So many of us in the video game and VGM scene are avid collectors of our favorite games and game soundtracks. Even the most manly fan would likely fork over a fair sum to own a dainty music box that played familiar tunes from the likes of Super Mario Bros. and Chrono Trigger. Unfortunately, mass-producing custom music boxes is not an industry many have gone into, and maybe some day we’ll see it tapped into like the video game music vinyl craze that’s been ongoing for the past year or two. Until then, Materia Collective and String Player Gamer have made up the difference by creating seven albums of classic video game music that have all been transcribed into charming music box covers.
Video Game Music Box is a series of album that takes classic games such as Pokemon and The Legend of Zelda and turns their most beloved music tracks into renditions you’d hear straight out of a music box from the days of old. Each album grabs from music from either a select game or from several games across a particular franchise, and redubs them into simple music box chimes that seem to speak to the little kid in you, winding up our grandmother’s music boxes and listening to the melodies until it runs out. Thankfully with these albums, not only is winding them up not necessary, but unlike a standalone music box, you get more than just one tune.
Each Video Game Music Box album is currently available for pre-order for $7 apiece and will release on August 14th. With any luck, it inspires some physical releases of video game music boxes sometime in the (hopefully near) future, because having a custom music box of Castlevania or Undertale music at your bedside would be about as delightful as it gets.