In this installment of Pixelated Audio, we're talking about Crisis Wing, a retro-styled 90s shmup that draws inspiration from many classic shooters. We're joined by Finnish one-man indie games developer and composer, Pauli, aka pieslice of Pieslice Productions (@PiesliceP). It's a modern take on all of your favorite retro shooters, with all of the tough bosses, bullet patterns, and FM music you can handle. Crisis Wing was released on Steam in 2020 and published for most major consoles (Switch, PS4/PS5, Xbox S|X) in 2021 by indie specialist publisher eastasiasoft.

We go through pretty much the entire soundtrack with pieslice and cover his unique twist on his inspirations, which range from PC game music, the demoscene and of course plenty of shmups like Gradius, Star Soldier, and the harder edged FM sound of Toaplan games like Out Zone and Zero Wing. We talk about composition as well as indie game development challenges and more. If you like the game and music of Crisis Wing, stay tuned as Pieslice Productions has got a late 90s shmup (and music) in the works! As always, we hope you enjoy the music.

All tracks composed by pieslice unless otherwise stated

Track List:

0:00:00 Introduction

0:00:27 URF! (Level 1 BGM)

0:08:54 Low Orbit (Level 2 BGM)

0:17:12 Gratify (Level 3 BGM)

0:20:51 Boss

0:27:04 M.S.D (Level 4 BGM)

0:30:45 Sally (Level 5 BGM)

0:37:32 Unpleasant (Level 6 BGM)

0:41:05 Tailwind (Level 7 BGM)

0:46:40 Boss Rush

0:50:37 Last Boss

0:53:27 Caravan - arranged by pieslice

Based on the mod file below

0:55:32 "Shoot" by Maniac (excerpt from original mod file)

0:57:21 Sound Test

1:07:16 High Scores - arranged by pieslice

Based on the mod file "Love is Hard" by unknown composer