Sonic Superstars and beyond. Sega makes up for lost time, part 3...

In the previous blog I talked about the new game mechanic added to Sonic Superstars. Sonic, and his friends could harness the power of the individual Chaos Emeralds. Each one provided a temporary power-up for the heroes. I said that the reason why Sonic Superstars used the Chaos Emeralds instead of the Wisps from Sonic Colors was because there were two different Sonics. To be more specific there were two Sonics from two different universe / timelines. The version featured in Superstars was based on the original game from 1991. That was to say the animation, direction, and game play were based on the original Sonic Team designs. This version of the blue blur was young, and idealistic. The challenges, and threats he faced were scary, but also family friendly. In the original trilogy none of the characters spoke, not even Dr. Eggman. The entire game was told through pantomime. The version of Sonic that spoke, the one that people knew from the movies, or games like Sonic Frontiers was based on the “modern” version. This version debuted with Sonic Adventure in 1999. It was something that I do not think most casual fans understood.

For the longest time I don’t think that Sega themselves understood that there were two distinct versions of the character. Two distinct versions of the supporting cast, timeline, enemies, and especially the game play. The cosmetic changes made to Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Knuckles in Sonic Adventure were done to make the characters easier to animate in three-dimensions. The modelers extended the length of the arms, and legs. They changed the proportions of the head, and body. The needed to do this because the old proportions were difficult to track with a three-dimensional camera. To audiences it looked like Sonic had grown up, matured in his new titles. As the series went on it started to become more, and more obvious that the look, and feel of Sonic in three-dimensions was a different thing entirely to the 2D Sonic that launched a franchise.

The distinction between the original, and post Adventure Sonic came to a head in 2010. The 20th anniversary of Sonic was coming up, and a new game was expected. The original game came out in 1991, Sonic 2 in 1992, and Sonic 3 in 1994. Sega teased something called “Project Needlemouse” with a promise to go back to the classics. Sure enough they went back to the 2D game play with 2.5D graphics. Yet they used the proportions, and game play of the modern character. Sonic, Tails, and the rest of the cast were not classic at all. Sonic 4: Episode I debuted in 2010. It was met with harsh criticism because it vaguely captured the look of the classic game, but completely missed the feel of the title. It felt like it had one foot in two different universes, and didn’t fully commit to being a worthy sequel. A number of the control, and design issues were ironed out for Sonic 4: Episode 2 in 2012.

Thankfully Sega didn’t put all their chips on one title at the start of the 2010’s. The studio released Sonic Generations in 2011. The game established the canon of two timelines, and two distinct versions of Sonic. The classic version that I grew up with, and the modern version that my kid knew. Playing through the game was literally a way for us to bond as a family. It played like a highlight reel for the mascot. We got a chance to revisit tons of familiar locations in updated 3D graphics. This was done much better than what we saw in Sonic 4. They set a standard that would only be topped by Colors, and later on by Superstars. The best part was the game play perfect for each version of Sonic. Although they both visited locations used in Sonic’s 1-3, Sonic Heroes, Sonic Unleashed, etc. the ones played by classic Sonic were all set in a 2D perspective, and the modern Sonic raced on open 3D tracks. The developers clearly understood the assignment, and made certain that fans of each type of game play were rewarded.

Reactions to Sonic games post Sonic Adventure 2 (those released through the 2000’s) were a mixed bag. Some of the console, and handheld titles were beloved. Some took a while to warm up to, and a few were despited by long-time fans. The one thing that was consistent good were the soundtracks. The music featured in the games had always been well done. In the ‘90s I made sure to run down to the Japanese bookstore, and put in an order for the CDs whenever a game had come out. From Dreams Come True to Crush 40, wether the scores were pop, hard rock, or even Hip Hop the composers delivered in each title. Sonic Generations redid the scores from the various sequels to great effect. It featured a classic, and modern variation of the songs that complimented the originals. Generations helped introduce new players to the fun game play, and memorable songs better than just about any anniversary title in the past 20 years.

