I Know That Song: The Top 4 Most Recognizable Game Melodies!

Posted by fuzzwobble on Mar 24, 2011 in Uncategorized | 5 comments

There are some tunes that just stick with you, whether they are songs that remind you of a time in your life or clever marketing jingles designed to drive you bonkers with their catchy sounds.

Why do we remember video game music? Well, there are 2 primary reasons:

• The music in a video game typically exists to accentuate an experience for you and, through this, tends to stick in your mind through a memory-link process. Therefore, video game music is addictive on a personal level.
• On the medical side of things; when a person recognizes a tune (particularly music with a pattern, hence the existence of a chorus being so standard) the mind releases dopamine, triggering the brain’s sense of reward. Think of a subtle feeling similar to eating when you’re hungry, or laying down to rest after a long day. [Source]

Which of gaming’s signature songs are the most catchy? If you hear a remix of one of these 4 tunes fly out of a jukebox at the pub, you might just recognize it as one of the…

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Top 4 Most Recognizable Game Melodies

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4: Still Alive (Portal)

Portal was widely considered the ‘game to own’ of 2007-2009. Winner of countless rewards ranging from specific fluff awards like IGN’s greatest game villian of all time (GlaDOS, also happening to be the voice of Still Alive)  to legitimate awards such as the GDCA’s Game of the Year.

Still Alive itself was a meme in the making. Upon completing the game and presuming GlaDOS to be destroyed, a rather hilarious semi-ASCII cinematic would pop up with the game credits along with GlaDOS (almost cheerfully) singing. The song has gone beyond the game itself; it’s been given new cinematic videos by fans, remixed into club music and played by tribute bands dedicated to entirely different genres.

To top it all off: The song was composed by none other than John Coulton. The combination of the game’s ‘meme’ effect (it triggered the psychological need to socially pass it on as information within human culture) with the cult-following of John’s rather hilarious musical talent proved to be potent, causing it to become widely recognized as ‘that fun song from Portal’ even far outside the gaming community.

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3: The Legend of Zelda Theme (Zelda series)

This song was composed by none other than Koji Kondo, who is considered a legend in gaming’s audio industry. Koji is one of the true veterans of gaming audio; he has worked exclusively with Nintendo since 1984 and has proved time and time again that all you need is a catchy foundation and a great medium of interaction to bring outstanding results out of an otherwise simple tune.

Remember: systems back in the ’80s were very hardware limited. Koji did outstanding work considering the truly finite resources he had at his disposal.

A rather simple name for a rather simple tune; The Legend of Zelda Theme plays very heavily on a distinct pattern, more-so than any other melody in the top 4. Koji also succeeded in giving the song a very dramatic feel, causing it to create an immersive experience for Zelda players. This isn’t a small achievement when you consider just how ‘primitive’ the consoles were back in those days.

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2: Victory Fanfare (Final Fantasy series)

Everybody has heard this tell-tale tune at some time or another.

Victory fanfare varies rather noticeably between each game in the Final Fantasy series, but the opening tune for this song never changes and is highly nostalgic. Well… with the exception of Final Fantasy X-2. It didn’t stick; the removal of the distinct opening to Victory Fanfare had such poor reception with fans of the series that Square-Enix reverted the change with Final Fantasy XII.

Victory Fanfare’s popularity mainly stems from association. Not everybody is a fan of the Final Fantasy series, but many have played at least one incarnation of the franchise. Victory Fanfare has also established itself as a pop-culture meme that’s stood its ground for over a decade, causing many people who didn’t even play video games to seek its source to satisfy their curiosity.

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1: Ground Theme (Mario franchise)

Super Mario Bros. was one of the most popular video games of all time and now spans back generations. If you are under 30 years old it’s a safe bet that your parents enjoyed a quick game of Super Mario Bros. at some point (or hated it, well, depending on how skilled they were at the game. It caused some rage!)

Super Mario Bros. has sold 40.24 MILLION COPIES and holds the place of second best-selling game in the world. Couple that with the fact that Ground Theme was used for the first stage of the game and you’ve got some truly massive exposure.

[TANGENT: If you were curious, the title is currently held by Wii Sports with 75.66 million units sold. Then again, they basically gave the thing away to anybody who bought a Wii so it don't even know if it should really be counted. On a side-note: the industry failed to collaborate accurate figures for Half-Life 2 due to it also being sold in The Orange Box and its popularity over steam]

Another Koji Kondo composition in such a short countdown? What a beast. Remember how intuitive the controls were for Super Mario Bros. (it allowed you to manipulate your jump height, move speed etc) as well as how smoothly the game actually ran on the system? Well, that doesn’t leave much processing power for game music. Hats off again, Kondo!

There is a reason for its popularity beyond simple exposure; The upbeat (almost calypso) tune was very distinct and quite memorable, mostly due to its higher pitch.

Ground Theme deserves particular praise for being a forefather to the use of dynamic music in games. When the time clock would fall below 100 the song would speed up in tempo, often inspiring panic in the player. Next time you pop in a modern game and enjoy its constant change in music dependant on the situation; remember the Ground Theme.

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Honorable Mentions from Referenced Gamers:

It’s true that alot of this article involved heavy research into game statistics, but the foundation of its production came from referencing several of my gaming colleagues. I like to grant freedom to interviewees at the end of each article to allow them to say whatever’s on their mind, so with this article when i decided to include my personal favourite, i also asked if there were any specific themes they would like to share.

While most were satisfied with the top 4 already listed, Ruil actually took me up on the offer.

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Fuzzwobble’s Favourite Game Music: Hell March 2 (Red Alert 2)

This song truly gets my heart pumping and I consider this to be Frank Klepacki’s masterpiece.

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Ruil’s Favourite Game Music: Chrono Trigger Main Theme (Chrono Trigger)

Ruil: There will never be a game like it ever again. It was a collaborative effort of the greatest developers of RPGs at the time.

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That’s it for this article. TTYL!