Video game music

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wulfenlord
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Video game music

Post by wulfenlord » Sat Aug 07, 2021 6:36 pm

Around 2016-2017, to humour myself and some former work buddies, I compiled a list of my top 40 gaming franchises of which I think have the best soundtracks or one-off pieces or all-around talented composers.

Why Top 40? Because I want to go 30 steps beyond hurr durr.

But in reality this list is without a top/bottom tier, and furthermore I wasn't really after reviewing the artistic merit of the compositions (because they are all brilliant in their own right), my goal was to unearth something about the gaming franchises, or what the composers did afterwards (or at the very least find out who they are, looking at you @Droiyan!)

- my only 2 rules where that I wanted to switch up the game release year each episode, and that I restrict myself to only one game per franchise. And yes, as you can see in ep. 2, I was feeling inspired by the french frog Benzaie, because he was the only reviewer portraying this niche, plus you didn't see his face nor hear his voice in the vids.

1 SimCity - SNES
a port from 1991, my personal favorite is the "Village theme" from female composer Soyo Oka (also known for her work on PilotWings, Super Mario Kart and the Arrangement of Super Mario All-Stars, originally by Koji Kondo)


2 Harlequin - Atari/Commodore
released '92 for the Atari ST & Amiga, we get to listen to the opulent intro from Scotsman Barry Leitch (who will grace this series again, later). Producer Gremlin Graphics was later involved in the aquisition-incest including DMA & Infogrames. But in the aftermath the main guys recently acquired the rights to their own games back. The game lived from its phenomenal soundtrack, like many others who had nothing else going for them (Nights into Dreams has more than one parallel).



3 Bomberman '94 / Mega Bomberman - Genesis

originally from 1993 for the PC Engine exclusive to Japan - here we'll experience the SEGA Genesis version made shortly after, developed by Westone Bit for Hudson (Westone mainly got popular with Wonderboy). The energetic Multiplayer-Theme has always been my fave. Done by female composer Jun Chikuma, who is responsible for nearly all early Bomberman titles, and also Faxanadu.


4 The Smurfs - NES
this franco-belgian (frustrating) gem is, like Asterix, Spirou & Tin Tin, done by the frogs from Infogrames, who later went on to incorporate the corpse of "Atari Games". For this (and also the aforementioned titles) they found a talented young composer, who was never formally trained, but you just sense that he was inspired by classic C64 tunes. The guy in question: Alberto José González Pedraza - mainly known, as said before, for those comic titles, and also the music for the Turok Game Boy ports.
Now listen to the atmosphere that oozes from: "The Swamps".


5 Seiken Densetsu 3 (yes, I think it's better than Secret of Mana, deal w/ it :3 )
Outside of Japan we had to do without "Secret of Mana 2" for long years, now known as Trials of Mana. My first, and I guess many first experiences came from emulating this in th late 90's. Reprising his role as main composer of the first title, Hiroki Kikuta made the brilliant boss theme ''Nuclear Fusion'' - and no, I did not yet get to play the remake of Trials, because damn those greedy japs of Squeenix won't give good discounts, ever!


6 Mario Kart 64
I don't really need to talk about this franchise. This showcase is mainly to highlight both my favorite game & musical piece in said franchise (with Double Dash being a close second, but the battle mode just didn't have the same energy - 64 was a FPS deathmatch done in Mario Kart). Composer Kenta Nagata did start work at Nintendo with this title, and though this composition is impressive and he did work on several following Mario Kart & Zelda titles, he was never again the sole composer.


7 Garfield: Big, Fat, Hairy Deal (any 8 Bit Home computer under the sun)
There's 2 main reasons why I love this oldschool adventure. First we have Softek. Now more infamously known as "The Edge". Entepreneur and all around dickface Tim Langdell has two life goals - manage a crappy homepage where he promises remakes of his old IPs, but failing to release anything for 20 years; and to find and sue everyone who uses the word 'edge' (Edge Magazine, Mirrors Edge, Soul Edge - better known as SoulCalibur - guess why). PS: I read later that Langdell got rightfully fucked in court and has been stripped of the rights to any 'edge' related branding, but did not delve deeper into the matter.


Now for the second part - as composer we have the fine gentleman David Whittaker. He will be known to many of you, just not from his own work, but from the theft (niggers and musicians call it sampling) of his compositions by the band "Zombie Nation"


8 Unreal
A groundbreaking PC-shooter, developed by Epic and Digital Extremes. Main composer Alexander Brandon was getting help from Michiel van den Bos, Andrew G. Sega and Dan Gardopée. His aegis can later be experienced in Neverwinter Nights 2, Unreal Tournament and Deus Ex. The piece "Dusk Horizon" which begins to play just as you leave the spaceship, has a peculiar power of forcing you to re-install the game, moreso than the main theme, with its glorified screensaver background.


