Gaming For My Ears

As I mentioned last week , I’m currently playing Mercenary Kings and the music is fantastic. This got me thinking about all the recent indie games coming out (and about a few older titles) that have such awesome original soundtracks (OST). Music means a lot of things to different games; some are era-specific, which is cool because you wouldn't hear the same sort of music in a similar game. Others just have amazing backdrops, but in order for this to work, I feel like the music has to go far and beyond to even stand out. Masterpieces go so far as to synergize music and gameplay to near perfection. So much like Brandon did a couple weeks back, I will make a lovely list for you all containing some of my personal favourite video game soundtracks.

First things first though, I'm actually still having quite a bit of fun with Mercenary Kings. It's very similar to Metal Slug or Contra but way less arcadey. By that I mean, the game isn't made to murder you every other second in an attempt to steal your quarters. That and it also has up to 4 player local co-op, sooooooo you can't go wrong with that! Since it sparked this entire segment, I will indulge you with another song from its 16-bit style rock soundtrack before beginning my list:

Small disclaimer before I start: you won't see any games with a compilation of hit list radio songs on here. No NHL, WWE, or GTA; although all of those games do have some pretty great soundtracks, they just aren't original in my mind. The list is in alphabetical order.

Catherine

A couple of weeks ago I might not have even put Catherine on a list like this. When I was cleaning and organizing my game collection, I came across an art book for Catherine that happened to include the OST as well. I've always been a fan of classical music; big orchestras are great and provide some of the most powerful and intricate music ever. Featuring musicians such as Beethoven and Bach, I needed to add this game to my list:

Guilty Gear X2

I love 2D fighting games and the Guilty Gear series is easily my favourite. There is a super fast tempo to the fighting; a tempo which the music keeps up with perfectly. All originally made for the game, heavily influenced by rock/metal, it's a blast to listen to and really gets the blood pumping. I cannot stress enough how much the tempo of both the fighting and music go together, the developers couldn't have done a better job and I'm eagerly awaiting the PS4 version which releases later this year:

Hotline Miami

This game even without the sound track is one hell of an amazingly fun experience. It's just a top down 16-bit murder simulator and if you haven't tried it yet, you are missing out. The music is something else all together though, it just adds so much to the overall experience. It's all original and made for the game; it has this sort of 80's vibe, which meshes with the setting perfectly. Here is one track, but I would recommend checking them all out:

Katamari Damacy

Recently revisiting this title for my #tbt, I actually listened to the entire soundtrack as I wrote that post. The music in the entire series is by and large quite good, although personally I find the best soundtrack belongs to the original game. The soundtrack itself is half jazz, half electronic, but all quirky. The main draw of the music in Katamari Damacy is that it's all charmingly catchy, you just can't get away from it, nor would you want to:

The Saboteur

Made by a studio that is no longer with us, Pandemic left us with an enjoyable sandbox WWII game with a very unique art style. The game starts off entirely black and white and then dynamically adds colour to the world as you liberate Nazi-controlled zones. The music was a compilation of jazz from the era and being a huge jazz fan myself, this game was a no brainer for me. The song I happened to link here funnily enough isn't even from the era, it was composed within the last decade, but it's so amazing and I feel it captures the same mood the old jazz songs have.

Sang-Froid: Tales of Werewolves

Having personally worked on Sang-Froid, that's not the reason why I added it to my list; this is not some shameless self promotion! I, along with many others who have filled the steam forums, think the music in this game is amazing. It's all folky-Quebec music, which is sort of an offshoot of Celtic music. This means that there’s lots of violins and foot stomping. The music is one of the best parts of Sang Froid and fits the setting of the world like no other music can. The song I chose to display is featured when you do most of your planning in-game; I especially like when the accordion enters the mix :

So that is my list, I'm sure I left some stuff out. I encourage everyone to comment and tell me how crazy I am for not including "insert title here" to my list, so please do! I love a good debate and music preference always starts a good one!