Army Men Revolution, Making Of, Microverse, Music

Making the Microverse, Part 5: That music sounds familiar…

June 25, 2024 Xhado Leave a comment

… So here we go with an in-depth study on the soundtracks of the Army Men franchise games…

Soundtracks are an indelible mark on a franchise’s identity. They are very important when creating a sequel video game to a franchise as established in collective knowledge as Army Men.

Sounds and Music Samples all around the globe!

Examples long used in the past like the introduction of “Stealth Frag” track of Quake 2, the first part was used in at least two FMV in Army Men games: in Sarge´s Heroes 1 or 2 and Sarge’s War. Listen the first part of Quake 2 “Stealth Frag” and some of those Sarge’s Heroes series.

Sonic Mayhem¿s Quaker 2 soundtrack “Stealth Frag”

Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes “Snow” Shrap mission CGI Cut scene

Army Men: Sarge’s Heroes 2 “Cashier” mission CGI Cut scene

The kitchen that brings back memories

Lot of this sounds came from “East West” sample CD’s like “Symphonic Adventures” & “Percussive Adventures”

East West – Symphonic Adventures

East West – Percussive Adventures

You can hear samples of these sounds throughout the Army Men productions after the first and second games, especially in the FMV CGI cut scenes animations, because they were all mostly produced by the same teams or because they used the same sound databases files.

Army Men (PC) & Army Men 3D

For the first Army Men, a few industrial soundtracks (among others) for film and TV by the Italian composers Armando Trovaioli (SIAE), Mario Nascimbene (SIAE) (likely among others) were used, such as the example below:

Strategy (410862) Armando Trovaioli (SIAE)

The following pieces from Armando Trovaioli’s-Mario Nascimbene “War / Danger” album were used for both Army Men and Army Men 3D

This 4 soundtracks are the same but remixed or just without some instruments, used in the first in-game soundtrack for PC’s Army Men Depot Run mission:

Night Attack (RCAL1010-4): Blaring brass and military snare drums followed by drop to distant timpani. Used in-game.
Marching Drums (RCAL1010-26): Snare drums. Medium tempo. Used in-game.
Dread (RCAL1010-27): Stacked chords of menacing brass. Suspenseful. Used in-game.
Unexpected Threat (RCAL1010-30) Menacing brass and snare drums. Used in-game.

Danger Ahead (RCAL1010-18): vObsessive theme in 5/4 time. Very agitated and intense. Featuring piano, brass, timpani, strings and xylophone. Fast tempo. Used in-game.
Mobilization (RCAL1010-24): Timpani intro, pounding percussion and horn fanfares make up military march. Used in-game.

This 4 soundtracks were used in the CGI Intro and Ending from both games, Army Men & Army Men 3D:

Choking (RCAL1010-21): Fast agitated theme with strings and brass. Used in the Green Plastic News intro.
Sunday Morning Goose Step (RCAL1010-23): Military marching band featuring bass drums, tubes and piccolos. Used in the Green Plastic News intro.
The Assault (RCAL1010-34): Violent then eerie dramatic theme featuring brass, bassoon, clarinet, strings and timpani. Medium tempo. Impending attack. Used in the Green Plastic News intro.
Strategy (RCAL1010-35): Forceful intro leading to action and then to standstill; featuring brass, strings and timpani. Medium tempo. Used in the Ending.

The album description from Universal Music Database is: “Music for action movie; soldier march with full orchestra; agitated and intense; military march.”

The menu music was “Larry’s Orchestral Adventure” from “Drama – Volumen 1” (Universal Production Music) Killer Tracks. Description of the track in the Universal Production Music website: “An abundance of colors and dynamics marching through a full orchestra.”

Larry’s Orchestral Adventure (KT34-7) from “Drama – Volumen 1” album – Universal Production Music “Killer Tracks”

Army Men 2

On the other hand, Army Men 2, for some reason, chose to use pieces of classical music (with expired copyright) composed in an electronic style, very similar to MIDI.

