Game Music

Game Music Review: This is a review of the video game score Dark Void by Bear McCreary.

“It is a really good game music score and despite it flaws should deliver the players a wonderful experience.”

Dark Void is a video game developed by Airtight Games and published by Capcom. Humans face an alien threat that humanity had previously banished. A pilot crashes in the Bermuda Triangle and is teleported to a parallel universe where he encounters other humans, called Survivors. The battle begins and his wish to come back to the earth he knows propels him on. This marks Bear McCreary’s first video game score, and one should hope first of many.

Track List
01. Theme From Dark Void (*****)
02. Prologue and Main Title (****)
03. Village Attack (****)
04. A Mysterious Jungle (****)
05. Altar Sacrifice (***)
06. Archon (****)
07. Ara and the Rocket (****)
08. Tesla’s Laboratory (***)
09. The Prophesized One (*****)
10. Taking Flight (****)
11. Crash Site (****)
12. Void Requiem (****)
13. Ava and Tesla Return (***)
14. Above the Canopy (****)
15. Hieroglyphs and Betrayal (***)
16. Defending the Ark (****)
17. The Collector (*****)
18. Survivor Camp Combat (****)
19. The Watcher Airship (****)
20. Watcher Prison (****)
21. The Imperator (***)
22. Will and Ava (****)
23. The Oweller (****)
24. Ava’s Sacrifice (****)
25. Will at the River (****)
26. Dark Void End Credits (****)
27. Theme from Dark Void (Mega Version Bonus Track) (****)

Bear McCreary has always wanted to do a video game score, or so he says in the liner notes of Dark Void and I believe him. His passion for scoring and writing is quite amazing and I still can’t get over that he is actually younger than me. Despite all of this, he will struggle hard to be “the composer who wrote music for Battlestar Galactica”, but if that is his legacy, then I can think of much worse fates. I truly enjoy his work and he has developed a style for himself. I recognize him by the use of percussion which he use to dictate tempo and emotions.

Orchestral Score

So here we are with McCreary’s first official game score and he promises a great orchestral score. This is definitely not a bad thing as most game scores tend to be very action-oriented with lots of electronic sounds. McCreary however was adamant that there should be no synth orchestra (or ‘fakestra’ as he called it) in Dark Void and to this end he succeeds. I think it’s a good choice, but on the other hand it’s never good to tie yourself down to a certain style so you can’t experiment along the way. I sense he wrote this when he wrote the score for the TV show Human Target because the main theme sounds very similar, almost too similar. That jolted me a bit because I’ve recently started watching the show, but despite that I wasn’t going to let it ruin my experience.

Already with ‘Theme From Dark Void’ he sets the tone with his usual heavy percussion rhythm. The main theme sets in around 0:15 and you can clearly hear it’s similarities to the already mentioned Human Target. Despite this, I really love this cue, and it’s a great theme after all. There’s a lot of “Battlestar Galactica” sprinkled into this score, and the McCreary-style percussion never lets go. He experiments a little in the cue ‘The Prophesized One’ that sounds slight more ethnic in it’s approach with a jarred guitar noise used as a dramatic element. Heroism and dramatics you can clearly hear in cues like ‘The Collector’ which is my favorite. It get’s the pulse going and is very much an action cue from start to beginning. I also love how he made an 8-bit version of the Dark Void main theme Mega Man style in the remix version at the end.

Conclusion

I do wish Bear McCreary stirred the pot a little bit as it is a bit predictive, but I have to say that I love McCreary’s style and I hope it never grows old on me. It is a really good game music score and despite it flaws should deliver the players a wonderful experience. The heavy percussion will have your pulse going and if you are familiar with McCreary’s style and enjoy it, then this should be just right for you.

Listen to Dark Void by Bear McCreary below:

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Game Music Review: This is a review of the video game soundtrack Army of Two: The 40th Day by Tyler Bates.

