Last week, Brave Wave Productions announced Giants, a brand new "Mega Album" to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the award-winning music label.
The 22-track album features a combination of brand-new video game-inspired music and remixes of old pieces. It also notably contains contributions from a bunch of legendary composers who previously worked on classic video game series like Ninja Gaiden and Mega Man.
The track "Ronin", for instance, sees three different Ninja Gaiden composers come together on a single piece of music — Keiji Yamagishi (Ninja Gaiden), Ryuichi Nitta (Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Gaiden II), and Kaori Nakabai (Ninja Gaiden III). Takeshi Tateishi (Mega Man 2) worked with Harumi Fujita (Mega Man 3) and Tee Lopes (Sonic Mania) on his first new piece of music in years "Ultramarine". And another track called "Full Circle" represents the first-ever collaboration between Mega Man 3 composers Yasuaki "BunBun" Fujita and Harumi Fujita (despite sharing the same last name, they're not related).
As many Mega Man fans will no doubt know, Harumi Fujita had to leave the development of Mega Man 3 after completing only a few songs due to becoming pregnant with her son Ayato. This led BunBun to have to take over at short notice and finish the remainder of the soundtrack. Full Circle, therefore, brings the two musicians together to work on the same piece of music for the first time and also rather poetically includes some additional help from Harumi Fujita's son Ayato Fujita (the very same son that was born during the development of Mega Man 3).
Here's a full track listing:
- Super Strikers - Waldgeist
- Manami Matsumae - Face-Off at Mammoth Mountain
- Super Strikers - Wily Stage 1 & Boss (Mega Man)
- Akari Kaida - Iron Whale (Shovel Knight)
- Takashi Tateishi, Tee Lopes, Harumi Fujita - Ultramarine
- Takahiro Izutani, Monomirror - Quick Man Stage (Mega Man 2)
- Yoshiaka Suzuki, Takahiro Izutani -Wily Stage 1 (Mega Man 2)
- Harumi Fujita, BunBun - Full Circle
- Danimal Cannon - Needle Man Stage (Mega Man 3)
- mamomo - Wily Medley (Mega Man 3)
- Smoke Thief, Harumi Fujita - Mission (Pulstar)
- Keiji Yamagishi, Ryuichi Nitta, Kaori Nakabai - Ronin
- Maxo - The Amazing Ryu
- Pentadrangle - The Parasprinter (Ninja Gaiden 2)
- Xavier Dang - Stage 4-2 & Stage 1-1 (Ninja Gaiden 3)
- Saori Kobayashi, Takahiro Izutani - Terra Incognita
- Lena Raine, Saori Kobayashi - Art Thou the Holy One (Panzer Dragoon Saga)
- Super Strikers, Lena Raine - Atolm Dragon (Panzer Dragoon Saga)
- ABSRDST, Lena Raine - Quiet & Falling (Celeste)
- Masashi Kageyama, Dino Lionetti - Apricot Dreams
- Super Strikers - Ultimate Medley (Gimmick!)
- mamomo, Super Strikers - Echoes
You will be able to stream the album or buy it on Vinyl, CD, or digitally, with more information available at this link. It is expected to be released on April 19th, 2024.