The videogame music thread

Here's where you can discuss and share music from videogames
TheStuntLady

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by TheStuntLady »

Partly because it's almost Halloween, and partly because I haven't yet seen any submissions from this wonderful horror gem, I'm requesting a track called "The Janitor Awaits," from Little Nightmares. Although this is a relatively short and straightforward puzzle-solver, the scenarios you encounter as the frail, diminutive figure in its yellow raincoat are genuinely upsetting. Everything in this world is gigantic and grotesque, designed specifically to disturb on a deep, subconscious level. Naturally, the visuals are masterfully underscored by the game's sound design and music. This particular track marks a critical segment of the game where the player must escape from a horribly deformed creature known as The Janitor. The ambient noises and metallic clangs evoke the harsh, cold environment of a ship's boiler room as you continue your attempts to evade this monster. Then, just as you think you're safe, the track comes to a screeching crescendo that cranks ups the tension - and with your heart racing, you run that much closer to freedom, mere inches from the Janitor's unnaturally long reach.

If you're a fan of atmospheric horror, I highly recommend Little Nightmares. Its incredible visuals and unsettling score will stay with you long after the credits roll.

User avatar
Jobobonobo
Member
Posts: 574
Joined: July 27th, 2016, 4:30 pm

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by Jobobonobo »

Not sure if there is a Halloween special this year but I remember requesting this last year and hope ye find time for it to be on a show because I really think this is one of my favourite scary tunes.

The song I want to recommend is Misty Menace composed by David Wise for Donkey Kong Country. This is one of the most creepy tunes I have ever heard and I honestly find it to be one of Wise's greatest work. The level this plays in, Stop and Go Station, is a dingy cave with a thick fog and enemies called Rockkrocs which rapidly pace back and forth and only stay still when you hit a barrel with STOP written on it. Then they curl up into a ball and now you can run past them but you need to be quick before the barrel goes from STOP to GO and they will rush into you. Their glowing red eyes add to their malevolent appearance and only appear in this level. Accompanying this is some of the most genuinely unsettling music I have heard in a video game. It is oppressive, bleak, and beautiful in the atmosphere of hopelessness it engenders in you. This belongs in a Silent Hill title not a silly game about monkeys getting their bananas back from crocodile people. While some may not think the graphics of DKC are as impressive as they once were, many would agree that the music has aged wonderfully. This piece in particular is still as spine tingling as it was when I first played this over 15 years ago.
User avatar
Flabyo
Member
Posts: 3576
Joined: August 8th, 2013, 8:46 am
Location: Guildford

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by Flabyo »

I do hope we are getting another visit from the ghost host with the most this year... although I don’t know if it’s possible to top the Josh song from last year...
User avatar
Whippledip
Member
Posts: 75
Joined: June 14th, 2017, 3:35 am
Location: Victoria, Australia

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by Whippledip »

So not necessarily making a SoP request (although I'm sure they won't say no), but I figure it's of general interest to the crew here. My brother (the trumpet player) released a jazz album of video game covers this year with a friend of his under the moniker Grand Noise Consortium, mostly of the general favourites that people know and love. I happen to like it, but I'm also kind of biased. I will say though, that it leans more to the jazz side of things where the base of those songs becomes a platform for some improvisation so if you're looking for 1:1 covers you probably won't find it as enjoyable, but if you ever wanted the Mario theme played in a smoky whisky bar then give it a shot.

The website is here, it has a few tracks to stream in full, with a place to buy the CD if you're so inclined: https://www.grandnoiseconsortium.com/

It's also available on Spotify and Amazon if that's your kind of thing.
User avatar
Stanshall
Member
Posts: 2370
Joined: January 31st, 2016, 6:45 am

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by Stanshall »

I've heard some of their stuff before and it's great fun. I didn't realise they were on Spotify so that's worth adding. Cheers.
User avatar
Whippledip
Member
Posts: 75
Joined: June 14th, 2017, 3:35 am
Location: Victoria, Australia

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by Whippledip »

Stanshall wrote: October 24th, 2017, 11:13 am I've heard some of their stuff before and it's great fun. I didn't realise they were on Spotify so that's worth adding. Cheers.
Surprised to see someone else is already aware of it. That's pretty cool.

