I am very excited to have received the Streets of Rage 2 vinyl from DataDiscs today. The classic soundtrack has been remastered and optimised for the vinyl format by Yuzo Koshiro, the famed composer of the game. The double disc set contains a few bonus and remixed tracks but overall is the same quality soundtrack that you remember from years ago. The soundtrack is one of the greatest in video gaming history and to have it on vinyl is very cool. I feel so hipster it hurts but vinyl is a fun way to collect 16-bit soundtracks of yore.
Streets of Rage Soundtrack on Vinyl
Over Christmas I was lucky enough to receive the Streets of Rage soundtrack on vinyl from my wife. None more hipster maybe but the idea of playing a remastered album from a 1991 Sega video game on an outdated piece of analogue music technology in a time of pervading digital media appeals to me.
The classic soundtrack is by Yuzo Koshiro and at the time was totally different to anything heard in video games, it was a time of trance and dance, when The Orb, The Prodigy and Orbital were getting into the charts. This soundtrack stood out among its contemporaries as it was not the usual bleeps and bloops of video games at the time... It spoke to many youths at the time, it was zeitgiesty and hearing the vinyl now it still feels special.
I've heard the music hundreds of times before, playing the game for months on end but I've never heard it like this. Now I'm no vinyl snob and I don't know which format of audio sounds better but I will say that on vinyl it does sounds different, but in a good way.
I would definitely recommend getting this album and hope DataDiscs continue to release more video game music soundtracks, Sonic 3 and Thunderforce 3 and 4 would be nice but beggars can't be choosers!