Get ready for some spreadshot, some rocket lawnchairs and discussions about Kevin Bacon-lookalikes dealing drugs, because XVGM Radio is blasting their way onto the scene with an episode focused on the Run ‘n Gun genre and it’s music! Often looped in with shoot ‘em ups and First Person Shooters (FPS,) Run ‘n Guns are more like action platformers that focus on blowing away everything in sight; and the good news is, they typically have amazing soundtracks! Mike and Justin grab their most tattered bandanas as they wax nostalgia for wreckless convertible driving, western motifs in games, Mr. BIG singalongs and of course: cheat codes! Get your thumbs ready to hit A-B-B-A, and Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-A-B on this cyberpunk lovin’, laser-shootin’ episode of XVGM Radio!
Read MoreMay Patreon Live Recording – 2020
Tonight’s episode was a ton of fun and we were so fortunate to have on one of Mike’s longtime chiptuner and game composer friends, Michael “NEStrogen” Raisner! Michael was a ton of fun to talk to and we learned all about his soundtrack and composition style for Super Hyperactive Ninja, a game he did the music for. We ask him about his history with chiptune, Little Sound DJ, Famitracker, and what instruments he can play. Plus, sidebars about Kelly Kapowski, jokes about NESticles, corpse paint and Black Metal influences (Blast Beats in the soundtrack?!) and more! Plus, we even get a live performance out of him via guitar!
Thanks again to Michael Raisner (NEStrogen) for being on the show! You can buy Super Hyperactive Ninja on Nintendo Switch, Microsoft XBOX One, Sony Playstation 4 and STEAM right NOW!
NEStrogen’s Bandcamp is a great way to check him out, support his hard work and download or stream his music. Find it here: https://nestrogen.bandcamp.com/
Special thanks to Jordan Davis, Alex Messenger and Scott Mcelhone for joining us in the chat for the live show! Make sure to stay in touch on Patreon and Discord for our live show announcements!
Check the episode out on our Patreon!
TRACK LISTING:
Intro – Maniac mansion (NES, 1988) “Jeff’s Theme” – David Warhol
1 – Super Hyperactive Ninja (PS4, Switch, XBONE, Steam, 2018) “Main Boss Theme”
2 – Super Hyperactive Ninja (PS4, Switch, XBONE, Steam, 2018) “Tower 2 (Hyperactive)”
3 – Super Hyperactive Ninja (PS4, Switch, XBONE, Steam, 2018) “Tower 4 (Main)”
4 – Super Hyperactive Ninja (PS4, Switch, XBONE, Steam, 2018) “Tower 5 (Hyperactive)”
5 – Super Hyperactive Ninja (PS4, Switch, XBONE, Steam, 2018) “Tower 4 (Hyperactive)”
6 – Super Hyperactive Ninja (PS4, Switch, XBONE, Steam, 2018) “Final Boss Theme”
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Episode 51 – Yooka-Laylee Back to the Fluture
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When Playtonic Games set out to develop a new 3D Action Platformer in the vein of Donkey Kong Country and Banjo Kazooie, they went back to the original composers who made those games sound so fantastic: David Wise (DKC) and Grant Kirkhope (BK.) But how did those games influence the sound with this new franchise that’s been born out of a love and labor of the 64 bit era? Today on XVGM Radio, we’re lucky to have both David Wise AND Returning guest/Composer Grant Kirkhope on the show to talk about the musical evolution from Donkey Kong, to Banjo-Kazooie, and finally, how those two influenced Yooka Laylee and Yooka Laylee & The Impossible Lair. From Mike trying to make sense of musical genres (and trying not to fanboy too much), to David and Grant uncovering some information about Grant’s hiring process that they’d never known, to Justin sharing his fascination with Wild West VGM, get ready to collect DK Coins, Bananas, Jiggies, and Pagies on this star-studded interview from XVGM Radio!