The anticipated sequel to the excellent co-operative shooter game Army of Two has finally arrived almost three years later than the first one. This on is titled The 40th Day and even though the game has improved technically, it still feels a little less fun than the original. Music of course has a big impact and this game feels different with Tyler Bates as composer. If you remember, the first game was composed by Trevor Morris who is probably too busy writing music for the excellent The Tudors Season 4. With Tyler Bates comes a different kind of game music experience, but is it good?

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This is a review of the video game soundtrack Assassin’s Creed II by Jesper Kyd.

“What is in here is enough quality to make even the most sceptic of game music fans come alive.”

Jesper Kyd is back with the sequel to Assassin’s Creed, and this time with lots more music. The game itself was released back in 2007 and it was an incredible game, but they have managed to make it even better. The original soundtrack from 2007 was well received by fans and critics, but not by me. I didn’t quite like the score, which felt messy and wasn’t atmospheric enough for the game. At times I think I am the only one who thought that, because I believe it even scooped up some awards (please correct me if I am wrong). The last time around, the music was about 45 minutes, and now it is a massive 1 hour and 53 minutes on 2 CDs. Fans of game music rejoice! But wait, we are missing one crucial point here, is it any good? Let’s find out! Read the rest of this entry »

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This is a review of the video game soundtrack Halo 3: ODST by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori.

“I like the originality of the Halo scores. They have always felt a bit different from other game and movie scores.”

Halo has to go down as one of the most successful game series ever and they have clearly done almost everything right. Luckily for us, the Halo series has featured some great music and knock on wood, everything has been released. That is really saying something as a lot, and I mean a LOT of games that has great music, never get a soundtrack release. This is a crying shame and releasing the soundtrack with the game itself is getting to be a popular sport. I don’t like it as I would just love to have the soundtrack and not the game itself. Yes, we do exist! Anyhow, the composers of the first three Halo games are back Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori. That is good news, very good news in fact. Halo Wars by Stephen Rippy was a bit of a disappointment so it wasn’t a big surprise that they chose to go with O’Donell and Salvatori.

Track List

CD1

01. Overture (***)
02. The Rookie (***)
03. More Than His Share (***)
04. Deference For Darkness (****)
05. The Menagerie (***)
06. Asphalt And Ablution (****)
07. Traffic Jam (****)
08. Neon Night (***)
09. The Office Of Naval Intelligence (***)

CD2

01. Bits And Pieces (****)
02. Skyline (****)
03. No Stone Unturned (****)
04. One Way Ride (***)
05. The Light At The End (****)
06. Data Hive (***)
07. Special Delivery (***)
08. Finale (****)

Less Action

It has always surprised me that even though the nature of the Halo games are pure multiplayer action fun, yet the music never really reflect that fully. The first Halo game had some nice action pieces, but there seems to be less and less of that in the later scores. Halo 3: ODST is no different in that respect. What is different, is the lack of choirs as that has always been a major ingredient in all Halo scores. There simply isn’t any here. Good or bad? A little of both. I am a fan of choirs, but I don’t see it as a requirement to make a great score.

Almost 2 Hours of Music

There’s almost 2 hours of music here spread across 2 CDs so there’s plenty to get you Halo (and music) fans going. The sound is very electronic, very alien from the start. They even have included some special effects (rain) in the first cue on CD1 called ‘Overture’. The easy beginning with the human tones soon turns to aliens and mystery. ODST stands for Orbital Drop Shock Troopers by the way. The music is very atmospheric and in-sync with the game, but an outside would question it’s validity because it sounds like music from an explore-type strategy game like Settlers or Civilization.

There’s more interesting stuff here than previously. The sound quality is overall very good and there are even some cues that would pass the muster of orchestral music fans. The piano is used more widely here and in the cues ‘Deferance for Darkness’ and ‘The Light at the End’ the beginning piano theme has a very Japanese anime sound to it. ‘No Stone Unturned’, ‘Asphalt and Ablution’ and ‘Finale’ has interesting thematic stuff with the piano as the main character. Especially the beginning of ‘Finale’ sounds a bit like Thomas Newman actually. This is not a bad thing, and although O’Donnell and Salvatori mostly do their own thing, it shows that they can get inspiration from the masters of film music as well.

