Taro Omiya

Taro Omiya

Software Engineer, Game Designer

  • #WeeklyGameMusic: Heavenly Star (Lumines II)

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    The next #WeeklyGameMusic is a popular track that has appeared in quite a lot of games, ranging from No More Heroes to Child of Eden. As far as this writer can tell, though, it originated from Q? Entertainment’s block-based puzzle game, Lumines II. Sung by Genki Rockets, it tells a story of “an artificial space girl” and her rather optimistic understanding of what Earth (which, in lore, she has yet to visit) is like.

    Lumines II is the second game in the Lumines series: a color-block-based puzzle game where one drops blocks to create a 2×2 same-colored square to score points. The innovation comes from how the game calculates combos: the 2×2 same-colored squares doesn’t get eliminated until after the Time Line — a vertical line which swipes from the left of the screen to the right in regular intervals — passes over it. In other words, clever players can rapidly drop a ton of blocks to create more 2×2 squares before the Time Line makes a full pass over their formation, thus aggregating to a larger score.

    While the basic premise of Lumines is simple, the game excels on presentation, and in particular, it’s dynamic music generation. Much like Tetris Effect, each and every action the player takes creates a sound effect and instrumental that affects both the background music and visuals. As a consequence, playing Lumines often feels like sketching music on the fly, just as much as thinking through the puzzle that you’ve created for yourself.

    Lumines II was originally released on the Playstation Portable. While this sequel is no longer in print, its predecessor, Lumines Remastered is available for PC on Steam and Microsoft Store.

    Read more: #WeeklyGameMusic: Heavenly Star (Lumines II)

  • #WeeklyGameMusic: Curiosity (Frog Fractions)

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    How do you compose an intelligent-sounding music for a comedy game that’s anything but? Indie game studio, Twinbeard might have an answer for you in this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic with Curiosity, composed by…Twinbeard. Let’s pretend to be smart by listening to this calming music from the parody edutainment Flash game, Frog Fractions, where it recounts the completely ridiculous “history” of boxing.

    Hmm, how to describe Frog Fractions? Well, as one would expect, it features a frog, and a bunch of “fractional” insects trying to eat at its precious apples. By clicking on the insects, the frog will slurp it up, keeping the apples preserved. The frog earns points when it collects an apple that has dropped from a tree. Later, an upgrade allows the frog to swim right and left across the pond, as well as quite oddly, down. Swimming down willฬทอ„อ‡.ฬตฬ‰ฬข.ฬถอŒฬฆ.ฬถอ€ฬฃdฬทฬ‡ฬ˜oฬทฬ‹ฬค ฬถฬอˆsฬธฬ‡ฬญoฬดอ‚ฬญmฬทอฬœeฬธอ‹อ™tฬธฬƒฬฎhฬตฬฬฌiฬถฬŒฬคnฬตอ†ฬ gฬดฬ’ฬข.ฬตฬฝฬช

    Frog Fractions is available for free on PC via Steam.

    Read more: #WeeklyGameMusic: Curiosity (Frog Fractions)

  • #WeeklyGameMusic: Honkey Tonkey Fantasy (ๅŠ็†Ÿ่‹ฑ้›„ๅฏพ3D)

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    Ever wondered what would happen if you threw the infamous Final Fantasy music composers, Nobuo Uematsu, to write music for a comedic, nonsensical real-time strategy game? Wonder no more, fellow readers who ask such bizarrely specific questions: this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic has your answer! Here’s Honkey Tonkey Fantasy, from the Japan-only game, ๅŠ็†Ÿ่‹ฑ้›„ๅฏพ3D (Hanjuku Hero VS 3D, roughly translates to half-boiled hero), created by none other than Square Enix.

    Prince Almamoon’s kingdom is under attack by extra-dimensional beings from the 3D world! They…they’re even voice acted!! With this newfound threat, the “great” prince orders his silent, text-only 2D army to fight back.

    The battle system in Hanjuku Hero is broadly divided into two modes: real-time strategy phase, and the Pikmin-like battle phase. The former involves ordering groups of armies to move towards a way-point. When either two groups of opposing armies collide on the map, or your army runs into a fort, the battle phase begins, where both armies are thrown into an isolated stage to fight. The player moves the general, and with it, the armies that follow said general, charging into the opposing forces. To turn the tides in their favor, at any point, the player may use a limited number of “trump cards,” who’s effect can vary from spreading out the opposing army, to reviving fallen soldiers.

    ๅŠ็†Ÿ่‹ฑ้›„ๅฏพ3D was released in Japan on the Playstation 2. Outside of potentially South Korea, it has not been published elsewhere, or ported to any other console.

    Read more: #WeeklyGameMusic: Honkey Tonkey Fantasy (ๅŠ็†Ÿ่‹ฑ้›„ๅฏพ3D)

  • #WeeklyGameMusic: Noisy Notebook C (Snipperclips – Cut it Out, Together!)

