stryker1138
Member
1. Halo 4
2. Mass Effect 3
3. FTL
2. Mass Effect 3
3. FTL
-
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NeoGAF's Official Game Soundtracks of the Year 2012 (Voting Ended)
- Thread starter Nert
- Start date
1. FTL
2. Mass Effect 3
3. Spelunky
FTL's music really gave it the space-sensation that it required and it is also just fun to leave the game on without actually playing.
ME3 just has some excellent tunes and most of the bigger missions were accompanied by excellent music.
The music from the mines will stay with me forever, only due to the high amounts of deaths on the 'iron man' runs. Just simple and elegant music.
2. Mass Effect 3
3. Spelunky
FTL's music really gave it the space-sensation that it required and it is also just fun to leave the game on without actually playing.
ME3 just has some excellent tunes and most of the bigger missions were accompanied by excellent music.
The music from the mines will stay with me forever, only due to the high amounts of deaths on the 'iron man' runs. Just simple and elegant music.
I’m glad to see that people are enjoying Globulous (my post on it, for you 50 posts per page people). There’s not much time left for me to evangelize it, but I will be bringing it up again before too long…
I really need to give this soundtrack a listen with all of the votes and mentions that it’s getting. Added to the archive.
It's great to see Skullgirls getting some love. Its jazzy style is certainly unconventional for the genre, and it’s fun to see Vincent Diamante (composer of Flower and Cloud) tackle peppier material like this.
Because you didn’t mention it specifically, I’d also like to share The Lives We Left Behind. It’s very soothing and, as you said, classy.
: /
No, don’t say that. Give in to the madness. Keep up the great posts, everyone!
Wow, that is a great baseline.
I love the sense of place that this song gives off. It actually reminds me a little of the slums music from Final Fantasy VII.
More discussion is always a good thing. The soundtrack wouldn’t be eligible for points, obviously, but you’re more than welcome to talk about it (bonus kudos if you can pitch it as a related recommendation for one of this year’s soundtracks). I went off on a tangent about Wrath of the Lich King, after all.
Listening to Magnus’ Theme absolutely gives me Super Mario Galaxy vibes.
I really need to give this soundtrack a listen with all of the votes and mentions that it’s getting. Added to the archive.
It's great to see Skullgirls getting some love. Its jazzy style is certainly unconventional for the genre, and it’s fun to see Vincent Diamante (composer of Flower and Cloud) tackle peppier material like this.
Because you didn’t mention it specifically, I’d also like to share The Lives We Left Behind. It’s very soothing and, as you said, classy.
: /
No, don’t say that. Give in to the madness. Keep up the great posts, everyone!
RealDeadOne
Member
1. FTL
2. Hotline Miami
3. Halo 4
Sorry, Journey
2. Hotline Miami
3. Halo 4
Sorry, Journey
Cornbread78
Member
1) Persona 4: Golden
2) Final Fantasy XIII-2
3) Gravity Rush
2) Final Fantasy XIII-2
3) Gravity Rush
Hellsing321
Member
1)Hotline Miami
2)Kid Icarus
3)Dustforce
2)Kid Icarus
3)Dustforce
Nocturnowl
Member
Spoilers for your last second candidate right there, I need to take out the time to listen to it, and the Xillia 2 post as well.
Since I wasn't around here in 2010 to throw down my love for the SMG2 soundtrack I should take this opportunity to do it.
But i'm too done in for that right now, i'll always feel a bit gutted missing out on 2010's soundtrack vote just because the sheer volume of fantastic soundtracks that year left me spoilt for choice.
It's maybe more of an acquired taste I expect even if it's not that unusual musically and it's likely strengthened by ones experience with the game in a similar way to say Journey's soundtrack.
At first I was a little bit dubious of giving it slot 2 but upon trying to choose my personal music picks I felt overwhelmed by potential options so that helped me settle with my decision.
Oh man, that percussion in "In Rapid Succession" is something I should not have neglected to bring up, the tune is positively sleazy in a good way, you know like a seedy and smoky bar or something.
Listening to "The Lives We Left Behind" once more reminds me that the vocal use in Skullgirls has a certain presence to it, a bit haunting i'd say and it's suitable to the games overall theme as well.
To add to this point Skull Heart Arrhythmia was a runner up for my picks.
I'd be lying if I didn't admit the some of the NSMB music series is a guilty pleasure at times, it's overused with pretty poor sound quality but it's also a freakish ear worm, I heard my friend humming away the NSMBU overworld music in a mere 2 minutes with the game so maybe it's just Nintendo using twisted forbidden magic.
Then there's those dying ducks, best song opening ever clearly. There's actually some sort of solid song foundations in Episode 2 but nothing good is coming out of those synths.
But they're absolutely not serious honourable mentions I swear!
By comparison to making my ongoing GotY write ups this was like
1. Journey
2. Gravity Rush
3. Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Honorable mentions: Unfinished Swan, Sound Shapes & Velocity.
2. Gravity Rush
3. Tekken Tag Tournament 2
Honorable mentions: Unfinished Swan, Sound Shapes & Velocity.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
I imagine that if Uematsu used (God forbid, btw, because I've made my feelings clear with regards to the FF8 soundtrack) similar samples on the FF7 soundtrack that he did on the FF8 soundtrack, it'd sound like a more rhythmic "The Spy" given that the instrumentation in mind for both BGMs are similar.
Thanks. I think I'll make it lead into my Nayuta no Kiseki writeup because it really is for Sora no Kiseki: the 3rd. I would love to do one for Assassin's Creed II since I'd played that game for the first game this year and fell deeply in love with the music, but I can't lead into it with either AC3 or AC3:L because I took those soundtracks off my short list (this list is not short by any means).
Ah well. I just really wanted to do a 3rd one because I'd recently finished it and the soundtrack is so much better than the first two soundtracks.
So apparently I set this in motion by being very opposed to Bah Bah Bros 2 and Dying Ducks Episode 2 from being included in voting in another thread every time it was brought up which was several times too much.
Blame me.
(btw, no, you didn't rationalize it enough! )
Ooooh, you were right, this was going to be a surprise. I was actually listening to the soundtrack the other night to see if I should leave it on my short list or not.
Sometimes I'm not fond of the instrument samples used, but I like a lot of the piano pieces like Caged Heart (I'm very fond of the progression in this one), Moment of Decision (again, I'm really surprised with the way it progresses because it takes an incredibly long time to loop, and in a lot of visual novels, soundtracks tend to loop very quickly), Nocturne and Shadow of the Truth (I can't believe you didn't list this one because I think it's one of the best BGMs on the soundtrack; I'm impressed with the level and quality of the synth they used in this so I have to know where they got their samples from).
I like the bass and piano in Parity a lot.
I think my favourite track on the soundtrack, though, is Red Velvet. If I recall correctly, it's generally the date/dinner theme (I mostly remember it from Lilly's Route). If I said I didn't like piano bit, I'd be lying. Smooth jazz. A lot of the soundtrack has smooth jazz, or any subgenre of jazz.
Honestly, the best parts of that soundtrack lie in the piano instrumentation, the percussion, and bass. That might be because that's what I generally go after when I listen to soundtracks, but I truly feel like that's the case here. Again, I'm very impressed with the quality of the synth samples they used.
ALRIGHT. NOW BACK TO HOMEWORK.
Oh yeah. Play Katawa Shoujo if you didn't. I finished the game completely and liked two of the routes a lot, so it's not a bad game at all. I'm just more impressed with it because it smacks of effort.
