The original Halo saw what’ll become the series signature, choir-heavy theme song and the third game ended with an emotional piano number that offered what we though was a definite closure to Master Chief’s story.
Whimsical, bouncy and at a perfect tempo to keep you leaping forward. The nod went to Sanxion.įew notable video game soundtracks Super Mario Bros.(1985)Įven with a rich history, when most people hear the phrase video game music, it’s safe bet that the first ditty that comes to mind is the opening tune to the original Super Mario Bros. 1886 saw The Golden Joystick Awards introduce a category for “Best Soundtrack of the Year”. This inspired North American companies such as Sierra, Cinemaware and Interplay to step their game up. Composers were starting to get more coin, and video game music was being sold as cassette tape soundtracks in Japan. The composer for Dig Dug, Yuriko Keino, also composed the music for other Namco games Xevious and Phozon.įast forward to late-1980s when the quality of composition improved drastically. This is where the music stopped if the player stopped moving. The team went a level-up with Namco’s 1982 arcade game Dig Dug. This changed depending on the player’s moves. They used at least eleven different gameplay tracks and had level-starting and game over themes. Konami’s 1981 arcade game, Frogger, had a gnarly approach to video game music.
Today’s soundtracks – like in a movie or television show – create a mood. From the options menu to bonus content screen, as well as during the entire gameplay. The music is now heard everywhere – as soon as you turn the game on, basically. The simple synthesizer is still present, but games now include orchestral pieces and pop music. As the technology advanced, video game music has matured to include the same texture as television and film scores. This inspired its own style of music known as chiptunes – a style of synthesized electronic music made using the PSG sound chips in vintage arcade machines, computers and video game consoles. Music in video games were once limited to synthesizers supplying simple melodies. Video game soundtracks – a bit of a history