Orchestral Archives - The Greatest Game Music

A-Train 5 Soundtrack

Since an internet search for screenshots of the PC version’s cover came up empty, a screenshot of the PlayStation port’s cover has been used above.

A-Train 5 Soundtrack, Koshiro Nishida, 1996

Few game series have shown as much longevity as the A-Train franchise. From the very first A-Train game released in 1985, the series gathered a reputation for delivering the most in-depth treatment of its subject matter gamers could ask for. Due to the corporate structure of Japanese railroad companies – which own all the stations, land and trains associated with the services they deliver – the A-Train games were always about more than just laying down train tracks and figuring out timetables. Instead, they were full-blown city-building simulators with a strong focus on rail infrastructure. The series was successful enough in Japan to pique the interest of overseas publishers (including SimCity’s Maxis) in the mid-1990s – although Western gamers seemed less interested than their Japanese counterparts. Thankfully, some decades later, digital distribution made it possible for franchise entries like A-Train All Aboard! Tourism to still reach Western shores.

Afrika Soundtrack

Afrika Soundtrack, Wataru Hokoyama, 2008

You wouldn’t necessarily expect that one of the best orchestral game scores of the new millennium was written for what’s essentially a photography simulator. But that’s precisely what Afrika, an early PS3 title, achieved. The game itself garnered a fair amount of pre-release hype. The prospect of traversing the majestic landscapes of the African steppes and carefully ligning up shots of its exotic animal inhabitants had a fair amount of gamers and bloggers excited at the prospect of this relatively fresh gameplay idea. Ultimately though, Afrika’s reviews were fairly polarised. Some critics enjoyed the languorous gameplay, while others felt the game lacked substance.

Thankfully, there was little such ambivalence about the quality of the Afrika soundtrack – despite its scarcity. The score was only available as a pack-in bonus when purchasing the game, presented both on CD and in Dolby 5.1 on a supplementary DVD. Still, word among film music bloggers quickly spread, each new review praising the quality of Wataru Hokoyama’s creation. In the end, Afrika won Best Video Game Score at the 2008 Hollywood Music Awards, as well as three Game Audio Network Guild Awards.

Indeed, Hokoyama’s makes a most auspicious game score debut with the Afrika soundtrack. Born in Japan and musically trained in America, Hokoyama had worked on smaller TV and film projects prior to Afrika. Luckily for Hokoyama – and listeners – the game’s developers were clearly aware of how important music would be in successfully transporting listeners to the game’s faraway setting. Developer Rhino Studios made a sufficient budget allowance to have Afrika recorded by the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Sony Pictures Studios Scoring Stage.

The money was well spent. Hokoyama writes the kind of grandly sweeping, gorgeously melodic score that soundtrack fans had more and more trouble finding in Hollywood movies around the time of Afrika’s release. According to interviews, Hokoyama’s ambition was to “make the music sound like a huge Hollywood movie score” and he definitely succeeded. As so often in these cases, John Williams’ influence – particularly of his late 80s and early 90s works – is hard to ignore. That being said, the Afrika soundtrack is less obviously shaped by this stylistic influence than say Medal of Honor and there are arguably traces of John Barry and Elmer Bernstein in Afrika’s musical DNA as well.

All these stylistic antecedents are an indication that Afrika isn’t breaking new musical ground. Ethnic instruments specific to the game’s location are somewhat sidelined. “Masai” and “Hatari” are brief percussion-only interludes that introduce some cultural authenticity to the score. However, these two cues don’t gel particularly well with the rest of the soundtrack, which is almost entirely rooted in Western orchestral styles. The two sound worlds – orchestra and local instruments – only mingle to a significant degree on “Base Camp”, one of the Afrika soundtrack’s most light-hearted pieces. Its unusual combination of timbres combines glockenspiel with various light percussion instruments. The result is a creative blend of sounds that is intriguing enough to carry the slightly repetitive track.

Otherwise (disregarding a few smatterings of percussive colour here and there), Afrika is a strictly orchestral affair. The score turns the game’s safari into an almost quaintly romantic, old-fashioned undertaking. Its stylistic familiarity invites listeners to readily marvel at the wonder of Afrika’s unusual (by Western standards) location and sights. What’s particularly striking here is Hokoyama’s brilliant handling of the orchestra. With the confidence and skill of a true master, Hokoyama makes striking use of all sections of the ensemble. He creates wonderfully colourful, dense orchestrations that carry his warmly flowing melodic material with the utmost brilliance. Particularly fun are “Savanna” and “Afrika”, where Hokoyama piles up such an amount of busy orchestral ornamentations that these turn into riotous counterpoint underlining the main melody.

