The end of the year involves a lot of work. Lots of articles to write, lots of games to gush about. And one of the most fun every year is the countdown to the best game music of the year. We’ll discuss what we think were the top ten soundtracks to grace a PlayStation console in 2020.
Okay, so we’re cheating, but the scores in question are good for the same reason. We all know what Star Wars sounds like; we’ve heard it a thousand times. So how do you evolve that formula? That is the question these composers had the answers to. Gordy Haab provides us with a brilliant Squadron core theme that is used throughout the score. Meanwhile, Wilbert Roget II and Cris Velasco have delivered a whole host of brilliant new melodies to Father Immortal. For something with such a certain sound, we got a lot of new great music for Star Wars this year.
Much of the news we’ve heard about Cyberpunk 2077 these days isn’t exactly positive. It’s been one blunder after another since the title’s launch. While it’s pretty safe to assume the title will ultimately look like the Projekt RED game CD that fans promised, one area that’s already spectacular is the music. With a brilliant original score from a bevy of composers, Cyerbpunk 2077 also has a large number of songs from fictional groups. These even include contributions from artists like Grimes and Run the jewels.
A bizarre, totally unique experience from Thunder Lotus Games, Spiritfarer sees you take the dead to the next level of existence, and the game has the perfect soundtrack for such a task. A moving, often tear-jerking experience, the music is able to match the game’s incredible writing stroke. Max LL returns after scoring both previous Thunder Lotus titles, Sundered and Jotun. Spiritfarer’s score sets a new high bar, with this infinitely moving, meditative score for one of the year’s most curious titles.
The PS5 pack-in-game from Sony’s latest mascot, Astro’s Playroom, is probably the most catchy soundtrack on this list. Capable of both getting inside your head and playing with the game’s strengths, Kenny Young’s score for this PlayStation history walkthrough is magnificent. While the music does a great job of giving each world in the game its own unique sound, GPU Jungle rule the roost, with a brilliant disco-inspired track that will never leave you once you hear it.
With an unparalleled commitment to authenticity, Cuphead has one of the most memorable and unique aesthetics a game has ever had. So it should come as no surprise that the music is just as magnetic as the game itself. Studio MDHR’s breakthrough success took a little longer for PlayStation gamers to get their hands on, but both the game and Kristoffer Madigan’s outrageous jazz / ragtime music were worth the wait.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in putting this list together, the full remake of the first Mafia title has a mind-bogglingly incredible score. While the original title already has a great soundtrack, composer Jesse Harlin somehow manages to take things to an absurd level by offering one of the most cinematic scores we’ve seen in a game in a long time .
Music is a powerful tool for getting tone in games. And perhaps this is nowhere better proven than Cardboard Computer’s surreal masterpiece. The impossible locations, the mysteries full of inconvenience, the alarmingly everyday locations. All this is largely determined by the music of Ben Babbitt. Between Babbitt, as well as collaborators The Bedquilt Ramblers, and in-game band Junebug, there is a huge mix of sounds. This allows the game to excel on multiple fronts, with beautiful covers of traditional folk songs, stunning ambient tracks that have more texture than songs, and even surprisingly excellent synth pop.
The first of Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic titles has one of the best game scores of all time, a pretty tough act to follow. Fortunately, returning composer Gustavo Santaolalla and newcomer Mac Quayle were more than up to this task. While the addition of a new voice to the sound direction ever makes it so slightly more uneven than the first game, The Last of Us: Part II still has an incredible score. Both composers seem to focus on different parts of the game, allowing for a much wider soundscape than the first title had.
Sucker Punch’s samurai open world game is quite an experience. With such an incredible dedication to its vision, the game has excelled at just about everything it has tried. Amazingly beautiful, the game is one of the most fun games on the PS4, period. One of those keys to capturing that vision comes from the music. A beautiful, impressive and largely unique score, Ghost of Tsushima delivers a soundscape not often heard in games, and composers Ilan Eshkeri and Shigeru Umebayashi do it flawlessly.
The number of times this composer has appeared on these lists of ours is astonishing, but that’s correct how good Austin Wintory’s music is. With a versatile toolset and an impressive array of diverse sounds to his name, Wintory is once again turning the book about what to expect from him. Teaming up with Giant Squid again – after creating an incredible score for ABZÛ – we get to hear a greater emphasis on percussion, and both surprising and unique, guttural vocals. The soundtrack for The Pathless is completely unlike anything we’ve heard before, and the boss’s latest fight music is incredible.
And of course it should go without saying, this is just a part of all the incredible soundtracks released this year, so to name a few final scores worth noting, here are just some of the latest cuts that have been made to the list: Final Fantasy VII Remake, Demon’s Souls, Persona 5 Royal, Doom Eternal, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Bugsnax, Hunt: Showdown, and the list goes on …
What did you think of game music this year? Do you agree with our choices? Which one would you rather have made the cut? Let us know in the comments unless it’s about NieR: Automata again. We heard that.