Search and Destroy; Video Game Soundtracks

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A thought stumbled on from the OK Computer thread. Electronic spaciness always seems to remind me of my old Maga Drive games, though I can never place a tune. Though my brother mp3's me a Mario tune and the subtlety and the detail of it were astonishing. Why do these soundtracks not get the same coverage of cinema? (Note; we ignore the Cardigans)

― matthew james, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

if I am not mistaken Lords Of Acid made some music for Mortal Kombat. Could be wrong but if they did, I wonder if they also included vocals. Check their contribution to Basic Instinct (dance-floor rubba rubba scene). Oo la la.

― Stevie Nixed, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

They're all online. http://www.kohina.com I'd go for the C64 stuff, circa 85, in particular Rob Hubbard

― K-reg, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

One of my favourite bits of music a few years ago, from any source, was the soundtrack to LucasArts' game Grim Fandango, which used a lot of themes from traditional Mexican music. Of course, this tied in well with the game itself, which had gorgeous graphics and an amusing plotline in which you played Manny Calavera, a travel agent in the land of the Dead, arranging the final travel package for your clients. A few of the songs can be downloaded in MP3 format from the official game page.

― Sean Carruthers, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

http://www.micromusic.net is a very valuable source of video game inspired musics.. worth checking ..

― jk, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

people who are into videogame music are usually the same people who are into hentai porn. i think it's a weird side-effect of being in an enviroment so long that one adopts the aesthetics given by the enviroment which is, in this case, awful videogames. there has never been a videogame with good music except a couple songs on the wipeout series for the playstation (and i mean, like three songs out of a hundred or so) and those skater games that throw in a couple hierglyphics tracks with all the shitty california pop- punk. some of the 80s blippy stuff is sort of nice, but once the sound technology got better they switched to awful lite-techno and world music that gets eaten up by the fans of the game as some of the most beautiful music ever made (see: final fantasy dorks). i always turn off the sound and listen to my own music anyway.

― ethan, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

In which case you're cheating, Ethan. (And don't be so judgmental abt why people like difft types of porn to you...)

The original tune to the original Tetris — is this a Videogame? — was the Russian National Anthem. It was nice.

And the original tune to Space Junkie...

These are both one-note Casio-type works, mind.

― mark s, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i'm not being judgemental about people who like goddamned anime porn, i'm just saying that it seems the reason they like it is because they immerse themselves in the enviroment so much they adopt the social standards of that enviroment, which seems the same for videogame soundtrack people. only videogame music could concievably hold it's own with 'real' music while cartoon women cannot in any way compare to actual women except in the minds of deep fetishists. i was just making an argument for the aggravated (um, meaning advanced, not irritated or annoyed) pop culture consumer accepting what i consider lower standards of work connected to a medium that is arguably superior. i think street fighter is the greatest videogame in the field, but i don't want a fucking cd of music from the game. 'ghost in the shell' is one of the greatest anime films i've seen, but i don't want to have sex with any of the animation cels. that's all i was saying.

(i know this is a fairly rigid definition of sexuality and pornography, but i'm making a point. no offense to any weird hentai fans.)

― ethan, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Just to make sure we're not having a definition mismatch here when we're talking about "video game music": I assumed going into this that it was wide open, thus my comments on the short but reasonably full-formed pieces accompanying Grim Fandango (not electronic blips, but actual CD audio included with the game). Same goes for the music accompanying the PC version of Quake II, which is actual material provided by some industrial metal combo (some say Nine Inch Nails, but I don't buy it). I don't see any reason why people shouldn't be interested in having CDs of that kind of thing, necessarily, if it's done well enough. Or are we limiting this discussion to blip/bleep Playstation-style MIDI soundtrack music?

― Sean Carruthers, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Serious video game music enthusiasts, meaning the ones who buy both the orchestral and techno remixed versions of Xenogears Ultra Gaiden, or whatever, seem to invariably be big fans of Moxy Fruvous. Is this a coincedence, or is there a more sinister connection?

