The Greatest Game Music

Reviews of truly outstanding game music

Heroes of Might and Magic III Soundtrack

Heroes of Might and Magic III Soundtrack

Heroes of Might and Magic III Soundtrack, Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero, 1999

After Heroes of Might and Magic II‘s unprecedented operatic splendour, the composing team of Paul Romero, Rob King and Steve Baca faced a problem when they tackled the franchise‘s next soundtrack: where to go from here? Heroes of Might and Magic II found its approach by amplifying its predecessor’s ambitions and scale. As a result, it rocketed past other Western game soundtracks at the time into uncharted territory. Repeating the same strategy – going grander – for the Heroes of Might and Magic III soundtrack wasn’t an option. After all, how much bigger can you go than full-blown operatic grandeur?

What was Romero, King and Baca’s answer to this dilemma then? In a nutshell, they play it safe on the Heroes of Might and Magic III soundtrack. This is not an envelope-pushing work like its two predecessors. Instead, Heroes of Might and Magic III is nothing more and nothing less than a really great fantasy score, with all the stylistic trappings one would expect from the genre. It’s a less dazzling, extrovert work than Heroes of Might and Magic II. However, its melodic beauty and orchestrational finesse still tower above the vast majority of fantasy scores.

This elevated position is largely due to the same strengths that already characterised Heroes of Might and Magic II. Orchestral textures are lush and lovingly shaped, with an acute ear for effective counterpoint. Cues develop marvellously well and pack stunning amounts of diversity into two minutes of running time. And above all, the score’s greatest strength is its ever reliable, never ending flow of beautiful melodies. It’s all these qualities that make Heroes of Might and Magic III‘s adherence to genre stereotypes entirely forgivable. At every turn, it fills the fantasy formula with life and excitement.

Heroes of Might and Magic III Soundtrack

It helps that the music’s textures feel a bit less crammed than on Heroes of Might and Magic II. Romero tempers the youthful exuberance that saw him tossing as many ideas as possible into the castle themes on Heroes of Might and Magic II. This time around, he sounds more relaxed. Equally, he’s keenly aware of how to create elaborate compositions that give their ideas and melodies enough room to breathe. Romero also returns to a methodology he used on Heroes of Might and Magic. Once again, he structures his castle themes as variations of a motif or melody. This helps to further smoothen out the compositions’ flow.

Despite its less dramatic air, this soundtrack doesn’t give up the sense of scale and emotional diversity that Heroes of Might and Magic II had accomplished. On the Heroes of Might and Magic III soundtrack, Romero, King and Baca once more manage to seamlessly mix a wealth of disparate atmospheres and colours into coherent compositions. This trait is particularly obvious on the album’s darker tracks. These pieces, despite all their Gothic demeanour, have an underlying playfulness that ties them in with the soundtrack’s bright mood. Even the gloomy depths of “Town – Dungeon” remain quite light-hearted with their traipsing string and brass rhythms, and a moody oboe melody on top. Similarly, “Town – Inferno” does a tremendous job at balancing the blithe sounds of a music box and a bouncy woodwind melody with the requisite ominous string tremoli and commanding brass.

This absorbing melange of moods is evident on many of the less sombre compositions as well. “Town – Fortress”‘s charming opening escalates unexpectedly into a grandiose episode. Full of building horn chords and driving violin and woodwind figures, the piece reaches its climax through a soaring motif. “Town – Tower”, the soundtrack’s longest composition, is even better. In fact, it’s the entire franchise’s best developed composition, and the apogee of the variation form Romero deploys. Taking elegant triple meter rhythms as its basis, “Town – Tower” moves through a ravishing wealth of melodies, moods and textures.

Heroes of Might and Magic III Soundtrack

Where the Heroes of Might and Magic III soundtrack manages to surpass its brilliant predecessor is with its terrain tracks. These are now more similar in style to the castle themes – lavish and full-bodied rather than sparse and introvert. This makes for a more seamless, if also less surprising album flow. Once more, the compositions’ melodies and textures never cease to amaze. “Terrain – Underground” and “Terrain – Water” are impressionistic tone idylls, completely enrapturing and addictive in their sheer beauty and lushness. “Terrain – Swamp” features a cheeky, tumbling bassoon figure that remains charmingly unfazed by the oppressive, humid string atmosphere around it. Similarly, “Terrain – Rough”‘s flute melody has an intensely yearning, aching character that highlights how much more melodic the terrain tracks are this time around, more clearly defined and less drifting – if at the same time also more indebted to fantasy scoring conventions.

Ultimately, what listeners are left with is the perfect starting point for any score fan new to this venerable franchise, and a must-have for every fan of gorgeously orchestrated game music.

  1. 01 - AI Theme I Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 0:47
  2. 02 - AI Theme II Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 0:52
  3. 03 - AI Theme III Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 1:57
  4. 04 - Campaign Theme - Armageddon's Blade Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 2:20
  5. 05 - Evil Theme Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 1:34
  6. 06 - Good Theme Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 1:18
  7. 07 - Main Theme Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 1:14
  8. 08 - Neutral Theme Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 1:40
  9. 09 - Scenario Victory Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 1:14
  10. 10 - Secret Theme Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 1:10
  11. 11 - Terrain - Dirt Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 2:07
  12. 12 - Terrain - Grass Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 2:02
  13. 13 - Terrain - Lava Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 1:53
  14. 14 - Terrain - Rough Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 2:15
  15. 15 - Terrain - Sand Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 2:01
  16. 16 - Terrain - Snow Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 2:02
  17. 17 - Terrain - Swamp Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 2:27
  18. 18 - Terrain - Underground Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 1:55
  19. 19 - Terrain - Water Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 1:54
  20. 20 - Town - Castle Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 2:35
  21. 21 - Town - Conflux Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 1:24
  22. 22 - Town - Dungeon Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 2:17
  23. 23 - Town - Fortress Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 1:59
  24. 24 - Town - Inferno Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 2:17
  25. 25 - Town - Necropolis Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 2:34
  26. 26 - Town - Rampart Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 2:47
  27. 27 - Town - Stronghold Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 2:21
  28. 28 - Town - Tower Steve Baca / Rob King / Paul Romero 3:46

 

Heroes of Might and Magic Soundtrack (PC)

Heroes of Might and Magic Soundtrack

Heroes of Might and Magic Soundtrack (PC), Paul Romero, 1995

Few game scores start with a gesture as confident as the Heroes of Might and Magic soundtrack. Opening “Barbarian (Theme for Louis XIV)”, a harpsichord presents an almost rushing motif that already creates a dense soundscape. But clearly, the composer wants to take things further. Soon, a growing number of instruments join the harpsichord figure, playing the motif as a fugue. This continues until a whopping five different voices simultaneously perform in counterpoint. The resulting passage is of a structural complexity not previously encountered in Western game music.

