The SCC chip howling like a synth engine that learned how to shred. Konami Kukeiha Club pushed the MSX hardware on Gradius 2 with compositions by Masahiro Ikariko and Motoaki Furukawa that sound way too full for 1987 home hardware.
Read more
"Above the Horizon" opens with this driving urgency that sets the pace for the entire run, and "Blazed Up" layers the Flame Planet theme with these thick, buzzing lead lines that make the SCC sound almost analog. "Moonspin" on the Venom mothership stage is just...
unreal for an 8-bit chip. The whole soundtrack runs hotter and faster than the Famicom version. If you think you've heard everything Konami's sound team could do on limited hardware, the MSX Gradius 2 will prove you wrong.