2018 has come to an end and it has been another great year game music. Many folks have written and shared their picks for best video game soundtracks of the year, and now it’s our turn here at OSV. If you missed my picks from last year you can check them out here.
My favorite arrangement album this year arrived early in 2018 and my favorite soundtrack this year may surprise some of you unless you’ve been following me on Twitter.
Read on to see what I picked for my favorite game soundtracks of 2018.
Yet another year come and gone and it’s been a year of fantastic VGM. Unfortunately, it’s been another year where I didn’t get to play a whole heck of a lot of games, though what I did had some fantastic music. Now it’s time to do the rundown of my 2019 picks for original soundtrack of the year. While it’s likely disappointing to some, I encourage people to comment with their own list for 2018 OSTs.
You may have heard of the PS4 game Omen of Sorrows in your travels, either due to artist GENZOMAN’s character and cover artwork for the game or through curiosity. The horror-themed 2D fighting game akin to Darkstalkers, the AOne Games release features a darker tone as well as an interesting soundtrack courtesy of Chilean composer Francisco Cerda.
The Omen of Sorrows Original Soundtrackfeatures 16 tracks arranged by Cerda, along with a bonus track featuring a main theme written by Chilean thrash metal band “Straight Terror”.
An ambitious 16 track album, which combines the intensity of bitcrushed guitars and synthetizers along with the dramatic sounds of traditional orchestral strings. A musical journey that ranges from visceral experimentation to iconic industrial metal riffs.
Each fighter receives their own level theme, as is usual for fighting games, with the aforementioned industrial tones being featured heavily, though live guitars, strings and even french horn (performed by composer John Robert Matz ) are also highlighted throughout the soundtrack. This gives the music a heavier intonation, more like recent Killer Instinct games that older Darkstalkers, and helps set itself apart.
Released with help from Materia Collective, the Omen of Sorrows Original Soundtrack is currently available on Bandcamp and iTunes/Apple Music.
Last year, I did a artist spotlight on new VGM band Moiré Effect, highlighting the group’s foray into the VGM community. This year, Scott Wells & Drew Etterle from the band will see their first game soundtrack composition release for the new indie platformer, Chrono Ghost.
Chrono Ghost is a soon-released game from NITETIME Studios, featuring the titular character the player takes control of. As the “spirit of time”, you must make yours way through various levels using your chronomancer abilities to determine just what it means to have such a title. The game looks very artistic, with the music combining orchestral and synth elements to highlight the time-manipulating action players will experience. Wells and Etterle have created more rock-oriented compositions for their work on Moiré Effect, so switching up to suit an entire game with a certain tone can prove challenging.
“I met Kelly from NITETIME Studios when they were demo-ing Chrono Ghost at MAGFest 2017. They said they were still looking for music. Scott got a chance to meet them again at this past MAGFest and they were still looking and interested if we’d be a good fit. We came up with a few demo tracks and turns out they dug it.” – Drew Etterle, composer
The music features much in the way of piano and synthetic tones to accentuate the atmosphere of the game, with slow and sometimes somber build-ups that open up to rhythmic whimsy. It comes together to create a simple ambiance that doesn’t try to overplay its hand. It takes flavors of what Yasunori Mitsuda did with Chrono Trigger and shapes it into something with almost a spiritual tone to it.
The Chrono Ghost Original Soundtrack consists of 21 tracks, seven of which are currently available for preview on Bandcamp, with the album in pre-order mode until it’s release on December 21st alongside the game. Chrono Ghost will release for both Steam immediately and consoles early 2019.
“What would a Turrican 4 Soundtrack on the Amiga have been like in 1994?”. This is literally the first sentence of the newest release by Turrican II composer Chris Huelsbeck as a bonus stretch goal from his “Turrican – Orchestral Selections” Kickstarter-funded project. Huelsbeck took the ambitious challenge of creating a whole new conceptual Turrican soundtrack, as if it was still the mid-90s and the Commodore Amiga was still fighting the good fight among gaming platforms, and made it a reality.