On a purely musical level alone, it makes for a striking start to the album. But this display of compositional bravado is even more important from another point of view. This is a composition that wears its ambitions proudly on its sleeve. The piece doesn’t waste a second to proclaim that this is music of substance, demanding to be taken seriously. In other words, this is a game soundtrack that self-consciously styles itself as “Art”.

Looking at the history of orchestral Western game music, this vision distinguishes the Heroes of Might and Magic soundtrack more than one might think. Certainly, by 1995, there were already many ambitious orchestral Western game scores out there. However, their role models usually came from within film music. This goes back all the way to 1990’s Wing Commander, whose soundtrack emulated the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises’ music. Heroes of Might and Magic looks elsewhere for inspiration, and arguably sets its sights even higher – classical music and its time-honoured, hallowed aura of gravitas and import. In this regard, it bears similarities to Jun Nagao‘s Romance of the Three Kingdoms IV.

Heroes of Might and Magic Soundtrack

Where did this outburst of ambition come from? As it turned out, from a source that was both expected and surprising: Paul Romero. Before he was introduced to Heroes of Might and Magic‘s Sound Director and future serial collaborator Rob King, Romero had never played a video game. A former child prodigy, Romero had already performed around the world as a classical pianist before the age of 15. Graduating from the world-famous Conservatoire de Paris, Romero had dropped out of music performance after finishing his musical training. After working in various random jobs, it was Heroes of Might and Magic that brought him back to music.

Romero’s background easily explains the Heroes of Might and Magic soundtrack’s character. Few artists had previously thought of applying classical music’s conventions to the realm of video game music (although one shouldn’t forget The Dig‘s Wagnerian inspirations, also released in 1995). Romero – deeply knowledgeable about classical music composition and refreshingly unaware of game music conventions – was clearly happy to merge games and classical music. The result set a new benchmark for sophistication, density and maturity of orchestral writing in Western game scores.

But that wasn’t the only reason that the Heroes of Might and Magic soundtrack kicked off one of game music’s most revered franchises. For starters, Romero has a knack for penning drop-dead gorgeous melodies. The score’s melody lines are a constant pleasure, as elegant, refined and graceful as one would hope for, considering Romero’s classical inspirations. His melodies are also catchy. That’s not a characteristic one would usually associate with classical music, where melodies don’t often present themselves as hummable tunes. But it’s Romero’s Baroque inspirations make themselves felt here, if maybe in a slightly unexpected way. Heroes of Might and Magic‘s melodic material usually consists of relatively short figures, as is common in Baroque music, helping the melodies to instantly hook themselves into listeners’ memory banks.

Heroes of Might and Magic Soundtrack

And thankfully, Romero makes the most of his beguiling melodic creations. He structures his longer tracks around variations of a melody particular to each cue. Romero treats these variations with as much meticulousness as all other aspects of the music. They are not just repetitions of a once established motif, but instead they rework and elaborate upon the original material. Once more, it’s a procedure derived from classical music and when implemented as well as on the Heroes of Might and Magic soundtrack, it imbues the music with a sense of continuous development previously not found on Western game music compositions.

The focus on melodic variations also allows Romero to develop his compositions’ textures and moods in masterful fashion, while maintaining their structural coherence. For example, “Knight”’s opening maintains “Barbarian (Theme for Louis XIV)”’s light-hearted Baroque attitude and adds a more regal, stiff attitude. A beautifully long-spun oboe solo develops the track’s melodic material. After that, the melody passes to the uillean pipes, calling from a far-distant hill top above the moors. “Sorceress” almost plays like a miniature harpsichord concerto, mixing the playfulness of earlier pieces with a dash of mystery. “Warlock” is just as elaborately constructed, but its woodwind soli and string harmonies are sharper and harmonically more ambivalent.

Heroes of Might and Magic is a work that doesn’t outright revolutionise the Western fantasy game score genre, but certainly takes it to the next level. That is, before Heroes of Might and Magic II would magnify almost everything that is great about this soundtrack, and land in unprecedented territory.

Conversion notes

Greg Turner’s conversion of the original Heroes of Might and Magic score for the 2000 Game Boy Colour port does manage to maintain some of the melodic beauty that makes Romero’s work such a pleasure to listen to. Unfortunately, Turner also has to greatly shorten Romero’s compositions, to the point where many tracks loop after just 30-45 seconds – not enough time for this kind of classically-inspired to make its full impact.

  1. 01 - Barbarian (Theme for Louis XIV) Paul Romero 3:47
  2. 02 - Title Paul Romero 1:27
  3. 03 - Knight Paul Romero 4:28
  4. 04 - Sorceress Paul Romero 3:16
  5. 05 - Win Paul Romero 1:05
  6. 06 - Busy Paul Romero 1:06
  7. 07 - Warlock Paul Romero 4:30
  8. 08 - Campaign Paul Romero 1:13

Homeland Soundtrack

Homeland Soundtrack

Homeland Soundtrack, Hayato Matsuo, 2005

Nintendo’s GameCube wasn’t blessed with a vast number of system exclusives – and what made the situation even more frustrating was that many games were only released in specific territories (out of the nearly 650 GameCube titles, only 281 ended up on store shelves in Japan!) As a result, there’s not a huge number of hidden GameCube treasures waiting to be unearthed – but those that do exist can be particularly obscure and little-known. Case in point: Homeland, an online RPG by Dragon Quest developer Chunsoft, was only released in Japan. It proved innovative in several ways – one of only four online games for the system, it was the only GameCube title where the console acted as a server. And instead of allowing parties of just four (like the GameCube’s Phantasy Star Online), Homeland let players band together in groups of up to 36!

Looking at the game’s simple, if charmingly naive visuals, it’s not difficult to understand why Homeland didn’t leave Japanese shores, considering it was released only a year before the next console generation hit the market. Consequently, most gamers missed out on Homeland’s delightful soundtrack by Hayato Matsuo. Considering that Matsuo had started his career under Dragon Quest composer Koichi Sugiyama’s tutelage and that by 2005, he had composed the scores for several of Chunsoft’s Shiren the Wanderer games, it was no big surprise to see him tackle Homeland as well.

