My 200 Favorite Video Game Themes - Part 9: Mood vs. Attitude

120.

Balamb Garden

from Final Fantasy VIII

Composer: Nobuo Uematsu

Sqauresoft; 1999

Balamb Garden is one of the very first songs you hear in Final Fantasy VIII.  It is a calming theme that, to me, blends a classic sound with a sort of sterile, synthetic feel, and I do mean that as a positive.  The garden’s look is this cold efficient place with all of these comforting and, adversely, disconcerting trees and fountains.  It has always created an atmosphere that makes Garden seem like it is hiding something (which we later find out is true).  The relaxing tune, I feel, is actually kind of unnerving, since there are darker truths hidden beneath the surface, as is the case in any place that seems to be just a little too perfect.

119.

South Cape (Town Theme)

from Illusion of Gaia

Composer: Yasuhiro Kawasaki

Game Arts/Enix; 1993

Town themes in RPG’s are, by their nature, generally pretty dull.  They are meant to be calm, peaceful songs designed to reflect the feel of the town.  However, most of the time I just find these themes boring.  They rarely do anything unexpected and maintain simplicity at a level I would just label as bland.  There is nothing wrong with “soft” as long as it is not “sleepy”.  South Cape, at least to me, is the creamy blend of a well-composed theme and a soft melody.  This sort of balance can be hard to achieve, but there is something so peaceful about this tune that I just cannot help but love it.  There are countless songs like South Cape in RPG’s, but few that are really as good.

118.

Snow Field

from Contra

Composers: Hidenori Maezawa, Kiyohiro Sada

Konami; 1987

Now, a good melody is essential, but what about energy?  The Stage 5 theme from Contra is an awesome tune.  The opening bass leads into a pounding 80’s action synth piece that then blends into an amazing electronic piano number.  This is a popular song from an even more popular game but I have always regarded it as a theme that is more than simply “good”.  Rather, it is just completely spectacular.  Now, I may be overstating it some (it has been known to happen), but there is something about this theme that just gets me pumped.

117.

Area 1-1

from Ninja Gaiden

Composer: Keiji Yamagishi, Ryuichi Nitta

Tecmo; 1988

Like the Snow Field theme, this one has a lot of energy, which is a plus for me.  It definitely sounds like it came from Ninja Gaiden, a series full of fast, high-impact tunes like this.  The fact that it is the first level theme you hear introduces you to one of the greatest game soundtracks of all time.  I suppose what I like about this song in particular is the part at the end where things go from fast and aggressive to a breakdown that leads into the next loop.  It comes in at the right time to prevent repetitiveness and adds some mood and intensity to the song.

116.

The Last of Us Theme

from The Last of Us

Composer: Carmen Rizzo; Performed by Gustavo Santaolalla

Naughty Dog; 2013

The Last of Us is a very atmospheric game.  Every detail has a story.  Every car that is abandoned, every building covered in grafitti, every lost soul either still human or dead underneath a monstrous shell has a story.  The Last of Us takes the Post-Apocalypse in a sorrowful, grim direction, which is not new to popular culture at large, but to video games, it is pretty close to novel.  This theme plays over real film-style credits that roll after we witness the events that shape our protagonist Joel into who he is at the start of the game’s main storyline.  While this tune plays, newsreels and reports of the events leading up to the game proper roll in the foreground.  The theme song for The Last of Us is a harrowing tune.  It sounds as much like loss and emptiness as a song this good really can without being too boring.  The scenes leading up to this intro are essential to grasp the pure weight of this tune, so if you have not seen it, at least go on YouTube and watch one of the numerous movie compilations of the game to watch the prologue followed by the opening credits so you can truly feel the power of this song in context.

115.

Boomer Kuwanger

from Mega Man X

Composer: Setsuo Yamamoto

Capcom; 1994

Now for something a little less… Depressing.  Boomer Kuwanger’s theme is awesome.  Like the best Mega Man themes, it opens with a fast background synth that becomes the thread that ties the song together.  The horns play out the melody and the accompaniment keeps the pace and energy up.  It is a pretty perfect song and just barely escapes my top 100, and the only reason it is so low is because, honestly, there are quite a few themes from the Mega Man X series that I like a lot more, believe it or not.  Still, this is a song that is entirely nostalgic for me, and while the level is kind of forgettable in a game full of classic, awesome stages, this song makes the venture into this area worth it.

114.

Fire!

from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Composer: Mutsuhiko Izumi, Miki Higashino

Konami; 1989

This is another classic tune co-composed by the great Miki Higashino (Who appears a whopping ten times on my list..!  To put that into perspective, the great Koji Kondo only has eight appearances).  The rock sound and bass sound so natural and too good for a chiptune.  Granted, arcade machines in the late eighties had better sound than any consoles did, but even with that considered, this game sounds good by comparison to its arcade counterparts, too.  Konami nails it again with a great tune that is fun, exciting, and fitting for its stage.

