What mediocre game, show, or movie has an incredible soundtrack?

https://lemmy.world/post/40484177

Depending on who you ask, Tron: Legacy.

(I personally love the movie and rewatch it every couple years but it didn’t do well, IIRC.)

I murdered a lot of reapas in Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer to some of those songs.

The Grid

YouTube
Rinzler’s my fav, tiny gods it’s still so good. Thanks for the share.

Depending on who you ask, Tron: Legacy.

The movie was OK, but I vastly prefer the original. It has a certain 80s “Gee whiz aren’t these newfangled computers the greatest” feeling that you just can’t recapture.

Weirdest Sheridan and Londo fanfic I’ve ever seen. 👍
Creation Of TRON (TRON Soundtrack)

YouTube

| Depending on who you ask, Tron: Legacy.

The last real Daft Punk Album.

True, the soundtrack single handedly elevates it - there’s not much without that.
Remember Me Soundtrack

YouTube

Movies

  • Sucker Punch
  • Transformer 2 and beyond. The movies were shit but the score was top notch
  • Blue Hawaii

Tv Shows

  • The Book Of Bobba Fett
  • Star Trek Enterprise

Star Trek Enterprise

Not again! I refuse to let that get stuck in my head for a week. I REFUSE! runs away screaming

It’s been a long road…
If karma truly exists you’re going to get it stuck in your head longer than I will.

Sucker Punch

www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZyCKVMzrX4&list=PLE0FA3E…

Transformer 2 and beyond.

Playlist is of all Transformers movie soundtracks, but this link will start at Transformers 2.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJNmOd3tWB0&list=PLKsSQjM…

Blue Hawaii

www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m-T4tarPy4&list=PLvDaQTR…

The Book Of Bobba Fett

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJVuM-g9Gc8&list=PLuSPz2s…

Star Trek Enterprise

www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdFp_ifToHU&list=PLtFDQ-Q…

Sucker Punch | Soundtrack | Track 01 | Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) - Emily Browning

YouTube
Sucker Punch arguably would have been a better film if they went full Daft Punk and didn’t bother with actual dialogue.
The Legend of 1900

I want to mention like three different games, but for each one someone would rightfully come after me for saying the game itself is mediocre. So I’ll just say I personally love these games, but I see with pretty clear eyes that aspects of them haven’t stood the test of time.

Mirror’s Edge, The Neverhood, and Yuri’s Revenge all have amazing soundtracks.

And after that disclaimer if you still try to pick a fight about how they’re not mediocre games, I’m going to also pretend I’m fighting the person who called them mediocre and then crawl out of our cartoon fight cloud.

Never played Yuri’s Revenge, but the first two are certified bangers. I need a Neverhood Remaster.
With C&C, my sense that those games are somehow below par come mainly from a perception that RTS is a largely dead genre.

According to this list, the annual release count peaked around 2000, but RTSes are still coming out at a decent clip, maybe half the rate as they did then.

en.wikipedia.org/…/List_of_real-time_strategy_vid…

Some thoughts:

  • The genre as it ran in its heyday was really aimed at keyboard+mouse play. I don’t think that it translates incredibly well to mobile or console. I remember trying to play Supreme Commander on a gamepad and not really liking it.

  • Depending upon how one classifies games (the above list appears to treat real-time tactics games as a subgenre, which I wouldn’t), some real-time strategy games might go into a different bucket, the real-time tactics genre.

  • I think that RTSes gave birth to some child genres, like MOBAs, that to some extent compete for marketshare.

  • There were a lot of 2D RTSes that came out around 2000. I mean, it was something of a glut. I think that it was just a good match for the game hardware and computer capabilities of the time. But…you’d kind of expect some subsequent decrease if that’s the case. Other genres have had similar booms based on being a good match for the hardware of the time. For example, third generation consoles and fourth generation consoles saw a huge number of side-view 2D platformers, because they were a decent match for what the hardware could do. There are still modern side-view platformers that come out, but it’s a far smaller percentage of the game market than it was then.

List of real-time strategy video games - Wikipedia

You’re probably right. I know there’s a open source RTS project for Linux, I’ve been meaning to check it out.
Why specifically Yuri’s revenge? 
The soundtrack! Maybe it’s nostalgia goggles, but I love the combo of classic cinema samples, guitar riffs, and mad science beats.
Yuri’s revenge isn’t even close to being mediocre tho, it was an amazing addon for an already amazing game.

The Neverhood is a flawed gem, one of those fantastic point&click adventure games that have some of that moon-logic malaise so common in Sierra games, up to an absurd point.

Yet every other aspect of the game is polished and fantastic enough I would recommend it with enough warning.

I would definitely not call it mediocre, it is anything but that, it is also in retrospective a worse "game" than some contemporary titles like Broken Sword or ToonStruck.

That’s just it - the writing, animation, music, the art direction, the voices - all stunning. But, the gameplay lets it down. What makes a mediocre game for me is, if watching someone else play a thing is a preferable experience, it’s not such a good game - speaking strictly of the “gameplay” aspects of the work.
I could catch a lot of flak from this opinion but I wonder if Cyberpunk 2077 could fit in this category: I have probably something around 100 hours in that game just because I like going around in the city and there's some great writing, both for the main questline and even some random side-quests.
But as much freedom I have from choosing how I want to deal with a mission, neither combat nor hacking is fun IMO.
Hacking feels more like an overpowered magic ability that if you put enough points into it, it lets you cheat the game, and fighting is mostly a big mess, be it physical or shooting.
I should give it a go sometime, or at least listen to the OST.
Just started another playthrough of catalyst after 5 years, absolutely serene soundtrack. Sure the game has issues but it’s for sure one of my favorites
Terry Scott Taylor has an incredibly deep back catalogue on his Bandcamp page - some pretty middle of the road, and some totally weird, worth having a rummage and seeing what you get… For those who don’t want to play lucky dip, there’s the full soundtrack to Neverhood, plus a couple of related albums (Songs from the Neverhood Vol 2 which was the platformer sequel, and Return to the Neverhood - which was released as a companion to the graphic novel).
Terry Scott Taylor

Terry Scott Taylor
I was honestly remiss in not mentioning him, his bandcamp is a treasure trove.

Not exactly the soundtrack, it was fine, but nothing special and overall forgettable

But I want to give a small shout-out to Morbius for having really good sound mixing. I definitely expected it to be a “whispers and explosions” kind of movie where you couldn’t hear the conversations, and action scenes blew your eardrums out, and the background music was all over the place

But no, everything was at a reasonable volume, I could hear everything crystal clear.

There was just nothing worth hearing unfortunately.

01. Dr. Michael Morbius (Morbius Soundtrack)

YouTube

I liked Stealth’s soundtrack when it came out. Radio had gotten quite corporate-stale at the time, and the tracks had a upbeat rock personality I did not know I wanted to explore. I’m no audiophile, and it is not something I actually pursued. It was just something I noticed at the time. I rarely take notice of stuff like that.

In terms of movie music in general, anything from John Williams is amazing to me. I think it is because John has a knack for communicating logical empathy and emotions in music that tells a parallel story within the scenes of the movie. He is not creating a simple background soundscape or echoing the emotions the visual storytelling. Instead, he is sneaking in behind you from the shadows and taking on a staring role in your experience without ever announcing himself or allowing you to see how he expands the performing stage. After that initial experience of the film, when you hear any small part of John’s score, that entity he conjured comes to life again, reminding you of his unspoken staring role in ways no one else I know of is capable. Some others certainly create beautiful backgrounds and soundscapes, but I have never experienced anyone else that conjures a presence in the same way as John Williams.

Incubus - Make A Move - Stealth Soundtrack

YouTube
Williams has a gift for creating a general theme, character motifs, and layers of the music that don't just sing but tell you the story you're seeing. He's our Mozart or Beethoven who was around at the right time to use the vehicle of cinema to paint his pictures.
Lazarus, it was an anime written by the same guy that made Cowboy Bepop. It was alright, but they hired Bonobo to do the soundtrack for it and it’s just amazing…
'Prologue' | Lazarus (Adult Swim Original Series Soundtrack) - Official Video

YouTube
(☝‸◟)☞
Expedition 33
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Original Soundtrack) 01 - Alicia

YouTube
What about it was mediocre?!
Didn’t like how the plot hooks you in with Gustave & Lune having to deal with a world on the brink of the end, and then it becomes Verso & Maelle having to deal with family drama. Massive disappointment.
Interesting, I hadn’t thought of it that way… fair!
Homeworld 1, and to a lesser extent Homeworld Cataclysm Emergence
Paul Ruskay - Turanic Battle Music / Homeworld Soundtrack

YouTube
Homeworld could have done so much more with its 3D premise, yeah, but man, that tutorial music is haunting!
Not a mediocre game but the opening track of Civilization IV, The Lord’s Prayer, is magnificent. It won a Grammy.
Christopher Tin - Baba Yetu (Official Video) feat. Soweto Gospel Choir

YouTube
I counter your Soweto Gospel Choir with Maytree. www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRDn4s5RCN8
Baba Yetu (acapella) #civilization

YouTube

It won a Grammy.

IIRC it was the first song from a video game to do so.

Pictionary
TIM IT WAS JUST PICTIONARY
Pictionary Music (NES) - Title Screen Theme

YouTube
Solstice

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gObHt1uZA&list=RD4_gObH…

(Note, for those not familiar, that both Pictionary and Solstice had music by Tim Follin, who is notable for squeezing a lot of capability out of extremely limited early computer sound hardware.)

Solstice Music (NES) - Title Screen Theme

YouTube
Tim’s brother Geoff was also a game composer, and made e.g. the music for ‘Terminator 2: Judgment Day’ on NES.
*OLD MIX* Terminator 2: Judgment Day (NES) Soundtrack - 8BitStereo

YouTube