― Chris H., Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Actual women", Ethan?

Do I get to rest my case yet?

The answer to "Why Not the Props Given to Movie Soundtracks?" might be this. Tetris and Space Junkie: I can sort of do OK-ish — I mean, who's checking, but I still bother playing them now and then. Both were free. I'm not going to spend a cent on some game I know I'll be low- end lousy at. So (obviously) I never get to hear the music just incidentally, and deeply resent the idea that it might actually be pretty good, and refuse to believe anyone that claims it is.

― mark s, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Playstation soundtracks are likely to be at least as full-formed as their PC counterparts, as both usually play pre-recorded songs from the CD. I don't know if I've ever played a Playstation game that used a midi soundtrack, though some are bad enough that it would be hard to tell the difference.

― Chris H., Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Okay. As you can tell, I don't play console games all that much, because they generally tend to be of a different ilk than the kind on PC that I seem to be interested in. Which may partially explain the seeming difference in the music itself.

― Sean Carruthers, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i know it was a cute moment and all but does singling out my usage of the term 'actual women' really mean anyway? surely you could not argue for the preference of cartoon women in any way, though i'd love to see anyone try. unless i'm missing some larger point here.

― ethan, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ever seen those pixel-breasts bounce after a video-game girl kicks someone off a building? Moments that perfect don't occur in real life with flesh women. The squeaky little mice voices are also nice.

― Chris H., Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Real" music vs what? "Actual" women vs what?

Porn isn't actual people, it's PICTURES of people — pictures in various conventions (photo-realist, anime, woodcuts, videostream). ALL the music discussed above is real music. What other kind is there? What would FAKE music be?

Turned on by a centrefold = normal? Why? Turned on by hentai = pervy? Why? Can only like [insert name of manky videogame choon here] as has never heard a proper record? Why? I still think you were being judgmental: as in, they know no better, poor lambs.

― mark s, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"What would FAKE music be?"

[Can he repost fast enough to point out that he too is sorely tempted to answer this, and wreck his argument...?]

― mark s, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i'm not saying that only realistic art can be erotic, but the the hentai market is purely pandering to a tasteless subgenre. and i wasn't only referring to the style (although that's quite disturbing on many fronts, including definite implications of pedophilia) but as anyone who's been unlucky enough to stumble upon it, the execution is often in violent rape fantasies and sadistic master-slave domination. from a purely subjective level, that's a bad thing.

as for the music thing, please don't trot out the pathetic 'real music? all music is real music!' argument because nobody even mentioned 'real music'. it's just that, as a rule, videogame music seems formulaic, soulless and boring to me. note how i did not say that it all was, or that it cannot transcend that, but you can't dispute that the only people buying videogame soundtracks are fanatics of the videogame in question. there's absolutely no crossover market as there often is in the film soundtrack field. and for the film comparison, when the genre produces a nino rota or hermann or morricone, i'll check it out.

― ethan, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"i'm not being judgemental about people who like goddamned anime porn... only videogame music could concievably hold it's own with 'real' music while cartoon women cannot in any way compare to actual women except in the minds of deep fetishists."

So (unless you're making a distinction between "real music" and "'real' music") can I rest my case yet?

― mark s, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i dare anyone to seek out the .midi for the first act, first level of ninja gaiden and say that it doesn't rock.

― Jake Becker, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

oh, come on, i think the quotes show i was clearly expressing contempt for the entire notion of 'real' music.

it's like if i said "while not as respected as much as 'great' acts like crazytown, videogame music is still pretty good" and you countered with "you think crazytown is great?". this argument is ridiculous.

― ethan, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

KERNKRAFT 400 not only sounded just like a video game but was ripped off directly from one. I seem to remember that "Zombie Nation" got their asses sued off? That is not a porn reference.

oh, btw: Tenchu has got some great music.