113.

Luca

from Final Fantasy X

Composers: Nobuo Uematsu, Masashi Hamauzu, Junya Nakano

Squaresoft; 2001

For the Blitzball Capital of Spira, you want a tune that is lively, fitting for the game and also somewhat cosmopolitan in its style.  The guitar gives the tune a Breezy feel, while the bass and drums make it sound modern and more advanced in years than most of the songs in the game (with one obvious exception).  It definitely has a modern edge and the more electronic elements of the song blend well into the more traditional sounds.  To me, this reflects the nature of Luca itself.  In a religion that is avidly opposed to the use of machines, Luca has one giant mechanical device at its very heart: the Blitzball Arena.  So the song sounding both classic and modern at the same time works because it reflects the spirit of the city.

112.

Sailing on the Wind

from Flower

Composer: Vincent Diamante

ThatGameCompany; 2009

Flower is a game that, despite being high among my favorite video games of the 2000’s (and of all time really), many people apparently still have not played.  This is unacceptable, people!  Flower is an original, inventive, emotionally-gripping game about nature’s reclamation of Earthly beauty in Man’s apparently-permanent absence.  Flower weaves a story without a single word or line of text.  It is like a fully-interactive picture book told through motion and emotion, rather than exposition and dialogue.  In order to craft such a unique statement for a video game, the folks at Sony’s indie darling ThatGameCompany had Vincent Diamante compose one of the most moving video game soundtracks of all time.  This bright combination of piano, woodwind and strings is a great taste of the soundtrack as a whole, and that one soft melody that plays over and over in the top of the track is the beautiful recurring theme melody of Flower, appearing, in some form and key, in just about every song in the game.  This is a soundtrack that should be listened to from start to finish as it is a powerful, captivating and heartbreaking work of brilliance.  Expect to see this game show up a few more times on my list in the future.

111.

Unyielding

from Halo 2

Composers: Martin O’Donnell, Michael Salvatori

Bungie; 2004

We venture from a moving and gripping melodic theme to Halo’s return my list.  Halo 2, to be exact.  This song exudes badassery, with the chugging guitar and intense piano playing filled by the choir and strings in the background.  It all leads up to the famous Celtic string piece that is part of the series’ official theme song.  On top of all of the complexity this song already has in spades, it manages to get fuller and fuller as it goes on, and becomes, by the end, one of the most epic tunes in the game.

Revenge of Godfrey Ho Month - Ninja the Protector (1986)

Ninja the Protector (1986)

This is one of Ho’s more confusing, yet more comically-entertaining outings.  Released as Project Ninja Daredevils in 1986 (not to be confused with 1985’s Ninja Project Daredevils), this film was re-titled Ninja the Protector for distribution.  The movie is one of dozens of Ho’s that employs the cut-and-paste editing technique, and it is also one of his more famous entries, alongside Ninja Terminator (1985) and Undefeatable (1993).

There is not much that separates Ninja the Protector from Ho’s other outings, but the silly moments make this one worth watching.  The plot is more or less irrelevant, as usual, and is barely glossed over in the entirety of the film’s run time, which clocks in at under 70 minutes.  Still, for the sake of professionalism, I will do my very best to give an outline of this film’s “story”.

Warren and David are just trying to live normal lives.  They do what they can to survive but they share a secret: they are former ninjas.  As a crime syndicate specializing in counterfeiting rises, can Warren and David face their shared past in order to move beyond it?

Along with Warren and David’s plot, we have cut-and-paste footage to talk about too!  Here we have Godfrey Ho regular Richard Harrison as Ninja Master Gordon Anderson, who is now a high-ranking police official.  After two of his cops run across a wounded ninja, one Anderson himself actually bested, they inquire about ninjas to their boss to which Anderson replies “...they’re just a fairy tale.”  However, ninjas do exist, and there is a constant battle for power in their underground world.

Warren and David’s past finally catches up to them as events start to unravel their comfortable lives and the ninja empire attempts to clean up the past by assassinating Anderson but their multiple attempts fail.  Things become worse after Warren’s girlfriend Judy catches her lover cheating on her with a model, and then attempts suicide.  This is followed by Warren being abandoned by both Judy and his brother, David, then framed for murder by one of the criminal masterminds.

source: s3.amazonaws.com

The boss intends to trap David by ensuring he is informed of Warren’s murder charge, which he anticipated would motivate him.  David storms the gangster’s home and dispatches the charging goons but is eventually overpowered.  When the goons pull out a knife at the boss’s orders to kill David, the hero then brandishes a machete but is ultimately shot.  The boss takes David out easily.  Warren intervenes, seemingly out of nowhere, but is overpowered himself.  David then, severely injured from his wound, picks up a pistol and kills Warren’s attacker, but ultimately dies himself.  

