OST Informations by John Turner: -------------------------------- 1. FOLLOW WIND This track is played in the first stage of the game Stages 1-1 through 1-3, where Higgins, our (scantily clad) hero, from the palm tree forest to an underground lava cave. 2. BREAK This is the STAGE CLEAR fanfare music. 3. THE ISLAND OF EVERLASTING SUMMER This track is played on Stages 2-1 and 2-2. Both stages, by the way, are DOWN BY THE SEA (pun intended!), in that they are played on the beach and the island stages. 4. HOP STEP AND JAZZY BEATS This is the BONUS STAGE music. Whenever Higgins touches a star, he goes up into an outer space style area, where he bounces around and collects objects. 5. BLUE BLUE MOON This title should be titled SWIM, SWIM, HIGGINS! It's played during the two stages where Higgins swims. Stage 2-3 - In the belly of a whale(!), and Stage 4-3 in a pond. (In other words, Higgins doesn't walk during these stages; he SWIMS!) 6. HOT RECEPTION This is the boss battle music. 7. BREAK (SCRATCHED) This is the BOSS CLEAR FANFARE. 8. JUNGLE CHASE This song is played only in Stages 3-2 (The Haunted Forest) and 3-3 (The Underground Mine). 9. DROP INTO A WALK This unfortunately repetitive song is played only in the desert stage - Stage 4-1. 10. COOL JAM Cool, indeed! This impeccably named track is played only in Stages 3-1 and 4-2, both of which are climbing stages. In other words, the former stage has Higgins going up a tree, while the latter stage has him climbing up a mountain. 11. ICE GROOVE This track is played only once - in Stage 5-1, when Higgins is traveling across a Snowy Mountain. 12. DARKSIDE VISITOR This is played during Stages 5-2 and 5-3 when Higgins is storming the castle of the notorious magician who has transformed his girlfriend into a statue (I don't know why). BTW, I LOVE the way this track starts out! 13. BIG ZEN This is the LAST BOSS music. And I do mean the VERY, VERY LAST BOSS! There are two last bosses in the game, the first is the puny little magician (Dark Cloak) mentioned in Track 12. After you defeat him (and he dons an angel's wings and halo, where he starts to fly up to paradise -?-), he transforms into a outrageouly UGLY monster - a cross inbetween a pig and a pink elephant - and tries to crush Higgins underneath his massive weight when he hits the floor with heavy force. This track is played during Dark Cloak's transformed version. My only complaint about this song: it's the most repetitious song on the whole album. It's barely much of a fully-fledged song, its just the same beats over, and over, and over, and over, and over again to a seemingly endless irritation. It's a good "little piece", but it's WAY too long on the album (It lasts for 2:14 minutes). 14. HAWAIIAN This is the music played over the (woefully short) end credits sequence. 15. GENTLY SUN This is played over the opening demo sequence when Higgins' girlfriend is transformed into a statue by the evil Dark Cloak. (And right when they're stargazing, too! Isn't that just ugly?) Then, Higgins must head off to stop Dark Cloak at all costs. Why the album producers decided to place this track after the end credits music is my biggest puzzlement. 16. GAME OVER The music that plays over the GAME OVER sign. Nothing else can be said. (This isn't enough of a grand finale for this soundtrack - it's only three chords. A real shame, considering that Yuzo Koshiro churned out such a grand finale with ACTRAISER. Oh, well.) Staff Credits of the OST: All Songs Composed and Arranged by Yuzo Koshiro Produced by Yuzo Koshiro & Kyoji Kato A & R Director: Hideyuki Akiyama Mastering Engineer: Yoshinori Kaji Jacket Illustration: Susumu Matsushita Photographer: Masafumi Kikuchi Art Director: Office Amano Design: Glamour Special Thanks to Hudson Soft, Ryuichi Nishizawa (WESTONE CORP.), Masaya Hashimoto (QUINTET CORP.), Shinji Imada (PRODUCE CORP), and Eiji Aoyama (HUDSON SOFT)