Keiji Yamagishi, composer of the original NES Ninja Gaiden, has overseen the digital restoration of the series’ NES soundtracks (as well as its original arcade soundtrack) at Brave Wave Music. Called Ninja Gaiden The Definitive Soundtrack Volumes 1 and 2, it offers brand new recordings with crisp, sharp audio for fans of chiptunes and the original soundtracks.
Ninja Gaiden The Definitive Soundtrack Volume 1 features fifty-nine tracks that encompass every song and sound from Ninja Gaiden for arcade and NES, covering the works of composers Keiji Yamagishi, Mikio Saito, and Ryuichi Nitta. Ninja Gaiden The Definitive Soundtrack Volume 2 offers a further fifty-nine tracks for Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos and Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Sword of Doom, covering the works of composers Ryuichi Nitta, Mayuko Okamura, Rika Shigeno, and Kaori Nakabai.
All of the game’s tracks and sounds have been digitally restored, rerecorded, and made to sound exactly as their composers originally intended, according to Brave Wave. They state that they wished to make the soundtracks “available exactly as intended by the composers originally and true to the original releases.”
These releases, which also mark the first time Ninja Gaiden III’s soundtrack has been available in any format anywhere, are available for streaming through Bandcamp and iTunes. CD copies are available for preorder through Bandcamp, and will be available on (or a little before) May 1, 2017.
A vinyl version, which will release on or before July 1, 2017, can be preordered through BigWax. This version will also feature an essay on the game, and an exclusive roundtable interview with developers and composers from the series.