Back in the new Godfrey Ho footage, Anderson receives a challenge from a rival ninja, one that is impossible to refuse.  The challenger is Bruce, the evil ninja overlord, and the ensuing fight begins with the two ninjas engaging each other whilst riding motorcycles and swinging weapons at each pass.  As the two warriors begin their fight on foot, we have a short but well-choreographed fight scene between Bruce, who fights dirty, and the honorable Anderson that ends really, really abruptly.  One of the highlights of this short scene is when Anderson fires smoke at Bruce from the hilt of his sword.  

As you can probably tell, Ninja the Protector does not make a hell of a lot of sense.  Like most of Ho’s films, it is all over the place and much of the film’s plot is lost to the forced and sloppy editing that permeates his work.  Even with a run time that barely clears and hour, this movie is padded with gratuitous sex and some very awkward ninja posing from Richard Harrison.  This padding alone is proof that there was little here to begin with.  So, why do I recommend this movie?

Ninja The Protector is an awesome mess.  The editing is awful, the camera work is hilariously inept, the acting is off and the dub is comedy gold.  This is one of the most riffable movies in Godfrey Ho’s collection, and all of the little “inadequacies” add up to one big successful failure.  Sure, it does not work as a ninja thriller, but it does work as a comedy, so, like most movies that are so-bad-they’re-good, Ninja the Protector is an anomalous “good” bad movie.  Watch this one for a laugh.

The Revenge of Godfrey Ho Appreciation Month - An Introduction

Godfrey Ho; Image source: popmatters.com

One year ago, I dubbed August “Godfrey Ho Appreciation Month”, named for one of my favorite schlock directors of all time.  I love his over-the-top dub acting, the silly plot lines and, of course, his legendary cut-and-paste editing, which mixes two entirely unrelated films together.  At one point I actually really hated this director’s films, but over time they grew on me, and now I enjoy the insanity.  So, last year, I dedicated a series of articles to some of his films.  This year I will continue in that tradition.

There is something to be said about Godfrey Ho’s films.  They aren't exactly unique, as there are a ton of these poorly-dubbed, poorly edited, kung fu/ninja films out there from the 70’s and 80’s.  What makes Ho’s different, if not slightly so, is the way he would often film new footage, usually with white actors, to edit into the old footage, often attempting to change the context of the film entirely.  Sometimes this actually works.  As silly as it is, Ninja Terminator sort of works as a movie plot-wise.  Most of the time, however, it’s a mess; a beautiful, hilarious mess.

So how did Godfrey Ho make it in America?  Well, it all comes back to the home video market, which opened the doors for hundreds (if not thousands) of wannabe filmmakers and foreign veterans to begin inexpensively releasing their films in the U.S.  Early on (mostly in the 70’s) distribution of these films was pretty much chaotic, but generally easy, since there was no stranglehold on the home video market from larger studios, nor were there any strict laws about content (in the form of censorship; because that is what it is) from the government.  If you could make a movie, and the master could pass customs, you had a release.  

The rise of home video stores in the 80’s fed this push and ultimately, it collapsed as the studios began to crawl out of their fifteen-year-hole as the mid-to-late 80’s saw blockbuster after blockbuster begin to make huge sums of money.  They bought up most of the distributors they could, and, for the most part, the mostly-free home video market died in the early 90’s, leaving only a few of the original distributors (pretty much the ones who were already big enough to stand on their own two feet) to ultimately die a slightly slower death.

Godfrey Ho did continue to release films into the 90’s, thanks to revenue he earned in the 80’s, and is, I think, largely responsible for the rise in popularity of ninjas in pop culture, though you may not know it.  Yes, his movies were goofy, but they predated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and they followed an extremely popular kung-fu craze in the 70’s and early 80’s.  Godfrey Ho released dozens of ninja films in the 80’s, and yes, they made money.  So, it stands to reason his ubiquity would lead to influence somewhere.  Could Godfrey Ho be the reason for the massive popularity of ninjas in pop culture?  I dunno.  I just think it would have been one hell of a coincidence if he weren't.

So, I start this month with a very... special movie.  Ho’s attempt at making a Kaiju film.  Well, sort of a Kaiju film anyway.  It is a hilarious mix of a child’s pet story, mixed with an evil overlord trying to take over the world’s food supply.  I’d say that’s a perfect way to start things off this month, wouldn't you?

