Why Are Game Soundtracks Boring Now Fixing Bad Video Game Music Today

Let’s Get Real About Crappy Game Music

I fired up the newest big name game last night—you know, the one everyone’s hyped about. Got through the intro cinematic… started exploring… fought some enemies… and man, I was nodding off. Not ’cause it was bad, but the music? Like elevator tunes pretending to be epic.

So I started digging. Picked apart recent AAA tracks. Downloaded some game dev tools myself—free ones, obviously. Grabbed some cheap stock loops too, just to test things. Hit play. Yeah. Same bland wallpaper sound. Exactly like that dull orchestral muck from big studios.

Pissed me off. Decided to actually make something myself. Fired up a simple synth. Skipped the epic horns and angelic choirs nonsense. Went straight for a raw, dirty bassline instead—something with teeth. Stuck a gritty drum loop under it. Maybe five notes total. Hit record.

Then I played it back while slapping some dude in-game. Felt completely different. That punch had weight now. The music wasn’t just “there”—it kicked back. Made me realize something obvious: modern tracks aren’t music. They’re mood setters. Like boring background paint.

Thought back to old classics. Mario tunes drilled into your skull permanently after ten minutes. That simple, dumb catchy stuff worked. Modern stuff? Layers upon layers of expensive orchestral fluff saying absolutely nothing memorable. So I tried stripping everything back:

• Killed the fancy strings section first
• Ditched six of the eight layers of ambient pads
• Forced myself to use ONE memorable melody hook max
• Made the percussion actually hit hard like a kick drum, not polite fairy taps

Got weird looks blasting it on my laptop speakers. But damn. Suddenly my stupid pixel art test character felt cooler just walking around. Proof? My cat stopped ignoring it and actually stared at the damn screen.

Big studios dropped the ball hard. They throw money at orchestras and forget games need rhythm—not sleepytime sound bubbles. Fixing this ain’t complicated. Stop polishing forgettable mush. Make the damn track remember it’s supposed to be played alongside a game, not nap time.

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