Day 15: Remix Theme - Every Nintendo Startup Sound We're halfway there so it's time for a R-R-Remix! This track was created by Leslie Wai where they had the daring idea back in 2020 to take the startup sound effectsof all the various Nintendo consoles and handhelds and mix them together. It's great.

7/10 - Kirby Planet Robobot - Robobot is the only mainline Kirby game that I've played through fully and beaten. And it was pretty good. The mech was a fun addition to gameplay and I used it every chance I got. I wasn't expecting the mech to also be able to use copy abilities, but I'm glad it can.

7/9 - Final Fantasy IX - While I once crowned FF8 as my favorite, that honor now belongs to FF9. I love this game so much. The characters and the world. The combat and progression system. The story. My god, the story. Other Final Fantasies are good, but FF9 clearly takes the crown for me.

Day 14: Mobile Game - Rinoa's Battle [Dissidia Duellum] The sheer audacity. To take two of the love themes from FF8, Eyes On Me and My Mind, and then mix them together into a battle theme. And to make it work!

Day 13: Unusual Instruments - Flat Zone 2 [Super Smash Bros Brawl] No piano, no flute, no guitar. Unless it's used in some weird way. Sometimes there are tracks that are made with unique instruments or other unconventional means.

Going live with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33! I'm very excited to finally get to start this game.

7/8 - Kingdom Hearts II - Whereas the first game is (mostly) well contained and understood, KH2 (and CoM before it) is when things start getting wide and weird. In a good way. Probably. Anyways, KH2 was when it felt like they were building a lot with the plot and not just making Final FantasyxDisney

Day 12: Bandai-Namco Game - Holy Warfare [Shadow Labyrinth] I haven't gotten to play it, but boy am I curious. When this game was first revealed it was like "Ok... a horrorish metroivania? Wait, what the fuck? Is that Pac-Man?! I gotta know.

Going live with some more Ghost of Yotei! We made it to Act II last week which should mean we are getting relatively close to the end. But first, some cleanup in Toshio Ridge.

Day 11: Shop Theme - Booyah Base [Splatoon] I am a shooter game hater, but Splatoon is fucking great. The whole vibe, the focus on covering territory instead of *just* focusing on kills. Love it. Booyah Base is the shop where you get all your weapons and the theme for it is great.

Day 20: Game Set in the Future - Q [Virtue's Last Reward] Huh? Day 20? Oh I see, we're doing a time travel bit. It was Christmas Day in 2028 (not too far in the future) when you were kidnapped and later awoke in a strange facility. Puzzles, death, and branching timelines await you.

7/7 - Mario Kart 7 - You gotta intentionally screw up to make a bad Mario Kart game. Mario Kart 7 was for the 3DS and had a smaller roster than previous games, and some were a tiny bit controversial. Metal Mario? Honey Queen? Where's my Waluigi?!

**Day 9: Co-Op Game - Wake-Up Call [It Takes Two]** Me: We should play It Takes Two. Wayofftrail : Yeah we totally should. *silence* *crickets* *more silence* *taps foot* One of us: So... The Other: I'm busy *sigh*

7/6 - Spy Fox: "Operation Ozone" - First we stopped a goat who wanted to steal all the world's milk, then we stopped a roach who wanted to crush people with a robot, and now we gotta stop a poodle who wants to destroy the ozone layer with a giant aerosol can. These people got problems.

Day 8: The Year XXX8 - Bad Fortune Flower [Yakuza Kiwami 2] I finished this game earlier this year and so far it feels like the Yakuza series just keeps feeling better to play. It's one part Yakuza politics, 1 part ragdolling enemies, and 5 parts just accepting that weird shit is gonna happen.

7/5 - Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - I just finished streaming this game a couple days ago and it was a pretty good ride. I'd played all the Ace Attorney games before, but no Professor Laytons so I didn't really know what to expect from the Layton side of things.

Day 7: Friend's Favorite - The Darkest Hour [Reverse: 1999] I don't know much about this game, just scattered bits really. There's time travel. Time reverses when 1999 ends. It's a turn-based rpg with card mechanics. Ezio and Kassandra from Assassin's Creed is in it.

7/4 - Virtue's Last Reward - 999 set the stage, but Virtue's Last Reward brought everything up several notches. More branching paths, that matter even more than before, several more escape room puzzles, and characters that you love along with characters you want to punch.

7/3 - Pokemon HeartGold/SoulSilver - I never played the original Gen 2 games as a kid, so HGSS was my first exposure to the Johto region. I really liked a lot of the Pokemon and character designs and the story being a followup on the fall of Team Rocket was fun.

Day 6: Short Game - Interface [Dispatch] The winner of this year's Force Zantok to Play a Game Poll and a game I thoroughly enjoyed. Not just the characters and overall setting, but the actual dispatching minigame itself.

Going live with some more Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney! We got to the start of the Epilogue last time which means we should be finishing the game today!

7/2 - Dragon Quest Monsters - My very first Dragon Quest game, though at the time it was localized as Dragon Warrior. Dragon Quest Monsters is a creature collector where you could capture monsters from the Dragon Quest games and get them to fight for you in a party of three.

Day 5: Desert Level - Memories of Dust [Nier Automata] Years ago I used Automata's Amusement Park track for the Spooky Tunes theme, and now I'm pulling from it again for its desert theme. Automata's gameplay and controls took me a bit to get used to, but once I figured it out I had a good time.

