When I did my retrospective on video game architecture, I
naturally started to think about other forms of media that I’ve experienced in
the gaming world. Topics like ‘story
interpretation’ and ‘aesthetic choice’ came up, but I felt that when it comes
to influences sound design and music has been the most prominent example
outside of architecture. If one was to
think that architecture influenced my career choice and interests; music opened
me to new genres and ways to use instruments while finding ways to find
similarities when meeting new people.
The selection of music I want to talk about today is a
mixture of OST’s (original soundtrack) and licensed titles that I feel continue
to be relevant in this day and age.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2:
Hill Top Zone
The music from such titles as Sonic, Zelda and Mario has drilled melodies into heads of children and adults alike, making them instantly memorable with a healthy dose of nostalgia. From the title screen jingle to the ‘swing-like’ presentation of Casino Night, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 creates a great mix of tunes fitting into the backdrop of each zone. At first, I didn’t really known which tune to mention here but as I thought about it more, the upbeat chimes of Hill Top zone won out against the undertones of Mystic Cave.
Hill Top zone’s tone to me has a feeling of an ‘easy-going/upbeat’
nature that one feels previously in Casino Night with a natural backdrop of
mountains being circulated by wispy clouds.
It’s the sort of tune I could imagine listening to while in transit that
unknowingly gets your head bobbing with a smile casually breaking through. I have heard those who compared it to a
country / folk song (with particular note towards the intro sections) which I
can agree with, but the steps in melody during the chorus section give it a
dynamic true to the Hill Top environment as the player traverses the level
through a series of see-saws and moving platforms. This zone for me was the transition between
the easier early zones (Green Hills => Casino Night) and later challenging
levels (Mystic Cave => End) and I feel the music in question reflects this
change. Mystic Cave after Hill Top has a
spooky undertone that presents an unknown enemy so that’s why I feel this transition
is appropriate. This is why Hill Top
zone’s tune sits at the top of my thoughts of this era of my very early gaming
life.
Total Annihilation OST by Jeremy Soule
With the advent of the family’s first home computer, my
interest in games slowly moved into the PC space to where nowadays it’s my
primary gaming platform. At this time, I
had a friend of mine whose dad played quite a few different PC games. This list included MechWarrior, StarCraft,
Unreal Tournament to name a few but the first that perked my interest was
Cavedog’s RTS title Total Annihilation.
TA felt special because of the wide range of things that could be done
that I wasn’t able to do playing command and conquer on my PSX. Setting behaviours and independent build
orders for factories felt amazing while the maps had a fantastic mix of small
skirmishes and massive all-out warzones.
Regardless of the gameplay, one of the most memorable things from this
game was the soundtrack and its ability to fit the situation perfectly with
music that I had never attempted to listen to.
These days, an orchestral is of course quite often to the point where it
can sometimes meld into the background, but being introduced to this fantastic
score by Jeremy Soule at a young age just added to the grandness of the battle
so that the volley of bombers was met with a similar explosion of sound from
the orchestra. If I was to pick a
favourite, it would have to be track #4 (WarPath) as it a song for battle that
has its own build up that other ‘battle’ music from the score don’t match up
for me. This choice may also be done to
me choosing to have this song play when the ‘auto’ option for music stopped
working one day for some reason, but there’s a reason why I wanted to hear this
tune.
Being open to the view that classical / orchestral music is
for me and not some tired, old-fashioned genre only for the posh has allowed me
to enjoy a great deal of its music as time has gone on. I have followed Mr. Soule onto other games
like Oblivion, Skyrim and Guild Wars 2 but others like Harry Gregson Williams
with the Metal Gear Solid franchise have done a great deal to show the world
how much material video games have to offer.
Dave Mirra’s
Freestyle BMX: Social Distortion - Don’t Drag Me Down
Don't Drag me Down via Spotify
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| A part of the wider extreme sports titles at the time. Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/ |
These last three songs all fit under a similar banner, but I
thought I’d start with the one that I experienced first. When this game came out, I was about to 11
and nearing the quintessential time to be different and start taking note of my
views against others (aka being a teenager).
Things like growing out my hair came later, but sometime around this
period my music reflected that of a more typical ‘rock’ vibe listening to bands
like Good Charlotte and Linkin Park where I could be stereotypical in a whole
new way (haha). Extreme sports games
have a dual interest for me as one; it featured a nice mixture of skill based
gameplay and alternative culture and two; the soundtracks featured a lot of
rock to play along to that I could fumble an air guitar to in-between tricks
and passing the controller for HORSE (score attack mode).
Anyway, Dave Mirra’s Freestyle BMX isn’t one of the names
that usually comes up in this genre (especially as it competed with Matt
Hoffman being supported by neversoft) but it featured that much loved rock
soundtrack for me to play along with. I
can’t really remember much from the soundtrack, although there is one that I
will always put my finger on as a song that probably kept me playing past the
point where the game was enjoyable. Don’t
Drag me Down by Social Distortion had all that I wanted; distorted guitars
being played in an angry tone with a voice that sound like he had been down but
never out. It reflected the desire to
try and get the harder challenges as I didn’t want to be beaten with this song
becoming an anthem of sorts to keep me trying.