Turrican – Rise of the Machine is a 19 track album that features a slew of brand new music, made tailored to the imaginary idea of a new Turrican sequel. Although basically a “fan album”, Huelsbeck and Thomas Boecker made sure that this new bonus album was in every way created as if it were specifically for the long-past Commodore computer.
Created with Chris Huelsbeck’s original TFMX Sound System on the Amiga and recorded on real hardware, this labor of love is meant as the soundtrack for a virtual and imaginary successor to one of the most beloved game series of the era. No detail was spared, even down to the memory and CPU limitations of mid 90s. But now it’s 2018 and time for “Rise Of The Machine”!
Huelsbeck as done a fine job in resurrecting the Turrican series in the past few years, first with the Turrican Soundtrack Anthology and then with the Turrican II: The Orchestral Album. With the addition of Rise of the Machine, the Turrican series composer provides a fresh offering of familiar Amiga sounds for fans. We may never get a Turrican 4 game, but at least we can enjoy some series successor music.
Turrican – Rise of the Machine is currently available on Bandcamp for $15USD.
Seems Konami still loves their fans and wants them to be happy, as the video game publisher has teamed up with label Sumthing Else Music Works to release the vinyl soundtrack to the most recent edition of one of their beloved franchised, Super Bomberman R.
Composer Seima Iwahashi of Elements Garden brings us the latest soundtrack in the beloved BOMBERMAN franchise. The album also includes the ‘HERO’ theme song featuring lyrics by RUCCA. The SUPER BOMBERMAN R original soundtrack is now available from Sumthing’s new direct-to-consumer merchandise store as well as Amazon.com.
SIDE A:
1. Ending Theme Song [HERO]
2. Title Screen
3. Main Menu
4. World Map
5. Get Ready
6. Planet Technopolis
7. Planet Timbertree
8. Planet Brainwave
9. Planet Lalaland
10. Planet Scrapheap
11. Clear
12. Failed
13. World Clear Result
SIDE B:
1. Five Dastardly Bombers
2. The Boss Robots
3. Elegant Dream
4. Great Gattaida
5. Ultimate Buggler
6. Go
7. Battle – Excite
8. Battle – Happy
9. Battle – Comical
10. Victory
11. Result
12. Draw
13. UP
14. Down
15. Ending Theme Song [HERO] (English version)
Super Bomberman R was released last year to console and PC to positive reviews, featuring brightly colored action and similarly colorful music by Iwahashi. The vinyl soundtrack release features 27 tracks on 1xLP from the game and is currently available for $29.99USD on the Sumthing Else store.
Why subject yourself to the drones of Christmas music when you could immerse yourself in the arrangements of The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask instead? Arranger Rozen (Sins of Hyrule, Ballads of Hyrule) continues to bring the Legend of Zelda power with his newest offering Children of Termina.
The album delves into the lore of Majora’s Mask, which features a darker tone than previous Zelda games and that Rozen decided to reflect with the music of the album. Featuring 17 tracks, the G.A.N.G. award-winning arranger collaborated with Materia Collective and also brought on an impressive roster of live performers and star collaborators, including The Sofia Session Orchestra in Bulgaria, Julie Elven, Celica Soldream, and Reven.
For the next installment in my Hyrule series, I wanted to explore the parallel world of Termina and its lore. There’s so much beauty found in darkness and mystery, even at the final moments of one’s existence. I wanted to capture all the feelings in the hearts of the people of Termina when they’re looking up at the falling moon, one last time, before facing extinction: love, solitude, despair, acceptance. It is my wish that you join me in this unsettling but emotional journey in the lands below Hyrule, and feel the same desperate need to heal the world as Link did. – Rozen, Album Arranger & Producer
Children of Termina is currently available for digital purchase or CD on Bandcamp, and will also ship on a limited deluxe edition 2xLP vinyl that will include alternate artwork with purple foil, foil-stamped numbering, a sheet music memento, an autograph by Rozen, and more. You can check out more about the album on the Materia Collective website.
