The Greatest Game Music

Reviews of truly outstanding game music

Dick Tracy Soundtrack (Game Boy)

Dick Tracy Soundtrack (Game Boy), George Sanger, 1991

The success of Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman kicked off the first wave of comic-book movies to hit cinemas. Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy – released the following year – might have looked like it was riding on the caped crusader’s coattails, but in fact the project had been in development since the early 1980s. It turned out to be one of the decade’s more artistically and financially successful comic book movies, with its extravagant visual design drenched in primary colours still impressive decades later. Unfortunately, none of the film’s many video game adaptations – mostly for 8-bit platforms – could hope to match that kind of visual splendour.

Prolific developer Realtime Associates handled Dick Tracy’s NES and Game Boy versions – which meant gamers had another soundtrack from in-house composer George Sanger to look forward to. Interestingly enough, the NES and Game Boy ports turned out to be sufficiently different from one another to warrant one score for the NES game and another one for the Game Boy title. Of course, Sanger wrote both soundtracks, with the Game Boy one coming out on top. The NES version is jazzier, but in its adherence to that genre’s stereotypes, it’s also less interesting than the ambitious Game Boy equivalent. What also helps is that the compositions on the Game Boy score are significantly longer and more substantial than on the NES.

While the Dick Tracy soundtrack – once whittled down to its essentials – clocks in at less than 10 minutes, Sanger does his best to throw everything he’s got at these cues. “Track 01” proves right off the bat that this is not your average Game Boy platformer score – instead, the composition feels more like it was inspired by Sanger and David Govett’s “Fanfare” on Wing Commander. Like that classic earlier piece, “Track 01” cycles through a multitude of strong melodies and sections, although at a more restless pace.

It starts with a strident, yet swinging melody lead, driven by a restless, jazz-inspired bass line and smartly deployed snare drums that infuse the music with the right amount of action and tension. Other passages take this heroic mood further until we reach a bright staccato melody – before the music plunges into a grimly animated, nocturnal episode full of constantly moving, syncopated rhythms. It all leads into a fanfare finale that appropriately caps off all this cinematic drama.

The transitions between the different sections of “Track 01” aren’t necessarily very smooth – but Sanger wonderfully manages to sustain just enough coherence that these sudden shifts are breathlessly exciting rather than disjointed. “Track 02” equally benefits from Sanger’s talent to pull together disparate material into something quite thrilling. It’s an instantly striking cue, with its precariously rising, disorienting arpeggios and sharp melody fragments – always harmonised chromatically to keep the agitated music on edge. Its abrupt, at times seemingly aimless progression suggests barely suppressed frenzy, but that impression is brilliantly balanced by just enough direction and forward momentum in those stinging melody bits.

The most driven piece on the Dick Tracy soundtrack, “Track 02” never relaxes, turning into a showcase of how to pull off this kind of crisis cue on a chiptunes platform. Again driven by a jazzy bass, the piece seemingly relaxes during its slower B section. But while it’s the composition’s most melodic moment, Sanger combines the second pulse wave channel and the wave channel into dissonant background harmonies that thanks to Sanger’s unusual mix of channels creates an effectively harsh, destabilising timbre.

These two opening tracks might well constitute Sanger’s densest chiptunes work (outside of Tecmo NES Basketball’s menu theme – if only that score had more cues of such caliber). “Track 03” and “Track 04” are far shorter than their predecessors, but still deliver some noteworthy material and see Sanger further experimenting with the Game Boy’s sound channels. “Track 03” is the Dick Tracy soundtrack’s most obviously jazz-inspired cue, with some standard mid-tempo swing jazz rhythms. What makes the cue interesting is Sanger’s clever use of phasing between the two pulse wave channels to approximate the timbre of the lead saxophone, lending it an intriguingly glassy tone with some surprising glissandi effects. The cue’s only shortcoming is its brevity – it would have been fascinating to see Sanger further explore the unusual timbres he creates.

“Track 04” closes proceedings with a reprise of “Track 03”’s melody – before it suddenly morphs into a triumphant single pulse wave channel lead that proudly heralds victory. While the melody is memorable enough, the real interest lies in what Sanger does with the other three channels. He lets them all fire away as he tries to create as many notes and textural density as the hardware allows, to the point where it all becomes a hyperactive, impenetrable wall of sound – that still doesn’t overwhelm the melody lead. The Dick Tracy soundtrack might be over fairly soon after it started, but Sanger makes sure to compress as many ideas and tricks as he can into its brief run time.