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

If you'd responded to my initial (totally feeble) tease with a robust (and, more to the point, truthful) "Of course I'm being goddamned judgmental — and what's wrong with that!?!", then you wouldn't have got yourself so all tangled up. Since the weapons for me to win Round Two as well lie even MORE evidently twinkling in among yr this-is- silly admission, I'll stop here.

― mark s, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

and to think i just figured your half- hearted arguments were because you were defending aberrant pornography purely out of habit.

― ethan, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I love computer game music. I wasted most of my late childhood/early teenage years playing the damn things, so perhaps its not so much 'love' as 'have most game tunes burned into my brain forever'. Some particular favourites: Batman (movie game) - Spectrum Target Renegade - Spectrum Monkey Island 1 & 2 - PC Road Rash - Megadrive (Genesis) Castlevania IV - SNES (Super Famicom), especially the intro music Aliens Vs Predator - PC Blade Runner - PC - actually this is a bit of a cheat, as the music's all from the film There are loads more, but I'll stop here before you all doze off.

― DG, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh, and didn't Trent Reznor do the music for the *first* Quake game?

― DG, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Reznor was definitely commissioned to do the sound effects for the first Quake, yes. Actually just bopped my Quake II CD into a CDDB- enabled player and the music is coming up under the artist Sonic Mayhem, who I know did Quake III.

This also brings to mind another similar game, Deus Ex, which had spooky ambient music that might be good under other circumstances as well. It also reminds me that my favourite music to play Doom to (back before soundtracks for video games sounded so good) was Lustmord's Heresy.

― Sean Carruthers, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I thought that Zelda: A Link To The Past had an exceptionally pretty sndtrk.

Playing Quake in a dark room with surround sound... frightening.

― JM, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Tenuously related to Deus Ex, there was some old Spectrum game called Deus Ex Machina which had something to do with the soundtrack not being music but instead being some spoken word thing involving Frankie Howerd, Jon Pertwee and some others...are there any old skool nerds about who know anything about this?

― DG, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hell, I'll defend aberrant pornography. I imagine it'll get me less flamed than for defending Radiohead. Disgusting porn is some funny shit, isn't it? Ever see Naked City cover art? Ha ha ha. What? Offensive to women? Oh, yeah, I guess. OK forget I said anything.

― Dave M., Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

nothing to say about videogame music other than that 16-bit was my favorite. hentai is not erotic for me..lets move on to necrophilia and beastiality..or scat. anyway..people like this stuff. sorry....i give up.

― Kevin Enas, Tuesday, 8 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

some more recent soundtracks have been absoloutley incredible. Like Shenmue and MSR on the Dreamcast. Shenmue is a bit pretensious and thinks itself quite the motion picture. So it has a very grand but at the same time very atmospheric and subtle. MSR "radio stations" in each city playing hilarious stereotypical songs. For example in london there is some awful embrace style song (its so bad my bro actually thought it was a real band!)

― Nick Greenfield, Wednesday, 9 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yes, I thought it really was Embrace. Anyway Nicholas, isn't it time you were off to school?

― DG, Wednesday, 9 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

They don't get the same coverage as cinema soundtracks because the music is neither strong enough on it's own nor commercial enough, sure there's fringe interest, but gamers lack the consensus of taste to guarantee sales. As our computers gradually become more powerful, and designers sophisticated enough to integrate sound and visuals as they do in cinema we'll see music released, (no doubt filed in the video-orientated-singles section). Right now music in games is still subordinate to FX, detatched from our immediate attention. I'm aware how much music has been been brought into games but however ingeniously music's weaved into the game, the effect is the same, it's background. When the games become inextricable from music, more reliant on sound, and create narratives as dense as cinema or theatre, they'll earn their due artistic credibility. Or if music manages to develop a function other mediums cannot: harness the net's capacity, or produce engaging generative software.

― K-reg, Wednesday, 9 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Influence of Space Invaders on early-Warp sound not te be underestimated. What a joy it was to enter an arcade hall in the early to mid 80s and be greeted by these wonderful sounds and melodies.

old skool favorite's on C64: Forbidden Forrest, Monty on the Run and some Ninja game i forgot the title of.

new skool favorite: What better way to start of a game of footie than a blast of Fatboy Slim's 'Rockafella Skank' (as featured in Fifa 99, 46545647474 matches played and counting).

