A selection of instrumental songs with brief synthesized audio clips and somewhat of an affinity to a certain other racing series by Namco, this is a collection of tunes being made by long-time BNSI contributor Rio Hamamoto (濱本理央), mostly known for his extensive work in the Tekken series as well as occasional drop-in jobs in other Namco franchises like Ridge Racer and Idolm@ster.
Each of the Rider songs thus far have always had their debut on game center versions, initially with no ingame artist mention up until its third entry's debut.
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Phantom Rider Rio Hamamoto (BNSI)
濱本理央(BNSI)
| Game | Genre |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AC0 K-D Wii 5 NS2 MP xBox (DL) Plus STH |
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★4 (196) |
★6 (270) |
★7 (507) |
★8 (697) |
★9 (765) |
266.89-269.12
phride (Phantom Rider)Debuting as the final Don Point ladder unlock for the codenamed KATSU-DON firmware update to the Gen3 cabinet, the mystery of who was/were behind the song has been kept up for quite a long while, up until City Connection's 8-fold Taiko album series. In Kaki-goori, in fact, we found out how Rio Hamamoto is behind every aspect of this Namco Original, from composing to the guitar and vocal cues, with Masanobu Murakami (村上正信) handling the track down duty. Later on, the track also found a new digital OST housing in the second of the DJ Fua mix Taiko no Tatsujin soundtracks.
The first Namco Original by Hamamoto is one of the earliest examples for the genre to show off an high commonplace BPM value of a +200 average and then scrolling it down for the majority of its duration, letting said scrolling restriction to loosen up in key points like select special note markers and the frantic Go-Go Time ending. Etou of the Taiko Team also stepped in to chime his more extreme take on this approach with a way faster final segment and a more hit-denser 1/16 experience than the regular Oni counterpart. Will you be able to handle the ride?
Heaven's Rider Rio Hamamoto (BNSI)
濱本理央(BNSI)
| Game | Genre |
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| AC0 W 3DS 3 NS2 MP Plus STH |
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★5 (163) |
★6 (212) |
★8 (465) |
★9 (714) |
- |
150 hvride (Heaven's Rider)Previously featured in Song of the Week: June 17th, 2017
Following up Taku Inoue's Ten Bin-za Kyuko Yoru o Iku, Heaven's Rider has been one of the three Namco Originals to have been introduced by limited arcade event means, through the Taikai mini tournament of early 2016. For the creation of this piece, Rio Hamamoto has also handled the track down process by himself, with assistance from Kawamoto Yoshinori (川元義徳), the Kawagen Kollagen who also used to be a recurring Taiko Team livestream host during Gen3 times.
Taiko Team charter Yamaguchi (ヤマグチ) has prepared quite the treat for this song, by unleashing a modern-time 9* Oni trial without the need of extra-layer difficulties! With no scrolling trickery being sighted, the real kicker for Heaven's Rider is the intrusive presence of 4-note 1/24 note clusters being spliced in alongside the average 1/16 note charting, which can easily lead to errors if being handled incorrectly. Heaven's Rider also counted a boss-enriched console debut in the third Taiko videogame for 3DS, being played for the battle against a freshly-awaken Dragonewt.
Spectral Rider Rio Hamamoto (BNSI)
濱本理央(BNSI)
| Game | Genre |
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| AC Nijiiro (Y2) |
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★5 (149) |
★6 (255) |
★7 (478) |
★10 (748) |
- |
172-258 ???Launching as one of Winter 2021's seasonal Rewards Shop unlockables, this has been the very first track to star its composer from the get-go as a mention in the song's subtitle. Not only that, in quite a first for inhouse Namco Originals, the former two Rider songs on Nijiiro also received retroactively the same artist credit mention, on the same day of Spectral Rider's coming.
The first top-starred Oni gauntles in this series plays it as a really-close challenge degree to the already-discussed Phantom Rider, only with slightly-less notes and a few offbeat portions that stray away from an otherwise full-on 1/16 charting task. Density-wise it's as menacing as ever, although as a 10-star chart it falls on the lower-half on the difficulty scale with the ongoing standards.
