30 Days of Video Game Music: Day 25 -- Music That Gets Me Pumped

2020-08-25 20:39:45

Check out the Day 1 post for the full challenge list.

“After Burner” - Hiroshi Kawaguchi

Game: After Burner II (1987, Arcade)
Original: YouTube
SEGA Sound Team Band version: YouTube
After Burner III version: YouTube
Infinite Climax (Bayonetta) version: arr. Masami Ueda (YouTube, Spotify)
Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Future Tone version: arr. HAL (YouTube)
Cover: GaMetal (YouTube, Bandcamp)

This was an extremely easy pick. Nothing comes to mind quite so fast in terms of blood-pumping bangers. There are some F-Zero tracks that come close, but I think this has them beaten. Simply the best. I have very little to say about it because I think it speaks for itself. GaMetal’s cover especially I think captures it as well as any official version. Give it a shot!

As a side note, the other piece I considered for this was “Corneria” from Star Fox for SNES, but it was so clearly inspired by this piece that I had to go with the original. But derivative or not, “Corneria” still rules too.