Batusi

I was recently in a conversation with someone about the Genesis/ Mega Drive version of Sunsoft's Batman, which is something close to my heart. This sparked some interest in further dissection of the game, which is what we'll do this week.

Let's get one thing out of the way, first: Batman is a shitty video game. Often unimaginative, most of it has to do with running from one end of a playfield to the next while punching bad guys dressed as street thugs and mimes. Some light platforming is sprinkled in to break up the running and the punching, but most are obviously out of place (like the pits in the museum level). A few stages break the monotony and turn it into a scrolling shooter as you take control of the Batmobile and Batplane, but these levels wind up being more about attrition than skill as you stumble through the lousy collision detection while deciding when it's the best time to break out those precious missiles you've been stockpiling. It's really not a difficult game, and it's fairly short, so if one were interested in playing through it you wouldn't kill a whole afternoon. You can probably buy it for a dollar off of eBay if you're so inclined (and still had your Genesis laying around).

But like a lot of Sunsoft games of that era, and especially like it's NES counterpart, the Genesis/ MD Batman is best remembered for its sound design and music. In comparison to the contemporary SNES, the Genesis has taken some heat over the years for having inferior sound, and much of that is probably true, to be fair. Still, I'm a big believer in great art overcoming restrictions, and a lot of the best Genesis music is a testament to that (Thunder Force IV, Streets of Rage 2, etc.). There seems to be agreement that the really good music that was composed for the system was percussion-based, and I suppose I agree, but a lot of Batman's music sets a different tone. While the more driving compositions from the first level and the museum stage are probably the best remembered, a lot of the percussion is more subtle than some of the more contemporary proto-electronica of 16-bit game music, and the opening and ending themes are really eerie and atmospheric. When I sit back and listen to it again, it seems more like the score of a television series than a video game in that it's not too hard rock (also like a lot of other games at the time), but clearly not as faux symphonic as much of the industry to would go one generation later.

All of this was scored by Sunsoft super genius Naoki Kodaka, whom worked on not only the NES Batman game, but also classics like Blaster Master and Journey to Silius (which, I'll admit, I've never played, but it's also supposed to have an amazing soundtrack). Sunsoft was was never really a major player in the 8- and 16-bit eras, but was respectable enough in hindsight. Their composers developed a method of making the NES's meager sound capabilities sing like Aretha, though. Essentially tricking the machine into using the percussion channels to play a bass sound, they coined a method supposedly called "the Sunsoft bass" for a lot of their output, which, again, were only above average games with music that was better than it deserved to be. A lot of it is probably floating around the internet if you're curious.

Enjoy a quick sample of some Batman tunes to get your weekend bumping.

Well, That Tears It

After leaving Don Jon (which was kind of a letdown, but we saw Gravity earlier that day), my wife and I wander into a Lucky store on our way to the parking lot of the outdoor mall. After some quick glancing at merchandise:

Clerk: Hey, man. How's it going? You ever shop at Lucky before?

Me: Yes

Clerk looks quizzically at the Gap jeans I am wearing

Me: No, not these

Clerk: Ah, right. What size do you wear, man?

Me: 33x32, but I'm just kind of poking around

Clerk: (slightly disgusted) Right, okay. Well if you change your mind, the right jeans for you that I recommend are the loose-fitting or standards.

Clerk wanders off, finds my wife

Clerk: Oh, hey. What's up.

Wife: Hi.

Clerk: Is that your boyfriend over there?

Wife: Well, husband, yeah.

Clerk: Oh. He's not into jeans.

Wife: Okay, we're leaving.


There you have it. I'm just not into jeans

Mix Tape: SMTIV

After reeling from the blow taken by my adopted home's baseball team last night (the postseason is a fickle mistress), I came to this morning feeling like I need a win. As a non-sports guy that's finally beginning to understand what the fuss is about, you might think that my adopted home's gridiron squadron is what I should now be paying heed to, especially with a game tonight. Alas, they will only let me down if recent history is anything to go by. Is this pessimism? No, it is Cleveland; a higher power's playground when it decides it needs to just kick something (pro sports-wise).

