by Paul on Apr 3rd, 2014

My love of video game soundtracks is already well-documented here on Rare Gamer, so it should come as no surprise when I say that my excitement levels peaked when Marcus Hedges got in touch with me. Marcus dropped me a line because he has produced an orchestrated version of the Donkey Kong 64 soundtrack. Whilst I personally do not remember the music from DK64 as fondly as other works by Grant Kirkhope, it’s still an excellent soundtrack full of Grant’s trademark style and personality, and the promise of an updated version got me very excited.

As always, when writing these reviews I think it’s helpful to present a bit of a wider background to better enable you to see why I come to the conclusions I do so I hope you’ll forgive a little bit of reminiscing. Back when DK64 was first announced I was really excited. I had played through the original DKC trilogy for far too many hours and the idea that Rare could take the foundations of those games and spin them out into a Banjo-Kazooie-style romp made me giddy. However, the game ended up being a bit of a let-down. It turned out to be a real exercise in patience for me, as the “got to collect everything” mentality, coupled with the constant swapping of characters, was stretched to near breaking point by Rare. By the time I’d reached Hideout Helm I’d grown quite jaded and frustrated by the whole affair and I just couldn’t get into the game like I did with the DKC trilogy and Banjo-Kazooie. I haven’t played through the game since; each time I’ve tried I’ve been lucky if I could get beyond Jungle Japes before turning it off in frustration. So, not one of my all-time greats, then … and as a result the soundtrack simply doesn’t push all the right buttons for me.

However, that all paints a very negative picture which I don’t think is fair. We’re not judging the game here, but rather a remake of the soundtrack which, for all my moaning, is very good and I was glad for the opportunity to actually sit and listen to the music divorced from the usual feelings of rage that I would normally have while playing. The music within DK64 very clearly follows on from Grant’s work on the Banjo games, with cheerful and chirpy ditties sharing company with moody and ominous tunes that suit the relative themes of each level within the game really well. As a means of setting the tone within a 3D platform adventure game and bringing the game world to life, there really is no one better than Mr. Kirkhope.

And so onto Marcus’ new version of the soundtrack; if I am completely honest, I think I’ve been a little spoilt by the work of Blake Robinson because on my first listen, I came away with the impression that the soundtrack doesn’t sound completely orchestrated to me. I am by no means an expert in these things but there’s a distinct synth sound to the score which left me wanting a little more from it. That’s not to say that this is a bad album as a result; far from it! The different level themes have all been expertly reproduced and Marcus has pulled off a very cool trick; as you listen it all sounds just as you remember, but more crisp and defined compared to what the N64 could produce originally, but it’s only when you listen to the originals afterwards that you realise just how much fresher Marcus’ update sounds. It really is quite striking, and while it falls a little short of what I was expecting in terms of being an orchestrated album, it is still very good and is more than worthy of a purchase if you’re a fan of the game or of Grant Kirkhope’s work in general and I look forward to seeing what Marcus is working on next.

4/5

Categories: Reviews