The Greatest Game Music

Reviews of truly outstanding game music

99 Levels to Hell Soundtrack

99 Levels to Hell Soundtrack

99 Levels to Hell Soundtrack, Dalle Oldman, 2013

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

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After Burner Soundtrack (FM Towns)

After Burner Soundtrack

After Burner Soundtrack (FM Towns), Norio Hanzawa / Hiroshi Kawaguchi, 1989

Sega’s After Burner was such a smash hit in arcades that the game was ported to an astonishing number of console and home computer platforms. Of course, thanks to the power of After Burner’s X-Board arcade technology, none of the contemporary ports matched the original game’s sense of speed and visual fireworks. In some cases – such as the European C64 release – one might argue that developers should never have attempted a port in the first place. Out of all the many adaptations of After Burner, the FM Towns version came closest to matching the arcade original – not a surprise, given the platform’s powerful hardware that bested contemporaries like the Sega Genesis or the PC Engine.

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Alpha Squad Soundtrack

Alpha Squad Soundtrack

Alpha Squad Soundtrack, Stemage, 2011

On the Alpha Squad soundtrack, Stemage – founder of metal band Metroid Metal – faced the same challenges as many artists who made their name in the game music arrangement scene and now embarked on their first original soundtrack. No longer able to rely on other composers’ works, can the new material still meet heightened expectations?

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Battletoads & Double Dragon Soundtrack (SNES)

Battletoads & Double Dragon Soundtrack

Battletoads & Double Dragon Soundtrack (SNES), David Wise, 1993

In 1993, the Battletoads franchise was in a slightly curious spot. The 1991 NES original had been successful enough to spawn several ports. There was also Battletoads in Battlemaniacs, a SNES (and later Sega Master System) game that ultimately felt like a remix of the 1991 NES title. So where to next for the burgeoning, but not quite yet established franchise? Publisher Tradewest had released Battletoads on several platforms and held the home license for the venerable Double Dragon franchise. Why not combine two forces of nature in one amazing game? The match seemed to be an entirely natural one, given that Kevin Bayliss, co-designer of Battletoads, was a big Double Dragon fan.

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Battletoads Soundtrack (Arcade)

Battletoads Soundtrack (Arcade)

Battletoads Soundtrack (Arcade), David Wise, 1994

The final entry in the Battletoads franchise also happens to be one of its less well-known ones. Electronic Arts made a rare attempt at releasing an arcade game, publishing Battletoads as a coin-op, three-player beat’em up. It’s hard to say how successful or not the game was, but no console ports ever saw the light of day. And so, three years after the release of the original NES Battletoads game, the franchise was laid to rest – at least until E3 2018.

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Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack

Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack

Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack, Yoko Kanno, 1998

After a somewhat rocky start (that initially didn’t even see all episodes screened), Cowboy Bebop went on to become one of anime’s cultural milestones – on both sides of the Pacific. Setting itself apart from almost anything else produced for TV animation in either Japan or the USA, Cowboy Bebop merged disparate genres and visual styles in ways that helped the series introduce many new Western viewers to anime. Its cross-cultural appeal was partially due to its use of tropes familiar to Western audiences – Western, pulp fiction, film noir and cyberpunk (all within a space opera setting). Shinichirou Watanabe’s creation turned out to be popular enough to spawn a movie sequel and feature on many ‘best of’ lists in the years that followed.

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Final Soldier Soundtrack

Final Soldier Soundtrack

Final Soldier Soundtrack, Masakatsu Maekawa, 1991

There’s no doubt that one of the TurboGrafx-16’s strengths was its stellar line-up of shoot’em ups. However, that also meant any developer who decided to throw their hat in the ring would find it harder to stand out from the crowd. Hudson Soft should have been well-placed to hit the target with Final Soldier, their third entry in the Star Soldier franchise and successor to commercial and critical success Super Star Soldier. Alas, Final Soldier offered little that other shoot’em ups hadn’t already brought to the table. Contemporary reviews agreed that this Japan-only release delivered the polish expected from a Hudson Soft shoot’em up. At the same time, a lower difficulty level meant that the game was over relatively soon for experienced players. A solid, well-designed game rather than a great one, seemed to be the general conclusion.

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Formula 1 Soundtrack

Formula 1 Soundtrack

Formula 1 Soundtrack, Mike Clarke / Stuart Ellis, 1996

If you developed a racing video game in the mid-90s, there was apparently little choice other than to score it with electronic beats. And few companies knew this rule as well as Psygnosis. After all, they actually helped write this musical law with their enormously successful Wipeout franchise. Those games helped to take video game soundtracks into the mainstream like few other titles before.

