The Score
Maybe it’s just me, a lifetime fan. Maybe I’m only now recognizing something that was always there, as I played through my games. Maybe I just grew to appreciate it in all of its forms. Maybe. Or maybe it’s something that developers are paying more and more attention to. Setting the tone. Creating an atmosphere or an ambience that would otherwise not exist without it’s subtle influences. Of all the characters in your favorite game, this is one of the most important and the least visible. An entity on it’s own merits. To what am I referring? The score. The music. The heroic fanfares that invigorate you as you make your last stand against an alien onslaught, or the haunting themes that give you chills as you gingerly creep through the shadows, the music to any game can be a determining factor to the depth of your engrossment in both the story and the action.
To anyone that doubts the power of a musical score in any of its forms, think about a Star Wars movie. Are you thinking? For some they might think about light-saber duels, epic space battles and so on. More jaded people might think about Jar-Jar Binks and Midicholorians. But almost anyone will think of the classic opening number by John Williams. If I told you to think of Jaws you’d likely think of, in addition to a stressed out Roy Scheider and fake looking sharks, Williams’ classic Jaws theme. I for one, can recall Howard Shore’s themes from The Lord of the Rings trilogy and James Newton Howard’s work on Signs. Maybe it’s just me. None the less, the music in each of these films are important in painting a larger picture than what you see on screen, setting the tone for any given scene or sequence. And in some instances, the music becomes it’s own unforgettable character, fashioning breathtaking aural landscapes to accompany epic stories.
Video games are no different. Am I the only one that can remember the theme tune to Secret of Mana? (Is that too obscure a game for you kids?) I’ll make it easier, how about the Super Mario Brothers tune? Can you imagine Mario without his trademark music? The Legend of Zelda without the overture? I think not. Maybe a more modern example is in order. Can you image the monolithic and mysterious ring world of Halo, spinning against a backdrop of endless stars, without perhaps, recalling the divine nature of the choir complimenting the scene? Or maybe you can’t separate the exploration of the Tallon IV Over World without remembering the intriguing MIDI score created by Metroid veteran Kenji Yamamoto? (The Over World and Phendrana Drifts themes are personal favorites of mine) Whatever your favorite game is, whether you consciously noticed or not, you were engrossed not just because of the game-play mechanics or pretty graphics, but also the music that made those scenes bigger than what they were.
My favorite example of excellence in game music and a developer’s commitment to creating brilliant soundtracks has to be Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. Jesper Kyd conducting the Budapest Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir. Recruiting a whole Orchestra for a game soundtrack? That’s next to unheard of. What transpired were fantastic musical arrangements taking on themes from each of the locations in which #47 visited, Sicily, Russia, Japan and India. All vividly rendered to compliment whatever was occurring on screen, be it that overwhelming tension of walking right past a guard as you infiltrate a seedy arms dealers hideout, or the chilling ambience as you wait for your mark to make the scene so you can rest the fate of your mission on one bullet. (Did I tell you I am a fan of the Hitman series?)
Has there always been such phenomenal music in videogames? Or is there really a new commitment towards attaining a certain standard in game music? Whatever the case may be, I only hope that high quality music remains a priority in the minds of the developers as they feverishly work on the next batch of blockbuster titles sure to grace us over the next few years. And a note to IO Interactive, whatever you do, it wouldn’t hurt to keep Jesper Kyd around.
Special thanks to; Jesper Kyd, Jeremy Soule, Steve Chatwood, Michael Salvatori, Martin O’Donnell and Kenji Yamamoto for making me want to play games with the TV turned up. Way up.
- Snoochie Boochies
To anyone that doubts the power of a musical score in any of its forms, think about a Star Wars movie. Are you thinking? For some they might think about light-saber duels, epic space battles and so on. More jaded people might think about Jar-Jar Binks and Midicholorians. But almost anyone will think of the classic opening number by John Williams. If I told you to think of Jaws you’d likely think of, in addition to a stressed out Roy Scheider and fake looking sharks, Williams’ classic Jaws theme. I for one, can recall Howard Shore’s themes from The Lord of the Rings trilogy and James Newton Howard’s work on Signs. Maybe it’s just me. None the less, the music in each of these films are important in painting a larger picture than what you see on screen, setting the tone for any given scene or sequence. And in some instances, the music becomes it’s own unforgettable character, fashioning breathtaking aural landscapes to accompany epic stories.
Video games are no different. Am I the only one that can remember the theme tune to Secret of Mana? (Is that too obscure a game for you kids?) I’ll make it easier, how about the Super Mario Brothers tune? Can you imagine Mario without his trademark music? The Legend of Zelda without the overture? I think not. Maybe a more modern example is in order. Can you image the monolithic and mysterious ring world of Halo, spinning against a backdrop of endless stars, without perhaps, recalling the divine nature of the choir complimenting the scene? Or maybe you can’t separate the exploration of the Tallon IV Over World without remembering the intriguing MIDI score created by Metroid veteran Kenji Yamamoto? (The Over World and Phendrana Drifts themes are personal favorites of mine) Whatever your favorite game is, whether you consciously noticed or not, you were engrossed not just because of the game-play mechanics or pretty graphics, but also the music that made those scenes bigger than what they were.
My favorite example of excellence in game music and a developer’s commitment to creating brilliant soundtracks has to be Hitman 2: Silent Assassin. Jesper Kyd conducting the Budapest Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir. Recruiting a whole Orchestra for a game soundtrack? That’s next to unheard of. What transpired were fantastic musical arrangements taking on themes from each of the locations in which #47 visited, Sicily, Russia, Japan and India. All vividly rendered to compliment whatever was occurring on screen, be it that overwhelming tension of walking right past a guard as you infiltrate a seedy arms dealers hideout, or the chilling ambience as you wait for your mark to make the scene so you can rest the fate of your mission on one bullet. (Did I tell you I am a fan of the Hitman series?)
Has there always been such phenomenal music in videogames? Or is there really a new commitment towards attaining a certain standard in game music? Whatever the case may be, I only hope that high quality music remains a priority in the minds of the developers as they feverishly work on the next batch of blockbuster titles sure to grace us over the next few years. And a note to IO Interactive, whatever you do, it wouldn’t hurt to keep Jesper Kyd around.
Special thanks to; Jesper Kyd, Jeremy Soule, Steve Chatwood, Michael Salvatori, Martin O’Donnell and Kenji Yamamoto for making me want to play games with the TV turned up. Way up.
- Snoochie Boochies