Game music of the day: Gremlins 2: The New Batch

Welcome to GamesRadar's daily blast of all things pertaining to the ever-growing field of game music. Each post will introduce new sounds, games, composers and fan-made remixes of gaming's greatest aural achievements.

July 1, 2010

Game: Gremlins 2

Song: Level 1

Composer: Nobuyuki Hara


Above: Level 1 from Gremlins 2

Once upon a time, movie tie-in games didn't have to automatically suck. Sure, sometimes they fell short, but by and large a company's A-team was put on a licensed product. Capcom and Konami were quite good about this, and in the case of Gremlins 2, Sunsoft built a challenging, hardcore tie-in that also made great use of the property. Still didn't expect music this awesomely badass though.

Right here, first song, first level. Knocks me on my ass every time. My kingdom for a crunching guitar version of this music, which kicks off a thoroughly gruff soundtrack that clashes beautifully with Gizmo's relentless cuteness.

This song plays during the last level - which is level five by the way. It's such a hard game that they only made five fairly short levels, knowing it would take kids for-e-v-e-r to best them. No matter how many times I died, that music kept me coming back. Hell, I played it a lot just to listen to the songs.


Above: And here's the ending. Strangely serene for such a grisly finale

Sunsoft had quite a few standout songs on the NES - we'll no doubt cover more of them in the future. For now, you can checkBlaster Masteror hit up theCompendinariumfor all the current GMOTD tracks.


Underlow by Jerry Schroeder


Did You See the Ocean? by Hiroki Kikuta


For Pete's Sake by Tommy Tallarico

Brett Elston

A fomer Executive Editor at GamesRadar, Brett also contributed content to many other Future gaming publications including Nintendo Power, PC Gamer and Official Xbox Magazine. Brett has worked at Capcom in several senior roles, is an experienced podcaster, and now works as a Senior Manager of Content Communications at PlayStation SIE.