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Chiptune Friday: LUNGE!

Posted by John Constantine

Written by Derrick Sanskrit

It's friday, which means it's time for some chiptune!



Nintendo is primarily known for its innovative platformers and unique characters, but they are also responsible for some of the most addictive and original puzzle franchises in recent history, like my high-school addiction, Puzzle League (Panel de Pon in Japan). Now, springing a new puzzle franchise on an unfamiliar audience isn't easy, especially back in 1996 when the SNES was losing a lot of ground to Sony's brand-new Playstation. Nintendo relied on brand recognition to smoothly Americanize
Panel de Pon , renaming it Tetris Attack, despite the game having no similarities to Tetris beyond moving blocks. The elemental fairies that populated the Japanese game were also replaced for the more familiar denizens of the big N's last great SNES platformer, the soon-to-be-cult-classic Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Tetris Attack's fast-paced color tile matching gameplay and aggressive versus mode made it a favorite in the tournament puzzle crowd, and later versions — Pokémon Puzzle League for the N64, Nintendo Puzzle Collection for the GBA, and Planet Puzzle League for the DS — each brought excellent additions to the already great puzzler. but the one thing they all lacked was the FUNKTASTIC soundtrack of the original. While the synth strings were pleasant enough, it was the warbled tones of midi-slap bass that kept me coming back for more. Well, that and burying my friends under mountains of bricks.

Please enjoy one of my favorite tunes from the game, "Lunge Fish's theme". Who'd have known such an ugly fish could have such fantastic music?!


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  • about the blogger

    John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

    Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

    Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

    Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

    Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

    Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

    Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

    Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.


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