Speaking of which, Hokoyama’s melodic skills are never in doubt either. Opening track “Savanna” quickly introduces the score’s main theme, a majestic, long-winded French horn melody that effortlessly evokes the wide open, awe-inspiring spaces of the African savanna. At the same time, this pastoral melody has sufficient forward motion to suggest adventure rather than just passive contemplation. Cycling through variations of the main theme, “Savanna” ends with a blast of orchestral colour and energy. It’s the most spectacular scene setter one could wish for.

The main theme returns in various disguises throughout the Afrika soundtrack, if not exactly on every track. The woodwind-heavy “Heaven” presents particularly lyrical, luxurious renditions of the theme, while “Jambo Jambo” is more animated. Here, Hokoyama graces his main theme with particularly florid, polyrhythmic counterpoint that feels like several competing musical lines playing at once. It’s as if the music can’t contain its giddy excitement, both rushing forward and clinging on to its majestic tune.

A marked contrast to the main theme and its measured progression is a secondary theme that Hokoyama introduces on “Safari”. This vigorous staccato tune has a far more adventurous streak and can’t help but recall Williams’ Indiana Jones scores in its audacious swagger. The theme – once more surrounded by wonderfully busy counterpoint – isn’t heard again on the Afrika soundtrack. That is, until final track “Afrika” uses the theme to take the score to a spectacular conclusion, pulling out every single stop Hokoyama can find within the ensemble. It’s impossible not to get swept up in “Afrika”’s whirlwind orchestral bombast that still moves lightly and with grace.

Other compositions that rely on new melodic material provide necessary variations of mood. The charmingly bumbling “Okapi” gives the Afrika soundtrack a comedic touch, with delightful writing for bassoon, trumpet and tuba that combines humorous intent with harmonic complexities. “Night Safari” predictably thins out textures and slows its string material down to a crawl, producing one of the few occasions where tension creeps into the score’s otherwise good-natured demeanour. And “Big Five” brings out a different side of Afrika’s epic tendencies with the score’s most imposing brass melody. It all adds up to what despite its short running time is one of the richest, most extravagantly orchestrated game scores ever written.

01 - Savanna Wataru Hokoyama 3:39
02 - Base Camp Wataru Hokoyama 2:56
03 - Safari Wataru Hokoyama 2:51
04 - Mission Wataru Hokoyama 1:47
05 - Jambo Jambo Wataru Hokoyama 2:02
06 - Heaven Wataru Hokoyama 2:10
07 - Okapi Wataru Hokoyama 1:29
08 - Night Safari Wataru Hokoyama 2:14
09 - Big Five Wataru Hokoyama 1:50
10 - Sunset Wataru Hokoyama 2:45
11 - Afrika Wataru Hokoyama 3:47

Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales Soundtrack

Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales Soundtrack, Yury Poteyenko, 2005

It would be easy to assume that with their quartet of pirate games, Russian developer Akella simply surfed on the coat tails of a certain Hollywood franchise and its (initially) humongous success. But Sea Dogs saw the light of day in 2000, three years before Johnny Depp made pirates cool again. And again one might assume that the title of its sequel – Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales – was an attempt to find a name that was as close as possible to Pirates of the Caribbean, without breaching copyright rules.

Aquaria Soundtrack

Aquaria Soundtrack, Alec Holowka / Ian Holowka, 2007

By 2009, the indie game resurgence had already begun to make its mark on the gaming market at large. However, indie games’ impact on game music took longer to materialise. Existing digital distribution channels like iTunes and other online music stores didn’t cater to these often tiny projects. In this environment, the release of the Aquaria soundtrack was a watershed moment for Western indie game music. At the time, a 2CD album release for a Western indie game soundtrack was unheard of. Publisher Infinite Ammo’s courage was duly rewarded. Like the game, the Aquaria soundtrack met with an enthusiastic response from critics and gamers alike.

Azkend 2: The World Beneath Soundtrack

Azkend 2: The World Beneath Soundtrack, Jonathan Geer, 2012

One of the most exciting experiences for music collectors is to come across a work that defies expectations and delivers something much more involving and satisfying than expected. Jonathan Geer’s Azkend 2: The World Beneath soundtrack is exactly that sort of album. It’s music for yet another match-3 game – a genre whose popularity soared with the advent of mobile gaming. This is not necessarily the kind of game one expects to deliver a full-bodied, lush (synth)orchestral score. However, that’s precisely what Azkend 2 achieves.

