Game music of the day: Shadow of the Beast

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GR's ongoing tribute to the beloved world of videogame music

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.

May 22, 2010

Game: Shadow of the Beast

Song: Welcome

Composer: David Whittaker, Chris Howlett and Ian Henderson


Above: Welcome from Shadow of the Beast

Shadow of the Beast was once something of a powerhouse franchise. Its original incarnations on the PC featured some noteworthy tech tricks, making it look, animate and sound sharper than just about every other 2D action game of the day. Obviously we're more interested in the music, which, unsurprisingly, is well worth a listen.

The "Welcome" track plays as you roam the overworld areas seen in the image above (taken from the sadly crappy Genesis version). It, along with the other songs, have a very new-age "Pure Moods" sound - that's either highly irritating or delightfully soothing, depening on your tastes. Personally I love the PC Engine/Turbo Duo version embedded here, as it was one of the first cases where I was listening to videogame music and someone actually asked what it was and where it came from. Sounded too good for a random person to even consider that it could be from a game.

Above is another track from David Whittaker's score re-imagined on the Turbo Duo. Today these tracks may seem silly, almost cheesy, as the samples used were state of the art in 1989 but today... may require a bit of acceptance. Either way, outstanding work for a series that's essentially dead and gone.


Two Star Wars-worthy songs from Hirasawa


Purple Coins and Good Egg from Koji Kondo


Green Garden by Akifumi tada

Brett Elston
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.