The end of the year usually takes a lot of work. Lots of articles to write, lots of games to spring up on. And one of the most fun of every year is our countdown to the best playing music of the year. We will go over what we felt were the top ten soundtracks to get a PlayStation console in 2020.
Okay, so we’re cheating from the door, here, but the scores in question are good for the same reason. We all know what Star Wars sounds like; we have heard it a thousand times. So how does this formula evolve? This is the question these composers answered. Gordy Haab provides us with a brilliant basic theme for squadrons that is used throughout the score. Meanwhile, Wilbert Roget II and Cris Velasco delivered to Vader Immortal a group of brilliant new melodies. For something with such a definite sound, this year we have a lot of fantastic music for Star Wars.
A lot of the news we’ve heard about Cyberpunk 2077 these days isn’t exactly positive. Since the title release, one gaffe has passed after the next. While it’s pretty safe to assume that the title will end up similar to the game CD Projekt RED promised fans, an area that’s already spectacular is the music. With a brilliant original score by a group of composers, Cyerbpunk 2077 also features a large number of fictional group themes. They even include contributions from artists like Grimes i Run the jewels.
A strange and totally unique Thunder Lotus Games experience, Spiritfarer sees you transporting the dead to the next plane of existence, and the game has perfect soundtrack for this task. A poignant, often poignant, experience with tears, music is able to match the incredible writing stroke at once. Max LL returns after scoring the previous two Thunder Lotus titles, Sundered and Jotun. Spiritfarer’s score represents a new high bar, with this meditative and infinitely moving score for one of the most curious titles of the year.
Sony’s latest mascot PS5 pack game, Astro’s Playroom, is probably the most infectious soundtrack on this list. Both able to get their heads around it, as well as play up to the game’s strengths, Kenny Young’s score for this PlayStation story throughout the story is magnificent. While music does an excellent job of providing each game world with its own sound, GPU Jungle dominates the place, with a bright disco-inspired track that will never leave your head once you hear it.
With an unparalleled dedication to authenticity, Cuphead has one of the most memorable and unique aesthetics a game has ever had. So it should come as no surprise to us that music is as magnetic as the game itself. The huge success of the MDHR studio took a little longer to get into the hands of PlayStation gamers, but both the game and Kristoffer Madigan’s insane jazz / ragtime music were worth the wait.
Perhaps the biggest surprise in composing this list, the full remake of the first Mafia title has a staggeringly incredible score. While the original title already has a great soundtrack, composer Jesse Harlin somehow manages to elevate things to an absurd level, offering one of the most filmic scores we’ve experienced in a game in a long time.
Music is a powerful tool for setting the tone in games. And perhaps nowhere is it better evidenced than the surreal work of Cardboard Computer. The impossible places, the mysteries laden with discomfort, the alarming places of the mundane. All of this is largely defined by Ben Babbitt’s music. Between Babbitt, as well as collaborators The Bedquilt Ramblers and the game band Junebug, there is a huge mix of sounds. This allows the game to excel on multiple fronts, offering beautiful covers of traditional folk numbers, stunning ambient tracks that are more textured than songs, and even a surprisingly excellent synthpop.
The first of Naughty Dog’s post-apocalyptic titles has one of the best game scores of all time, a pretty hard act to follow. Luckily, composer Gustavo Santaolalla and newcomer Mac Quayle lived up to the task. While the addition of a new voice to the sound direction makes it lighter than the first game, The Last of Us: Part II still has an incredible score. The two composers seem to focus on different areas of the game, allowing for a much broader soundscape than the first title had.
Sucker Punch’s open world samurai game is quite an experience. With such incredible dedication to his vision, the game is excellent in almost everything he tried. Surprisingly beautiful, the game is one of the most attractive games on the PS4, full stop. One of these keys to capturing this vision comes from music. A beautiful, impressive, and largely unique score, Ghost of Tsushima offers a soundscape we don’t often hear in games, and composers Ilan Eshkeri and Shigeru Umebayashi do it flawlessly.
The number of times this composer has appeared on these our lists is impressive, but that’s fair so good Austin Wintory’s music is. With a set of versatile tools and an impressive range of divergent sounds to his name, Wintory is re-launching the book on what to expect from him. Joining us with Giant Squid once again, having achieved an incredible score for ABZÛ, we feel a greater emphasis on percussion and, surprisingly and uniquely, the singing of the throat. The soundtrack to The Pathless is similar to anything we’ve heard before, and the final head-to-head music is amazing.
And of course, needless to say, this is just a portion of all the amazing soundtracks that were released this year, so to choke out some last noteworthy scores, here are some of the final cuts the list: Final Fantasy VII Remake, Demon’s Souls, Persona 5 Royal, Eternal Doom, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Bugsnax, Hunt: Showdown, and the list goes on …
What did you think of playing music this year? Do you agree with our choices? Which would you have preferred to see made the cut? Let us know in the comments, unless it’s NieR: Automata again. We heard it.