― Omar, Wednesday, 9 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

wait a minute, warp is influenced by videogame noises? how long has this been going on?

― ethan, Wednesday, 9 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

errr...11 years? ;)

― Omar, Wednesday, 9 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ah, Deus Ex Machina, an early example of the "multimedia" experience. 'Twas wank and no mistake. It was masterminded by then computer journo Mel Crouther (correct spelling)

Lots of Rob Hubbard, and to a lesser extent Martin Galway, tracks were very experimental sounding, with a good melody, and sounded unlike anything else. This is especially true in the peak time 1987/88ish. I hear the influence of these two geniuses quite often - although I may be making associations that aren't actually there.

Although I don't play many computer games these days apart from the odd Nintendo game I don't like the soundtracks as much. I think this is partly because as soundchips have got cheaper and more "realistic" a lot of computer musicians find it easier to resort to cliché instead of creating new types of arrangement to fit new sounds. I'd like to be proved wrong though, I don't really listen to much - In recent years I've enjoyed the music from Tekken II and Tetrisphere though.

I don't like Hentai though.

― Chewshabadoo, Wednesday, 9 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It's almost always been about the Wipeout soundtracks for me, especially Wipeout XL. The cinematic soundtracks never really did anything for me.

Having said that, Super Mario Brothers rocks the booty, especially the dubby underground music.

― Dan Perry, Wednesday, 9 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Search: the ghostly music in Pokemon Blue in the town with the haunted tower, and the "Ballad of the Wind Fish" in Zelda.

― james e l, Wednesday, 9 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Yeah, I remember playing Zelda 64 for a whole night with a friend as we (yawn I know, but it was the season) did some mushrooms and I remember all the music from that sounding absolutely fantastic, but I haven't heard the music since: always a good idea before passing judgement on something. I might have to see if I can borrow it. I do remember that you could play tunes on the ocarina (sic?) and I seemed to spend hours doing so.

― Chewshabadoo, Wednesday, 9 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Mel Crouther...hmm...didn't he have something to do with the ill- fated SAM coupe? And are we talking about specially composed game soundtracks? Liking the Wipeout soundtracks is cheating.

― DG, Wednesday, 9 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

the music for the first "quake" done by trent reznor is great. I've listened to the CD a lot. The opening theme r0x0rs, and the rest of it is genuinely creepy in places. I've got quake expansion discs with music by other artists which are also good - one of them is like medieval heavy metal, and one is like techno/prog rock. All are quite listenable in a semi-ambient context. OTOH, the soundtrack to "quake2" (IIRC by rob zombie) works well with the game (if U turn it up really loud) but is rather boring in isolation. I had a go on "half life" at a friend's place, and that sounded quite interesting - sinister hawkwindish space bubbles - but my computer isn't fast enough to run it. That little theme from "tomb raider" was quite nice, in a new-age-ish way too....

I have no idea what "hentai pr0n" is, BTW. I don't feel like finding out, either!

x0x0

― norman fay, Thursday, 10 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

d00d, your computer sux0rs. Half-Life was excellent (and I'm surprised I didn't mention it earlier in the thread), because it takes a pretty basic genre--the first person shooter--and then twists it into something very different from the competition. I'm sure you know the basic gist if you started it, but for those who don't: there's an accident at the top secret lab you work at, a rift in space is accidentally opened, and hostile aliens start pouring out; meanwhile, the government puts a lockdown on your facility and decides to erase the evidence, including YOU. Befitting such a story, the music accompanying the game is pretty creepy and spacy at points, and a great fit with the story. By itself, it's not so great probably. If there was even an excuse to upgrade a PC, Half-Life may be it (and the side benefit is that you could probably play Deus Ex then, too).

― Sean Carruthers, Thursday, 10 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Half-Life? The music is well and truly switched off for that game.

