The videogame music thread

[Flabyo]

Ok, this might be stretching the limit of the ‘no licensed music’ bit, but bear with me.

Mike Ault joined the Rocket League team to compose music for the game, while they were in development he stuffed in a bunch of tracks he’d worked on privately prior to working there. In the end they kinda stuck and went on to establish Rocket League as having a primarily European Dance Music feel to it (a genre of music that is pretty huge, but massively under represented in modern video games for all sorts of reasons).

So this track first appeared publicly in Rocket League, but wasn’t strictly speaking composed for it.

Anyway... any excuse to get some 90s style trance onto the show eh?

[DomsBeard]

After playing the demo last night I have had this stuck in my head all day

Is this the same Kenny Young that appeared on Sound of Play?

[Peditis]

I just want to thank James Carter for picking Bleed & Bleed 2 for Cane & Rinse this year and introducing me to this awesome series. The latter entry has become one of my favorite games, and the soundtrack by Jukio Kallio is one of the main reasons why I enjoy it so much. The frenetic action just blends perfectly with the Metal-influenced tunes. Love it!

[Suits]

When the organ comes in - FUNK.

[Simonsloth]

Another piece from the Nier soundtrack. It’s a shame I can’t describe the moment this song plays without massively spoiling the game. If I did a newcomer to the game might scoff at the fact I shed a tear in that moment because on paper it’s ridiculously absurd like everything else in this game.

[ratsoalbion]

Is this the same Kenny Young that appeared on Sound of Play?

Of course!

[Spacefarer]

This is the sort of track that you can leave on for ages and never get bored of. (It's also an Amiga track, which should hopefully win me some Leon points!) Composed by Barry Leitch, as one can discover by opening the track in a hex editor...I think?



Spoiler: never actually played this game, but it shows up often on a certain stream and it's always a good time. Since I've now got the Amiga emulator working, it may appear on mine as well...

[aidano]

Hi guys,

I’ve been a SoP listener for the last 6 months or so and just signed up here so that I could make my first submission. I couldn’t find any evidence that this one has been played before, so here goes…

In the early 90s I got an Amiga 1200. I spent many hours tinkering on it, but in contrast to my Megadrive and SNES, I don’t remember being engrossed by very many games on the platform (Flashback, and Goal! being two notable exceptions).

One other game I remember quite well, despite only playing it about a dozen times, was No Second Prize from Thalion Software. It was a futuristic, minimalistic 3D motorcycle racing game that prioritized slickness over complexity. There were few embellishments, but what you got in return was a consistently high frame rate, and smooth, responsive mouse-based controls, which all contributed to an excellent sense of immersion.

The most notable thing for me though, and the reason this game is imprinted in my mind forever, is its intro theme tune – a slick number by Matthias Steinwachs that overlaid a futuristic synthwave with Starsky & Hutch style guitar funk. It conveyed to me that this was a game to be taken seriously, and even though I haven’t played the game in 20-odd years, this tune pops into my head from time to time. I’ll never forget it.

[ratsoalbion]

Welcome, nice pick!

[Alex79]

I must admit, my listening to of Sound Of Play has been rather intermittent over the years, so I'm fairly sure this will have been nominated before, but there are some beautiful tracks on the Hollow Knight OST, and my personal favorite is:



The whole soundtrack is amazing, though. Quite depressing, too.

[ratsoalbion]

Sound of Play 148: https://caneandrinse.com/sound-of-play-148/

[ashman86]

The Quest for Glory series of classic Sierra adventure games is one of my all-time favorites despite the fact that the first game launched when I was just three years old. Lori and Corey Cole, the married couple who led development on the series, combined the adventure game formula Sierra established with the King's Quest series with role-playing game character sheets and classes, and the result was something really magical.

Although the Quest for Glory games never really found the same level of success of some of Sierra's other franchises, their unique import/export mechanic, which let you carry one hero, including his stats and spells, through the entirety of the series is still referenced relatively often. It lent the series a sense of cohesion in the same way that the original Mass Effect Trilogy feels unified by its own export/import mechanics.

My first and favorite entry in the series was the penultimate one: Quest for Glory 4: Shadows of Darkness. My father bought it for me on a whim from a bargain software bin, and I don't think I'd ever fallen so hard for a game before. Tracking down its predecessors afterward was a challenge because the internet was only barely a thing. But, knowing my love for the games, my parents managed to get a copy of the Quest for Glory anthology ordered to a nearby Hastings (a now-defunct media retail chain). Playing those early, EGA (16-color) games for the first time remains one of my favorite memories.

