Remember what I talked about yesterday, where things just disappear from your memory and you're occasionally reminded of what a seemingly "major" (relatively speaking) part of your overall life experience they were at the time? Well, today I had what kind of feels like the "opposite" experience to that, for want of a better word.
For years now, I've had this sort of ideal "first level music" for a shoot 'em up in my head. I knew it was from something I played relatively briefly back in the day, but I could not for the life of me remember what it was from. For the longest time, I was absolutely convinced it was the music from Thunder Force IV's watery level, but while that is also a cool piece of music, it wasn't that.
I was convinced it was a Mega Drive piece, though. Was it Arrow Flash? Nope. Was it Burning Force? Nope, 'cause I never played that one back in the day — though I've discovered an undying love for it (and its first level music) ever since. Was it Thunder Force III? Nope.
Turns out it was Gynoug. And the reason I discovered this? Completely accidentally. I got a review code for the new Switch port of Gynoug this week and fired it up for the first time. As soon as the first level's music started my brain went "hang on a minute", and once the main theme kicked in… yep, that was it. That was absolutely the piece of music that's been stuck in my head for 20+ years, with absolutely no clue prior to today as to what it might have been.
I don't even really remember playing Gynoug that much as a kid. I didn't have my own Mega Drive — the only time I got to play one was either when I was visiting my friend Ed or when my brother came home from his games magazine jobs with a Mega Drive and/or Super NES in his backpack. So I would have only had the chance to play this game for a bit over the course of a single weekend at most. And yet that single piece of music stuck with me for all this time.
Well, I mean, the music stuck with me, even if the game didn't. Funny how the brain works, isn't it?
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