The Forgotten Age of D&B and Jungle in Video Game Soundtracks.

[Tsukishima Tsukishima]

Drum & Bass & Jungle are what I'd consider to be a lost art in the 5th gen of gaming and I really miss it. Nothing really got me so much in the vibe like a video game suddenly going "No, we're done playing the straight man. Go fight this boss while jamming to the amen break in the background, we don't care." It was such a special vibe to me.

Ape Escape, Ridge Racer T4, Bomberman Hero. There's so many incredible examples of games that elected to use this genre. What really got me though was the ones where just a particular song in the soundtrack was a jungle song.
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile & Soul of the Samurai on PSOne are some such cases.

There's even a track from Musashi Samurai Legend which goes into a floorfiller after a while. It created such a legendary experience listening to it. This one really speaks to me in particular, because of that ambient buildup into something extremely amazing.

Do you miss the era? Are there examples of this incredible genre in the games you played and want others to hear?

 

[Ash Riot]

I was talking about this with a younger coworker just the other day when he mentioned he had started playing Ape Escape and PS1 gen titles, how the music and overall creativity in the games were better. I hooked him up with the Sumo Jungle album the Ape Escape guy made and showed him the Buck Bumble theme, told him to check out the Wipeout games and Rollcage soundtracks

 

[Viviana Santos]

One of the best dungeon themes in all of Megaten

 

[Eduardo2010]

These Japanese jungle / d and b tracks have an ever so slightly different flavour to UK jungle. Just can't describe it. It's like jungle for a fantasy / sci fi film rather than a night club.

Please list more!

 

[Vreeves]

Some new games do this as an homage to the classics like BallisticNG, Motorslice and many indie titles.

 

[ChronoCloud]

Drum & Bass & Jungle are what I'd consider to be a lost art in the 5th gen of gaming and I really miss it. Nothing really got me so much in the vibe like a video game suddenly going "No, we're done playing the straight man. Go fight this boss while jamming to the amen break in the background, we don't care." It was such a special vibe to me.

Ape Escape, Ridge Racer T4, Bomberman Hero. There's so many incredible examples of games that elected to use this genre. What really got me though was the ones where just a particular song in the soundtrack was a jungle song.
Klonoa: Door to Phantomile & Soul of the Samurai on PSOne are some such cases.

There's even a track from Musashi Samurai Legend which goes into a floorfiller after a while. It created such a legendary experience listening to it. This one really speaks to me in particular, because of that ambient buildup into something extremely amazing.

Do you miss the era? Are there examples of this incredible genre in the games you played and want others to hear?

I associate it with racing games.
But the wily stage 1 music in mega Man 8 is 10/10

 

[TruxtonTatsujin]

so many good DnB tracks from around the late 90s / early 2000s. Was just listening to this one a little while ago.

 

[JG509]

And the best part is that this kind of music just fits every part of a game somehow, and that makes the part where it plays a lot more memorable, it's just like white noise that happens to be a banger instead of regular fitting game music in that spot, and I'm saying that as an excellent thing because I really like that stuff, it's a very focused style of music that doesn't get in the way.

My favorite one is Ace Combat 3, the entire ost is dnb and ominous ambience, and it fits like the most perfect glove since the entire experience is that of a cyberpunk story in the skies with plenty of dystopian details around and very stylish UIs.

 

[SpcDaicon SpcDaicon]

The late 90s and early 2000s were a treasure trove of DnB and Jungle OSTs, even in the most unexpected places

I think half of the Dreamcast library has DnB and Jungle on at least one of its tracks. I think thats way the Dreamcast always seems futuristic, its shape and design as well the OST of its games always sound modern and slick.

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

Goddamn, Tsuki, our tastes really do keep aligning up . It is interesting electronic music as a whole played such a fundamental role in the aesthetic and just general vibe of that era, I know the mid 90's are generally considered to be the golden era for (specifically) Jungle, with DnB being more prominent in the late 90's/early 2000's, but it's also unfortunately how quickly it all seemed to be taken for granted and abandoned like a relic of a past era. I know House and Techno fared a bit better, continuing to be used in games well into the 2000's, but even that stopped after a while. I'll always have a love for them though, I'd be lying if I said this kind of stuff didn't have an impact on my taste.

 

[JG509]

I think half of the Dreamcast library has DnB and Jungle on at least one of its tracks. I think thats way the Dreamcast always seems futuristic, its shape and design as well the OST of its games always sound modern and slick.

It really helps that a lot of games have art and UI design that has aged beautifully in combination with the OSTs, almost as if these were made in mind to look and feel fresh 20 years from then.