Nocturnowl
Member
You've accepted your fate gracefully, i'm proud of you for not shying away from this perilous path of destiny.
I actually think there was a better quote somewhere in that thread outright daring me to go ahead with the joke entry at my own peril but I wasn't going to search that hard for it.
I don't think I could rationalize it enough even if I tried, you ask too much of me, i'm but a mere mortal faced with pretending that the music is top notch, listening to some of the Sticker Star and Nintendo Land tracks just makes me wonder why they couldn't just you know, do that for the NSMB music.
Sonic's case is even weirder when you consider how often Sega put their full effort into even the crappier games soundtracks, maybe they were intentionally aping the NSMB angle for some reason.
Shadow of the Truth is hard hitting stuff, very effective for the events it's used with, as I said I had almost too much choice here since I like the vast majority of the soundtrack so pruning the selection down was tricky, I left Painful History as the one more bleaker choice for my small selection, Shadow of the Truth and Moment of Decision were close behind though.
Well it's good to know I could drag you away from your work by setting off the NSMB/S4:E2 alarm but I wont dare do it again.
1. Journey
2. Darksiders 2
3. Max Payne 3
Honorable mention:
Hotline Miami
2012 was a strange gaming year for me, i took some time to play some great hits of the past to completion (As of now, Chrono Trigger OST would be my OST of the year), and i missed a lot of new releases wich i count to play in the next weeks that probably would have chamged my top 3, but since voting closes in few days, the above is my list.
2. Darksiders 2
3. Max Payne 3
Honorable mention:
Hotline Miami
2012 was a strange gaming year for me, i took some time to play some great hits of the past to completion (As of now, Chrono Trigger OST would be my OST of the year), and i missed a lot of new releases wich i count to play in the next weeks that probably would have chamged my top 3, but since voting closes in few days, the above is my list.
Count of Monte Sawed-Off
un33dab@dpu$$y
1. Max Payne 3
2. Journey
3. Mass Effect 3
2. Journey
3. Mass Effect 3
After some last minute changes, I finally feel satisfied with my vote. I'm going to lock it in now so I can focus on the archive and other matters of maintenance. A lot of the content below (particularly for the top three) has been reposted from earlier in an effort to consolidate it all under one post.
1. Globulous
The sheer volume of high quality game soundtracks floating around in the ether is an embarrassment of riches. There is a lot of craft and care that goes into music that I might never hear for games that I may never play, and with the amount of time that I invest into this stuff, that can be distressing. On the other hand, when I *do* luck out and stumble into one of these gems, it can be a treat. Case in point: Globulous.
Andrew Aversa (“zircon” and Jeff Ball have created something inspired for something relatively uninspired. Not having played the game, I don’t have anything negative to say about it, but the sales pitch of “another iOS puzzle game inspired by Tetris” is far from enticing. The soundtrack, on the other hand, clearly has a vision behind it. Just take a look at this snippet from the album’s Bandcamp page:
Name dropping Machinarium’s soundtrack is an easy way to pique my interest, but the important things to take away from this are the ideas of experimentation and interplay. The two composers draw from a diverse array of sounds and styles to create something unexpected. Violin, chiptunes, piano, harpsichord, synths, guitar and more seamlessly mingle with one another as the soundtrack gradually builds in tempo and urgency, matching a puzzle game’s progression.
If you listen to only one song from this post, make it Thicket Prism. In addition to being a phenomenal piece of music, it is the most illustrative of the duo’s overall approach. Ball’s violin solo thrives in a rich backdrop of synths and strings, creating a stirring melody that takes off at the 45 second mark. I have listened to this song over a dozen times today and I’m still replaying it.
Aurora Magnitude, another collaboration between the two, serves as another showcase for Ball’s violin in its latter half. The song as a whole is more aggressive than Thicket Prism, shedding some of Prism’s mysterious ambience for a more prominent electronic beat.
Aversa’s Stone Clockwise plays like a love letter to the 8-bit music of yore. The softer ambient synths work wonderfully with the more strident chiptune sounds, helping to smooth them out while maintaining their distinctive flavor.
I’ll highlight one more track here: Vapor Radian. The harpsichord really, really pops against the synths. Game soundtracks or otherwise, I can’t think of any other song that sounds quite like this one.
This music doesn’t deserve to be lost in a veil of obscurity. Give it a listen, will ya?
Related Recommendation: Blocks That Matter. I failed to get anyone interested in this one last year, so I'll give it one more try. This beautiful, soothing collection of tracks would have fit in perfectly with this year's crop. It doesn't have the range of Globulous, but it's just as overlooked, and that's really unfortunate.
2. Dustforce
"Fastfall" is the name of the soundtrack for the game "Dustforce" by the composer "Lifeformed"(real name: Terence Lee). Got it? Good.
The thing about this soundtrack that I find fascinating is that, conceptually, it directly clashes with the game itself. Dustforce is a fact-paced, difficult platforming game that centers around blazing through levels and replaying them to perfect your run. The soundtrack, meanwhile, largely consists of downtempo, soothing, ambient electronic music.
Strangely enough, they work together wonderfully. Instead of trying to pump you up in the way that a game like Super Meat Boy would, Dustforce wants you to relax, focus on what you're doing and enter a sort of zen state. Constantly starting over in an effort to chase after that elusive run that can shave seconds off of your time could quickly become draining, but the soundtrack never lets that happen. It puts me in an entirely different mindset for the genre and I welcome it.
Cider Time, the soundtrack's opening song, provides a clear example of what I'm talking about. In a rare case of YouTube comments being useful and interesting, Lee was there to talk about how he saved this song for some of the game's more harrowing challenges. How could someone possibly be frustrated while this is playing? I love how the song begins to fade out in steps at 1:28 before bouncing right back.
My favorite track from here is Swimming While it Rains. The pitched percussion just manages to rise above the sounds of the rainfall in certain sections, allowing the song to exude the atmosphere of a rainy day without making you feel bogged down in it.
Even though the songs all flow together very well and I would recommend opening up the album and hitting play (instead of hunting for specific tracks), I'll give some quick thoughts on a few other songs as well. Frozen Hot Sauce has a propulsive beat that is a lot of fun to nod along to. Light Pollution is one of the most fun songs of the bunch with its jaunty piano and strings. Running through the levels feels especially light and effortless when It's Not Supposed To Be Snowing is playing.
Dustforce was released at the beginning of this year, so I'm not surprised to see that it hasn't gained a lot of mind share as far as ____ of the year stuff goes. It would make me happy, though, if more people gave it a chance.
Related Recommendation: Fez (see honorable mentions).
3. Botanicula
I can't think of a soundtrack released this year with more personality. Nearly every song here is thoroughly odd and easily hummable, representing an eclectic mix of sounds that includes chirps, gibberish language, bells and water splashes.
For people that haven't given this soundtrack a shot yet, I recommend starting things off with level 3. I would be shocked if it didn't get stuck in your head after a listen or two. This exuberant song propels the player forward to a major hub area about halfway through the game, and it's one of the most enjoyable moments of the game.
If that's a little too conventional for you, move on to A major for 12 frogs. Remember the water splashes that I mentioned earlier? They serve as the percussion here, providing some structure for a bizarre progression of squawking sounds.
plavaci hlavolam is another highlight. The song gradually builds up around a single droning kind of noise, becoming increasingly intense as the piano is worked in.
Before I descend into "linking the entire soundtrack" territory, I'll finish things off with mrs mushroom likes LCD soundsystem, which is my candidate for "strangest song name 2012." I'm not even sure how to describe this song... melodic gargling set against a lively bass line? Whatever the hell it is, I love it.
If DVA, an indie Czech band, can bring this level of insanity and variety to their first game soundtrack, I dearly hope to hear more from them in the future.
Related Recommendation: Machinarium. Tomáš Dvořák's work here provides a fun, robotic companion piece, peppering in beeps and static rumbles instead of chirps and "woohoos." Gameboy Tune is a pretty good example of this, but really, you owe it to yourself to give the entire thing a listen; it's one of this generation's best.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Honorable Mentions
Paper Mario: Sticker Star: This was going to be my third choice before everything got knocked down a spot by Globulous. This soundtrack is bristling with energy and creativity in a way that more of Nintendo’s contemporary soundtracks should. This style of jazz is a perfect fit for the Paper Mario aesthetic and I’m still clapping along with Gooper Blooper.
Related Recommendation: Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure. This is another upbeat, jazzy soundtrack that will make you smile.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2: See this post for my thoughts on this soundtrack.
Journey: This game is completely deserving of all of the accolades, and the Grammy nomination(!), that it has received. The soundtrack rises to the challenge of establishing the mood for an abstract world that gives players the room to create their own narratives.
Fez: The darker, more mysterious, and more ambient counterpart to Dustforce. This soundtrack makes for great background music and it will be in my personal rotation for a long time.
Hotline Miami: Arguably more than any other game soundtrack being discussed here, Hotline Miami's soundtrack is absolutely crucial to the experience. The throbbing, filthy electronic music is a perfect fit for the rapid-fire acts of obscene cruelty that you are dishing out, making for an overwhelming and shocking experience.
Lumines: Electronic Symphony: Like Hotline Miami, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is an example of how to do a licensed soundtrack right. The playlist that was put together for the game's Voyage mode has a great flow and progression to it.
FTL: Faster Than Light: This is the definitive "spacey" soundtrack of the year for me. The songs are highly atmospheric and they hold up to dozens of listens (which is good, because FTL is not a game that you will play just once).
-------------------------------------------------------------
Best In-Game Use of a Song: Fez's Sync. The cumulative effect of the vanishing platforms' sounds, the track itself and the level's overall presentation is nothing short of stunning.
Runner-up: The aforementioned Gooper Blooper.
Biggest Surprise (That Isn’t Globulous): Frog Fractions. The game itself is a series of "what the hell is going on" moments, and the music plays a big part in that. My jaw dropped when this started playing. Even if I'm not going back to this stuff much outside of the game, I feel the need to discuss it somewhere.
Biggest Disappointment: Mass Effect 3. The original Mass Effect’s soundtrack is one of this generation’s best and most cohesive works, and while I wasn’t necessarily expecting 3’s soundtrack to reach those heights, the hype surrounding Clint Mansell’s participation led me to believe that it could be something special. Instead, Mansell contributed only a single track, and I can barely remember anything else on the soundtrack that isn’t Mars.
Song of the Year: Thicket Prism. Listen to this song, remember that it's for an iOS puzzle game that almost nobody has heard of, and realize just how far this industry has come. This is an exciting time to be playing to games and listening to their music.
Runner-up: What you will see (Heavenly Garden).
Shitty Song That’s a Piece of Shit Award: Oil Desert Act 2. After the already terrible Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 soundtrack, Jun Senoue went on to make something worse than the Meow Mix parody. Seriously, Sega, you're better than this shit!
Runner-up: The continuation of WAH WAH across two games this year.
1. Globulous
The sheer volume of high quality game soundtracks floating around in the ether is an embarrassment of riches. There is a lot of craft and care that goes into music that I might never hear for games that I may never play, and with the amount of time that I invest into this stuff, that can be distressing. On the other hand, when I *do* luck out and stumble into one of these gems, it can be a treat. Case in point: Globulous.
Andrew Aversa (“zircon”
and Jeff Ball have created something inspired for something relatively uninspired. Not having played the game, I don’t have anything negative to say about it, but the sales pitch of “another iOS puzzle game inspired by Tetris” is far from enticing. The soundtrack, on the other hand, clearly has a vision behind it. Just take a look at this snippet from the album’s Bandcamp page:Name dropping Machinarium’s soundtrack is an easy way to pique my interest, but the important things to take away from this are the ideas of experimentation and interplay. The two composers draw from a diverse array of sounds and styles to create something unexpected. Violin, chiptunes, piano, harpsichord, synths, guitar and more seamlessly mingle with one another as the soundtrack gradually builds in tempo and urgency, matching a puzzle game’s progression.
If you listen to only one song from this post, make it Thicket Prism. In addition to being a phenomenal piece of music, it is the most illustrative of the duo’s overall approach. Ball’s violin solo thrives in a rich backdrop of synths and strings, creating a stirring melody that takes off at the 45 second mark. I have listened to this song over a dozen times today and I’m still replaying it.
Aurora Magnitude, another collaboration between the two, serves as another showcase for Ball’s violin in its latter half. The song as a whole is more aggressive than Thicket Prism, shedding some of Prism’s mysterious ambience for a more prominent electronic beat.
Aversa’s Stone Clockwise plays like a love letter to the 8-bit music of yore. The softer ambient synths work wonderfully with the more strident chiptune sounds, helping to smooth them out while maintaining their distinctive flavor.
I’ll highlight one more track here: Vapor Radian. The harpsichord really, really pops against the synths. Game soundtracks or otherwise, I can’t think of any other song that sounds quite like this one.
This music doesn’t deserve to be lost in a veil of obscurity. Give it a listen, will ya?
Related Recommendation: Blocks That Matter. I failed to get anyone interested in this one last year, so I'll give it one more try. This beautiful, soothing collection of tracks would have fit in perfectly with this year's crop. It doesn't have the range of Globulous, but it's just as overlooked, and that's really unfortunate.
2. Dustforce
"Fastfall" is the name of the soundtrack for the game "Dustforce" by the composer "Lifeformed"(real name: Terence Lee). Got it? Good.
It took me a while to untangle all of that.
The thing about this soundtrack that I find fascinating is that, conceptually, it directly clashes with the game itself. Dustforce is a fact-paced, difficult platforming game that centers around blazing through levels and replaying them to perfect your run. The soundtrack, meanwhile, largely consists of downtempo, soothing, ambient electronic music.
Strangely enough, they work together wonderfully. Instead of trying to pump you up in the way that a game like Super Meat Boy would, Dustforce wants you to relax, focus on what you're doing and enter a sort of zen state. Constantly starting over in an effort to chase after that elusive run that can shave seconds off of your time could quickly become draining, but the soundtrack never lets that happen. It puts me in an entirely different mindset for the genre and I welcome it.
Cider Time, the soundtrack's opening song, provides a clear example of what I'm talking about. In a rare case of YouTube comments being useful and interesting, Lee was there to talk about how he saved this song for some of the game's more harrowing challenges. How could someone possibly be frustrated while this is playing? I love how the song begins to fade out in steps at 1:28 before bouncing right back.
My favorite track from here is Swimming While it Rains. The pitched percussion just manages to rise above the sounds of the rainfall in certain sections, allowing the song to exude the atmosphere of a rainy day without making you feel bogged down in it.
Even though the songs all flow together very well and I would recommend opening up the album and hitting play (instead of hunting for specific tracks), I'll give some quick thoughts on a few other songs as well. Frozen Hot Sauce has a propulsive beat that is a lot of fun to nod along to. Light Pollution is one of the most fun songs of the bunch with its jaunty piano and strings. Running through the levels feels especially light and effortless when It's Not Supposed To Be Snowing is playing.
Dustforce was released at the beginning of this year, so I'm not surprised to see that it hasn't gained a lot of mind share as far as ____ of the year stuff goes. It would make me happy, though, if more people gave it a chance.
Related Recommendation: Fez (see honorable mentions).
3. Botanicula
I can't think of a soundtrack released this year with more personality. Nearly every song here is thoroughly odd and easily hummable, representing an eclectic mix of sounds that includes chirps, gibberish language, bells and water splashes.
For people that haven't given this soundtrack a shot yet, I recommend starting things off with level 3. I would be shocked if it didn't get stuck in your head after a listen or two. This exuberant song propels the player forward to a major hub area about halfway through the game, and it's one of the most enjoyable moments of the game.
If that's a little too conventional for you, move on to A major for 12 frogs. Remember the water splashes that I mentioned earlier? They serve as the percussion here, providing some structure for a bizarre progression of squawking sounds.
plavaci hlavolam is another highlight. The song gradually builds up around a single droning kind of noise, becoming increasingly intense as the piano is worked in.
Before I descend into "linking the entire soundtrack" territory, I'll finish things off with mrs mushroom likes LCD soundsystem, which is my candidate for "strangest song name 2012." I'm not even sure how to describe this song... melodic gargling set against a lively bass line? Whatever the hell it is, I love it.
If DVA, an indie Czech band, can bring this level of insanity and variety to their first game soundtrack, I dearly hope to hear more from them in the future.
Related Recommendation: Machinarium. Tomáš Dvořák's work here provides a fun, robotic companion piece, peppering in beeps and static rumbles instead of chirps and "woohoos." Gameboy Tune is a pretty good example of this, but really, you owe it to yourself to give the entire thing a listen; it's one of this generation's best.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Honorable Mentions
Paper Mario: Sticker Star: This was going to be my third choice before everything got knocked down a spot by Globulous. This soundtrack is bristling with energy and creativity in a way that more of Nintendo’s contemporary soundtracks should. This style of jazz is a perfect fit for the Paper Mario aesthetic and I’m still clapping along with Gooper Blooper.
Related Recommendation: Rhythm Thief & the Emperor’s Treasure. This is another upbeat, jazzy soundtrack that will make you smile.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2: See this post for my thoughts on this soundtrack.
Journey: This game is completely deserving of all of the accolades, and the Grammy nomination(!), that it has received. The soundtrack rises to the challenge of establishing the mood for an abstract world that gives players the room to create their own narratives.
Fez: The darker, more mysterious, and more ambient counterpart to Dustforce. This soundtrack makes for great background music and it will be in my personal rotation for a long time.
Hotline Miami: Arguably more than any other game soundtrack being discussed here, Hotline Miami's soundtrack is absolutely crucial to the experience. The throbbing, filthy electronic music is a perfect fit for the rapid-fire acts of obscene cruelty that you are dishing out, making for an overwhelming and shocking experience.
Lumines: Electronic Symphony: Like Hotline Miami, Lumines: Electronic Symphony is an example of how to do a licensed soundtrack right. The playlist that was put together for the game's Voyage mode has a great flow and progression to it.
FTL: Faster Than Light: This is the definitive "spacey" soundtrack of the year for me. The songs are highly atmospheric and they hold up to dozens of listens (which is good, because FTL is not a game that you will play just once).
-------------------------------------------------------------
Best In-Game Use of a Song: Fez's Sync. The cumulative effect of the vanishing platforms' sounds, the track itself and the level's overall presentation is nothing short of stunning.
Runner-up: The aforementioned Gooper Blooper.
Biggest Surprise (That Isn’t Globulous): Frog Fractions. The game itself is a series of "what the hell is going on" moments, and the music plays a big part in that. My jaw dropped when this started playing. Even if I'm not going back to this stuff much outside of the game, I feel the need to discuss it somewhere.
Biggest Disappointment: Mass Effect 3. The original Mass Effect’s soundtrack is one of this generation’s best and most cohesive works, and while I wasn’t necessarily expecting 3’s soundtrack to reach those heights, the hype surrounding Clint Mansell’s participation led me to believe that it could be something special. Instead, Mansell contributed only a single track, and I can barely remember anything else on the soundtrack that isn’t Mars.
Song of the Year: Thicket Prism. Listen to this song, remember that it's for an iOS puzzle game that almost nobody has heard of, and realize just how far this industry has come. This is an exciting time to be playing to games and listening to their music.
Runner-up: What you will see (Heavenly Garden).
Shitty Song That’s a Piece of Shit Award: Oil Desert Act 2. After the already terrible Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode 1 soundtrack, Jun Senoue went on to make something worse than the Meow Mix parody. Seriously, Sega, you're better than this shit!
Runner-up: The continuation of WAH WAH across two games this year.
After listening to a few more soundtracks, as well as spending more time with Dustforce, I think Lifeformed's "Fastfall" has to be my number 1 (edited my original post).
That said, a lot of excellent stuff came out this year.
That said, a lot of excellent stuff came out this year.
More people should pay attention to the Splice OST, cool puzzle game with a short, but awe-inspiring soundtrack, easily one of the best of this gen:
http://music.cipherprime.com/album/flight-of-angels-splice-ost
http://music.cipherprime.com/album/flight-of-angels-splice-ost
MisterNoisy
Member
1. Hotline Miami - just perfect for the game, and the MOON tracks alone (particularly 'Crystals' and 'Hydrogen') are worth the cost of the game.
There's other stuff I dug this year, but this is the only one I felt the need to make sure got some points.
EDIT:
2. Forza Horizon - I know that it's all licensed stuff, but they fucking nailed it, so that's my number 2.
There's other stuff I dug this year, but this is the only one I felt the need to make sure got some points.
EDIT:
2. Forza Horizon - I know that it's all licensed stuff, but they fucking nailed it, so that's my number 2.
Nocturnowl
Member
Listening to Botanicula again i'm thinking this is my favourite out of your choices, it's just so delightfully mad.
Also I should really play Dustforce.
Powerful Piano work in here, i'd say it's lacking in overall variety but it's pretty enjoyable, also it's a nice quick listen at only 7 tracks.
Updated the archive with Sleeping Dogs, The Walking Dead, Splice (great piano playing), Dear Esther, and many more. We're almost out of room for now, but as I mentioned earlier, every soundtrack mentioned here will be included in the final archive when the results thread is posted.
Edit: I also went back and fixed some broken links in my vote. Formatting those things can be a pain sometimes
Edit: I also went back and fixed some broken links in my vote. Formatting those things can be a pain sometimes
ShinobiFist
Banned
As always, good stuff. You put a lot of effort into this. Even reaching out to the GAF community via PM for input, props. Anyway, I should have added Spec-Ops the line, great OST that went very well with the game, especially in the end, great stuff right there.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Ugh, I have a giant headache. I might stay up and write up my LTTP soundtrack post tonight, but my vote and HMs are gonna have to come tomorrow (I might just post the soundtrack names to get in before the deadline and do the writeup after). :/
Man, 2011 and 2010 were fun.
