Major studios like Nintendo and Epic predictably dominated gaming conversations this year, and as usual, those games offered big budget soundtracks. Super Mario Bros. Wonder and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom brought fun twists to iconic and long-established themes. Hi-Fi Rush literally put music into action by turning the work of Nine Inch Nails and Number Girl into battle songs. Even horror sequel Alan Wake 2 indulged in a deeply kitschy musical segment.
In the shadow of those juggernauts, however, laid a cache of smaller indie games with their own special soundtracks: the doughy funk-house of the Pizza Tower score, the nostalgic Tamil pop songs of Venba, the restorative beauty of Terra Nil’s ambient music. These aren’t just scores that work while submerged in gameplay, but rather soundtracks that are worth a spin long after you’ve stepped away from the screen.
Check out all of Pitchfork’s 2023 wrap-up coverage here.
Dave the Diver
The term “indie” is just as fraught with controversy in the video game world today as it was in the music world a decade ago. Dave the Diver is up for debate in this regard because it’s developed by Mintrocket, a sub-brand of the giant South Korean game publisher Nexon. But it’s the spirit and design of the game that makes it feel like an indie hit. An aquatic adventure RPG on the surface, Dave the Diver is also a hunting game, a restaurant sim, and a seemingly never-ending quest. Its details make every pixelated shark attack and extensive sushi order feel like an indie passion project, and that extends to its music. From the chipper ukulele and steel guitar of opener “Seals and Dolphins” to the dreamy reverb that gives “Gardening and Things” its relaxing quality, Dave the Diver bounces between game genres smoothly thanks to a flexible score. Why else would jazzy trip-hop playing in the bistro feel like a logical pivot from the thumping techno of a dark oceanic tunnel?
Gubbins
The best word games don't feel like a battle of the big brains so much as a friendly challenge. Gubbins, a free smartphone game by Australia’s Studio Folly, welcomes any and all skill levels into its pastel-colored world. Create words on a tile board from a limited rack of letters, à la Scrabble, to see how many points you can score. Thrown in for fun are Gubbins, the developer’s own modifiers that shake up gameplay: a drum tile that helpfully pluralizes, a pencil tile that acts as any letter you desire, and so on.
Like an all-ages kindergarten classroom, Gubbins’ design is whimsical, imaginative, and encouraging; chipper sound effects make every decision, from the placement of a letter to the unintended removal of one moments later, feel like the right choice. Meanwhile, the game’s loose jazz soundtrack jumpstarts your creativity. While you determine where to play your next letter, piano chords fall like plunking raindrops, a trumpet buzzes cooly through a run of notes, and strings brush away any inclinations to overthink. Katarzyna Wiktorski’s compositions are almost as addictive as the game itself.
Humanity
How many people can you fit on screen before a game crashes? That was the question that spawned Humanity, a sleek puzzler in the style of Lemmings where you, a fluorescent shiba inu, guide hordes of people through increasingly difficult maps. Humanity is long. There’s 90 levels in total, each with new challenges and learned commands, but it’s a joy to return to, in large part due to its music.
For such a technically crowded game, however, Humanity is refreshingly minimal and crisp in design. Japanese electronic musician Jemapur expands upon those visually pleasing attributes through his score. It’s a sparse and playful take on ambient electronica by way of modular synthesizers. On a handful of songs, Jemapur incorporates harmonic vocal samples, which are spliced together and pitch-shifted to glisten at just the right moments. It’s not too far removed from Lyra Pramuk’s abstract explorations or Holly Herndon’s sparse textures. Leave it to Humanity to make the human voice dazzle through the most detached means possible.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Spotify
Laika: Aged Through Blood
Created by Spanish indie developers Brainwash Gang and published by Headup Games, Laika: Aged Through Blood is an action-adventure Metroidvania game that draws inspiration from westerns. In a post-apocalyptic world ruled by birds, you play a coyote mother named Laika who becomes immortal due to her ancient female bloodline. After a breaking point, Laika decides to avenge her tribe and reclaim what was stolen from her during the war, setting off on her motorcycle.
