Many fans and gamers have enjoyed the “Creating Games” series by Masahiro Sakurai for various reasons. One of them is that you never really know what he will talk about until the next video of his releases. An excellent example of this dropped with his newest video on his YouTube channel. The topic was about game music, and Sakurai immediately noted how many gamers talked to him about how the music from the old-school days was more memorable than the music tracks of the modern day. But is this true? Or are our nostalgia blinders hindering us from seeing what’s before us?
To test this theory, Sakurai took some of the chiptune-style music from the past and put it into modern titles. As he noted, “it’s a bit loud!” He then explained that the biggest reason for the classic style of music from the early generations of consoles was the technology they had available to them, specifically, the visual technology. When they only could make 8-bit or 16-bit graphics, they had to compensate for what you were sometimes not seeing by having a soundtrack that could whisk you away. Given the love for many iconic video game soundtracks from those periods, we say they succeeded.
However, as the graphics got better and they could relay certain visuals and information in the world, game designers knew that the sound design had to match it. In this case, Sakurai was referring to the world’s ambient noise and how gamers inherently wanted to hear that as they traveled through things. Think about racing titles. Previously, you could hear some of the noises from the car. But in modern times, you can hear everything happening with the car.
Or if you’re in an open world, you can hear the sounds of nature or the city you’re in. As for the claim that modern music isn’t as good as the chiptune tracks of the past, that’s all about taste. There are plenty of singular games or franchises in modern times that are known for their music. For example, Persona 5 Royal is beloved for its tracks, and the Halo franchise is revered for using choir-style tracks to give the title a special sound. More examples exist if you give yourself a chance to find them.
So as Masahiro Sakurai would say, things change, and sometimes you need to make things sound better versus making them sound catchy. You can watch the full video below.
