Bitmob Community Jukebox No. 16: Belated Edition

Editor's note: I decided we all could use some good gaming tunes as we recovered from holiday feasts and Black Friday spendathons. I'm looking forward to making vats of turkey soup while listening to selections from Rygar and Castlevania. Don't forget to leave your suggestions for future Bitmob Community Jukeboxes. I'm suggesting Super Mario World with bassoons. That's right, BASSOONS! -Jason


A mountain of schoolwork prevented me from posting the Jukebox on time.... Sorry, everyone!

This week we have an eclectic collection of songs from a variety of different genres. Also, make sure you check out Alex Cronk-Young's utterly ridiculous selection.

Click below for all the sweet bleep-bloopy bliss!

Newer newcomers should make sure to check out the latter portion of the post for submission instructions.

You've got two ways to listen to The Bitmob Jukebox


Method 1: Pick and Choose


My Selections

1) Castlevania -- Vampire Killer

2) Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - Intro*

3) The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time -- Gerudo Valley

4) Rygar -- Gran Mountain

5) Kingdom Hearts -- Fragments of Sorrow

6) Ico -- Castles in the Mist

7) World of Goo -- Brave Adventurers

Community Selections

8) Ratchet and Clank -- Metropolis* suggested by Evan Killham

9) Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved -- Main Theme suggested by Lance Darnell

10) Skygunner -- Merveilleux ~ Departure suggested by Tom Heistuman

11. Darkstalkers 3 -- Fetus of God suggested by Daniel Feit

12. The Granstream Saga -- Arona* suggested by Travis McReynolds

13. Daytona USA -- Let's Go Away suggested by Alex R. Cronk-Young

14. Stubbs The Zombie -- Strangers in the Night by Cake suggested by Aaron Rivers

15. Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection -- Main Theme* suggested by Jasmine Maleficent Rea (++good)


Method 2: Let It Ride



(Click here to listen in a separate window.)


For all you newcomers, here's how it works. Even though I wrote a Meet the Mob post, you should know something important about me. For some reason, over the years my mind has acted as a sort of a Roledex for great videogame ditties. (For all you younger Bitmobbers, a Rolodex is an archaic device that people used to keep important contact information. I guess it's sort of like an abacus at this point.)

Because of this, every Monday I post 15 well-known and not-so-well-known video game songs for the Bitmob community.

It's got a catch, however -- I don't provide all of the songs. If the community doesn't fill out the roster of 15, I fill it out. Most of the songs come from you -- hopefully, they're pieces that I have never heard -- and only a few spring from my mental Rolodex.

Ultimately, I'd like enough suggestions that only five -- ideally, just one -- come from me, thus truly making this the Bitmob Community Jukebox.

It's important to note that community members receive credit for providing submissions.

The only guidelines are that any submission must be from a nonmusic game or from a music game with original content. Licensed songs are also OK, but they must be from something other than a music game.

This means that Fallout and Grand Theft Auto songs are fair game, but Guitar Hero and Rock Band songs are not. If licensed songs become too prolific, however, I may stop taking them as submissions.

Also, I will try my hardest to find the original names of every submission, but if I can't, I will give it a name and mark it with an asterisk. In addition, all songs are set to open in a new tab, so feel free to click away and have them play in the background as you surf Bitmob or get some work done.

Songs appear in no particular order whatsoever, but I do list community submissions at the end.

Each week, I choose my favorite submission, The Double-Plus Good Pick of the Week. The winner receives exactly nothing, other than his submission is the last song and gets the "++good" notation next to their entry.

As a small guideline, if you'd like to win the The Double-Plus Good Pick of the Week, try to pick something obscure or, at the very least, recent. We all know titles like Mega Man and Final Fantasy had great music in the 8-bit and 16-bit eras, and I feature songs like these every week (that's my bread and butter).

But, in the interest of keeping the Jukebox new and surprising, if you can come up with a great song that I've forgotten, or, better yet, never heard, you'll have a leg up on the competition. Just keep in mind what I said at the top, and if you've read my Meet the Mob, the size of my game case.

Either way, feel free to submit whatever you like. Please. I can't reinforce this enough: All submissions are welcome.

As an added bonus, I also try to add an immediate comment about the awesomeness of the winner commenter's song and why everyone else should pay special attention to it. This will be an in-joke for those who keep up.

Most importantly, since I hope to keep doing this for awhile, only one submission per person per each edition of the Bitmob Community Jukebox. That way I'll have less to parse, and you will be able to submit for an extended period of time. If you submit multiple requests, I will not listen to any of them.

Again, only one submission response per person per post.


James D., read at The Sophist and heard at Sophist Radio

P.S. Double sorry to everyone who listens to the Jukebox regularly. I know your Monday morning was much drearier without it.

Comments (12)

Who would have thought the menu music to a game anthology would have ever won the Double Plus Good Pick of the Week? Not me.

But here we are.

Jasmine's selection is affects an old school styling that is very reminiscent of the music from Codemasters' NES games, oddly enough. Even if the music doesn't sound like Genesis music, it totally kicks ass anyway.
James DeRosa , November 24, 2009
I'm going to go ahead and recommend another final boss theme, "Brave or Grave" from Street Fighter Alpha 3. Great music to be beaten down by Psycho Crushers to.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5JFGrysqm8
Daniel Feit , November 26, 2009
Oh, and if anyone out there liked the Daytona USA theme, they'll flip out when they hear this revised version with real instruments. I love it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6WTLVORVmU

(sorry for double posting)
Daniel Feit , November 26, 2009
Nice picks! Especially enjoyed the Genesis Collection theme. Not sure who thought that would be a fitting song though since it sounds a lot more like something for the Amiga. Maybe even a cracker intro.

Something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aTA5Poz9ZO4

And Castlevania's always good in my book. You could take just about any song from the NES/Famicom games. My personal favourite: Beginning (NES version).
Paul Woelke , November 26, 2009
http://www.talenttrove.com/med...on-quartet

Super Mario via a bassoon quartet! How many of you have actually listened to a contrabass bassoon before? Here's your chance!
Jason Wilson , November 27, 2009
Here's a classic from Streets Of Rage 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKQZVFIuyko
Ryan Conway , November 27, 2009
Great songs, and @ Ryan, thanks for that classic!

Nobody has a BGM on youtube for the labyrinth in Last Battle for Genesis (except my version, heh.) but that was an awesome song--very suitable for this list imho.
Normal1s , November 28, 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wye9lZsKhoY

Let's get some SNK up in here.
Jasmine Maleficent Rea , November 28, 2009
@ Normal1s no problem. You should check out SupraDarky's channel on Youtube. He has a huge playlist of video game music.
Ryan Conway , November 28, 2009
Alright, a couple of weeks ago I suggested a pop-punk song from a game called Courier Crisis. When I submitted it, I also mentioned a pretty out-of-place soul song on the same game's soundtrack. This is that song:
http://www.box.net/file/102348...82f11bcbdb
I really loved this game, in spite of the less than stellar reviews it received. The hidden city level in which you could cruise around and do tricks was excellent when paired with this song in particular. Memories...
Travis McReynolds , November 29, 2009
According to James (not JD or Jimbo) these need to be youtubed. This should work...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ooUTgcOaMYk
Travis McReynolds , November 29, 2009
Not quite sure why I enjoy this so much, maybe it's just because I enjoyed Earthbound so much. Without further ado: Giygas's Theme (Pokey Means Business)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yDyCZiomOS4
Mark T. Whitney , November 30, 2009

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