Game info: Wikipedia
Listening: Bandcamp, Steam
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If you’re not familiar, Metal Slug is a series of arcade run-and-guns originally developed by Nazca Corporation, which was acquired by SNK shortly after the first game released in 1996. Since then there’ve been several more numbered entries and a bunch of random spinoffs. The latest one, Metal Slug Tactics, came out last year; it was developed by a French studio working through Dotemu, a dev and publisher which has organized remakes and sequels for several different other old game franchises.
Who’s a dude you call when you’re a Western developer making a new game for a retro franchise? Obviously, it’s Tee Lopes, who hit the big time with Sonic Mania and has now been involved in at least like five of these. He often shows off an old-school VGM funky style influenced by stuff like new jack swing, which tends to be a good fit for these kinds of projects, and the original Metal Slug soundtracks by Takushi Hiyamuta are pretty aggressive jazz fusion so he was an obvious fit for this.
His soundtrack is original, though it makes several quick references to the main theme from Metal Slug. Stylistically it’s mostly fairly similar to that track too: militaristic orchestral crossed with jazz fusion at around a marching pace, driving but not overly intense, though some of the boss themes get slightly more frantic. The instrumentation is all old synth sounds to give it that classic feel, and the compositions are full of nice chord changes and random prog lines. It’s fun! It’s clear he was aiming for a very specific facet of Metal Slug music and I think he did a good job with it.
Recommended tracks:
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“Merciless Land” has a pretty spicy modulation progression at 0:58, and the part at 1:27 is pretty menacingly wonky
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“Struggle in the Jungle” is one of a few odd time tracks, the background string writing in the first half isn’t too bad
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“Morden’s Return II” starts off nice with a mallet figure and then gets really nice at 1:05 when the fretless bass starts showing off
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“The Dragon’s Fury” is one of the more frantic boss themes, this one’s in 5 too
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“Tough as O’Neil’s” gets pretty slappy with the bass
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“Fire Rain Dance” is for a boss you fight in the jungle, which you can tell from the opening instrumentation
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