Had Beast Blaster been domesticated closer to its Japanese debut it would no doubt be a highly coveted classic today. However, the port took so long that it was nearing the end of the NES’s life when it finally came out, though fans “in the know” still consider themselves the fortunate few. Beast Blaster is a lighthearted action/platformer on the surface, but there’s incredible depth beneath, as well as some startlingly violent boss battles that clash magnificently with the stages that precede them.

Take this track for instance. Halcyon Hills, an early stage, is bright and colorful. Sure, stomping about in the grass and flowers are killer robots that want our hero Ace’s head, but it’s otherwise cheery, taking full advantage of the system’s palette. However, once its two levels are cleared, Moxy Bulboom slams down from the sky, turning the grass red. What follows is a fight that sends flesh flying, as the only way Ace knows to best a beast is bloody blasting.

Shake those dark thoughts for now, though, and come along with us on a saccharine sonic journey.

Halcyon Hills

Created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

Imagine, if you dare, being stuck inside a place so terrifyingly conflicting, you just don’t know what to do with yourself! Such is the plight of Victor Cazarian, famed researcher-slash-adventurer that finds himself trapped in the confines of the nefarious Baron Blood’s Lunatic Lair. Does he dance with the devil in the pale moon light? He may not have a choice!

This late ’80s gem was perhaps most famous for its party or die philosophy. It confounded players with a moral dilemma. Sure, you could traverse the sprawling manor with relative ease by gettin’ down with the ghoulish guest list. But boogie too much with these batty beasts and you may just end up on permanent vacation! Then again, refuse their decadent delights and it’ll be time for Victor to use his fleet feet for something else entirely: kicking butt.

The question of fight or flight has never been so… groovy.

Party in the Palace
Download the .xm file
Created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OS X)

High Noon’s third level and boss battle featured an auto-scrolling chase across the sand at sunset. Players had to dodge obstacles as hordes of Comanchtafarian Cyborgs fired their explosive-tipped arrows from their wrist-rockets and attempted to topple Cybastian-01 while he careened headlong to catch the runaway stagecoach full of “the goods” before it fell into the wrong hands.

After blazing down the beach and across the palisades, the coach is stopped short by a burly beach body builder-borg eager for a hit (in so many words). Cybastian must battle this new foe’s three deadly attacks: his Spinning Spear Spurs, his razor-tipped throwing hat and his dreaded dreadlocks of dread, hoping to whip our hero into submission. Good thing Cybastian’s trusty steed, 47X-59LR (or Ethernet Edna, as Cybastian calls her) can transform herself into a cannon capable of firing pipe bombs into the robo-heart of this newest nemesis.

Coastal Stagecoach Chasedown

Created by Daemon9623

During the early ’90s there was a lot of in-house feuding in the game development community, and High Noon was no exception. Half the team wanted a game set in the romping wild west, while the rest were banking on their latest character concoction: the controversial, cybernetic stoney hero known then as Brutus the Bakin’ Jamaican.

Thankfully, they reached an agreement in 1991, and debuted the saloon-stompin’, cyber-horse ridin’ Cybastian-01; a hero whose enemies existed in two dimensions. As this first stage track indicates, the western world could go hazy at any moment, transitioning to a beautiful (but deadly) beach in a puff of smoke.

Dynamic music was incorporated into every stage, with enemy sprites dancing to the rhythm of the reggae-inspired sections at one moment, and stagecoach swindlers blastin’ their guns to a hoof-clopping twang at the next. Ride on, Cybastian-01, ride on!

From Kingston To Deadwood
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Created as a collaborative effort between Djinnocide and Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

Action Vacation IV took the much ballyhooed series in an even more technologically refined direction, sporting an additional chip that doubled the graphical power of the Nintendo Entertainment System. This time the Bullet Twins (Zip and Flip) vacation on Shuriken Island, a brutal destination in the ninja nation filled with soldiers and armored salamanders of a madman’s creation.

This particular track is the well known theme music, which plays from 1-1 too 1-3, as the wind in the field blows kite-flying ninjas in a whip of leaves and bits of branches.