  1. 01 - Track 01 Sanger, George 3:22
  2. 02 - Track 02 Sanger, George 3:14
  3. 03 - Track 03 Sanger, George 1:02
  4. 04 - Track 04 Sanger, George 1:05

Donkey Kong Land 2 Soundtrack

Donkey Kong Land 2 Soundtrack

Donkey Kong Land 2 Soundtrack, Grant Kirkhope / David Wise, 1996

When Donkey Kong Country was released on the SNES in 1994, it was hailed as a technical marvel that very few people would have expected to see on the ageing hardware. When Rare released a Game Boy port called Donkey Kong Land a year later, jaws hit the floor again. How could those Silicon Graphics workstations-rendered 3D sprites possibly translate to the monochrome Game Boy display? Turns out it was possible to bring those pre-rendered graphics to the 4-bit platform – although the result was visually overly busy and impacted gameplay.

One year later, Rare released Donkey Kong Land 2 – the Game Boy port of Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest. This time, the developers had figured out how to keep the visuals less cluttered and the game more playable. True, reviewers pointed out the lack of original content – DKL2 was more or less a straight port of DKC2. However, the SNES original’s outstanding gameplay qualities made the Game Boy version one of the system’s best platformers.

While the game itself didn’t offer much that was new, it definitely marked one beginning: that of composer Grant Kirkhope’s tenure at Rare, which would yield several classic game scores. Having played trumpet and guitar in British bands for years, Kirkhope connected with Rare through his friend Robin Beanland (who was looking for a guitar player for Killer Instinct 2). Five demo tapes later, Kirkhope landed the job at Rare, just as the company was about to become huge after Nintendo bought 49% of it.

After his work on Killer Instinct 2, Kirkhope was handed what he described as “the lowest job, which was the Game Boy job”. That job – Donkey Kong Land 2 ­– turned out to be almost overwhelmingly daunting, to the point that Kirkhope considering resigning from his job. While he had help from David Wise, working in hex while porting one of the SNES most cutting-edge scores to the humble Game Boy was an enormous challenge. It all worked out fine though, with Kirkhope saying that “I actually enjoyed it in the end, and it became a sort of challenge to see how far I could push the Game Boy.”

And yes, the Donkey Kong Land 2 soundtrack does push the Game Boy. It isn’t one of those whizz-bank Game Boy scores that appeared towards the end of 1990s, which coaxed an ungodly amount of musical activity and competing melody lines out of the hardware’s four channels. But the soundtrack does manage something quite astounding: it retains a good amount of the SNES original’s atmospheric richness and variety – and of course, its melodic beauty. For a first-time composer working with a platform and programming language he hadn’t used before, it’s an amazing accomplishment – even if Kirkhope was working off Wise’s material.

While converting DKC 2’s music to the Game Boy might seem like a fool’s errand, the SNES score is arguably the most melody-focused of the first three DKC soundtracks – and thus the best candidate for a chiptunes port. Not surprisingly, Kirkhope foregoes Wise’s carefully sculpted soundscaping and – by necessity – puts the focus squarely on the soundtrack’s melodies.

Assessing his work on the Donkey Kong Land 2 soundtrack, Kirkhope modestly stated that what he did was “a straight conversion of the music that Dave Wise had written note for note.” That’s not entirely true – just listen to Kirkhope’s version of “In a Snow-Bound Land”. On the SNES, this was the soundtrack’s wispiest, most fragile track. Kirkhope manages to retain the lead melody’s dreamy, lilting quality, despite the Game Boy’s fairly coarse timbres. He also isolates an arpeggio figure that was subtly present on the SNES track and gives it a much more prominent role, moving it into the foreground where it helps create the composition’s almost hypnotic quality. This sort of careful rearrangement and working with the Game Boy’s few duty cycles to give melodies the desired character is certainly more than a simple note by note conversion.

Other wonders of subtlety like “Stickerbush Symphony” and “Bayou Boogie” yield equally enchanting results on the Donkey Kong Land 2 soundtrack. “Stickerbush Symphony” might lack its original tinge of mystery, but its air of blissful serenity still comes across, just like the melodies’ contemplative beauty. On “Bayou Boogie”, Kirkhope replaces Wise’s layers of sound effects and textures with sustained deep chords to maintain the original’s oppressive atmosphere. The resulting brooding mood only serves to highlight the lead melody’s wistful nature all the more effectively. Other tracks like the jazzy “Snakey Chantey” are more obvious candidates for a successful translation to the Game Boy, thanks to its reliance on swinging rhythms and melodies, rather than gorgeous atmospherics.