The final part of “William Tell Overture”, named “March of the Swiss Soldiers”

The “William Tell Overture” is a piece of music by Gioachino Rossini. He wrote it for his opera, William Tell. The opera was first performed in 1829. The overture has four sections: Dawn, Storm, Call to the Cows (often used in animated cartoons to signify daybreak) and the one used in the first Army Men 2 mission “Kitchen”, March of the Swiss Soldiers, famous for being the theme music for the “The Lone Ranger”.

Johann Strauss “The Blue Danube” AM2 version

“The Blue Danube” is the common English title of “An der schönen blauen Donau”, Op. 314 (German for “By the Beautiful Blue Danube”), a waltz by the Austrian composer Johann Strauss II, composed in 1866. Originally performed on 15 February 1867 at a concert of the Wiener Männergesang-Verein (Vienna Men’s Choral Association), it has been one of the most consistently popular pieces of music in the classical repertoire. Its initial performance was considered only a mild success, however, and Strauss is reputed to have said, “The devil take the waltz, my only regret is for the coda—I wish that had been a success!

L’apprenti sorcier (the Sorcerer’s Apprentice) by French composer Paul Dukas in 1897

L’apprenti sorcier (the Sorcerer’s Apprentice) is a symphonic poem by the French composer Paul Dukas composed in 1897 and based on the ballad of the same name by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

Army Men: Air Attack

Most of the soundtracks from Air Attack (1999) were recycled from the 3DO game Uprising: Join or Die (1997). Some of the soundtracks were also used in the Battletanx franchise (also from 3DO). In both cases reworked for the Nintendo 64 versions, whose storage limits did not allow the original soundtracks to be stored. In both cases maybe were modified slightly.

You can hear a few Air Attack soundtracks here…

Although Air Attack credits the composers Burke Trieschmann, Tommy Tallarico and Barry Blum, im Uprising: Join or Die appears to be an apparent studio called “D.I.M.”. Later investigations revealed, according to witnesses, that D.I.M. was a production studio located in New York City.

N64 Battletanx: Global Assault “Tower Over Londond”

Army Men: Air Attack 2

Megatrax samples:

Some Megatrax’s Movie Showcase Vol. 2 (13858) album samples were used for Army Men Air Attack 2, among other albums.

“Fists Of Fury” (MX048_15) John Dwyer, ASCAP – Ronald Mendelsohn, ASCAP
“Alien’s Revenge” (MX048_30) Jon Kull, ASCAP
“Delta Force” (MX048_43) Pamela Miller, ASCAP

Hip & Quirky Vol. 2 (Not confirmed on the Megatrax site, but by copyright claims).

“Hide and Sneak” (MX186_83) Randy Miller, BMI – Ruben Santiago, ASCAP
“Uno Dose” (MX186_40) Patrice Irving, ASCAP

Drama Plus Vol. 3

“Manhunt” (MX013_01) Jon Kull, ASCAP

Portal Runner

Always (Album Version) from the Rock band Halfcocked was the song from the menu of the game (very consistent with Vikki’s personality and the intention of the game).

Always · Halfcocked – Provided to YouTube by Universal Music Group

The initial animation of Portal Runner, like the rest of Cut Scenes from Army Men games, has pieces of varied musical samples, some of which we can even hear in other media today, and during that time, such as the introduction of the song GUMMY by BROCKHAMPTON, from the album SATURATION II (EMPIRE Distribution). As you can hear in the attached videos. It should be noted that on our YouTube channel we have received several copyright claims, as in this case, but Portal Runner was released in September 2001, and the GUMMY theme song was released in 2017.

Portal Runner Sep 2001 intro section wit the intro music

GUMMY song by BROCKHAMPTON (2017)

In any case, this is usually a common mistake on the part of YouTube and other social networks, since they are mostly managed by AI, and the history of sound and music samples business from more than 20 years ago, before the internet today and online business models, is very poorly documented and is very difficult to verify or even find out.