This year’s slate of releases has been a dream. But alongside many of these phenomenal games have been equally phenomenal soundtracks. And to be frank, we’re starting to get scared about that “soundtracks of the year” list come December. Between Persona 5 a few months back, Pyre this month, and Undertale next month, this year will have a minimum of three clear-cut number one soundtracks. And that’s not even counting some other worthy releases. When all is said and done, we might have a Top 20 on our hands this year. But to jump back to present day, this past month in game music saw a few pretty significant releases, and we just wanted to take the time to show off a few of the best releases.
Superhot
Okay, so this first one isn’t necessarily on here because it’s got a good soundtrack. The game’s “theme” is actually maddening, but it burrows its way into your brain whether you like it or not. Have fun unhearing it. There is some actual music in the game, but it’s there more as wallpaper for the title’s exciting gameplay. Who’d have thought that a synthetic voice saying the name of your game over and over until everyone’s gone insane would be catchy?
Sundered
Sundered was a Metroidvania title that we came away from with mixed feelings on. One area that we definitely liked, however, was the title’s music. Right from the beginning, the music helped to paint a rather ominous image, and made the environments feel far more menacing than they otherwise would have. In fact, Maxime Lacoste-Lebuis’s score made the game feel almost like a horror title at times, which worked for the title exceedingly well.
Pyre
It shouldn’t surprise anyone to see us talking about Supergiant when discussing great game music. After three releases, Supergiant has ended up with three of the best game scores we’ve ever heard. Transistor even won our soundtrack of the year in 2014. So it’s not surprising to us that Darren Korb knocked it out of the park yet again. The vocal tracks are standouts as ever, but this time around, we think he might have delivered his best instrumental music to date as well. Pyre’s score is absolutely flawless.
Were there any soundtracks recently that caught your fancy? Any game music we should have mentioned? Give us a shout in the comments section below.
Comments 10
Not exactly recent, but the Doom soundtrack was pretty impressive. Did a great job of pumping up the adrenaline during battle and then bringing you down in the few quiet moments in between. Certainly lived up to its predecessors musical accompaniment.
Slightly off topic., but i do love Seven Day's To Die's sound cues, the game as a whole isn't the greatest, but wondering around the map is much more interesting thanks to it's audio cues and background sfx.
To be fair I still hark back to the "old days".. Streets Of Rage 2, and some of the old SF2 stage music still does it for me at nearly 41..but thats more nostalgia I guess...
I think one of the best (not original) soundtracks of last year was Mafia 3. Their song choices, both for radio and cutscenes were just... perfect.
I already knew I would love the soundtrack when I saw the trailers with "The House of the Rising Sun" and "Hold On, I'm Comin' ".
I almost thought they made the game just for me: there's around a 100 songs and at least half, if not more, are some of my all-time favorites.
Not Soundtrack Related: Nolan North as Remy Duvall is amazing. I never even suspected it was him till I saw the ending credits (By the way, that mid-credit cutscene!).
Hope you guys don't forget the Valkyria Revolution OST just because of the game its attached to. I mean, that's Yasunori Mitsuda we're talking about - the composer, or one of the composers, for Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Luminous Arc, Stella Glow, the Shadow Heart games, Terra Battle, the Xenoblade games and many, MANY more games with amazing soundtracks. Would be a shame if people passed up on this soundtrack, because he did some absolutely fantastic stuff for the game.
From the heroic main theme and its many variations ("Pledged Revenge", "Azure Revolution"), to the rousing battle scores ("Marching", "Threat of the Ruzhien Empire" ), to the upbeat & lighthearted tracks that back many of the places in town ("Sabanci & Co.", "Enlivened City"), to the beautiful ambient themes ("Drifting to Tender Memories", "Eternal Rest"), its just top-notch stuff all around. I know its hard to focus on the music when there's so much dumb & bad layered over it in-game, but give the OST a listen on Youtube and its pretty clear there
Kudos to doing this, btw. Somehow, I haven't noticed these Push Play Top of the Pops until now, but as a big fan of game OSTs (I listen to them often while working, hence why I can pull track names for Valkyria Revolution atm), this rules. Even bad games sometimes have amazing soundtracks, so game music deserves a lot more highlighting than it gets. Props, Push Square!
Undertale's music is AMAZING. That said, I don't think it touches Persona for soundtrack of the year for ps users.
Nier Automata.
Nuff said.
As for upcoming titles, Destiny 2 & Battlefront 2 are looking to bring cinematic and theatrical scores to our consoles this coming Fall season.
@TruthfulVoice Funnily enough, I did actually forget about that game haha. So kudos for mentioning it!
And yeah, there's just so much great game music out there that doesn't get nearly enough attention, which is where I came up with doing this as a series! Glad you like it!
It is still relatively new though, so that explains why you might've missed em. Issues 2 and 3 got buried by E3 coverage. I'm 100% in agreement with you though, there's quite a few, erm, less than ideal games that have exceptional music (Your Valkyria example is perfect for that!)
@dellyrascal Yessssssss, the Doom soundtrack was incredible! Definitely one of my favs from last year!
I've never played Seven Days to Die, but that's intriguing to hear. Sounds like a really good example of great sound design!
@DanM Yes! I wasn't super crazy about the game, but it's licensed music was inspired. An amazing selection of tracks. Not too many games stand out for doing incredible work with their licensed music selection. My favorite is still Alan Wake, and Spec Ops: The Line is another one I always think about when it comes to licensed music if you've played either of those. And Nolan North is just such a champ. So many great performances in so many great games!
@ztpayne7 Heck yeah it is! I hear that game's music before I played the game (my roommates both played it before I had, so I heard the music a lot haha), and I loved the music enough that it made me want to play the game, and then I also loved the game!
@SZRT_CIC_Ice Absolutely! You better believe that's gonna be on the best soundtracks of the year list come December. That game's music is phenomenal!
@gbanas92 : Yeah I went back and listened to the older ones. Except for the dead Youtube links in the first, this is a freakin' killer series. I love that stuff like Deformers had such interesting tunes. And GNOG sounds freakin' cool as heck too. I'm definitely be on the lookout for when these pop up in the future
@TruthfulVoice Dead links?!?! Well I'm gonna need to fix that. Thanks for the heads up
Yesss Deformers and GNOG both had such amazing music and didn't get nearly as much as attention as they deserved. Heck, GNOG never even got a proper soundtrack!
And awesome! Really glad you like them. The goal is (at least for now) once a month towards the end of the month, so keep your eyes peeld!
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