A new year, a new… podcast?!

Don’t worry, the “Barrel Roll!” podcast isn’t going away any time soon despite its absence this week. In the meantime, “Sound in Action” discusses the aspect of games that doesn’t get nearly enough attention: the music. As your host, I’ll take you through a selection of songs in each episode and talk about why I feel each song and soundtrack is notable. I don’t claim to have the ultimate musical knowledge, but I have been an avid listener of game soundtracks for over two decades and have been remixing game music for many years. Think of it less as a critique and more of a celebration of an often ignored subject.

That said, I need your feedback! Please have a listen and tell me what you liked and what you didn’t. This show is still in the idea phase and I want to make sure there is enough interest in it to continue producing it.

On this first episode, I take a look at six of my favorite soundtracks from last year. You can find links on where to purchase these soundtracks at the bottom of the post.

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It’s that time of year again where “Top 10″ lists saturate gaming blogs even more than usual. And yet, game music will once again receive little to no attention on most sites. That simply just won’t do! For the third year in a row, I’d like to take this opportunity to reflect on the sweeping scores and bumping beats that the soundtracks of 2011 brought us.

Of course, listening to every soundtrack released in North America last year is an impossible task and my taste might not sync up with yours. I may have not listed your personal favorite (let me know in the comments), but maybe you’ll discover something new. I’ve included a four song sampler clip and purchase link for each soundtrack below for your convenience.

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Are you one of the many gamers who have fallen in love with Castlevania music over the years? If so, you’ll want to check out Jake “virt” Kaufman’s score for Wayforward’s new downloadable title Bloodrayne: Betrayal.

It’s no coincidence how much the music has in common with Castlevania as Kaufman reveals that early versions of the game used tracks from Symphony of the Night as a placeholder. Three months later, Kaufman finished his original score based on this inspiration combined with his own flavor. Then he made an 8-bit version as a bonus (unlockable after finishing the game). Why not? Everybody knows NES music is the coolest.

But rather than run it through a filter, all the music was painstakingly recreated in FamiTracker for the 8-bit version. This retro conversion process has created some sort of crazy neo-nostalgia that will no doubt threaten the space-time continuum.

Until that fateful moment when reality collapses in on itself, you can get both versions of the soundrack (that’s 30 tracks!) for the low, low price of free. Of course, if you are the kindhearted type and would like to reward an artist for the blood, sweat, and tears that went into the album, you can pay any price you want via Bandcamp.

Buy the Album: Bandcamp