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Soundtrack

Battlefield: Bad Company 2 Soundtrack, Mikael Karlsson, 2010

Battlefield: Bad Company’s soundtrack had turned heads through the involvement of classical composer Mikael Karlsson. As a successful writer of modern (sometimes avant-garde) classical music and with an impressive body of well-received orchestral works, ballets and operas under his belt, Karlsson seemed like an unusual choice to score a first-person shooter. The link between Karlsson and the Battlefield franchise was Stefan Strandberg, sound director at game developer DICE. Friends during their study years in Stockholm, they reconnected when Karlsson moved to New York and a demo tape of his made it into the hands of Strandberg.

Bounty Sword First Soundtrack

Bounty Sword First Soundtrack, Kohei Tanaka, 1997

Before Final Fantasy Tactics’ success, releases of turn-based strategy games in the West were far and few between – most of these titles were only ever released in Japan. One such game was 1995’s Bounty Sword for the SNES. Set in the year 4093, the game nonetheless featured a medieval-themed fantasy look beautifully realised through detailed 16-bit visuals. Bounty Sword’s gameplay was a bit of an oddity though. Gamers’ input into battles was minimal – they would set their units’ strategy before the fight began. After that, all they could do was command soldiers to use special moves. Even amidst the general interest for hidden late-era SNES treasures, Bounty Sword has remained obscure – and even less well-known was its PS1 remake Bounty Sword First. Ambitiously envisaged as the beginning of a trilogy, only one sequel (Bounty Sword: Double Edge) was released.

Dead Space 2 Soundtrack

Dead Space 2 Soundtrack, Jason Graves, 2011

“The Same. But Different. Yet Better.” According to Jason Graves, those were the words that he stuck above his monitor when composing Dead Space 2. Considering the success of Dead Space’s aural aspects – two BAFTAs and a degree of media attention few game scores ever achieve – Grave’s goal was no doubt an ambitious one. Then again, no matter how ferocious Dead Space’s soundtrack was, there was room for improvement. Graves’ breakthrough work was the equivalent of a horror movie that tries to scare its audience with jump scare after jump scare. And at some stage, watching monsters leap at the protagonist for yet another “boo!” effect gets old.

Dear Esther Soundtrack

Dear Esther Soundtrack, Jessica Curry, 2012

It seems fair to say that it’s usually indie video games that push the boundaries of the medium and have gamers and audiences asking “But is it a game?” (“Is it art?” being a close second). One of these games, Dear Esther, was initially a research project at the University of Plymouth. Players find themselves on a barren island in the Hebrides and are left to explore the surroundings. Meanwhile, a male voice-over reads out random letter fragments to a woman named Esther. With no threat of death and no tasks to be fulfilled, Dear Esther instead aims to capture gamers’ intrigue simply by letting them figure out – or just interpret – the fragmented narrative, hinting at a tragedy that precedes the events in the game. Encouragingly, this experiment in digital storytelling received significant critical acclaim and was a commercial success as well.

Dragon Quest III Soundtrack (Nintendo 3DS)

Dragon Quest III Soundtrack (Nintendo 3DS), Koichi Sugiyama, 2017

While its predecessors had been immensely successful in their own right, it was really with 1988’s Dragon Quest III that the venerable franchise turned into a commercial juggernaut. The original NES game itself sold a staggering 3.8 million copies in Japan alone. Add in a few more million copies for the game’s various remakes, and Dragon Quest III turns out to be the franchise’s most successful entry (it also spawned an urban myth about the Japanese government blocking future releases of Dragon Quest games on school days to curb truancy). The game itself didn’t revolutionise the JRPG genre. However, developer Chunsoft still expanded upon the first two Dragon Quest titles’ gameplay to introduce a character class system. This feature would become a staple of future Dragon Quest games.

After Dragon Quest II’s music had markedly improved over its predecessor, Koichi Sugiyama returned for the Dragon Quest III soundtrack, further expanding its breadth and diversity. Sugiyama continued to move away from the template he had established on Dragon Quest I, including a greater number of location-specific compositions (instead of using the same composition for each town/dungeon/castle etc.) The NES score’s quality remained somewhat patchy, but the soundtrack also featured several highlights, such as the magisterial ending theme “Into the Legend”.

