Video Game Grooves

Show Notes: https://videogamegrooves.com/2022/01/31/episode-91-final-fantasy-viii-battletoads-smash-hits/ We're back for 2022, perhaps a little bit sleepy, but hibernation can do that to you. Jeremy, Anthony, and Caleb are kicking off the new year with a giant spiked boot and a cool Squall Leonhart necklace. (Yeah, we know.) We are ready to return to the days of slow MIDI beats to study to with Final Fantasy VIII from Square Enix, extracting a few thematic elements from the generally well-liked Uematsu score, and putting them on the turntable for all to see. Redbook audio? Who needs it?? And who in the Final Fantasy universe is the Vin Diesel analog from The Fast and the Furious? We move it along to a much earlier (and also much later) era with Battletoads: Smash Hits from iam8bit. We discuss a bit of the origins of the franchise with David Wise's not-actually-heavy-metal leanings in the 80s, and run through the weird and warty history up to Battletoads (2020). David Housden expertly weaves many metal thread