Despite all the praise I heaped on Sonic Superstars it was not without its failings. The game suffered from a number of technical issues that ranged from minor inconveniences, to game play breaking problems. The biggest technical issue that I had with the title was constant frame rate drops. This was especially upsetting because Sonic is all about hight speed action, but certain parts of the game felt unplayable when you couldn’t see the character. Timing jumps, spotting enemies, and making it through critical sections were almost impossible. I was on the Playstation 4 version, but the fact that it wasn’t an issue during play testing, or patched after release disappointed me. Watching videos on YouTube I could see that my version was possibly the one that suffered the most.

Normally I couldn’t wait to play through a Sonic game again after completion. The performance issues made me rethink how eager I was for a replay. It betrayed all of the love that went into the game itself. Despite the greatest intentions Sonic Superstars couldn’t surpass Sonic Mania Plus. This had much more to do than just a difference between using 3D models over 2D sprites. So where did it go wrong for Sega? I’ll explore that in the next entry to this series. Did you get a chance to play this game? If so what were your thoughts. I’d like to hear about it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Street Fighter 6 Original Soundtrack Release Event

Hello friends, I have an extra special weekend posting for you. Earlier this week there was a special event announced by Capcom. Here is the official statement. 

Join us at Amoeba Hollywood as Capcom celebrates the release of the Street Fighter™ 6 Original Soundtrack Collector’s Edition Vinyl on Tuesday, February 20th at 5pm! Featuring a special performance by artists behind the video game’s songs “Not On The Sidelines” and “Legends” – GRP, Randy Marx, Rocco 808, and Jayy Starr – and an intimate conversation with Takayuki Nakayama (Game Director), Yoshiya Terayama (Lead Composer), Shuhei Matsumoto (Game Producer), and Koyo Sonae (Soundtrack Executive Producer).

The album, and the extras are perfect for collectors. I love the attention to detail that the studio put into the releases. I didn’t pick up the day of the signing, as I had just paid my car insurance. Thus I didn’t have extra funds, but I will hopefully be getting the set soon. I still wanted to support the Street Fighter crew, and the musicians as well. I decided to dress up for the event. If you have been following my blog then you would know that I was always eager to go to any Street Fighter event in the LA area.

Whether it was the original Street Fight Club, or the Super Street Fighter IV Launch Party, or the Street Fighter X Tekken event, then I would dress up in my El Fuerte mask, and show out. The original mask was made out of a white tee shirt, and foam sheets. The second mask from around 2009 was made by an actual luchador mask maker in Mexico. I had long since retired that mask, as it started showing wear, and tear from age. I don't think I've worn it in almost 10 years, but it will always be an important part of my memories. 

Given my size (6' 7", 300+ lbs) I wanted to put together a Zangief outfit, and possibly a Mike Haggar costume. I was always a Zangief main, with Hugo, Sodom, Alex, and Birdie also being secondary characters. But that cosplay was supposed to be for some point in the far future. Then six days before the Amoeba event I decided to get serious about putting something together. I got a haircut the night before the signing. My brothers had been trying to get me to sport a Mohawk for 30 years. I finally obliged. I guess the look does work on me.

The primary challenge was putting together the suit. I actually had a gray striped suit, black tie, and vest from a wedding that happened a few years ago. The thing that I didn’t realize was that I had lost a lot of weight from when I first got the suit, so it ended up being really baggy on me. I’ll have to get it tailored next time there is a Capcom event. I didn’t have a red shirt, but thankfully I found one at the local JcPenney.

I got an inexpensive watch chain, wrist watch, and pocket watch from eBay. I think I only paid $30 for all of those combined. To add an extra layer of authenticity the pocket watch was an old Soviet timepiece. I also bought arm garters, but I forgot to wear them when I got dressed the night of the signing. The only thing I’m missing is Zangief’s gold pin on the vest. If anybody has a 3D printer, or could help me source one then please let me know!

It was a rainy night in LA during the signing. The winter weather had been very strange in the southland for the past two years. It’s been much wetter than normal. Los Angeles County can go months, if not years without steady rain during winter. My wife, and I made it out to Hollywood, and found parking just in the nick of time. The crowd had already started growing inside the Amoeba Records.

The Street Fighter 6 team, and record producers did a Q&A session, while the record store played selections of the soundtrack in the background. I know somebody was filming but I don’t know when, where, or if the video will be shared.

