Happy Late New Year! Well, I got a good month off from doing this segment, but it’s time Night-Time Listenings returned. And since this is a new year, let’s head to the future, all the way to the year of the futuristic racers. So all this week we payed homage to the Futuristic racer, which was filled with crunchy guitars, thumping basses, and speaker busting noises. Featured this week was F-ZERO, Extreme G, Kinetica, F-ZERO GX, and Wipeout HD Fury.

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F-ZERO – Silence

Composed by Yumiko Kanki and Naoto Ishida

 

So let’s kick things off with F-ZERO on the SNES. Like the name of the track implies, Silence was one of the more calmer songs in the soundtrack to the game, It’s starts off calm with a simple melody with a dominant bass. Things pick up afterwards, but the bass it still there. The song is as much about the melody as it is about that groovy bass. The handgun-shaped racetrack to Silence is largely uneventful, with a dew mines scatters about, a jump, and some tricky turns. So then, what’s your best time on Silence?

Extreme G – Track 2

Composed by Simon Robertson and Stephen Root

 

Extreme G was one of those games that I have a vague memory of playing. I remember the commercials for it, but I never played it that much. If you’ve read my Retro Weekends involving N64 games, you’ll know that the N64 was my cousins’. Not sure if they owned Extreme G or if they were borrowing it, but from what I remember, it was pretty damn fast, especially if you played it in first-person view. IT was like being in a roller-coaster. Extreme G had a sequel on the N64, but sadly I’ve never played it. Since I’ve barely played this one, I’ve got now question to ask for this NTL entry. So discuss this game as you like.

Kinetica – If I Survive

Performed by Hybrid

 

Early in the PS2’s lifecycle, a strange racer called Kinetica was released. In this, all the racers were the vehicles, having wheels and motors attached to themselves. On top of this, to improves maneuverability, they had to wear as little as possible. I remember one magazine ad having the slogan “G-String meets G-Force,” And boy howdy was it true. Sadly I’ve never played this game in my youth, being very swayed by reviews and most rating this from average to low. Maybe I’ll snag this game soon. So, how was this game for you back when it was released?

F-ZERO GX – Infinite Blue

Composed by Hidenori Shoji and Daiki Kasho

 

Knowing about the iconic Big Blue theme from my time with F-ZERO and Melee, I began to wonder where that theme went as I played through F-ZERO GX. While I later found out that the original Big Blue theme was unlockable, I grew to like Infinite Blue. I particularly like that sort of beach-y beginning as the timer starts counting down. And then bam, off we go. The water-like instrument from the beginning stays prevalent through the the verses of the song, then that cool sound sounding chorus takes over for a good chunk of the song. The last verse offers up a really cool melody as a variant of the chorus. So, which Big Blue track was your favorite in F-ZERO GX?

Wipeout HD Fury – Machine Gun

Composed by Noisia

 

I had only very little knowledge of the Wipeout series of futuristic racers. I remember as a kid want to get Wipeout 3 for the PS1, but never managing to snag a copy. Then the PSN outage happened, and Sony was offering a bunch of games for free when it came back on. One of the games was Wipeout HD Fury, so you know I got this (along with inFamous). And damn did this game kick my ass. Well, not by my lack of skill, but by how awesome it was. The music certainly gave it a different atmosphere than F-ZERO. Machine Gun from Wipeout HD is one of my favorite tracks from the game just for how much it proves me wrong. At first this seems like yet another techno track in a futuristic racer, ready to become discredited. Then that part at 1:30 kicks in, bringing with it a sort of rage that coicides very well with the frantic nature of Wipeout. You got crazy turns, aggressive racers, and weapons just flying all over the track. So then, which team of racers are you loyal to?