I believe they only got the streaming stuff organised a couple of months ago, it took a while to get there from the initial release.
User avatar
Stanshall
Member
Posts: 2370
Joined: January 31st, 2016, 6:45 am

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by Stanshall »

I wondered where I'd heard of them and just assumed you'd shared a link previously. If not, it'll be from reddit.
nickturner13

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by nickturner13 »

As soon to be mentioned on an upcoming Sound Of Play, here's a great one - the Spectrum version of the MOTD theme, from Match Day.



From 29 seconds until 1:07 or so.
User avatar
Scrustle
Member
Posts: 2426
Joined: November 18th, 2012, 6:02 pm

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by Scrustle »

I'd like to submit Mists in the Mire, by Frida Johansson and Henrik Oja, from Unravel. Unravel is a game I let slip by when it first came out. While I had some interest, I lost that when the game seemed to get a somewhat lukewarm reception from critics. I became interested again actually through hearing the soundtrack on this podcast, and I'm extremely glad I finally gave it a go. I found it to be an amazing and powerful experience that really spoke to me, perhaps more than with many reviewers. That's in no small part thanks to the soundtrack, which is just stunning. There's a short documentary on Youtube where the creators of the game talk about the soundtrack, and how it's supposed to invoke a feeling of "vemod", which they describe as being a "beautiful melancholy", which I think they absolutely nailed.



P.S Here's the documentary I mentioned, for pronunciation purposes, if nothing else.

User avatar
plqc
Member
Posts: 5
Joined: July 27th, 2017, 6:05 am
Contact:

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by plqc »

The track I'm submitting is Galaxy's greatest pirate from the game Flinthook. My girlfriend bought the game since she heard about the game from one of the developpers (Montreal's own Tribute Games!). She didn't play it for very long since she found it a bit difficult for her more casual tastes, so I'm the one who ended up playing it the most.

The game itself is very good, a fun rogue-like platformer with an interesting setting. But the real stand-out here is the music. This song is the first one you hear while booting up the game. It's very short, but it gets you pumped right away for what's to come, and good luck getting it out of your head!

nickturner13

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by nickturner13 »

Just occurred to me that this is one of the best video game songs ever, yet was not selected until now! (unless I missed it)

"Lets go for a joyride" from the original GTA.

Epitomized the gameplay for me, gangster-esque, yet somehow cartoony and comedic.

Must have listened to this track a hundred times whilst hanging out at a mate's house as a teenager, pretending to be gangsters and getting involved, in a small town countryside way, in all that implies...

User avatar
Bloody Initiate
Member
Posts: 43
Joined: October 1st, 2015, 3:06 am

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by Bloody Initiate »

I was just about to suggest that Grand Theft Auto track! I am not the least bit upset to be beaten to it, pretty pleased in fact :P .

GTA3 was my first GTA, and that was one of those tracks I learned to switch to consistently.

Speaking of GTA, there's a lot of good music that comes out of that series which isn't licensed. There are some commissioned tracks which masquerade in the game as licensed tracks. In some cases songs were just made up by someone on the sound team for the game.

In GTA3, there were a few songs on the radio that I tried to track down later only to discover they didn't actually exist outside the game. Here is one:

"Stripe Summer" by Dil-Don't, but I'm pretty sure there's no such artist.
Spoiler: show
Here's a different version more clearly lifted from the game which will give an idea of how it was heard in the game
Fast forward to GTA5 there are a couple tracks on Flylo FM which appear to have been created entirely for the game. One leads into the other, and I would explain to people the best song in the game was followed by the second best song in the game.

When these songs came on the radio I would always put the pedal to the metal no matter what I was doing before they came on. It was vital that I accelerated as hard as possible whenever they were playing and just tried to survive whatever happened as a result.

