Special Podcast Episode: DBZ Video Game Music #1

[VegettoEX]

Special Podcast Episode: DBZ Video Game Music #1 (download MP3) (rss feed) (subscribe in iTunes)
71:38; 96 kbps, mono; 49.4 MB

The Kanzenshuu crew brings on an incredible group of special guests to dive into the Dragon Ball franchise's rich history of video game music. What were some of the songs that defined our early fandom, and why do they still mean so much to us? Our focus is up through the 32-bit era, so join us for a history lesson and some rockin' tunes!

For those of you traveling back home from a convention today, I hope this extends the Dragon Ball awesomeness a little more for you! For everyone else, I really hope you enjoy the stories and reminiscing as much as I did. Community and shared-experiences were definitively proven and exemplified for me this weekend, and I hope this can be a piece of that moment in time that shows how we all love this series so much.

[ThunderPX]

This was a lot of fun to listen to, because I can really connect with all these experiences myself--barely knowing anything about Dragon Ball, but finding all these video games and their music... Actually, the video game scores are actually the most closely associated with Dragon Ball in my mind. Maybe it was just that I heard so many different scores for the actual show ("Ocean" and FUNimation in-house dubs on TV and Kikuchi on fansubs) that none of them really registered properly in my mind, whereas the video game scores were largely consistent and more easily identifiable, being assigned to a specific part of the game and all.
In short, the Dragon Ball video game scores from the 90s are one of my biggest childhood inspirations for getting into composing myself... but I probably shouldn't say that out loud considering the saga of Mr. Yamamoto.

EDIT: Oh, a silly tidbit I forgot to mention--when Mike recounted his Pink Floyd story for... the third time at least on the podcast, I was reminded of a Dragon Ball video game review I wanted to do at one point. Of course, I'd have to address the Yamamoto thing when talking about the music, but of course, Pink Floyd's "One Of These Days" is in turn an homage/ripoff/whatever you want to call it to the original Doctor Who theme from the 60s and 70s. I wrote a joke about that, but it was essentially the same thing as an Angry Video Game Nerd joke where he talks about the score to some Dracula game... "What's up with the music? It sounds like Phantom of the Opera. Which sounds like Pink Floyd." Okay, there's no real point to this story, but I thought it was pretty amusing that Pink Floyd keeps popping up in video game music.

[songohan619]

Great episode, loved every second of it while helping my dad fix our house!

[Puto]

Sorry that I didn't manage to find the free time to record my segment. I've been kinda busy lately, I'm afraid.

[Castor Troy]

I had way too much fun fanboying while recording my segment.

Thanks for having me back on the podcast again, Mike!

[ShadowDude112]

Wow, I can't tell who a lot of these people are. So far I've only identified KaiserNeko. Awesome to hear the music.

[Gaffer Tape]

Loved how perfectly you synched up my renditions of Kageyama to the actual song. Made me feel like part of a documentary. Thanks for letting me share in this even though I'm not the biggest follower of the games!

[BlazingFiddlesticks]

Well, naturally mind-blown that the podcast had been using two game songs I had never recognized since forever. Remember hearing Meri's pick after searching songs after the last Butoden-related episode.

Julian's pick, though, holy cow. For the longest time I've believed Goku's supposed death on Namek deserved something uncharacteristically poignant, and low and behold that piece has existed all this time!

[Kaboom]

...I really need to get myself a better mic.

[DragonBoxZTheMovies]

Wow, thoroughly enjoyed that. Really, really fun episode; nice and long too.

Unfortunately this generation was a bit before my time, but it was still a great listen and I recognized a good chunk of the tracks. Was great to hear so many familiar voices from previous podcasts as well!

Looking forward to #2, if there is one (hopefully soon!). I assume there is, seeing as you went out of your way to put a #1 there. I guess, the Budokai music is my equivalent to your experiences mentioned in the episode. Man, I love that stuff so much. The Capsule Music at the end brought a tear to my eye.

