Lock On Soundtrack, Akihiko Mori, 1993
Using the SNES’s much-vaunted pseudo-3D capabilities for a combat flight simulator seems an obvious idea. Yet despite the popularity of After Burner-style games in the late 1980s and early 1990s, relatively few titles of this kind appeared on the system. One of them was the blandly titled Lock On – though admittedly the Japanese name, Super Air Diver, makes little more sense, even if it sounds more entertaining. For players who came to games after the SNES era, the easiest way to think of Copya System’s Lock On is perhaps as a simplified precursor to Ace Combat. Some of that simplification was inevitable, given the technical limits of Mode 7. But for many reviewers, the larger problem was the repetitive mission design, which distracted from the game’s fluid, fast-moving visuals.
Where Lock On shines most clearly is in the music, thanks to outstanding work from the young Akihiko Mori. Mori had been active as a game composer since 1990, though mostly on smaller and less rewarding assignments. His most prominent work up to that point had been providing the sound effects for Copya System’s Paladin’s Quest, scored by Kohei Tanaka. Lock On was easily the most high-profile project Mori had yet received as a composer, and throughout the soundtrack he sounds like an artist acutely aware that this could be his breakthrough. As it turned out, it was.
Mori scores Lock On with an invigorating blend of rock, jazz, electronic, and orchestral elements, fused with remarkable assurance. Stylistically, the soundtrack does not propose anything radically different from the template of 1980s adrenaline-driven cool established by After Burner, its many imitators, and of course Top Gun. What Mori delivers, however, is a far more colourful and complex take on those genre conventions, one that already points towards the distinctive style he would soon develop more fully. In that sense, Lock On is the first major statement of a highly individual musical voice.
“Mission 1” announces Mori’s high-flying ambitions straight away and to spectacular effect. Rising synth chords and pounding rock drums launch a galloping track with ample funk inflections – just listen to that beautifully agile, grooving bass. Even that would already be enough for a strong cue. But Mori goes much further, continually reworking the melodic material through triumphant brass fanfares, a freewheeling saxophone line, and a racing jazz-piano solo. As if this were not enough, deliberately distorted synth leads add an extra touch of tension to music already overflowing with energy. It is fusion rock at its finest: varied, exuberant, and unerringly fun.
Throughout the soundtrack, Mori uses this large instrumental palette to explore different aspects of the genre mixture he perfects here. “Mission 2” places greater emphasis on the jazzier side of the formula, both through its swing and through its impressive number of rhythm changes and breakdowns. At the same time, there is a head-banging rock force to both “Mission 2” and the soundtrack as a whole that keeps the music surging forward. There is never a dull moment on Lock On, because Mori continually introduces new melodies and sections into each cue.
None of these tracks are simple A/B constructions. Indeed, almost every piece here is densely orchestrated and packed with ideas. Listen to “Mission 4” and its competing saxophone and trumpet melodies, or turn to the utterly rousing “Special Mission 2”, where rising trumpet and saxophone countermelodies compete with synth motifs while additional synth lines dart beneath them. Mori clearly knows how to write complex music that never stands still, but at the same time he always prioritises memorable, substantial melodies over mere activity or ornamental busyness.
What is most impressive about Lock On is how convincingly it evokes the feeling of instrumental virtuosos jamming at full throttle. These players are unafraid to show off during lengthy solos, yet they are just as capable of holding the multi-faceted tracks together when the music settles into supremely tight grooves or into fast-moving call-and-response exchanges. One of the staff-roll credits reads “Music Player: MORImori Rock’n BAND”. Far from being a throwaway joke, it describes the soundtrack quite accurately. Very few SNES scores sound so much like the product of an actual live band as Lock On does.
Mori puts all of this – the boundless energy, the sprawling yet disciplined instrumentation – to excellent use as the soundtrack drives towards its conclusion. The score’s hard-rock tendencies become more pronounced in the second half. Though more straightforward, “Mission 5” carries a stirring urgency and force in its driving rhythms, even when the lead melody is assigned to solo harp. “Mission 6” grows heavier and more intense still, compensating for any loss of adventurous colour through the determination and catchiness of its shortened melodic figures. And then “Ending” arrives as an early sign of the orchestral achievements Mori would soon produce in earnest. Here he writes an unabashed pop ballad with genuine cinematic sweep, crowned by a tender flute solo lasting nearly a full minute. There is no doubt that the Lock On soundtrack announced the arrival of a major talent.
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