It wasn’t anything amazing, but Nina Aquila was a very solid Ace Attorney style game made by a single developer - not bad for the $1 I got it for! Probably the main thing that differentiated it from its inspiration is its heavy use of different mini-games. These honestly got a bit annoying when I just wanted to progress the story and investigation, but I at least respect the effort of trying something unique here. The third chapter features a street racing game that really is nothing more than rock-paper-scissors, but I love its Eurobeat music!
I’ve spoken at length about how underrated I think Gravity Rush 2 is, and how disappointed I was in the shutdown of Japan Studios, but there are still so many good tracks to feature from this game. I think this is my single favorite soundtrack from Kohei Tanaka, and I wish he composed for video games more often. This track comes from one of the battles right before the game goes truly off the rails in the best way possible, and I love its combination of so many different motifs from the series.
I still haven’t actually played either of the River City Girls games, but I just can’t get enough of Megan McDuffee’s great soundtracks. This opening track is extra special since, in addition to her own vocals, it also features the singing of Cristina Vee (best known for Shantae) as well RichaadEB on guitar, who’s a great RU-vidr who does game remixes. The lyrics are also super goofy and overall a great follow-up to the opening from the first game! Check the description for a link to the soundtrack.
Nice choice. Love the music in this game. Haven't played it yet, but it's one I have my eye on in the near future after clearing a bit more of my backlog.
Neon White is a sublime parkour game and one of my favorites from 2022. Its only real blemish is the bad writing, but that’s not at all what you’re here for. I had an absolute blast diving into its levels over and over again, aiming to shave just a few seconds off of my time, and a large part of the reason it was so easy to get into a flow state is thanks to the soundtrack by Machine Girl. Dreamy tracks like this one are catchy and otherworldly. Check the description for a link to the soundtrack.
I initially didn’t have too much interest in Lost in Vivo’s grungy, claustrophobic horror, but after how much I enjoyed developer Kira’s follow-up game, Lunacid, maybe I’ll have to give this one a chance after all. As is tradition for survival horror games themed after the classics, this one features an extremely soothing and otherwise out of place theme for the save room. I love its gentle reprieve from the horror. Check the description for a link to the soundtrack.
Here’s a request for a track from a game very much outside my wheelhouse (heh). I don’t follow racing games much at all and had never even heard of the MotorStorm series, but it was apparently fairly popular this is its 4th entry. I do know I love this heavy techno track and the way it builds in intensity.
Thank you for not taking the toxic positivity approach and praising this game in spite of its many horrific shortcomings. This is a bop but there are many who would stand in defense of this game on the pretense of a small budget or team, when it still falls below the standards set by fellow indie titles. Your tastes are obviously refined enough to consider the difference between things that are good about a product and a good product in general, and it’s refreshing to see
Even back when Enchanted Portals unveiled its Kickstarter, the common sentiment was that it just looked like a straight rip-off of Cuphead. I was willing to give it a chance, since if it was even close to as good as Cuphead it could be a lot of fun, even if not original. Unfortunately, it seems that the final release fails on just about every front and doesn’t achieve a fraction of Cuphead’s brilliance. It’s derivative, buggy, stiff, and just generally not well designed at all. The only real glimmer of hope is some cool boss designs, at least on a conceptual level. Even the soundtrack is quite forgettable, but I admit to enjoying this spaghetti Western style desert theme.
Aside from the collapse of the studio preventing promised further content, the game is overall fairly buggy with some pretty mediocre platforming and Metroidvania elements. The story is also fairly weak, and the combat gets repetitive despite starting promising. But I admit I could've been too hyped for this one - the potential was just so high and I feel it could've been great if given some more time for polishing.
Indivisible may have been a huge disappointment, but it’s still a special game to me - as much for what it could have been as for its lovely art and character designs. At least the game managed to see the light of day before its studio was shutdown, as did its lovely soundtrack by Hiroki Kikuta. The vocals on this one remind me heavily of Emi Evans from NieR. Check the description for a link to the soundtrack.
@@moonlighteh3086”Multiple employees resigned, accusing lead designer Mike Zaimont of abuse and inappropriate behavior.” The remaining employees were layed-off I personally really enjoyed the game, I thought the combat was unique (while sometime a bit repetitive) and I the story was solid. But I think the characters (and their animations) and sound design were the real stars of the show. But it’s personal preference at the end of the day. It’s on Game Pass if you want to give it a try without paying full price
I’ve not played it myself, but from what I’ve heard, the game was fairly hyped up during the crowdfunding campaign but it didn’t meet expectations and the resulting gameplay experience was unfortunately somewhat mediocre.