― DG, Friday, 11 May 2001 00:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

one year passes...

I agree that people who are exclusively into game music are very
strange - but there's a lot of great stuff mixed in with the chaff.
Dig the soundtracks too:

Ecco The Dolphin (astoundingly beautiful)
Loom (some of this is an obscure classical piece that I've
never identified; anyone?)
Toejam & Earl
Road Rash 2

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Monday, 31 March 2003 05:58 (twenty-one years ago) link

Make that "Ecco: The Tides Of Time"
as if anyone cared.

― Squirrel_Police (Squirrel_Police), Monday, 31 March 2003 06:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

M4RBL3 M4DN3SS 0wNz u fuXoRz!!!(#U#%*%

― geeta (geeta), Monday, 31 March 2003 06:10 (twenty-one years ago) link

Haha, Ethan back before he realized that being a prodigy in rhetoric isn't always a free pass to be a complete dick all the time.

No one has mentioned Mega Man 2 yet.

― Dan I. (Dan I.), Monday, 31 March 2003 07:53 (twenty-one years ago) link

i'd just like to say that Chris Huelsbeck's music for the Turrican games is the best game music ever made for an Amiga title - you can download a lot of it from the Turrican fan sites too - search Google

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 31 March 2003 09:41 (twenty-one years ago) link

the ethan vs mark s debate on the merits of video game music is one of the best things I've ever seen on ilx.

― Justyn Dillingham (Justyn Dillingham), Monday, 31 March 2003 10:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

Old Skool computer game music is a great nostalgia thing, and a useful thing to sample and appropriate into something new. Doing something in the style of 8-bit bleeps is quite evocative for people of a certain age.

However, with any new games the first thing I do is turn off the music. Worst offenders are definitely any Command and Conquer game.

― Lynskey (Lynskey), Monday, 31 March 2003 11:07 (twenty-one years ago) link

Search: Rez, the soundtrack of which is woven into the game to a very deep extent. The manner of your attacks affects the percussion that's added to the tracks, for example. Plus it's a complete psychedelic headfuck in terms of looks.

― Hayden Nicholls (Pop the Weasel), Monday, 31 March 2003 11:16 (twenty-one years ago) link

Search: anything on the C64, even the bad ones. Esp. Martin Walker, Martin Galway an David Whittaker.

Destroy: almost anything streamed from CD. We do not want to be cinema. We are better than that!

― mei (mei), Monday, 31 March 2003 11:18 (twenty-one years ago) link

Geeta is COMPLETELY right about Marble Madness.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 31 March 2003 12:15 (twenty-one years ago) link

Tekken 2 had great themes for each character - i liked Yoshimitus's best

― stevem (blueski), Monday, 31 March 2003 12:22 (twenty-one years ago) link

On people who only listen to videogame music: Yeah, it's a bit strange but isn't this really a symptom of these people not being very into music but instead being major collectors who buy everything related to their favorite games? (i.e. all those Final Fantasy soundtracks) I get the feeling these things are snatched up more for the pretty artwork than anything.

Search: the Castlevania games had some great tunes. Also, Dr. Mario - "Chill".

― original bgm, Monday, 31 March 2003 12:32 (twenty-one years ago) link

Also, Ico on the ps2 has some nice and subtle ambient music. The save music sounded like Boards of Canada too.

― original bgm, Monday, 31 March 2003 12:34 (twenty-one years ago) link

Search: Chrono Trigger

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 31 March 2003 18:23 (twenty-one years ago) link

Seacrh the overnight sleeping music on _any_ RPG.

Does that count as a sub-micro-genre ?

― mei (mei), Monday, 31 March 2003 18:24 (twenty-one years ago) link

HELL YES, a site with MIDI files of videogame soundtracks, including MARBLE MADNESS. The site owner takes requests!

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 31 March 2003 20:19 (twenty-one years ago) link

rock!!

