Video Game Music: The Guiltiest of Guilty Pleasures?

I love listening to video game music.  Whether it is the orchestral pieces in your favorite Final Fantasy game, the adrenaline- building popular tunes of the latest Madden, or the classic “Korobeiniki” (More commonly known as the Tetris theme song); they all get my blood pumping.  The quality of the song itself makes little difference to how memorable it becomes.  The music becomes a placeholder for the emotions felt during those greatest gaming moments.  It helps jog our memories for what we liked or maybe hated most about a game.

I remember as a kid, borrowing my friend’s Final Fantasy VII soundtrack to copy the CDs over to a tape, so I can continue to listen to them over and over again.  This was before the CD burner so I had to go through the lengthy process of recording at playback speed.  But, I had to do it to be able to hear “One Winged Angel” at least one more time.  The rush of feeling the same emotions as playing the game, a culmination of 80 hours of game play to reach the final boss.

But, how many of us talk about the music to our friends?  Many of us still secretly listen to our favorite Pokémon theme, having listened to in the past for hours to level up.  Video game music acts as an intermediary.  It allows us to relive your favorite games without having to take the time to actually play again.  How else can you get the enjoyment of playing video games while doing your homework?  Take a stand, and be proud of your fondness for video game music.  This guilty pleasure doesn’t need be a secret one!

Some other notable gems:

Music during the last level of Halo 1: You’re in a truck and everything is blowing up around you.  You never stop thinking how awesome this game is.

The music and sound effects of Super Mario Bros: Everyone knows the music to this game, but the most spectacular part is that even the sound effects are memorable.  There is some weird satisfaction from getting a mushroom and hearing the sound of Mario get beefed up.

Medieval man rap from Warcraft 2: Hidden gem from Warcraft 2 where if you entered the cheat code: “disco”, you were able to listen to a random rap song made from sound bites from the game.

The celebratory music of Sonic: This quick jingle made you want to go running…if only we were as fast as Sonic.

For your listening pleasure.

Tetris Theme

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~ by Eujin K on December 17, 2009.