Going live with some more Ghost of Yotei! We're deep in the Teshio Ridge, but there's still a lot to explore.

7/1 - Super Mario RPG Remake - My first pick of the year was the original SMRPG, but now that we're halfway done it's time for the remake. I could not believe my eyes when they revealed this game. I had seen the rumors leading up to it, but I dismissed them as impossible. There was no way. And yet.

Day 4: Dance-Off! - Deep Mentality (Lotus Juice) [Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight It's hard to get more dance appropriate than a remix made for a dancing spinoff. I haven't played any of the Persona Dancing spinoffs myself, but I've considered it.

Day 3: Fighting Game - Theme of Magneto [Marvel vs. Capcom 3] I do love my crossover bullshit. I was pretty invested in the hype cycle and character reveals for Marvel vs Capcom 3 and the speculation of what characters were going to be added. And once the game finally came out I played it a lot.

6/30 - Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - I do love me a good mix of murder mysteries, an ensemble cast, and settings where characters all have crazy and varied "powers". The first game gave us a peek inside the shell and the second cracked it open with wider lore and I love it.

Day 2: Opening Level - Viridian Forest [Pokemon Let's Go, Pikachu/Eevee] Less so a level, more so the first "dungeon" you make your way too. The original Pokemon Red and Blue were the first games I ever owned and I still enjoy the series to this day.

6/30 - Ape Escape - Ape Escape was another of those games that while I didn't play them myself, I did watch my brother play through it. It was pretty interesting. Monkeys have escaped from a lab and traveled through time to rewrite history. Good thing Spike has a variety of tools to capture them.

**Day 1: Title Theme - Theme of MMBN4 [Mega Man Battle Network 4]** We begin as we do every year, with a Title Theme. I am a big fan of the Mega Man Battle Network series. From the battles, to the story, to just the general feel and design of the world.

The 31 Day Video Game Music Challenge returns for its 7th year! In this image you'll find each of the themes for this year and the alt text will contain further descriptions of what each theme means. Each day I'll be quoting this post with my picks and I encourage everyone out there to join in!

Day 28 - Earthbound - I was very late tot he party with Earthbound and only finally played it for the first time 3 or 4 years ago. Most of my knowledge coming from either Smash Bros or friends talking about it. It was fun, I liked the world design and how it's a game that's not afraid to be weird.

6/27 - Star Wars Episode I: Jedi Power Battles - Hey guys I've got a great idea. Let's make a video game that adapts Star Wars Episode I, but it's an action game that's part platformer and part beat 'em up! I have zero recollection about how good or bad this game was, but I liked played it.

Going live with some more Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney! The end is nigh as we're halfway through Chapter 8: The Final Witch Trial!

Going live with some more Ghost of Yotei! We're starting off cleaning up some of the previous regions and then its back to Teshio Ridge!

6/26 - Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice - Spirit of Justice was an interesting new Ace Attorney as it featured not only a new antagonist with our latest Prosecutor, but the new "Detective" character was openly antagonistic to us as well.

6/25 - Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Brawl was the first Smash game where I was there for the hype cycle. Every day, even when I was out at scout camp, I would open up the Dojo to see what the daily post was. Giving us information daily was a great bit of marketing and was a fun way to see reveals.

Next week... on July 1st...the 31 Day Video Game Music Challenge returns!

6/24 - Mario Strikers Charged - Soccer? But with Mario? Sounds like fun! I enjoyed Strikers Charged and played it for a good while, the design and general atmosphere of the game interested me and I liked how intense all the character art for it was.

6/23 - Sonic R - I haven't played many Sonic games, but I did play this one. My dad set it up on the computer and I would just pick a character and run around doing badly at racing. I think I mostly played as Knuckles on the Radical City track and just kept bumping around in the Pinball section.

6/22 - Donkey Kong Country - Another game I'd play as a kid with my grandma. Or, rather she would play it and I'd watch trying to "help". We traded off the controller sometimes, but it was mostly her playing. Still, good memories, and King K. Rool is a silly little guy.

6/21 - It's got the same great gameplay as Pikmin 1, but this time there's no calendar system and you can take it a little easier. Also, you have a second character now! Sadly this doesn't mean there is co-op, but you can now switch back and forth between Olimar and Louie for different tasks.

Krookodile! Go watch #TeamCherish and the #VtuberSS2026

Going live with some more Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney! We're in the middle of Chapter 7 learning more revelations as we go!

6/20 - Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles - I never finished this game, I never even got far. But I really liked the world the game's world and design. It was an interesting idea. I wish the remake didn't screw up the co-op because I was looking forward to trying it again with friends.

Going live with some more Ghost of Yotei! Last time we made it to Teshio Ridge, now we get to explore it!

6/19 - Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo - Clearly the natural progression after joining a parade and going to the moon would be to save a zoo, right? Putt-Putt seemed to think so at least. Like the other games, each time you play can be a little different, but you always had the goal of saving the zoo.

6/18 - Child of Light - A short sidescrolling RPG where you play as Aurora, a young girl with a firefly companion named Igniculus. As the game progresses Aurora's appearance changes as she grows up and learns more about the world. The world of the game is very well designed as are all the characters

6/17 - Marvel Ultimate Alliance - Before this game the only Marvel I knew were the X-Men and what movies had been released at the time, Spider-Man, Daredevil, Hulk, and the Fantastic Four. This game showed me just how much more there was, and I loved it. Pretty much been into Marvel ever since.