2013 Archives - The Greatest Game Music

99 Levels to Hell Soundtrack

99 Levels to Hell Soundtrack, Dalle Oldman, 2013

Dalle Oldman‘s 99 Levels to Hell soundtrack release could have only happened in the age of self-distributed digital albums. Few music labels would have been willing to release a 78-minute album for a game of 99 Levels’s low profile. Unfortunately, the album’s second half is a collection of cliché-ridden, bland sound collages filled with little more than eerie noises. These dark ambient level tracks inspire boredom much more than they suggest tension or anxiety.

But we’re not here for the glacial second half of the 99 Levels to Hell soundtrack. What makes this score a must for any heavy metal fan are its first 40 minutes. Remember, this is a game that takes you closer and closer to the Horned One’s realm. What better musical accompaniment for this scenario than a very, very heavy dose of death metal? (with some sprinkles of thrash metal thrown in for good measure).

Throughout the decades, a fair number of game scores have made good use of metal’s screaming guitars and pummelling drums. However, very few game soundtracks have dared to venture into metal’s more extreme sub-genres. Oldman, on the other hand, doesn’t hesitate to plunge his music into the abyss. In the process, he writes the heaviest, most pulverising metal riffage ever composed for a game score. Almost straight away, 99 Levels to Hell lunges at your jugular with an endless supply of spectacularly brutal ten-ton riffs.

Music of such uncompromising heaviness and furious energy might seem like overkill for a relatively modest 2d platformer. But maybe it is the game’s cartoonish nature and underlying quirkiness that allows Oldman to get away with writing music that seems too big for the game that it accompanies. There’s no pretense of realism or seriousness in 99 Levels to Hell‘s colourful sprite work, no particular narrative to underscore. All that 99 Levels to Hell asks for is music that pushes adrenaline levels during the boss encounters as hard as possible.

On that account, the 99 Levels to Hell soundtrack emerges triumphantly. It’s a wall of sound rendered in raging shades of black by an album production that beautifully balances clarity and force. But if heaviness was all that Oldman had to offer, 99 Levels to Hell‘s metal portion would quickly find itself on a highway to numbing monotony. Thankfully, Oldman avoids turning the music up to 11 constantly, while never sacrificing its searing intensity. The first few album tracks are mid-tempo monsters, perfectly-oiled churning machines that listeners can easily hop on to descent into the underworld.

“Big Red” and “Spider” slow things down further, engulfing the music in the suffocating crawl of an unstoppable hell beast. It’s only later on 99 Levels to Hell that Oldman cranks up the tempo, to glorious results. Anticipation keeps building and building, and finally finds release on the blazing “Mad Pope” and “Satan”. Both tracks are fiery displays of white hot fury, channeling the soundtrack’s ferocious energy into ten minutes of some the most uncompromising battle music game music has seen.

Oldman matches this variation in tempi with his ability to inject shreds of melodicism into his compositions. This opens up ways to connect with the 99 Levels to Hell soundtrack other than through relentless and joyful head-banging. Early on, Oldman peppers his tracks with clean, melancholic guitar motifs that are surprisingly effective in their haunting mood. Their slow-paced gloominess contrasts perfectly with the mercilessly pounding riffage. These Gothic Rock-influenced elements make room on “Virus (Brain 1)” for downright catchy, defiant guitar melodies. What makes this elaborately constructed track even more astonishing is that Oldman manages to combine these fists-raised-to-the-skies choruses with heavily syncopated rhythms that owe a big debt to prog metal gods Meshuggah.

