Boy, do these game tunes bring back memories...

How's this for a silly, game-related tidbit that's likely to shock at least a few of you: back when I was a junior or senior in high school, I was completely obsessed with the Saturn version of Sega's Daytona USA.

I suggest that may surprise some of you because I'm hardly known for my love of racing games. In fact, the only examples of the genre I've ever given much attention here are F-Zero and Super Mario Kart, if memory serves. (Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.)

At any rate, I became more than a bit smitten with Daytona USA after picking it up on a whim during my days as a Saturn owner.

That game's slick, exhilarating gameplay obviously had a little something to do with my aforementioned infatuation, but there were other instigators, too--with its energetic, effervescent soundtrack being a particularly noteworthy case in point.



I bring up all of this because I've had one of Daytona USA's songs ("Sky High," listen to it by clicking on the video above) stuck in my head for the last few days.

Also, reminiscing about the Daytona USA period of my life--and the hold a number of its ditties had on me at that time--prompted me to think about some of the other "game tunes" from my youth that left similar marks on my memory.

For example, there's the "Map Theme" from Yoshi's Island:



I remember humming that one on the regular while I obsessively worked my way through the pastel-filled platformer that has since become one of my all-time favorite games.

Day-eee-tooooo-naaaaaaaaaa! Let's go away!!

Stay away from my house around Oct. 26 unless you want to hear some absolutely horrible renditions (courtesy of moi) of Takenobu Mitsuyoshi's "Let's Go Away," "Rolling Start" and "Sky High."

All of those songs are sure to be blaring from our basement windows that week thanks to the XBLA release of Sega's Daytona USA. (This "enhanced port" of the company's arcade classic from 1993 will hit the PlayStation Network the day before, on Oct. 25.)



I  played the hell out of the rather hideous-looking Saturn version of Daytona USA back in the day, so I can only imagine how much I'll enjoy this gorgeously high-def update of the game.

The question is: How much time will I spend playing the title's arcade, time trial and (online) multiplayer modes, and how much time will I spend playing with its karaoke mode?