What Happened to Iconic Soundtracks?

Are they still good? Were they better? Was everything a chocolate box fairy land of awesomeness in the 90’s? This commentator. Says. Yes.

Golden Axe - Path of Fiend

Where are the famous musicians? OK, I like Amon Tobin and he’s famous and he made some very memorable soundtracks.

Splinter Cell OST

As did Jesper Kidd but he is more ambient than melodic.

Tim Follin may be known to some people as a prolific game musician for the C64 Ghouls and Ghosts game and the unreleased Time Trax on Genesis.

Time Trax Track 1

The Streets of Rage theme is legendary.

Streets of Rage Vinyl

Around the time of CD and Redbook things took a nose dive I think. Now you no longer had to be part engineer to be a game musician and really, removing programmed FM synth and tiny samples for game music may have been somewhat to it’s detriment. New possibilities present more of a creative challenge as now, the size of your studio dictated the size of their canvas, on a less even playing field than the egalitarian built in sound chips of the 90's which could be improved with technical knowledge.

In modern terms, expecting a musician to program 4 operators with custom sound software you had to make yourself to compose the music for a game would make you a chip tune god with a totally obsolete but awesome skill.

Interestingly enough Tim Follin stated he did not like using FM synth to compose tunes as regards FM as being designed for sound effects only but he’s wrong I think. Follin preferred the SNES chip as he could make more realistic instruments but time has not been kind to the SNES sound chip.

Ultima 4 has a soundtrack which looped 8 bars continuously for probably thousands of hours of my life and it’s still catchy.

Turrican 2 had a catchy techno theme as did Toyota Celica games but I don’t find myself going back to listen to game music as often in more modern titles. Castlevania also has a theme which is recognisable across many versions.

I’m not hearing the catchy tunes and melody’s that support all the great games so much lately. I want to be proven wrong, you understand me. I don’t or want to to live in the past. But if 90’s dance is better than modern dance I’m going to dig out what I find or remember from then. But if I hear something new I dig that too. I liked the uk house music charts 2013-6.

Hollywood has the same problem. Blockbusters don't feel edgy any more. Everything is kind of over-polished.

You see soundtracks released in digital etc as in Steam which now has an audio player but not many see the love the YM2612 sees with Streets of Rage and the like selling on Vinyl.

I like the orchestral soundtracks on AAA games, especially if is it event based/reactive. But not much stands out to me recently.

Yes I know I’m stuck in the past RSM but I would prefer to be proven wrong than everyone just jump on me for being nostalgic.

Jaunty chip tunes aside. AAA games are chasing a similar market to Hollywood blockbuster movies, which is high impact with lots of fanfare. Take Blade Runner. A brilliant soundtrack by synth musician, Vangelis. That movie was remade. But the new soundtrack doesn’t have the emotional impact or clarity of vision of the old one.

Best of Modern game music

Now I’m listening to and finding myself quite moved by the League of Legends soundtrack and found a thing I like about TW3! Which is the main theme to Wild Hunt. But in the end after Lord of The Rings. All 12 hours of them. That sound is really a bit kind of background noisy to me at this point.

The Warcraft 3 soundtrack was a great early example of a big orchestral soundtrack and Diablo had a sound track almost equal to the game and is recognisable instantly as the Diablo soundtrack.

Blizzard music

Also. RHM. Please look up rhetoric. This an an acceptable form of debate. You cannot win an argument without proving something is to the contrary with facts and references which include published writing or direct quotes. Regardless of whether or not you are right.

Honorable mention. Toejam and Earl soundtrack.

Miami Vice Crocket's theme / 80's Natwest advert music because it's awesome.

Most of segas soundtracks are good like on most sonic games although there are times when they put good soundtracks in failed games

I got one that came with Tales of Zesteria for the Xbox 360, came with the Steel Case which is really nice.

There’s a ton of awesome soundtracks that I love from a whole bunch of SNES games but I still find plenty of excellent soundtracks from games these days as well. The soundtracks from the Blazblue games are fantastic. Xenoblade Chronicles and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 had really good soundtracks as well as the Halo games. I heard some really good stuff from Red Dead Redemption 2 as well.