As previously, orchestral arrangements created and conducted by Sugiyama followed soon – first with the NHK Symphony Orchestra in 1988, then with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1996 and finally with the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra in 2005. Other versions of the Dragon Quest III soundtrack abound. The 1996 SNES remake featured a score that greatly expanded on the NES original, incorporating material from the orchestral albums. However, like the earlier Dragon Quest I & II SNES port, this remake suffered from poor sample quality that particularly gave the strings an unpleasantly hollow, glassy timbre. The 2000 Game Boy Colour port – different to the Dragon Quest I & II GBC remake – based its compositions on the NES game, not the orchestral arrangements. It improves on the NES original through its fuller timbres and remixing (prioritising melodies more clearly over the ostinato accompaniment), but still suffers from its uneven source material.

A 2014 release for mobile phones based its music entirely on the Dragon Quest III soundtrack’s orchestral versions, although its synth reproduction of the live performances was somewhat lacklustre. Finally, the 2017 Nintendo 3DS port managed to replicate the orchestral arrangements of the Dragon Quest III pieces convincingly enough (certainly outclassing the horribly encoded 2019 Switch version – there’s also the 2017 PS4 port, but no soundtrack rip seems available). In other words, at the time of writing, the Nintendo 3DS version is the best representation of Dragon Quest III orchestral arrangements.

However, Sugiyama’s work as presented in the N3DS game still sounds significantly less life-like than the orchestral recordings, although the woodwind solos tend to fare better than ensemble brass and strings. Is there much on the N3DS soundtrack that’s not already included on the orchestral recordings? The N3DS score indeed features material introduced on the game’s SNES remake that wasn’t present in the symphonic arrangements – and of course, these compositions sound far better on the N3DS than on the SNES. However, none of these pieces are truly essential. The one stand-out is “Adventure 2”, already present on the NES score. Quoting Dragon Quest I’s overworld theme, it was originally a somewhat flimsy composition. Thankfully, the N3DS arrangement turns it into a precious little gem, with its lead melody slowed down and turned into a dreamy, idyllic woodwind solo.

Still, if the N3DS score is essentially an acceptably downgraded version of the Dragon Quest III orchestral arrangements without much in terms of additional content, couldn’t we just stick with the symphonic suites? Essentially yes – there’s no reason why you would trade the live recordings for the N3DS port’s music. But what we are looking at here is music as it is used within the game – not as a separate album release (which is what the orchestral recordings are). In other words – the Dragon Quest III soundtrack has never sounded better within a game than it has on the Nintendo 3DS. As such, this port brings some of the best orchestral game music arrangements ever written back into the title that inspired them.

Indeed, Sugiyama’s arrangement of the original Dragon Quest III material turns an above-average score into a series of orchestral delights (with the odd letdown like “Gruelling Fight” and “Zoma’s Castle”). Of course, some of the NES compositions already held plenty of potential – foremost “Into the Legend”, which showed a staggering degree of melodic development that set new standards on the NES back in 1988. Sugiyama doesn’t have to try very hard to turn the already symphonically-minded piece into an orchestral showstopper that feels like the composer doing his take on the youthful vigour and swashbuckling bombast of John Williams’ Star Wars. “Castle Rondo” displayed Sugiyama’s usual knack for combining light-hearted yet regal melodies with elegant contrapuntal lines. This mix works as well on chiptunes platforms as it does when performed by an orchestra.

One thing that sets the orchestral arrangements of the Dragon Quest III soundtrack apart from the two earlier symphonic suites are Sugiyama’s significantly more creative and colourful orchestrations. His original NES compositions had already laid the groundwork for such increased variety. Take “Jipang”, which sees Sugiyama successfully replicating traditional Japanese music on the NES, making clever use of pitch bends and chromatic harmonies. His orchestral take on the same piece skilfully mixes in Western instruments such as French horns – a heady stew of instrumental colours preserved on the N3DS release. Where Sugiyama’s originality really comes to the fore is on the experimental “Phantom Ship”, which brings together several disjointed musical elements into a surprisingly coherent, eerie whole. It’s a perfect springboard for Sugiyama’s symphonic take on the same material, utilising a plethora of acerbic timbres to bypass easy descriptions of style and genre.

In other cases, it feels like the orchestral arrangements unlock the potential dormant in the NES compositions – as if this was the way the pieces were meant to sound in the first place. On the NES, “In a Town” ’s lead melody feels almost obnoxiously bouncy. Meanwhile, “Village” has a gently lilting tune that ultimately is too thin – and an intrusive ostinato accompaniment overshadows it. Listening to the orchestral takes on the same material, it becomes apparent just how much clever orchestrations can do for a piece of music. Sugiyama doesn’t change the melodic material much, happy to repeat it several times – but by cladding it in different instrumental colours on each occurrence, the melodies remain fresh and charming throughout. Meanwhile, “Village” ’s initially overbearing accompaniment turns into graceful string accents benefiting from the kind of nuanced attack and dynamics possible in a live performance.