Additionally, Oldman’s riffage itself introduces a fair share of melodic sounds. These can be consonant (“Meat Ball”’s majestic riffs, observing the carnage on the battlefield from high above) or exceedingly harsh. Tortured guitar glissandi first rear their wailing heads on “Wall Worm”. Oldman keeps building on these twisted melody bits that explode like shrapnel throughout “Meat Balls” and “Tron (Brain 2)”. The strangulated howl of these demons only turns louder and more piercing on “Mad Pope” and “Satan”. On “Hell Mode”, it even morph into jabs of raw guitar dissonance. Finally, once “99 2.0”’s last notes have subsided, you’re left with the exhilarating realisation that metal game soundtracks don’t come more intense than 99 Levels to Hell. Sometimes just one half of an album is enough to provide heaven for metal heads.

01 - Knight On Wheels Dalle Oldman 03:44
02 - Big Red Dalle Oldman 04:23
03 - Spider Dalle Oldman 03:03
04 - Virus (Brain 1) Dalle Oldman 04:23
05 - Wall Worm Dalle Oldman 03:38
06 - Meat Balls Dalle Oldman 03:50
07 - Tron (Brain 2) Dalle Oldman 04:44
08 - Mad Pope Dalle Oldman 03:45
09 - Satan Dalle Oldman 04:53
10 - Hell Mode Dalle Oldman 02:09
11 - 99 2.0 Dalle Oldman 04:53

Extreme Bike Trip Soundtrack

Extreme Bike Trip Soundtrack, Big Giant Circles, 2013

Extreme Bike Trip – both game and soundtrack – are a product of the era of digital technologies. Both are short, sharp blasts of fun that precisely know their purpose. Before the dawn of digital distribution channels, it’s unlikely they would have seen the light of day as standalone releases. They also never pretend to be more than what they are – but within their limited scope of ambition, they achieve everything they’re aiming for.

As a game, Extreme Bike Trip is based on an exceedingly simple mechanic. Race with your bike from left to right, tilt your bike forwards and backwards to not lose balance, and pick up gas canisters to make it as far into the race course as possible. Review site 148Apps nicely summed the game up as “simply a fun way to spend a few minutes”.

That’s also the perfect description for the Extreme Bike Trip soundtrack, courtesy of Big Giant Circles (aka Jimmy Hinson). His work on this score continued his collaboration with developer Roofdog Games. Hinson had previously worked with them on Pocket Mine and the Extreme Road Trip franchise. Of course, Hinson had been active in the game music scene long before. He had started out in 2004 as a contributor to game music remix website OCRemix. In 2009, Jack Wall recruited Hinson to contribute music to blockbuster title Mass Effect 2 – most definitely a high-profile debut for a former game music hobbyist. While Hinson is one of the few indie game composers to have also worked on AAA titles, the majority of his output underscores smaller-scale games such as Extreme Bike Trip.

The crackling chiptunes dance pop that he fills the Extreme Bike Trip soundtrack with shares the game’s virtues. Ignoring some short filler tracks, Extreme Bike Trip clocks in at just over ten minutes. However, its music does all it can to make these few minutes an experience jam-packed with fun. Of course, Hinson’s trademark musical style combining chiptunes with contemporary electronics is the perfect sound for a retro racing game.

Stylistically, the Extreme Bike Trip soundtrack continues and refines Hinson’s work on Extreme Road Trip 2. Vigorous dance beats underpin exuberant chiptunes melodies, with the odd hard rock riff thrown in for good measure. With no time to lose, “Extreme Bike Trip Theme (In The Zone reprise)” gets the blood pumping straight away. It quickly marries modern electronic rhythms with a chiptunes melody drunk on endorphines. With its unpredictable arpeggio progressions, the melody feels like it can hardly contain its giddy enthusiasm. The track’s second melodic idea is a more focused creation, keeping its sights firmly on the finishing line.

“Kinetic Jumps” amplifies this adrenaline-charged happy-go-lucky feeling. Here the Extreme Bike Trip soundtrack makes its clearest reference to 1990s four-on-the-floor techno. Against a bed of crashing, bouncy techno beats and claps, Hinson pits soaring chiptunes pop melodies. In this rhythm-heavy environment, the melodies take on an anthemic, instantly head-bopping quality that serves the music’s purpose: to give gamers both a rush of excitement and the heroic feeling that they are able to keep control of their vehicle at ever higher speeds. Both fun and triumphant, “Kinetic Jumps” cleverly calms down during its last third before revving up again for the loop. And while Extreme Bike Trip might not be a ‘big’ game, its music never feels less than lushly arranged. Sample the range of arpeggios that Hinson uses to flesh out the soundscape at the treble end on “Kinetic Jumps”.