9 Assassin's Creed II
A masterpiece in every conveyance of the word, but for this portfolio I will give you the title "Dream of Venice", which in my opinion better reflects the gameplay than the main title. The young composer Jesper Kyd Jakobson is also credited for his work on the Hitman and Borderlands series. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to visualize Naruto-running above the roofs of Venice for my next holiday trip.


10 VVVVVV
from Indie developer Terry Cavanagh comes a game that anybody should have played, it's 5 bucks even when its not given away for a discount, so there are no excuses not to. Whats more smashing is that the Soundtrack by Magnus 'SoulEye' Pålsson by the name of PPPPPP is so great, that there is also a metal-variant MMMMMM. Here we have "Pushing Onwards" in its regular Chiptune-Version


Anyway, that's it for the moment, as I'm too lazy to translate/finetune my whole German original text in one sitting.
Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl muh'fugen bix nood

Whenever you feel down :3
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Le Redditeur
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Re: Video game music

Post by Le Redditeur » Sat Aug 07, 2021 9:15 pm

Trials of Mana has been cracked a long time ago, dude. Just search your favorite torrent site for the latest Fitgirl repack and you're golden.

Yasunori Shiono is the composer behind of the Lufia series, which is to this day one of my favorites.



Masashi Hamauzu composed the Sa-Ga Frontier 2 soundtrack, the absolute best (if not strangest) game in the series.


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VoiceOfReasonPast
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Re: Video game music

Post by VoiceOfReasonPast » Sat Aug 07, 2021 9:29 pm

Nuclear Fusion is just a copy of Meridian Dance from SoM


Which in itself isn't actually as good as SoM's regular boss theme.


And pales in comparison to the penultimate boss' theme.


But the real genius comes from SoM's most quintessential forest theme.


And this fucking depressing thing


The only time Trials comes close to the full genius of its predecessor is in the opening theme, which ironically enough has to eventually copy from SoM's opening theme to approach actual epicness.


In non-SoM-related news, I also have a very soft spot for Illusion of Gaia, which unfortunately keeps getting overshadowed by its sequel Terranigma (which may be the more solid action RPG experience, but can't really beat IoG in sheer batshit).





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Kugelfisch
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Re: Video game music

Post by Kugelfisch » Sat Aug 07, 2021 10:21 pm

Monty On The Run



Because if I don't post it, I just know none of you will post one of the finest vidya songs ever made.
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Tig Ol Bitties
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Re: Video game music

Post by Tig Ol Bitties » Sun Aug 08, 2021 3:31 am

Oh boy, another thread to blow out my faplet.

Let's get some music from a real man's game in here:




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Complicity
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Re: Video game music

Post by Complicity » Sun Aug 08, 2021 5:05 am







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wulfenlord
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Re: Video game music

Post by wulfenlord » Sun Aug 08, 2021 5:47 am

Now Voice, I had an incredible hard time picking my entry for SoM, because I wanted to pick a tune that would be a perfect entrée to the franchise. In Trials there just was no contest. Had I picked Secret, I could never have chosen one theme, as they are all superb.

And yeah, each one of your picks were there too. The SoM soundtrack checks both boxes a good videogame soundtrack has to fulfill to be great:
First it should not be annoying, because you will be hearing it minutes on repeat.
Second it should enhance the experience, either make you feel sad when the game wants you to, or pump you up in a boss battle.

I remember playing until the first boss, then taping the boss music for 30 minutes to listen to it later :geek:
The tape also included my top picks of a french cart of Super Butoden, and it may have been blasted while cruising in my first car :D



Lufia & Monty on the run would have been included later on, too :3
Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl muh'fugen bix nood

Whenever you feel down :3
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Complicity
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Re: Video game music

Post by Complicity » Mon Aug 09, 2021 8:04 am

The best SF character's theme:



The good Guile theme:



The good Ryu theme:



The good Chun-Li theme:

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VoiceOfReasonPast
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Re: Video game music

Post by VoiceOfReasonPast » Mon Aug 09, 2021 3:52 pm

There's only one good capcom fighting game tune.
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wulfenlord
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Re: Video game music

Post by wulfenlord » Mon Aug 09, 2021 4:29 pm

Ugh, can I sue Will Ferrell Daniel Ibbertson for ruining the theme for me?
Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn! Ph'nglui mglw'nfah Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl muh'fugen bix nood

Whenever you feel down :3
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