For the Homeland soundtrack, Matsuo composed just over two hours of material (looped), covering the broad spectrum of moods and emotions one would expect from an RPG score. However, Matsuo’s work isn’t consistently strong across the soundtrack. The compositions that easily stand out the most – and ultimately warrant the game’s inclusion on this site – are the score’s most carefree and easy-going pieces, which make up about 35 minutes of Matsuo’s compositions for Homeland. “Title” encapsulates the spell that these pieces weave with sparkling effortlessness. Opening with lively castanets and piano, the track introduces a spirited melody is passed on to solo violin and then to a sprightly acoustic guitar. Matsuo works with small, intimate ensembles here and elsewhere, but thanks to his orchestrational skills, he derives a beautiful richness of sun-kissed colours from his instrument combinations.

Homeland Soundtrack

“Title” is the Homeland soundtrack – or rather its most substantial portions – in a nut-shell. These are compositions that only occasionally pass the two-minute mark when looped and don’t aspire to make any grand statements or generate profound insights. Instead, Homeland charms like few other game soundtracks with delightful tunefulness and fresh instrumental colours, energised by a fair amount of melodic counterpoint and bustling activity. This is relaxed feel-good music of the best possible kind, crafted with immense care to detail while never displaying an ounce of overt effort. In some ways, Matsuo’s work here harkens back to his work during the 16-bit era, when game music compositions tended to get to the point (melodically speaking) without delay.

And so Matsuo generates a string of blithe pleasantries that vary in their approach, but never break the Homeland soundtrack’s graceful spell, bolstered by the composer’s skilful mix of folk and pop influences in his enchanting melodies. “Kaneltown” is a beautiful example of Matsuo’s ability to create tasteful, unobtrusive instrumentations – adding a subtle touch of Caribbean influences by incorporating steel drums and later layering three acoustic guitars on top of each other to achieve a rich yet light tone. “Ilmina” integrates aspiring brass chords into the nimble orchestrations without unduly weighing down the music, as the instruments’ heavier timbres organically contrast with the jovial flute ostinato underneath. “Polka Forest” has shades of bossa nova in its more complex, unusually long-spun flute melody, while “Polkatown” moves listeners with its fragile, tender flute harmonisations.

Homeland Soundtrack

It’s no surprise that a track like “Event Epilogue” closes proceedings with light dance rhythms and some of the score’s most optimistic melodies. Not all pieces have as much of a spring in their step though – instead, they’re happy to lean back and soak in the game’s joyful world. These tracks often feel earthier and more rustic than their livelier counterparts. Take “Croats”, with its pensive acoustic guitar line and nostalgic harmonica backing, carried by its simple melodic pleasures. On “Kiro”, it’s two accordions placed against gently swelling and ebbing violins that conjure up the music’s warmly welcoming mood. Still, the accordions also produce some passingly chromatic harmonies to prevent the cue from slipping into drowsy contentedness. And while much of the soundtrack feels like it’s bathed in the balmy glow of autumnal sunlight, “Valktown” and the yearning tone of its intertwining woodwind melodies seem to announce night falling.

The Homeland soundtrack is less successful when it travels into less idyllic terrain – but there are still a few tracks that tweak the score’s cheerful disposition carefully and in intriguing ways. Out of the many dungeon tracks, “Dungeon Kousyo” and “Tetunagi Dungeon” manage to incorporate other pieces’ melodic interests. “Dungeon Kousyo” does so by setting a chromatic flute ostinato against a dulcimer and a strange whining background noise, before having fun with playful chromatic woodwind harmonies. Here and on “Tetunagi Dungeon”, melodies are terser and more repetitive, with a sense of urgency and tension that is a welcome change of pace. On both “Tetunagi Dungeon” and the hushed, mysterious “Field 2”, Matsuo also cleverly adds synths to the acoustic ensemble, contrasting the score’s usually earthy tones. The Homeland soundtrack may require some curating, but it offers a short album’s worth of delectable pleasures once that work is complete.

  1. 01 - Title Matsuo, Hayato 2:16
  2. 02 - Croats Matsuo, Hayato 2:19
  3. 03 - Field 1 Matsuo, Hayato 2:09
  4. 04 - Kaneltown Matsuo, Hayato 2:11
  5. 05 - Dungeon Kousyo Matsuo, Hayato 2:15
  6. 06 - Ilmina Matsuo, Hayato 2:15
  7. 07 - Kiro Matsuo, Hayato 1:53
  8. 08 - Apricant Matsuo, Hayato 2:03
  9. 09 - Field 2 Matsuo, Hayato 2:15
  10. 10 - Valktown Matsuo, Hayato 1:45
  11. 11 - Eggshelltown Matsuo, Hayato 1:47
  12. 12 - Event Epilogue Matsuo, Hayato 2:08
  13. 13 - Field 3 Matsuo, Hayato 1:54
  14. 14 - Polkatown Matsuo, Hayato 1:54
  15. 15 - Polka Forest Matsuo, Hayato 2:00
  16. 16 - Tetunagi Dungeon Matsuo, Hayato 2:16
  17. 17 - Tetunagi Town (Softly) Matsuo, Hayato 2:28

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream Soundtrack

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream Soundtrack

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream Soundtrack, John Ottman, 1995

Point-and-click adventure games arguably reached the peak of their popularity during the mid-1990s. Not surprisingly, this period also saw the genre daring to branch out into previously untapped, darker subject matter – although whether this was always handled with the necessary maturity and taste is up for debate. The best known example of these edgier adventure games might be Sierra’s Phantasmagoria, but arguably more confronting and thought-provoking was I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.

Based on Harlan Ellison’s short story of the same name, the game presents a bleak sci-fi scenario in which a super-computer eternally tortures humanity’s final five survivors following a nuclear holocaust, simply for its own pleasure and out of infinite hatred for mankind. Having Ellison himself involved in the creation of the game made sure it featured far better writing than most other video games. However, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream suffered from some design flaws that held it back from becoming a genre classic. Still, even decades after its release, the game stands out for its unflinching look at some immensely depressing subject matter, articulated through the repugnant yet tragic life stories of the five survivors players control during the game.

