I’m Playing My Game (Soundtrack)
by Samuel
Regular readers here at the site will know that I have a fairly obsessive collecting urge with regards to my games collection; I make a point of hunting down rarer titles, including for older consoles long obsolete, and I opt for the limited edition of a game with the standard release a last resort. It isn’t just the games themselves however that can inspire me to go to occasionally silly lengths to get my hands on a copy in as-close-to-pristine condition as possible. There is a second level to my collection, less sought after perhaps by most gamers, but often harder to find; game soundtrack albums.
The main difficulty with collecting games music is that the majority of soundtracks only see release in Japan. This means either importing yourself from Japanese websites and mail order catalogues and trusting several vaguely mutually cooperative international postal services, all whilst running the risk of Her Majesty’s Customs and Excise officers taking the piss and slapping four times the price of the album in tax onto the package if and when it reaches Britain, or, alternately, paying the exorbitant ransoms demanded by import specialist retailers who already have the item in the UK for resale. An extension of the latter is buying from eBay… which comes with the added stress of not knowing whether you’re purchasing a faked pirate copy or not until it arrives, at which point extracting a refund from the seller becomes a task on the same order of magnitude as convincing an American that their country didn’t win the second world war single-handedly.
This is the only worthwhile thing about the game... I feel sorry about it, because this music is awesome
Some games of course get somewhat better treatment with regards to Western fans. Bioware are particularly savvy to the interest in game soundtracks, and have regularly issued limited numbers of albums with their new releases for some years. The Final Fantasy soundtracks as well accompany the release of each new entry in the main franchise when it arrives here, often coming in several variant versions with piano arrangements and full orchestra arrangements, and even an occasional rock version courtesy of the Black Mages. In recent times, the soundtracks for a new Final Fantasy have often been the best thing about the game, with the franchise in decline in most other aspects.
Such a beautiful set and, for a game with such an incredible soundtrack, it more than deserves a standalone offering, and yet not a sign of it!
It is becoming increasingly common for publishers to include a games soundtrack as a bonus in the collector’s or limited edition. Unfortunately, these tend to show up on a DVD containing other shit that is of no particular worth, such as wallpapers that are on an order of magnitude inferior to the fan made ones you can find in 30 seconds via a Google images search, and which mean you can’t put the disk straight into your hi-fi in order to listen to the music. Worse still, it’s only ever an edited track list, leaving out more than is included. This seems to me to miss the point, and is pretty damned useless as a soundtrack release, yet it’s happening more and more; Ubisoft are particularly guilty of this kind of shoddy deal, with such neutered offerings showing up for the collector’s editions of games like Assassin’s Creed II and Anno 1404. Both of which have genuinely brilliant background music, making it all the more of a tragedy of marketing.
Recently Red Dead Redemption “included” the soundtrack in its limited edition. Rather than take the craptastic DVD approach though, the game didn’t have a physical copy of the soundtrack at all; on opening the case, I was confronted with a slip of card with a code on it to use to download the music in MP3 format from Rockstar’s website. The fact that it was the full soundtrack, including the songs that play once at key points in the games single player campaign, had been a seemingly refreshing change of pace. Not being told until the game actually arrived through the letter box that it would only be a digital download of middling bitrate quality however took the shine right off of things.
The best soundtrack as a collector’s edition bonus by a country mile has to be the one that came with Bioshock 2. With an astoundingly high level of quality and disregard for the “that’ll do” attitude shown towards other games music, the full soundtrack was presented in keeping with the artistic style of the game itself on a double-sided vinyl 45 LP. Not only that, but it also had the original Bioshock soundtrack in the box as well, albeit as a CD. If all bonus soundtracks were as classy as this, then I’d be a very happy chap indeed, though how many other gamers can say they have the ability to play vinyl straight out of the box I wouldn’t like to hazard a guess at.
The quality of each games music varies wildly of course, as does the actual style and genre, and I must profess to being drawn more towards those that feature an orchestral score. But there are also some excellent examples of more contemporary styles in my personal collection, with the line only usually being drawn with regards to more techno or poppy soundtracks, especially the cheesier sort of J-pop that graces certain Japanese games and anime. Rarer still, though not through choice, are albums of retro 8bit and 16bit game music. These are incredibly few and far between and harder yet to get hold of; the Super Metroid, Mega Man, Legend of Zelda and Sonic the Hedgehog soundtracks holding pride of place on their shelf, waiting to be joined by more if I should be so lucky as to come across them.
