For a personal project I’m putting together a playlist of music that screams “SEGA SATURN” when you hear it and thought it would be fun to see what the game likers of Insert Credit have to contribute. No hard and fast rules here, if the music says “Sega Saturn” to you, it counts!
I’ll kick things off with three things that come to mind:
The first example HAS to be Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, so here’s Sky High from Daytona USA
Staying with early 90s AM2, there’s the other house style they have that I don’t know how to describe… “we have jazz fusion, r & b and house music at home”? Virtua Cop best exemplifies it for me:
Rodney Franklin’s Malibu Shuffle is dripping with quadrilateral polygons, despite having nothing to do with the Saturn. I feel this in my bones and therefore it makes the list!
There’s so many amazing tunes to choose from, so I’ll throw in a few:
Gate of your Dream: NiGHTS
The soundtrack is pure Saturn greatness but that one has such a beautiful blend of the melodies from the game in it.
Akiras Theme - VF2
I know it was in the arcade first, yet this to me screams the Saturn
Rough and Ready - Guardian Heroes
This could be my single favourite piece of music from a video game. The riff at the start, the changes in the tone through the song, orchestra crashes. The HORNS!
I’ll do more later but had to get them out of my system.
A few years ago when I re-added the Saturn to my collection, I burned a bunch of games for it and had a lot of fun taking those games with me in the car and listening to their soundtracks.
To me, Sega Saturn music is fun on a summer day, and it’s usually the season I get the urge to revisit some Saturn soundtracks.
I’ll contribute another Takenobu Mitsuyoshi hit and go with the Burning Rangers theme.
My favorite NiGHTS track.
I’ll also be the one to do it… and post some Sonic R. Love or hate the game, I think the soundtrack is so great, and is my go to pick when I want something fun and catchy on a sunny day.
I was beaten to the punch on MKR which is very saturn. But one of my faves isn’t there so I get to post that at least.
Also beaten re: sonic R but that whole soundtrack is The Saturn. Richard Jacques in general is saturn so here’s a few more, including some that weren’t on the Saturn. That fella was exactly the right kind of dweeb to make me feel emotions when I was 15 years old lol. With the rain in this scene!? perfect.
I have to admit that the sounds in Metropolis Street Racer are fairly more Dreamcast than Saturn, but this one gets the pass for me.
Now we’re back in saturn land for sure (which I will say does have some overlap with Sega CD in my mind):
The guitar tone on this one!
and of course VF 2
I also always felt this soundtrack was pretty saturny despite being on the F3 first (it is arranged at least). To me the F3 was the 2nd most saturn arcade board after (obviously) the st-v:
Let us not forget that it was the 90s and there was time for jungle.
This was given away with Mean Machines Sega in the UK in January 1996. It did have a sleeve but no idea where that ended up. The track list from vgmdb.net is:
01 Sega Chant: Victory Goal 0:11
02 Chase The Wind: Victory Goal 3:24
03 King Of Speed: Daytona USA 4:58
04 Title Music: Thunderhawk 2 5:56
05 Devolve: Blam! Machinehead 4:13
06 Esoteric: Blam! Machinehead 4:15
07 Purple Sunshine: Blam! Machinehead 5:19
08 Track 4: Thunderhawk 2 4:32
09 Track 2: Shellshock 5:09
10 Theme From Scorch: Off World Interceptor Extreme 2:05
11 Theme From Bastion: Off World Interceptor Extreme 3:05
12 Sarah’s Theme: Virtua Fighter 5:10
13 Akira’s Theme: Virtua Fighter 5:14
14 Ignition: Sega Rally 4:15
15 Title Music: Shinobi X 2:31
16 Stage 9 Music: Shinobi X 3:31
17 Everyones A Hero: Victory Goal 2:10
Not all my cup of tea but pretty cool nonetheless. Also I know @vmu_beep you’re working on a webpage (which I love by the way) if for any reason you want the actual disc for it, consider it yours!
So many good replies, I knew folks here would have great recs, thanks y’all! I wasn’t going to tag Brandon directly but as expected his (first) reply did not disappoint lol
Amazing, thank you for digging that up! I’ll be able to download a copy but I really appreciate the offer
On the topic of The Webpage™ - I’ve though of adding an album selector at some point but this feels like the easiest way to attract the attention of lawyers
