Game Soundtracks For Your Soul: Level 10

There are some games that are so difficult, they are nearly impossible to finish. But there’s always something that keeps you coming back for more punishment as you try to get further, or finish the game.  There are also games that your friends love, and you absolutely hate because you’re either terrible at them or just don’t see the appeal.  Sometimes though if the music is great it makes it easier to get back in the game.

In this edition of Game Soundtracks For Your Soul I’m heading back to the 90’s to look at the music of two games.  One was a game a played for countless hours on the Super Nintendo and I still consider to be very difficult to complete.  The other is a PC game that I played with a friend using the magic powers of my  14.4K modem.  This is my look back at the music of SeaQuest DSV on SNES, and Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness/Beyond the Dark Portal on the PC.

SeaQuest DSV today remains one of my all time favourite games on the Super Nintendo.  If you’ve never played the game you are in command of the all powerful SeaQuest submarine.  During gameplay you receive transmissions of missions that you must complete before you can advance to the next area.  You have to pilot around your sub, use the navigation computer to find the mission site on the underwater map, and then deploy various deep sea vehicles to destroy enemies, repair or dis-arm threats.  And yes you can even play as Darwin, the dolphin – who sadly doesn’t talk in the game.

The music is the game is phenomenal and I’m sorry to say that the SNES release bests the Sega Genesis release is about every area.  The music was composed by Dean Morrell, who took a lot of the music from the TV series composed by John Debney and created 16 bit versions.  The main title for the SNES is a 16 bit version of Debney’s theme, and many of the game’s tracks are direct 16 bit versions of music featured in the series.  I still listen to the SNES OST occasionally and recommend you take some time to check it out.  YouTube user Retro OST has uploaded the entire soundtrack and you can find it here.  My favorite tracks are to be “Aboard the SeaQuest” which contains a wonderful fanfare of the series theme, the track “Near Pearl Harbor” serves as the first overworld (underwater) theme as you control the SeaQuest submarine, and lastly “Hawaiian Coast” also serves as the theme for several missions including one I played over and over again as Darwin the dolphin navigating the great barrier reef.  If you have an SNES and haven’t played this game, it is worth it simply for the music.

For the record, I was terrible at Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, and many other strategy games including Command and Conquer, and Starcraft.  But just because I was awful at the games didn’t mean I couldn’t keep coming back for more punishment right?  As I said in my introduction, I played with a friend of mine  PC to PC, modem to modem long before the days of online gaming.

I never owned Warcraft II either and recently rediscovered the music a couple weeks ago.  Someone down my street had tossed a copy of the original game, and the expansion CD Warcraft II: Beyond the Dark Portal in trash.  As I fished them out of said trash can I recalled that these CDs played in a regular CD player, you just had to skip the first track.  After popping these CDs into my CD player came the flashbacks of getting my ass royally handed to me on a silver platter.

You can enjoy the wonderful synth symphonic music from Warcraft II on YouTube thanks to user TantrisOST here.  My favorite tracks include: “Main Theme”, and “Human – Mysterious and Noble” and “Orc – Harpsichord and Chorus” which were regularly the soundtrack underscoring my humiliating defeats.  All music for the game was composed by Glenn Stafford.

Do you have any fond memories of the music in these games, or games you recall seriously kicked you in the derriere?