Therefore, let me give credence, respect, & credit to six lesser-known fighting games that aren't quite known for their soundtracks as a whole, but each have "That One Song" that transcends their limited notoriety & should be celebrated. And since I ended that first B-List with a Toshinden game, let me start this list with another.
Recently, Sony announced the complete 20-game line-ups for the two versions (International & Japan) of this December's PlayStation Classic, and one pick that got people talking, for various reasons, was the original Battle Arena Toshinden. Originally released alongside the PS1's launch in every territory, the 3D fighting game was Tamsoft's second game ever, the first was the Game Boy version of Samurai Shodown a couple of months earlier, but Sony hyped it up beyond all belief as a killer app. I had polygonal graphics that were notably more detailed than Sega's original Virtua Fighter (VF2 just came out in arcades, & wouldn't be released on Saturn for another year), & its use of a sidestep maneuver made it the first "true" 3D fighter. Once more advanced games, like Tekken, came out, though, Sony dropped it like a hot potato (except in Europe, where SCEE would release up through BAT3), and reaction towards it since has been mixed, mainly due to its stiffer gamplay & how it's aged compared to some of its contemporaries. It also didn't help that Tamsoft was already working to port the game to the Saturn, which would see release in late 1995 in Japan as Toshinden S, & internationally in 1996 as Battle Arena Toshinden Remix.
What can't be argued as having aged poorly, though, is Toshinden's outstanding soundtrack, which was also one of the first real examples of a fighting game having fully-composed songs for each character or stage, complete with intros, verses, choruses, & even bridges to stave off repetition, rather than simply having about a minute or so of music that simply loops. In fact, the game has two versions of its soundtrack, the first being the original Japanese version done by Yasuhiro Nakano, and then a second version for the international release arranged by Fumio Tanabe; you can tell the difference right away with something like Eiji's Theme. Tanabe's arrangements would be what was used for Toshinden S/Remix around the world, but that game also had an exclusive extra character in the form of Cupido, who was the extra final boss you could fight if you did well all the way up through regular boss Gaia & original extra boss Sho. For this one-time-only character, though she did seem to be originally planned for the sequel, Yasuhiro Nakano created one last song for the original Toshinden, and "Cupido's Theme" absolutely blows all of the original tracks out of the water, while also being one of the greatest songs in the entire franchise. Starting with a gothic intro with the pipe organ, likely a callback to "Sho's Theme" (which itself was an arrangement of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue in D Minor"), the absolute final fight in Toshinden Remix sounds nothing like any of the previous fights in the game, with its extremely addictive guitar licks, pounding drums, moody synth, and an overall sound that wouldn't truly be fully imitated until Daisuke Ishiwatari would create Guilty Gear. Even then, that series wouldn't match it completely until Guilty Gear XX in 2002... Roughly seven years later. While I obviously can't prove it, I want to believe that Ishiwatari was influenced by Toshinden slightly, at least in regards to composing complete songs for fighting games. Tamsoft utilized Red Book audio for the first few games, which allowed for them to be fully realized with actual instruments & the like, making them sound nothing like other fighting game soundtracks at the time. Of course, Red Book also had its flaws, since Toshinden 2 (& side-story URA on the Saturn) required restarting the music every round, which meant that you'd never really hear the music for longer than a half-minute, tops.
It's a shame that Cupido was only ever fully utilized in an fairly lackluster update of the original Toshinden game, though the character would appear to some extent in spin-off title Toshinden Card Quest, because what Yasuhiro Nakano brought to the table with her theme is truly not just one of the absolute best forgotten boss themes in fighting game history, but also a bit of a trailblazer in just what could be done in fighting game music. Nakano would become sound producer for the rest of the Toshinden series, as well as contributing some songs for the second & third games, but has seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth after the start of the new millennium, which has only helped to obscure his recognition in the advancement of fighting game soundtracks.
