From Mario to Zelda, to Final Fantasy and Undertale, there’s no doubt that music plays a huge role in the video games that we all know and love. But what about the music from lesser known video games? What about the jamming tunes and fire tracks that may have gone under the radar of most gamers? Join us, Fair Gamers, as we dig through the crates and uncover some amazing games and music you might have missed… This is Hidden Tracks!
Hidden Tracks Vol. 5: Soul Blade - Khan Super Session (PS1)
Welcome back to the stage of history… Soul Blade! In 1995, Namco released Soul Edge, their newest fighting game entry into arcades. A year later in 1996, they would release the home version of Soul Edge onto the Playstation, where it would be released in the USA under the name Soul Blade. The groundbreaking weapon-based fighting game would go on to be a huge success for the arcade and home versions, and would be the launching pad for the Soul Calibur series - the latest in the series being 2018’s Soul Calibur VI.
Across the board, the Soul series has a ton of beautiful music, no matter what game in the series you’re playing. But Soul Blade for the original Playstation was unique in that it contained not one, not two, but *three* full soundtracks that players could switch between: the original arcade soundtrack; an arranged soundtrack, featuring re-orchestrated versions of the original arcade soundtrack; and the Playstation-exclusive Khan Super Session soundtrack, featuring 16 brand new songs composed for home version of Soul Blade (prominently featured in the game’s Edge Master Mode).
The Khan Super Session soundtrack was composed by a five-person team, which included Benten-Maru - leader of the Japanese band KHAN. Benten-Maru and his band would work on tracks for the Khan Super Session soundtrack along with composers who had worked on other projects, like Virtua Fighter (Aki Hata and Masumi Ito) and Shin Megami Tensei (Taku Iwasaki), just to name a few.
While the original soundtrack primarily featured a classical-flavor to go with Soul Blade’s historical theme, the Khan Super Session soundtrack is bombastic, filled with jazz, rock, and pop influences while also reflecting the story and characters of the game. The Khan Super Session OST is filled with catchy tunes that perfectly fit the Soul Blade world while being unique in their own ways, just like the colorful roster of characters themselves. Perhaps the biggest highlight of the soundtrack, however, is the intro track of Soul Blade itself - “The Edge of Soul.” It’s hard not to get fired up after listening to an amazing intro like that!
For games like Soul Blade and other classic fighting games, check out FairGameRetro.com!