Conclusion

I like the originality of the Halo scores. They have always felt a bit different from other game and movie scores. They have a special feel to them and you can almost immediately recognize music from Halo if you happened to hear some parts of it. The bad thing is that this mix between electronic and orchestral sounds kind of feel redundant at some point. There’s nothing about Halo 3: ODST that grabs me and truly moves me. A good score, and that’s ok, I just want a little more feeling next time.

Let me know what you think of the score in the comments section below!

Listen to Halo 3: ODST by Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatori below:

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In game music, there are unfortunately very few official releases, at least when you compare it to film music. I find it to be quite the paradox as I believe most gamers enjoy music to their favorite games. The game industry is now bigger than the movie and music industry combined, so I don’t see why the companies are being skimpy on the releases.

The video game music these days tend to be colossal and superbly done. Compare this to the music that was for the games of the 90s. You had something called midi which was fine at the time, but sounds horrible now. You had the 80s with basically beeps here and there, but it served a purpose. Something big happened from around 2000-2001 and that was the introduction of actual orchestrated music with real live instruments. Games these days sounds like their film counterparts and they deserve to be heard by more people.

Today I will talk about a relative new game called IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey which hit the US stores in September this year. The composer of the US game is Jeremy Soule and the european version is composed by Joss Ackland. Jeremy Soule should be a familiar name to most of you, if not, here’s Main Theme from the IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey Gamerip:

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Now this isn’t the regular music you would normally hear from Jeremy Soule, but it is certainly a testament of his talents. Most people probably know him from the Guild Wars series or the acclaimed Elder Scrolls soundtracks. Here’s a cue called ‘Intro’:

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This style suits him, the military orchestral style that is. Here’s another cue from the gamerip called ‘The Hunt’

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It’s areal shame that this score hasn’t been released yet and I can’t understand why. The music is there, it’s written by a high profile game music composer. Instead we are left with ripping the music from the game itself.

What did you think about this score? Please comment in the comments section below.

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It’s time again for the Video Games Awards, and it’s been a fruitful year for game music wouldn’t you say? I wish there were more releases though. 3 of the 4 nominees for best original score this year has seen their soundtrack released in some form or another. Assassin’s Creed II by Jesper Kyd, Halo 3: ODST by Martin O’Donnell & Michael Salvatori and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves by Greg Edmonson. The only one sill left unreleased is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 credited Hans Zimmer.

I bet you all have your favorites, I know I have mine. I won’t reveal it yet because I plan to review them in full. Until then, listen to the 4 scores and answer my poll below on who you think should win the Video Game Awards 2009 (And feel free to add comments as well in the comments section below). The Video Game Awards 2009 is held at December 12th. There is a link at the bottom where you can go and vote for best original video game score so please vote! Here are the scores:

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You can vote here: Best Original Score at Video Game Awards 2009

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This is a review of the Video Game Soundtrack Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier by James Dooley.

“This is a fine action score and you forget that this isn’t a grown-up action game score like Modern Warfare 2″

James Dooley has recently been dabbling in video games and this his second of the year. The first one was inFamous with Amon Tobin and others, a good score if I have to be honest. Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier is of course a different venture. It follow the characters Jak and Daxter on yet another adventure. It’s the 6th game in the series and James Dooley’s debut as composer in that respect. Jak and Daxter are on a mission to find more Eco because of the shortage in their world. They are attacked by pirates and are stranded somewhere and the game begins. So what has James Dooley to offer this game series?