One of the better soundtracks I've encountered in recent years is easily Nier: Automata

Yes I know I’m stuck in the past RSM but I would prefer to be proven wrong than everyone just jump on me for being nostalgic.

Hey. . I'm in agreement with those older soundtracks being amazing. Yuzo Koshiro san in particular is a treasure.

I'm also a fan of D00M music as well, many call it generic but it fits the tone of game. While music in D00M III and D00M IV seem very slapstick, being metal for the sake of it.

Dark Souls III is a brilliant game but outside of the Abyss Watchers theme it wasn't particularly amazing for its use of music. Considering it's one of my favorite From Software games that's as true of an opinion as you will get.

Ace Attorney. that's all I gotta say

@RSM-HQ:I'm also a fan of D00M music as well, many call it generic but it fits the tone of game.

Id were a bit naughty with Doom and ripped off their favourite metal bands, possibly Black Sabbath?

Crue Ball on SMD has three Motley Crue songs just to listen to in chip tune form.

This song kicks in seriously at 1:05 but it's worth it. I have a new admiration for Motley Crue I didn't know they could be so emotional!

Bigup 2 da chiptunes!

@jackamomo: That's interesting. I know little about the development of D00M and how the music of that game came to be. One thing I loosely know is the game was broken down into episodes through an early form of micro transaction access called Shareware. And even then my knowledge on that is likely inaccurate.

While we're just appreciating gaming music here. I'll supply two more I personally enjoyed and really feel fit the theme of games they come from-

*See I like old games too ٩(θ‿θ)۶ CastleVania is another series I adore the music from. Bloody Tears even from 8-bit Simon's Quest is beautiful.

Extra Credits did an interesting video on this a few years ago, trying to answer the question of why video game music from 8 and 16 bit eras seem so much more memorable than modern game soundtracks.

tl;dw basically dealing with the technical limitations of the time game composers were limited to writing out the music in single notes or chords, so they had to write strong melodies to craft a decent song and the melody tends to be the part you remember.

I'd say there are still modern games that have great soundtracks, but the ones that stick with me on the ones that have solid melodies as opposed to just orchestral background noise. A good soundtrack can really elevate an otherwise mediocre or unremarkable source material. I wouldn't describe Halo as being the god of FPS by a long shot, but one of the things that made it really compelling (for me at least) was that soundtrack:

-Byshop

Megaman games had some epic sound tracks tracks and streets of rage was memorable. Your right there isn't the same emphasis on video game sounds tracks as there used to be. Once licensed music could be put in there it killed it. I thought skyrim had some great music.

To answer your question, no, I wouldn't say soundtracks have gone anywhere. They're still in games, still being enjoyed, and still offered (albeit digitally) to people on occasion. A lot of them are really good, too, and come from surprising sources. I wager you are just being nostalgic.

• Gris just came out, and seems to be a hit despite the anti-woman and anti-indie crowd. Pretty nice soundtrack.
• Brigador is great if you like that retro-synth stuff. Really great soundtrack. Just listen to the first song and give it until about 1:20.
• Supergiant (Bastion, Transistor) always has good soundtracks to their games. Hades just came out, and it's no different. Folksy heavy rock? Hells yeah :D Going to link Bastion and Transistor here as well, just for people that haven't played or listened.
• What else. Oh, Rebel Galaxy, a really cool space-trucking-capital-ship-space-pirate game, had a really cool soundtrack as well. It caught me off guard at first because there are vocals, and it's very contemporary. You'll hear it and think Black Keys, White Buffalo, and so on. They're currently working on a prequel to the first game, which already has 23+ hours of music! TWENTY. THREE. HOURS. OF MUSIC.
• DOOM (2016) had a pretty badass soundtrack. Not really too much into thrashy industrial metal, but it does the trick when you're in the game, that's for damn sure!
• Obra Din has a pretty epic soundtrack. Doubly cool since the game, technology, and soundtrack were all made by one person. ONE PERSON!
• And you know what? Frack it, I'm putting Sea of Thieves here. Because getting some old-timey instruments together and playing with your mates is a novel idea. A shame we don't do it more often in real life.