Musically, the I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream soundtrack would have presented both a formidable challenge and immense opportunities. The task at hand was to underscore a very, very downbeat narrative in the understated style typical of adventure game scores – while working with a narrative and characters that were much richer than what most video games would offer. Thankfully, the developers found a composer who was more than up to the task: John Ottman, who would see his breakthrough the same year scoring and editing Bryan Singer’s neo-noir classic The Usual Suspects.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream Soundtrack

Arguably, Ottman is best known for his large-scale, near-symphonic soundtracks including some of the X-Men movies, Superman Returns and Jack the Giant Slayer. Seeing him score a gloomy mid-1990s adventure video game is a surprise, but maybe only initially. Known for grandly orchestrated work, Ottman had cut his teeth composing for movies by rescoring his friends’ student films. This likely provided him with the experience writing for the sort of MIDI instruments used on the I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream soundtrack. And it’s worth keeping in mind that several of Ottman’s early film scores were written for movies with horror aspects – particularly Snow White: A Tale of Terror. As such, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream forms a more organic part of Ottman’s output than one might think.

And while the I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream soundtrack doesn’t have Snow White’s sudden mood changes, it shares the same feeling of morbidity that seeps into every single note. Ottman makes creative use of chamber music-sized orchestrations, relying heavily on woodwinds (including saxophone) and percussion. The resulting instrumental palette produces a claustrophobic and haunting mood – but at the same time is capable of intimate expressions of regret and hope, vital to properly underscoring the protagonists’ conflicted, multi-faceted personalities.

What makes the I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream soundtrack even more intriguing is the fragmented melodic and harmonic material Ottman writes. His compositions may rarely change their languid pacing and oppressive demeanour, but they are anything but predictable. Ottman’s overwhelmingly chromatic harmonies are constantly surprising, while his jazz-influenced melody writing has a complexity and maturity rarely encountered in game scores. This is a soundtrack that demands and rewards multiple close listens under headphones to unearth its myriad subtleties. Like few other game scores, I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream keeps the emotions it conveys fascinatingly ambiguous and unstable. As such, it perfectly mirrors the murky emotional and moral state of its protagonists.

I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream Soundtrack

There’s no doubt that the I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream soundtrack feels overwhelming claustrophobic, as if underscoring a doomed search for answers in some subterranean, darkly-lit cavern. But Ottman finds individual tone colours for each protagonist to underscore their individual storyline – which has the added benefit of staving off monotony. The fact that Nimdok used to be a Nazi scientist conducting horrific medical experiments is unobtrusively, but effectively communicated by adding snare drums to the ensemble. The mock-medieval pomp and stateliness of Ted’s compositions brilliantly comments on his former life as a conman bankrolled by various rich lovers. And Garrister’s crushing guilt resulting out of an abusive marriage and institutionalisation of his wife leads to compositions dominated by disorienting percussion. Throughout all the doom and gloom of these compositions, Ottman’s melodic writing – no matter how challenging it might be at times – preserves these characters’ humanity.

The I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream soundtrack isn’t easy to embrace, but it is never cold, always keeping its emotional connection to its protagonists alive. And it’s during each character’s ‘Redemption’ tracks that these glimmers of empathy are allowed to shine bright enough to banish those demons from the past. It’s fascinating to witness how Ottman manages to steer these compositions into hopeful, sometimes even bombastic major key territory, without ever sacrificing the music’s ambiguous nature and elusive progressions. Even when “Win” celebrates the game’s (very hard to achieve) ‘good’ ending, it does so with a sigh of relief rather than jubilation, yet still builds patiently towards a grandiose conclusion that somehow feels in tune with the rest of the soundtrack. A little-known gem, the I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream soundtrack emerges as one of the most intriguing and intricate adventure scores ever written.

  1. 01 - Ellen's Exploration John Ottman 4:00
  2. 02 - Ellen's Fatal Flaw John Ottman 1:29
  3. 03 - Ellen's Redemption I John Ottman 2:30
  4. 04 - Ellen's Redemption II John Ottman 1:56
  5. 05 - Benny's Exploration John Ottman 3:20
  6. 06 - Benny's Fatal Flaw John Ottman 2:15
  7. 07 - Benny's Redemption John Ottman 2:50
  8. 08 - Nimdock's Exploration John Ottman 2:58
  9. 09 - Nimdock's Fatal Flaw John Ottman 2:32
  10. 10 - Nimdock's Redemption John Ottman 2:28
  11. 11 - Ted's Exploration John Ottman 3:04
  12. 12 - Ted's Fatal Flaw John Ottman 2:00
  13. 13 - Ted's Redemption John Ottman 2:24
  14. 14 - Gorrister's Exploration John Ottman 3:34
  15. 15 - Gorrister's Fatal Flaw John Ottman 2:33
  16. 16 - Gorrister's Redemption John Ottman 2:42
  17. 17 - Blob John Ottman 0:57
  18. 18 - Win John Ottman 5:20
  19. 19 - Credits John Ottman 5:34

I.Q. Final Soundtrack

I.Q. Final Soundtrack

I.Q. Final Soundtrack, Takayuki Hattori, 1998

Thankfully, the 32-bit era still had a place for games that were visually extremely simple yet featured addictive gameplay. One such title was 1997’s PlayStation puzzler Intelligent Qube. It was designed by Masahiko Sato, a professor and digital artist working at the Tokyo University of Arts. Controlling Intelligent Qube’s protagonist, gamers had to clear wave after wave of approaching cubes by marking spots on the stage – floating in the blackness of space – waiting for the cube to roll on top of it. Like the best puzzlers, Intelligent Qube used such an extremely simple gameplay premise – according to Sato designed within an hour – to build an engrossing experience. The result was critical and commercial acclaim – by the end of 1997, the game had sold an astonishing 750,000 copies and won the Excellence Award for Interactive Art at the 1997 Japan Media Arts Festival.

[Read more…]

Ihatovo Monogatari Soundtrack

Ihatovo Monogatari Soundtrack

Ihatovo Monogatari Soundtrack, Tsukasa Tawada, 1993

Looking at Japanese developer Hect’s gameography, it’s easy to assume they produced few titles that were in any noteworthy, instead focusing on undistinguished simulation games. But look more closely, and you’ll find Moon Crystal, a surprisingly polished NES platformer, released in 1992. And then there’s the following year’s Ihatovo Monogatari, easily Hect’s most ambitious – and unusual – release. An adventure purely built around exploration – no riddles, battles or other interruptions present – Ihatovo Monogatari was based on Japanese author Kenji Miyazawa’s writings. The game’s locations and characters drew upon several of Miyazawa’s stories, while “Ihatovo” was a made-up word Miyazawa had created to refer to a rural utopia inspired by his hometown of Iwate. Naturally only released in Japan, Ihatovo Monogatari’s distinctive nature has seen it continuously garnering praise as one of the SNES’ hidden gems.

Few of the online reviews praising Ihatovo Monogatari years after its initial release fail to mention the game’s soundtrack and for good reason, as it truly is one of the 16-bit era’s most intriguing scores. It was the work of Tsukasa Tawada, who by 1993 had already amassed a significant body of work on the NES, Game Boy and TurboGrafx. However, not much of his discography stood out much – his most substantial works so far had been Earth Defense Force, the SNES port of Dungeon Master (written with Hikoshi Hashimoto) and the aforementioned Moon Crystal. However, Ihatovo Monogatari catapulted Tawada into the limelight – his following assignments would include sound designer on the Dragon Quest franchise, before becoming one of Nintendo’s go-to composers for Pokémon games. And clearly, the Ihatovo Monogatari soundtrack still holds special meaning for Tawada, made evident by his 2019 piano arrangements uploaded to his Youtube channel.

Like for his colleagues at Hect, there must have been something about this project that inspired Tawada to go above and beyond – there really isn’t anything in his body of work that resembles the Ihatovo Monogatari soundtrack. Opening track “Title” already indicates that this score is something special. An elating violin lead proceeds with strong, regular accents, giving the melody a ceremonial, almost spiritual quality. Underneath, a lively flute ostinato bubbles along in an ear-catchingly different meter than the lead melody, while the brass provide soft chordal support. The result is music that feels simultaneously regal, welcoming and playful – a surprisingly complex mix of emotions that Tawada will mine throughout the score.

Ihatovo Monogatari Soundtrack

Indeed, his imaginative orchestrations and harmonic structures – mixed with excellent melodic sensibilities – make the Ihatovo Monogatari soundtrack such a delight. Take “Volcano Centre”, the score’s most fascinating and best-developed cue. It shares its feeling of wistfulness with several other compositions on the score, but at the same time drifts through a haze of surreal calm. Tawada perfects one of his signature techniques here that helps lend the soundtrack its peculiar character. His melodic and rhythmic progressions are fairly even and predictable – but what makes “Volcano Centre” so spellbinding are the heady chromatic intervals Tawada generates as his woodwind melodies harmonise. “Snow Passage Village” takes this approach further still, relying almost entirely on the hypnotic, repetitive melodic motion of its harmonising flute lines, which thankfully prove haunting rather than tiresome.

These pieces are a good showcase for how Tawada’s work manages to combine earthiness with hints of an otherworldly, dream-like state – very much appropriate, given the magical realism of Miyazawa’s books. Like Ihatovo Monogatari’s visuals, Tawada’s music doesn’t imbue the game with as strong a sense of surrealism as one might expect, considering the nature of their literary inspiration. However, the music still inhabits a world very few other game scores of its era do.

For example, the gorgeously pastoral melodies of “Ihatovo City” initially mark the composition as a first-rate, if stylistically typical RPG town theme. But then Tawada passes the melody to divided violins playing in their highest registers, creating a glistening string tone that subtly tweaks the music’s initially homey atmosphere into something more removed and elusive. “Kenjuu’s Village 1” uses a similar approach, cladding its plaintive harmonica lead in loads of echo – so its usually down-to-earth tone falls in line with the spaciousness suggested by the distant strings. Again, the result is a successful combination of contrasts – music that sounds lonesome yet hopeful.

Ihatovo Monogatari Soundtrack

What “Ihatovo City” and “Kenjuu Village 1” also evidence is the influence of folk and pop music on some of the soundtrack’s melodies – something that “Romantic Movie” brings to a head. The track turns out to be a country-rock ballad, with its acoustic guitar lead and deep rumbling bass. Such contemporary sounds are a surprise, but they fit very well into the Ihatovo Monogatari soundtrack’s stylistic palette that Tawada has carefully developed. “Music Festival” uses another popular musical format, this time to highlight the score’s underlying sense of nostalgia – a waltz. First heard on a play organ that evokes the carnivals of yore, the cue switches (somewhat abruptly) to an orchestral waltz, made intriguing once more by Tawada’s melodies and attention to detail. Listen to how the string pizzicati play on the third rather than first beat, keeping the often rigid rhythms of the ¾ waltz meter enticingly off-kilter.

Occasionally, the score also travels into darker regions – those places of Ihatovo Monogatari’s world that are furthest removed from the cosiness and hospitality suggested by most of the music. “Cave” wonderfully evokes its eerie location through gleaming strings and an oboe melody that sounds like a bird call echoing in the darkness. More interesting still is “Phenomenon IV”, which turns the score’s dreamy mood nightmarish through the spectral unease of its static, dissonant violin chords – and yet there are enough hints of melodicism to soften the edges of this harsh composition. Closing track “Galaxy Express” then marks a return from the unsettling beyond to the here and now, as another splendid oboe melody – leading violins and solo cello – bids farewell. And when that last nostalgic oboe note finally fades away, it’s hard not to feel that Tawada has perfectly encapsulated Miyazawa’s “Ihatovo” – the sweet yet impossible yearning for utopia.

  1. 01 - Title Tawada, Tsukasa 1:46
  2. 02 - Ihatovo City Tawada, Tsukasa 3:22
  3. 03 - Fire Stone Forest Tawada, Tsukasa 1:32
  4. 04 - Cave Tawada, Tsukasa 2:10
  5. 05 - Kenjuu's Village 1 Tawada, Tsukasa 2:22
  6. 06 - Kenjuu's Village 2 Tawada, Tsukasa 2:22
  7. 07 - Volcano Center Tawada, Tsukasa 3:49
  8. 08 - Music Festival Tawada, Tsukasa 2:58
  9. 10 - Snow Passage Village Tawada, Tsukasa 2:15
  10. 11 - Phenomenon IV Tawada, Tsukasa 2:29
  11. 12 - Galaxy Express Tawada, Tsukasa 2:33

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey Soundtrack

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey Soundtrack

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey Soundtrack, Jeremy Soule, 2009

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey arrived at the tail end of the World War II game genre’s huge popularity. As such, game music fans had witnessed many different approaches to underscoring this most devastating of armed conflicts. Especially Michael Giacchino‘s oeuvre had been a potent display of how to put war into music in various ways.

Jeremy Soule hadn’t worked on a WWII game before Birds of Prey and the same year’s Order of War. However, his fantastic action material on Total Annihilation had a militaristic ferocity and soaring momentum that made him a logical choice to score a flight combat game such as Birds of Prey. True, the game itself didn’t add anything new video games’ depiction of the clash between Allied and Axis forces. However, Soule’s IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey soundtrack found an approach both novel and rooted in the composer’s previous works.