Every once in a while, a popular franchise decides to throw its hat into the fighting game arena, usually to mixed (at best) reception. Konami's Castlevania did just that in late 2008 with Castlevania Judgment for the Nintendo Wii, which brought together a bunch of characters from the centuries-spanning timeline into a time rift caused by original character Aeon, all in an attempt to stop the Time Reaper, who had been sent to the past from 10,000 years in the future by Galamoth, from ruining said timeline. In terms of reception, it was highly polarized in almost every aspect. Manga artist Takeshi Obata (Death Note, Hikaru no Go) was brought in to give his own take on characters like Simon & Trevor Belmont, Dracula, Alucard, Carmilla, Maria Renard, etc. Unfortunately, the general consensus was that Obata went way too far, making most of them look completely out of place for the franchise; Legacy of Darkness' Cornell is generally considered the only "good" redesign. Also, the gameplay was thrashed due to its arena-styled combat, rather than a standard 2D or 3D fighter, with a camera that wasn't always the best. A decade later, though, Castlevania Judgment has become a bit of a cult-classic, with those who decide to give it an honest chance finding a wild & enjoyable fighting system, complete with extending combos via "item canceling" (a.k.a. using your equipped sub-weapon to cancel into other moves). It's not perfect by any means, but the game is actually much better than you'd think, once you get past the wildly re-imagined exterior.
What no one gave grief towards with the game, however, was its soundtrack by Yasushi Asada, a member of game music company Noisycroak. Asada's new arrangements of iconic tracks, like "Bloody Tears", "Vampire Killer", & "Iron Blue Intention", are considered by fans to be some of the best in the entire franchise, and his original tracks for the game are no slouches either. The highlight of the Judgment-original songs, though, is easily "Darkness of Fear". You first hear it during the intro sequence, and it sets the tone for the rest of the game's soundtrack, a mix of gothic & rock, perfectly. A different arrangement for it is also used as Aeon's theme, which is fine, but otherwise sounds much more subdued in execution. After you beat Story Mode with all of the characters, though, you gain access to "True Story Mode", in which you fight two more battles in order to achieve a character's true ending. Of course, there's the fight with the Time Reaper, but before him you have another fight with Aeon on the gears of a giant clock tower... And when this fight begins the original version of "Darkness of Fear" starts playing. I'm a big fan of whenever a series plays the theme song, or at least a special insert song, during a climactic moment, as it instantly establishes the importance & gives it a real feeling of grandeur, and the same applies to this second fight with Aeon. If the game simply played the more subdued arrangement you normally hear when fighting on Aeon's stage, then this second fight wouldn't feel any more important, but using the intro version, with its more bombastic sound, makes the fight feel all the more relevant, & of course the song itself is exquisite. While "Darkness of Fear" has yet to make a re-appearance in a new game, we can all at least appreciate that Castlevania Judgment hasn't been completely forgotten, as that game's arrangement of "Vampire Killer" will be in the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, alongside Simon & Richter Belmont as playable characters.
Technos Japan Corporation was founded in 1981 by three former employees of Data East, and during that decade wound up becoming an important part of arcade history. Technos developed fighting game innovator Karate Champ for Data East in 1984, expanded on the beat'em up genre with Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun (a.k.a. Renegade) in 1986, & in 1987 debuted Double Dragon, which defined the genre for an entire generation. Come the mid-90s, though, Technos Japan was nowhere near as successful as it once was, even though Hollywood had just released a live-action movie based on Double Dragon the year prior. In fact, the people at Technos decided to take advantage of the movie's existence & make a new game in the franchise themselves, the first in nearly three years since 1992's Return of Double Dragon (a.k.a. Super Double Dragon). Released on the Neo Geo MVS & AES in March of 1995, Double Dragon (yes, Technos didn't give it any number or subtitle) was a one-on-one fighting game that's loosely inspired by the movie starring Scott Wolf (Billy Lee), Mark Dascascos (Jimmy Lee), Alyssa Milano (Marian), & Robert Patrick (Koga Shuko), but otherwise has nothing to do with said movie. It would see release on the Neo Geo CD later that June, & a port to the PS1 by Urban Plant, complete with some weird visual modes, would come April 1996, which was actually just after Technos Japan went out of business. The company's last game was early 1996's Kunio no Nekketsu Dodgeball Densetsu/Kunio's Hot-Blooded Dodgeball Legend on the Neo Geo, also known simply as Super Dodge Ball (not to be confused with the arcade & NES originals).
