Game Music Is More Important Than Graphics
Which is more important to you, good music or good graphics? Gman at Tokyopia argues that music is more important in games than graphics. He points out that while graphics tend to date horribly, music always elicits an emotional response, no matter how old the game.
I don’t know about you, but I have more older video game soundtracks that stick in my mind than the newer ones.
Music is more important than graphics
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The old games do beat the new — except for Katamari Damacy. That soundtrack will never, ever leave my head, I’m afraid.
But the finest original game soundtrack of all time must be Pitfall II. What an astounding game — and even now when I play it on the PS2 compilation I’m humming the song for days.
Honorable mentions for the “sampled” soundtracks from Gyruss and Pengo (Pengo was based on some other piece wasn’t it?).
Oh, and I used to have a game for my Atari ST called Pie Fight, that had Scott Joplin music playing throughout. I used to play just for the music.
Okay. I think I’ve made your point. Gman wins.
Yeah the Katamari Damacy is constantly on my Winamp playlist. Another good modern one is the Jet Set Radio series.
I would agree that there are a handful of modern games that have wonderful and memorable soundtracks.