What Soule attempts is to monumentalise the conflict he’s underscoring – even more so than Giacchino’s Medal of Honor: Frontline. In many of his previous scores, Soule displayed his classical ambitions, realised to varying degrees of success. The IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey soundtrack is Soule’s most obvious attempt to write a score in reference of classical music’s great masters. It’s a very lofty ambition, particularly for an artist whose oeuvre is characterised so often by atmospheric meanderings. However, Soule pulls off this unexpected feat and writes a work of astounding weight and import.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey Soundtrack

From “The Engagement” onwards, Soule shows that he is far more interested in achieving a sense of overwhelming awe and grandeur, rather than putting into sound the dizzying motion of combat planes darting through the skies (something that Giacchino’s Secret Weapons Over Normandy was concerned with). Birds of Prey moves at a comparatively slow pace, not trying to impress through agitated energy. Instead, it establishes a majestic presence that feels unstoppable in its heroic might. Such monumentalism comes with its own set of dangers though, as the border separating the sublime and the ridiculous is thin. Thankfully, Soule manages to stay on the right side of the divide.

What precisely is the shape of the classically-inspired sound Soule aims to emulate? Interestingly, on Birds of Prey he deviates from most other ambitious orchestral game soundtracks. These often dazzle with their complexity, be in their textures, themes or other areas. Soule walks down a different path. He bases the majority of the IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey soundtrack on constantly churning string ostinato rhythms. On top of these, he layers positively towering brass fanfares and melodies, interspersed with beautiful woodwind interludes. It’s an approach clearly derived from Anton Bruckner’s symphonies, whose influence is most clearly felt on “Theatre of the Delusionary”.

This method is a risky one to adopt. In the wrong hands, it could easily result in monotonous, dreary orchestral bombast. And it’s precisely here that Soule triumphs, as he manages to mimic his role models to perfection. In the way these compositions shape their motifs, melodies, rhythms and harmonic progressions, they do sound like the real deal – romantic orchestral works written for the concert hall.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey Soundtrack

While Birds of Prey lets the brass do almost all of the heavy lifting, this focus never becomes an issue. Soule manages to call upon a never-ending supply of genuinely rousing material. Actually, on few game soundtracks does the brass section get to shine as much as here. The difference is staggering when comparing the quality of the brass writing here to that of many Remote Control-inspired game scores, where this instrument group is often called upon to evoke drama and gravitas in disappointingly lazy fashion. The IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey soundtrack is nothing less than a master class in how to write for brass.

For proof of the enormous effect that Soule’s approach yields, head straight to “Valor and Triumph”. The piece confronts the listener with what might be the most memorable and bold theme of Soule’s career. His supremely powerful invention is a proud brass melody that has the force of a battering ram. “Valor and Triumph”, in its tremendous sweep achieved through its tidal rise and fall, points to another characteristic of classical music that Soule smartly adopts here: an unwavering sense of careful, unhurried development.

While Soule’s patience characterises the entire album, “Code of Honor” is the best demonstration of this virtue. The track builds over its entire running time from a faint choral opening and tentative French horn melody. It gradually becomes more and more emotional, before it reaches a solemn, deeply-felt climax. “Theatre of the Delusionary” paces itself equally well, quieting down after its thunderous start and building again. Still, the piece delays the big pay-off until the composition’s very end, to cathartic effect.

With this magnificently realised feeling for development also comes a true sense of dynamism, as Soule clearly realises that evocations of musical bombast also need downtimes to make their full impact. There are many examples of when Birds of Prey‘s robust action cues realise it’s best to temporarily quieten down. Take “The Hunt”, which surprises with tender passages for solo cello. It’s yet another example of the chances Soule is willing to take on this album, and the heights to which they can propel his work when he’s at his best.

  1. 01 - IL-2 Sturmovik March Jeremy Soule 3:29
  2. 02 - The Engagement Jeremy Soule 3:28
  3. 03 - The Hunt Jeremy Soule 4:05
  4. 04 - Code of Honor Jeremy Soule 4:34
  5. 05 - Rain Ghosts Jeremy Soule 3:30
  6. 06 - The Great Death Mistress Jeremy Soule 3:13
  7. 07 - Theatre of the Delusionary Jeremy Soule 5:28
  8. 08 - Chariots of Endearment Jeremy Soule 3:16
  9. 09 - Hammer of Defeat Jeremy Soule 2:41
  10. 10 - Valor and Triumph Jeremy Soule 4:45
  11. 11 - Lament for a Pilot Jeremy Soule 1:04
  12. 12 - Victory Jeremy Soule 0:41

Kameo: Elements of Power Soundtrack

Kameo: Elements of Power Soundtrack

Kameo: Elements of Power Soundtrack, Steve Burke, 2005

It’s hard to say whatever curse it might have been, but throughout the 2000s, developer Rare struggled with cancellations or lengthy delays on several of its games. This fate also befell Kameo: Elements of Power, which was in development for a full five years. Initially announced under the name of Ariel’s Quest for the GameCube, production was moved to the Xbox after Microsoft purchased Rare. Ultimately, Kameo: Elements of Power became one of the launch titles for the Xbox 360. Given its protracted development time, it was no surprise to see just how polished Kameo was, with its lavish fantasy visuals praised by nearly every critic. Views on the game’s playability and length were slightly more divided, but while Kameo didn’t manage to capture the magic of Rare’s classic Nintendo titles, it enjoyed strong enough sales and a generally warm reception.

Kameo’s graphics were not the only aspect of the game’s presentation that drew compliments – Steve Burke’s lush soundtrack was equally well-received. This was the first score that Rare decided to have recorded by a live orchestra – a decision that was made quite late during development. Composer Steve Burke chose around 80 minutes of his four hours of material written for the Kameo: Elements of Power soundtrack to be performed by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra and King’s Choir, led by always dependable orchestrator and conductor Nic Raine. The experience clearly was a positive one – the following year, Rare composer Grant Kirkhope returned to Prague to record Viva Piñata with the same ensemble.

Burke himself had joined Rare in 2001 and soon started working on the Kameo: Elements of Power soundtrack after providing additional music for Star Fox Adventures. A graduate of King’s College London and the Royal College of Music, Burke had been interested in game music since the 1980s, starting with the C64 and the Amiga. Due to Kameo’s protracted development, Burke’s work went through several changes – from MIDI to streaming audio and from a light and playful approach during the Nintendo years to something more action-based and darker after Microsoft took over. Burke publicly documented the several iterations his work went through by releasing all the music he wrote for Kameo as a free download on Rare’s website (minus the contents of the official soundtrack album).

