I was hoping to get this out earlier in the day, but I’ve been on the road to BlizzCon. Actually, I still am. But Shelly’s back to driving and it’s dark enough that I can type!
- Day 2: Opening Level Music
- Game: Super C (NES)
- Track: Gates of Fort Firestorm
(Spoiler: for some reason all 3 of my NES picks ended up in the first 3 days.)
Super C, notably not called Super Contra, is the sequel to Contra.
The premise is simple: aliens have invaded Earth. You and your bro have taken up arms to resist the invasion. You shoot and flip-jump your way into their base, fighting through armies of aliens and machines. As you ascend the enemy lair, the enemies get… weirder, and so does the world. It’s as if the aliens have corrupted the land itself. Actually, are we still on Earth?
Well, I’m not 100% sure that’s the story they were telling, there aren’t any words, after all. But that’s the story as I understood it.
I’d argue opening tracks were more important for NES games, since dying and restarting from the opening stage was the paradigm. And as a kid I certainly died and restarted a lot! This one definitely set the mood.
NES music is cool cause it’s literally just three synths + a “noise” track, but good composers make it sound like so much more. I hear orchestra hits and guitars in this track, just good ol’ 80s badass vibes. I also like how there are three distinct sections. The first section (0:00-0:33) sounds heroic, the second section (0:34-0:46) sounds like “I’m alone in this war-torn land”, and the last section (0:47-0:56) sounds intense but brings us back to the heroic first section.