As for Technos' final Double Dragon game itself... It's okay. Released on a system absolutely flooded with fighting games, this particular game kind of just gets lost in the crowd, with the only really notable feature being that the super meter matched the health bar, so the less health a character had left meant that the super meter had less to fill up. At the very least, it's a better effort than the American-made Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls from a year prior, which was based on the bizarre DiC-produced cartoon from the early 90s. Along with this, Billy & Jimmy in particular had special powered up forms they could activate, and whenever one of them did a specific song would play, "Power Transform". Also used as the intro theme for the MVS, AES, & CD releases, as the PS1 version had its own FMV intro, "Power Transform" sounds completely at odds with the rest of the soundtrack done by Technos Japan Sound Team "VÄVID", due to its upbeat & jazzy execution. Really, though, what I want to focus on specifically is the Arranged Soundtrack version for the Neo Geo CD, because it absolutely ups the jazz ante, adding in saxophones & flutes to create something that is absolutely so ill-fitting for a fighting game, yet at the same so utterly unforgettable; I must add that the "AST" in general is exclusive to the NGCD, & not even available on PS1. To go with the game's general forgettable nature, "Power Transform" pretty much became forgotten until 2011, when Classic Game Room did a review of the Neo Geo CD version, nicknaming the song "the Billy & Jimmy, or BJ, Theme". Since then, the song itself has gained a cult fandom, due to it's catchy beat, jazzy composition, and how it just doesn't fit a fighting game based on Double Dragon.
If you need a perfect example of "That One Song" from a bit-player fighting game, then "Power Transform" fits the bill extremely well.
At Tokyo Game Show 2001, a couple of months before the launch of Microsoft's Xbox, there was a tech demo shown called "Project K-X" that was developed by Dream Publishing, a co-subsidiary of DreamFactory (The Bouncer, Tobal No. 1 & 2) & Microsoft. The tech demo, featuring characters fighting, looked impressive & acted as a great showpiece for what the first American-made console since the Atari Jaguar was possible of, so designer Seiichi Ishii (Tekken 1 & 2, Ehrgeiz) expanded into a full-on fighting game. The end result was Kakuto Chojin/Fighting Supermen, which came out in North America in late 2002 & in Japan in early 2003. As a fighting game, it wasn't horrible by any means, and it tried to offer something different by having alternate "Chojin" fighting styles to unlock, "Kakuto" was the default style, & offering up to four player battle royals. On the whole, though, Kakuto Chojin was very much nothing more than an expanded tech demo, and if it wasn't for a single piece of music, then pretty much no one would have really remembered it.
In February 2003, just a month after the Japanese release, Kakuto Chojin was pulled form store shelves in North America due to "offensive religious content". Said content came form the song "Love-Hate Chant", which was used for the character Asad, a Muslim Muay Thai fighter, which sampled a call to prayer from the Quran. Microsoft did consult with an Arabic speaker in the company, who did object, but the company felt that no one would notice the sample to complain. Not just that, but said sample had been used in other video games before, like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time's Fire Temple (though it was removed in later version of that game). Eventually, the Saudi Arabian government caught wind of the sample & formally protested, which resulted in a worldwide withdrawal of the game.