Also often worth seeking out are live recordings of games concerts, something that would be practically unheard of in the UK, but which are very popular and quite a common occurrence in Japan. Many of these offer exciting variations and re-arrangements of popular game themes usually focused on Nintendo or Capcom franchises. There is a classic series of five albums from the early 90s recorded by the Tokyo City Philharmonic, titled simply Ōkesutora ni yoru Gēmu Ongaku Konsāto (or Orchestral Games Music Concert 1-5), which are highly prized by collectors. As well there have been several major concerts revolving around Mario, Legend of Zelda, and Final Fantasy. A personal favourite is a concert dedicated to the Gyakuten Saiban franchise, better known as the Ace Attorney or Phoenix Wright series to English speaking gamers. There is also an excellent jazz quartet rendering of select themes from those games soundtracks. Another favourite of mine is the recording of the Super Smash Bros. Melee concert, which came free, attached to the front of an Official Nintendo Magazine some years ago when Melee on the Gamecube was still the current entry in the series, and which is probably the best free cover gift on any magazine ever.
Game music goes a long way towards sucking a player into the feel and tone of the game, but it is often equally as artful as the game is, and deserving of play by itself to be enjoyed simply on musical terms. As long as that remains the case, collecting those soundtrack albums will be as much a passion of mine as collecting the games themselves.
Last five articles by Samuel
- Wargame: European Escalation - Preview
- Sony Conference - GamesCom 2011
- Gotham City Impostors Hands-On Preview
- WipEout 2048 - Hands-On Preview
- City to City - Travelling to Cologne via London with Gerry Rafferty
Ah, a games soundtrack. Usually the part of the game that, if done well, stays in your memory much longer than the memory of having to attempt the bonus game in Hannah Montana for six hours on the trot. I’m looking at my shelf and am reminded of soundtracks both good and bad. I never want to hear Blue Dragons fight music ever again. Nor SF4s intro music. Or the faux John Williams crap from Superman Returns.
On the other hand, I could listen to StarWing’s soundtrack forever. Or Yoshi’s Island.
/off down memory lane. Good post.
I’ve always loved the Brutal Legend soundtrack – all that rock and metal just blew my mind. Other notable soundtracks are the Halo 3 and ODST soundtracks – if Marty ODonnell keeps his standards this high, Halo: Reach will be an audio treat.
ALso, if you have Spotify, I put together a video game soundtrack playlist here and a Brutal Legend playlist here (but not all the songs were available).
Bioshock 2 was a great example of how special editions should be done. Carefully packaged and thought out, great soundtracks and an amazing hard back art book. DLC can get to fuck, I’d rather sound tracks and art books in my special editions. Great read Preacher, I love game soudtracks, although other than the odd few from collector’s editions, most of mine are digital copies. Final Fantasy IX and Metal Gear Solid 4 are my particular favourites. To Zanarkand from FInal Fantasy X is also beautiful and haunting.
Being a fellow geek, you’re probably aware of this but just in case you haven’t, have you tried using a DVD audio ripper to extract the music off of bonus DVDs and then burn them to a disc? I know it’s not the same as a proper CD but it works.
I’ve got a few game soundtracks, and a couple of good-uns that spring to mind are Shadow the Hedgehog and Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles (Gamecube). Managed to import them through Amazon a long time ago.
@ Vic : Yeah that song from Blue Dragon gets pretty annoying! What’s worse though is sometimes you actually find yourself absent-mindedly singing along to it!
Nice article Preach.
I was just reading away at this and about half way through I realised it was a very well written article in my opinion anyway). Good work Preach.
As for the subject matter itself, I’m not a big music person. More often than not I won’t even be aware of the music in the game, I just accept it’s part of the background and go about controlling the character or vehicle. The most music I get involved with comes from playing Rock Band or Guitar Hero games or watching Glee.
I didn’t get the special edition of Red Dead Redemption because a soundtrack doesn’t appeal to as a bonus just like an artbook wouldn’t either. They’d get placed someone never to be listened to or looked at.
Markatnasky’s comment about Brutal Legend’s soundtrack is probably the one that I’ve been most aware of while playing and even sort out Dragonforce’s Through The Fire And Flames song on the radio after experiencing it first during the end credit sequence of GH III and now appreciate it.
There is a Halo tune that (maybe the main theme, I wouldn’t know) that I like and GLaDoS’ Still Alive just sprung to mind.
More often than not though, I’m jsut treat it as ambience and don’t pay it much attention.
I’m not actually one so much for getting the special editions of things, but if I do, a soundtrack is an oft-seeked extra.
Otherwise, I’m able to get the soundtracks for games if I so wish it.
But, apart from Nintendo soundtracks and the Metal Gear Solid soundtracks, there are very few that grab out at me for my attention.