@jackamomo:I find your lack of Homeworld OST disturbing. Not really :) but c'mon man. Arguably one of the best, down-to-earth, appropriate soundtracks. It doesn't get all crazy dramatic like RPG soundtracks, and it's actually pretty damn good. Maybe because it includes a lot of "soundscapes" in addition to music is why?

Just play it in the background and go do something for an hour or so, guarantee you'll finish the whole thing. Really like Imperial Battle Music, the Adagio for Strings(so sad in the game!), Turranic Raiders,

Nerevar Rising from Morrowind and Auriels Ascension from Oblivion are without question my favorite tracks in The Elder Scrolls series

Would likely not consider them as good games as they are without the support of such good music.

I personally found Skyrims had a lot of impact with drums of grand scale but didn't really hit me in the way the two previous games did. Even just checking the list, its pretty forgettable to me. Minus Secunda, that was pretty good.

Remember being blown away by rock n roll racing on the snes. Shinobi had great music as well.

Obra Din was an awesome game on a lot of levels. They were talking about the game and it's great soundtrack on the Giant Bomb podcast trying to describe it. The best he could come up with was "I dunno, scary... boat... music!"

-Byshop

@Byshop: Do you follow Scott Manley on Youtube at all? He posted a review of it, and took a brief (not really) segue into how this guy developed then refined the game engine for it. Was pretty incredible. Again, especially since one guy did it all.

I'll have to try out the game eventually, it looks incredible.

I can rarely ever recall any songs from modern games after I've played them. I'm not saying that the soundtracks don't get the job done while I'm playing the game, but rarely are they so catchy that I just can't get them out of my head after I'm done with the game. On the other hand, there are tons of songs from 80s and 90s games that I can still hum on the spot.

Super Robot Wars have excellent soundtrack especially for Banpresto original units.

@mrbojangles25: oh yes it was Homeworld which was Relic's first fully 3d rts in 1999. Sins of a Solar Empire is by Ironclad Games in 2002. Also has a similar soundtrack but all very ambient, war drums, sweeping strings epic movie sound. SoaSE OST.

I'm still not seeing anything stand out strongly melodically. This is the problem with new games. No strong and unique themes.

They redone the Golden Axe soundtrack for Sega Ages, litterally the only good thing.

@uninspiredcup: quite nice. I've been diggin this fan house mix which I'm pretty sure is using sampled Genesis music.

Starbound has one of my favourite soundtracks in gaming. An already really good game made better by amazing music.

This orchestral score exceeded my expectations. I think it is in fact a modern and pretty darn good sampled keyboard. The comments say it would compliment a modern Golden Axe rpg well.

During this gen I bought DOOM, Dark Souls 3, Celeste, Ni No Kuni, Persona 5, Bloodborne, The Old Hunter and Horizon Zero Dawn soundtrack.

Very nice music is made for those games.

I'm looking to find Danganronpa soundtrack.

In my collection I also have the Mega Man NES collection ( 1 to 6 ), Final Fantasy IV, VI, VII, X, XIII-2, Tactics...

there so much great music for video games, music that doesn't have the boundaries of genre like normal songs have.

But they sure aren't as in-your-face as back in the day and I guess it is normal since voice acting in games is very well made, the music doesn,t have to carry as much emotions.

Soundtracks in the 80's and 90's were the best

What about this one?

I'd say there are still solid OSTs out there. I think the problem, like with everything, is that the gaming medium is no longer experimental, so we have settled on a plateau of adequacy, instead of pushing for innovation, which is what fosters excellence.

There've been just so many great songs in video games over the years, many which I got stuck in my head. Even some from games I didn't make it that far into.

Someone mentioned Katamari Damacy up above, and every time I play one of those games, I get so excited whenever "Lonely Rolling Star" plays. It's just this catchy, pretty pop song, but it always stood out among a lot of the strange songs in those games.

Dark Souls series and Bloodborne soundtrack is pretty epic. Always loved the first boss battle soundtrack in each game, highlight for me is Blood Starved Beast fight ost.

Also I know some may not want to admit but FFXIII soundtrack is masterpiece. Probably the best FF soundtrack ever.

Katamari Damacy reminds me of Rolando (iphone) which has a Mr Scruff soundtrack.