Category Archives: Album projects

Belmonts vs Dracula

It’s time 4 entry number 4 of VG Arch Rivals Vol. 4! I present: Belmonts vs Dracula!

This rivalry spans many generations on one side…and one vampire on the other side. Now, Dracula has been slain in countless of his incarnations and not only by the Belmont clan. But if you want the job done right, you call a Belmont. They have slain Dracula’s incarnations for centuries after all – not always without complications.

For the song, I decided to let Simon (Castlevania I, II, IV and quite a few more), Trevor (Castlevania III) and Richter (Castlevania: Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night) represent the Belmont clan.

For the songs, I went with the most iconic tunes – mostly the first stage theme of the classic games, which often serve as the character’s theme – namely Vampire Killer (Castlevania), Bloody Tears (Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest), Beginning (Castlevania III), Theme of Simon Belmont (Super Castlevania IV), Divine Bloodlines (Castlevania: Rondo of Blood) and Dance of Illusions (the Castlevania: Circle of the Moon version) for Dracula.

So let’s here it:

Belmonts vs Dracula (1638 downloads )

 

But what is a man? One that also watches the video:

 

I initially wanted to only include the themes from the four classic Castlevania games, when I realized, that I only used the themes of Simon Belmont and Trevor Belmont. I wasn’t aware that he was actually the protagonist of 3 of the first 4 games! So I decided to add Divine Bloodlines too – Richter is one of my favorite Belmonts anyway~

The next entry of VG Arch Rivals Vol. 4 will be the 5th and final one – unless we get some bonus songs again? Who knows! If everything goes according to plan, I’ll see you again in 2 weeks!

Link vs Ganon

It’s finally time for one of the most iconic arch rivalries in video gaming. It really took a while, but here we are, the third entry of VG Arch Rivals Vol. 4 is none other than Link vs Ganon!

I’ll skip the explanation of the rivalry this time, because I think it’s really unnecessary. If you know that the main protagonist of the Legend of Zelda games is not called Zelda, then you’re probably aware. If not, well…I won’t judge.

So what songs are included? It might surprise you that I refused to use the Legend of Zelda Main Theme for Link’s side and instead went with Tal Tal Heights.  Now there’s one flaw of logic here, as this actually comes from the game The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening, one of the games without Ganon. Now I could argue that the game is all about Link and thus fits him quite well – but the truth is, Tal Tal Heights is simply one of my favorite renditions of the Main Theme.

For Ganon there’s quite a bit more, as I included his Theme (which appears at least in A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time), his Battle Theme from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Gerudo Valley from the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I also managed to add a bit of Zelda’s Lullaby to the mix, which makes the triforce complete, right?

I also added some Ganondorf voice clips, because I like that:

Link vs Ganon (1379 downloads )

– but for those of you who don’t like these voice clips that much, there’s a separate version:

Link vs Ganon [No voice Edit] (1291 downloads )

 

And here is the video as usual:

 

You can’t imagine how perplexed I was when I finally completed A Link to the Past a short while ago and found out that Ocarina of Time actually reused many songs from that game. Having played OoT long before ALttP, it was hard for me to understand that many of those iconic tunes from OoT actually came from the SNES game…

Anyway, if all goes according to plan I’ll see you again in 2 weeks with the next entry of VG Arch Rivals Vol. 4!

Crash vs Cortex

If you expected Crash to make an appearance in VG Arch Rivals Vol. 4, then I congratulate you: here’s the second entry of this year’s album project, Crash vs Cortex!

In all honesty, I never played any of the classic Crash games – but it’s nice to see that the series is getting a revival now. All I know is that Crash and Cortex are basically the definition of arch rivals – and this song was lots of fun to make. That series has a lot of catchy tunes.

It starts off with what I came to call the “Main Theme” (since it appears in more than one game), I heard it in Crash Bandicoot: Warped and Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, also sometimes called the Opening or Intro Theme. Not entirely sure. After that is the Main/Title Theme of Crash Bandicoot also sometimes called N. Sanity Beach (I really hope I got those names right, this is confusing me). The song of course also includes Dr. Neo Cortex, I chose his theme from Warped because that’s the definitive Cortex Theme in my book. Aside from that, the song features Rockslide Rumble and Evil Twins from Crash Twinsanity – the game with the acapella soundtrack where Crash and Cortex actually had to work together.

Now that you know where I’m coming from, let’s listen to the song:

Crash vs Cortex (1578 downloads )

 

And here’s the video:

 

You know, I had a funny idea for next Sunday, but I’m unsure if I can make it, since that’s also the Easter weekend. In case I’m unable to prepare it in time I’ll see you in two weeks.