Few notes on – Klardendum

Few notes on: Videogame music 2025

18/03/2026 18/03/2026

It’s that time of the year – the time to praise some really really good music in videogames. Music that you remember after playing it. Music that you want to buy and listen to outside of the game. The previous year (or just recent releases that I’ve finally got to play since the last year retrospective) has been quite exciting for music, with some new and unexpected wonderful soundtracks. But, as it often happens a bulk of this list is going to consist of older titles that got re-released or had all of their DLCs added last year.

The only game in the list this time that I didn’t review, and maybe never properly would because of what type of the game it is, is Megabonk. I did play it a fair bit and enjoy it, but it’s just not quite the game you complete and review and it also gets constantly updated, so… But I liked it and the soundtrack is very good, so it’s in this list. And as for honourable mentions, I will call out Assassin’s Creed Mirage, which has the music that is almost something you want to listen outside of the game, but it doesn’t quite go there fully. And also World of Goo 2, which is great, but also – it’s just the music for the original game in new arrangements, which aren’t necessarily better, just different. Another important notice is that while I really liked the OFF remastered soundtrack, it is not available anywhere, but the original game soundtrack is still free.

Either way, I’m leaving you with this list and hope you enjoy this music as much as I did.

Few notes on: Videogame music 2024

19/03/2025 19/03/2025

Fourth year of me writing about wonderful soundtracks in gaming while listening to Ukrainian Air Force protecting my life from russian missiles and killer drones behind the windows. I’m starting to get slightly angry at games that include air raid sirens in their soundscape, which is somewhat funny, but also a bit sad.

But speaking of games like that, Silent Hill 2 remake from last year is not even going to be included in the list because the original had a better soundtrack and was included last time. Plus, Akira Yamaoka composed one of his best soundtracks last year for a different game you will find listed. Anyways, as usual, I am listing the games and their soundtracks that I’ve played or re-played since the last time I’ve done this type of an article last year. This time it was about the same amount of new titles and re-releases. And while re-releases do win in numbers, a few of the new games had soundtracks that are bound to become instant classics.

Few notes on: Videogame music 2023

15/02/2024 15/02/2024

Third year surviving the Russian genocidal invasion of Ukraine while writing about good video game music. 2023 turned out to be quite great as far as music in new releases goes, but of course a lot of the list is still made up of classics I’ve revisited since the last time I did this write up.

Few notes on: Videogame music 2022

12/03/2023 12/03/2023

Second year in a row I’m writing about videogame music while Russian genocidal invasion of Ukraine is going on. And this year selection is going to be even more bare than the last year, unfortunately.

Few notes on: Videogame music 2021

21/03/2022 21/03/2022

This time my yearly look at the game soundtracks was even later than I originally planned. But what can you do, when Russia invades your country your priorities change.

Few notes on: Videogame music 2020

07/03/2021 22/02/2022

I had relatively high hopes for the music in games of last year, but it ended up being a bit disappointing. Which, I suppose, is par for the course for 2020. But some remasters and re-releases have sweetened the deal, while the rest of the games that I have played since the last time I did this sort of post have improved the situation even further. As a result, I did get to enjoy some nice memorable videogame tunes during this past year.

Few notes on: Videogame music 2019

13/03/2020 22/02/2022

It’s a bit of a shame, but 2019 didn’t seem to be as standout in terms of videogame music to me as I was hoping it would be. Still, there were some amazing tunes that need to be mentioned and given their due. As usual, I’m not covering the music to the titles I’ve not played and don’t know much about, but will mention several soundtracks to games that I’ve not yet played but plan to when I have more time. I know, you know, everybody everyone let’s go.

Few notes on: Videogame music 2018

07/04/2019 22/02/2022

As usual, my post about the videogame music of the previous year is late due to me wanting to play some leftovers from 2018. Though, turned out, they didn’t make the list anyway. 2018 turned out to be quite surprising for the videogame music as quite a lot of the things that I want to list is here on a technicality. Though, not like we didn’t have some amazing tunes from last year. Let’s dive in.

Few notes on: Tequilajazzz

24/06/2018 22/02/2022

This musical post will be quite a bit more personal than usual. For a rather simple reason, really – there are a lot of bands and artists that had profound impact on my life and appreciation of variety of music, but Tequilajazzz might have affected me most. They’re not a band I can call “my favorite”, hell I wasn’t even listening to it when the impact was made and many years since than. But… Well, I’ll explain later.

It’s one of the earliest bands in post-soviet countries that I know of that had a very distinct post-hardcore, post-punk, experimental rock sound during their early days, yet were very well and not some underground band that only got to be appreciated years later *cough* Дубовый Гаайъ *cough*. But even more interesting is how they changed and evolved with time, slowly going from aggressive and harsh hardcore sound to more melodic alternative rock, which at times incorporates influences from jazz, funk or other more “easy listening” genres, while still sticking to the high energy performance. They’re a blast live. Speaking of which…

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Few notes on: Videogame music 2017

29/03/2018 22/02/2022

Last time I decided to do a “look back at” videogame music of a previous year was mostly due to how big the wave of 80s inspired synthwave and like was and mostly to check just how prevalent it was in videogames. This time, I’m doing it because I feel like last year just had several truly amazing soundtracks that became an integral part of my main music playlist.