 

[Tsukishima Tsukishima]

I'm reminding myself of some more fantastic examples of this genre, some modern, and some retro:

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

This song was INCREDIBLE for my first time with SMTV: V. The new songs they put into this version was absolutely killer.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

Played through Custom Robo for the first time a month or two ago, absolutely loved this piece

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

Monkey Ball has a surprisingly tenure of using this amazing genre in its soundtrack. Monkey Race's Expert courses are borderline hypnotic with this blasting in the background.

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

This one was INSANELY off-kilter to the game's vibe, and I especially never expected to hear this genre in a horror level. It slaps all the same though, I really love the bass swerve in this one.

@Eduardo2010 hope these songs are to your liking!

Goddamn, Tsuki, our tastes really do keep aligning up . It is interesting electronic music as a whole played such a fundamental role in the aesthetic and just general vibe of that era, I know the mid 90's are generally considered to be the golden era for (specifically) Jungle, with DnB being more prominent in the late 90's/early 2000's, but it's also unfortunately how quickly it all seemed to be taken for granted and abandoned like a relic of a past era. I know House and Techno fared a bit better, continuing to be used in games well into the 2000's, but even that stopped after a while. I'll always have a love for them though, I'd be lying if I said this kind of stuff didn't have an impact on my taste.

Hell yes, Xyber!! That arrange of Killing Moon was new to me, since I'm versed with the original version of it, I think at the later stages of the song you can hear something similar to the chime of a grandfather clock, but at the end of that specific chord it immediatly sounds like something else. It's so cool actually, there's another SF song I know that uses DNB, and of course it belongs to Gill

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

Those other ones you sent was amazing, the Tennis song in particular reminded me of Orange Lounge if you've ever heard of them, they combine fruity jazzy chords with some crazy DNB and other genres sometimes

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[X y b e r - S k u ll]

Hell yes, Xyber!! That arrange of Killing Moon was new to me, since I'm versed with the original version of it, I think at the later stages of the song you can hear something similar to the chime of a grandfather clock, but at the end of that specific chord it immediatly sounds like something else. It's so cool actually, there's another SF song I know that uses DNB, and of course it belongs to Gill

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

Those other ones you sent was amazing, the Tennis song in particular reminded me of Orange Lounge if you've ever heard of them, they combine fruity jazzy chords with some crazy DNB and other genres sometimes

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

Man, I always forget how good 2nd Impacts OST is since Third Strikes is (rightfully) revered so much. Speaking of; Gill's theme in Third Strike would fit in this thread too

Orange Lounge is new to me, but I like what I hear so far! Will definitely be listening to more, thank you for sharing!

Some more songs for this thread since I love this stuff so much:

 

[TruxtonTatsujin]

2nd Impact Gil theme so good they chose it over 3rd Strive for the SFV remix.

 

[Brandon Heat]

I always choose to play against Akuma just to hear this banger, this song make the fight be more epic, i still can hear the "*parry sound effect* humf, horya horyaaa"

 

[Abecero]

Having grew up in this wonderful golden era of videogaming (that's how I call it, but guess everyone can agree that's a fact, lol), whenever I stumble on D&B or Jungle in a game, I know I'm gonna have a good time, heh.

Now, I would've shared some of my fave picks of the genre, but I see they've been already posted here already, lol.

 

[Mahan_Native]

true

 

[Viviana Santos]

I've been playing AntonBlast lately, and this song really caught me off guard. It's very nice :^)

 

[Sunnyside]

So a few years back I was watching a channel that streams awful fighting games. This time it was "GASP!! Fighters' NEXTream" for N64 and it did indeed look horrible to play. However this specific track on the OST really stuck with me:

Even now it still randomly pops up in my head. I can't really explain why. But it's the first track I thought of when I saw the thread title.

 

[BowlOfHotSick]

I've been playing Shadow Hearts 3 lately and the soundtrack is quickly climbing my list of favorites, most of the music has a really industrial sound which I like but this song plays during a cutscene and it was the straw that got me to save the ost and it's immediately become a regular part of my listening rotation. I think some of this music really needs to be checked out, even by people that don't have any particular interest in the game.

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

Some new games do this as an homage to the classics like BallisticNG, Motorslice and many indie titles.

Yeah that was what I was gonna mention, it's a really common genre in indie games. Picayune Dreams and Neon White are also popular examples, being composed by D&B/Jungle artists

 

[Megarockman _1987 Megarockman _1987]

I grow up with heavy metal game OST, though I have ever hear some OST whit that electronic music style, mostly in racing games or rhythm games like ITG or DDR

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