Game info: Wikipedia
Listening: soundtrack release 1 (tracks 2~18), soundtrack release 2 (tracks 2.01~19), YouTube, emulated audio
Credits
Sound: Hiroaki Yoshida (as MARO), Akira Takemoto (as RAIKA)
In an interview and on his old website, Yoshida said he only did sound effects and voice for the game, naming Takemoto as its sole composer.
Info
We’re back with another Boosted game remake by City Connection, following up last year’s BATSUGUN Saturn Tribute Boosted, so let’s relisten to the original arcade soundtracks first because it’s been quite a while since I’ve heard either. First up we’ve got Wolf Fang, a run-and-gun robot shootin’ game localized in the U.S. as Rohga: Armor Force.
The soundtrack is by Akira Takemoto, who worked at developer Data East for only about three years or so, working on a few games and performing in their band GAMADELIC. I’ve never particularly been into Data East music, so I don’t know a whole lot about him or how good he is. This soundtrack has a few good tracks in it, so it seems like he might be alright?
The style of the soundtrack is generally melodic FM rock, with some tracks getting a little weighty but never especially heavy, and a bit of jazz/funk flavoring here and there to remind you that it’s video game music. The first half of the soundtrack I find pretty bland, but starting with the stage 3 theme, it gets a lot more compositionally interesting and stays that way through most of the rest of it. The main thing is that the tracks start busting out cooler chord progressions, but every now and then there’s also something like odd time or polymeter, weird progginess, or difference in the sound programming to keep things exciting. Not bad!
Recommended tracks:
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“STORMY BLADE – ‘Assault’ (BGM 3)” is where the soundtrack starts to get good, with 5/16 polymeter and le chords
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“MIDNIGHT CHASER – ‘Breakthrough’ (BGM 4)” is the chillest stage theme
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“STREAM OF DEEPBLUE – ‘Search for the Enemy’ (BGM 6)” has a fun, erratically ominous mallet line in the background for the first 30 seconds or so
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“SLAUGHTER MACHINE – ‘Destruction’ (BOSS 2)” was my favorite of the game’s two boss themes, due largely to the sudden rhythm switch at 0:45
(track titles are unofficial translations from VGMdb)
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