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Music to set the scene best video game soundtracks
SEPTEMBER 4, in the year of our
Lord 2014 – As with movies, the best video games
invariably come with an excellent soundtrack. It is a critical
element that is not always immediately noticed, but that still
provides the perfect atmosphere for the gamer and helps them
enjoy the game to its fullest extent as a result.
The best soundtracks
Some soundtracks are synonymous with the games they accompany,
others even transcend this and become iconic in their own right.
These are a few games which have soundtracks regarded by experts
as being some of the best, and are certainly among the most
well-known.
Zelda. The iconic music for this iconic series of games was
composed by virtuoso Koji Kondo, who was hired by Nintendo for
both Zelda and Super Mario Brothers. The music for The Legend of
Zelda: Ocarina of Time is considered to be a particularly
special example of the craft, with every area of Hyrule
immediately identifiable by its unique musical theme. An
especially rare feature was gamers being given the chance to
make music themselves and thereby influence gameplay through
Link and the Ocarina. This
download page has musical notes for Ocarina songs, an
example of the impact this soundtrack has had beyond the video
gaming world.
Final Fantasy. Nobuo Uematsu was the composer responsible for
the soundtracks of the first few games in the Final Fantasy
series, as well as many others. The music for this series of
games is particularly notable for the way it transcended video
game music and even today stands alone as a series of beautiful
compositions in their own right. Uematsu’s work is frequently
played on radio stations that specialize in classical music and
is performed in concert by some of the most globally respected
orchestras. The soundtrack for Final Fantasy VI is considered by
many, to this day, to be the greatest video game soundtrack ever
made.
Jet Set Radio. Perhaps the best example of how the quality of a
soundtrack can actually exceed the success of a game, Jet Set
radio was released in North America as Jet Grind Radio and
attempted to do for rollerblading what various other games had
done for street sports such as skateboarding. It did not quite
achieve this, and the game is undoubtedly less well-known as a
result, but the music is still remembered with a great deal of
affection by numerous fans who enjoyed its unique and
innovative, perhaps even experimental, approach to combining a
range of musical styles and motifs that perfectly reflected the
excitement of rollerblading.
An essential ingredient
Creating the soundtrack for a video game is perhaps the most
underappreciated art in the industry. Get it wrong and the game
suffers hugely as a result; get it right and people usually will
not even notice. Instead, it will simply be considered as
another ingredient in an overall excellent game. That said, the
most ardent video game fans understand what an essential
ingredient a good soundtrack is and how their favorite games
simply would not be the same without one.