The VGMbassy

Straight from the mean streets of Turbo City, Bruce Irons (aka Cameron Chiles) of The Mad Gear VGM band is back! Following up on their last NES Memories episode, Cam and Ed zoom forward a few years and chat about their SNES memories, and recall some of the music that defined their gaming experiences. You’ll hear some SUPER tunes from some games that time may have forgotten… or maybe a...

Season 2 of The VGMbassy’s Blind Listen episodes starts with a stellar guest: Rob Nichols from Rhythm & Pixels! Patreon patron Dan Laughton has submitted a mystery soundtrack for the guys to listen to, and it’s an impressive one! Join in the fun as Rob and Ed use clues from the music to try and guess what kind of game they’re listening to, and see how close they come when all...

The Embassy has been hustling and bustling in 2020, with new and familiar VGMbassadors passing through from all over the world. As such, this episode is presented in four phases, all acting as kind of a “mini-sode,” all recorded in the same evening with the same people. PHASE 1 : Emily is back in-studio with a selection of music from Pokemon Gold/ Silver to discuss. There’s also...

Fresh back from the hustle and bustle of MAGfest, Ed decided a great way to chill out would be to play some nice, relaxing golf games with his son Logan. Logan had some other ideas, though! He brought out some of the wackiest, craziest games to ever involve sinking a ball into a cup, and totally wowed Ed with their amazing soundtracks. Presented for your enjoyment, dear listeners, is a collection...

The VGMbassy rings in the new year of 2020 with some music from games that require logic, intellect, and a very dry sense of humor. That’s right, we’re talking about point and click adventure titles! Ed is joined by Chris Steenerson and Matt Sargent from the VGJam podcast, and the trio dig up some wonderful music from all types of adventure games. Plus, learn a bit more about Chris and...

We’re doing things a little bit differently this time around: Ed purchased a bundle of ten random Steam indie game keys from a popular website with the intent of featuring the music from all of the games on a podcast episode. What he found was a collection of brilliant and engaging pieces of music by both veteran and up-and-coming composers! Learn a bit about the gameplay and soundtracks fro...

The violins swell over a sea of tumbling timpani drums. A low grumble of brass bursts into a deafening roar as Nathan Drake crashes out of a window, a handful of would-be assassins following close behind. Orchestral and symphonic music is extremely important in setting the mood and tone of a scene, and on this episode, VGM community member Bedroth gives us the grand tour of the genre and its histo...

When it comes to RPGs, what’s your favorite style? Maybe you like to plan out a slow and methodical attack in a turn-based battle. Or maybe you’d prefer to run right in and start slashing away in real time. Or maybe still, you prefer a more chess-like tactical experience. Whatever your preference, it’s undeniable that there are some incredible pieces of RPG battle music out there...

He’s back! Pixelated Audio’s Gene Dreyband has infiltrated Outer VGMbassy to deliver a payload of tunes from Metal Gear side-stories. Together, he and Ed discover the wackier, less-canonical side of Konami’s flagship action series. Gene also hosts a hilarious quiz for Ed, with some surprising results. And to round it all up, some conversation about series director Hideo Kojima&#8...

It’s a long time coming, but Ed has finally gotten around to punching out one of his favorite genres: Beat ’em ups. Fighting game fanatic and cohost of the Heroes 3 Podcast, Carlos, is the perfect man for the job – Together this tag-team of ruffians skulk down alleys infested with gutter punks, xenomorphs, wind-up toys, and… bears? It’s a wild ride filled with Asian a...

Meteor strike. Nuclear war. Global warming. Disease. Zombies. The world ends in many ways in video game media, and the remaining humans have to find innovative ways to survive the resulting hostile landscape. Today, inspired by the latest climate-change news, Ed and Emily are presenting a selection of fantastic music from post-apocalyptic video games and examining the very different worlds they we...

It’s time for Ed and Logan to embark on a truly epic Kirby adventure! On today’s episode, the father-and-son duo play every main series Kirby game, pick out their favorite musical tracks from each, and discuss the evolution of the pink puffball’s gameplay and soundtracks from over 25 years of Kirby history. They talk about the benefits of “pixelated” versus “smo...