@@moonlighteh3086 Aside from the collapse of the studio preventing promised further content, the game is overall fairly buggy with some pretty mediocre platforming and Metroidvania elements. The story is also fairly weak, and the combat gets repetitive despite starting promising. But I admit I could've been too hyped for this one - the potential was just so high and I feel it could've been great if given some more time for polishing.
It’s always a treat hearing music from Kōhei Tanaka, but he hasn’t been working on too many video games lately - this is still his most recent one. Though I’ve featured exclusively vocal songs from this game, they actually played extremely rarely in the game itself, so I never got to properly appreciate them. I love how fun this track is.
Ex-Zodiac is an indie game in early access that is a direct homage to the classic Star Fox games and Space Harrier. It hasn’t seemed to get a ton of popularity, but those who have played it assert that it’s a worthy successor to those classics. I already know that I love the soundtrack by +TEK, who has appeared in this VGM list a number of times and can always be counted on to deliver music that is downright catchy and fun. Check the description for a link to the soundtrack.
I adore thems fighting herds and im so sad it and the dev team got completly shafted. Theres so many good tracks in this game, alpake highlands, the woodlands, the capricorn, velvets theme and ofc the main theme is kick ass.
Another track from this unique game. I didn’t personally have any interest in playing this one, but it’s still sad to see that it seems to have been essentially abandoned, with promised content like a proper story mode never materializing; Still, from what I’ve heard Them’s Fightin’ Herds managed to be a solid indie title inspired by My Little Pony (which is a unique sentence on its own). I’ve really liked what I’ve heard of its soundtrack - last time I posted a dynamic stage theme, but here’s the guitar-heavy title theme that gets you pumped for battle. Check the description for a link to the soundtrack.
To add on, it wasn't just Inspired, it was originally going to be an MLP fighting game. Naturally, they got a C&D and pivoted to original characters. Still, is sad they abandoned it. Good music thought.
With the success and popularity of Mario Kart, I’m honestly surprised it took until 2023 for them to make a racer featuring characters and tracks pulled from Disney movies. I’ll never play this one due to its predatory free-to-play design, but I will admit Disney has got an even more diverse portfolio of things to pull from than Nintendo does. I do think it’s a bit uncanny how all the characters wear the realistic racing overalls, and the decision to go with an entirely electronic, dace-style soundtrack is a choice. Still, it leads to some really unexpected remixes of classic Disney songs, such as this take on “Zero to Hero” from Hercules. That’s one thing you’ll never hear in Kingdom Hearts no matter how many times you visit Mount Olympus!
Here’s a track from an old Sega Saturn game by Sonic Team and Yūji Naka that I had never heard of before. It certainly seems unique, especially for its time, playing as a shooter starring a group of firefighters. That’s about all I know, but I love this cheesy main theme - it feels like a mix classic Sonic music and modern Persona tracks, and is quintessentially Sega.
I’ve featured tracks from the other Yo-Kai Watch titles, so it’s time for the second entry in the series to get a turn. I believe this is when the series was at the height of its popularity and added over 300 new Yo-Kai, which is really staggering compered to new Pokémon entries! In any case, this is yet another catchy battle theme.
Oh, what a pretty beautiful song ^^ I actually wanted to play the first Xenoblade Chronicles starting in 2023 but then stuff in real life happened and it never came to it. I don't know when I have the energy for a game that I really want to get invested in again, so I am still pushing it to the future.
I love the ending for Xenoblade 1! It's such a beautiful mellow song that clearly signifies the end of a long journey. I've experienced the game 3 times, once watching a Let's Play, once on the Wii U, and once with the Definitive Edition and I've shed tears all three times a couple of seconds into the song because it somehow instantly floods my mind with all the feelings I felt during the adventure. It means a lot to me, thank you for featuring this track!
The original Xenoblade Chronicles is still providing great tracks for this list, all these years later. Somehow, I hadn’t uploaded its fantastic ending song until now. It’s so solid that it wasn’t changed at all for the Definitive Edition! It’s rare for the Xenoblade series to feature music with singing, but it’s beautiful every time it does.
