Episode 62 - A Proper Puzzle Pile

We’re matching colors, bursting bubbles, and clearing blocks with this playlist of songs from all kinds of puzzle games! There are several links and notes for this episode: I started off my first music block with a song from the original arcade release of Blockout, and if you’re interested in playing it, you can play it on a web browser at https://blockout.nu/. (Note that it works fine with a computer keyboard, but it may be nigh impossible to play on a phone or tablet.) If you liked the Planet Puzzle League song, the episode of CRT Soundsystem featuring a deep dive into the its music can be found at https://rss.com/podcasts/crtsoundsystem/1917986/.  While talking about Cu-On-Pa, I mentioned that it was a port of Endorfun, a Windows PC game. I would have liked to feature it, but that game’s soundtrack doesn’t neatly break down into individual songs. However, if you want to experience it, you can find a remastered version of the soundtrack on YouTube at https://youtu.be/6k_hYPfPpEQ and you can hear the arranged soundtrack at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngnpsZf24VI. If you liked the CD-i Tetris soundtrack, you may enjoy these.  If you’re interested in going down the rabbit hole for the Adventures of Lolo / Eggerland games, the Wikipedia article is a decent starting point; you can find it at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adventures_of_Lolo, and you can search around and try to figure out the multiple variations of the series between its entries for the MSX, the Famicom, the NES, and the Game Boy.  Fellow VGM podcast barSILENCE did a whole episode about Tetris that I mentioned while talking about Tetris Kiwamemichi, and you can find that excellent 73 minutes of game music at https://barsilence.com/episode/e6308ce1/tetris-affects  If you liked the CD-i Tetris song from Jim Andron, you can find a high-quality version of the whole soundtrack on his Soundcloud page at https://soundcloud.com/user-391016128/sets/phillips-cdi  Special thanks for this episode goes out to: Fellow VGM podcaster Jameson of barSILENCE podcast for contributing cover art. You can and should find barSILENCE wherever you download podcasts, and check out his website at barSILENCE.com.  BokiBokiPixelArt for the show logo. You can find him on Twitter @BokiPixelart.  If you want to reach me, I’m most active on Bluesky as @shujinacademy.bsky.social. You can also find me on Threads, Tumblr, or Instagram as ShujinAcademyVGMClub. All episodes of the show are posted to my YouTube channel, which you can find by searching for Shujin Academy VGM Club. You can email me at [email protected]. Links to everything are available on my LinkTree at https://linktr.ee/shujinacademy. Please leave me a five star rating on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you’re finding this episode. New episodes are released once or twice a month depending on how often I get them done, and they premiere on Thursday mornings on your favorite podcatcher and on 8beats.co, the internet's number one game music radio station. My show is also featured on Terra Player, the cool app that’s a destination for gaming podcasts and other content, so you can check me out there. Finally, if you just can’t get enough of me, I’m also voicing esports reporter Samson Escapades on audio drama podcast How Much in Bison Dollars?, which you can hear on FGC Radio or at https://rss.com/podcasts/hmibisondollars/. If you're listening on Spotify, please be aware that they’ve pulled a few of my episodes before. There’s a non-zero chance that they’ll eventually pull my entire podcast, as they’ve done with a few other game music podcasts, so I’d strongly suggest you subscribe elsewhere to be sure you can get all of the Professor Tom goodness you crave. Track Listing: 00:00 - Show Tagline 00:06 - Klax (Amiga) - Intro and Attract Screen (composer: Matt Furniss) 03:11 - Talk Segment 1 08:54 - Blockout (Arcade) - Round Select, Next Round (composer: unknown) 09:48 - Planet Puzzle League (DS) - B3 Cub3d (composer: Masanobu Matsunaga) 12:40 - Cu-On-Pa (Super Famicom) - Colloseum (composer: Ken Kojima) 14:00 - Mario’s Super Picross (Super Famicom) - Wario BGM 1 (composer: Toshiyuki Ueno) 17:33 - Puzzle Bobble 2 / Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition (PSX) - Background 2 (composer: Norihiro Furukawa) 19:11 - Adventures of Lolo (NES) - In-Game (composer: Hideki Kanazashi; programmer: Hiroaki Suga) 20:08 - HuniePop (PC) - Farmers’ Market (composer: Jonathan Wandag) 22:15 - Talk Segment 2 25:51 - Puyo Puyo (FM Towns) - Sticker of Puyo Puyo (composers: Haruo Tajima and Masami Yitsuse) 28:34 - Zoop (Genesis) - Uptown Meeting (composers: Mark Davis and Bob Scumaci) 31:31 - Dr. Mario (NES) - Chill (composer: Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka) 33:38 - Columns (Genesis) - Clotho (composer: Tokuhiko Uwabo) 37:54 - Lemmings (Genesis) - Stage Theme 4 / One Way or Another (composers: Tim Wright, Brian Johnston, and Hirohiko Takayama) 40:29 - Talk Segment 3 46:59 - Tetris Kiwamemichi (PS2 / Arcade) - 06 (composer: unknown) 49:36 - Super Tetris 2 + BomBliss (Super Famicom) - Tetris B-Type (composers: Mitsuhiko Takano, K4, and Dhal‑chan) 50:23 - Tetris (Nintendo version) (NES) - Music 3 (composer: Hirokazu “Hip” Tanaka) 53:23 - Tetris (Sega Arcade YM2610B version) - Tetremix (composer: Yasuhiro Kawakami) 56:05 - Super Tetris 3 (Super Famicom) - Magicaliss Select (composer: Shigemitsu Goto) 57:12 - Tetris (CD-i) - Foster’s Freeze (Level 5) (composer: Jim Andron) 59:41 - Outro Talk Segment 1:02:29 - Tetris Effect (multiplatform) - 1989 Pt. 2 (composers: Hydelic and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky)