You press a button, and the beat drops. Forward you fly, straight into the perilous unknown, beats pushing against your eardrums as you push back against the controller. Tempo and harmony swim together in your brain, and you lose yourself in the rhythm of play.
2012 has been a fine year for video game music. The finest in recent memory, I’d argue. We’ve seen soundtracks of every shape, size and tonal colour, compositional collections complementing games that have incorporated harmony and discord in ingenious, exciting ways.
Granted, my affinity for this year’s music is at least in part because it was the year I started running Kotaku Melodic, and so my awareness of all things musical and video gamey has been at an all-time high.
But as the list below demonstrates, this year was something special any way you look at it. It was a year in which game design and music composition moved ever closer, where composers and instrumentalists played vital roles in development teams, and where game-makers demonstrated a greater than ever understanding of themay things video games and music have in common.
Here, in no particular order, are our picks for the best video game music of 2012.
Gravity Rush
I was expecting to like Gravity Rush, but I wasn’t expecting its soundtrack to cast quite the spell it did. Sweeping and old-fashioned, Kohei Tanaka’s score conjured old Hollywood in a way that few games even attempt. It mixed Django-esque gypsy jazz with rambunctious orchestral arrangements to build a tone all its own. I chose this tune, “Gravity Days,” because it so well captures the soundtrack’s charm. Though it was hard not to pick, “Pleasure Quarter,” which marked the moment when I truly fell for Gravity Rush. The colour palate switches; neons dot the night sky, the violin kicks in, and Kat takes flight.
Hotline Miami
Even among this heady list, the Hotline Miami soundtrack stands apart. Assembled by a collection of artists, it channeled the 80s-tinged, neon-drenched funk of the game perfectly, and is entirely listenable on its own merits. This track, “Miami” by Jasper Byrne (whose soundtrack to his game Lone Survivor is also outstanding), perhaps best captures the energy of the game. But other tracks from M.O.O.N., Perturbator, Sun Araw all elevate Hotline Miami to a level of deep, almost filthy glamor.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
It’s not an easy thing to make a turn-based game seem fraught and action-packed, but XCOM: Enemy Unknown managed it with energy to spare. Part of that is due to the game’s brilliantly tense mission design, but some credit belongs to Michael McCann’s brilliant score. McCann lent XCOM the same futuristic flair for the dramatic that he brought to last year’s Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and his combat music gets me pumped like no other. Mix that with the eerie, keening sounds of a quiet (“too quiet”) battlefield, and you’ve got one of the best strategy soundtracks in recent memory.
Botanicula
Few game soundtracks have ever charmed me like Botanicula‘s. When I first played the game, I described the it as weapons-grade joyfulness, and it hasn’t lost an ounce of charm. And the soundtrack is a huge part of the game. Crafted by the Czech duo DVA (who make a surprise appearance in the game), the soundtrack relies on a combination of strange homemade instruments and human voices. DVA also created all of the sound effects in Botanicula, and the resulting soundscape blends sound design and music into a ramshackle jamboree of hums, whispers, grunts, bangs, clangs, and whistles.
FTL
I came to FTL a bit late. Though I’d been assured of its quality, I hadn’t found time to play it until a few weeks ago. And Ben Prunty’s cool, beautiful soundtrack grabbed me with a qucikness. The most remarkable thing about this track, “Civil,” is how immediately iconic it becomes. Specifically, the chord progression at 1:38. The moment I first heard it, I thought “That right there is the core of this entire game.” And so it is. The more I’ve played FTL, the more I’ve come to appreciate Prunty’s range, but it always comes back to that moment in “Civil.” His work invokes the best soundtracks of the past while conjuring something new, and it fits marvelously with the thoughtful, methodical pace of FTL.
Max Payne 3
I can only hope that Max Payne 3‘s soundtrack is the start of a trend. Rather than hiring a traditional film or game composer, Rockstar tapped the noise-rock band HEALTH to create the soundtrack for Max’s return to glory. It would appear that after hiring the band, Rockstar got out of the way completely and let them do their thing. The result is one of the most uncompromising, exhilarating action game soundtracks I’ve ever heard. It’s drenched in sweat, and at times feels like the music of Death Itself. It flattens the competition, a collection of compositions so distinctive that it enhances every moment of the game it accompanies.
Xenoblade Chronicles
Jason Schreier: I had some issues with Xenoblade Chronicles, the Monolith-developed RPG that came out back in April for Wii — yes, Wii! — but its soundtrack, composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, Yoko Shimomura, Manami Kiyota, and ACE+, is undeniably stellar. From peppy jazz beats to gentle guitar strums, Xenoblade‘s music is eclectic, sweeping, and catchy as all hell.