― geeta, Monday, 31 March 2003 22:37 (twenty-one years ago) link

Dan, check out http://www.vgmusic.com/ - over 14,000 MIDI files of video game music

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Monday, 31 March 2003 22:39 (twenty-one years ago) link

WHY WAS I NOT INFORMED?

― mitch lastnamewithheld (mitchlnw), Wednesday, 2 April 2003 16:57 (twenty-one years ago) link

M.U.L.E.!!! Circa 1982 Commodore brilliance!!

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Wednesday, 2 April 2003 17:02 (twenty-one years ago) link

Meh. They don't want you to hyperlink... http://www.vgmusic.com/music/computer/commodore/commodore/index-gr.html

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Wednesday, 2 April 2003 17:03 (twenty-one years ago) link

I think Orbital's "P.E.T.R.O.L" was originally made for some car video game soundtrack, and I certainly love that track.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 2 April 2003 17:06 (twenty-one years ago) link

Besides, there are of course all those classic C-64 tunes by Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway, Ben Dalglish and Mark Cooksey. Lots of great stuff there.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 2 April 2003 17:08 (twenty-one years ago) link

seven months pass...

The Espantoso channel in GTA: Vice City is great.

― dleone (dleone), Monday, 10 November 2003 19:28 (twenty years ago) link

I always loved the music they played on the underground levels in Mario 2. That would have been one of the coolest hip hop beats ever.

― Johnny Badlees (crispssssss), Monday, 10 November 2003 23:54 (twenty years ago) link

PARAPPA THE RAPPA!!!

― gygax! (gygax!), Tuesday, 11 November 2003 00:09 (twenty years ago) link

three years pass...

search:
Koji Kondo - Legend of Zelda series (original's main theme / Ocarina of Time's dungeon themes), Super Mario series
Hip Tanaka - Kid Icarus, Metroid (arranged cassette with both titles is tops)
Yuzo Koshiro - Streets of Rage, Shinobi series
Michiru Yamane - Castlevania series (especially Symphony of the Night)
Nathan McCree - Tomb Raider
Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy 7
Noriyuki Asakura - Tenchu
Masashi Hamauzu - Saga Frontier 2 (good album of piano arrangements, too)
Zuntata group - G Darius, Darius Gaiden, Rayforce
Hitoshi Sakimoto - Final Fantasy Tactics, Gradius V
Koichi Sugiyama - Dragon Quest 8 (orchestrated version, especially "Marching Through the Fields")
Jet Set Radio - a good licensed soundtrack
+whoever did Mega Man 3

Think that covers it!

― lrsn (larssen), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 09:53 (seventeen years ago) link

Dragon Quest 8 has a lot of songs that sound like drive-in intermission music

― a.b. (alanbanana), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 13:24 (seventeen years ago) link

Think that covers it!

Yasunori Mitsuda wept.

― Curt1s St3ph3ns, Wednesday, 10 January 2007 21:06 (seventeen years ago) link

i thought bully had a really nice, low-key score that didn't seem to get much notice.

― M@tt He1geson: Sassy and I Don't Care Who Knows It (Matt Helgeson), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 21:48 (seventeen years ago) link

Katamari, the original and sequel.

ESPECIALLY the original.

― Zachary Scott (Zach S), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 23:47 (seventeen years ago) link

LONELY ROLLING STAR!

― jimn (jimnaseum), Wednesday, 10 January 2007 23:49 (seventeen years ago) link

lrsn said it best...

Search: Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy 7

the mgs soundtrack was awsome too

yah and that jet set radio soundtrack had cibo matto if i remember right

― Chris Grasinger (gman59), Thursday, 11 January 2007 16:20 (seventeen years ago) link

two months pass...

http://wizardishungry.com/blog/archive/thirty_four_minutes_of_classic_nintendo_music

― Catsupppppppppppppp dude ‫茄蕃‪, Thursday, 5 April 2007 17:28 (seventeen years ago) link

three months pass...

