4 out of 5

Label: Limited Run

Produced by: ?

I think this may be my first Gameboy soundtrack? The oldest I’ve gone so far – besides some old school Arcade scores – has been to NES; dipping into older bleeps and bloop soundtracks, or to what I would’ve assumed to be less complex ones – simply due to the technology limitations – of “lesser” systems, like the original GB, my expectations were to hear some pretty basic stuff. But I’m a Turtles fan, so, yes, I’ll buy that TMNT II Gameboy soundtrack. …And then discover that it’s better than it’s original NES cousin?

Maybe that’s sacrilege. But, yes: this is like a single-track recording – okay, wiki lists “2 pulse wave, 1 wave, 1 noise” channels – of some digital keys just blazing memorable little bops, front to back. The looping is mostly handled well, giving us good go-rounds of each tune before fading out; there’s a lot of remaining space on the cassette where the production team could’ve looped these more, but the GB songs play best and short and sweet. This does lean more into the classic theme than the NES album, but it’s padded out by so, so many excellent digital blips that build on that that the classics feel like bonuses instead of being used as recycled templates.

The quality, maybe owing to the simplicity, is really good: it’s leveled consistently, and cleanly, and the score even kind of cross-fades certain tracks into another when it makes sense, like a mix tape. (Maybe that’s how this stuff was intended, no idea, but it leads to some fun Bubble Bobble moments, where a track is backed up by a faster version.)

The artwork has the rather blase game cover, and otherwise exactly repurposes the look of the NES cassette release; I like the co-branding, but that’s also a little boring. I’d credited the NES release with keeping it simple for the cassette, but once you extend this to a series, it’s nice to have some differentiating factors alongside that branding.

But regardless: the music is absolutely a surprise – I’m rarely not blown away by how much work goes into video game music, but still: this little pocket machine does not hold much space in my thoughts for its soundtracks, and yet, assumedly – given the quality of this soundtrack – there are at least a few gems stuffed in there.