Due to the Game Boy’s gritty noise channel and snare drum-like percussion, the Donkey Kong Island 2 soundtrack inevitably puts greater emphasis on heavy rhythms – a challenge when the original SNES score was such an understated work. Once more, Kirkhope does an outstanding job at working successfully within the Game Boy’s limitations, generally ensuring that the noise channel percussion and stronger arpeggio presence doesn’t interfere with the melodies. “Hot-Head Bop” is more of a bop now than it was before, but the greater rhythmic focus only serves to put the spotlight on the original’s impeccable groove. And the mid-90s techno of “Disco Train” makes for a mid-tempo stomper that retains the SNES composition’s variety of beats and melody bits – and its eerie undertones.

The fact that these compositions and their hardware-induced heaviness are more in-your-face than Wise’s SNES tracks even works in the favour of some cues. The undercurrent of tension that ran through the original versions of “Lockjaw Saga” and “Flight of the Zinger” explodes on the Game Boy, turning these compositions into much more outwardly dramatic compositions. Particularly “Lockjaw’s Saga” grabs listeners’ attention from the first second with its hammering percussion salvos. Again, Kirkhope does much more than simply converting Wise’s composition note by note. He strips away the layers of the SNES track and keeps exactly the right elements to turn the cue into a rousing chiptunes epic with cinematic intent and lush arpeggios. Like the game itself, the Donkey Kong Land 2 soundtrack stands on the shoulders of its big brother – but that doesn’t stop it from being one of the best in class, judged on its own merits.

  1. 01 - Welcome to Crocodile Isle (Map) Grant Kirkhope / David Wise 1:07
  2. 02 - Lockjaw's Saga (Ship Hold) Grant Kirkhope / David WiseGrant Kirkhope 1:49
  3. 03 - Snakey Chantey (Ship Deck (Swamp)) Grant Kirkhope / David WiseGrant Kirkhope 1:40
  4. 04 - Bayou Boogie (Swamp) Grant Kirkhope / David WiseGrant Kirkhope 1:54
  5. 05 - School House Harmony Grant Kirkhope / David Wise 1:45
  6. 06 - Flight of the Zinger (Zinger Hive) Grant Kirkhope / David Wise 2:33
  7. 07 - Hot-Head Bop (Lava Caves) Grant Kirkhope / David Wise 3:28
  8. 08 - Stickerbush Symphony (Bramble Maze) Grant Kirkhope / David Wise 3:51
  9. 09 - Disco Train (Amusement Park Roller Coaster) Grant Kirkhope / David Wise 3:33
  10. 10 - Boss Bossanova (Boss Battle) Grant Kirkhope / David Wise 1:13
  11. 11 - Krook's March (Castle) Grant Kirkhope / David Wise 3:37
  12. 12 - In a Snow-Bound Land (Ice Caves) Grant Kirkhope / David Wise 2:39
  13. 13 - Crocodile Cacophony (Final Battle) Grant Kirkhope / David Wise 1:53
  14. 14 - Donkey Kong Rescued (Ending & Staff Roll) Grant Kirkhope / David Wise 1:56

Monster Max Soundtrack

Monster Max Soundtrack

Monster Max Soundtrack, David Wise, 1994

Sometimes the universe (or at least video game publishers) work in mysterious ways. On paper, Monster Max should have been a success – not a million-seller (few isometric action adventures on the Game Boy were), but still a game that would deliver respectable sales figures. Its pedigree was impeccable – a collaboration between Rare and the duo of Jon Ritman and Bernie Drummond. Both parties had created genre classics in the 1980s – Rare with Knight Lore, Alien 8 and Nightshade, while Ritman and Drummond (inspired by Knight Lore) were the men behind Batman and Head Over Heels. Ritman had just finished work on a development system that Rare used for many of their games and he decided to start work on a Game Boy title.

Upon “release” in late 1994, Monster Max then went on to garner outstanding reviews from critics, setting itself up for success as the Christmas season was approaching (Rare’s other contender for that period was of course Donkey Kong Country). However, there’s a reason for the quotation marks around ‘release’. While publisher Titus officially released the game in 1994, it only produced copies that would hit store shelves a full ten months later, effectively burying the game it was distributing for no discernible reason. By mid-1995, everybody’s attention had of course moved on to the new 32-bit platforms and Monster Max was largely forgotten – although its quality ensured it retained a dedicated, if small following.