And well, at least you said Sega puts full effort into the soundtracks otherwise I'd have to post that track in this thread even though it's Bioware's excuse for an arrangement.
Especially this nonsense. What possessed the sound director to say, "AND EVERYTHING WAS BAH BAH" when composing for New Bah Bah Bros 2: Bah Humbug? Them samples. That sound direction.
And I'm someone who enjoyed this a lot last year. >:O
Anyway, good vote post. I'll give Botanicula another listen to see if I like it (it was weird that it didn't scratch my Rayman itch when I first heard it), and I completely agree with your Dustforce bit. Globulous was one I wasn't expecting until you posted the writeup, and even then, I thought it was going to be this year's Mighty Switch Force in that it might just be an honourable mention as opposed to acquiring a full vote.
Do it! It's one of my favourite platformers this year. In a year that didn't have a lot of platformers...
Man, 2011 and 2010 were fun.
Well, you know... I figured someone from the thread would've done it just to see what I'd say. But I dunno. I don't like the sound direction for that subseries at all. It rubs me the wrong way.
And well, at least you said Sega puts full effort into the soundtracks otherwise I'd have to post that track in this thread even though it's Bioware's excuse for an arrangement.
I disagree; I think Bah Bah is much worse. As much as I don't like the Dying Ducks and think Senoue's samples for the Sonic 4 games are all wrong, this kind of evens itself out after a little bit (that's not to say I love it, but you know what I mean, despite the synth that we don't especially care for), while the Bah Bahs are continuous.
Especially this nonsense. What possessed the sound director to say, "AND EVERYTHING WAS BAH BAH" when composing for New Bah Bah Bros 2: Bah Humbug? Them samples. That sound direction.
And I'm someone who enjoyed this a lot last year. >:O
Anyway, good vote post. I'll give Botanicula another listen to see if I like it (it was weird that it didn't scratch my Rayman itch when I first heard it), and I completely agree with your Dustforce bit. Globulous was one I wasn't expecting until you posted the writeup, and even then, I thought it was going to be this year's Mighty Switch Force in that it might just be an honourable mention as opposed to acquiring a full vote.
Nocturnowl
Member
One day i'll pick up some kind of PC controller as the first step, as in one that just works without jumping through a million hoops, or else i'll have to port beg with disastrous results.
Unfortunately there's not many of the fellow thread goers here basking in the soundtrack goodness, so I took on the burden but I seem to have unusually high capacity for both soundtracks so i'm not feeling as shamed.
On the other hand less of them that also stops the posting of that arrangement.
Have you tried singing along to the Bahs? maybe you'd like it more if-oh I can't finish this sentence without imagining sheer disgust.
I meant to do this earlier but I totally forgot, I just remembered that Soul Calibur 5 was indeed a game that came out right at the start of 2012 and while not quite HM level for myself (stiff competition) I always felt it was a pretty good soundtrack overall and i'm not seeing much of it here, or perhaps not at all seeing it as it's currently vacant from the archive as well it seems, so with that in mind...
Sleepless: An Untamed Beast
For some reason it strongly reminds me of a heroes of might and magic 3 style battle theme which can only be a good thing.
Blood Thirst Concerto
Probably my favourite track from the game that took a while to grow on me admittedly.
Tread Ye the Path of Bravery
I've grown to really love these various err...traditional eastern instruments(?) over the years, if only I could remember what each one was actually called...
Let My Soul Burn
Instantly bombastic which i'd say works well for fighting music.
As a bonus it also brought in one of the best from Assassin's Creed as well.
Hmm, this was a pretty good soundtrack, I tend to forget on account of sucking at the game.
dancrane212
Member
Alcoholikaust
Member
Max Payne 3
final answer!
final answer!
I don't have the technical prowess necessary to put something like this together, but we could always work on a YouTube playlist of some kind if people wanted it. At the very least, there could be a playlist that has a song from each of the top fifteen games
AND GLOBULOUS
1. Mass Effect 3 -- (An End Once and For All), (Synthesis), (Credits)
2. Halo 4 -- (Green and Blue), (117), (Haven)
3. Far Cry 3 -- (Falling into a Dream), (Main Theme), (Monsoon)
2. Halo 4 -- (Green and Blue), (117), (Haven)
3. Far Cry 3 -- (Falling into a Dream), (Main Theme), (Monsoon)
On a whim, I went back to the 2010 voting and results threads, and yeah... these threads have really come a long way. You've got to start somewhere, I suppose
If anyone wants a blast from the past, I prettied up the results post to look more like 2011's. No one wrote a sentence about Super Meat Boy, which is depressing, but I also have to blame myself there.
I don't think that anyone has talked about Little Inferno yet, at least not in detail. If you or anyone else has some sample songs from it or just wants to talk about it, it would get slipped into the archive.
A lot of things happened this year regarding the YouTube channel, but the two main ones are that I've had a lot of other things going on in my life this year (moving, career changes, etc.) and that I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with YouTube as its interface continues to devolve. On a more positive note, I've also felt less motivated to post soundtrack samples there because I think that the gaming community has gotten a lot better at recognizing great music from smaller and less noticeable games; I'm the one late to the party on things like Globulous lately.
I haven't given up on it entirely yet, though, so we'll see. I could see myself going back and uploading a dozen or so videos to wrap up 2012's releases after this thread is taken care of.
If anyone wants a blast from the past, I prettied up the results post to look more like 2011's. No one wrote a sentence about Super Meat Boy, which is depressing, but I also have to blame myself there.
I don't think that anyone has talked about Little Inferno yet, at least not in detail. If you or anyone else has some sample songs from it or just wants to talk about it, it would get slipped into the archive.
A lot of things happened this year regarding the YouTube channel, but the two main ones are that I've had a lot of other things going on in my life this year (moving, career changes, etc.) and that I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with YouTube as its interface continues to devolve. On a more positive note, I've also felt less motivated to post soundtrack samples there because I think that the gaming community has gotten a lot better at recognizing great music from smaller and less noticeable games; I'm the one late to the party on things like Globulous lately.
I haven't given up on it entirely yet, though, so we'll see. I could see myself going back and uploading a dozen or so videos to wrap up 2012's releases after this thread is taken care of.
1) Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance; I already said this in the GOTY thread, but it's no secret that I'm a huge Kingdom Hearts fan and a big part of the reason why (but of course not the biggest) is the music of the series. Dream Drop Distance's OST is, without a doubt, the best KH OST so far, in my opinion. While I have really liked all the past OSTs, there has been some filler or songs that work well within the game but I'm not too interested in listening to outside of the game (some of the happy Disney world music). 3D's has almost none of that. It's high quality & a highly diverse set of music from start to finish.
It's also great how Shimomura, Ishimoto and Sekito have inserted some dream-like qualities to some new arrangements of old songs. Traverse in Trance, in particular, is simply one of the best new takes on a song I've ever had the pleasure to experience. Also, as per tradition for the series, Dearly Beloved has gotten a new arrangement and while it perhaps doesn't rise to as epic heights as Birth By Sleep's rendition, it's every bit as good. Shimomura really surprises me every time with Dearly Beloved, first with its simplicity in the first game and then with its growing complexity and, now, diversity.
We, of course, can't forget the battle music, which is an integral part of the KH series. 3D, again, has some of the best music played during combat the series has ever had. Bombastic, epic, whimsical & exciting, often all at once. Examples: Majestic Wings, Rinzler Recompiled, Prankster's Party, All For One, L'Oscurita dell'Ignot etc. etc. etc. I could give more but I think that's enough.