The questions were thorough. We found out about the challenges of approaching a popular franchise with a new musical approach. The team talked about incorporating Hip Hop into the soundtrack, and searching for authentic voices that could capture the spirit of the brand. As for the special edition album, Koyo Sonae explained how he grew up with the Street Fighter II book, and CD. He said that it was very influential to him while growing up. He would listen to the CD while pouring over the illustrations.

I think Mr. Sonae was referring to the Street Fighter II Complete File book. It had a lot of concept art, and character art that was extremely rare. He wanted the SF6 albums to have the same reception with the current generation of fans. That’s why it came with an album sized book featuring detailed illustrations, and original art. It would be the kind of thing that fans would be pouring over again, and again while listening to the game music.

The translator did a great job memorizing the lengthy questions, translating them for the team, and then memorizing the lengthy responses, and letting the audience know. There’s no way I’d be able to do anything remotely close to that in English, and Spanish. I’d have to translate one sentence at a time just to keep up.

After the Q&A session the team took a short break. Amoeba then lined up the guests, and set up a table for the signing. For those of us that didn’t purchase the album, we were allowed to get a limited print for an autograph. That was a very generous surprise. I was prepared to go home early, as the web site said the signing was for purchases only. My wife, and I literally turned up just to show our support.

Takayuki Nakayama got a laugh out of my outfit, and commented that even my belt was spot on. On the other posters he was just signing, but for mine he drew a Zangief. That was the first blessing of the night.

Mr. Nakayama asked for a picture, and posted it on Twitter / X that night. I thanked him, and the team on his post. He then followed me! A second blessing! My night had absolutely been made!!! Thank you to Amoeba Music for hosting the event. Thank you to Takayuki Nakayama, Yoshiya Terayama, Shuhei Matsumoto, and Koyo Sonae. Thank you to GRP, Randy Marx, Rocco 808, and Jayy Starr! I wish you all continued success.

I encourage visitors of my blog to support the fighting game community, and the larger gaming world any way you can. If you can host a tournament that’s great. But if you can help mentor young players, share their interests, and encourage their hobbies that would be even better. I’m getting old, and gray, but my passion for Street Fighter has never been hotter. If you ever get a chance to attend an event I encourage you to do so. It’s a chance to make some friends, and learn what goes into making your favorite titles. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Bringing my Arcadia magazines in out of the rain...

If you have been visiting this blog for a while you might remember that I made myself ill while working on the Street Fighter 6 deep dive. I had a whole new perspective on my life, and my health while I was recovering. I thought about my family, my friends, and the loves in my life. Should anything happen to me I wanted to share online as much, if not all the gaming items I had collected through the years. To do that I needed to bring in my collection out of the garage, and into the apartment. In late summer/ early fall of 2023 I brought over my game books, comics, manga, and magazines. The majority were from Japan. It gave me a tremendous peace of mind, but was incomplete. I would have to return to the garage to do more digging.

Granted, I used to have a much larger collection. Decades ago there was a flood in my mom’s garage, where I lost the majority of my US gaming magazines, comics, and monster truck magazines. It broke my heart throwing away decades worth of memories that were ruined, and dissolving. About 15 years after I lost them I started rebuilding my monster truck magazines, and in the early 2020’s had them mostly restored, plus other gems that I never owned. By a fluke most of my Japanese issues were spared during the floods, and multiple moves. I set them aside, and kept them in storage, and our garage for years, and years. With the freak storms in Southern California started picking up in 2023-2024 I didn’t trust that they were going to be safe much longer. To keep them out of the elements I cleared out room in my hallway, and hallway closet. This month I brought over another big chunk of my collection, specifically my issues of Arcadia magazine.

In case you didn’t know there were some fantastic magazines coming out of Japan. The most popular from the ’80s to today was Famitsu, but as far as arcade gaming went there was nothing better than Gamest. I had a bunch of those issues from the early ‘90s through their last issue in 1999. I had brought them into the apartment last fall. When Gamest magazine closed down a number of their writers, and editors launched a new magazine called Arcadia. I started collecting those issues shortly after 2000, and even had a subscription from the middle of the decade, all the way until their last issue at the end of 2012. Of all the magazines I owned it was the longest consecutive streak still in my possession. I loved all the Japanese mags in my collection because they were a repository of an entire era.

In addition to previews, and reviews these magazines were also places where the developers shared concept art, and official character art. In many instances these games would never get an official strategy guide, or art book. So these were the only places where fans could see the work of some brilliant creators. It was a privilege to be able to refer back to them, and study the work that went into the creation of some little-known arcade games, as well as the most popular titles.

