Words and images are great ways of communicating complex ideas but nothing comes close to music when it comes to portraying emotion and feelings.
All the dialogue in a movie or video game can be geared towards building up to an epic battle but it’s only the rhythmic beating of a war drum that can instil that sense of foreboding in you.
This is why music has played such a pivotal role in storytelling throughout the centuries, whether that be in the theatrical plays of Seneca in Ancient Greece, on the latest Hollywood blockbuster or your favourite video game.
The power of music is even being realised in poker gaming, where a number of leading providers are adding soundtracks to their online lobbies.
Leaving that aside though, let’s take a look at some of the most recognisable and iconic gaming soundtracks…
Medal of Honor
Michael Giacchino is an American composer who won an Oscar for his work on Lost and an Emmy for his musical scores on Lost. Prior to all of that though, Giacchino first cut his teeth as a composer working on video games.
His first major work came on the DreamWorks adaptation of The Lost World: Jurassic Park but his most famous contribution to video games was producing the soundtrack to Medal of Honor.
Released in 1999, Medal of Honor is one of the most iconic video games of all-time and not only featured music from a world-famous composer but was also produced by one of the biggest names in Hollywood – Steven Spielberg.
Chrono Trigger
Chances are you’ve never heard of Chrono Trigger or, if you have, you’ve long forgotten about it. Designed by the “Dream Team” of Hironobu Sakaguichi, Yuji Horii and Akira Toriyama this game was an absolute classic and the soundtrack…wow.
Composed by Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu, the soundtrack contained 60 tracks each lasting around two minutes which was an unheard of level of detail for a game at that time (1995).
Such is the popularity of the soundtrack that it has been performed at several live concerts and still receives tens of thousands of monthly plays on Spotify.
Tetris
If like us, you mostly thought of Tetris as the boring game that your parents used to play then you’ll have been just as shocked as us when Apple TV released an action-thriller based on the true to life, gripping story of how the game was launched.
Whilst the tale of Tetris’ launch and inception is fascinating, we will leave that to Taron Egerton and the rest of the movie cast. What we can comment on however is the soundtrack, which much like the game has a habit of looping around your brain hours after you finished playing.
The iconic Tetris “theme tune” is a rendition of the 19th-century Russian folk song “Korobeiniki” which has some somewhat disturbing lyrics but is a catchy song nonetheless!
The Final Fantasy Series
Chrono Trigger wasn’t the last piece of great work that Nobuo Uematsu did on video games, in fact it was just a precursor for what was to come.
Just like on Chrono Trigger, Uematsu put his heart and soul into the production of the soundtracks for Final Fantasy.
Each rendition of the game bringing with it a captivating and immersive soundtrack that not only brought to life the action on the screen but helped to portray the emotional depth of the characters.
Uematsu’s soundtracks are just one of the reasons why Final Fantasy has become such an iconic game beloved by millions of gamers across the globe.
Super Mario
Created by Nintendo and first released in 1985, Super Mario is perhaps the most famous video game ever created. The music for the game was composed by Koji Kondo – the man responsible for The Legend of Zelda soundtrack – and was upbeat, catchy and engaging.
Like the theme tune to Tetris, the music for Super Mario had a unique way of sticking in your head long after your last gaming session.
The Legend of Zelda
We were going to leave you with 5 video game soundtracks but we couldn’t mention Koji Kondo without bringing up his Magnus Opus. The game which was first released in 1986 and last released in 2023 is famous for its epic storytelling and engaging gameplay.
It is also famous for its music, with the serene and calming melodies of standard gameplay being interjected with bold and brash orchestral music of main boss fights. Zelda’s Lullaby and Main Theme are perhaps two of the most recognisable songs.