The India theme by Kazuo Sawa for Super Dodgeball on the NES is really bangin'

― gigabytepicnic, Sunday, 29 July 2007 09:30 (sixteen years ago) link

Both of the new Vanillaware games (Odin Sphere and GrimGrimoire) have some pretty nice stuff. Especially the vocal theme to Odin during the character intros after you let the title screen sit for a minute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nb_veLl4k0w

― marmotwolof, Sunday, 29 July 2007 10:27 (sixteen years ago) link

People who buy Final Fantasy soundtracks scare me.

― HI DERE, Sunday, 29 July 2007 15:04 (sixteen years ago) link

otm

― latebloomer, Sunday, 29 July 2007 15:16 (sixteen years ago) link

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/nobuo_uematsu/final_fantasy_vii/
Ranked #7 for 1997 , #403 overall
vote this album down

― abanana, Sunday, 29 July 2007 16:11 (sixteen years ago) link

Dan, I went to see Final Fantasy music played by a symphony orchestra.

― Curt1s Stephens, Sunday, 29 July 2007 16:39 (sixteen years ago) link

Wow! I'm sure there wasn't a dry eye in the house, especially when they got to "Tifa's Theme". I'm assuming there's a track called "Tifa's Theme".

I second Ninja Gaiden (original NES version), all levels, especially the music that plays during the cutscenes, which is later developed into a full theme on the 4th or 5th level.

― Z S, Sunday, 29 July 2007 16:43 (sixteen years ago) link

Dan, I went to see Final Fantasy music played by a symphony orchestra.

:-0

― HI DERE, Sunday, 29 July 2007 18:25 (sixteen years ago) link

you haven't lived till you've seen "One-Winged Angel" performed by a scowling choir

― Curt1s Stephens, Sunday, 29 July 2007 18:30 (sixteen years ago) link

six years pass...

woah

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UPBzEXLXO4P6MUHsvzvlzcshtknUMJi2X9bluDd5kLs/edit?pli=1

― Raptain Chillips (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Wednesday, 9 April 2014 14:38 (ten years ago) link

The new Tempest has a pretty great soundtrack:

http://txk-ost.bandcamp.com/

What do you guys think?

― afriendlypioneer, Tuesday, 22 April 2014 14:54 (nine years ago) link

xpost whoa indeed!

since my interest in vg music comes mostly out of my interest in film music and I barely actually play any games I don't keep as abreast as I would like, but I've become a fan of Austin Wintory-- especially Journey and the Journey Bonus album but also his awesome viking chamber doom music for Banner Saga. Also love Daniel Pemberton's stuff for Little Big Planet (as I'm sure anyone who's played that game does).

― hundreds-swarm-dinkytown (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 22 April 2014 15:23 (nine years ago) link

anyone know of anything that sounds like the original Katamari soundtrack? what a wonderful and bizarre album that is.

― frogbs, Tuesday, 22 April 2014 16:20 (nine years ago) link

Nothing sounds like the first Katamari. Maybe Hiyohiko Senba and his Haniwa All Stars but not really.

Austin Wintory, first composer to get a Grammy nomination for a video game soundtrack: http://www.joystiq.com/2013/02/11/journey-soundtrack-loses-grammy-to-girl-with-the-dragon-tattoo/

The way his scores work in tandem with the sound effects of the games, especially Flow & Journey, are very very impressive. The scores by themselves are a lot more new agey / traditionally cinematic. I converted three mp3's from youtube game captures of Flow, and man are they ever disorienting.

Journey is the first video game I actually picked up the controller for and played through since Katamari.

― Milton Parker, Tuesday, 22 April 2014 17:17 (nine years ago) link

I actually like the 'journey bonus bundle' album more than the proper journey OST

― Khamma chameleon (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, 22 April 2014 18:51 (nine years ago) link

one year passes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmDswbrjw8

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 19 November 2015 02:56 (eight years ago) link

oops that doesnt have the song i was thinking of. its at 12 second in here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehRqTODI0YU

― AdamVania (Adam Bruneau), Thursday, 19 November 2015 02:59 (eight years ago) link

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