Great games with terrible soundtracks...

[Wolf Kanno]

Inspired by the other thread...

Name a few games that you feel are awesome or at least good, but you have to wear headphones if you want to play them cause the soundtrack sucks.

[crashNUMBERS]

Marvel vs Capcom 2's soundtrack was decent. Jazzy and fun. But annoying as hell!

[Jessweeee♪]

I want to say Beautiful Katamari. It wasn't a terrible soundtrack, some of it I liked, just not nearly as awesome as I expected it to be after playing Katamari Damacy :(

[Pete for President]

SSX Tricky and 3 both deserved better soundtracks. They weren't terrible, but just subpar compared to the quality of every other aspect of these games.

[Dreddz]

A lot of Level 5's games have mediocre music.

[DK]

Was just talking about game soundtracks with Psy the other day, one we both agreed on that was applicable to this thread is the Tekken series. Awesome games, but god damn the soundtracks are always so hideously awful. Can only thing of one song that is good on Tekken 6. A lot of fighting games have generally poor soundtracks imho, wish more of them would take as much care as Arc Systems do. Guilty Gear and Blazblue series both have incredible soundtracks. Ragna's theme from Blazblue (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcduSQw-xio) is one of the best video game tracks i've ever heard, love fighting to it as I find it really amps up the tension in an already ridiculously fast paced and over the top game.

Most sport games have truly awful soundtracks as well, EA in particular are terrible for that.

[Jessweeee♪]

After Tekken 3 there were only like one or two tracks per game I liked :(

[Dreddz]

Tekken Tag Tournament had a good soundtrack. Once Tekken 4 came around the music was just ok from then on. Not bad compared to some other fighters I know (Virtua Fighter!).

[Shattered Dreamer]

Started playing Phantasy Star 3 on the Sega Collection & after about 5 minutes I had to mute the sound, the music was doing my head in! It wasn't just the fact the sound in game is MIDI, the music, in particular the battle music is really annoying by the 4th or 5th battle!

[Madame Adequate]

Halo Reach.

Don't know how you can feel that Tricky didn't have a fucking mindblowing soundtrack, Pete :o I thought it was sublime.

[DK]

Halo Reach.

Thread is great games with terrible soundtracks, not mediocre games with utter :bou::bou::bou::bou: soundtracks. :colbert:

[Wolf Kanno]

Was just talking about game soundtracks with Psy the other day, one we both agreed on that was applicable to this thread is the Tekken series. Awesome games, but god damn the soundtracks are always so hideously awful. Can only thing of one song that is good on Tekken 6. A lot of fighting games have generally poor soundtracks imho, wish more of them would take as much care as Arc Systems do. Guilty Gear and Blazblue series both have incredible soundtracks. Ragna's theme from Blazblue (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcduSQw-xio) is one of the best video game tracks i've ever heard, love fighting to it as I find it really amps up the tension in an already ridiculously fast paced and over the top game.

Most sport games have truly awful soundtracks as well, EA in particular are terrible for that.

Oddly enough, I was thinking about Soul Calibur (Soul Edge) series when I was making this thread cause the first things I usually do when I play the series is switch to Japanese audio and mute the BGM. Soundtracks sounds like stuff on the cutting room floor of a James Cameron Titanic sequel...

[Pete for President]

Halo Reach.

Don't know how you can feel that Tricky didn't have a smurfing mindblowing soundtrack, Pete :o I thought it was sublime.

Well most songs are pretty cool. However, I think the "Tricky" song became quite annoying after hearing it everytime you pull some tricky moves. I think that's where my 'meh' comes from!

[NeoCracker]

A lot of Level 5's games have mediocre music.

Not the best, but they do a good enough job at using the Music to set the moods, so I give it slighly above mediocre.


Was just talking about game soundtracks with Psy the other day, one we both agreed on that was applicable to this thread is the Tekken series. Awesome games, but god damn the soundtracks are always so hideously awful. Can only thing of one song that is good on Tekken 6. A lot of fighting games have generally poor soundtracks imho, wish more of them would take as much care as Arc Systems do. Guilty Gear and Blazblue series both have incredible soundtracks. Ragna's theme from Blazblue (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CcduSQw-xio) is one of the best video game tracks i've ever heard, love fighting to it as I find it really amps up the tension in an already ridiculously fast paced and over the top game.

Most sport games have truly awful soundtracks as well, EA in particular are terrible for that.



Halo Reach.

Thread is great games with terrible soundtracks, not mediocre games with utter :bou::bou::bou::bou: soundtracks. :colbert:


Wow, I don't think I've ever agreed with you more in my life.

[Wolf Kanno]

Talked with a friend about this and had a few others to add...

Star Ocean series - hell, Tri-Ace games in general. They just never really excel and often times feel like elevator music.

Breath of Fire 1 and 2 - There are a few good tracks but overall, most of it is pretty bland and generic SNES music. BoF3 was a bit better but really IV and V have the better soundtracks.

[Yeargdribble]

Dragon Quest IX. They aren't the most miserable pieces of music ever, but for a game that you could spend 100+ hours play to only have half a dozen tracks is miserable.

[Laddy]

Old-School RPG's have god-awful music sometimes. The more recent Might and Magics have like, five tracks that are all pretty awful.

