Welcome to GamesRadar's daily blast of all things pertaining to the ever-growing field of game music. Each post will introduce new sounds, games, composers and fan-made remixes of gaming's greatest aural achievements.
May 22, 2010
Game: Shadow of the Beast
Song: Welcome
Composer: David Whittaker, Chris Howlett and Ian Henderson
Above: Welcome from Shadow of the Beast
Shadow of the Beast was once something of a powerhouse franchise. Its original incarnations on the PC featured some noteworthy tech tricks, making it look, animate and sound sharper than just about every other 2D action game of the day. Obviously we're more interested in the music, which, unsurprisingly, is well worth a listen.
The "Welcome" track plays as you roam the overworld areas seen in the image above (taken from the sadly crappy Genesis version). It, along with the other songs, have a very new-age "Pure Moods" sound - that's either highly irritating or delightfully soothing, depening on your tastes. Personally I love the PC Engine/Turbo Duo version embedded here, as it was one of the first cases where I was listening to videogame music and someone actually asked what it was and where it came from. Sounded too good for a random person to even consider that it could be from a game.
Above is another track from David Whittaker's score re-imagined on the Turbo Duo. Today these tracks may seem silly, almost cheesy, as the samples used were state of the art in 1989 but today... may require a bit of acceptance. Either way, outstanding work for a series that's essentially dead and gone.
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