is the "house band" of Japanese

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

and publisher

Taito is a Japanese company that specializes in video games, toys, arcade cabinets and game centers, based in Shinjuku, Tokyo. The company was founded by Michael Kogan in 1953 as the importing vodka, vending machines and jukeboxes into Japan. It b ...

. The band consists of sound director Katsuhisa Ishikawa, bassists Yu Shimoda and Shohei Tsuchiya, and drummer Masaki Mori. Zuntata is Taito's core sound department, and has become the collective name for the company's other sound production teams. The band has contributed to many of the company's franchises, including '' Darius'', ''

Groove Coaster The ''Groove Coaster'' series is an iOS / Android and arcade rhythm game franchise developed by Matrix Software and published by Taito. The first ''Groove Coaster'' was released for iOS on July 28, 2011. This rhythm game follows a ro ...

'', ''

Arkanoid is a 1986 block breaker arcade game developed and published by Taito. In North America, it was published by Romstar. Controlling a paddle-like craft known as the Vaus, the player is tasked with clearing a formation of colorful blocks by deflect ...

'', and ''

Space Invaders is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and set ...

''. Zuntata's origins can be traced back to 1983, the year Taito established its sound division. The Zuntata name was employed in 1988, first used for the soundtrack for '' The Ninja Warriors''. Zuntata's music was originally published by

Pony Canyon , also known by the shorthand form , is a Japanese mass media publishing company founded on October 1, 1966. The company publishes mainly physical home media on compact discs, including music, films and TV shows and video games. It is affiliate ...

, before these operations were moved in-house. Zuntata worked on several Taito arcade games, namely

shoot 'em ups Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...

and

rhythm games Rhythm game or rhythm action is a genre of music-themed action video game that challenges a player's sense of rhythm. Games in the genre typically focus on dance or the simulated performance of musical instruments, and require players to press ...

. The band also assisted in production of the X2000, a Taito-developed

karaoke machine Karaoke (; ; , clipped compound of Japanese ''kara'' "empty" and ''ōkesutora'' "orchestra") is a type of interactive entertainment usually offered in clubs and bars, where people sing along to recorded music using a microphone. The music is ...

. After Taito was acquired by

Square Enix is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational holding company, production enterprise and entertainment conglomerate, best known for its ''Final Fantasy'', ''Dragon Quest'', ''Star Ocean'' and ''Kingdom Hearts'' role-playing video game ...

in 2005, many of the band's members departed due to creative differences between them and executives, as Taito was shrinking its operations into becoming more of a game publisher and owner of video arcades. Zuntata continues to produce music for Taito video games, working primarily on the ''Groove Coaster'' series. The band's music, a combination of abstract and

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

, has gotten attention from video game publications for its bizarre nature and strangeness. Both the band and its members have received awards, and its music has been published many times through albums and digital music storefronts such as

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

and

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

Notes

References

External links

Zuntata official siteBetta Flash official siteArtist profile
at

OverClocked ReMix OverClocked ReMix, also known as OC ReMix and OCR, is a non-commercial organization dedicated to preserving and paying tribute to video game music through arranging and re-interpreting the songs, both with new technology and software and by vari ...

* Instrumental rock musical groups Japanese house music groups Japanese instrumental musical groups Japanese progressive rock groups Musical groups from Tokyo Square Enix people Taito people Video game composers Video game musicians {{videogame-musician-stub