While the game oscillates between desolate, cacti-dotted landscapes and bloody fight scenes, players are treated to a musically rich score by Spanish composer and singer Beícoli that sounds like a steadfast march through the desert. Acoustic sections that set the mood transition into breathy folk songs akin to Marissa Nadler or Emma Ruth Rundle. Laika: Aged Through Blood would be worth your time based on its story alone, but Beícoli’s score elevates the game into a proper piece of art. Her music establishes an emotional depth that gets you invested and, come the game’s end, it helps to stick a devastating landing.
Listen/Buy: Spotify
Pizza Tower
Hello, fellow disciples of Wario, and welcome to your new favorite game. The anonymous developer Tour De Pizza created their first-ever video game Pizza Tower after playing every Wario Land installment; it’s intended as a spiritual successor. The retro side-scrolling platformer follows chef Peppino Spaghetti as he climbs a tower, battling food-themed enemies along the way to prevent the demolition of his pizzeria. The art mimics strung-out ’90s cartoons like Ren and Stimpy, the gameplay is over-caffeinated, and the music is just hyper enough to be brilliant.
Created by Mr. Sauceman and ClascyJitto, plus a menu theme courtesy of Post Elvis, Pizza Tower’s soundtrack is the musical embodiment of how the game’s screen constantly rattles, even when Peppino Spaghetti stands still. Funk, house, chiptune, and electronica take turns soundtracking levels, but there’s seemingly always a hidden reference point: that slap bass in “Pizza Deluxe” winks at the Seinfeld theme, the staccato melody of “There’s a Bone in My Spaghetti” echoes Undertale. Don’t just listen to the soundtrack, though. Read it and laugh. The song titles alone—“The Death That I Deservioli,” “Calzonification,” “Don’t Preheat Your Oven Because If You Do the Song Won’t Play”—befit a project this gloriously silly and chaotic.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp | Spotify
Terra Nil
Strategy games are typically designed to stress you out and teach you to think several steps ahead. Terra Nil takes the opposite approach. Developed by Free Lives and published by Devolver Digital, the goal of the game is to restore an ecosystem through rewilding and green technology, essentially demolishing cities and wastelands in the name of reviving nature. Simple and rewarding by design, Terra Nil is the most calming strategy game in recent years—so relaxing, in fact, that Devolver released an hour of the soundtrack on YouTube before the game’s release and listeners returned to it over 30,000 times.
French ambient composer Meydän builds his songs like an extension of the seasons: flurrying piano notes that melt upon impact, quiet shakers that hum like wind, glockenspiel notes opening up like the petals of a flower. He works through chord progressions slowly and with care, so that each change feels impactful no matter its size. Consider it an apt representation of the game’s environmentally focused heart.
Listen/Buy: Spotify
Venba
In Visai Games’ Venba, you play as the titular character, a soon-to-be mother who immigrated from India to Canada with her husband in 1988. The family cookbook was damaged in the move, so the object of the game—set over the ensuing decades—is to restore Venba’s mother’s recipes and cook meals as a form of identity preservation. It’s an intimate and tender story, and the game’s poetic score only deepens those emotions. Recorded with live instruments and vocals, Venba’s soundtrack bursts with energy by way of tabla, harpsichord, and synth. Their use of lyrics, an uncommon choice in video game scores, draws extra attention to the game’s enduring themes of family and nostalgia.
Though the interstitial music is absorbing in its own right, it’s the epics played via Venba’s radio that steal your heart. Composer Alpha Something took inspiration from classic Tamil cinema for these bombastic pop songs, channeling the themes of specific composers and scoring trends over the years to match each decade in the game. One of Venba’s most striking originals, “Chellakutty,” comes from none other than Deva, the 73-year-old South Indian composing legend with more than 400 films to his name. Watching behind-the-scenes footage of his track coming to life in the studio captures the generational pride that’s so crucial to the game. It’s exuberant and catchy, a true highlight in a game that radiates passion at every turn.
Listen/Buy: Bandcamp