The magazines also would publish episodes of a manga based on a popular games, like the Street Fighter series. They would have recurring columns from pro gamers like Daigo Imahura, and interviews with SFIV, and SFV producer Yoshinori Ono. As if that wasn’t a great insight to the gaming community the magazines would sometimes throw in a poster, or even a paper craft model.

Those weren’t the only cool things that they included. In several issues there were music CDs, DVD previews of games, and even entire fighting game tournaments included in plastic sleeves. Japan hosted the Arcadia cup, which was sort of like their EVO tournament. Many of the best players of today cut their teeth in those contests.

The thing that I especially loved in the pages of Gamest, and Arcadia were the collectables from popular games. There were officially licensed soft goods, hats, shirts, jackets, etc. of various franchises. There were also toys, and statues that you could only order from their pages. If you were a serious gamer in Japan then chances were you had ordered some exclusives from those magazines.

If there was a game merchandise item you wished was produced what would it be? A cosplay piece? A weapon recreation? A tee shirt, or toy? I wish some of the skateboard decks from Sega’s Top Skater had been produced. I actually own a plastic deck from the actual arcade cabinet. But I mean I’d like one of the skateboards from the in game characters. How cool would a pair of the jet-powered inline skates from Jet Set Radio look hanging on your wall? I’d like to hear about which collectable you wish was made it in the comments section. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The rarest game CD's I have - A 1UP classic from March 15, 2012

Today the gems are being imported to the playlist. Here are the rarest gaming CD's that I have.

The Jet Grind Radio and Jet Set Radio Future soundtracks are a must-own item for any player. These two can be picked up on Amazon and a few other sites.

The rarer releases that complimented the original soundtracks were the music samplers. They had some of the songs featured in the game yet which weren't on the official soundtrack. Even with all these releases Sega never managed to have one definitive soundtrack which had all of the music featured in the original Jet Set Radio.

Ollie King was a sort of spiritual successor to JSR. The soundtrack was created by Hideki Naganuma, the person that wrote about half of the songs featured in both JSR games. Crackin' DJ was from the rare Sega arcade title which featured original scratch DJ tunes.

The NiGHTS soundtracks and remixes are probably not as rare as the JSR Samplers, except for the original NiGHTS into dreams… soundtrack that is. The OST is probably the jewel of my entire CD collection. I keep the soundtrack in mint condition. It goes for a king's ransom on eBay and I plan on holding onto my copy forever. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Designing a sequel to 720°, Bonus Entry!

I did have one other idea for the 720° sequel that didn’t fit in with the other blog entries. I was focused on the graphics, controls, and changes to both Skate City, and the competitions that I forgot to mention the soundtrack to the game. I would feature remixes of the classic songs by Earl Vickers, and Hal Cannon. I think that they are both still alive, I’d see if I could get them out of retirements for a few new pieces. Also we have the great cover of the OST by Metronome the City, I’d be sure to incorporate that as well. The game is an homage to the ‘80s skate culture, and classic arcade gaming. I’d try to put together a greatest hits of New Wave, and punk bands that shaped the generation. Groups like Oingo Boingo, Stiff Little Fingers, and The Toy Dolls covered a broad spectrum of US, and British influences. Then there were the faster thrash, and punk songs from Suicidal Tendencies, and Pennywise who helped shape the biggest arcade, and console skate hits. Although Pennywise, and a few other acts were born in the ‘90s, they were still an important part of the scene, and should be included.

In addition to digital format downloads, I would offer a limited edition run on vinyl. The original soundtrack was the very first one to be released on Flexi-Disk. It is highly desired by skate collectors, and arcade fans alike. When Metronome the City released their version they also offered it in a digital, and vinyl format. Putting the 720° sequel soundtrack on a physical record would be a nod to the legacy. Not only that, I would have secret outfits, and skateboards available for those that purchased the soundtrack. Perhaps something inspired by the “Cyco Punk” outfits of Suicidal Tendencies. Which are based in part on Southern California Latino Gang culture. Then there’s the even more iconic outfits worn by DEVO, including the “Energy Dome” helmets worn by the band. I'd certainly enjoy rocking out to the game while my character sported this look.

