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Game: Castlevania
Song: Heart of Fire
Composer: Kinuyo Yamashita
Above: Heart of Fire from Castlevania
The original NES Castlevania doesn't contain a great number of tracks; there are essentially only seven genuine pieces of music from beginning to end. Yet in that brief amount of work, Konami managed to squeeze out some of the most timeless game music the medium has ever seen or heard.
Any one song, from Vampire Killer to Wicked Child to Stalker, is worth mentioning in a GMOTD article, but I've gone with Heart of Fire, perhaps more commonly known as the Grim Reaper's stage theme. It begins almost playfully, then hits hard with a barrage of notes, all of which lead up to the game's most challenging boss battle.
Above: Here's Wicked Child, another decades-old track that's been remixed countless times
Above: Oh, here's one now, from Castlevania Chronicles. So goddamn good!
Above: If you dare, here's the ultra-cheesy, lovingly dated Kukieha Club version with vocals
Castlevania began life as an action side-scroller, then morphed into Metroid-style adventures and is set for yet another re-invention this fall with Lords of Shadow. Early reports suggest it'll be more in line with the action-based classics, so we're already supremely interested. We just hope the newness doesn't come at the cost of the series' impressive audio catalog.
Game music of the day: Elite Beat Agents
September by Earth, Wind & Fire
Game music of the day: Ninja Gaiden
Bazlisk Mine Field by Keiji Yamagishi
Game music of the day: Air Zonk
Title screen by Daisuke Morishima