Like, you enter a hell-like environ and it starts off appropriate and randomly becomes all epic orchestral crescendos. It's kinda dumb.

[Kossage]

Half-Life and Fallout. The music serves its purpose and helps set the mood in a couple of scenes but is hardly anything memorable or interesting.

[kotora]

Fallout 3/NV have some good songs but nobody can get away with a 4 song soundtrack for a game that long.

[Wolf Kanno]

Dragon Quest IX. They aren't the most miserable pieces of music ever, but for a game that you could spend 100+ hours play to only have half a dozen tracks is miserable.

That's the norm of the series, they pretty much just reuse the soundtrack of the original game. Usually changing the quality with better technology. Though I must say that I would add DQVIII to that as well, the animation style mixed with this full orchestra ensemble just feels incredibly off...

While I'm on that subject Mario Galaxy does the same thing and I hate the OST because of it.

[Roto13]

The only things I think Backbone did right with the PSN and XBLA release of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 were do away with the painful unlocking progress and custom soundtracks. That's the only game I use custom soundtracks with regularly. In fact, when I was playing the Dreamcast version, I ended up downloading a version someone had made with an alternate soundtrack, mostly comprised of songs from other games.

EDIT: What's wrong with you? The Super Mario Galaxy soundtrack is one of the best ever (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jmY-0hwV_w), whatever the graphical style.

[Wolf Kanno]

The orchestration doesn't work with the type of game it is. It would have been better if it sounded more playful and not like a movie score. :p

[Roto13]

Super Mario Galaxy involves blasting through space from planet to planet. What do you want? Yakkety Sax?

[NeoCracker]

Super Mario Galaxy involves blasting through space from planet to planet. What do you want? Yakkety Sax?

Hell yes.

[Mirage]

huh, i kinda like the music in Tekken 5 and 6. more so 5 than 6.

not really sure which games i would say have terrible soundtracks
nothing really springs to mind

[Wolf Kanno]

Super Mario Galaxy involves blasting through space from planet to planet. What do you want? Yakkety Sax?

I wanted something fun and catchy, not John Williams :p

[Fynn]

Xenosaga II. The game was decent and would have been much better if it weren't for the music (cutscene music was fine, though, since Yuki kajiura is a good composer, but the other guy sucks. And he sucks really bad). Seriously, first game ever that made me not want to play it because of the music.

[Jiro]

Fallout 3/NV really would benefit from more than 4 songs. I love the ones they do have, but 4 songs does not make a soundtrack.

[Yeargdribble]

While I'm on that subject Mario Galaxy does the same thing and I hate the OST because of it.

o.O That's without a doubt one of the greatest OSTs of all time. I love it and it makes me feel all epic when I'm playing.

I don't really feel like art style says anything about what type of music is appropriate with it. The tone and mood of a game are better indicators of what is or isn't thematically apropo. I think they matched the game well in that regard.



I wanted something fun and catchy, not John Williams :p

Not catchy? I find myself humming/singing/whistling/playing Gusty Galaxy and Good Egg Galaxy all the time. For that matter, what's not catchy about John Williams. You've never gotten the Indiana Jones theme in your head? Jurassic Park? Star Wars? Etc.?

[Brunettepudding]

Fallout 3/NV really would benefit from more than 4 songs. I love the ones they do have, but 4 songs does not make a soundtrack.

Thisthisthis.

[Wolf Kanno]

While I'm on that subject Mario Galaxy does the same thing and I hate the OST because of it.

o.O That's without a doubt one of the greatest OSTs of all time. I love it and it makes me feel all epic when I'm playing.

I don't really feel like art style says anything about what type of music is appropriate with it. The tone and mood of a game are better indicators of what is or isn't thematically apropo. I think they matched the game well in that regard.

My issue is that as "epic" as the music is trying to make things, it just doesn't work for me and I feel less like I'm playing a game and more of a movie with it's soundtrack. I don't need the full orchestration, Mario hasn't used it for 20+ years. If it makes you feel epic, that's fine but it makes me feel stupid, and it utterly lacks the charm of previous OSTs. The only tracks I tend to like are remixes and even those tracks are not nearly as good as their originals. I generally find orchestration in a film or game to be a signal for more maturity but Mario Galaxy is certainly not breaking any of that ground and no one expects it, but it seems silly to me to listen to this overpriced OST attached to a simple game.



I wanted something fun and catchy, not John Williams :p

Not catchy? I find myself humming/singing/whistling/playing Gusty Galaxy and Good Egg Galaxy all the time. For that matter, what's not catchy about John Williams. You've never gotten the Indiana Jones theme in your head? Jurassic Park? Star Wars? Etc.?[/QUOTE]

I couldn't even tell you what stages those are, let alone hum their themes. :p No, I don't find the OST catchy or fun at all, and that's what bugs me about it. I haven't really taken to Mario Galaxy, it's not bad but I don't necessarily find it fun either. Perhaps I've just moved on from platformers since the old days.

As for John Williams, he's always been sort of a one song band for me. Every film he works on has one signature track, but everything else in the score is completely forgettable, and blends in with the other tracks in a pretty bland mess. Many movie composers have this issue, yet it perplexes me that John Williams and Danny Elfman can create dozens of signature tracks for films, but just drop the ball with the rest of the score.