The sad thing is that this whole incident overshadowed the rest of Kakuto Chojin's soundtrack by Hiroshi Utsuyama, with this looking to be his only real composition work in the industry. It's a very intense & hard-hitting soundtrack, with a lot of hard rock & even speed metal mixed about, with one of the most interesting aspects being that each stage/character theme has a slow & methodical intro, and when playing the "real" song wouldn't play until a character gets a solid hit in (i.e. blocked attacks don't count). While "Love-Hant Chant" got all of the attention, the real jewel of Kakuto Chojin is definitely "Can't Stop the Fire", the theme for Spanish fighter Vittoria. A fast-paced mix of synth & rock that really was only being done during the late-90s/early-00s gives it a sound that actually wasn't being done in fighting games at the time. Also, the song has actual lyrics, which was next to unheard of at the time (Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike had lyrics, but only for the intro & character select screen songs), and though said lyrics aren't exactly mind-blowing, they do establish a cool mood of having to get reluctantly back "into the game" & fight again.
Like "Power Transform" above, "Can't Stop the Fire" is an outstanding song in an otherwise middling fighting game, but at least this example actually matches the gritty, grungy feel of Kakuto Chojin.
During the 90s, Capcom was one of the kings of the arcade scene, which saw a slight resurgence due to the appeal & success of Street Fighter II & its successive games, and the company was much more willing to experiment because of this. This was the era that saw the creation of Darkstalkers, for example, and it was also the era where Capcom made its first attempt at a 3D fighter; Capcom did distribute Battle Arena Toshinden 2 in arcades, but that was a Tamsoft game. Said 3D fighter was 1996's Star Gladiator - Episode 1: The Final Crusade, which bore a very notable similarity to Star Wars, with fighting game expert Seth Killian even outright stating that it was meant to be a Star Wars game during his tenure with the company. Being made on the ZN-1 hardware, which was simply a PlayStation with slightly beefed up specs, it was easy to port over to the PS1, and the game was successful enough to warrant a sequel in 1998. Titled Star Gladiator 2: Nightmare of Bilstein in Japan, the ZN-2-powered game was renamed Plasma Sword for international release (though the subtitle was kept), and would see a port to the Sega Dreamcast around 2000.
Another thing Capcom was known for during this era was utilizing QSound technology in its arcade games, especially the CP System 2 games, which resulted in them having a specific sound to them that has since become fairly iconic as a "Capcom sound"; just listen to how Toshinden 2 sounds in its original arcade form, compared to the more well known PS1 port. At the same time, though, QSound did have its limitations, and one of them was whenever the composers tried to push the tech for more subtle or harsh sounds. That's not to say that these moments failed, but a perfect example of this would be with Plasma Sword's soundtrack by Tetsuya "Cyber-T" Shibata (Power Stone) & Takayuki "Anarchy Takapon" Iwai (Marvel Super Heroes), which definitely aimed for a strong electronic sound, almost entering techno at points; Shibata & Iwai really pushed what QSound was capable of here. Still, this results in the soundtrack not having many instantly identifiable songs that you can instantly think of; personally, I think of the Character Select screen music, which I think says a lot. But the song that truly stays with you is easily "Against the Absolute", as track by Iwai that plays in Stage 7 of Arcade Mode, right before the final battle with Bilstein. Unlike the other songs in Plasma Sword, which don't tend to have an instantly hooking beat & melody to it, "Against the Absolute" grabs you instantaneously, making the penultimate battle feel all the more grand because of it. In fact, it almost sounds unlike anything else in the game, which I think has helped make it stand out over time.
In fact, when Star Gladiator finally saw representation in Monolith Soft's Project X Zone 2 for 3DS, there was really only one song that had to be chosen to represent the series, and it was "Against the Absolute". While there are some who still prefer the original over PXZ2's rendition, which definitely adds a stronger use of synthesized guitar to it, there's really no doubt that it's still an excellent arrangement overall, and shows Iwai's talents in composing. While the Star Gladiator games have mostly been forgotten with time, "Against the Absolute" shouldn't, as it stands strongly with some of Capcom's most iconic fighting game music.
