Cthulhu Saves the World

You’ll have to forgive me for venturing outside of the PlayStation landscape, but I’ve got a lot of love for indie darlings regardless of where they show up. In this case, Ctulu Cthulu Cthuluh Squid-Face Saves the World was initially released on the Xbox 360’s Indie Game library, though it found it’s breakout success on Steam shortly thereafter.

Squid-Face is an RPG styled after the 16-bit era of games, both visually and audibly. It won’t take nearly as long to play through as Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy VI, but it’s good fun while it lasts.

The soundtrack plays no small part in that, setting the right tone with a number of great tracks. Most of what you hear retains what you’d hear out a Super Nintendo, hitting all of the trademark MIDI instrumentation that you’d hear in an old Square RPG. You’ll also hear actual, modern instruments sprinkled in all of the right places, though they never overpower the 16-bit strings and horns. It’s properly rousing stuff.

Above: Conflict

Above: Existence Collapses

Above: Across the Crescent Moon, the Weeping Monster Sighs Once More

If you’re interested in acquiring the full soundtrack, I’ve got excellent news: it’s available as a free download from Zeboyd Games’ website! Just click here. You’re welcome.

Final Fight: Double Impact

Now it’s time to bookend this with another Simon Viklund joint, who just so happened to do another wonderful job on another Capcom remake. What makes Final Fight: Double Impact different from Bionic Commando: Rearmed is that it’s actually a remake of two different games — Final Fight (derp) and Magic Sword. While Viklund remastered the soundtracks to both games, I’ll focus on his work with Final Fight here because 1) I enjoyed that part of the soundtrack exponentially more and 2) I’m not sure I want to write a doubly-long entry for this.

Much like Bionic Commando, Final Fight was a game about kicking ass, and it’s a type of game that demands an equally kick-ass soundtrack to match. Also like Bionic Commando, Final Fight gets that in spades. Since the gameplay in FF is quite repetitive (to put it lightly), the music has to be able to keep you pumped up as you walk left-to-right punching dudes in the face. This being Simon Viklund, it does the job very nicely indeed.

Now, please enjoy some music fit for kicking ass.

Above: Stage 2-1

Above: Stage 2-2

Above: Stage 5-1c

Above: Andore Wrestling Ring

If you’d like to enjoy the entire soundtrack, here’s another bit of great news: this is also available for free by clicking here. It includes the music for both Final Fight and Magic Sword, so you can check that out, too.

OK, I think that that about covers the retro-tastic game soundtracks that I know and love. If I still managed to overlook something like an idiot, feel free to speak some sense into me in the comments below, or in our super happy fun forums.