music makes a difference

Wow - just purchased a commercial music pack and dropped a few quality sci-fi/techno tracks into my tank game (Tank Universal).

Some good background music really makes a diff to a game doesn't it?

yup, good music can make or break a game's pace and tension.

i agree wholeheartedly... brings a game to life...

--Mike

plus never neglect decent sound effects applied well.

I'd say sound is at number 1 for the most important part of a game, almost more important than even gameplay!
Since gfx (and sometimes even gameplay, look at Outrun etc) date easily, a great music soundtrack does not.

It's a shame a lot of developers now tend to skim over the soundtrack part. Because long into the future, the music and sound is what we remember the most.

yep, we all remember classic C64 games that weren't that good just cos of the cool music.

Music in games does stick with you. I find that the music I remember best is from all kinds of old arcade games (Xenon 2 Megablast, Bubble Bobble for example) - those tunes still rattle around in my head. Music from most of today's games, while impressive (and superior in quality) in some cases, is not usually of the kind that 'sticks in your mind'.

> in some cases, is not usually of the kind
> that 'sticks in your mind'.

You probably mean ambient music, tunes that mean nothing on their own without the game/film it goes with.

I too remember and still love Xenon 2 Megablast and Bubble Bobble, and if I recall Xenon 2 was a pretty average game to be honest. But you definitely wanted to play it more than the average game though because of that cool tune.

I wouldn't say that music is more important than gameplay. Music is more emotionally connected than gameplay, and is more tied to memory. However, these matter little during the actual playing. They create fond memories and will bring you back to play more, but they will not keep you playing.... There are plenty of games I found myself just standing still listening to the music, because the gameplay was distracting from the listening.. This isn't good... It is because the only part I was enjoying was the music.

Music and sound effects are an integral aspect of games. But they do not trump the gameplay. For, without gameplay, you made a movie.

(Are you listening Xenosaga?)