Yuzo Koshiro's Gotta Protectors chiptune soundtrack available on CD in the Collector's Edition
Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness is a 2D strategy action game developed by Ancient and published digitally by 8-4 on the Nintendo Switch in North America. Released in April of 2022, Cart of Darkness is the third game in the series, with the previous titles available digitally on the Xbox 360 and Nintendo 3DS. This new game is critically acclaimed, being notable for its witty localization, emphasis on NES-era nostalgia, and a chiptune soundtrack by Yuzo Koshiro.
Cart of Darkness was developed Ancient, a game developer founded by Yuzo Koshiro and his family. Yuzo Koshiro is one of the most acclaimed Japanese game composers. Most notably, he’s responsible for the soundtracks to ActRaiser, Streets of Rage, and Etrian Odyssey.
Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness celebrates nostalgia for NES-era games, through both its 2D graphics, and the ability to collect 948 in-game carts that are parodies of the entire NES library. Yuzo Koshiro’s amazing chiptune soundtrack further heightens the nostalgic feel of the game by utilizing the NES sound font for the game’s soundtrack.
While the energetic NES chiptunes of Cart of Darkness create an excellent soundtrack alone, Yuzo Koshiro has gone overboard and re-composed these same tracks using a wide range of retro sound chips as DLC for the game. He essentially created the same soundtrack on the NES, Genesis, Super Nintendo, PC-8800, Game Boy, WonderSwan, Famicom Disk System, and VRC6 sound chips! These different versions beautifully demonstrate how unique each system’s audio fingerprints are. You can hear for yourself in the videos below how the same tune sounds on different hardware in the videos (my favorite is the crunchy bass of the Game Boy).
Gotta Protectors: Cart of Darkness is getting a physical release by Limited Run Games, and the Collector’s Edition includes a CD soundtrack set. While the product is still under development, 8-4 has said that the plan is to include all of the tracks, including the varied sound chip DLC versions. The Collector’s Edition is available for pre-order from Limited Run Games until April 24th, 2022.
Comparison of NES, Genesis, and PC-88 sound chips.
Comparison of NES, Game Boy, and WonderSwan sound chips.
Comparison of the NES, Famicom Disk System, and the VRC6 sound chips.
Comparison of the NES and Super Nintendo sound chips.