Game Soundtracks For Your Soul: Level 12

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As the holiday season has gotten underway I thought that I would look back at the music of some of the music from video games that I personally associate with the holidays.  Really what that means is games that I specifically remember receiving as a gift around the holiday season which had memorable music.

Game Soundtracks For Your Soul skipped a Level because of Halloween ^[2], and is back to hopefully bring to you some thoughts about some of the great games you received over holidays past.  Some come on in and read about mine, and be sure to share some of your video game music holiday memories with us here at OSV.

One of the fondest memories I had was on a December 26, 1996 afternoon when I read a classified ad in the local community paper. It had only been out for a few months, but someone was already selling their Nintendo 64 with one game and pair of controllers. I don’t remember the asking price but once I got off the phone with the seller, I recall minutes later my brother and I were headed over to pick it up. The system still had the original box, and a partially intact cardboard game box for the one game it came with. The game box appeared to have been torn open quickly (probably from sheer excitement) a few months prior, I knew this because my used video game forensic skills are second to none. The game was Rare’s Goldeneye and the next couple of years was a blur of 4 player license to kill, turbo mode, and a karate choppin’ Odd Job.

The music was composed by Graeme Norgate, I previously discussed his work on the other IMO N64 classic Blast Corps in Game Soundtracks For Your Soul: Level Six ^[3]. The composer has also made several tracks of the video game soundtrack available for download from his official website ^[4]. They are an excellent reminder of one of the best holiday purchases my brother and I ever made.

The music was expertly composed and engaging in both a single player campaign or multiplayer.  If one game soundtrack deserves an official release on CD and LP its Goldeneye. Just listen to some of the wonderful score yourself in the video above or grab some tracks from Mr. Norgate’s site.

Another video game that is a fond holiday memory was Bigfoot made by Acclaim. The music in Bigfoot was upbeat and very different from other NES titles my brother and I owned at the time. The main theme which you can listen to above reminded me at the time of a carnival, or what a casino sounded like in the movies. We both also knew about the Bigfoot video game from the cartoon Video Power which featured the Bigfoot monster truck as the Power Team’s mode of transportation.

The music was composed by Tania Smith ^[5] who scored a number of NES titles including Road Runner, Bad Street Brawler, and Back to the Future Part II + III. From what I remember the Bigfoot theme above featured prominently in the game at the end of each level when your score was displayed. I also remember it took my brother and I a few play sessions to figure out that for some levels of the game you had to move the D-pad back and forth to move your monster truck. Once we had that control issue figured out we played the game for hours competing against each other. I have many fond memories of overheating engines, and incredible close finishes with nitros always followed by Tania Smith’s wonderful theme. Tania Smith is now the lead in a band called SpaceJunky which you can check out on their website ^[6].

Do you have any game soundtracks that you associate with the holiday season? I’m sure many of you played Goldeneye, but did any of you ever play Bigfoot?