Do you remember any video game soundtrack ever offering unique in-game items? I’m sure this would be a welcome surprise for fans of the game, and help build enough support to get another game off the ground, if not inspire a team of developers to revisit Skate or Die. What do you think about that? Would you get a limited-edition soundtrack if it offered unique items for the game? Or do you just like listening to rad music? Let me know in the comments section, and I hope I have inspired you to check out skate games from any era. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

720° - the Ultimate Aerial Experience, a look at the original skateboard hit, part 2...

The thing that initially caught my eye with 720° was the arcade cabinet. It looked unlike any other cabinet of that time. With it’s oversized monitor, speakers hidden inside a “boombox” attached to the top, enormous multicolored skateboard stickers, and checkerboard pattern. I always enjoyed the fictional band name “Face Plant” listed on the cassette tape graphic. The whole package made it look like a Vision-meets-Vans skate ad come to life. Studios tried to create cabinet art, and marquees that stood out. There was only so much they could do as just about every cabinet was the same size. 720° broke the mold, no game looked even remotely close to Atari’s best. It was impossible to pass up the title in any lineup.

It turned out that the studio had put much more time into the game than just about any other title. I wasn’t aware of that until I started digging through its history. I found that there was an interview with the team in the March 1987 issue of Thrasher magazine. That issue also featured a full-color ad featuring pro skater Steve Caballero. Thrasher back then ran mostly black and white, with spot color in certain pages. It wasn’t as polished, or professional as Transworld Skateboarding magazine, but it was certainly respected by the most hardcore of skaters. It surprised me that they would be the people that published the story. Arcades were fairly mainstream at that point, and Thrasher was seen as more core or underground, but the game was loved by skaters, and non-skaters alike.

Just for perspective Atari was a California Bay Area company based in Milpitas. They were founded by Nolan Bushnell in 1972. This was the era when Silicon Valley was being paved. Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak worked at Atari for a short spell before founding Apple Computers in 1976. In the Thrasher article Rob Rowe was credited as an Atari Technician, and the man who came up with the idea for 720°. Rowe said he worked with Programmers John Salwitz, and Paul Kwinn, plus game designer Dave Ralston. The development of the game took 18 months of full-time involvement from the core team, according to Thrasher. It was released in December 1986.

As any skater could tell you the animation was very spot on to actual skateboarding, and skate tricks from the mid-‘80s. It turned out the company had done a tremendous amount of research. The studio first recorded a Mile High halfpipe contest in Tahoe City, possibly the “Terror in Tahoe” contest from 1985 which resulted in the county tearing down the ramp afterward. Rowe, and his teammates learned they needed to do more research. While visiting the Sessions Skate Shop in Sunnyvale CA pro skater Andy Berenson convinced them to build a ramp in the Atari warehouse. He skated with other pros including Corey O’Brien, Doug Smith, Steve Caballero, Keith Meek, Rob Roskopp, Joe Spalero and others from the San Jose area. The list of credits includes animators Sam Comstock, Mark West, and Will Noble. Music by Hal Cannon, and Earl Vickers. Audio by Brad Fuller. General thanks to Dave Cook, Dennis Harper, Russell B. Dawe, and Jess Melchior. A number of these people had their initials appear as graffiti within the streets of Skate City.

The team working on the game had to be massive (for the time) because of how ambitious the project was. In addition to the skaters being used for early rotoscoping efforts, the studio had to put together entirely new hardware. Atari designed a higher resolution 25"monitor for the game, most cabinets used 19" displays at that time. The hardware the game was programmed on was known as the Atari System 2. It was also used on Paperboy, Super Sprint, Championship Sprint, and A.P.B. The soundtrack was the biggest highlight in my opinion. With 13 custom tracks it was the first video game soundtrack released on flexi-disk. Years ago I managed to find an actual disk to add to my collection of gaming artifacts. Earl Vickers, and Hal Cannon composed many of the great tunes featured in the golden era of Atari. If you look at the initials that pop up on Atari arcade leaderboards they were listed as HAL, and EAR.

