It’s that time of year again! With the start of a new year, we have all of 2010 to reflect upon, and we’re doing things a little differently this year. If you recall, last year OSV’s editors rattled off their individual top 5 picks for soundtrack of the year, with separate articles for doujin/arrange and chip music releases. This year, however, we’re streamlining things by putting all of our heads together here at OSV to come up with a comprehensive list of nominees and winners that we can all agree upon.
After the jump you’ll find our official OSVOSTOTY (Original Sound Version Original Soundtrack of the Year) Award nominees for 2010. These are soundtracks for games that were released in 2010, and are not listed any in particular order. Please feel free to chime in on our list of nominees, and watch for our picks for winner and runner-ups for each category in the coming weeks!
Hit the jump to see this year’s nominees.
Soundtrack of the Year
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow
Final Fantasy XIII
NieR Gestalt & Replicant
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
Valkyria Chronicles 2
Best In-Game Soundtrack
* This category refers to the soundtrack in the context of the game and how it enhances the gameplay experience
BioShock 2
Metroid: Other M
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Red Dead Redemption
Best Handheld Soundtrack
Etrian Odyssey 3
God Eater
Ragnarok DS
Shantae: Risky’s Revenge
Valkyria Chronicles 2
Ys SEVEN
Best Arrange Album
Benyamin Nuss Plays Uematsu
Distant Worlds II
Etrian Odysssey 3: Super Arrange Version
Piano Collections: Final Fantasy XIII
NieR Gestalt & Replicant 15 Nightmares & Arrange Tracks
Symphonic Fantasies
Best Rhythm Game
Dance Central
DJ Hero 2
DJMAX Portable 3
Green Day: Rock Band
Rock Band 3
Best Sound Design
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Fallout: New Vegas
Metroid: Other M
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Best Chip Music Release
Control Me by Jay Tholen
Dark Void Zero by Bear McCreary
Derecha by minusbaby
PPPPPP by SoulEye
The Best Music by George & Jonathan
The Space Years by Starscream
Best Doujin Album
Contra 4: Rocked ‘n Loaded by Klub Konchadunga
Expansion Pack by Metroid Metal
Ninja Gaiden: Beat Blade / Steel Dragon by ESJ
Serious Monkey Business by OCR
Super Mario Kart by The OneUps
Vinyl Fantasy 7 by Team Teamwork
Best Album Presentation
* This category recognizes excellent packaging and the continued dedication of record labels to produce physical soundtrack releases
Akumajo Dracula Best Music Collections BOX
DJMAX TECHNIKA 2 Original Soundtrack
Final Fantasy XIII Original Soundtrack [Limited Edition]
Final Fantasy XIV Battle Tracks / Field Tracks
Granado Espada Renaissance Original Soundtrack Volume 3
Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together Original Soundtrack
Best Live Concert
Distant Worlds Returns Home
Symponic Legends
JDK Band Live 2010, Live!
Best “Other” Release
Ge-On-Dan Rare Tracks Volume 1
Makara by E.S. Posthumus
Prescription for Sleep by Norihiko Hibino
Rocky IV by Vince DiCola
S-Mode by Hiroto Saitoh
Songs for the Cure ’10
Composer of the Year
Garry Schyman
Hitoshi Sakimoto
Masashi Hamauzu
Russell Brower
Best Indie Game Soundtrack
Bar Oasis
Protect Me Knight!
SoulCaster
Super Meat Boy
Tower of Heaven
Best Anime Soundtrack
Fairy Tail
Gundam Unicorn
Letter Bee
Sora no Woto
Vanishment of Haruhi Suzumiya
FFXIII and Hamauzu all the way!
need more blazblue
Symphonic Fantasies for best arrange album without even a shadow of a doubt.
Aw, no Last Ranker or Pokemon Black and White for best Handheld soundtrack? :C
Very glad that Final Fantasy XIII is nominated, though. Good old Hamauzu.
It was a good year for game music, and coming up with the list of nominees was incredibly difficult. We had something like 20 titles in our pre-nominee list for soundtrack of the year. Wish we could have worked in Opoona, but it was released in 2007 or so. Also, I think it would be fun to do something like “Best Packaging of the Year” next year to support physical releases.
No Dariusburst Remix Wonder World? The concept alone is something quite unique for arrange albums and features a variety of amazing artists and styles (and some damn tasty remixes as well!)
Don, think it was a casualty of merging concert recordings with “remix” albums. Only so many nominee slots.
NMH Desperate Struggle Soundtracks is awesome in so many levels
Oh boy, Final Fantasy XIII and Tactics Ogre. I love both Hamauzu and Sakimoto but as much as I love both soundtracks, I have to give it to Sakimoto and Iwata on their beloved scores that is Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. It’s such a classic. I became a fan of the game in 2007 because I finally snagged a copy for $100 on eBay. Yeah, expensive and now with the complete game coming out next month, i’m very excited.
Okay, we caved and got together for a quick round of nominations for “Best Album Presentation,” dedicated to packaging.
WTF?! No composer of teh year nomination for TEH composer of teh year Yoko Shimomura?? Also teh best indie gaem soundtrack is Return All Robots!1
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I had a talk with the husband and we’re surprised with some of the sound design nominations. We suggest taking out Fallout: New Vegas (seriously guys…?!) and Metroid: Other M (that made him go off on a rant).
We suggest Dragon Age: Awakening – Origins and Mass Effect 2.
PS: If he sends you a strongly worded letter, I tried to stop him. :p
<3
Oh, I forgot to mention Bioshock 2 for Best Sound Design. I see it under Best Soundtrack, but it was good in both.
Also, no Sonic Colors nomination for SOTY? v_v
Kristi, if you ignored “what” they were saying in Metroid: Other M, I think the voices themselves were well recorded, and the sound effects are always spot on.
Nier should be a shoe-in for best of the year.
I guess my favorite OST of the year would have to be XIII. There’s something about Masashi Hamauzu music that makes me feel things I haven’t felt before, and i’m a sound → color synesthetic. Nier I would definitely give a ridiculously close second place though, no doubt there.
Also, though I don’t know if it was considered, was the Sonic Colors OST ViViD SOUND X HYBRiD COLORS, which is also a really nice soundtrack.
As for the anime stuff, Sora no Woto surprised me in a good way during its airing.
Either way, looking forward to the results in the coming weeks!
Chuck — Synaesthesia is CRAZY! I knew a girl who I think was the same with sound -> color. Like, each key signature had a different color for her. B was silver. Bb was “chocolate brown.” Wild.
So did you not just feel, but visualize something awesome when you heard Hamauzu’s music? I don’t have any synesthetic qualities (that I know of), but just the association with SaGa Frontier 2’s watercolor art with the music makes me feel all light and giddy.