2) Bravely Default: Flying Fairy; I'm in a bit of a hurry and I left this as my last game, so I don't have the time to write any kind of lengthy answer why I like it. It's just top-notch stuff from beginning to the end. I haven't gotten around buying the OST yet, but this will surely be the next one I will
3) Beyond the Labyrinth: Another game on my list we haven't gotten yet (and probably never will), another OST on my list with somewhat dreamy qualities. Some really haunting & serene tunes in there, while also offering fast-paced battle songs. Like I said earlier, it is almost impossible for me to pick what are the absolute best OSTs of 2012 because so many are Top 3 material, so I didn't necessarily pick any of these because they are clearly superior to other OSTs, but used other criteria... One of the reasons why I put this in is simply because I've never been the biggest fan of Sakuraba, so this OST surprised me with its style & quality. Granted, this might be because I've mostly heard his work in the Tales series, which I don't think have had the strongest OSTs in JRPGs (or otherwise), but still, this is one great OST.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVBz7nV9BFs
It's also great how Shimomura, Ishimoto and Sekito have inserted some dream-like qualities to some new arrangements of old songs. Traverse in Trance, in particular, is simply one of the best new takes on a song I've ever had the pleasure to experience. Also, as per tradition for the series, Dearly Beloved has gotten a new arrangement and while it perhaps doesn't rise to as epic heights as Birth By Sleep's rendition, it's every bit as good. Shimomura really surprises me every time with Dearly Beloved, first with its simplicity in the first game and then with its growing complexity and, now, diversity.
We, of course, can't forget the battle music, which is an integral part of the KH series. 3D, again, has some of the best music played during combat the series has ever had. Bombastic, epic, whimsical & exciting, often all at once.
Examples: Majestic Wings, Rinzler Recompiled, Prankster's Party, All For One, L'Oscurita dell'Ignot etc. etc. etc. I could give more but I think that's enough. 2) Bravely Default: Flying Fairy; I'm in a bit of a hurry and I left this as my last game, so I don't have the time to write any kind of lengthy answer why I like it. It's just top-notch stuff from beginning to the end. I haven't gotten around buying the OST yet, but this will surely be the next one I will
3) Beyond the Labyrinth: Another game on my list we haven't gotten yet (and probably never will), another OST on my list with somewhat dreamy qualities. Some really haunting & serene tunes in there, while also offering fast-paced battle songs. Like I said earlier, it is almost impossible for me to pick what are the absolute best OSTs of 2012 because so many are Top 3 material, so I didn't necessarily pick any of these because they are clearly superior to other OSTs, but used other criteria... One of the reasons why I put this in is simply because I've never been the biggest fan of Sakuraba, so this OST surprised me with its style & quality. Granted, this might be because I've mostly heard his work in the Tales series, which I don't think have had the strongest OSTs in JRPGs (or otherwise), but still, this is one great OST.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVBz7nV9BFs
Yeah it was great, my only problem was, that I wish there was at least one Chinese song in the Karaoke.
DevelopmentArrested
Banned
Hotline Miami
Nothing else comes close
Nothing else comes close
Rebel Leader
THE POWER OF BUTTERSCOTCH BOTTOMS
Awwww man T_T
--
I will listen to the soundtracks and may vote on them [even though I haven't played any =( ]
Phoenixazure
Member
1. Max Payne 3 (Stunning Soundtrack, it really elevated the game to amazing heights on soundtrack alone)
2. Journey (Wasn't Grammy nominated for nothing.)
3. Sound Shapes (important since the entire game was built around the music and vice versa)
Honorable Mentions:
Persona 4 Golden
Hotline Miami
Gravity Rush
Sleeping Dogs
Hitman Absolution
FTL
2. Journey (Wasn't Grammy nominated for nothing.)
3. Sound Shapes (important since the entire game was built around the music and vice versa)
Honorable Mentions:
Persona 4 Golden
Hotline Miami
Gravity Rush
Sleeping Dogs
Hitman Absolution
FTL
Bjoern the Smexy
Member
1. Kid Icarus Uprising (3DS)
2. Nintendo Land (Wii U) (I'm dead serious, that soundtrack is fucking awesome)
3. Retro City Rampage (Multiplatform)
2. Nintendo Land (Wii U) (I'm dead serious, that soundtrack is fucking awesome)
3. Retro City Rampage (Multiplatform)
GhaleonQ
Member
WHEW. To be clear, as with all forms of entertainment, I take into account some combination of quality and quantity. Sadly, games with 6 tracks (Intelligent Systems) or 3 (Action Button Entertainment) didnt have much of a shot. Also, had Health not cancelled the remaining parts of their opening slot tour with Crystal Castles and I had seen them after driving from Milwaukee to Chicago, MAYBE THEY WOULD HAVE RANKED, JERKS. (Nah, theyre cool. They barely missed it.)
20. Virtua Fighter 5
19. Touch My Katamari/Stretchy Clump Spirit
18. Suikoden: The Woven Web of A Century/Fantasy Water Margin A Spun Web Of 100 Years
17. Inazuma 11 5/Lightning 11 5: Chrono Stone
16. Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed
15. Sine Mora/Without Delay
14. Akai Katana/Red Katana
13. Time Travelers
12. Paper Mario: Sticker Star/Super Seal Mario
11. Bravely Default: Flying Fairy
10. E.X. Troopers; Yasumasa Kitagawa; Here And There
Its good-natured, pop-oriented electropop, trance, and techno. Modern Capcom should always be in the business of crowd-pleasing. Their days of being the most thoughtful of the arcade developers are over.
09. Tekken Tag Tournament 2/Iron Fist Tag Tournament 2; Akitaka Toyama and company; Mystic Force Extravagant Underground
Like the rest of the game, this soundtrack was all about calculated risks. The rhythms hit as hard and as unexpectedly as the games best players.
08. Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4/Bayshore Midnight Maximum Tune 4; Yuzo Koshiro; Never Throw Away
No, seriously, when Yuzo Koshiro retires, how will we ever construct a highlight reel? Were now at 28 years of excellence, 10 or so genres mastered, a hard drives worth of career highs, and handfuls of games defined by his work. Then, he adds 1 more to the shortlist.
07. Fez; Rich Vreeland; Puzzle
My feelings toward a game can only aid, never hurt, a soundtrack. Thus, I cant deny the splendid sound design, chilly minimalist melodies, or dynamic variance Disasterpeace composed.
06. Super Danganronpa 2/Winning An Argument With A Bullet 2: Farewell, School Of Hopelessness; Masafumi Takada and company; Class Trial Future Part: Introduction
They cant all be minimalist gems. When MURDER IS AFOOT, you need someone to channel every 1990s electronic star out of the U.K., shake you by the collar, and focus you on solving the riddle at hand. Concussive: it can be a compliment!
05. Dokuro/Skull; Yasuhiro Kawasaki; Hells Kitchen
How do you capture a character thats brittle yet brave, inhuman and yet humane? Apparently, you bring Yasuhiro Kawasaki out of video games retirement and give him only the musical instruments which a child might play. Coaxing that soundtrack (which so deserves a complete, physical release) out of a recorder, toy piano, and xylophone is as notable an accomplishment as getting my chin to tremble and eyes to well up from a simple puzzle-platformer. (And they did. Nice job, Game Arts.)
04. Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance; Yoko Shimomura and company; The Fun Fair
I sometimes suspect that the series yearly water-treading isnt because of XIII, XIV, and Versus, but because Square-Enix brass have a bet to see if Yoko Shimomura will ever run out of ideas. The smart money remains on her talent.
03. Beyond The Labyrinth; Motoi Sakuraba
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=456714 Motoi Sakuraba knows that he can bore you, I titled it. In Square-Enix Music Onlines interview, Sakuraba talks about how he gets pushed around by Namco-Bandai and gets disappointed by Camelot. Sakurabas increasingly been defined by his graft, not his inspiration. Hes as good as someone can be while pushing out 200 tracks a year, but his generous/profligate nature keeps him off of the cool kids lists, Baten Kaitos or not. We play Tales Of, but there are those of you who arent proud of it.
So, Beyond The Labyrinth, as he said, was for the complainers. Sad War makes harps and bells takes tools meant for a welcoming church and bends them to sound like the end of the world. Illusory Defence is an audial earthquake, composed less to make you hum it afterward and more to make you sick about what happened in-game when you last hear it. Magma, Part 2 is the most creative use of his progressive rock background since Tales Of The Abyss.
Thats not to ignore his more subtle work, the dark sheen that he mentioned. Triangle Shines is the song that OUGHT to be named Beyond The Labyrinth, as it feels frantically lost before it pauses for a moment of sad reflection but, ultimately, triumph. Lilac Mist is my favorite, though. Its just his Tales Of tricks remixed, but because there are no mascots with baby voices, Super Hyper Magnificent Artes, or 40-minute long sketches to get to, hes allowed to have a light hand with them. The crescendo is 1 of the most tasteful things hes yet done. Its flanked by his typical high-octave scales with another jingle rattling around inside of the rhythm. The hush is lovely, but the firm base lifting it to the heavens reminds me much of the game. Theres a fragile, skillful girl you need to protect, and your steady hand is the only thing that can raise her up.
There are still lovely 8-bit themes, unambiguous jams, and delicate tracks left to listen to, and, yes, he manages to work in an electric organ. Hes still Motoi Sakuraba! And, once again, thats become a compliment. Someone just put up the full, full soundtrack, so track it down.
02. Yakuza: Dead Souls/Like A Dragon: Of The End; Mitsuharu Fukuyama and company
This series is the professional wrestling of video games. It builds its base on kayfabe reality. Yes, theres a yakuza, and yep, Sapporo looks a lot like that in real life, and sure, manly men monologues do occur from time to time in unexpected places. But the pleasures I get from it are wholly synthetic, spun into bizarre wish-fulfillment. Did I know that I wanted to beat up a rough of omorashi toughs? No, but Sega did. Did I know that zombie boss battles could be fun for once? Sega did. Did they know that I want to sing karaoke and dance like a pretty princess. Well, yes, I e-mailed them specifically to urge them to include that. They feed my most base, hidden desires with a wink because, in the end, its all pretend. In this metaphor, Of The End is Chikara, the most cartoonish of the cartoonish.
In Screamer, Takeshi Isozaki balances butt-rock with sickly chord changes and dissonant screams to suggest a car that crashes and yet keeps flipping and rolling and crunching. Long Battle finds a groove and doesnt let go. Yuichi Kanatanis going to hit it with everything possible: guitar, piano, 2 guitars, bass, synth, violas, violins. And when hes tired of that, he presses the emergency button: an unashamed, heroic guitar solo that puts a stupid grin on my face when he just GOES FOR IT. That still leaves Kiryu: Desperate Situation to make you feel like 10 things are happening at once that you dont quite understand, but that you must do something.
But, you know, its still a fun series. Ill mention whats ostensibly a remix, Jewel Of The End. How did http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCE3BwNQHjA become a disco mix from Breakbot or Justice? Will the next spinoff be Yakuza: Bemani? Surrounded On All Sides reveals that I may be a bro at heart, brah. Its not Calibre, making you think while rocking your body. Its just light-as-air drum-and-bass. Look at the title of the song, close your eyes, imagine the game, and play the song. Cinematic doesnt have to mean moody strings. Youre trapped by ghouls. Your heart pounds, and your shoulders tense. You nod. You sprint toward the baddies. You enjoy 2 glorious minutes of savant-like beat-em-up combinations, blood and bones flying every which way. Im not immune to power trips in games. I just like mine soundtracked by a 35-dollar haunted house organ. Is that so wrong?
01. Botanicula; Jan Kratochvil and Bara Kratochvilova
http://twinfinite.net/blog/2012/06/30/the-beats-in-botanicula-an-interview-with-dva Here are some of my favorite things, if you didnt know: graphic adventure games, Arvo Part, Bjork, Lithuanian folk music, Russian hip-hop, and Icelandic electronica. They are all in this game. Thats weird. My video game 2012 has been about lamenting whats been lost and how little theres been to replace it, so let me honor Dva, Amanita Design, and Botanicula with my soundtrack of the year award as thanks for them doing their part to dam the tide.
Melody braces me. Thats what my childhood sounds like. Theres a combination of old and new instruments that carries tradition forward to the present day. Theres perpetual forward motion in the rhythm, but a melancholic harmony and yearning melody. Dva even left room for a hearty sigh at the end next to the warming fire.
Woohoo is as twee as its name, but thats no sin. The vocal/dorumb combination might be my favorite moment in video game music this year, and when the animal noises come in, I feel like the whole game is teeming with life. A child must have composed Little Fly. Its so simple and so full of joy; I imagine that, with the chanting, its the only fly-worshipping song in music today. The only time you are allowed to use this meme in front of me is if you say, Deed. DAT TINTINNABULI. The secret M.V.P. of Level 3s trip hop is that gurgling electric organ at the bottom.
Thats the aim of Botaniculas soundtrack. Its lifes simple pleasures and surprises, packaged and ordered neatly for you to open up, smile, and remember.
20. Virtua Fighter 5
19. Touch My Katamari/Stretchy Clump Spirit
18. Suikoden: The Woven Web of A Century/Fantasy Water Margin A Spun Web Of 100 Years
17. Inazuma 11 5/Lightning 11 5: Chrono Stone
16. Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed
15. Sine Mora/Without Delay
14. Akai Katana/Red Katana
13. Time Travelers
12. Paper Mario: Sticker Star/Super Seal Mario
11. Bravely Default: Flying Fairy
10. E.X. Troopers; Yasumasa Kitagawa; Here And There
Its good-natured, pop-oriented electropop, trance, and techno. Modern Capcom should always be in the business of crowd-pleasing. Their days of being the most thoughtful of the arcade developers are over.
09. Tekken Tag Tournament 2/Iron Fist Tag Tournament 2; Akitaka Toyama and company; Mystic Force Extravagant Underground
Like the rest of the game, this soundtrack was all about calculated risks. The rhythms hit as hard and as unexpectedly as the games best players.
08. Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune 4/Bayshore Midnight Maximum Tune 4; Yuzo Koshiro; Never Throw Away
No, seriously, when Yuzo Koshiro retires, how will we ever construct a highlight reel? Were now at 28 years of excellence, 10 or so genres mastered, a hard drives worth of career highs, and handfuls of games defined by his work. Then, he adds 1 more to the shortlist.
07. Fez; Rich Vreeland; Puzzle
My feelings toward a game can only aid, never hurt, a soundtrack. Thus, I cant deny the splendid sound design, chilly minimalist melodies, or dynamic variance Disasterpeace composed.
