Recommended Soundtracks: Mr. Driller Sound Tracks

Masaru "Go" Shiina is an incredibly talented music composer, and has thus far lent his talents to many of Namco's efforts. The unfortunate aspect of that is the number of people who have never heard of him, let alone heard any of his work at all. If you play a lot of video games and haven't heard his stuff, that's not entirely your fault, because Namco doesn't seem to use - or have the desire to use - his talents for too many projects. Or if they do, he's only present for certain snippets. It's mystifying, really.

So yeah, this entry is definitely going to be about Mr. Driller Sound Tracks (which in name sounds awfully Engrishy), but also about some of the best music Shiina has ever composed. It's a shame that Mr. Driller isn't a very prominent franchise, especially outside of Japan. The fact that some of its potential success has been squandered by the parent company recently hasn't helped; Mr. Driller: Drill Spirits for DS had its best mode, Dristone Driller, and a character removed from the American version, while Mr. Driller Online for Xbox Live Arcade had, ironically, a broken and glitch-ridden online mode, no local multiplayer, and fuzzy sprites. And to top it all off, Mr. Driller: Drill Land for Gamecube, heralded by fans as being the best game in the franchise, was never released outside of Japan. Needless to say, the situation hasn't exactly been rosy for Mr. Driller.

(Yes, I'm aware of the, er...Freudian overtones of the character's name. I don't think it's hampered the franchise's chances of success, however. Solid Snake is still popular, right? Don't even mention when the characters start running out of oxygen...)

If you're reading this blog, Namco unfortunately hasn't given you too many opportunities to enjoy the franchise. So I'd like to give you the opportunity to enjoy some of its music. A dilemma I sometimes have when recommending a soundtrack is finding precisely which tracks to use as samples; I had that problem last week with Castlevania Judgment's OST, and I'm having an even bigger problem with it here. Not surprising, given that this soundtrack consists of music from three games: Mr. Driller, Mr. Driller 2, and Mr. Driller G. It also consists of two discs, called Susumu Disc and Anna Disc; they're, of course, named after two of the franchise's central characters: protagonist Susumu Hori (the son of Dig Dug protagonist Taizo Hori), and his German friend/rival Anna Hottenmeyer.

This first track here is from the Anna disc, given the nonsensical name "Fragrant Remains." Shiina is known to compose some rather grand musical tracks, featuring some brilliant orchestral instruments and sounds. It's, in essence, his composition style in one three minute and thirty second package:


This one is the first track on the Anna Disc, known simply as "Go." As you might have surmised from the name, it's pretty energetic. It's a good track to use to help you either become or keep energetic as well. It's also incredibly catchy:


The last one here is "Speed of Light," also from the Anna Disc (noticing a trend here). The interesting aspect of this track is the Latin American musical feel it has overall. Combining that with traditional Japanese musical composition styles leads to some great results, as this track can attest:


Again, it was tough to pick which tracks would be best here, as the soundtrack overall is rife with excellent tracks, and if a soundtrack is able to turn more people on to the franchise (and its addictive qualities), then more power to it. In terms of game releases, Australia's OLFC has rated Mr. Driller: Drill Till You Drop for multiple platforms, though Namco Bandai hasn't officially announced the game yet. Hopefully it'll be good enough to ease the pain of the gimped Mr. Driller Online and the threadbare Mr. Driller W for WiiWare. You can expect an announcement any day now.