Ultimately, the Dragon Quest III soundtrack’s orchestral arrangements – reasonably faithfully reproduced on the 3NDS port – are not the apogee of Dragon Quest symphonic suites. Still, they mark the first time the franchise’s music (by and large) achieved true greatness.

Since an internet search for screenshots of the Nintendo 3DS version came up empty, the screenshots above are taken from the Switch port.

01 - Town Sugiyama, Koichi 2:31
02 - Rondo Sugiyama, Koichi 3:29
03 - Adventure Sugiyama, Koichi 2:57
04 - Village Sugiyama, Koichi 4:00
05 - Dungeon Sugiyama, Koichi 3:17
06 - Fight Sugiyama, Koichi 1:27
07 - Temple Sugiyama, Koichi 2:50
08 - Pyramid Sugiyama, Koichi 2:25
09 - Sailing Sugiyama, Koichi 2:33
10 - Jipang Sugiyama, Koichi 2:05
11 - Phantom Ship Sugiyama, Koichi 2:00
12 - Heavenly Flight Sugiyama, Koichi 3:59
13 - Adventure 2 Sugiyama, Koichi 1:35
14 - Into the Legend Sugiyama, Koichi 2:59

Dragon Quest IV Soundtrack (Mobile)

Since an internet search for screenshots of the mobile version’s cover came up empty, a screenshot of the PlayStation port’s cover has been used above.

Dragon Quest IV Soundtrack (Mobile), Koichi Sugiyama, 2014

It is to the credit of developer Chunsoft and publisher Enix that coming off the jaw-dropping success of Dragon Quest III, they decided not to play things safe with the next game in the franchise. Instead, they went to shake things up, going so far as to turn the game’s story into a series of initially unrelated chapters that introduce the various party members – before they all come together in the final chapter. Other innovations included day and night cycles, an early artificial intelligence system to give non-playable party members combat instructions, and the choice of which characters to use in battle. Dragon Quest IV turned into another million-seller for Enix – not quite as successful as its predecessor, but 3.1 million copies sold just in Japan for the NES original is not exactly a bad result either.

Dragon Quest V Soundtrack (PlayStation 2)

Dragon Quest V Soundtrack (PlayStation 2), Koichi Sugiyama, 2004

Considering just how big the Dragon Quest franchise has always been in Japan, it was a bit of a surprise to see it landing on the SNES only in 1992 – maybe the last big 8-bit franchise to make the jump. Of course, once Dragon Quest V was released, it was another massive success for Chunsoft and Enix, selling 2.8 million copies on the SNES. Add in sales of its remakes (PlayStation 2 in 2004, Nintendo DS in 2008 and mobile phones in 2014), and the figure exceeds six million units.

Dragon Quest VI Soundtrack (Mobile)

Dragon Quest VI Soundtrack (Mobile), Koichi Sugiyama, 2015

Dragon Quest V was the first game in the franchise to hit a 16-bit platform. But while it sported one of the era’s more original and moving narratives, its presentation felt like a relatively minor upgrade over its NES predecessor. Thankfully, Dragon Quest VI fixed this particular issue. Released in 1995, Dragon Quest VI wholeheartedly embraced the SNES’ technical capacities, featuring far more detailed and colourful graphics. Players also enjoyed a much larger game world, thanks to Dragon Quest VI’s ‘real world/dream world’ set up. Development duties passed from Chunsoft on to Heart Beat, founded in 1992 by Manabu Yamana, director of Dragon Quest III-V. Needless to say, Dragon Quest VI became the best-selling game of 1995 in Japan. On top of those 3.2 million SNES cartridges, it later sold an additional one million copies on the Nintendo DS.

Enemy Zero Soundtrack

Enemy Zero Soundtrack, Michael Nyman, 1996

Few video game auteurs have left an oeuvre as intriguing – and divisive – as Kenji Eno. Eno fittingly came to prominence during one of experimental game design’s heydays – the mid 1990s. His company Warp became best known in the West for its D series of horror games: D, Enemy Zero and D2. Only very loosely connected with each other, these games proposed innovative gameplay and story ideas – arguably to various degrees of success. However, these titles did ultimately cement Eno’s name in game history for their unbridled audacity.

