In the height of the FGC tournament season, I’m listening to a whole lotta battle-ready tunes.
Fighting games are a full-blown sensory experience: From feeling the rap of buttons under your fingers as you execute your bread-and-butter combo, to the explosive visual effects that accompany counter hits and special attacks, to the weighty audial blast of every punch and kick—all soundtracked to some of the hottest music in videogames.
Like I was saying when talking about rock music in videogames a few weeks ago, the soundtracks we hear are a critical part of how games spin stories. They can prime our emotions before we’ve even heard any dialogue or seen any text—maybe soft violins ease us into a sad scene, or shrill plucked strings alert us to incoming danger.
Fighters are a little different, though. Sure we have story modes and snippets of lore here and there, but ultimately every battle is taking place in a vacuum. Maybe you’re practicing some new moves against a CPU, or more often than not putting your ego on the line to go against a real-life opponent. Maybe that’s online, at your locals, or maybe even on the big stage at a tournament.
It’s a concept stripped down to its most fundamental parts. No cutscenes to clue you in, no dialogue trees to alter the course. It’s just you, one other person, and a mental encyclopaedia of frame data, punishments, and half a dozen combo routes. That’s why audio and presentation is so important—visually it has to look exciting while cleanly conveying every hit, which means most of the theatrics end up tucked into every corner of its sound design.
I’m currently at VSFighting in Birmingham, the UK’s primo major fighting game tournament. One of my favourite parts about getting to attend is how electrifying the atmosphere is when you’re all piled into an auditorium to watch the final eight players duke it out for victory all while the game’s sound is fit to burst out of the speakers.
Players will chant along to voice lines, yell «Ey, ey, ey, eyyy!» to every hit in a combo, and sing along to some of their favourite stings in the best fighting game soundtracks.