Action Vacation on Shuriken Island

Created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

Some of the most dastardly platforming ever conceived was present in Tengen’s gore-infused hell-romp Splatter Train. Aptly titled, Satan’s Pit is the first of many blood soaked stages awaiting our hero. Henry battles reanimated corpses, horrid fiends borne of pure evil and ghastly apparitions that attempt to suck his soul dry. Players had to not only face these pixilated horrors but also a slew of labyrinthine side-scrolling levels in a race against the in-game timer, lest Henry miss his stop and forever be trapped.  Slaughter power-ups throughout the stage allow Henry to sacrifice an innocent soul on the surface in order to stop the timer and provide himself more time to reach the train.  This caused a massive negative impact on the player’s score and, conceptually, did not sit well with many parents.

The steady “CHUG-a-chug-a-CHUG-a-chug-a” of Charon’s locomotive (replacing his long-standing boat) is ever present throughout the stage, occasionally accompanied by the whistle of the damned.  A driving melody leads the charge into a foray of time changes, bone-smashing metal blastbeats and crushing leads.

Satan’s Pit

Created by Daemon9623

Gore ruled gaming well before Mortal Kombat came on the scene. Sure, we’ve all played classics like Namco’s Splatterhouse series, but none were more obscene than competitor Tengen’s answer, Splatter Train. The first in the series shocked many with over the top cutscenes that transitioned into a non-stop 2D bloodbath. Parents shrieked as the titular train took their gleeful children from level to level, from Satan’s Pit to the stage in question, the infamous Demon Foundry.

A horrid swirl of metalworks and rust-blasted gore-fighting, by the time protagonist Henry Harrison was done with the foundry, he was literally oozing with the blood of his enemies. It all culminates in a boss that vomits so much bile that the slowdown becomes nearly unbearable. The 8-bit metal soundtrack drove everything home in a brutally unconventional way, eschewing standard loops for bizarre solos and powerful digital drumming.

Demon Foundry

Created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

Tecmo was really rolling with a goldmine as far as Ninja Gaiden was concerned, so why stop at the series proper? In the early ’90s they rolled out a very strange prequel known as Hayabusa Mission. This time around, the true “demon lords” were drug dealers and petty thugs, so Ryu took on work as a freelancer, cleaning up the streets with his sword and budding expertise in ninjutsu.

This particular track comes from stage 3-1, the Secret Ninja Drug Dojo. Crack-cocaine was still a hot topic at the time, but Ryu made sure it became nothing more than dust in the wind at the tip of his blade. Drug barons beware!

Secret Ninja Drug Dojo

Created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

Capcom’s CODENAME: W.O.L.F. took the successful formula of the Rock Man games in an exciting, and admittedly darker direction. War has ravaged planet earth and the only remaining hope lies in the paws of a lone K-9 Unit. From the family pet to the front lines – Help Lobo navigate the singed steel and crumbling concrete in a quest to avenge the family he lost. Join forces with Professor Quasar as you set out to defeat The Seven Blood-Thirsty Barons of The New Wasteland and assemble the coveted W.O.L.F. armor.

By Tooth & Nail

Kazuo Umezu’s horror manga The Drifting Classroom may have reigned in the 70s, but it wasn’t until a decade later that game developers in Japan would begin to cash in on its popularity. The Famicom title, as seen above on a bootleg NES cart, sold millions, and was lauded for its 2D platforming depiction of the manga’s harrowing events in a slightly truncated form.

In fact, the game was so popular that an official soundtrack was released, containing every piece of music from the title. Whether you’re familiar with the manga or not, you can surely find excitement in the tale of an elementary school zapped to an uncertain, desolate future, where adults resort to barbarism while the children devise a new world order.

DOWNLOAD THE FULL ALBUM HERE:

The Drifting Classroom [22mb .zip]

Check out the individual tracks below:

01 Strange Future (Intro)
02 Title (Press Start)
03 Stage 1 – Wild Hallways
04 Stage 2 – Sands of Sorrow
05 Boss Fight
06 Stage 3 – Invasion
07 Stage 4 – The Black Plague
08 Bonus – Mutant Mushrooms
09 Killer Cult
10 Stage 5 – Underground
11 Game Over (Continue)
12 Stage 6 – Escape
13 Stage 7 – Final War
14 Bright Future (The End)

All tracks created by Moldilox using Milky Tracker (OSX)

The Drifting Classroom is © 1974 Kazuo UMEZU/Shogakukan Inc.
It is published in North America by Viz Media