[Bluebolt]

Hi guys,
It's been a while. My personal choice (Pre PS era) has to be these two from DBZ Hyper Dimension (which is a kickass fighter).
Arranged version of the Opening Saisei Hen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwHDMsiGrug
and of course Another S: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi2bxcpeJPE

Love the light chanting in the opening. Another S seems to be one of those bathed in a golden nostalgia.

[medama_oyaji]

Loved this episode!! I'm not a big gamer, and I don't think I've played any DB game more than 2 or 3 times, but I really enjoyed listening to some nice music attached to some heart-felt stories.

[Cold Skin]

I did expect pieces of Super Butoden 2 in that podcast, it was an easy guess.
If I had to pick one "old school" and one "modern era" video game track, they would be:

- The Goten and Trunks theme from Super Butoden 3. It was already my favorite as a kid listening to the in-game version while playing, but the arrange version is even more brillant, it's an enhanced Solid State Scouter for a "show you're a hero" moment!
- Challengers from the first Budokai really stands out from all video game modern tracks, it's exceptionnal. The track is a definition of the show itself, somebody asks "what's Dragon Ball?", you can play this song and it's all there at various parts of the track: full-of-energy happiness/enthusiasm, badass moments, epic battles, courage... The track is a musical definition of the Dragon Ball spirit.

[Shiyonasan]

Awesome podcast. As a fan of the music from the Dragon Ball games, past and present, this was a fun listen. Hearing all of your stories almost makes me wish I lived to experience the Dragon Ball games back in the '90s.

I have listened to some of the music from that era. One of my favorites from that era is Encounter from Super Gokuden. I prefer the arranged version more, but the video game version is just as good.

From my era (the PS2/GCN/Xbox era), my favorite is the unnamed track from the Budokai games that plays in the Cell Games arena in Budokai 1, the Temple in Budokai 2, and the Room of Spirit and Time in Budokai 3 and Infinite World. That song gets me pumped up every time I listen to it.

[CashmanX]

Wasn't it McdaveG that did the Hishouden remix?

[VegettoEX]

Wasn't it McdaveG that did the Hishouden remix?

Oh my god I think you're right.

Wow. My total bad brain-slip. Incredible apologies .

[El Diabeetus]

In Meri's pick of Super Butoden 2's Vegeta Theme, there were a few references to future songs. There was a small riff in there that would become a whole base for one of the Budokai songs.

The Budokai song was one of the Tournament themes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j98hqGSo ... 2D&index=1

In SB2's song it's about the 20 second mark.

Also, a little bit of it sounded like Rydeen from YMO to me, so it's not only the Main Title theme of the games that seems to use that song. (This is at about 32 seconds in.)

[Insertclevername]

@SSJ4 Furanki

Your right! I never noticed that. Oh, Yamamoto ripping yourself off.

[El Diabeetus]

@SSJ4 Furanki

Your right! I never noticed that. Oh, Yamamoto ripping yourself off.

Yeah, haha. I was listening to it on the Podcast yesterday and then thought "Wait, I've heard this before outside of SB2." I even knew what Budokai track it was, but wasn't sure of the name. So, it took about 10 minutes to find.

[worldmonsters]

Hi guys,
It's been a while. My personal choice (Pre PS era) has to be these two from DBZ Hyper Dimension (which is a kickass fighter).
Arranged version of the Opening Saisei Hen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwHDMsiGrug
and of course Another S: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi2bxcpeJPE

Love the light chanting in the opening. Another S seems to be one of those bathed in a golden nostalgia.

When I found out there was an arranged version of Hyper Dimension I flipped :p Pretty much all of those arranged tracks belong to my favourites, but the opening is definitely one of the best to me :p

Hikaru no Will Power has a special place in my heart as well, the first version they used in the podcast. It was used as the opening to one of those MASSIVE Mugen games with a roster of Dragon Ball Z characters that put Tenkaichi Budokai 3 to shame :p Well, not really, but it filled the screen with hundreds of small avatars with characters ripped from various games. I never really was into the SNES games or any of the other old games that much, I know I played Gokuden 1 and 2, Hyper Dimension and Legend of Son Goku (or something) on SNES emulator, but that was it :p It was definitely Mugen for me :p