The other thing (and probably the more important reason why it stuck for
me) is that it didn’t fit into the typical angst rock but felt more like a guy
talking about his ongoing life experiences.
In essence, it was positive rock for me (if one can say such a thing)
and remained strongly in my mind until I rediscovered them in my later teens
some 5-6 years later with Guitar Hero.
The song was Story of My Life and now I own most of the albums. I hope to see them live one day but being
outside the US that is a bit difficult.
Regardless, here’s to a mediocre game giving me one of my favourite
bands to listen to of all time.
Tony Hawk’s Pro
Skater 3: CKY - 96 Quite Bitter Beings
96 Quite Bitter Beings via Spotify
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| Mid-trick for the player while the rift from CKY blares out. Image from http://en.wikipedia.org/ |
Pro Skater 3 came out a year later on the PlayStation but I
didn’t really get to play it until a year or so afterwards at a friend’s house.
During this time, I got to play many
rounds of HORSE and heard its range of Motorhead and Ramones alongside the more
typical Alien Ant Farm. Although I would
say that Blitzkrieg Bop is a fantastic tune that is instantly recognisable, my
time playing single player was often met with the ‘out of the blocks’ punch
that 96 Quite Bitter Beings brought to the table. That intro rift that repeats multiple times
during the song was all I wanted to hear while playing Pro Skater 3 because it
felt like the song made me play better and score those brilliant combos needed
for some challenges. I didn’t care for
the lyrics or the tone of the band’s concept; it was just those rifts that I
wanted to hear again and again. To give
a similar example outside of the gaming world, I would say the ongoing rift to
Seven Nation Army by the White Stripes has the same effect to a lot of people I
grew up with.
Unlike SocialD, CKY never became a band I wanted to hear
more of. That maybe down to not going
out to look for them or that they didn’t come up again in a game, but they didn’t
perk my interest beyond the rift of 96.
I did actually get to see them live a couple years ago at Sonisphere,
Knebworth, but I did kind of feel lost until they finished up with 96 and I
heard that rift again in real life.
Aggressive Inline
Skating: Reel Big Fish – Sell Out
Sell Out via Spotify
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| I only played a demo, but Reel Big Fish made it a great time to be had. Image from Google search |
I only ever got a demo for this game, but my god did I play
the hell out of this demo for hours on end.
This was a skating game like any other, but it had mild progression with
its mechanics; allowing the player to improve their ability to move, jump,
twist and grind through performing relevant tricks. Looking back on it, it was obviously grinding
for grinding but it’s easy to see why progression has become such a significant
part of games these days because of the amount of time I sunk just into a demo
that I could save my progress on.
Because I played this so much, I naturally got to listen to
its music a lot which featured a mix of ‘rocky’ tunes that had a nice mix of
instruments and tones about them. There
was however one tune that stood out beyond the rest in the form of a little
Ska-Rock piece by Reel Big Fish.
Sell Out was great for me because it added the dynamics of
brass instruments into the equation without losing the regular feel of guitars
and drums that I grew accustomed to. It was
happy, upbeat and had character that allowed the rest of the soundtrack to
quickly fall into the background with my playtime. It was a great song to listen to during my
playtime but ironically didn’t stay for much longer. Not long after playing this demo, I didn’t
know the name of the band as the game only showed the song title and I didn’t
have access to the internet to check. Back
then I was still using the radio and Top of the Pops to find new music so Sell
Out drifted into the past.
Fast-forward to my life as a 20-something at university and
my friend asks me whether I want to see a band live called ‘Reel Big Fish’. Being obvious to who they were I said yeah
but wanted to get a taste of what their music was like. A link was sent to me with the words ‘yeah
this is their most well-known song’ and my eyes lit up instantly. A couple weeks later I saw Reel Big Fish live
and have seen them a couple more times thereafter. The memory of a demo I played some 8 years
earlier jolted my system and for that I was able to see a band I had always
wanted to hear properly and like SocialD, have become one of the bands I listen
to on a regular basis.
Looking back at my time, I would have to say that the
typical teenager rock vibe appears very strongly here. However, through the medium of video games, I’ve
been able to find those couple examples of songs that stuck out beyond the rest
and became the foundation for my musical tastes nowadays. I listen to more genres of music than I ever
before and most times its through games that I have experienced them. Whether it’s the remixed works of OCRemix bringing
life to older titles or the beautiful tracks from modern titles like
Transistor, they all have something special to them that I wish more people had
the opportunity to listen to.
Thanks for reading, now I’m going to continue replaying
Transistor because The Spine is calling.
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