Simulation/Strategy Archives - Page 2 of 2

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Soundtrack

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy Soundtrack, Ron Jones / Brian Luzietti, 1997

The Star Trek: Starfleet Academy soundtrack is a prime example for how – and why – the conventions of Hollywood film music have been so deeply ingrained in orchestral game music right from the start. Star Trek: Starfleet Academy was part of the short-lived craze surrounding games based on full-motion videos in the mid-1990s. And if your game looks like a film, it makes sense to also make it sound like a film.

And so, developer Interplay decided to use a live orchestra to record Starfleet Academy‘s soundtrack. In 1997, this was quite a novelty. Still, a live orchestra was integral to capturing the Star Trek franchise’s trademark romantic spirit of bold spacefaring. Interplay even went one step further and hired Ron Jones to write the Star Trek: Starfleet Academy soundtrack. Jones had done outstanding work on Star Trek: The Next Generation and would be able to maintain the Star Trek franchise’s characteristic sound.

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Taikou Risshiden V Soundtrack

Taikou Risshiden V Soundtrack, unknown composer, 2004

There’s no doubt that Koei’s most prominent franchises of historical war simulations are Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Nobunaga’s Ambition – both of them spanning several dozen games and ports. However, Koei worked through this particular subject matter in other games as well, for example the Taikou Risshiden titles. The first game in this particular franchise – almost unknown outside of Japan – was released in 1992 for PC-98, Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis. The series continued up until Taikou Risshiden V, which saw the light of day in 2004 – and apparently concluded the franchise. The Taikou Risshiden games set themselves apart from other Koei history simulations through their sandbox-style gameplay that gave players greater freedom in choosing their path to victory. For example, available job classes included not just samurai but also pirates, merchants and blacksmiths, while gamers were free to roam the game’s world at their leisure.

Musically speaking, the Taikou Risshiden franchise had always held promise, but ultimately failed to make waves – despite renowned anime composer Michiru Oshima scoring the first game in the series early in her career. Finally, the Taikou Risshiden V soundtrack managed to unlock the potential that lay dormant in these games, producing one of the best orchestral PS2 scores that charms listeners with an exquisite wealth of melodies and colours. Unfortunately, there’s no information in the English-speaking parts of the internet about who composed the music – and while the game’s Wikipedia page details a score album, such a release isn’t confirmed by any other sources such as VMGdb.

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Total Annihilation Soundtrack

Total Annihilation Soundtrack, Jeremy Soule, 1997

There’s no doubt that real-time strategy games peaked in popularity during the second half of the 1990s. Their commercial success was kickstarted by the hugely popular Command & Conquer and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness. For a few years, RTS games were all the rage (not that the genre is dead now). As a result, a glut of similarly-themed products soon hit the shelves. Differentiation – either by quality, innovation or style – became paramount for more ambitious developers.

Total Annihilation was the lucky case of differentiation through all those three markers. It didn’t rewrite the rule book, but made many tweaks that updated genre conventions in smart ways. And while its look wasn’t too different from the hordes of Command & Conquer clones, its music easily stood out. For that, gamers could thank Jeremy Soule, who back in 1997 wasn’t yet the star composer he is now. To set the game apart, Soule proposed a live orchestral soundtrack – nearly unheard of in 1997.

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Victoria II Soundtrack

Victoria II Soundtrack, Andreas Waldetoft, 2010

Throughout the years, Andreas Waldetoft has been consistently churning out pleasingly melodic scores for Paradox Interactive’s history-themed strategy games. Titles like Europa Universalis III and Europa Universalis Rome showed promise during their moments of unrestrained melodicism. Unfortunately, various issues held these scores back from entirely fulfilling their promise.

It is on the Victoria II soundtrack that Waldetoft finally reaches his artistic peak. His music has always been best when allowed to wallow in its lyricism and meandering prettiness. The secret ingredient are Waldetoft’s beguiling melodies, which often manage to cover over the general thinness of his material. What’s usually more problematic is Waldetoft’s action material. Less melodic in nature, it can’t fall back on mellifluous instrument lines and can sound repetitive, if still competent.

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Viva Piñata Soundtrack

Viva Piñata Soundtrack, Grant Kirkhope, 2006

There was a time when Viva Piñata was touted as one of the fledgling XBox 360’s most important franchises, even accompanied by a tie-in television show. Ultimately, Viva Piñata didn’t go down in game history as anything close to a gamechanger or a classic like some of developer Rare’s previous titles. Still, the game’s colourful graphics and fairly novel gameplay – essentially it’s a first-person life and gardening simulation – left a positive enough impression with reviewers and gamers. In fact, the feedback was strong enough for Rare to release a sequel titled Viva Piñata: Trouble in Paradise, giving the developers the opportunity to implement features they had to leave out of the first game due to time pressures.

The story of who ended up writing the music for Viva Piñata is somewhat typical for Rare games, in that composers ended up working on several projects at once, swapping scoring responsibilities in the process. Initially, Steve Burke was tasked with creating the Viva Piñata soundtrack, with veteran Grant Kirkhope doing sound design. Once Burke got busier with Kameo: Elements of Power though, Kirkhope was asked to take over the music for Viva Piñata as well. In the process, Kirkhope used material he had previously composed for the aborted Dream project on the Nintendo 64 (which later morphed into Banjo-Kazooie).

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