HUGE thank you to Materia Collective and Jayson from Scarlet Moon Productions for helping with setup for the interviews. You can get the high quality soundtracks to both Yooka Laylee games on Materia Collective’s pages here:
https://www.materiacollective.com/music/yooka-laylee-original-game-soundtrack
https://www.materiacollective.com/music/yooka-laylee-and-the-impossible-lair-original-game-soundtrack
Check out David and Grant at their respective social media and websites:
David: https://www.davidwise.co.uk/
Grant: https://www.grantkirkhope.com/
We’d love to hear what you thought about these composer interviews! Was it awesome to hear from Grant and David and did you learn anything new? Shoot us an email at XVGMRadio@gmail.com or join in on the discussion at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/XVGMradio
We have a Discord Channel! Join us and chat about the show, share a random or obscure VGM song you love, or just chit chat with Mike and Justin about tacos! Join for free here: https://discord.gg/zWxDYfn
Thanks to all of our wonderful Patrons: Alex Messenger, Cam Werme, Chris Murray, Chris Myers, Chris Hart, Scott McElhone, Jordan & Anson Davis, Llama Adam, Peter Panda, Kung Fu Carlito, Bedroth, Nick Davis, MixxMaster, Jason SuperJES Dos, Brad Austin, Dan Laughton, Matthew Hannola, Jeremy Rutz and The Autistic Gamer 89. Become a Patron, get cool rewards, and more at http://www.Patreon.com/XVGMRadio
Our Twitter and Instagram are great ways to interact with us! Find us on there under our handle @XVGMRadio
If you’re an Apple Podcasts listener, please consider leaving a rating and a review to let us know how we’re doing! It also helps with getting the show to show up when others are searching for VGM!
TRACK LISTING:
Intro -Yooka-Laylee “Main Theme” Grant Kirkhope
1- Donkey Kong Country (SNES, 1994) “Gang-Plank Galleon” David Wise, Eveline Novakovic (Fischer), Robin Beanland
2 – Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES, 1995) “Stickerbush Symphony (Bramble Blast)” David Wise
3 – Donkey Kong Land 2 (GB, 1996) “Stickerbush Symphony (Bramble Blast)” David Wise, Grant Kirkhope (arranged)
4 – Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U/Switch, 2014/2018) “Zip Line Shrine” David Wise, Kenji Yamamoto
5 – Diddy Kong Racing (N64, 1997) “The Secret Tune” – David Wise
6 – Banjo-Kazooie (N64, 1998) “Secret Fanfare 4 (Mad Monster Mansion)” – Grant Kirkhope
7 – Banjo-Tooie (N64, 2000) “Wild West Zone” – Grant Kirkhope
8 – Banjo Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts (360, 2008) “Out Around Nutty Acres” – Grant Kirkhope, Robin Beanland, David Clynick
9 – Yooka Laylee -(2017, PS4, Switch, XBONE, PC) “Hivory Towers” Grant Kirkhope, David Wise, Steven Burke
10 – Yooka Laylee (2017, PS4, Switch, XBONE, PC) “Uphill Battle” – Steven Burke, Grant Kirkhope, David Wise
11 – Yooka Laylee & The Impossible Lair (2019, Switch, PS4, XBONE, PC) “Factory Fright” – Matt Griffin, Grant Kirkhope, Daniel Murdoch, David Wise
12 – Yooka Laylee & The Impossible Lair (2019, Switch, PS4, XBONE, PC) “The Overworld – Beach” – Matt Griffin, Grant Kirkhope, Daniel Murdoch, David Wise
13 – Yooka Laylee & The Impossible Lair (2019, Switch, PS4, XBONE, PC) “The Impossible Lair 2” – Matt Griffin, Grant Kirkhope, Daniel Murdoch, David Wise
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Episode 50 – Listener Requests
A Podcast is nothing without it’s listeners. That’s why Episode 50 is both a celebration for us AND a chance to celebrate YOU! We’ve been advertising this one for a few months now, and thankfully, you guys brought the goods. But instead of picking and choosing which tracks to play, we decided to just play them all! Janine, or favorite sweater and glasses wearin’ producer (Who also happens to be a Metroid) rolls the dice to see which of the 13 tracks go where on this epic episode of video game music. Ya’ll have great taste! Join us as we also bask in the nostalgia of 4 different commercials we’ve done for the show for the past (almost) two years!