But the piece I want to submit now for Sound of Play actually comes from the final game in the series. I have never been more hyped about the launch of a game than I was for Quest for Glory 5: Dragon Fire. The series very narrowly avoided cancellation before its story was concluded, and the story goes that Sierra only greenlit the final game in response to a petition created and signed by QFG's very passionate and vocal fanbase.

QFG5's soundtrack was composed by Chance Thomas and, if I remember correctly, performed by the Utah Symphony. A native Utahn myself, it placed the game even closer to my heart. I pre-ordered the soundtrack, which launched some time before the final game and included a playable demo, and one of the first pieces I fell in love with was this:



The Mediterranean, guitar-driven cue accompanies the hero as he explores the sights and sounds of Silmaria, a coastal city inspired by ancient Greece, by day. Merchants peddle their wares in the town square, and the city's citizens hustle from one location to the next. But as day shifts to night, the piano takes center stage, mysterious and melancholy.

It's one of my favorites, and I hope it resonates with the rest of the Sound of Play listeners.

[duskvstweak]

Time to start posting some requests!

House of Sacred Remains from Castlevania: Lament of Innocence by Michiru Yamane



I'm not sure how Castlevania: Lament of Innocence stands in the public consciousness these days, but it was a quick highlight of an action game for me back on the PS2. And this track was a stand out. This was right before I could find EVERY piece of music on the internet, so this may have been the last time I repeatedly went back to a level in order to hear that stage's music. The orchestral parts of this track are great, but it's when that watery synthesizer comes in at the chorus that this piece truly shines.

[duskvstweak]

Tango Alpha Bravo from Age of Empires: The Rise of Rome by Stephen Rippy.



While the sequel, Age of Kings and it's expansion, is probably a better game and the one I've spent the most time on, the original Age of Empires and it's The Rise of Rome expansion are the ones I get the most misty-eyed over. This was my first real time strategy game as a kid and, with it's historical setting, it was memorizing. I don't think I understood the game as a war simulator, it was just a simulator in my child eyes. It was as much about building a fantastically laid out base and city as it was about raging war on the surrounding nations.

This track, Tango Alpha Bravo, is the one I think of when I look back on the game. The music has a mystic quality to it, as if it's by magic that you're going to rise up above the world and not by the sweat of your miners and builders. What this track also says, to me anyway, is that your journey is just beginning. Things are as simple as they will get, but hurry up and get working because the world isn't going to sit back and wait for you to become a great civilization.

[chdavis0917]

After a couple years in college I was inspired to intern for a small record label in Portland, OR. In my first couple weeks there I was asked to do some viral marketing for a band called Magic Sword. All I knew is that they were from Idaho, they played electronic music, and that they wore masks during their performances. Seriously, they have never revealed their faces publicly. Think Daft Punk. After several months of promoting secret shows and viral marketing campaigns for the band. I ended up meeting the band (very nice fellas). I soon discovered that their music would be featured in a little indie game called Hotline Miami 2. Having played the first game, I couldn't think of a better group to match the first game's intense electro tracks. Upon firing up the game's sixth level "Moving Up" I heard the familiar keyboard intro I'd been jamming to for months. The level was brutal, featuring a particularly challenging section involving several attack dogs. This was the first and only time my professional life has crossed paths with the gaming world, and I'll never forget it. Here's "In the Face of Evil" by Magic Sword, featured in Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number.

[rwgibbons]

In light of Telltale's recent demise, and to honor their legacy, I submit the menu theme and the opening credits sequence from The Wolf Among Us. I played this game last year and was excited to load it up every time specifically to hear and experience the steady noir-inspired beat of the opening menu theme. I would sit and stare at the screen with its dark purple hue, watching Bigsby walking in place, and just let the music wash through me. When you boot up the first episode (and I believe subsequent episodes), the music evolves into an even richer piece, haunting and full of emotion.

[seansthomas]

Picked up this little gem of an arcade racer after Chris Scullion's excellent review and the soundtrack is proving to be a major reason why I'm enjoying it so much. It is hypnotic, urgent and addictive. I believe it's also composed by an artist who soundtracks many of those classic retro racers of the 90s. This is one of about a dozen tracks I could have chosen.

[ratsoalbion]

Barry Leitch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Leitch

[seansthomas]

That's the one! Thanks Leon.

[ratsoalbion]

My first exposure to his work was this 1986 ‘classic’: