On the tenth day of Christmas, a pair of Mickey Mouse shorts has sent to me:
a staffers grab bag
multi-track drifting
nine keysound burgers
surrender peer-pressure
some jumpscares
m̸̧̛͙̝̤͍̠̺͔̓̽͌̋̒̔̏ỵ̶̛̈́͂͑̇̌̕̕ ̸̧̢͉̳͔̰͆̅̄̐̀͐͜ͅb̶̟̘͚̺̌͝ĺ̷̙̯͕͚̬̘́͆̂͛̀̃̋ȇ̸̹̣̱͕̮͖̿͗̔̔̍͝ë̴̳̭̤͖̺̬̎̀̌͋̕ͅd̵̡̧͎̦̘̤̙͓͐̌̅̀̌̀̈͆i̵̘͈̗̳̱̿̾̔n̴̬͇̩̗̞̹̱̉̈́͝g̵̛̼͍͕̝̩͗̎̐̄̕ ̸̭̇̈̔ȩ̵̻̮͎͔̤͕͛̈́a̷̻̎̊͌̀̉̃̇̌r̴͉͈͍̄̓͗s̶̡̢̙̳͇͚͚͒
colorblazing madness
a coaster ride
one ghostly inn
and Linda AI-CUE under the tree.
multi-track drifting
nine keysound burgers
surrender peer-pressure
some jumpscares
m̸̧̛͙̝̤͍̠̺͔̓̽͌̋̒̔̏ỵ̶̛̈́͂͑̇̌̕̕ ̸̧̢͉̳͔̰͆̅̄̐̀͐͜ͅb̶̟̘͚̺̌͝ĺ̷̙̯͕͚̬̘́͆̂͛̀̃̋ȇ̸̹̣̱͕̮͖̿͗̔̔̍͝ë̴̳̭̤͖̺̬̎̀̌͋̕ͅd̵̡̧͎̦̘̤̙͓͐̌̅̀̌̀̈͆i̵̘͈̗̳̱̿̾̔n̴̬͇̩̗̞̹̱̉̈́͝g̵̛̼͍͕̝̩͗̎̐̄̕ ̸̭̇̈̔ȩ̵̻̮͎͔̤͕͛̈́a̷̻̎̊͌̀̉̃̇̌r̴͉͈͍̄̓͗s̶̡̢̙̳͇͚͚͒
colorblazing madness
a coaster ride
one ghostly inn
and Linda AI-CUE under the tree.
IceCube Pf.(RX-Ver.S.P.L.) Masafumi Takada / beatmania IIDXThe obligatory day comes at last, the one where collaborative folks between fellow Taiko Time staffers and Discord server moderators have their time to shine on the limelight. Kicking thing off is crystalsuicune's request, for one of the many beatmania IIDX songs whose origin story actually strays away from the series...
Supported by quite the abbreviation-friendly suffix, IceCube is the first contribution to Konami's long-running keysounded music gaming sensation from Masafumi Takada (高田雅史), a famed artist behind the score of many a videogame series, from No More Heroes and God Hand to cold hits such as Capcom's killer7 from the nicknamed Suda51 game developer. For this last game, he made the lion's share on the music-making department, including one unused track named 1STstaffroll.hps, laying buried inside the GameCube version of the game's files and supposedly meant to be the original credits theme over Dissociative Identity, which instead made the cut.
With the track staying dormant and not even being picked up for killer7's original soundtrack release, the song was included as a console-first inclusion to the 12th beatmania IIDX title's PS2 port. It definitely was a lucky jump for the song that lead to a greater legacy, considering how succeeding console ports of arcade beatmania titles all included original songs from Takada all sharing the same 'Cube Pf.' lineage: WaterCube Pf., PentaCube Pf. and ToyCube Pf..
I Must Apologise PinkPantheressTaiko already had its share of TikTok awareness fun for its anniversary antics, so why can't we as well?! This one's for Pulsar from the Taiko Discord server's moderation team!
I Must Apologise is a 2021 song from popular TikToker/songwriter PinkPantheress, a 20-aged talent whose stage name references both the 2006 movie in The Pink Panther franchise and an amusing reply from a TV show question. Hailing from Bath, England, she pursued her musical inkling thanks to a live performance attendance to a Hayley Williams concert at age 14, loving how much the artist was having fun on the stage. While currently studying film at London's University of the Arts, she releases original pieces from time to time on social medias, ranging from 'bedroom pop' to drum-n-bass and other pop variations.