EverQuest II Soundtrack

EverQuest II Soundtrack, Laura Karpman, 2004

In some ways, EverQuest II ended up between a rock and a hard place. Its predecessor EverQuest – together with Ultima Online – had established MMORPGs as we know them today. That meant expectations for EverQuest II were high, to say the least. To the credit of developer Sony Online Entertainment, they released a polished product, accessible and among the best MMORPGs released up to that point. It just wasn’t the kind of quantum leap that EverQuest had been. And then World of Warcraft landed and changed MMORPGs forever. EverQuest II was ultimately far from a commercial flop – it did peak at 325,000 subscribers – but it didn’t stand a chance against World of Warcraft and the millions of subscribers it attracted. Still, EverQuest II retained a dedicated fan base, with the sixteenth expansion Reign of Shadows released in 2020, fourteen years after the base game’s release.

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture Soundtrack

Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture Soundtrack, Jessica Curry, 2015

Coming off the critical and commercial success of Dear Esther, British indie developer The Chinese Room began work on two projects: Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture. Out of the two games, the latter was no doubt the bigger undertaking, co-produced by industry giant Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4. By and large, Rapture took the same gameplay approach as Dear Esther. Gamers are tasked with walking through a deserted village, trying to piece together what happened to those who once inhabited this piece of idyllic English country side – no battles, perils or game over screens in sight. Not surprisingly, the limited interactivity within Rapture’s world wasn’t to the liking of everybody. All in all though, reviews were positive, with critics particularly pointing out the game’s strong narrative, placing Rapture on several year-end lists.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Soundtrack

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Soundtrack, Jeremy Soule, 2002

The Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets soundtrack is easily the best of Jeremy Soule‘s five scores for the franchise. It also benefits from a better album presentation than Soule’s other Harry Potter soundtracks. Only eight minutes of notable material are missing from the album release, which thankfully excises a lot of ruminative underscore. In fact, Chamber of Secrets is Soule’s most satisfying fantasy soundtrack. Yes, that’s a big claim to make, considering his work on franchises like The Elder Scrolls and Guild Wars. But Chamber of Secrets achieves a consistency of quality that Soule’s more bloated scores don’t accomplish. He doubtlessly deserved his 2004 win of the BAFTA Games Award for Best Original Music for Chamber of Secrets.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Soundtrack

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Soundtrack, James Hannigan, 2009

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix turned to be industry veteran James Hannigan’s breakthrough work – a delectably luscious orchestral game score that topped Jeremy Soule’s previous contributions to the franchise and could proudly sit aside John Williams and Patrick Doyle’s Harry Potter soundtracks. It’s no surprise then that Hannigan’s Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince soundtrack doesn’t change the winning formula. Hannigan’s follow up work is as riveting as Order of the Phoenix, but it does introduce a few noteworthy changes.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Soundtrack

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Soundtrack, James Hannigan, 2007

There is some irony to the fact that in several interviews, James Hannigan voiced his concern about film scores by default overshadowing the music written for the game adaptation. If anything, Hannigan’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix soundtrack is the opposite case. Nicholas Hooper’s movie soundtrack was largely deemed underwhelming. Meanwhile, Hannigan garnered praise for his game score that in the eyes of many was the superior work. Indeed, it hits almost all the right notes for a sweeping, yet relatable fantasy epic like the Harry Potter series. Hannigan achieves a perfect balance between humour, magic and gravitas, mixing moods and orchestral colours masterfully. The only thing missing might be a more pervading sense of adventure and romanticism. Fortunately, this is something that Hannigan would address on The Half-Blood Prince.

Hero Quest II: Legacy of Sorasil Soundtrack (Amiga CD32)

Hero Quest II: Legacy of Sorasil Soundtrack (Amiga CD32), Patrick Phelan, 1994

While it was based on a popular fantasy board game license, Hero Quest didn’t exactly set the video game world on fire upon release in 1991. Ultimately, it didn’t leave much more than a reasonably positive impression with reviewers and gamers. Still, developer Gremlin Interactive must have felt that there was enough life left in the license to squeeze out another Hero Quest game. Hero Quest II: Legacy of Sorasil was released in 1994, reusing its predecessor’s engine and isometric view. The game didn’t deliver much in terms of new ideas or innovations and consequently reaped the same muted response as the first Hero Quest. The fact that Legacy of Sorasil hit store shelves towards the end of the Amiga’s lifespan didn’t help – and its showing on the Amiga CD32 was doomed by the console’s quick demise.

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