Game music of the day: Killer 7

Welcome to GamesRadar's daily blast of all things pertaining to the ever-growing field of game music. Each post will introduce new sounds, games, composers and fan-made remixes of gaming's greatest aural achievements.

June 23, 2010

Game: Killer7

Song: Emoticon

Composer: Masafumi Takada

Above: Emoticon by Masafumi Takada

Killer 7 is a divisive game, in large part because of its bizarreness. Like Actraiser (yesterday's Game Music of the Day), it combines two disparate genres, but where Actraiser's gameplay is divided neatly into sections of sidescrolling platformer and SimCity-style overworld creation, Killer 7's gameplay isn't so easy to describe.  Its unusual, highly stylized on-rails shooter/puzzle gameplay was offputting at best to many critics, and even those who rate Killer 7 highly would agree that its visual style surpasses its actual gameplay.

So with all that emphasis on Killer 7's strikingly artistic visuals, it's easy to forget how its soundtrack also played a part in shaping its world and characters. Masafumi Takada's soundtrack is incredibly strong from start to finish, consisting of a moody, atmosphereric base punctuated with spikes of manic energy. Our first pick, Emoticon, is a laid back, loungy track with an eerie synthesized organ melody. In contrast, here's another, more upbeat dance track called Rave On:

Above: Rave On by Masafumi Takada

Aside from the soundtrack, the rest of the audio in Killer 7 is superb too, from the cackling of Heaven Smile to the vaguely unsettling, scratchy synthesized jibberish voices:



This is one of those rare games that's worth playing purely for the aesthetic even though the gameplay isn't anything special. It's a shame though that the soundtrack is mostly overlooked because the game is so odd in other respects. Somebody remix this already!

Game music of the day: Dote up a Cat
"Why do humans want sex with cats?" ponders our equine editor


Game music of the day: Red Steel 2
Main theme by Tom Salta



Game music of the day: Chrono Cross
Time's Scar, another brilliant piece from Mitsuda