So let's return out our first love: Video games. A few months ago, I wrote about the songs that would creep into my noggin during my time in Skyrim. People seemed to like it. So, since I'm fairly deep into another long game with a very distinct aesthetic, Shin Megami Tensei IV, I thought I'd go back to the well a little bit, but in a more expansive way. Maybe I was strangely inspired by this week's Retronauts episode (your homework, BTW). Regardless, I present to you the SMT IV Mix Tape:

"Ode to Isis"/ "Will You Smile For Me Again" by ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead
This one is guilt by association, actually. When Trail of Dead released the album Worlds Apart in 2005, it was only about four months after Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne was released in North America. These two opening tracks sounded like, well, the world was about to end, which is exactly what happens in the numbered SMT games. Every time I play a game in the series now, be it one of the "proper" ones like IV (and even Strange Journey) or offshoots like the Digital Devil Saga or any given Persona, these songs always come to mind. A short symphonic arrangement with dramatic chanting, "Ode to Isis" sounds very apocalyptic in that sort of traditional Hollywood way, and makes for an appropriate kick off to Trail of Dead's fifth album; one that played a little faster and looser with style and genre compared to other indie rock bands of the time (it's also seen as their first "prog-like" record). It leads well into "Will You Smile", a song that lives and breaths on its fierce guitar/ drum attack intro and conclusion that bookends something of a quiet, but unnerving midsection. It's a pair of tunes that never really pop to mind unless I'm playing these specific games, and I think that says something about how well they couple with SMT.

"Idle Hands" by The Gutter Twins
It's hard to not to think of songs that associate with religious imagery when you're playing through a game that takes place in a Tokyo already overrun by angels and demons. This song, taken from a superb Greg Dulli/ Mark Lanegan side project rife with these images, finds itself being very stirring boss battle music, if only for its very straightforward rock sound perhaps. Produced to make the synth and string arrangements sound just as surface as the Dulli's lead guitar, it was a very apropo single for the duo's band, maybe even the best example of how both musician's tastes gelled into a cohesive whole. While the majority of the album seems more in line with Dulli's Twilight Singers work (which is not a detraction), "Idle Hands" is a driving, snarling stomp that feels satisfying when you're doing just that to a cyclops whom just told you to fuck off.

"Big Time" by Randy Newman
This is a little bit of a new one, but still sort of an old fave. A cover by Newman for his end of the Peter Gabriel Scratch My Back/ I'll Scratch Yours covers project (and only one of which is what we can consider pretty good --sorry, Pete), Newman's "Big Tim"e adds something a little sinister to Gabriel's ode to greed. While the original, something of a classic from Gabriel's most commercially successful album (So), had a wry smirk its way of poking fun at the Gordon Gecko mentality of the time when it was written. As with all great covers, Newman takes this concept and makes the song his own, singing it with the tired groan of a man that might have felt that hunger for more than he needed at one point. I feel as though this song fits in with much of the music already found on SMTIV's soundtrack with some of its jazzier tracks. While I certainly wouldn't consider this song completely in line with that, it seems to fit, and comes to mind when I'm wandering the Tokyo "overworld."

"Between Sun & Moon" by Rush
Yes, I swear a Rush song dug (clawed?) its way out of my subconscious. And it's a Rush song from an album that, from what I understand, is deeply maligned by the hardcore Rush set, AND it's something I probably hadn't heard in close to 10 years. Way to go, video games. You always let the weirdest shit percolate. Honestly, I have nothing to say about this song; it's an okay album track, but after digging it out to listen to it after all these years, I can't even say it's one of the tunes I remember liking. Still, SMTIV decided that I needed to stroll down the most nerdy alley of memory lane. Let's all take a moment and be glad that it's not in a subdivision of something potentially worse. And no, that's not another Rush reference.

End of Side 1.