The music they laid out in 720° was arguably their best work. It was influenced by punk rock, which along with New Wave, was the default soundtrack of many skaters of the time. Atari let players know their efforts wouldn’t get lost in the mix. The company built that faux boombox with huge speakers atop the arcade cabinet, blasting players in the face with the high energy music. This helped pull you into the world they created. I can only imagine that this detail was taken from real life. The crew that skated the Atari ramp undoubtedly put a boombox up there during their sessions.

The game was a revelation. It was one of the hottest games in the arcade the holiday of 1986, going through the rest of ’87, and ’88. It was hitting at the peak of skate mania. With the Bones Brigade, and other skate teams were becoming household names. People like Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Neil Blender, Christian Hosoi, and Lance Mountain were becoming influential in the art, and mainstream communities as well. Audiences were dying for great skate video games. There was nothing that could touch 720° in the arcade for more than a decade. The home market was different. The NES version of was horrible, there was thankfully another game that was just as influential. Skate or Die by Electronic Arts was a certifiable hit on the PC, and later on the home consoles.

The team behind Skate or Die wasn’t as big as Atari’s, but they nonetheless hit the experience out of the park. Producer Don Traeger, Designers Michael Kosaka, Stephen Landrum, and David Bunch worked with programmer Stephen Landrum, artists Michael Kosaka, and Nancy Fong, as well as composer Rob Hubbard. They allowed players to explore different events, similar to 720°, but without a timer, or angry bees forcing the player to go from place to place. There was a ramp, race, and pool contest. They didn’t have as much realism in the graphics, and animation department as Atari’s hit, but they made up for it by providing completely different game play. For example the game created virtual rivals to challenge the player. Starting with Poseur Pete, and becoming harder through Aggro Eddie, and the ultimate rival Bionic Lester. These skaters would race you down alleys, and beat you senseless in a game of pool joust. The addition of events, names, and faces, especially the uncredited visage of Rodney Dangerfield helped add dimension to the game.

720° never received a sequel, but Skate or Die did. The sequel played like a typical NES adventure game, with the character skating instead of walking everywhere. The ramp portion was well done, but that was about the highlight of the title. Most people still hold the original Skate or Die in high regards. Its influence could be felt on a generation of game players. I know more than a few people that mistakenly thought 720° was called Skate or Die. Or that somehow Skate or Die was the sequel to 720°. The games had no relation, with the exception that the words “Skate or Die” are featured as a sound bite in 720°. Both games acted as cultural touchstones for the skate community. Some 30 years later as Nike was trying to establish themselves as players in the skate shoe market they released limited edition Nike DB Dunk Low’s in the colors featured in the game logos.

Skateboarding games would evolve greatly from the late ‘80s, but only a handful of them could be considered great. In the next blog I’m going to look at trilogy of arcade games that forever changed the landscape of action sport games. I hope to see you back for that. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

The Ridge Racer Legacy, part 30...

The music in the Ridge Racer series had always been well done. I was not a big fan of electronica, techno or house music. With that said I would be lying if some of my favorite tunes were not from those genres thanks to Ridge Racer. The various composers working at Namco had managed to make me a believer in the format. It only took 20 years of steady evolution to reach that point. To be fair however the early songs from the Ridge Racer series could hold up to many of the new songs. The composers had managed to create remixes from songs featured in every generation of the series and kept them fresh when placed next to the newer songs. It stood to reason that the music featured in the franchise would last forever. The Namco Sound Team had composed many classic themes over the past 30 years. What game player does not remember at least a few jingles featured in Pac Man, Galaga or Pole Position?

The Japanese audiences often had the fortune of being able to purchase albums based on their favorite games. Just about every arcade and console game had an album associated with it. The Ridge Racer series had one of the best collections of electronic music ever assembled. The senior in-house composer Shinji Hosoe had worked scoring Ridge Racer but also several other titles including Galaxian ³ Project Dragoon and Attack Of The Zolgear, Starblade, Cyber Sled and Cyber Cycles. I had talked about some of the games he had worked on much earlier in this series. Mr. Hosoe was better known in the gaming community by his nickname MEGATEN, or SamplingMasters MEGA. Some of his standout compositions included Rotterdamn Nation, Over the Highway and Rare Hero. His college Kohta Takahashi started composing at Namco with Ridge Racer Type 4. He also created the soundtrack for Klonoa, Ridge Racer V and Ace Combat 2.