Kameo: Elements of Power Soundtrack

In other words, there’s a lot of material to work with when compiling the strongest compositions from the Kameo: Elements of Power soundtrack. After all is said and done, there’s about an hour’s worth of first-rate orchestral scoring to be found amidst Burke’s work – a magnificent fantasy score that stands out from the glut of Western fantasy game soundtracks of the 2000s. Burke doesn’t greatly innovate here, but while he largely follows genre stereotypes, he and Raine do so with obvious skill.

Case in point: the inevitable fantasy bombast which particularly comes to dominate the latter half of the score. Beginning with “Thorn’s Pass”, Burke unleashes a string of large-scale action cues that march forward with rhythmic single-mindedness, aided by an onslaught of heavy percussion and towering brass leads. It’s the kind of monumental battle music that most fantasy game scores reach for, but so often fail to pull off successfully, due to a lack of variation and strong melodic material. What’s so impressive on “Thorn’s Pass”, “The Badlands” and “Danger in the Sky” is how composer and orchestrator retain the constant march tempi and resulting overwhelming momentum, while ensuring that their pieces never become monotonous. Instead, a cue like “Danger in the Sky” only keeps gaining in stature and drama as it adds layered choir vocals, taking the piece to what’s indeed an epic conclusion.

This strong choral component is another defining characteristic of this score. Present from the start on “Kameo’s Quest (Title Screen)”, Burke deploys choral sounds – often split into male and female voices – on several compositions. Again, the music is reaching for that imposing fantasy gravitas and once more it gets there, thanks to Burke’s skillful handling of the choral material. “Hero’s Theme (Main Theme)” features a fairly stereotypical approach, but delivers its bombast successfully, thanks to its strong melodies, admirable amount of counterpoint – and details like the clever use of minor key choral harmonies around 2:00 that help create the required sense of vast scope. Where the choir truly shines is on “A Legend is Born” and “The Legend Unfolds (End Credits Part One)”. Bringing the soundtrack’s classically-inspired inclinations to a head, these majestic pieces wring every last bit of gravitas from their solemn melody lines and expert choral counterpoint.

Kameo: Elements of Power Soundtrack

Vocals feature on the Kameo: Elements of Power soundtrack in other ways as well. Burke uses female solo voices to underscore the game’s elven protagonists – again hardly an unexpected stylistic choice, but one that differentiates Kameo somewhat still from other fantasy scores. Performed by Rare colleagues Aisling Duddy and Eveline Fischer, these delicate soli make their mark on “Elf King Solon”, “A Lament for Solon” and “Kameo’s Song (End Credits Part Two)”. Their hushed, intimate tones are a welcome dynamic change from the score’s heavier stylings, underscoring the elven’s otherworldly nature rather than their awe-inspiring might. There’s no lack of scale on these moving compositions, as Burke manages to organically build the intertwining solo and ensemble vocal lines into quasi-operatic expressions. “Kameo’s Song (End Credits Part Two)” is earthier in its approach, happy to celebrate the return of piece with a touchingly simple, calm melody line.

The Kameo: Elements of Power soundtrack differentiates itself most obviously from the competition through its location scoring. Here Burke and Raine make impressive use of the orchestra’s colours, while also throwing in some touches of quirkiness that help ground the soundtrack’s high-flying ambitions. The standout track here is easily “Forest Glade”. If Viva Pinata was modelled on Edward Elgar and Ralph Vaughn-Williams’ compositions, this is Burke doing his best Frederick Delius’ impersonation. For more than five minutes, “Forest Glade” enchants with an impressionistic, dazzling array of woodwind colours. Their harmonically ambiguous nature makes for the soundtrack’s richest and most complex piece, oscillating between idyllic, magical, forbidding and mysterious. “Dark Woods” continues this bewitching style of scoring with a greater emphasis on flowing melodies, while “Crystal Cavern” supplements its expectedly tinkling orchestrations with a delightfully rasping bassoon lead and deep string accents.

Finally, “Trainer Cave” and “Chillin’ in the Trainer’s Hut” allow Burke to indulge in more light-hearted tones – “Trainer Cave” through its tribal feel, cheeky woodwind melodies and effervescent string backing, while “Chillin’ in the Trainer’s Hut” charms as a gentle acoustic guitar ballad. These compositions round off a most auspicious scoring debut – a fantasy soundtrack that covers all the expected bases and still develops its own personality.

  1. 01 - Kameo's Quest (Title Screen) Burke, Steve 1:36
  2. 02 - Trainer Cave Burke, Steve 2:45
  3. 03 - Chillin' in the Trainer's Hut Burke, Steve 1:36
  4. 04 - Crystal Cavern Burke, Steve 2:20
  5. 05 - Elf King Solon Burke, Steve 4:23
  6. 06 - Elemental Warriors Burke, Steve 1:24
  7. 07 - Thorn Revealed Burke, Steve 1:02
  8. 08 - Hero's Theme (Main Theme) Burke, Steve 3:08
  9. 09 - Shadow Realm Burke, Steve 1:37
  10. 10 - A Lament for Solon Burke, Steve 2:14
  11. 11 - Theena's Sorrow Burke, Steve 1:33
  12. 12 - Forest Glade Burke, Steve 5:09
  13. 13 - Enter the Sacred Land Burke, Steve 2:41
  14. 14 - Lakeside Burke, Steve 1:18
  15. 15 - Fire Cave Entrance Burke, Steve 1:20
  16. 16 - Thorn's Pass Burke, Steve 2:49
  17. 17 - Dark Woods Burke, Steve 3:34
  18. 18 - Queen Thyra Burke, Steve 0:59
  19. 19 - The Badlands Burke, Steve 3:44
  20. 20 - Danger in the Sky Burke, Steve 3:08
  21. 21 - Final Showdown Burke, Steve 2:44
  22. 22 - A Legend is Born Burke, Steve 2:13
  23. 23 - Ortho's Theme Burke, Steve 4:17
  24. 24 - In the Huts Burke, Steve 2:31
  25. 25 - The Legend Unfolds (End Credits Part One) Burke, Steve 3:16
  26. 26 - Kameo's Song (End Credits Part Two) Burke, Steve 3:25

Kessen Soundtrack

Kessen Soundtrack

Kessen Soundtrack, Reijiro Koroku, 2000

Since their inception in the mid-80s, KOEI’s many historical strategy games had always been more of an insider proposition. It felt a bit like series such as Nobunaga’s Ambition and Romance of the Three Kingdoms were reserved for those gamers who were willing to spend hours parsing menus and stats, while carefully planning their next move. Several of these titles had made it to the US market but never turned into eye-catching best-sellers. That changed with Kessen, one of the PlayStation 2’s launch titles. Set once more in feudal Japan, Kessen emphasised spectacular visuals and battlefield action, attracting far more attention internationally than any previous KOEI game. Ultimately, Kessen was successful enough to spawn two sequels. However, several contemporary reviewers pointed out that the game lacked the usual complexity and depth of a KOEI strategy game, making for an entertaining but shallow experience.