Track List

01. Hellcat To The Rescue (*****)
02. The Brink (****)
03. Galleon Conflict (****)
04. Laser Defense (****)
05. Sounds Of Fardrop (****)
06. Dark Eco Warrior Training Camp (***)
07. Super-Dark-Daxter Rampage, Go! (***)
08. Behemoth Air Battle (****)
09. Parallel Universe (*****)
10. Voices Of Aeropa (****)
11. Ambushed (***)
12. A Captain’s Sacrifice (*****)
13. Daxterball (***)
14. Jak vs. The Arborcider (****)

Kids Stuff

This is a game for the kids mostly and of course longtime Jak and Daxter fans. the graphics indicate as much and the score is definitively action oriented for the most part. It starts of in heroic manner with an over the top heroic action theme which starts off pretty basic. I thought it was a homage to the old midi music we used to listen to back in the day (yeah I’m old). After that, the cues are breaking away in pure action manner. There are hardly any breathing room between the cues and this is the way the game goes as well. There are always something to do and it’s usually very exciting. The score needs to match this as well and does to some degree.

It’s interesting to listen to James Dooley stuff. He is definitely a Hans Zimmer protégé and you can hear parts of Pirates of the Caribbean in here, but he also has proven that he can do other types of scores as well with Pushing Daisies fresh in the mind. His work on inFamous, The Mars Underground and now Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier has taken a turn (and these are some of his latest scores). The feeling of these scores are that these are Remote Control Production stuff and that’s fine (for those that enjoy that). There is not so much to gather from this if you expect something wildly original.

Not Wildly Original

Wildly original is not what James Dooley were going for and he even goes over the top with choirs (not unlike a certain Zimmer) in cues like ‘Behemoth Air Battle’, ‘Parallel Universe’ and ‘A Captain’s Sacrifice’. He even stretches it a little further in ‘Parallel Universe’ and ‘A Captain’s Sacrifice’ where it sounds like trailer music. What I mean by that is that it’s a little more explosive than normal scoring, where you go for impact instead of consistency. That is quite refreshing actually as I’m a big fan of trailer music and it is the best cues of the score.

Another refreshing bit is the cue ‘Voices of Aeropa’ that isn’t an action cue. It makes for a great change of pace and let you breathe if only for a short while. The cue isn’t great to be honest, but in the overall scheme of things, it’s right where it’s supposed to be. Ok, so it changes pace and has some action parts later in that cue, but that’s the nature of this score and the game. Most cues feel only slightly different and they have the same feeling about them. There’s action, but there’s energetic action. The themes has been lost in the search of it, but that’s fine. It doesn’t really need one. It has the first cue ‘Hellcat to the Rescue’ which is more than fine for this purpose.

Conclusion

This is a fine action score and you forget that this isn’t a grown-up action game score like Modern Warfare 2. It feels like it could work well for that at times, but I  like that James Dooley went this road with Jak and Daxter. They deserve a proper action score and they get it here no questions asked. Sure there’s not much originality here in the music itself except the fact that is for a Jak and Daxter game. I hope James Dooley keep making video game music as it is clearly something he masters.

Buy it at iTunes

Listen to Jak and Daxter: The Lost Frontier by James Dooley below:

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VGChartz has graciously tried to create a top 20 original soundtracks in gaming. As with all lists, they are very subjective. Some love midi music, others hate it. Can you really listen to Super Mario theme all day long? I would go bonkers! Speaking of, where is Super Mario on that list? Even though it’s annoying as hell, it is catchy and definitely a tune you will remember for all time.

Here’s the list, and I hope you don’t mind that I have commented on them all.

20. The Sims

The Sims can definitely defend a place in the top 20. It has a very distinct style, very playful. The bouncy tunes have to make you happy at least and they are (to my surprise) not annoying at all.

19. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Zelda fanboys… scoff all you want, I can’t give this the thumb up. Perhaps I am a music snob with no tolerance of midi, but I want to live in 2009 and beyond. It was fun, but I just can’t listen to that anymore.

18. Chrono Chross

This is not bad at all. Very new age and quite good for a listen or five. Ok it does explode in fiery rhythms along the cue, but I can listen to this again some other day.

17. Ico

When it comes to actual singing over a nice score, I’m not so fond of in most cases. In Ico’s case it does work. I can barely hear, actually I can’t hear what the thin voice is singing which is great! It’s almost like an instrument itself.

16. Mirror’s Edge

Quality! This score is purely made to make me feel all happy and calm, almost like flying. It’s one of the best game scores I have heard and Solar Fields have earned my full respect. Sounds like Hybrid and BT got together to mix the ultimate music album. Well done! Why is it only at 16!?

