REVIEW: Improving gamers’ hand-ear coordination
Standing in Best Buy at 9:30 on Nov. 24, I was hoping the 46-inch TV deal was coming my way. Along the line employees handed out vouchers for various deals.
I grabbed what came my way, looked at it and eventually passed it up. There was one thing, however, that caught my eye — a brand-new Play Station 3.
Growing up on video games almost my entire life, I decided now was the opportunity to invest in something I knew was going to be a great purchase.
It’s the video game season and all the cool games just came out, so I decided to bring to you my list of the 5 Greatest Video Game Soundtracks. From all of the games I have played, these are the ones that stuck out to me, but first some notes:
First, video game soundtracks are like movies, they can’t all be instrumental. A movie or video game’s score should be enhanced by band-made material, so I am not including beautiful soundtracks with just straight music.
Too bad for “Shadow of the Colossus,” “Super Mario,” “The Legend of Zelda” and “Sly Cooper,” you don’t make the list.
Second, I am going to focus more on the past two generations of video games, because music wasn’t a huge part until the end of the Nintendo 64 era, due to limitations of hardware.
Sure, the classic 8-bit Game Boy sounds are really cool and they were good for the time, but I would argue that music really wasn’t a part of games until the 2000s. So, sorry “Donkey Kong 64” and “Pokemon,” I really thought you would make it.
Here it is — the one, the only — the 5 Greatest Video Game Soundtracks:
5. ‘SSX 3′ and ‘SSX On Tour’ – We’re starting the list with the third and fourth titles from one of the most fun snowboarding games of all time. From intense races to trick battles, SSX captured the essence of true gaming, taking a personal experience and making it better.
The best thing about “SSX 3″ and “SSX On Tour” isn’t only the larger-than-life uber-tricks, but the amazing music that goes with it. With Swollen Members, Thrice, The Faint and Royksopp, “SSX 3″ used great tunes that matched the action.
“SSX On Tour” topped it with “Red Flag,” by Billy Talent and “Run to the Hills,” by Iron Maiden. Those two songs were well placed and made the soundtrack the monument it is.
4. ‘Crackdown’ – In Crackdown, you play as a “super” cop whose mission is to rid Pacific City of the gangs prowling the streets. The task is to take down the hierarchy of each gang.
The fun part was carefully plotting each hit, finding ways to scale buildings using your superhuman capabilities and even running and gunning down people who were cursing you in foreign languages.
The cool thing about the open-world game was how the music was not only varied but fit the style of the game. As step into a car starts blasting the music that the previous owner would have been listening to.
From underground Russian techno or beat-driven Mexican rap, you might not understand the curse words or what they are talking about, but using “authentic” music puts Crackdown at No. 4 on the list.
3. ‘Skate’ – “Skate” revolutionized skateboarding games with the stick mechanics used to do tricks. Not only was it challenging, but it was fun to use and master. Sure, it was frustrating as hell to get used to, but not button mashing your way to victory like in “Tony Hawk” was what made this game.
The music is iconic because as you’re riding around the game, the music actually leads you to the best skating spots by fading in and out as you got closer or farther away. The soundtrack not only captured the sound and feel of skater music, but did so in a unconventional way.
2. ‘DJ Hero 2′ and ‘Guitar Hero 2′ – You could put almost every music-oriented game on this list, but then it would be boring. The two music-oriented games with the best soundtracks are hands down “DJ Hero 2” and “Guitar Hero 2.”
“DJ Hero” had some of the best party mixes out there, and “DJ Hero 2” topped it with even better mixes and the option to add your own twist through free scratching and timing the loops.
Not only does it have a variety of original songs, but the mixes come together to make something entirely new, and each is super sick.
“Guitar Hero 2” has the best list of songs out of all the Heroes. From Avenged Sevenfold to Wolfmother, GH2 did it best and did it right.
1. ‘Little Big Planet’ – This platformer — jumping from platform to platform like Mario — was not only fun and original with creative levels and cute style, but the soundtrack was a perfect match for the game play.
Like Mario, “Little Big Planet” had lots of variation from level to level, but featured artists like The Go! Team and Battles and a mix of original upbeat music and great licensed tracks sealed the experience. The cut-and-paste style of the songs matched with the cut-and-paste style of the game.
– alexander.h.van_oene@aggiemail.usu.edu