After leaving off on episode 32 with the first half of Ed’s list of favorite VGM composers, he’s back with the rest! Enjoy a very personal edition of the VGMbassy as he presents an all-star cast of artists and their incredible music. A huge thank you to Indira J ( The Misadventures of Buddy and Friend , Sacrimony ) for the amazing VGMbassy artwork and design, and to Trevin Hughes (aka...

What motivates you to beat a game? Maybe you want to see all the content the developers worked hard on adding to it. Maybe it’s for storyline closure. Maybe leaving a game unfinished causes you stress, and that’s motivation enough. On today’s show, special guest VGMbassador Dan Laughton ‘s driving force is to be the very best. Whether it’s completing a speedrun of a t...

If you grew up in North America in the 80’s, you probably have a few stories about the NES. Even if you didn’t own one, chances are a friend did. Cam Chiles , drummer/arranger in the awesome VGM band The Mad Gear wanted to share a few of his own NES stories on the show. Ed had quite a few stories too, so they got together and made an awesome podcast about ’em!  Imagine yourself i...

DiscoCactus isn’t your typical VGM cover band. It’s an ever-changing and evolving consortium of talented, classically-trained musicians who not only love to play video game music, but have the chops to arrange pieces on the fly and let the music inspire their improv-heavy live performances. Its members include graduates from the Yale School of Music, Video Games Live soloists, and more...

The Nintendo Switch has captured the hearts of many gamers around the world. In addition to excellent first party titles from the Mario and Zelda series, there are countless top-quality indie games available on the eShop or in limited-run game cards. To top it off, these games often have incredible music written by up-and-coming composers! On this very portable episode, Cam Werme swings by the VGM...

Ed flies solo for the first time in almost a year, showing off a great collection of music from game composers who have impacted him in some way. This is only the first half of the list, so get ready for volume 2 coming soon! A huge thank you to Indira J ( The Misadventures of Buddy and Friend , Sacrimony ) for the amazing VGMbassy artwork and design, and to Trevin Hughes (aka chiptune composer Jr...

Just like there are two sides to every coin, there are two distinct flavors of sci-fi video games. On episode 6 of The VGMbassy, Emily joined Ed as he shared music from some of his favorite music from dark sci-fi games. Now it’s Emily’s turn! The light side of sci-fi is the name of the game this time around, as Emily shares some incredible music from her favorite titles. There’s...

The Diad Challenge is back by popular demand! Ben and Ed had so much fun researching and presenting game-related topics back on episode 7, that they’ve returned with a new collection of game music to challenge each other with! On this episode, you’ll learn all about stars (with special guest Logan,) history’s most interesting court jester, Norse mythology, and a bunch more wacky...

If you can SPARE some time for us, we’ve got an episode that will STRIKE you as entertaining and fun! Yes, if you haven’t guessed from the terrible puns, we’re talking about music from bowling games today. John Jekel (aka Mixxmaster) has stopped by the VGMbassy bowling lanes to talk about the sport that he and Ed have been playing for years. They’ve got tunes from living ro...

Today, Jordan Werme from the Table to Stage podcast joins Ed for an in-depth look at an award-winning, super-creepy, and super-fun indie title called Oxenfree. Aside from the incredible 80’s throwback soundtrack, the game features incredible voice acting and gorgeous visuals, sure to please any fan who’s looking for a well-rounded package in their library. Listen in as the gentlemen de...

It can be a magical feeling when you hear your one of your favorite genres of music in a video game, especially when it’s authentic. Rob Nichols (from VGM podcast Rhythm & Pixels) and Ed have both shared a love for Drum and Bass music since the 1990’s, both in VGM and on the radio waves. Today, they share some of the best Drum and Bass video games has to offer, present a bit of the...

On April 5th, 2019, the hosts of VGM podcast Pixelated Audio participated in an event at the Library of Congress in Washington DC celebrating video game music. The event became a nexus for several podcasts, as the hosts of Rhythm & Pixels, Sound Test Roulette, and The VGMbassy all attended to support their peers at the talk! Now, you can’t get all of these hosts together without recordin...

The N64 hit retail shelves in 1996, and introduced Nintendo gamers to fully 3D environments, anti-aliasing, a fair amount of fog, and some incredible gameplay and music. Today, Ed sits down with Joe, his cohost of the Patreon sister-show Embassy Exclusive, and chats about his complete USA N64 collection. Joe’s taken an interest particularly of the music of N64 games, and his collection has e...