15. Persona 4

Well… don’t like it! It’s just a Japanese sounding guitar endlessly trying to be cooler than it is. Nothing to jump my music bone there. NEXT!

14. de Blob

Want to hear something catchy and annoying? de Blob got you covered. It’s cheerful funky bossa nova style is a tad to irritating. At least The Sims knew how to tone it down. Meh, it’s ok, but I’ll pass.

13. Earthbound

Aaaaaaaaaargh! My ears!

12. Halo Series

To be fair, Halo is a great game series for music. There has been some great and some dire stuff in there so this series deserves to be here, but if the Halo Series is here, where is Call of Duty or Medal of Honor? Metal Gear Solid!? Booooooooh!

11. Starcraft

Now here’s more like it. A game music soundtrack with personality. The three races had different music that suited their personalities and although it can’t match modern music, I don’t mind seeing it in the top 20, but perhaps not at 11.

10. Goldeneye 007

Only for Eric Serra lovers! No seriously, it sounds like a lower quality version of his hated James Bond soundtrack. I was one of the few who did like it… so there!

09. The Orange Box

The Orange Box is a massive collection of music from the Half-Life series, Team Fortress and Portal. It’s a varied and nice collection, although nothing spectacular.

08. Katamari Damacy

Another cutesy (and crazy) Japanese game with loony music. Really, it’s crazy stuff and I’m not sure my brain is wired for this. Gotta love Japan though… craaaazy!

07. Donkey Kong Country

Nice theme, but again I can’t listen to this for long. Maybe if they made a modern version of it with a proper orchestra…

06. The World Ends With You

Pumping techno stuff. I’m afraid the world doesn’t end with you, it ends with this music. We’ll all be crying, no really, I am related the great late Nostradamus. I have seen it!

05. LocoRoco

How can these people listen to this and sing along to this nonsense? Seriously! I think they must be aliens. Good game though.

04. Mass Effect

Now we’re talking! After listening to all that brain destroying music, this is what the brain needs. Atmospheric, powerful stuff that doesn’t sound like my sister’s Duran Duran tapes flushed down the toilet. This is seriously great stuff, inspiring music.

03. Shatter

Aaaand we’re back in koko land! It was fun while it lasted… Ok I’m being a bit harsh. This is slightly less annoying than the other annoying scores, so… I guess that’s good.

02. Total Annihilation

This is not bad at all, pretty good stuff actually. Very heroic and militaristic game music that really sounds impressive when playing the game and listening to it on its own.

01. Shadow of the Colossus

This is one crazy game, but the music is surprisingly sane. It’s great game music, no doubt about it. Ko Otani should consider writing more and more often. Very powerful.

So now that we are done with this list, what is missing? What is not missing is my question. They do have a disclaimer in the beginning of the article saying that the list is subject to change and it’s based on very personal opinions. I respect that, I really do, but overall it is a very poor list when compared to my personal taste.

Where’s Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, Metal Gear Solid, Fable, Civilization, Command & Conquer, Lair, Uncharted, Spellforce, Ace Combat, Assassin’s Creed? Some huge misses here…

What do you all think?

Source: VGChartz

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I have been listening to the massive 7+ hours game rip of Modern Warfare 2 and I wonder if there will be an official release. As most of you know, Modern Warfare 2 are the latest game in the Call of Duty Franchise. Michael Giacchino, Harry Gregson-Williams, Stephen Barton, Sean Murray, Joel Goldsmith and Graeme Revell has had the pleasure of scoring the previous games. The game music of Call of Duty has always represented high quality but strangely has never seen an official release. Sure some of the soundtracks have been released within the game, but I can’t help to wonder why they were not deemed to stand on their own. I bet they would sell, I really would.

