Videogame music deserves more recognition than it gets.

When talking about video games, the first things that you may start thinking about is the gameplay, graphics, design, gaming platform, or characters. What is important to me and feels like is not much talked about as it should is the music.

Video game music gives more depth to main characters, stages, and scenes. When thinking about Mario, even those who haven’t played any video games may know how the song goes. I bet that even you had it playing in your head after reading this sentence. The Super Mario Bros came 25 years ago, and even now it’s recognized and has set the tone for the Super Mario series. Only old games don’t have impactful music. Those who have played Doom Eternal probably wouldn’t have had as an immersive and brutal feeling of the game without the heavy metal music playing in the background. Even indie games have more impact when the soundtrack is great. For example, would fight against one of the most memorable characters Sans be as memorable without Megalovania song playing in the background in Undertale?

Kingdom Hearts, Disney, and Square Enix collaboration game is one of my favorite game series. One of the reasons is the soundtrack. If I had to pick one time when the music had an impact on me in the game, it was in Kingdom Hearts 2. At the end of the Colusseum, a world based on Disney’s film Hercules, Hydra (a big monster from the Disney film) had destroyed Colusseum. Hercules had lost his willingness to fight so he was no help in beating Hydra, so the main character and the others, that were clearly weaker than Hercules, had to beat Hydra without Hercules. From the Colusseum ruins, massive Hydra charges at the group, and then the music starts playing for the boss battle. The song, Desire for All That Is Lost, made this scene more sad, threatening, and memorable for me when playing the first time. Square Enix is a game company that knows how important music can be since it was behind the Kingdom Hearts orchestra world tour and a rhythm game of Kingdom Hearts music.

Everyone who has played video games before probably has at least one moment when the music made the gaming experience better: be it just Korobeiniki playing in the background while playing Tetris, short leveling up the track when your weapon levels up in Call of Duty, or the cutscene of any game. Even trailers, like when Master Chief is seen floating in space in the Halo Infinite – Discover Hope cinematic trailer the background goes silent and starts playing the theme slowly with piano. When you go back to playing games after reading this and come across a scene or any other moment in-game when the music starts playing, maybe stop for a moment and enjoy the music for a moment. Or maybe go to YouTube and listen to your favorite game’s soundtrack there. Just listening to the soundtrack of your favorite game is worth it.

The picture is made by Ri_Ya in Pixaby: https://pixabay.com/photos/music-sheet-in-a-shadow-flute-piano-5117328/

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#digital games #music