Hudson Mohawke's song 100HM made it to my downloads long ago, but I remember being very frustrated that I couldn't find it in the online store or on the GTA5 soundtrack. Turns out the Hudson Mohawke had chosen to give it away. I don't know if the "HM" stands for "Horror Movies" but it sounds like it. What an incredible song to cause me to speed down the road in GTA5.



Next up is "The Kill" by Flying Lotus featuring Niki Randa. Flying Lotus also hosts the Flylo FM station.

This one is available on the soundtrack. I've always thought it sounded awesome, and in parts of GTA5 it's deadly appropriate. There is one issue which is that it spends its last minute and a half doing effectively nothing. Thankfully it does a lot before that.




Giving GTA a break, I started playing Diablo 3 which reminded me of other games with that perspective, specifically Hunter: The Reckoning. Composers: Chadd Portwine, Tim Stasica, Fred Love, and Coma.

The main menu theme for Hunter sets the mood nicely.
Hunter the Reckoning - Main Menu Theme

And really sexy fight music, which I believe plays when you start to get a high spree and also during a boss fight against a giant possessed Teddy Bear... the fight itself isn't sexy. I think the Teddy Bear vomits on you while you chainsaw him to death. The music though... you feel much cooler about being a Hunter when you think this is what plays while you vanquish evil.

Knuckle



I will now lighten the mood with some Shantae. I've barely played Half-Genie Hero,. My wife saw a friend playing it, was entranced, so I bought it for her, and she got frustrated with it and doesn't play it. What little I played made me think it was a perfectly good game.

This song plays on the level my wife got stuck on the longest, so it stuck in my head. Conveniently I like it. It starts out very generic which I'm pretty sure is just to let it loop easily, it gets much better.

Counterfeit Mermaids by Jake Kaufman
User avatar
Whippledip
Member
Posts: 75
Joined: June 14th, 2017, 3:35 am
Location: Victoria, Australia

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by Whippledip »

I have no connection the Metroid games but came across this elsewhere where the soundtrack is recreated with proper synths and basically turns it in to Metroid as directed by John Carpenter.

blueallday

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by blueallday »

First time posting to Sound of Play. Love the show! I listen to it every week while I cook!

Since I posted my thoughts on Final Fantasy for the Cane & Rinse podcast, I thought I'd post the tracks that I remember best from that game.

1. Prelude
In my opinion, one of the best tracks ever composed for a video game. Repeating, building, falling, like a magic spiral made into sounds, it sets the tone for not only this game, but the series as a whole.


2. Opening Theme
This music plays when your adventure really begins, as you cross the bridge to a different land. It is difficult to describe how epic and significant this felt the first time I saw that screen and heard this music. It's infused with hope, wonder, and the feeling of a journey ahead.


3. Main Theme
(Overworld map theme)
Arguably the most important bit of music in any Final Fantasy game (or any RPG) is the overworld/map theme. In between battles and visiting towns, you will hear the same music over and over and over and over for hours on end. Luckily, they knocked it out of the park on their first try. This theme is upbeat, energetic, and builds just enough that it's pushing you along to go a little further toward that distant cave, and gain just one more level.


4. Matoya's Cave
I love this track. There are few tracks on the NES that can match its complexity. It sounds like a classical music composition, made in midi form. It does an excellent job of placing your characters in a specific location.
Todinho

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by Todinho »

So I've been playing The Witcher 3: Blood and Wine and Im blown away by how good it is and one aspect that really jumped at me was the music, while I think the music in the main game is great blood and wine just takes it to the next level.

