Soundtrack Saturday: Shovel Knight

In this weekly feature, I recommend game soundtracks. I share a few of my favorite tracks, talk about why everyone should listen to the soundtrack, and a little bit about the composer. This week's choice is Shovel Knight by Yacht Club Games.

THE STATS

Name: Shovel Knight
Developer: Yacht Club Games
Publisher: Yacht Club Games
Release Date: June 26, 2014
Genres: Action, platform
Composer(s): Jake Kaufman, Manami Matsumae

MY FAVORITE TRACKS

(The titles link to YouTube videos... and I highly recommend some good headphones to best enjoy all of the subtle elements of the music!)

Caution: All music beyond this point in this entry is a chip tune. If you don't like listening to classic Nintendo style music, you might want to sit this one out! It's hard to describe the different tracks also, so just click and enjoy the ones I chose to share!


A Thousand Leagues Below
(Length: 3:36)

The Donor's Despair
(Length: 2:45)

The Requiem of Shield Knight
(Length: 3:14)

Waltz of the Troupple King
(Length: 2:41)

Courage Under Fire which upgrades to... Bucklers and Bonnets
(Length: 3:21)

You can listen to the full soundtrack on YouTube:

Shovel Knight OST

WHY I RECOMMEND IT

Do you like chip tunes? Can you listen forever to NES tracks, or compositions meant to emulate them? You might like this soundtrack. I'm not a fan of all of the tracks -- some of them seem to try too hard -- but overall there's some great composition going on here. Great for the occasional background music if you're trying to do chores or what-not, but not likely to be as catchy as some other soundtracks out there.

THE COMPOSERS

There's some great accomplishments in the list of works for both composers!

Manami Matsumae is a Japanese video game composer who's been working since the late 80's (and she was born on Christmas Day!). She is part of the Tokyo-based label Brave Wave which aims to help connect composers with overseas companies -- and that's how she ended up contributing music to the Shovel Knight soundtrack. But the most notable thing about her is that she is the original composer behind Mega Man!

Jacob Kaufman is newer to the video game composer scene, and has been working since 2000. Despite that, his list of works is impressive and growing. He's worked on some big name projects like Contra 4, DuckTales: Remastered, Red Faction: Guerrilla, and the Shantae series.