Finally, where all the previous entries in this list were Japanese-developed fighters, let's finish things off with a Western-developed game, specifically one from Europe. When Rise of the Robots for Amiga & PC DOS was first shown at the Summer Consumer Electronics Show in 1993, it looked to the future of video game technology, & UK-based Mirage Technologies did everything it could to hype it up as a "Street Fighter II Killer". Graphics made using Autodesk 3D Studio, characters that featured over 100 frames of animation (then a notable number), enemy AI that would be beyond all imagination, ports to every single piece of gaming platform (console & portable) & even arcades, & an entire soundtrack composed by Queen's Brian May! Unfortunately, when the game actually came out in late 1994, after some delays, no one was impressed. Sure, the visuals on PC were great, but the gameplay was super simplistic, the AI was idiotic & easily manipulated, & Brian May's music was barely in it, due to his record company putting a hold on it, with Richard Joseph (Cannon Fodder) producing a replacement soundtrack; only "The Dark" & some guitar sounds made it in. Still, the game managed to sell well enough to warrant a sequel, so in 1996 we saw the release of Rise 2: Resurrection for PC, PS1, & Saturn; in Japan, the sequel was directly named Rise of the Robots 2: Resurrection.
As a sequel to one of the most over-hyped video games (let alone fighting games) of all time, Rise 2 is overall a massive improvement. Whereas the original restricted Player 1 to only play as the lead Cyborg, except for the arcade version (which was like a standard fighter), the sequel allows you to select from 18 robots, plus another 10 hidden away (though most of these were "clones" with altered graphics; the later, PC-exclusive, "Director's Cut" added in two more, giving a total a 30. The gameplay was also designed more like contemporary fighters, with a focus on combos, special moves, super moves, & even Mortal Kombat-esque "Executions" at the end of fights. Unfortunately, Rise 2 still played stiff & awkward, resulting in it just not being all that good of a game; it's better than Rise 1, no doubt, but that's not really saying much. Once again, though, Mirage brought in Brian May, even advertising "music specifically written & performed by" the man, making it sound like he composed the entire soundtrack. The truth of the matter is that the soundtrack was actually done by Tom Grimshaw, with May only contributing a single song, "Cyborg".
Said Brian May song is first heard during the title screen & main menu, but it does have gameplay-related uses, as well. Before you fight against final boss The Supervisor, you have to fight some sub-bosses first, and the fight with Sane in particular uses an instrumental arrangement of "Cyborg" that has some differences, but sadly the fight itself ruins the music, due to a bizarrely loud guitar sound that constant goes off whenever attacks are made, which makes the song next to impossible to actually hear; the Sane fight is the only time this sound even occurs, too, which is absurd. Finally, should you access the hidden boss fight with Mayhem, you actually get to fight to the original vocal version of "Cyborg", which is admittedly a neat addition. As for the song itself, it's really the only truly notable thing about Rise 2 which can considered "good", with an intensely memorable hook & a sound that really shows what Brian May is capable of outside of his "usual" Queen sound. In comparison, Grimshaw's music is okay, but really doesn't work for a fighting game; it instead sounds more fitting for an action/adventure game. In fact, the same could be said of "Cyborg", in either form, but at least that song also works extremely well on its own as an isolated piece of music to listen to.
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Again, none of the games listed here are going to go down as some of the all-time greatest, and most of them don't even have soundtracks that, on the whole, are necessarily memorable. Still, the composer of each of these fighting game soundtracks did have one moment of brilliance, resulting in six songs that have mostly become forgotten with time due to what they came "packaged" with, but really deserve more attention & celebration. They may never get another chance to make their marks, so it's important to hunt them down for yourself, every now & then.
Battle Arena Toshinden Remix © Takara Co., Ltd. 1995, Reprogrammed © Sega 1995
Castlevania Judgment © 2008 Konami Digital Entertainment
Double Dragon (Neo Geo) © Technos Japan Corp. 1995 (now Arc System Works)
Kakuto Chojin © 2002 Microsoft Corporation
Plasma Sword © Capcom Co., Ltd. 1998, 1999
Rise 2: Resurrection © 1996 Mirage Technologies (Multimedia), Ltd.
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