What is music to a game?

[Zero Kirby]

Music or lack thereof can be essential to an experience, to be sure. I've noticed that offensive soundtracks can detract noticeably from even very enjoyable gameplay, whereas excellent soundtracks can boost up somewhat blander gameplay.

Something I like to do very often is create customized soundtracks for video games using a bunch of tunes taken from other games. While they may not necessarily fit together in terms of genre or style, I try to find ones that fit the mood or area in the game. This tends to result in a lot of Kirby, Sonic, and Mario tracks bumping elbows but ends up being pretty fun in my opinion.

The Epic Mickey soundtrack, for example, works very well for GoldenEye on the Wii.


I'm so obsessive about this sort of thing I created a Breath of the Wild playlist with individual songs by region, so yes, I think music's pretty dang important.

One of my favourite trends in game soundtracks are evolving soundtracks, ones that change with the stage or situation. Probably the crowning example being Irate Eight from Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze. It starts out as a somewhat higher-tempo version of Aquatic Ambience, with a few hints of some other familiar tune mixed in... but wait something in the background just moved and all of a sudden, Aquatic Ambience is in the background, and the familiar tune takes over the song... and it's Lockjaw's Saga. And the change is so subtle and so well-done it's almost like these two completely disparate melodies were always meant to be mixed together into one whole.

Falcon Punch is the result of the Sun heating fists. It drives the Blue Falcon. Heating causes destruction of water into the pain, where it then hurts, creating rain. Rain creates flowing water in tears, which can then be converted into other forms through more pain.



This fight has only just begun...