Imagine growing up in the 80s with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You watched the cartoons, played the video games, and then, eventually, you got the chance to work on a TMNT game yourself. The dream! We can imagine that's how everyone at Dotemu and Tribute games felt about working on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge, but especially Sonic Mania composer Tee Lopes.
In a recent post on PlayStation.Blog, Lopes has shared the creative process behind one of the beat 'em up's tracks — Big Apple 3pm, the second stage of the game. This was the first piece of music Lopes composed for the game, "born out of pure excitement", and you can totally tell from the original version.
In the blog post, the composer also shares some rough drafts for the second stage's music that he came up with as he was watching footage for the game "with the biggest smile on my face". Lopes says of the first draft that it was
a basic proposition for the soundtrack’s general aesthetic, which I thought was very in line with the game’s philosophy – the goal was to dive into the golden era of TMNT, gather up some of the most memorable elements from all of the different media available then, and bring them back in a creative and modernized package. It would contain lots of fun references for that sweet nostalgia, but also be its own thing and introduce fun new concepts to the series, all within that ’80s and ‘90s palette of genres and sounds. Fortunately, everyone was on board with the style, and thus began this musical journey!
Lopes went through at least two more drafts — both of which are included in PlayStation.Blog's post. Lopes had started working on the rest of the soundtrack once he was onto the second draft, so began fleshing out the sound, extending it to be more consistent with the rest of the game's music, and also adding in new sections. One part he added in the second draft was "a bit of a break around 1:09 that allows for the song to breathe for a moment before looping back into action. At this point, the guitars were still computer-generated, and the guitar solo was still non-existent."
The composer was influenced heavily not just by the Turtles themselves, but also by the music of the 80s and 90s, and the arcades. And by the third draft, "everyone was raving" about the song's energy — which, by this point, had Jonny Atma's (YouTuber GaMetal) guitar in.
The whole post is a fantastic overview of the creative process behind composing a musical score for a video game, and Tee Lopes' enthusiasm is infectious. You can read the whole blog below, where all of the draft samples are included.
What do you think of the Shredder's Revenge soundtrack? Let us know in the comments!
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[source blog.playstation.com]
Comments 14
Game of the year, the soundtrack is phenomenal. Shame Vanilla Ice & Partners In Kryme didn’t do a couple of tracks!
Stop messing around and get started on the sequal.
@Sinton ...why?
Terrific soundtrack, actually bought a digital copy. I don't usually buy a game soundtrack even if it's one I really like but this one is too good.
Been playing this on the PS5. Its an incredibly well made game with a banging soundtrack, especially the shredder battle with the rapping👌🔥🔥. Even made me rewatch tho origional 90s movie😂. Now im looking for games of a similar style but even SoR4 feels old in comparison with no dodge, run etc. For me, its the most fun ive had this year. GOTY for me.
Not bad but not memorable either. At least compared with the god-like TMNT IV tracks. I liked the ones with lyrics, the rap goes well with the turtles, like always. Just hope that we get a new game with hard rock upbeat music again.
This is a great value game, with fun gameplay and an even better online experience, so far I only had one hiccup during an online match, the rest have been a blast.
The soundtrack is a fantastic combination of old and new as well as different styles and it fits the turtles. While the OST was great on previous turtles games, I think people hold on to nostalgia way too much.
I have found the OST to be a mixed bag so far. As a previous poster said, it's not especially memorable to me and many tracks don't really stand out. The biggest issue I have are the tracks with vocals. I've never been particularly fond of that in video games in general and especially for beat-em-up games. I find it gets tiresome much faster. Luckily, on the PC version of the game, it's apparently very easy to change the music and I intend to do that to some degree.
My only (minor) gripe with the OST is that none of the tracks have a voice going "HEY!" like in the old Konami TMNT games. Otherwise, I loved everything about the game start to finish!
@Sinton Hoping for SEVERAL rounds of DLC
Love this soundtrack so much. So damn good.
@Muddy_4_Ever That would also be nice!
So dope! I'm loving this new TMNT Game.
Hoping for more content down the line in the vein of lots for a variety in level design, some more vehicular/racing stages (Turtle Van w/ Weapons, Surfing, Gliding), maybe some vertical/platforming to mix things up (i.e. climbing up the Empire State Building) etc.
Also wishing for more cosmetics, costumes to unlock like skins, palette swaps and accessories along with a steady diet of new unique characters to the lineup (Venus, Slash, Spike, Dimension X Teens, Oroku Saki, Hamato Yoshi etc.) + additional stages, vehicles, bosses, sub-bosses and transformations, maybe more achievements & challenges too.
Hopefully this does well and inspires a resurgence & renaissance of cool, fun, new licensed arcade brawlers updated and coming to Switch with modern features (X-Men, Simpsons, Bucky O'Hare, Battletoads)... basically call Konami and others lol!
… Wun can only hope.
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