PixlBit

I don't know about you, but I love space shooters! Flying around and blowing stuff up is so much fun. The NES had tons of shooters; the late 80s and early 90s were the heyday of this almost-forgotten genre. While the games themselves were awesome, the music took them to a whole new level. Upbeat, catchy, intense music often accompanied these space adventures. So please, sit back and enjoy seven themes from space shooter games that are totally rad. Most of these games were arcade ports, because, as we all know, space shooters were huge in the arcade.

Stage 5: Temple Stage from Life Force/Composed by Miki Higashino, Hidenori Maezawa, Shinya Sakamoto, Satoe Terashima, and Atsushi Fujio

This song has a fantastic melody, perhaps one of the best of any NES shooter. It's constantly moving, which fits in perfectly for a game where you're flying around and shooting stuff. Life Force is one of the best shooters on the NES (perhaps THE best), and its music is one of the reasons for its high regard.

Stage 4 from Gun-Nac/Composed by Toshiaki Sakoda

Gun-Nac is a great shooter for NES by Compile. It's music is mostly good, but this song really sticks out. It's upbeat and fun. Playing this level over and over is not as bad when the music is this awesome. You can read my review of this great game here.

Departure for Space from Gradius III/Composed by Kazuki Muraoka, Kazuhiko Uehara, Harumi Ueko, and Yukie Morimoto

Gradius III is probably the best space shooter for SNES (which is saying something). This game has killer music! The main theme, which plays between sections, is very short, but incredibly catchy and awesome! This song tends to get stuck in my head, and I don't mind at all.

Unkai from Axelay/Composed by Taro Kudo

Axelay is another great space shooter for SNES from Konami (the king of shooters). The music for level one is great. It starts off slow, but builds up to the main theme. This theme is very adventurous, sounding like it would fit in well in a movie. This song has great variety, from the opening, to the main part, to the last part (which is a little more hectic). The cool part is, the boss music actually fits in with this theme (simply intensified).

In the Wind from Gradius III/Composed by Kazuki Muraoka, Kazuhiko Uehara, Harumi Ueko, and Yukie Morimoto

Once again, Gradius III gives us a ridiculously catchy song, one of my favorites from this great shooter. The bass is constantly driving the beat, the melody has a spacy feel to it, and the overall presentation is executed very well. Who knew that space could be so much fun?

Ideal: Chapter 1 from Ikaruga/Composed by Hiroshi Iuchi

Ikaruga is a fantastic shooter, developed by the acclaimed Treasure. It's unique mechanic of changing your ship's shields between blue and red is awesome, but the music is another highlight of this great game. The first level introduces the main theme of the game to us, and it's great! It's intense, invigorating, and exciting. Then the mood changes to calm down a little, giving more personality and feeling to the piece. Wow, what a great game!

Dear Blue from Salamander 2/Composed by Naoki Maeda and Yo Takamine

It's Konami again with another great game accompanied by a killer ost! This theme is just fun to listen to; it's intense, adventurous, and exciting throughout its playtime. This sounds so Konami-ish, if you know what I mean, but that's not a bad thing. I haven't played this game, but I imagine this song fits in very well with the level.