The music started to impress straight out the gate on the title screen, with the main theme that has this threatening tone and slowlly builds up throught it's duration, a great way to introduce your game:


The expansion also brings new Gwent music that not only surpasses the original theme in the main game but makes playing a card game seem like an epic moment:


Probably my favorite track of the whole expansion so far is the main city theme, it's incredible peacefull and relaxing and perfectly fits the bucolic setting while still inspiring a sense of adventure and fantasy, I could and have listened to this theme for hours on end
User avatar
brutaldeluxe09
Member
Posts: 61
Joined: May 27th, 2013, 3:22 pm
Location: Nottingham

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by brutaldeluxe09 »

User avatar
Jobobonobo
Member
Posts: 574
Joined: July 27th, 2016, 4:30 pm

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by Jobobonobo »

After hearing all the praise from critics and sheer enthusiasm from its fanbase, it is only recently that I finally tried Undertale. And it is a title which I fully agree with the critical consensus on. Funny, charming, emotional, clever and a little dark at times, it really is one of the best RPGs I have ever played. Helping it get into my good books was its incredible music done by the main creator Toby Fox. There is barely a stinker to be found among its soundtrack. While just about any piece of music from this game could be a contender for Sound Of Play, for me it is the title theme that plays before you encounter Asgore that is my absolute favourite. When you hear this music, you go through Asgore's house and without getting too spoiler heavy it is here that the monsters tell you about their plight being trapped underground and how they might finally be free. While you might be going towards your doom, for the monsters it could be their salvation. The use of a few notes played by guitar throughout the track makes this the only music piece in the game with live instruments and it really is effective in helping you understand the situation from the monster's perspective. While tunes like Megalovania and Bonetrousle are great and rightly beloved, I believe it is this beautiful piece that I will always associate with Undertale and for me, sums up the main theme of the game perfectly: empathy.

User avatar
Donk
Member
Posts: 50
Joined: September 6th, 2012, 9:03 pm

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by Donk »

Golden Axe is one of the first 'real' game I played on PC. Up until then a lot of it had been golf simulators, flight simulators, shareware. But Golden Axe had arcade quality graphics and playing the game and dying and not having to put money in to play again my mind was blown, it was in equal to free money.

I don't think I played the third installment but I do love the music in it. Here's a favorite track from Golden Axe 3:

User avatar
CODEMONKEY
Member
Posts: 30
Joined: November 24th, 2015, 3:10 pm

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by CODEMONKEY »

I always loved the Super Nintendo and was very excited when they announced the SNES mini. I didn't pre-order it and it seemed to be out of stock for ages but I managed to track one down recently by chance when browsing in a local Smyths. The machine itself is not perfect with short controller cables, no included wall power adaptor and no option for 16:9 wide screen. Why in 2017 did Nintendo not make the controllers wireless is a head scratcher. But all those minor gripes disappear when you play that fantastic library of 21 pre-installed games. Yes they are emulated and you can't plug in your original SNES carts and some people will scoff at paying so much for what is essentially a fairly expensive and under powered box to play emulated SNES games. But they would be missing the point! What the SNES mini is, is a very tidy and convenient way to play those old classics on a modern HDTV through HDMI with the brilliant original SNES controller, no messing around with button settings, emulation configuration, frames per second optimisation or firmware upgrades. In short it just simply works flawlessly out of the box and the mini machine itself just looks beautiful under the telly. Takes about 2 seconds to boot-up or shutdown and can save the state anywhere in the game and even rewind to a point earlier in the game. What other console can you start playing a game in less than 5 seconds these days?

It also has that Nintendo magic that other emulators don't have. When left on the game library menu for about a minute, Mario would appear, run around the menu and and pick a random save state and show a replay of the last minute of game play, what a fantastic screen saver/attract mode that is. It just encourages you to save a state, just so you can watch a replay of it later or to show your friends of family!

The icing on this fantastic package is the menu screen music. Its a short minute-ish long whimsical tune in the style of the SNES sound chip. It has that special Nintendo nostalgic sound that is jolly and playful and can be listened to for hours without it driving you up the wall. Its very catchy and bit of an ear worm and takes me right back to being a kid again and gives you that warm fuzzy happy feeling that all the best games soundtracks should.

I'm not sure who composed this but here is the Super Nintendo classic mini menu theme music, enjoy!
rob25X
Member
Posts: 177
Joined: February 16th, 2017, 8:34 am

Re: The videogame music thread (also Sound of Play submissions)

Post by rob25X »

'Breeze at Dawn' - Soul Calibur V.

Great music from a great game and soundtrack. Enjoy!

Post Reply