Read MoreApril Patreon Live Recording – 2020
We miss baseball. So much. Really, we just miss normalcy. But baseball was part of that. The season would’ve been in it’s first month of playing, so what better way to enjoy the sport than to jam out to some absolutely KILLER Baseball VGM?! With Justin not being able to make the recording of this episode, Mike brought in long time collaborator on PixelTunes Radio and current host of VGMbassy, Ed Wilson to pinch-co-host for Justin! Hear Mike and Ed talk about balls (not necessarily getting wrecked though…) as well as tiny cats record scratching, lots of N64 talk (both good and bad) and….eggs?! Swing batta, batta, SWING into this episode for a home run!
Read MoreEpisode 49 – Licensed from the 80’s
Growing up in the 1980s, Justin and Mike latched onto tons of different IPs in various incarnations. From cartoons to movies and even commercials, the nostalgia of the 80s has never burned brighter for our generation. Even newer generations are looking back at the 1980s for everything from fashion to music. On this week’s show, the XVGM boys are listening to music from video games that took their licenses from the 1980s. With a surprising amount of sock hop 50s tunes, synth hits and blazing guitars, there’s a wide variety to listen to as Mike and Justin chat about the cartoons, movies, commercials and toys that made them who they are today! Plus, embarrassing stories, not watching the classics, and pizza requests, it’s gonna be a tubular audio journey!
Read MoreEpisode 48 – The Music of Final Fantasy VII (feat. Knight of the Round)
Hailed as one of the greatest video game experiences ever, Final Fantasy VII was a game changer. It revolutionized the Japanese Role Playing Game market and the art of storytelling in a video game at the time of its released. Now, almost 23 years later, we are about to see a remade version of the game that captured our hearts back in 1997. But on the eve of Final Fantasy VII Remake’s release date, XVGM Radio sat down with Knight of the Round band member, Justin Taylor, to chat about the significance of the original game, it’s landmark music by Nobuo Uematsu, and showcase KotR’s latest release, a Metal-infused thematic cover album aptly titled: “SEVEN.” We’ll give you one guess what the theme is. From chatting about Cid’s character growth to the importance of Tifa in Mike’s teen years and Justin’s teenage confusion over numbering the Final Fantasy games back in the day. It’s a musical celebration of a true masterpiece, both musically and gameplay wise. Also, MAD Cait Sith hate!
Read MoreEpisode 47 – Konami Unleashed in the East! W/ Dan Laughton
There’s plenty of Konami classics that never made their way outside of Japan. We could probably do an entire episode like this featuring the Ganbare Goemon series! However, today we’ll be focusing our efforts on two shoot ‘em ups (SHMUPS, Shooters, Shmupdangos, whatever you wanna call them!) Falsion, a Famicom Disk System game that took use of the 3D Glasses that premiered on the same day, as well as Crisis Force, one of the final Konami games released on the Famicom. Both of these have stellar soundtracks that are worth sharing with the rest of the world. So let Mike and Justin take you on a wild space mission with special guest, author Dan Laughton. Learn about how real world physics apply to space battles, hear Mike and Justin travel from the future with California accents on a mission to save the world…and jam out to some awesome music on this episode of XVGM Radio!
Read MoreMarch Patreon Live Recording – 2020
Since everyone is up in arms (and for good reason) about the Coronavirus, we thought we’d do an episode on: FOR YOUR HEALTH! Join Mike and Justin as they reveal ghastly personal medical stories (both funny and gross,) share never-before-heard outtakes from Episodes 43 and 45, and chat about the pandemic that’s sweeping the globe, all during this Patreon-exclusive live show!
Read MoreEpisode 46 – Reverse Picks!
When co-hosts pick tracks on a video game music podcast, it’s typically songs they enjoy. But what if you tried to guess which picks your co-host would pick? In this episode, Justin and Mike reverse their picks, allowing Mike to pick tracks he thinks Justin would enjoy, and Justin to choose Mike’s tracks. What follows is an enlightening episode that showcases the strength of how well the two hosts know each other, as we give our Producer-who-is-also-a-Metroid, Janine, a night off. No callers, just two hosts sharing and rating songs they think they other would pick.
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