I’d argue that an effective score is important to just about every videogame, though I know some people would disagree with me on that. There are some people out there that don’t think that videogames, movies, or TV shows should have music, because “real life doesn’t have music”. Thank God most of those people don’t actually make videogames, movies, or TV shows.
Still, I don’t think that anyone would deny that games like Katamari Damacy, Super Mario Bros., Mega Man, Jet Grind Radio, and Bit.Trip BEAT would not be the same without their evokative and memorable soundtracks. Just try playing any of those games with the sound off and see how much the impact of the experience diminishes.
de Blob 2 is another game where the soundtrack is essential.
The game’s music changes in real time, as it signals to the player what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and how good of a job their doing. Thank God that the game’s music is so infinitely listenable. It would be tough to play a game like this with bad music. Thankfully, it sounds like the music for the sequel will be just as catchy, with an even greater variety of styles. The team at BlueTongue Studio in Australia is working on pressing a vinyl release of the soundtrack, as well as other forms of distribution.
Some retailers sold the first de Blob with a CD of the soundtrack packed in. The game sold nearly a million copies. I think that BlueTongue and THQ would do well to do the same with de Blob 2. Maybe they could go for two million this time.