Entry 674 - Trauma Center - Second Opinion

Style: Video game music

Primary Emotions/Themes: Hospitals, doctor's and patients, high stress situations

Thoughts: It's hard to think of games that used the Nintendo gimmicks better than the Trauma Center games put out by Atlas years ago. The first one used the dual screens and touch pad to the fullest on the DS, and this game used the Wii pointer function better than most games out at the time - including first party titles.

The whole idea is that you have the ability to slow down time to make precision cuts when absolutely needed. Mix this with a compelling story that is way bigger than just another copy of Gray's Anatomy and you get a damn good game. 

Compelling gameplay and compelling story are made or broken by the music that accompanies them. I'm happy to report that Trauma Center delivers on that front as well. The music is varied and contains a myriad of moods, but they all work well within the context of the game - and work reasonably well as a stand alone soundtrack as well.

This game was composed at the height of what I consider the "video game sound." It's 100% synthesized, and it still retains a lot of the foundation work that was set out by chip tunes a decade earlier. It's the last few moments in time before games started pulling in real instruments and orchestras to do the soundtracks. It's the last and perhaps the best moments where video game music was still instantly recognizable as video game music.

This is seen perfectly in the episode select screen. It's a piano playing over some synthesized strings with a nice beat played in the background. It feels like I should be thinking about what decisions I'm going to be making. There is no real pressure here but the decision is important none the less. I love how the music portrays this perfectly without the need for bombast being injected in just because it's the thing to do.

I love music like this. I love it when video game music excels at being itself with no pretenses of being anything else. It has one job and that's to immerse the player in the game. Trauma Center does this to a masterful degree. It hones the emotions of the game at key moments and acts as a catalyst to drive the players emotions throughout the game. One of those rare soundtracks that does exactly what it should do and nothing more. 

Written January 29th 2024