EXTRA DAMAGECAST // Best Music 2013

By Joshua David Anderson and Jesse Seilhan

Every year we get a host of new games, and with them come all new soundtracks. This list represents some of our favorite music tracks from the games released in 2013. This isn’t in any order, and it certainly isn’t exhaustive, but all of these tracks are awesome, and are definitely representative of some of the best examples of game music this year.

And if you want to check out last years selection, well just head on over here.

Resogun

Oh man. Resogun is pure arcadey, twitchy, shooty action. It needs pulsating electronic beats to help guide you while you shoot every voxel you can see. The first level, Acis, starts off with some of the best music in the game, with a driving feel and a great lead hook.

The Stanley Parable

All of the music in The Stanley Parable has a very specific place in the game, but this piece gets to the point so quickly and is as inspirational as an Disney or Pixar opening tune. If you weren’t feeling adventurous before hearing this song, you will be afterwards.

Rogue Legacy

I love this tune because it captures all the classic 8-bit dungeon crawling stuff of yesteryear while still feeling layered enough to not just be a midi song. If someone could figure out the solo in the middle and reproduce this on guitar, I would be a fan forever.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf

Animal Crossing has possibly the most unique soundtrack out of every game this year. The game plays a different song every hour, and since the game is played in realtime, you hear the song change at the top of the hour. This also means that when you play Animal Crossing determines what music you will hear. While I love the 7 PM track, I have a special connection with 11 PM. It was always the time I would be just wandering around my town, hunting the occasional bug, and enjoying my hard work. This music fits that mood perfectly.

Risk of Rain

Risk of Rain is a hard game. You are combing alien worlds to find crashed cargo of a dangerous sort. While some of the later songs ramp up to match the action packed gameplay, the track Monsoon keeps the beat up while still being mysterious. Its the perfect music to listen to while scavenging a strange world while fighting monsters. Really, the whole soundtrack is excellent, and can be found here.

Gunpoint

It is extremely difficult to pick one track from Gunpoint, which has an amazing selection of music, but I chose this piece because it combines all the elements – jazz, noir, funk – all perfectly blended into something truly Gunpointy. The Main Theme takes a close second, as the haunting horns of John Robert Matz are powerful enough to make you want to play this excellent game.

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Blood Dragon is supposed to be a dumb, cheesy take on 80’s action movies, and tapping the band Power Glove to write the soundtrack was genius. This music sounds like it fell out of 1985. It’s got all the dreamy synth lines and the reverbed snare hits.

Kentucky Route Zero

Kentucky Route Zero straddles the line between a sci-fi mindbender and a Southern fever dream and this song gives the latter much more weight when it kicks in. This game uses music extremely well and having a true “song” play while you explore these backwoods adds a perfect layer that no other game gave me this year.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

The original SNES game A Link to the Past already ...