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    I said we’ll likely revisit Calum Bowen’s wildly creative compositions. And here we are: this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic is an arrangement from Noisy Notebook C levels in SnipperClips – Cut it Out, Together! by SFB Games. Like many other games with fantastic adoptive soundtracks, SnipperClips changes its arrangements as situation changes in this cooperative puzzle game for the Nintendo Switch: below is just one composition that plays at one specific moment in gameplay in what is otherwise a very complex music.

    While SnipperClips itself doesn’t have much in way of a story, its development is far more interesting. A London indie team put together a prototype known as FriendShapes during a short game jam session. Much like the final product, it features two shapes with legs that can cut each other out, creating a new collision shape. After winning the GDC Europe Innovative Games Showcase, SFB Games attempted to pitch the product to various publishers. As it turns out, Nintendo took the most interest in the game, and of course, sold it as a launch game for their latest console, Nintendo Switch.

    This thoroughly English title is a puzzle game where two players control each shape, Snip and Clip, to handle a number of tasks. These challenges can include cutting each other out until they make a specific shape; moving a ball into a hoop; and blocking specific circuitry in a web of wires. As mentioned earlier, both players are armed with the ability to cut each other out using their own shape, as well as reforming themselves back to the original shape if needed. Complexity is added in later levels when certain objects reacts not only to your character’s shape, but your own controller input.

    SnipperClips is available on the Nintendo Switch. No other ports exist as of this writing.

    Read more: #WeeklyGameMusic: Noisy Notebook C (Snipperclips – Cut it Out, Together!)

  • #WeeklyGameMusic: A Floral Creation (El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron)

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    Need a little bit of mystery and whimsy in your day? This week’s #WeeklyGameMusic has you covered with this track from…an action game? A Floral Creation by Masato Kouda and Kento Hasegawa starts cute and innocent, but gradually builds to a more tense composition. A fittingly bizarre track to an equally strange but visually stunning game, El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron.

    https://youtu.be/6o6e6DN31lI

    Roughly (one might say, poorly) retelling the Hebrew Book of Enoch, El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron stars the scribe Enoch, tasked by God to punish seven fallen angels for taking a liking of humans and transforming Earth to their own image. To aid with Enoch’s travels, Lucifel — yes, that Lucifel, although in this case prior to him betraying God — also follows along, primarily acting as a save point by keeping God up-to-date with Enoch’s progress via a handy flip-phone. The two heroes travel to lands with wildly different, and absolutely gorgeous visuals, going from what appears to be a serene but mostly monochromatic world, to one that’s vibrant and neon colored like Vegas, to even one that’s clearly inspired by cyberpunk.

    As an action game, El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron involves Enoch hacking-and-slashing fallen angel goons, first by literally stealing their weapon, then purifying it to be used against them. There are three weapons to master, and interestingly enough, each provide not only different controls in combat, but also a unique utility when it comes to light platforming. Highlight of the game, of course, are the bosses, which each use their own tricky combos to challenge the player’s reaction.

    El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron was released on the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. No other ports exist.

    Read more: #WeeklyGameMusic: A Floral Creation (El Shaddai: Ascension Of The Metatron)

  • #WeeklyGameMusic: Song for Dot (SSX Tricky)

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    Another retro game to look forward to this week’s #WeeklyGameMusic. In a bit of a twist, here’s SSX Tricky‘s mix to the 90’s track, Song for a Dot by Space Raiders, which itself samples from There Goes My Heart Again by Fats Domino. Phew, that’s a lot to go through! Although the original music piece is pretty decent, this writer has a soft spot for the improvements EA Sports BIG made to better fit it’s hyper-fast, trick-driven winter sports game.

    SSX Tricky is a (very 90’s) snowboarding game, where comically exaggerated international characters pits against each other to perform ridiculous tricks. And by, “ridiculous,” we mean, “physically impossible.” Performing a helicopter spin? Check. Doing the worm on the snowboard? Yup, check! Using the snowboard as a diving board? You betcha! To further push the arcade nature of the gameplay, performing tricks fills a boost meter than can be used to accelerate the character’s decent down the mountain even faster, for bigger air.

    That said, a special mention goes to the game’s dynamic music mix. The soundtrack is programmed to change on nearly every action the player performs. The aggressive contrast between the tension of jumping high into the air and performing tricks — accentuated by the sudden ducking of the background music, leaving only the drum beats — to the release when landing said tricks — which brings in a bombastic fanfare and the return of an even louder melody — is an experience rarely replicated as well in any other game franchises. The whole thing is just an absolute joy to listen to.

    SSX Tricky was released on PlayStation 2, GameCube, Xbox, and Game Boy Advance.

    Read more: #WeeklyGameMusic: Song for Dot (SSX Tricky)