Frequently asked questions

I primarily evaluate individual tracks, i.e., I rate pieces of music from 0 to 5 and assess how worth listening to they are. Based on this, I assign an overall rating for the album. The basis for this classification is my subjective, amateur opinion. With over 250 albums reviewed, I consider myself to be quite knowledgeable about the genre of (video game) soundtracks, but I am not an expert. So if you are expecting in-depth analysis and technical terms from music theory, I'm afraid I will have to disappoint you.

Here is a short list of the 6 possible ratings and what they stand for:

• 0/5: This is usually not a music track, but, for example, radio moderations, skits or cutscenes.
• 1/5: Similar to 0 stars, but with a musical component. Alternatively, they are ambient tracks, i.e. pieces that are intended to create an atmosphere. For example, the anxiety of a cave ... and there's usually not much music in there.
• 2/5: Tracks that I don't find well done or that bother me in some way, e.g. the length.
• 3/5: These pieces can be considered classic average, they are ' mediocre '.
• 4/5: Good to very good tracks that are definitely worth listening to, but are either too long or not catchy / unique enough to make the 5 stars.
• 5/5: With 5 stars, I reward the crème de la crème of video game titles that, in my opinion, should definitely be heard. This is also the best way to judge whether it's just my personal taste, nostalgic glorification or if they are masterpieces after all.

All ratings on this page are subjective and only reflect my opinion. I have not studied music or have any particular ability to describe the work of composers in terms of how it is made. I am merely basing my opinion on my taste and the question: Does the track sound particularly good/bad to me? Is it beautiful / insignificant? You can find out how I arrive at my assessments in “What do the ratings represent?".

The ratings are universal and cross-genre. Because I can find a melody from a small indie game just as beautiful as a mainstream blockbuster hit. Conversely, this means that atmospheric soundtracks have a hard time on this rating scale. For example, a horror game may have a very dense and intimidating soundtrack. This works in the game, but rarely outside of it. Since squeaking doors or the scratching of fingernails across a blackboard do not excite me in my normal music consumption, such tracks rank at the bottom of the scale.

Therefore, I would like to point out once again that the ratings do not necessarily have anything to do with the quality of the individual pieces. Something can be well made but not be suitable as an autonomous composition. This assessment is reflected in my reviews.

In principle, there is no soundtrack that I don't listen to. However, as there is no way to review every score, I have a few criteria that I follow - like most people with films, series or music:

• Firstly, I always listen to the soundtracks of games that I've played myself. Consequently, they are usually rated better because I have the corresponding scenes in mind.
• Then there are things like pop-cultural impact, so do people talk about or fan over the music? This doesn't just include critics and opinion aggregators, but also the voices of friends and in the comments.
• Some songs also appear in other contexts, like a YouTube video. If that catches me, I usually check out the corresponding album.
• If I like the composers, I often check out their other works too.
• Even though I try to listen to pretty much everything, I usually limit my selection to 'bigger' games. Accordingly, browser games, mobile games or (indie) trash games usually fall through the cracks.

What ultimately appears on this website, on the other hand, depends on my mood. However, because the scores of video game series tend to build on each other, I usually try to start at the beginning. Well, not the very beginning, because firstly, it's difficult to find the music from arcade games online; secondly, a lot of the music from that era is irrelevant noise.

Soundtracks are often a by-product. Whether in a movie, series or game, there are very few examples in which musical accompaniment is absent - and it is usually really worth listening to. However, this means that soundtracks are always created with the intention of complementing a moment, a scene or a section within a movie or game. They are therefore not an independent product like a music track from an 'ordinary' music album.

But just as an album can be conceived as a whole, some soundtracks also work on their own. I try to take this into account in my reviews. However, I can't promise that I always do this successfully. Fortunately, more and more producers and publishers are recognizing the market and releasing original soundtracks (OST for short) to offer consumers a curated selection.

In addition to the official original soundtracks, there are other types of scores that I will discuss on this page. Unfortunately, not every development team / publisher has the leisure or the necessary budget to offer an OST - or it has simply been forgotten. For this reason, users sometimes have to get involved and extract or 'rip' the tracks from game directories. The result is called a gamerip and is usually very extensive, as all the tracks are usually extracted; and the tracks are named as they were stored by the developers. This is usually functional and not very informative, but with a little imagination or hard-working communities you can sometimes find 'nicer' track names than, for example, bf_ambient01.

