 2017-08-01T23:16:36

It's hot, and I'm taking refuge from the heat with some of the most beautiful forest themes composed in video games. Among the titles featured: Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, Donkey Kong Country 2...

Ric Ocasek in Moonside from 2017-07-06T01:24:23

It's a deep dive into the wonderfully weird music of Nintendo's Earthbound/Mother 2, but it's also a personal essay of sorts, as Drew tracks his association with a Ric Ocasek song that he didn't ev...

Giana from Germany from 2017-06-26T22:35:35

The Great Giana Sisters is a Commodore 64 title best known for imitating Super Mario Bros., but the game's soundtrack is actually pretty awesome. In this episode, we look at how the Great Giana Sis...

Wet Metal from 2017-06-17T21:55:11

Music is a big part of the Mega Man games, in more ways than you might think. This episode looks at the relationship between the games' stage music and the boss waiting at the end of those stages. ...

It's Raining Swords from 2017-06-12T03:22:52

The first episodes kicks off with a track from Super Mario RPG. This selection quickly told players how this game would be a radical departure for a Super Mario game, and more than twenty years lat...