Finally, “Pop A Wheelie” boasts the Extreme Bike Trip soundtrack’s most intricate and rewarding arrangements. Now, the beats move away from straightforward techno. Instead, they follow a knotty, intriguing trajectory mirrored by an elastic, bassy synth melody. The break beats’ increased complexity finds its match in “Pop A Wheelie”’s greater melodic range, covering a soaring guitar solo as well as a rhythmically accented chiptune melody that puts emphasises every single one of its staccato notes, as if to really hammer home how powerful and awesome it is.

All this is mere preparation for the track’s unstoppable finale though. At 3:35, “Pop A Wheelie” breaks into the album’s most stunning moment. Hinson piles layer upon layer of ecstatic, wobbling melodies and synths sky-high like there’s no tomorrow, reaching higher and higher until the music turns into a small super nova of blissfully united electro and chiptunes colours. The Extreme Bike Trip soundtrack finishes soon after it begins, but it sure does end with a bang.

01 - Extreme Bike Trip Theme (In The Zone reprise) Big Giant Circles 2:06
02 - Kinetic Jumps Big Giant Circles 4:11
03 - Pop a Wheelie Big Giant Circles 4:33

Pocket Mine Soundtrack

Pocket Mine Soundtrack, Big Giant Circles, 2013

As much fun as it can be to analyse a piece of music, drill down into what things make it work or not, explore its sources of inspiration and so forth, there’s also the simple joy of getting caught up in a song that is just so irresistibly fun that all critical thinking takes a backseat for a moment. Big Giant Circle’s Pocket Mine soundtrack delivers precisely that sort of feeling with the aptly titled “That Diamond Smile”. The track also perfectly demonstrates how this soundtrack manages to draw upon the strengths derived from its 8-bit influences and enhances them by mixing in contemporary elements.

All that “That Diamond Smile” requires for success is the catchy little chiptunes ditty that opens the track. In what feels like the blink of an eye, things escalate, harmonies start building up, the tempo increases and what we then hear is a much broader, full-bodied rendition of the initial tune on soaring chiptunes synths. Suddenly, it’s one of the most memorable, joyful melodies ever written for a retro video game. Throughout the cue, the melody pushes higher and higher, until it returns for one final, fantastically joyful appearance. The insidiously catchy tune is a testament to Big Giant Circles’ (aka Jimmy Hinson) stature as a master tune smith.

What’s equally beyond doubt is Hinson’s ability to structure and arrange his tracks for maximum impact. The melodies that Hinson fits in between appearances of his lead tune are anything but B side material and together with the lushly arranged beats and arpeggios, they saturate “That Diamond Smile” in boundless fun. What it all adds up to is simply perfect chiptunes pop.

It’s hard to imagine music that inspires gamers more emphatically to have just one more go at that level, one more try to break their high score. As such, it’s the perfect accompaniment for Pocket Mine (the game). After all, it’s one of those mobile games using one simple gameplay idea to create an accessible, focused gameplay experience. Dig as deep as you can before your pick breaks, collect items to upgrade your digging tool – and start again. Like for developer Roofdog Games’ other 2013 title Extreme Bike Trip, Hinson writes the sort of music that keeps players on their toes and energised all the way through the game, honoring the gameplay’s arcadey nature and retro inspiration.

