Game Soundtracks For Your Soul: Level Four

In this edition of Game Music for your soul, I am sharing some out of this world examples of Game Soundtracks that made an impact on me. Two in particular are the music from the PC/Nintendo 64 Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire composed by Joel McNeely, and John Williams. The second is an alternate take on the music from LJN’s Nintendo classic Silver Surfer, and how it’s music would sound in an alternate universe. Do you have any fond memories of the music in these games?

Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire blew my mind when it came out. I first experienced it in PC form as a demo in a shopping mall. The level demoed was the Battle of Hoth, and I was blown away at the 3D graphics and the experience of flying a snow speeder and looping a tow cable around an AT-AT. When I finally got a Nintendo 64 it was the first game I purchased. Before owning the game I already owned the CD released as the soundtrack to the book and I enjoyed it for the most part. That all changed when I began to experience the music in the game. The CD does not contain all of the music from the game as the Hoth levels feature excerpts from John Williams work on The Empire Strikes Back, but it does have a solid amount of music featured in the game. The most memorable music track from the CD and the Game is “Beggar’s Canyon Chase”, the music is exciting and engaging and is perfect for the level it accompanies in the game. The game features an edited version which loops just the first 1:15 of the total 3 minute track. Other tracks featured in the game are “Xizor’s Theme”, the in game portion starting at 3:01, “Into the Sewers”, and another one of my favorites “The Destruction of Xizor’s Palace” which features a choir and some epic horns plays during the final level (The game excerpt starts in the clip at 3:35 to 4:22). The full soundtrack was uploaded to YouTube by NinjaDoctor9. And if you’re interested in the CD it’s still available from Varese Sarabande or used from Amazon’s marketplaces. Digitally on iTunes.

Silver Surfer is a video game that is very close to my heart because I grew up collecting and reading the comic. In fact I am still reading the comic and am enjoying its current run immensely. The music in the game has only grown in popularity since the game’s hilarious review by the Angry Video Game Nerd. The music was composed by Tim Follin, and his brother Geoff Follin and it’s fair to say that the music is much better than the game itself. The tempo of the music is accurately describes the speed you need to be a successful player in the game. I wholeheartedly admit using Game Genie to complete the full game because I have my own Silver Surfer obsession to satisfy.

Now, when I was younger in school I had no idea this game existed. Most of my game knowledge in pre-internet days came from the 12 issues of from my single subscription of Nintendo Power (bundled with a copy of Dragon Warrior on NES), and browsing game magazines at the corner store. Imagine my surprise finding a copy of the game at a shopping mall for $20 complete in the box. After playing it I understood why someone traded it in. Older kids at school loved to talk trash, and I was one of the gullible kids. Someone told gullible younger me that they had a copy of the Super Nintendo version of Silver Surfer (it does not exist), and that it was amazing. For months I would repeatedly ask about the game hopes they would let me borrow it or buy it from them to no avail. Gullible me never got to experience the non-existent Super Nintendo version. The closest thing is a YouTube video that was produced by user Crash. They have managed to take the title track of Silver Surfer and using Sega Genesis’ audio specifications create what the music for the game would have sounded like in 16-Bit audio. It’s not the SNES version, but it’s still a 16-bit version in sound form and the closest gullible me is ever going to get. User has also created a Sega Genesis version of David Wise’s “K.Rool’s Cacophony”, it’s worth a listen.

Do you have a gullible game moment, or memories of kids talking video game trash?