The Advantage - s/t

This is music for only the nerdliest of nerds. Do you like the soundtrack music from old Nintendo games like Mega Man 2 and Bubble Bobble? Have you ever wished you could own versions of these songs performed by a rock band? Allow me to welcome to the wild world of video game cover bands.

The Advantage (named after the NES Advantage, an arcade-style joystick for the NES) is one of only a handful of bands to devote themselves entirely to the performance of vintage video game music. What kind of market is there for such a thing? Much bigger than you'd expect. I bought it, if that tells you anything.

The downfall of The Advantage, and just about every other video game cover band out there, is neither the band's talent nor their ability to effectively mimic vintage video game tunes. They all just tend to have really poor production values. I don't know if this album was self-produced or just locally produced, but it sounds like it was recorded in someone's living room.

Despite the shortcomings in production, this is still a very enjoyable album, provided you are a huge nerd. I was especially appreciative of the Ghosts n' Goblins and Bubble Bobble covers on this album, but it was fun to not look at the track listing and try to guess which game the song came from. I was right most of the time, which is why I'm in the target market for this kind of music. Anyway, if you're a big ol' nerd, you might find yourself enjoying this album.