Thursday, September 18, 2014

Soundtrack September: TMNT

Game: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles / Gekikame Ninjaden (1989)
Platform: NES / Famicom
Composers: Funahashi Jun

The weird thing about this game is that it preceded its source material in Japan. The Ninja Turtles animated show hadn't yet been localized there, so this game was the Japanese public's introduction to the property. That's probably the reason you don't hear the TMNT theme song anywhere in this game (although Funahashi did manage to sneak in a "heroes in a half shell" motif here and there).

The tight-as-a-vice precision associated with 8-bit Konami game music is illustrated well in this game. Unfortunately a punishing difficulty level meant that most gamers would only hear about the first two or three stages worth of music, but you needn't go any further than the title screen to hear the best track (the first video embedded below). Both boss battle themes are excellent as well.

Bonus: "Overworld 2" (the last video embedded below) sounds strangely like the Beatles' "Come Together."







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