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MUSHA Soundtrack

MUSHA Soundtrack

MUSHA Soundtrack, Toshiaki Sakoda, 1990

It’s safe to say that Compile’s well-regarded Aleste series reached its pinnacle with 1990’s MUSHA for the Sega Genesis. It ranks as one of the 16-bit era’s best shooters, with lightning-fast gameplay, an immensely challenging difficulty level and some of the most breathtaking visuals ever seen on the Genesis – all the more impressive considering that MUSHA was a first-generation title. What really helped to set the game apart was its visual style. Feeling that MUSHA had to differ significantly from its franchise predecessors, the developers came up with an unusual mix of sci-fi tropes and traditional Japanese lore. As a result, your flying mecha shoots super-charged electric shurikens while facing off against enemies like robotic ninjas and Japanese castles on tank treads.

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Raiden DX Soundtrack (PlayStation)

Raiden DX Soundtrack

Raiden DX Soundtrack (PlayStation), Go Sato, 1997

Raiden DX is the perfect example of why it got difficult keeping up with the Raiden franchise and its music at some stage. The game is effectively an updated version of Raiden II, making it the strongest entry in the franchise’s classic period. Recycling levels from Raiden II and mixing in completely new stages, Raiden DX presents its content via three different courses players can take. One is essentially a reprise of Raiden II. The other two modes consist of one massive level and of a whole new set of stages that increase Raiden II’s already considerable difficulty level. A full three years after its 1994 arcade release, Raiden DX received a PlayStation port that added more bonus goodies, including new options and a demo of developer Seibu Kaihatsu’s puzzle game Senkyu.

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T2: The Arcade Game Soundtrack (Sega Genesis)

T2: The Arcade Game Soundtrack

T2: The Arcade Game Soundtrack (Sega Genesis), Matt Furniss, 1993

Game developers certainly didn’t pass up the opportunity to make the most of the blockbuster juggernaut that was Terminator 2: Judgment Day. At the time the third-highest grossing movie worldwide (behind Star Wars and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), James Cameron’s work prompted numerous video game adaptations. In fact, when Midway ported their arcade rail shooter Terminator 2: Judgment Day to home consoles, they had to change its name to T2: The Arcade Game, to differentiate it from the already existing T2 games. That didn’t stop Midway Manufacturing Company from porting the game to as many platforms as possible – even to those that don’t seem like obvious candidates for a rail shooter (the Game Boy?)

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The Path Soundtrack

The Path Soundtrack

The Path Soundtrack, Jarboe / Kris Force, 2009

One effect of the resurgence of the indie game scene from the second half of the 2000s onwards was the proliferation of titles that questioned the received knowledge of what actually constitutes a game. An early example of this emerging type of work was The Path, a reframing of the Little Red Riding Hood tale. The Path turns the classic fairy tale into an exploration of female sexuality and the painful process of growing up.

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The Terminator Soundtrack (SEGA CD)

The Terminator Soundtrack (SEGA CD)

The Terminator Soundtrack (Sega CD), Tommy Tallarico, 1993

Discussing Tommy Tallarico’s contribution to video game music can be a frustrating undertaking. On the one hand, there’s no doubt that he has helped to popularise game music like few others artists. His Video Games Live concerts have been a tremendous success, bringing game music to huge live audiences. On top of that, Tallarico has been instrumental in giving game composers better representation in the music industry through the foundation of G.A.N.G. (Game Audio Network Guild).

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Total Eclipse Soundtrack

Total Eclipse Soundtrack

Total Eclipse Soundtrack, Burke Trieschmann, 1994

The 3DO wasn’t around for long enough to produce many classic soundtracks exclusive to the system, or which at least germinated there first. However, do some digging, and you’ll come across a few hidden 3DO music gems. One of those pleasant surprises is Total Eclipse. While not a system exclusive like Zhadnost: The People’s Party, Total Eclipse first saw the light of day on the 3DO before being ported to the PlayStation a year later – with markedly less full sound, making the 3DO soundtrack far superior. The game itself wasn’t much to write home about, seemingly only turning heads in 1994 because of its (back then) spectacular 3D graphics. The dull, repetitive space shooter gameplay found few fans, and by the time the essentially unchanged PlayStation port appeared in 1995, the once shiny coat of paint had definitely faded.

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Zhadnost: The People’s Party Soundtrack

Zhadnost: The People's Party Soundtrack

Zhadnost: The People’s Party Soundtrack, David Govett / Joe McDermott / Weston Phelan / George Sanger, 1995

Zhadnost: The People’s Party is one of those games that could have only emerged in the mid-1990s – that heady time when CD-ROM technology was still fairly new and game developers were trying to figure out what do with it. Often enough, the extra storage space would simply be filled up with a Red Book audio soundtrack (The Terminator). Other developers discovered their cinematic ambitions and turned their games into wannabe-movies and full motion video bonanzas. Zhadnost: The People’s Party more or less follows that second approach, but it uses FMVs to realise its very particular vision of a whacko communist game show whose contestants compete for their freedom after having been kidnapped by the totalitarian nation of Bizarrnia. Yes, they don’t make them like they used to.

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