Godfrey Ho Appreciation Month - Full Metal Ninja (1989)

Cartoon by Christopher McElfresh

Full Metal Ninja
(1989; IDF Films and Arts)

In one of Godfrey Ho’s later spliced works, we see a lot of great imagery.  There’s an evil military leader who wears a Santa cap in one scene, a completely irrelevant white guy in a hot pink ninja costume and Chinese Eegah!  Along the way we get a strange yet surprisingly entertaining piece of cinema.  This is Full Metal Ninja!

Full Metal Ninja is just another one of the strangely-titled ninja films in Ho’s repertoire, this time featuring a Zatoichi-esque swordsman named Eagle who travels a lonely road to save his family that was taken from him by an evil warlord named Lo.  This is not, however, very well explained but this is par for the course with Ho’s narratives.  They are rarely comprehensible and are, more-often-then-not, damn near unintelligible.  

Along the road, Eagle faces many foes, most are fights he engages to help another person, other times they are in retaliation of a previous encounter.  At one point, Eagle comes to the aid of a young woman who would become an important point of contention for the hero, after she invites him into her home for rest.  However, when her father seemingly inexplicably attacks him, she vows vengeance.  After a short time, she becomes entirely irrelevant to the story.

About seven minutes of additional footage was added after the fact starring Ho and Lai’s perennial caucasian action hero, Pierre Kirby.  Kirby’s scenes do nothing but add a little more violence to the movie and ultimately serve no purpose, as the added scenes in Ho’s movies rarely do.  Still, we do see some funny action and we also get a nice taste of the goofy ninja costumes Ho uses in many of his films.  Thus, there are a few laughs to be had at these scenes’ expense.  

Pierre Kirby from Full Metal Ninja,
in all of his hot pink glory!

The fight choreography in Full Metal Ninja, as is the case with most of Ho’s films, ranges from good to bleh.  To Ho’s credit, he is actually able to construct a good scene from time to time, and his movies, as silly as they often are, do occasionally have some good action.  Some of the fights in Full Metal Ninja aren’t bad, and really do deserve some recognition as entertaining pieces of martial arts action.  Some of the cut-in fights are pretty fun too, like when we see Pierre Kirby rip off Raiders with the gun to the swordsman’s gut and when we see him kick down a freaking tree in an attempt to crush his attackers.

All-in-all, Full Metal Ninja is a blast, and while it isn’t good, not by a long shot, bad movie fans and fans of kung fu movies in general will find quite a bit to like about it.  The principle plot, while cliched and paper-thin, isn’t bad and the hero, Eagle is pretty badass, though, you have seen this very same character played better, in far-superior films.  Give this one a watch if you want to have a few laughs and to quench your thirst for fun kung fu action.

Godfrey Ho Appreciation Month - An Introduction

Cartoon by Christopher McElfresh

I hereby dub August Godfrey Ho Appreciation Month and that means lots and lots of awesome ninja action!  The 1970’s were an important time for movies in America.  There were several elements from that decade that contributed to the changes, one being the rise of Independent Cinema, and another was Bruce Lee.  In fact, I don’t think it is often stressed enough just how huge of an impact Bruce Lee had on cinema, not just here in the States, but everywhere.  

Asian cinema began to grow in popularity during the late 50’s thanks to the films of directors like Akira Kurosawa, who created sweeping historical narratives highlighting feudal Japan and showing us a side of a culture we had only really heard about through WWII news headlines and biased word of mouth.  It would be a few years before we got our first taste of Bruce Lee here in the popular TV show the Green Hornet, which aired from 1966-67.  Lee had, by this time, already appeared in a number of films from the growing Hong Kong circuit and was trying to break into Hollywood to better share his love of the Martial Arts and his amazing acting and fighting ability with the world.  

Bruce Lee.  Image from imdb.com page.

Lee’s films more or less opened the door to the Kung Fu genre to become the powerhouse fans recognize it to be today, and like all other growing fads, there were plenty of others with slightly less talent who would move in to latch on to that success.  One such director out of the 1970’s was Godfrey Ho.  But Ho, along with producer and colleague Joseph Lai, become notorious for re-editing their own movies while splicing in some new footage featuring American actors.  This was principally a business decision as Ho operated under the assumption that by having actors from the US in his films, and giving them top-billing upon release, he would generate a stronger following.  He was wrong.  
Still, Ho and Lai did quite well for themselves.  Just during the 1980’s they released well over 80 films, most were re-hashes and re-edits.  He did do some entirely original films as well, and we’ll talk about those too.  So, without further ado, let us kick off Godfrey Ho Appreciation Month with a film starring one of his favorite Spliced-In Superstars, Pierre Kirby: Full Metal Ninja.