30 Days of Video Game Music: Day 3 -- 8-bit Music

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

“Thunder Tornado” (Tornado Man Stage) – Ippo Yamada

Game: Mega Man 9 (2008, WiiWare/XBLA/PSN)
Original: YouTube
Official Arrange Soundtrack: arr. Shusaku Uchiyama (YouTube)
Cover: Max Vegetable, entire OST (YouTube)
Cover: Zack B drum cover (YouTube)

Since my first two picks were already 8-bit, I decided to bend the rules a bit on this one. Mega Man 9 is technically not an 8-bit game in a literal sense, but it is in every practical sense, including the soundtrack.

“Thunder Tornado” is important to me because it was the theme of the Mega Man 9 trailer, which is responsible for effectively introducing me to Mega Man. When I was probably eleven years old or so, I got the Mega Man Anniversary Collection for GameCube. Being young and foolish, I pretty quickly dismissed it as too hard and therefore bad. At that point, I had only really dipped my toes in the library of the NES I had purchased with birthday money a year or two prior and was not fully accustomed to the old machine’s usual difficulty. When the Mega Man 9 trailer dropped to widespread excitement, I was confused. I had no idea the series was so beloved! Not willing to abide this gap in my retro game knowledge a second longer, I pretty quickly dug out my copy of the Anniversary Collection and set to the task of beating the first game. Then the second. Then I started the third but would not beat that one until years later. Regardless, I was immediately in love with the series and kept 1000 Wii Points (hard to come by when I was ~15 years old) stashed on my Wii for the release of the ninth numbered entry. I’ve since beaten every numbered game (Mega Man & Bass will happen eventually) and consider classic Mega Man one of my absolute favorite series.

If you haven’t played Mega Man, this game is as good a place to start as any. It’s readily available on modern consoles and is arguably the best in the series!