Just as Rare was about to expand its sound team beyond the talents of David Wise, he delivered his final chiptunes classic with the Monster Max soundtrack. The creative process seems to have been fairly straightforward. Asked how Ritman collaborated with Wise, Ritman responded that “it was more or less a case of me phoning him and asking for music/sound effects and him sending it too me.” As with Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll, the musical direction for the game had been set before a note of music was written. After all, this was a game about rock ‘n’ roll guitarist Max, who had to complete his training as a hero to topple the evil King Krond, who has banned all music on Monster Planet.

Monster Max Soundtrack

In other words, chiptunes rock awaits – and this time it’s the heavy kind, as opposed to the more swinging rock of Snake Rattle ‘n’ Roll. The Game Boy’s crunchy sound lends itself well to this sort of stomping, riff-driven rock. What’s still surprising though is how much heaviness Wise manages to induce into the Monster Max soundtrack, as he teases a fantastic amount of powerful rhythms out of the Game Boy’s sound chip. Throughout the score, he gets to indulge in the earthier rock tones of the NES Battletoads’ “Title Screen / Opening”, which that soundtrack largely dropped afterwards (and the Arcade Battletoads went for metal rather than hard rock).

Given the stylistic connections to other classics in his discography, it’s obvious that Wise knows how to successfully pull off this sort of music. “Track 1” draws in listeners with its up-tempo rhythms and crashing chords. The electrifying cue also introduces Wise’s penchant for determined, anthemic melody leads that have an propulsive sing-along quality to them – what better music for an aspiring rock hero? And as one would hope, Wise’s tracks play like rock instrumentals that seamlessly flow from one section to the next.

The Game Boy’s sound limitations pose some challenges when working with as specific a sound palette as Wise does here. However, his talents allow him to write a wealth of material that’s sufficiently varied (not to mention vigorous) to overcome this potential hindrance. “Track 2” is at least initially more groove-based and lighter, as it eases gamers into a title whose difficulty can be immensely challenging (it’s a Rare game, after all). “Track 3” is more focused, all plodding rhythms, stripped-back melodies and memorable riffs that exude raw energy.

Monster Max Soundtrack

Wise’s expert use of the noise channel is another strong point of the Monster Max soundtrack, creating convincing ad lib drum fills and licks that give the music an energising spontaneity. And on “Track 4”, Wise contrasts an insisting bass pulse with a high-pitched melody line that floats above the chugging rhythms and their marching stride. The cue’s contrasting timbres successfully put the spotlight on just how memorable (and just a bit pop-inspired) Wise’s memorable, proud melody lead is.

Thundering hard rock often enough has a grim gravitas. As a result, the Monster Max soundtrack never sells the conflict between Max and King Krong as anything less than an epic (if grooving) battle. “Track 5” brings these more ominous ambiences to the fore with swelling bass notes and a sinister chromatic melody, wrapped in cleverly implemented echo effects that give the music foreboding scale. Once again, Wise uses this sombre start as an opportunity to play with tonal contrasts – the melody that now enters is the soundtrack’s most grandstanding, almost triumphant moment. Focused squarely on the bass register, “Track 6” ups the ante further with the soundtrack’s most driving rhythms and heaviest riffing. The cue successfully creates a massive sound that is relentless and yet melodic, bringing the atmosphere built up throughout the soundtrack to a head.

If anything, “Track 7” is even more intense, adding urgent arpeggios and almost industrial rhythms. This mix turns denser still with melodies that are now intricately layered, maintaining the soundtrack’s strident yet catchy nature. After all that, “Track 8” feels like little more than an uplifting, head-bopping ditty – but it’s a welcome bit of sunshine after what has been an intense but rewarding trek through the halls of the Mega Hero Academy and its myriad challenges.

  1. 01 - Track 1 Wise, David 1:38
  2. 02 - Track 2 Wise, David 2:37
  3. 03 - Track 3 Wise, David 3:27
  4. 04 - Track 4 Wise, David 2:11
  5. 05 - Track 5 Wise, David 2:35
  6. 06 - Track 6 Wise, David 1:46
  7. 07 - Track 7 Wise, David 2:30
  8. 08 - Track 8 Wise, David 0:46