The Listening Chamber: Minibosses - Minibosses (2000)

Video games, as an immersive form of media, tie in graphics, cinematics, sound effects, music, and player input in an attempt to create an environment that absorbs the player in the action and environment of a game.  In the early years of the gaming industry, technological limitations with respect to both audio and video capabilities of systems allowed for only minimalistic approaches to the type of sounds and graphics that a game could contain.  As processing power and storage space increased over time, game developers were able to expand upon what they could offer.  Competition for sales led companies to seek out, train, and develop talented sound programmers and composers to create expansive aural themes and memorable music that would help to attract consumers to their games. 

Many memorable tunes were created in video games spanning all types of genres over the course of many years; indeed, fans of video game music are still listening to the soundtracks of games that were released well over two decades ago from the original writing of this post.  Musically talented fans of video game music learned to recreate the songs and jingles that they enjoyed listening to while playing games.  Some of these video game music enthusiasts grouped together and formed bands with a focus on playing the covers of video game music that they enjoyed.  With the open community structure of the internet, these bands were able to reach a broader audience around the world than they would otherwise have had access to, and fans of game music were able to experience what otherwise would only have been available in local markets.

In this inaugural writing for The Listening Chamber, we’ll take a look at the first album from one of the earlier VGM bands to establish themselves.  The band is Minibosses, and the album is their self-titled Minibosses, self-released in 2000 on Kraid Records.  The group plays instrumental rock covers of the music from now classic games, at this time mostly from games released on the Nintendo Entertainment System.  On their earlier albums, including Minibosses, the band also included original songs that they had written which are not, interestingly enough, about video games.  Minibosses also includes a cover of the theme song to a 1980s cartoon.

Minibosses - Minibosses (2000)

Minibosses contains 11 tracks – 7 covers and 4 original songs – and runs for roughly 41:45. 

The first track is Wizards and Warriors (3:55), and it is a medley of songs from the game’s original music.  The track starts off with the opening title music from the game, then progresses to the stage 1 (Forest of Elrond) music, followed by the stage 6 music (Outside the Castle) – which is also played when rescuing a distressed damsel after defeating an end-of-level boss – and concluding with the music played when inside the trees in stage 1 (Inside Tree Theme).

The second track, Song C(apstan) (1:40) is an original song by the Minibosses.

The third track is Castlevania 2 (4:39), and it is a medley of songs from the game’s original music.  The track begins with Monster Dance, the theme that is played when day turns to night in-game (“what a horrible night to have a curse”).  This is followed by the town theme, The Silence of Daylight, and then concludes with the daytime overworld theme, the well-known Bloody Tears.

Track four, Lost Under Rubble (1:45), is another Minibosses original song.

The fifth track on Minibosses is Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins (1:05), and it is just the music from stages 1 and 2 of that game.

Track six, Total Eclipse (3:07), is another original Minibosses song.

The seventh track is Contra (5:53), a medley of song’s from the game’s original music.  This track begins with the Title jingle, followed by stage 1 (Jungle Theme), the Area Clear jingle, stage 2 (Base Theme), the Area Clear jingle, stage 3 (Waterfall), and the Game Over jingle.  For Minibosses earlier work, this is one of the more complete game medleys with all of the songs from the first half of the game except for the Boss Theme included.

Track eight, Ricky Butler’s Lament (4:23), is the fourth and final original song by Minibosses on the album.

The ninth track is Castlevania (5:11), another medley of songs from the game’s original music.  The track consists of the themes from stage 3 (Wicked Child), stage 2 (Stalker), and stage 1 (Vampire Killer), in that order.

Track ten, G.I. Joe (3:09), is a re-interpreted cover of the theme song to the G.I. Joe cartoon.

The eleventh, and final, track is Kraid / Metroid (6:58), which is the longest track on the album.  The track begins with the theme for Kraid’s Lair, with the Item Fanfare jingle played in the middle of the theme, and ends with the Title Theme to the game.

Minibosses were unhappy with the quality of the album and have released updated versions of the VGM covers of Castlevania, Contra, and Kraid / Metroid on their album Brass (2005).  An updated cover of Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins was included on their album Brass 2: Mouth (2011) as well.  However, when compared to early releases by other VGM cover bands around the same time, Minibosses compares quite favorably.  Certainly, the newer versions of the tracks have more polish and higher production value, but the original releases are still very listenable.  Minibosses do not try and replicate VGM note for note and in time with the original source tracks, but each song is still recognizable as the song that it is supposed to be.  

Minibosses is not available on either the Minibosses bandcamp page or the Minibosses website, and may no longer officially be available for purchase or download.  The band followed up the release of Minibosses with an EP and a live album in 2004 before progressing to the later Brass and Brass 2: Mouth, but we’ll save the discussion of those albums for a future session.

If you can find a copy, it’s worth a listen.