The Game Composer’s Blog

Soundtrack of the Month #3: Donkey Kong

I missed last month’s soundtrack review (strange how a wedding can derail work like that!). So I’ll be doing two this month. For August’s title, I decided to go with Donkey Kong.

We had some friends over last night and watched the delightful documentary King of Kong which chronicles the pursuit of the Donkey Kong high score world record. I highly recommend the movie. It was very well made and captured the highs and lows of a somewhat peculiar obsession. It was actually quite a bit more dramatic than I was expecting. How these guys can get 1 million+ points in Donkey Kong, I’ll never know. My high score is in the low 20,000′s.

Anyway, having just fired up MAME and played some DK, I was surprised how well done the music was. The melodies are extremely shallow (3-note and 5-note tunes endlessly repeating, ouch), but what really stands out is how the game employs a very early example of dynamic music. Pick up a hammer and the music switches to hammerin’ music. Get low on time and the music switches to the low-time loop. Finally reach your girlfriend and the victory music kicks in. It even has a love theme or two.

The sound effects are very happy and rewarding, but they also serve to become the music itself. Because the melodies are so short, the little melodic barrel and girder jump sound effects actually become part of the music themselves. The player not only controls Mario, but also the musical soundscape. It’s pretty cool. Donkey Kong was an important step forward in the evolution of video game graphics, having a visual character all its own, but it also employed some forward-thinking audio implementation. The music itself is ultimately below-par, but the way all the sounds work together to draw the player into the game is impressive.

Verdict: Not Too Shabby

September 10, 2008 Posted by thegamecomposer | Reviews | Reviews, soundtrack | 5 Comments