Though, I don’t know if you’ve heard of Zelda Reorchestrated, Preacher, I think they’re found at http://www.zreo.net, and they remaster or redo Zelda tunes so they don’t sound like MIDIs anymore. They’re pretty good, but sometimes not as amazing as the originals sound, reorchestrated or not.
Still, for me, a soundtrack can’t get better than Super Smash Bros Brawl’s. It’s like a 15 hour collection of the best Nintendo tunes around.
My bad, it’s actually http://www.zreomusic.com, and its all free to download.
Otherwise, this site http://downloads.khinsider.com/ is one I use to find soundtracks I cannot find in stores or online/import, though it stopped uploading in 2006 =/
Thanks everyone.
@Vic – The Starwing soundtrack is a good one. Yoshi’s Island too. I don’t actually mind the Blue Dragon or Street Fighter IV themes too much… though they can get irritating when they burrow into your head and refuse to stop playing when you’re not even playing the games. Typically vacuous but incredibly catchy pop-rock fluff.
@Markatansky – The Halo soundtrack is about the only thing I really like about the franchise. I have the first three OSTs, but only Halo Wars out of the games now (I had Halo on the PC, but it had an “accident”, heh).
@Iain – Yeah I know, I had a DVD audio ripper long before this ever came up because I often rip my stand up comedy DVDs to my MP3 player to take around with me. But it isn’t the same, you inevitably lose audio quality, to the point where it’s a waste of a CDR. I wind up just putting them on my iPod now. The point remains that it’s an unnecessary and stupid way to do it. I appreciate your trying though mate, heh.
@Tania – The Crystal Chronicles soundtrack is outstanding… I went out and imported that the day after the game was released, having gotten the game at release, and being blown away by the opening sequence and that song. The game turned out to be somewhat disappointing (as I didn’t have three mates who owned GBAs), but the music was really special.
@Rook – You’re missing out, if you don’t really pay attention to the music in games at all, heh.
@Ed – Your link leads to one of those place-holder sites that link to financial services, heh heh. I hadn’t heard of Zelda Reorchestrated all the same, so I will Google it later and have a listen. In return, I’d suggest Googling “Metroid Metal”. There’s a guy doing the same thing for the retro Metroid music, reorchestrating it to heavy metal. He also uses real instruments to record his sessions, so it sound fantastic, rather than something someone has done on a keyboard in their bedroom.
I prefer Melee to Brawl, but mostly because Brawl hasn’t had a CD release yet as far as I’m aware, and Melee had two, including that awesome concert recording I mentioned in the article.
Yeah, I found the real link eventually.
I’m actually a massive fan of Metroid Metal, as I am the NESkimos.
The Black Mages are also pretty good, as you mentioned in the article
I found the Brawl one online somewhere, someone managed to crack them out of the game, or something.
This is where I found it http://dragonshensi.wordpress.com/2008/03/25/super-smash-bros-brawl-downloadable-soundtrack/
Works fine and dandy, I think.
Very interesting piece
I don’t especially pay too much attention to the scores, or if I have, I have never remembered. It wasn’t until recently that I started to take notice, but only usually with songs…scores don’t do a great deal for me, with perhaps the exception that I noticed Fable 2 and the lovely choral bits. (even those have no faded from memory, as with most) Still Alive from Mirror’s Edge and the Poets of the Fall songs for Alan Wake, however, have very much captured my attention. The Alan Wake soundtrack is great, but I really only paid attention to the licensed songs, few of which appeared on the soundtrack because, of course, it was all scores. I ended up going to Amazon.co.uk and buying the individual songs such as Space Oddity and making up my own mini soundtrack.
The Alan Wake soundtrack is a good one. I listened to the soundtrack that came with the limited edition, and it’s surprisingly good… it’s not actually that easy to hear in the game at times, because of that noise the Taken make. It’s a pity that it didn’t come in time for me to mention it in the article, because it’s a separate disk I can put in my hi-fi and everything.
I adore the Oblivion soundtrack… the CD Fairy gave it to me for christmas a few years ago (thank yoooou) and, although I haven’t listened to it more than once or twice (I’m lazy and prefer mp3s, so I’ll rip it soon) but not a week goes by that I don’t trudge through the house singing the opening “du-du-duhhhh… du-du-duhhhh… du-du-du-duhhhhh du-du-du-duhhhh” orchestral piece. Even just thinking about it I have that warm feeling inside, and it has nothing to do with just finishing dinner.
Not wanting to blow my load from a future article, I’ll also say this… I’d NEVER have listened to any of the songs from the Fallout 3 soundtrack, and not because of taste but because I wasn’t even aware of them, but there are some fantastic numbers on that soundtrack. Most notably, for me, Bingo Bango Bongo… but it’s more about a commercial soundtrack than the actual score.