Mr. Takahashi was joined on R4 by Hiroshi Okubo who also composed the music in Ace Combat 2. Mr. Okubo was known for his catchy songs including Quiet Curves, Chasing All My Dreams and Transparency. He also did an amazing remix of the Pac Man theme called Eat 'em Up in Ridge Racer V. The collection of artists had a few decades of experience between them yet only represented a portion of the Namco Sound Team. I would dare say that the collective work of Shinji Hosoe, Ayako Saso and Nobuyoshi Sano (SANODG) on certain soundtracks was predictive of future trends. The electronic music they created had a certain synthesizer meets dance beat to it that predicted the rise of artists like Daft Punk. The music that they created for the Galaxian ³ titles for example sounded like the framework that Daft Punk used in the Tron Legacy film soundtrack almost 16 years later.

Their music was so influential that the composers were invited again and again to contribute to the live broadcast of the Playsation Vita in Japan. SANODG went into crazy mode, joking with the audiences and interrupting his mixes during his set. Mr. Okubo on the other hand had a fantastic set which he didn't interrupt at all. Playing his role like a serious club DJ.

Every game in the Namco universe had a specific sound. Some were pop in nature, some were rock oriented. The Ridge Racer series had always had an electronic tilt to it. Many audiences in Japan and the US were first exposed to the heavy beats thanks to the arcade releases. People in Europe were already familiar to the club sound and were undoubtedly glad that it became globally accepted. By the time Rave Racer was released the company had firmly planted themselves in the genre. Some of the songs featured manic beats and heavy drum and bass lines that would have gone over amazingly well at a rave. Young Japanese composers had grown up on this style of music and began applying to Namco as well. Taku Inoue a composer featured on Ridge Racer 7, Pac Man Championship DX and the Tekken series grew up playing the classics on the Playstation thanks to the Namco Collection. As a teenager he would challenge himself to emulate the stylings of classic games like Dig Dug, Pole Position and Pac Man on his home computer. His ability to compose and remix was a perfect fit for the company.

Many freelance composers working in the genre had also lent a hand to the songs in Ridge Racer 6, 7 and the PSP and Vita releases. The majority of the songs were so well done that many were featured for the soundtrack of Ridge Racer Unbounded and Ridge Racer Slipstream. Bugbear Entertainment and Invictus could never hope to live up to the legacy of the Namco Sound Team or their network of musicians. The lineup featured in the mobile game Slipstream read like a who's-who of the best composers and their songs. Akitaka Tohyama - Turn Me On and Freak Out, ESTI - Supercruiser and Kalidescope, Samplingmaster Mega - Combustion and Listen up!, Samplingmaster Aya - Nitro Witch and Shut Up Baby, Hiroshi Okubo - Orbital Rock, M.T.T.B. and Transparency, Rio Hamamoto - Beat Assassinator and Skidmarks, Ryuichi Takada - Down To Earth and Saturation, Tetsukazu Nakanishi - Awakening, Sanodg - Hard Drive and Onyx, NBGI - Eat The World, U - Electro Madness. When Slipstream hit the iTunes Store it joined a series of classic Namco arcade titles and remakes for mobile devices. What was most obviously lacking was a collection of soundtracks from the various Ridge Racer games that the Slipstream songs were culled from.

It took almost 20 years for Namco to realize that there was a demand for the Ridge Racer soundtracks in the west. So they made several of those, along with other popular scores from Tekken and Ace Combat, available for download. The album prices were $9.99 like most full releases. They were well worth it, especially for audiences that longed for a rip of the songs from the games. Fans could now support Namco and show them that there was still a strong interest in the classic Ridge Racer experience. For two bucks audiences could also get amazing 40 minute mixes of several recent Ridge Racer soundtracks. I finally found a reason to use all the iTunes gift cards I had been accumulating over the years.

At the dawn of the arcade industry Namco was much more forward thinking. Only in recent years had they decided to follow the trends rather than lead. For a period of time they went toe-to-toe with Sega in the arcade. Both studios pushed their development teams as far as they could. In the process they created entirely new experiences. Their rivalry had forever changed the industry. Sega may have been considered the better of the publishers when it came to arcade racing games but Namco had outlived their rivals on the consoles. Believe it or not there was one genre in the arcade that Namco had surpassed Sega and every other company. The next portion of this series will look at the greatest decades in Namco history. If you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!