No offense to the previous composers in the series, but the name Hans Zimmer is far bigger to most people. It’s been a stroke of genius to hire him to do his very first video game score. The buzz around the game has been fantastic and there has been rumors of record breaking sales of the game itself. The reviews has been nothing short of stellar and only a few has given less than top mark. This has to be taken as a great honor to Hans Zimmer as well because without great music, the game would be far worse.

My first impression of the game music was ‘meh’. I heard the previews on YouTube and I heard nothing special. After listening to the game rip of the music itself, I have been pleased with the overall quality and sound of this production. There’s no doubt that this score is perfectly right for the game and Hans Zimmer got it spot on. I wouldn’t necessarily put this near the top 10 of Hans Zimmer’s greatest works though.

Yes, there is actually over 7 hours of music featured in the game, 7 hours, 35 minutes and 16 seconds to be exact. Most of the music are short snippets of max 30 seconds, but there are some more lengthy cues as well which is the ones I have been listening to. The ‘Intro Credits Load’ cue is clearly part of an animated intro as we hear some sound effects as Hans music play in the background. It’s a decent start and perfectly represents what the rest of the score is like. It had to be a score like this, a very high tempo action score, very modern. It doesn’t quite work when listening to it outside of the game, but almost. It’s wonderful ambient music for work and play, and that’s its strength and weakness at the same time.

I’ll quietly tap Hans Zimmer on the back and say: “Well done!”. There’s some Zimmer in there, but there’s also Harry Gregson-Williams, Steve Jablonsky and Trevor Morris. Knowing Remote Control Productions, there probably has been more composers involved and hopefully we’ll find out who.

Here’s a track called ‘Packfile 81′

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What do you think of the score? Please let us know in the comment section below.

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First, I have to confess something. The Secret of Monkey Island represents some of the best moments I have ever had in front of a computer. Period. It was 1990 and this thunderball of a game came across my desk. It was on 4 disks I believe. I owned an Amiga 500 at the time, and I spent many, many and many more hours playing this awesome adventure starring Guybrush Threepwood whose fearsome opponent LeChuck want him seriously dead. Of course LeChuck didn’t make it, but it sure isn’t because of the music. I remember it vividly and know every tune by heart. LeChuck had a great theme!

Michael Land is the name of the composer and he created some of the most memorable themes in game music history. Recently, the Gods of game creation Lucas Arts decided to make a remake of this great game and called it… SPECIAL EDITION! Ooh yes it was heard across the seas and lands, making sure every would-be pirate crawled out from under the rock they were hiding. Like Guybrush, all we wanted to be was pirates, loud, foul-mouthed, insulting, sword-fighting pirates! Our time had come again! Soon we could again fill our mugs with GROG and guide Guybrush Threepwood through the adventure yet again, but this time with improved graphics and music!

I’m telling you, the reggae style of Monkey Island never goes out of style, but I was really looking forward to hearing it again with newer better sounds, greater orchestras and perhaps a few monkey sounds! The uber-cool reggae style is kept throughout the Special Edition and the sounds are indeed updated, but there aren’t any grand orchestras. Still, it sounds so good! Had my favorite cues from the original Monkey Island gotten an upgrade that was worthy of the new graphics? Yes I know Guybrush’s hair was awful, but to be fair, no bad hair day could ruin my musical moments of glory!

The ‘Opening Theme – Introduction’ from the 1990 version is fully intact and if there ever was an example of nostalgia, this is it. It sounds even better than it did in 1990, but what happened to the 2009 version? It got cut in half! Ok a little disappointed about that, but at least they present it in 3 cues and with better sound quality.
However after listening to both scores, only 2 cues really stand out. I have the ‘Opening Theme – Introduction’ as one theme even though it’s divided in 3 separate cues on the Special Edition. The other one is the cue ‘Melee Island’. It has a very soothing and relaxing feel to it and the melody is wonderfully nostalgic. It isn’t as good in the Special Edition and only last for about a minute compared to over 2 minutes on the 1990 version.

Looking back at this great game and listening to the music has been fun, but I have to admit that the modern game music has it beat. This feels very 1990, but now and again it’s good to remember the fun times I had beating LeChuck and becoming a fearful pirate. Aaarrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

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