Given Pocket Mine’s limited scope, its surprising how much of a cohesive arc its score album creates. “Pocket Mine Menu” opens the Pocket Mine soundtrack with an infectiously carefree, strutting rhythm, coupled with a charming chiptunes melody straight out of a late-era Game Boy platformer. The entertaining groove is happy to go nowhere in particular, but still looks forward to the adventure ahead. It’s obvious that “Pocket Mine Menu” keeps the Pocket Mine soundtrack in a holding pattern – but it makes that spot an entertaining place to be in.

After that, things quickly take off to the skies with “That Diamond Smile”, but where to go from there? “Inverted Vertigo” finds a good answer. Largely shedding Pocket Mine’s chiptunes influences, its assortment of electronics is grittier than what other tracks deliver. More urgent than the rest of the soundtrack, “Inverted Vertigo” is happy to undercut its initially ascending melody with dissonant chords that bring the music’s enthusiasm tumbling down to the ground. Things are turning serious and the game over screen beckons, but then cascading silvery arpeggios begin to rain down. They lead “Inverted Vertigo” to an exhilaratingly busy close that pushes gamers onwards. Whether it rushes them towards success or failure is up to the player.

Then it’s time for the Pocket Mine soundtrack to wind down. “What’s Pocket Mine Is Pocket Yours” is far more relaxed than previous tracks, with a laid-back high score screen-feel. Once more, a simple but deliciously addictive pop melody rendered on chiptunes instruments leads the way. For a change, rhythmic backing now comes mainly from a rock drum kit as opposed to electronic beats. The lead melody feels a bit wistful, ready to to wave goodbye. But as on “That Diamond Smile”, the tune keeps building until it gets to go out on an exuberant high.

In contrast to this easy-going atmosphere stands album closer “Tally Up the Loot”. Heavy synth bass chords dominate a decidedly electronic soundscape with more head-nodding rhythms than “What’s Pocket Mine Is Pocket Yours”. “Tally Up the Loot” is the album’s least melodically involving track, but that’s a relative measure of course. The Pocket Mine soundtrack has one big smash single, but it’s also much more than a one-hit wonder.

01 - Pocket Mine Menu Big Giant Circles 3:26
02 - That Diamond Smile Big Giant Circle 4:25
03 - Inverted Vertigo Big Giant Circles 3:28
04 - What's Pocket Mine Is Pocket Yours Big Giant Circles 4:00
05 - Tally Up the Loot Big Giant Circles 3:55

TowerFall Ascension Soundtrack

TowerFall Ascension Soundtrack, Alec Holowka, 2014

Created by Alec Holowka’s friend Matt Thorson, multi-player brawler TowerFall proved to be a hit with gamers and critics. In 2014, Thorson ported TowerFall as TowerFall Ascension over to the PlayStation 4 and other systems. Essentially, Ascension is an upgraded version of TowerFall, and this time the music received a dedicated soundtrack release on Bandcamp.

What luck, because TowerFall Ascension delivers some of the most creative Western game music ever written. The game’s visual retro stylings and simple yet addictive gameplay would have suggested a chiptune soundtrack. On the other hand, Ascension’s fantasy trappings could have easily resulted in yet another late-romantic orchestral score. Holowka eschews both these options. What he comes up with instead is a head-spinning concoction that combines rock, orchestral and electronic elements with such virtuosity that the TowerFall Ascension soundtrack rivals the best works of Falcom, Gust and CAVE – or a classic fantasy-themed genre merger like Matt Uelmen’s Torchlight II.

There’s so much happening in Holowka’s spirited compositions that easy categorisations or definitive genre descriptions are bound to fail. Constantly adventurous and sprightly, Ascension’s pieces never stay in one place for very long. That’s partially due to the caleidoscopic instrumentations which challenge listeners to unpack the compositions’ luscious, unusual layers. There’s a wintry feel to Ascension, with its spacious acoustics and wealth of tinkling melody leads and light metal percussion. Ultimately, listening to TowerFall Ascension feels like looking into a crystal that refracts light into constantly fascinating arrays of colours.