As is usual in music, in addition to the original soundtracks, there are also various subtypes such as special and extended editions, radio scores, etc. However, in the case of video game soundtracks, the music sometimes differs between the game versions. This means, for example, that the score for a Dreamcast game can be different from that of the arcade version. In this case, I always try - unless otherwise noted in the respective review - to take all versions into account and at least list them in the score.

Unlike a 'classic' music album, a soundtrack can be released as an original soundtrack or gamerip and thus represent either a curated collection or a hodgepodge of music tracks and snippets. In the case of gamerips, a distinction must therefore be made between the track types:

• Bgm: Background music, often abbreviated to “bgm” in the file context, are usually pieces that, as the name suggests, contain background music.
• Loop: Loops are pieces that are designed to run in a continuous loop. They usually, but not necessarily, do without a clear beginning and a pointed end and are usually ended by stingers.
• Stinger: Stingers are tracks that are only a few seconds long and are used as a transition or to end a track. They 'stab' into the musical carpet and conceal the work of the technical framework in the background.
• Ingame: Tracks that also run in this form in the game are sometimes labeled “Ingame”. This can be used to differentiate an OST if the in-game version differs from the published version. Alternatively, these tracks can also contain sound elements from the game, for example if it is music from a cutscene.
• SFX: “SFX” is the common abbreviation for “Special Effects”. Tracks with this addition often contain sound effects from the game, similar to in-game tracks. While these mostly appear in OSTs, SFX tracks are usually part of gamerips.

When I talk about music on this website, I limit myself to the following meta information:

• Title
• Track no.
• Artist
• Album
• Album artist
• Rating

I deliberately omit points such as CD numbers because they seem irrelevant to me in the digital age. I also treat artists the same as composers, even if this is factually incorrect. As Wikipedia defines, an artist is a “performer of a musical work”. For instance, it could be an orchestra that plays the composer's works. As this is too granular for me, I'm taking the liberty of reduction here - unless otherwise noted in the respective review. For more in-depth information, you can visit websites such as mobygames or VGMdb.

There can be several reasons for this: The simplest explanation is that there is no official release and no definitive track names or spellings can be found - just like with gamerips. As is usual in the information age, sources may also contradict each other or be inconsistent. In that case, I go with what seems most logical to me.

And sometimes I'm just a bit of a stickler and try to make everything uniform according to my own feelings. For example, I name tracks XXX [Bonus] instead of Bonus Track: XXX. Or I adjust the spelling and write connective words like “in”, “for”, “a”, “with” etc. in lower case. The biggest incision is when I rename tracks. However, this happens very rarely and usually only with the Theme Songs, which I give the name of the respective game (unless the track name already appears in the score). The reason for this is that many modern OSTs follow this convention.

I'm a big fan of the clean look. That's why I usually remove all meta information or stickers, such as age and company logos, lettering, etc., from the respective covers. This applies to both the covers of the games and the actual soundtracks. Since I'm not a graphic designer, the result isn't always perfect, but it's usually an improvement.

Since music is often closely linked to the story (e.g., final boss themes), spoilers cannot always be avoided. However, I try to only mention story twists when it is absolutely necessary for the music analysis.

The album ratings are the average rating for the album. However, since a score would receive a lower rating if it contained many short and consequently poorly rated tracks, for example, I give my personal overall rating for the game's music, i.e., the sum of all albums, in my reviews.

I'm not a specialist in the field of copyright law and can't give you a precise definition. Generally speaking, music tracks are intellectual property and are subject to copyright unless they are too old and have been transferred into the public domain (which is likely to take some time for video games). This is not a problem with OSTs, as you purchase a copy or pay to stream the album for private use.

Gamerips, on the other hand, are the external and unauthorized extraction of files from a medium. However, and here I am on the side of conservatism, the lack of effort on the part of artists or publishers can lead to music, i.e. art, being irretrievably lost.

I don't want to start a fundamental discussion at this point, I don't want to judge whether the creators have the right to determine the context in which their work may be used (for example, only as part of the gaming experience). In my opinion, everyone should have the freedom to experience a piece of music outside of a game.

This list will be continuously updated based on my latest discoveries.

Like you, I also use the search functions of the internet to gather my information. Apart from that, there are these useful sites:

• VGMdb – probably the most comprehensive database on video game soundtracks
• MobyGames – here you can usually find information about the composers and the who-did-what

Nope, this is purely a hobby project. No advertising, no sponsored reviews.

Sure! Just drop me a line in the comments, via social media, or email. I can't promise that I'll like the music or give it the credit it deserves, but I'm always open to good recommendations.