The fun to play and actually decent, despite not being misunderstood and not that loved Street Fighter III series got a lot of love from me. I own all 3 in the series on the ill fated, but still awesome that is the Dreamcast. I’m easily swayed, and was instantly drawn in by how Ryu’s clothes seem to move all over the place as he lobbed fireballs. But once I sat down with the game I fell for it and commended Capcom’s decision to just start afresh with a bevy of new faces, an all new piece of hardware, and also a fresh sounding soundtrack.

The New generation and 2nd impact had cool soundtracks, but 3rd strike’s was bad asss. The little catchy jingles went out of the window in the place of full on dance, trance and drum ‘n bass fuelled compositions. The brilliant thing about 3rd strike’s soundtrack was that every stage had 3 versions of the same theme: one version for each progressive round, with the mix getting more and more intense.

Makoto’s theme stuck out for me instantly because it was cool, quirky and downright funky. You also don’t expect the track to progress and the beats to drop as they do as the rounds progress. “Spunky” is one of my fave tracks from the 3rd strike soundtrack. The whole of 3rd strike’s soundtrack was a breath of fresh air because it was such a departure for Capcom and the composers didn’t care so much about trying to re-create classic themes. They just wanted to make good music that you could humiliate and combo suckers to.

The version of “Spunky” below is versions A, B and C all mixed together.

And for those of you who didn’t know: Makoto is a girl. A very manly looking girl with a hair cut more boy-ish than Sakura’s, and big old man hands and feet to rival Ryu’s.

Listen: Spunky

Street Fighter III: 3rd strike
© 1999 Capcom entertainment Japan

You’ve no doubt seen the words “Final Fantasy Remix” dozens of times in your search for fresh takes on Nobuo Uematsu’s beloved pieces, but this is new disc is far from OverLooked Remix material. Rather we have a collection of club-style remixes of classic FF pieces done by accomplished DJs Ian Hartley and Matt Baggiani.

Among the pieces here are “Prelude,” “Terra’s Theme,” “Jenova,” “Liberali Fatali,” and “Mambo de Chocobo.” According to Siliconera’s interview with the DJs, several tracks use beloved old-school 8-bit synths. The CD is already out, and I’m looking forward to getting a copy.

[Siliconera]

When I first booted up Soul blade and saw the epic intro and heard the theme song, I was in complete awe. Even 12 years later, Soul blade still (in my opinion) ranks as being the ‘Soul’ game that delivered the best opening cinematic and theme song. What was not to love!? Seeing the Soul edge cast handle their business, Sophitia bathing as she cups her perfect breasts, Taki’s chronic jiggling (from the front and back), all backed by a kick ass song laced with orchestrated strings, killer drums, fierce guitars and a hot lead vocal. This is the shit hot anime and video game themes are made of! For me, it’ll never get old. Namco did not miss a beat when it came to creating a lasting first impression when it came Soul blade.

The version below is the full version which features on the official soundtrack and not the edited version which featured in the intro. Enjoy!

Listen: The edge of soul

Performed by Suzi Kim
Soul edge: Khan super session
© 1996 Sony BMG entertainment Japan

Super Mario Galaxy’s soundtrack is stunning. Many went crazy over the clip Nintendo put out of them playing a theme from it (me being one of them) and I honestly don’t think the soundtrack gets enough props. It’s without a doubt one of the most grandiose soundtracks Nintendo has ever done and it sticks out because the music went above and beyond what you expected for a Super Mario game.

There are many highlights from the soundtrack, but I decided to go with “Battle rock galaxy”. It sounds like something straight out of a Star Wars movie. It really is just big and grand. The music alone is amazing, but it really is something else when you have the game play and stunning visuals to go along with it. The music also has intricate changes in melody as you play the game: with sections changing as you move from area to area and as you launch from star pads. Unfortunately this isn’t all showcased on the version on the original soundtrack CD – but you can still hear how quality the music is. I tagged the piece “Space peace” at the beginning of “Battle rock galaxy” because it is a completely stripped down version of the same song and it seemed fitting to tie them together. Plus it acts as a nice prelude to the main piece.

Listen: Space peace / Battle rock galaxy

Composed by Mahito Yokota & Koji Kondo
Super Mario Galaxy OST
© 2007 Nintendo

For the mp3 players: Space peace / Battlerock galaxy