The fact that the TowerFall Ascension soundtrack recalls an impressionistic glimpse into a stunning fantasy world isn’t just due to its imaginative orchestrations. The busyness of its instrumental colours matches the restlessly moving musical material. The driving force of most compositions is a never-ending variety of short, snappy rhythms and melodic phrases. They imbue the compositions with an at times frenetic, but always playful energy. Importantly though, the music never feels frantic or rushed. No matter how many dramatic ensemble hits, staccato figures and light-footed crescendi Holowka packs into every corner of his tracks, the TowerFall Ascension soundtrack flows with perfectly planned purpose – animated, grooving and often perfectly danceable. TowerFall Ascension is a masterclass on how you can write action game music that doesn’t have to rely on big melody arcs or build ups, and instead dazzles because of its endless parade of rhythmic and timbral ideas.

The resonant acoustics and stunningly creative musical colours are part of Holowka’s recasting of the fantasy score mould. Yes, this is music that is vastly quirkier than your standard orchestral fantasy score. It also doesn’t overwhelm listeners with grand melodies, choral outbursts or similar bombast. But listen to the album’s more classically-minded compositions and you’ll discover music that seems to evoke a winter wonderland of magic and heroes battling each other under starry skies. Take “Frostfang Footslip”, its exquisite dual violin leads mixed with familiar action devices like string ostinati and pressing electronic beats. Try “Flight”, the album’s lightest composition – poppy yet delicate – or “Bloodline”. Its folksier roots subtly make themselves heard in the track’s stomping rhythms and near-singalong melodies.

It’s on the less conventional compositions which bookend the TowerFall Ascension soundtrack though that this score stuns. These ceaselessly eclectic compositions are an absolute riot, with few peers in the game music canon. Just listen to “Den of Thieves”, which opens with a wooden percussion groove and funky synth bass, both backing a head-bopping bassoon melody. These relatively quiet passages alternate with anthemic 1980s synth staccati that recall classic game music of that era. The enthusiastic final chorus manages to drag fantasy score music onto the dance floor.

“Beastly Boogie”’s heavy, trotting funk swagger is no big surprise, given the sleek electric bass work on many other compositions. But the way Holowka once more seamlessly mixes contemporary elements like funk and grungy guitars with orchestral elements to craft another fantastically fun piece doesn’t cease to impress. The most mind-boggling invention of all might be “Dance of the Sun Gods”. Through what must be a particularly odd kind of magic, solo violin, sitar, Casio keyboards, consciously fake vocals and Latin brass fanfares mix with salsa rhythms to create what sounds like a Caribbean cruise through a psychedelic version of the Twilight Zone.

In many ways, the TowerFall Ascension soundtrack is a creative triumph. Maybe its most striking achievement is how it stakes its claim for game music as a genre all of its own, with a unique musical identity – an identity that at the same time can be hugely eclectic, with boundaries that are only waiting to be redrafted and expanded. It can be easy to get nostalgic about the time when chiptunes gave game music its own, unmistakable sound. But as TowerFall Ascension demonstrates so impressively, there are still myriads of ways to explore and define what ‘game music’ sounds like.

01 - Legends Alec Holowka 1:02
02 - Backfire Alec Holowka 4:24
03 - Dark Destiny Alec Holowka 3:30
04 - Den of Thieves Alec Holowka 3:33
05 - Dance of the Sun God Alec Holowka 4:24
06 - Frostfang Footslip Alec Holowka 4:17
07 - Flight Alec Holowka 4:09
08 - Bloodline Alec Holowka 3:10
09 - True Form Alec Holowka 2:19
10 - Fallen Fade Alec Holowka 2:33
11 - TowerFall Alec Holowka 2:49
12 - Omens Alec Holowka 3:44
13 - Serpent Hymn Alec Holowka 4:44
14 - Creation Myth Alec Holowka 3:23
15 - Beastly Boogie Alec Holowka 3:44
16 - Rapture Alec Holowka 3:25
17 - The Archives Alec Holowka 2:04