New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Everybody knows that the experience of playing a video game is better with the sound turned up. Watching yourself on street fighter without the 'hi-ya' and the punching sounds makes the whole thing feel a little flat. You miss Super Mario's boing noises, or the twizzling noise when you fly over a banana skin on
Crash Bandicoot. In the same way, it's possible to really get into the actual music from a video game, Tony Hawk's Pro-Skater 4 remains the soundtrack to many gamer's teens. Some people loved the Skyrim score so much that they got it into the
Top40 Charts. There's a whole world of video game sounds and songs out there and this is what separates the good from the great.
Proper Research
One of the most exciting parts for many people is how well the soundtrack fits the mood of the game. It might be based on music from the era in which the game was set, like the brilliant big band and jazz soundtrack from the 1920's style Cuphead. It might be based on music from a certain subculture, like the alternative soundtrack to the Tony Hawk games, which featured lots of skating bands, as well as a good dose of punk. One of the most thoroughly researched soundtracks of recent years has been the score for Red Dead Redemption II. This soundtrack was lucky enough to have a huge budget and a proper team to work on it and what they achieved was remarkable. They trawled through archives from turn of the century America, looking up songs that workers sang, what was playing on the wireless at the time, and even folk songs from some of the indigenous people that are represented in the game. With all of this information in hand, they set to work re-writing certain lines to better fit the story of the game. As well as this, they recorded brand new versions of old songs, including the crackle of a blunt record player needle or the hum of the wireless in the background. Of course, the ambient sounds were beautiful in this game too, which brings us onto the next point, making sure those sound effects fit perfectly.
The Right Sound Effects
Soundtracks will vary enormously from genre to genre. Some of it depends on the end user, some depends on time constraints and some depends on budget, but one thing that almost all video games have in common are sound effects. Even the best online casinos won't need to throw an enormous budget at their most played slots games, as these games need a simpler soundtrack, that's catchy in nature, but not intrusive. Casino Reviews provides information on hundreds of different sites, all of which offer slots gaming, some with big bonuses, some with other table games too. The more slots games you play the more you'll realise that there are certain tropes that will occur often, for example, the sound of cash falling is common to many slot soundtracks and symbolizes when a player hits a jackpot. You'll often get a reel spinning noise too, or a sparkling noise when you unlock a special effect. The more you play these games, the more you'll see them crop up. Outside of the casino genre, there are lots of other sound effects being made too. The recent Halo Infinite release has had a whole program made about the sound design by Movie Insider. The makers explore all kinds of fascinating ways of creating the noises that seem so natural in the game, yet take months of preparation to get just right.
Moving With The Action
The final element that a great soundtrack has to have is the ability to move with the action. As we mentioned in the introduction, the Skyrim soundtrack was so great that it made it into the charts. There are some very slow and melancholy parts to the score which are hauntingly beautiful but would be totally out of place in a fight against a massive dragon. The team at Skyrim cleverly created pieces of music that could blend seamlessly with one another in a short period of time, so that if you were wandering along a lonely mountain path, you could be surrounded with the sound of birds and peaceful music, but if you bumped into that dragon, the tempo could change to something much more dramatic. It's thoughtful touches like these that take a video game soundtrack from acceptable to fantastic.