Mass Effect 3
The Mass Effect 3 soundtrack needed to achieve the impossible: Tie together one of the most heralded video game trilogies of the current generation (with one of the best series-wide soundtracks) and give us closure. And, somehow, composers Clint Mansell, Christopher Lennertz, Sam Hulick, Sascha Dikiciyan and Cris Velasco did just that.
It’s fitting that a large number of musicians was required to tie Mass Effect room together: The series has seen a number of composers over its five-year run, voices that always managed to combine into a cohesive whole. Best of all, the Mass Effect 3 sound designers even managed to contribute, weaving the music from past games into the ambient sound of several scenes, knitting together a aural tapestry that transcended backing tracks. This piece, “An End Once and For All,” was the only one I could choose as emblematic of the Mass Effect 3 soundtrack. It’s the rare piece of video game music that sounds exactly as grandiose as its title claims, and it achieves that not with the synths for which the series became known, but with a solo piano, eventually augmented by an orchestra. We’ll miss you, Commander.
Sound Shapes
Sound Shapes is an odd duck for this list, since it doesn’t have a “proper” soundtrack per se; the game is its own soundtrack. But the game’s levels, which essentially re-imagine sequencer nomenclature as level design, are laid out in a way that lines up with today’s remix/mashup culture and allows players just enough control to put their own spin on things without undermining the compositional intent of the musicians. This track, “Cities” by Beck, is the most well-known from the game, but all of them — crafted by musicians like Jim Guthrie and Deadmau5, stand on their own. It’s a soundtrack you have to play, and for that alone, it’s worthy of mention. The fact that the music is great on its own merits only sweetens the deal.
Dyad
Dyad is another game inextricably linked with its soundtrack. Part chaotic racer, part simulated drug trip (or, accompaniment to actual drug trip), David Kanaga’s score dips and dives, accelerates and drops out, all in line with the motion on screen. By the end of the game, play and music have blended together into a kaleidoscopic, occasionally nightmarish, entirely unforgettable experience.
Fez
I found Polytron’s Fez to be a pleasant surprise — the game had been hyped for so long that I wasn’t sure what to expect. But when I finally played it, I found that the colourful, dreamily nostalgic game was both smaller and more specific than I’d been expecting. Rich “Disasterpeace” Vreeland’s soundtrack was a big part of that, a lush and consonant blend of synths and plinky electronic drums that conjured wide spaces, bright skies, and was surprisingly naturalistic for a synthesized soundtrack. And that the audio tracks are laced with hidden symbols and secrets of their own is a bonus of the best sort.
Persona 4 Golden
Okay, yes, Persona 4 is really a game from 2008, and doesn’t quite fall under the purview of this list. But 2012’s PSVita “remix” Persona 4 Golden features several new tunes from series composer Shōji Meguro, and it’s all so damned good that I felt like I couldn’t leave it off. Persona 4‘s mix of complex jazz, triumphant pop, and weirdo ambient music feels more hip and present than most any game soundtrack By the end of my first time through the game, I was entirely in love with the whole thing. Honestly, these songs are Inaba to me. This track, “Make History,” is the new battle music for Golden, and alternates with the original theme to keep things fresh. I have fought hundreds of battles in P4, and this music feels as fresh now as it did the first time I heard it.
Journey
What more can be said about Austin Wintory’s Journey score? I know I said up top that these are in no particular order. But. Wintory’s achingly beautiful work sets a new standard for the emotional heights video game soundtracks can achieve. Journey wound up being a profound experience for me more times than once. Wintory’s music is a large part of why.
Journey‘s score has been widely celebrated, and is the first game soundtrack nominated for a Grammy award. Every accolade it gets is deserved, not simply because the music is good (it is), but because it’s uniquely informed by ThatGameCompany’s design, and as a result stands as Journey‘s beating heart. Noble cello themes and resonant alto flute melodies evoke the seemingly endless loneliness of the desert; our slack-jawed wonder at the sheer scope of this endless basin of life. Soundtracks like this come along once in a great while; we may not hear its equal any time soon. But that’s OK. These compositions aren’t going anywhere, and thanks to them, Journey will remain a classic for many years to come.
So there you have them: Kotaku‘s picks for the best video game music of 2012. Of course, we may have left off your favourite, so I hope you’ll all share your favourite tunes from the year in the comments. (I thought we had a great collection in our reader’s choice post last week.)
For now, let’s just take a moment to plug in some headphones and reflect on a fantastic year in music.
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