06. Super Danganronpa 2/Winning An Argument With A Bullet 2: Farewell, School Of Hopelessness; Masafumi Takada and company; Class Trial Future Part: Introduction
They cant all be minimalist gems. When MURDER IS AFOOT, you need someone to channel every 1990s electronic star out of the U.K., shake you by the collar, and focus you on solving the riddle at hand. Concussive: it can be a compliment!
05. Dokuro/Skull; Yasuhiro Kawasaki; Hells Kitchen
How do you capture a character thats brittle yet brave, inhuman and yet humane? Apparently, you bring Yasuhiro Kawasaki out of video games retirement and give him only the musical instruments which a child might play. Coaxing that soundtrack (which so deserves a complete, physical release) out of a recorder, toy piano, and xylophone is as notable an accomplishment as getting my chin to tremble and eyes to well up from a simple puzzle-platformer. (And they did. Nice job, Game Arts.)
04. Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance; Yoko Shimomura and company; The Fun Fair
I sometimes suspect that the series yearly water-treading isnt because of XIII, XIV, and Versus, but because Square-Enix brass have a bet to see if Yoko Shimomura will ever run out of ideas. The smart money remains on her talent.
03. Beyond The Labyrinth; Motoi Sakuraba
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=456714 Motoi Sakuraba knows that he can bore you, I titled it. In Square-Enix Music Onlines interview, Sakuraba talks about how he gets pushed around by Namco-Bandai and gets disappointed by Camelot. Sakurabas increasingly been defined by his graft, not his inspiration. Hes as good as someone can be while pushing out 200 tracks a year, but his generous/profligate nature keeps him off of the cool kids lists, Baten Kaitos or not. We play Tales Of, but there are those of you who arent proud of it.
So, Beyond The Labyrinth, as he said, was for the complainers. Sad War makes harps and bells takes tools meant for a welcoming church and bends them to sound like the end of the world. Illusory Defence is an audial earthquake, composed less to make you hum it afterward and more to make you sick about what happened in-game when you last hear it. Magma, Part 2 is the most creative use of his progressive rock background since Tales Of The Abyss.
Thats not to ignore his more subtle work, the dark sheen that he mentioned. Triangle Shines is the song that OUGHT to be named Beyond The Labyrinth, as it feels frantically lost before it pauses for a moment of sad reflection but, ultimately, triumph. Lilac Mist is my favorite, though. Its just his Tales Of tricks remixed, but because there are no mascots with baby voices, Super Hyper Magnificent Artes, or 40-minute long sketches to get to, hes allowed to have a light hand with them. The crescendo is 1 of the most tasteful things hes yet done. Its flanked by his typical high-octave scales with another jingle rattling around inside of the rhythm. The hush is lovely, but the firm base lifting it to the heavens reminds me much of the game. Theres a fragile, skillful girl you need to protect, and your steady hand is the only thing that can raise her up.
There are still lovely 8-bit themes, unambiguous jams, and delicate tracks left to listen to, and, yes, he manages to work in an electric organ. Hes still Motoi Sakuraba! And, once again, thats become a compliment. Someone just put up the full, full soundtrack, so track it down.
02. Yakuza: Dead Souls/Like A Dragon: Of The End; Mitsuharu Fukuyama and company
This series is the professional wrestling of video games. It builds its base on kayfabe reality. Yes, theres a yakuza, and yep, Sapporo looks a lot like that in real life, and sure, manly men monologues do occur from time to time in unexpected places. But the pleasures I get from it are wholly synthetic, spun into bizarre wish-fulfillment. Did I know that I wanted to beat up a rough of omorashi toughs? No, but Sega did. Did I know that zombie boss battles could be fun for once? Sega did. Did they know that I want to sing karaoke and dance like a pretty princess. Well, yes, I e-mailed them specifically to urge them to include that. They feed my most base, hidden desires with a wink because, in the end, its all pretend. In this metaphor, Of The End is Chikara, the most cartoonish of the cartoonish.
In Screamer, Takeshi Isozaki balances butt-rock with sickly chord changes and dissonant screams to suggest a car that crashes and yet keeps flipping and rolling and crunching. Long Battle finds a groove and doesnt let go. Yuichi Kanatanis going to hit it with everything possible: guitar, piano, 2 guitars, bass, synth, violas, violins. And when hes tired of that, he presses the emergency button: an unashamed, heroic guitar solo that puts a stupid grin on my face when he just GOES FOR IT. That still leaves Kiryu: Desperate Situation to make you feel like 10 things are happening at once that you dont quite understand, but that you must do something.
But, you know, its still a fun series. Ill mention whats ostensibly a remix, Jewel Of The End. How did http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCE3BwNQHjA become a disco mix from Breakbot or Justice? Will the next spinoff be Yakuza: Bemani? Surrounded On All Sides reveals that I may be a bro at heart, brah. Its not Calibre, making you think while rocking your body. Its just light-as-air drum-and-bass. Look at the title of the song, close your eyes, imagine the game, and play the song. Cinematic doesnt have to mean moody strings. Youre trapped by ghouls. Your heart pounds, and your shoulders tense. You nod. You sprint toward the baddies. You enjoy 2 glorious minutes of savant-like beat-em-up combinations, blood and bones flying every which way. Im not immune to power trips in games. I just like mine soundtracked by a 35-dollar haunted house organ. Is that so wrong?
01. Botanicula; Jan Kratochvil and Bara Kratochvilova
http://twinfinite.net/blog/2012/06/30/the-beats-in-botanicula-an-interview-with-dva Here are some of my favorite things, if you didnt know: graphic adventure games, Arvo Part, Bjork, Lithuanian folk music, Russian hip-hop, and Icelandic electronica. They are all in this game. Thats weird. My video game 2012 has been about lamenting whats been lost and how little theres been to replace it, so let me honor Dva, Amanita Design, and Botanicula with my soundtrack of the year award as thanks for them doing their part to dam the tide.
Melody braces me. Thats what my childhood sounds like. Theres a combination of old and new instruments that carries tradition forward to the present day. Theres perpetual forward motion in the rhythm, but a melancholic harmony and yearning melody. Dva even left room for a hearty sigh at the end next to the warming fire.
Woohoo is as twee as its name, but thats no sin. The vocal/dorumb combination might be my favorite moment in video game music this year, and when the animal noises come in, I feel like the whole game is teeming with life. A child must have composed Little Fly. Its so simple and so full of joy; I imagine that, with the chanting, its the only fly-worshipping song in music today. The only time you are allowed to use this meme in front of me is if you say, Deed. DAT TINTINNABULI. The secret M.V.P. of Level 3s trip hop is that gurgling electric organ at the bottom.
Thats the aim of Botaniculas soundtrack. Its lifes simple pleasures and surprises, packaged and ordered neatly for you to open up, smile, and remember.
Dark Schala
Eloquent Princess
Typing my vote up tonight because I was too tired to do so last night and ended up crashing instead. I didn’t realize that it was due at 11:59 PM tomorrow. I thought it was today! Gives me extra time because I felt exhausted yesterday and didn’t bother staying up to write my LTTP post and then using today to type SotY stuff.
Ghaleon--what a fantastic post. I'm a little surprised the Wangan Midnight OST isn't a little higher, but I guess I have to go listen to Dokuro's soundtrack, huh? I think the Beyond the Labyrinth mention is a little surprising. My boyfriend, who's completely mad for Sakuraba music, didn't seem to have a huge attachment to it.