PinkPantheress often teases bits of her future songs via TikTok, with some of them ending up as viral sensations for a while! I Must Apologise, among these, was teased ever since May 6th of this year via brief snippet, only to resurface online two months ago in conjunction of quite the announcement: her very first mixtape, titled To hell with it and including the song as its 5th pick. Produced by Oscar Scheller, the tune notably samples bits of Crystal Waters's Gypsy Woman (She's Homeless) from 1991.
The Crowd Goes Home SkullgirlsBetween the many song requests message-pinning action, our own tetsutaro/hisashiyarouin has slipped in one of his own in the mix, blending 2D side-scrolling tournament fighter action with a troubled upbringing uplifted by crowdfunding. How could I say no to that?!
Originally released on April 2012 and spanning about a dozen different platforms across its later-released revisions, Skullgirls takes the background laywork of a group of women turned into monsters while attempting to see their wished granted by a magical artifact -the Skull Heart- into a fighting game in the likes of fan-favorite entries in the genre like Marvel Vs Capcom 2 with all these twisted moster girls clashing against each other for another chance to see their wishes fulfilled. Published by Autumn Games, the original game was developed by Revenge Labs for a PS3 and xBox 360 release, met with troubled funding by the publisher getting sued by Konami at the time which got solved via a succesful crowdfunding carreer, resulting into a development studio restructuring and independent rights to see the release of 'updated' versions of the original, subtitled Encore and 2nd Encore. Over the years, the move allowed the game to bounce around modern main-3-parties systems, Windows, Linux and even an arcade release under the Taito Type X² engine!
Penned by Brenton Kossak and Blaine McGurty, The Crowd Goes Home is one of five stage tracks in the game being made witholut the involvment of lead composer Michiru Yamane (山根ミチル), as well as one of the 'variant BGMs' for a stage variant of the NMO Arena. The fighting stage devised as a homage to the nWo professional wrestling stable is regularly packed-in with spectators of all sorts, but by picking the (Empty) variant, there's only you and your opponent to face! Kossak and McGurty created The Crowd Goes Home as a remix to another joint-track of theirs for the game titled The Crowd Goes Wild, which is instead played on the regular, stadium-packed version of the stage.
Retsujitsu no Boukun～Violent General (烈日の暴君 ～ Violent General) Wanwan...so, why not? I got stamina for one more request today (mine, mind you), might as well use it for something that -given the precedents- is sure not to ever become an officially-playable Taiko song. I mean, really think about it- even moreso than the original songs made for Touhou Project games and select popular arrangements that come up from time to time, what is the hardest thing to ever get greenlit for an official Taiko game? Why, of course: an original song made for a Touhou Project fangame!
Retsujitsu no Boukun (lit. 'Tyrant of the Sun')～Violent General is the Stage 5 Boss song from Touhou Shinjutou ~ Hollow Song of Birds (東方真珠島～Hollow Song of Birds), a freely-distributed bullet hell game running under the Touhou Danmakufu ph3 engine, released on January 2019 and later on updated with its Extra stage on July of the same year. Co-developed by a trio of people who are already well-versed into Touhou danmaku fan games (raichu, ido and Shijimi Nono), the game relies on a bomb=power system not very dissimilar to the one featured in official gamesw like Mountain of Faith and Subterranean Animism, now enriched with a variety of sub-shot options for one of the available heroines to choose from as well as troves of secrets to be found along the way.
With the premise of Gensokyo's time flow screeching into a halt, the heroine of choice will find a colorful array of characters well versed into avian technology (and the network of familiar spellcards to fight back!), as well as familiar looking structures from ancient Egypt; in one of these, the fearsome General Set is there to face challengers as the Stage 5 bosses with a number of power-driven attack formations. Much like the rest of the fangame's score, the song has been composed by Wanwan, a Japanese composer who already composed several tracks for ido's former danmaku fan games, in addition to one-off collabs with foreign developers, from Glory of Deep Skies to Infinite blade Pavillion.
