Up until 2009's Ghostbusters: The Video Game from Atari and Terminal Reality, a solid Ghostbusters game was hard to find. Sure, the original Activision title for the Commodore 64 and related systems had some interesting ideas for its time, but other licensed titles fell flat. Activision's 1989 follow-up adaptation to the second film for the Nintendo Entertainment System was a disappointment all around with simplistic visuals, frustrating level design, and screechy music. However, HAL Laboratories created their own take on Ghostbusters II that faired much better. Their effort, New Ghostbusters II, was released for the NES in 1990 across Japan and Europe, while the United States would only see a watered-down Game Boy version. The NES version sports some peppy music composed in the typical HAL style of the era, but more importantly also contains a few chiptune renditions of songs from the film's soundtrack which we'll explore in this installment of Beyond Beeps. Yes, the familiar Ray Parker Jr. title theme is included, but so are songs from Bobby Brown and Glenn Frey. Since I know most of you aren't familiar with the Ghostbusters II film soundtrack (and shame on you if you're not; I still own the CD that I purchased in 1989 from Costco), be sure to check out the original songs in addition to the 8-bit renditions embedded below.
One cannot have a Ghostbusters video game without including some version of the famous theme song from the original 1984 film. HAL's version is one of the best 8-bit incarnations from the era and includes most of the song's key sections. The first level's theme includes elements of this song as well.
Today's installment of Beyond Beeps is from one of the most disappointing yet most intriguing games from the Nintendo Entertainment System library. Absolute Entertainment unleashed
Here's an amazing-but-true fact for you: not everybody was trying to copy Nintendo's Super Mario Bros. at the close of the Nintendo Entertainment System era. Some publishers were trying to copy
When publisher Sunsoft unleashed Aero the Acrobat in 1993 the idea was that the little bat who performed amazing stunts under the big top of a traveling circus would become the company's mascot. As you'll recall, the successful launch of Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog ushered in the age of the cute gaming mascot wars in which just about every publisher sought to create the same brand identity: cool animal with attitude. Aero is one of the many characters produced during this era, but the soundtrack to his debut game for the Super NES and Sega Genesis (and later, the Game Boy Advance) stands apart from the me-too efforts of, say, Rocky Rodent and James Pond.
Sure, you can hum the overworld theme from Super Mario Bros. on command and can hear the Legend of Zelda underworld dungeon music in your head whenever you go downstairs into the forboding basement, but there's really so much more to gaming music than that. We all love the music from games such as Castlevania and Mega Man, but there are so many other fantastic gaming soundtracks out there that deserve a little attention at long last. Beyond Beeps is a new section here at Press The Buttons that aims to do just that. I'll be sharing some of my more esoteric soundtrack favorites and providing a little commentary as you expand your game music horizons. Sit back, crank up the volume, and let the music overwhelm you. Synth has never sounded so good.