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Kinect Star Wars Soundtrack

Kinect Star Wars Soundtrack

Kinect Star Wars Soundtrack, Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster, 2012

It’s curious to see how little joy music fans could derive from the soundtracks for so many Star Wars games. Often, they were ultimately compilations and adaptations of John Williams’ immortal scores – in which case, it felt like you might as well just get the real deal and buy the movie score album. Of course, there’s also a fair number of Star Wars games that came with an original score. But from Clint Bajakian’s Dark Forces to Jeremy Soule‘s Knights of the Old Republic, Frank Klepacki’s Empire at War and Mark Griskey’s The Force Unleashed titles – while they all did a competent job at replicating Williams’ signature franchise sound, the music often suffered from a significant lack of substance and felt underdeveloped.

Enter Kinect Star Wars, probably the last game one would expect to generate a decent soundtrack, given its thoroughly negative critical reception. But score collectors willing to look past the game’s deficiencies would find an orchestral score that managed the seemingly impossible. It features orchestral writing of a quality that matches Williams’ classic Star Wars film scores.

The masterminds behind this small miracle were young composers Gordy Haab and Kyle Newmaster. With credits on various TV shows, short films and direct-to-video titles, Haab and Newmaster had already worked together on Star Wars: The Old Republic (as part of a larger team of composers). While The Old Republic generated one of the better original Star Wars game scores, its quality was still sketchy.

Kinect Star Wars Soundtrack

In contrast, the Kinect Star Wars soundtrack is consistently excellent and a significant step up from The Old Republic. In fact, the biggest compliment one can make the Kinect Star Wars soundtrack is that if this music appeared one day out of the blue and was presented as another hour of previously unreleased Star Wars material by John Williams, no one would bat an eye lid – it’s that good. Haab and Newmaster do an outstanding job at recreating Wiliams’ musical mannerisms and exceedingly dense orchestral writing. At the same time, they are cautious not to overuse Williams’ established themes (a mistake the Force Unleashed scores made). Overt thematic references occur only sparsely and are never deployed to carry the music on their own.

Outside of these references, Haab and Newmaster come up with a downright scary amount of musical ideas of their own. There’s even more going on here than on an already packed-to-the-rafters score like Michael Giacchino‘s Secret Weapons Over Normandy. Keep in mind that the Kinect Star Wars soundtrack almost entirely consists of sometimes blazingly fast action material. It’s one of the most technically demanding game scores ever written and the London Symphony Orchestra acquit themselves flawlessly.

It’s a one hour non-stop thrill ride that rarely changes velocity. This makes the fact that Haab and Newmaster manage to keep the music fresh and consistently exciting positively astounding. Their handling of orchestral counterpoint and of the ensemble’s different sections is exemplary. What’s more, each composition is a perfectly shaped, fully-fledged show piece for the orchestra. The bombardment of action music never feels like a collection of ostinati and staccato rhythms, or alternatively like a sequence of rousing moments that fail to develop any sense of direction – issues that plague so much other action game music writing.

Kinect Star Wars Soundtrack

Instead, the Kinect Star Wars soundtrack is a marvel of orchestral adrenaline that still manages to pace its furious energy. As one would expect, the excitement never abates on those compositions written for the game’s racing component. Still, these pieces know when to take the foot off the pedal briefly before revving up again to overtake even immensely accomplished orchestral blitzes like Total Annihilation. Finally, the racing cues help the Kinect Star Wars soundtrack to go out with a jaw-droppingly intense finale. Closing track “Sebulba and the Boonta Eve Classic” cements this score as one of the gold standards of orchestral writing in game music.

Constant frenzy doesn’t stifle the music’s storytelling ambitions either, which are most prominent on the albums’ first eight compositions. Take “Mak Pra and the Resistance Fighters”. It builds its lumbering opening march by adding counter rhythms and fanfares until the intensity becomes almost unbearable. And then all this drops away and out of nowhere, an a capella choir enters with almost religious solemnity. Elsewhere, Haab and Newmaster provide sufficient outbursts of romantic heroism in their brass writing to make this music not just thrilling, but truly rousing.

However, the highlight of the Kinect Star Wars soundtrack are its three Rancor Rampage compositions. These accompany a game mode where players control an out of control Rancor. Here, the composers get to innovate and add a new musical facet to the Star Wars universe. By turbo-charging their already frenetic action sound with carnivalesque energy and madcap circus music rhythms, “Jabba’s Runway Rancor” and “Rejection Rampage” actually turn out to be Kinect Star Wars soundtrack’s most intense cues, nearly threatening to spin out of control at any breathless, electrifying moment. It’s the virtuoso climax of a masterful creation that is a work for the ages.

  1. 01 - Trandoshan Assault on Kashyyyk Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 2:31
  2. 02 - Take to the Speeders Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 3:35
  3. 03 - Approaching Providence Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 3:24
  4. 04 - Rescuing the Padawans Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 3:25
  5. 05 - Mavra Versus the Magna Guards Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 3:49
  6. 06 - Mak Pra and the Resistance Fighters Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 4:19
  7. 07 - Control Ship Skirmish Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 3:40
  8. 08 - The Battle over Felucia Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 3:42
  9. 09 - Jabba's Runaway Rancor Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 3:00
  10. 10 - Rejection Rampage Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 3:20
  11. 11 - Mos Espa Madness Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 3:04
  12. 12 - A Challenger Appears Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 4:26
  13. 13 - The Outer Rim Regionals Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 4:23
  14. 14 - Boles Roor and the Cloud City Circuit Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 4:18
  15. 15 - Clegg's Swan Song Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 3:32
  16. 16 - Sebulba and the Boonta Eve Classic Gordy Haab / Kyle Newmaster 4:18