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[NewsMuffin]

Would a game be considered art if it's music is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard?
If so, the original Monster Hunter for the PS2 counts all the way. Graphics were pretty good for the time, and game play was great, but the music is just beautiful.

[Neonivek]

Would a game be considered art if it's music is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard?
If so, the original Monster Hunter for the PS2 counts all the way. Graphics were pretty good for the time, and game play was great, but the music is just beautiful.

There is a musician who I once had described as "Some guy who tries to save bad games" because he has a tendency to be the guy REALLY bad games seem to hire... Yet he himself is actually extremely skilled.

I'll try to find the Youtube series entirely based on bad or mediocre games and their awsome music. For example the Flintstones game and Waterworld both had a great composition.

It wouldn't be that hard to come up with HUGE lists of great videogame music. Though a list of bad games that had a peice of great music however.

[Leonon]

This thread made me look through the Videogame section of Doing It For The Art, True Art Is Angsty and True Art Is Incomprehensible on TV Tropes.


Mother 3 appears on all 3 lists. Planescape Torment and Morrowind appear on 2.

I personally think Majora's Mask deserves recognition as art.  It's not angsty or incomprehensible but it has a very human feel to its story and NPCs even compared to modern games.

[Sensei]

Majora's Mask definitely. Morrowind? Immersive, but I dunno about artistic.

[Leonon]

Morrowind's status on those pages seems to be due to the in game books. I guess that's not so much "A Game That Is Art" as "A Game That Contains Art". Though since games contain so many parts that can individually be taken as art or not it makes the whole thing kind of overly complicated. It begs the question "Can part of something be art without the whole of the thing being art?"

[Vibhor]

This art bullshit is bullshit.
Most of the "art" seems to come from jap devs.
Also, shouldn't Katamari Damacy should be "art" too?

[Max White]

Most of the "art" seems to come from jap devs.

Any surprise? Nintendo and Sega were the big figures in the early console wars, and Xbox, the American representative, got into the scene much later. Hell, the Nintendo mascot for Nintendo and Sega were Mario and Sonic respectively, while Xbox got master chief. Look at the generation each of these appeared in. The Japanese has been in this game much longer then the US, and have had longer to figure out what makes a good game. Why the very thing that saved Square was the idea of making a game for the story rather then gameplay, and that swan song went on to become a most beloved series.

The Japanese just make more artistic games. That isn't to say all all Japanese games are artistic, or no US games are, or that Jap games are better then US games, just that in general the Japanese make them with a different focus.

[Catastrophic lolcats]

I think this thread shows us just how much art is subjective. For example most of the games that people have posted that they consider art seems like dribble to me (not offense) and I'm sure they think the same way about my own taste in games.

As for Max White's comment about Japanese developers making more artistic games than the west I can't really agree all that much on. The two cultures seem to have a very different view on what is art and what isn't.

Personally I hate most of the japanese games that are considered "artistic" such as the Final Fantasies and what not.
While I find the Western RPGs (+other generes) to be much better, mostly because they don't seem so alien to me.
Does that make one more art than the other? Who the fuck cares, really?

I think why the Japanese developers come up more is because they were the one's really pumping out the games. Most of the people on this forum grew up in the mario/sonic days which was heavily dominated by the east. Makes sense that most of the forum posters love these games the most as they spent they're youth playing them.
Nostalga is a power force.

I don't think individual games themselves need to be classfied as art. The most important thing is that the medium gets the respect it deserves and we get over the whole "gamers are nerds with no life" thing.

[warhammer651]

Lets see.... I name Shadow of the Colossus, Ico, and Deus Ex as art

[Frajic]

All games are art. It's just that some art plain sucks.

[Cecilff2]

Would a game be considered art if it's music is the most beautiful thing I've ever heard?
If so, the original Monster Hunter for the PS2 counts all the way. Graphics were pretty good for the time, and game play was great, but the music is just beautiful.

There is a musician who I once had described as "Some guy who tries to save bad games" because he has a tendency to be the guy REALLY bad games seem to hire... Yet he himself is actually extremely skilled.

I'll try to find the Youtube series entirely based on bad or mediocre games and their awsome music. For example the Flintstones game and Waterworld both had a great composition.

It wouldn't be that hard to come up with HUGE lists of great videogame music. Though a list of bad games that had a peice of great music however.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM21zfxMqhc

Qualifies

[Neonivek]

Definately Cecilff2.

I guess I'll put up a topic later called: "Bad games good music" but I know if I do that I'll have to pony up examples or else people will assume I am putting the work on their shoulders.

As for the game the person was refering to as the "game the composer tried to save" it would be the Obscure series. Which I'll admit it has fine music but I never listed to just it.

As for the really really horrible game with a good story... Yume Nikki. Honestly I'd never EVER play that horrid peice of a game with its endless mazes and "there is no way you would have figured out on your own" puzzles/secret solutions (is it REALLY a puzzle if they don't indicate a solution in anyway? It would be like saying "I am thinking of a number between 1 and 10" and calling it a puzzle) and aimlessness. Its story however if you can peice it altogether is pretty profound. Assuming of course that the creator didn't just luck into a good plot and all this is just people adding onto a simplistic plot (like most modern art).

[Darvi]

"Bad games good music"

Cheetahmen 2, apparently.

[Neonivek]

"Bad games good music"

Cheetahmen 2, apparently.

Yes OTHER then Cheetahmen 2

Also dang it Darvi! you invoked the law of "Previous page ignorance" on my long post. Now it is useless!

[Neonivek]

Also oddly enough there are games with HORRIBLE music but with one or two good ones hidden away.

Or maybe not "bad music" maybe just very very limited.

For example "Magic Pengel" has a rather forgetable score unless you REALLY like the somewhat childish song (which I do...)

However the opening screen has a rather good guitar theme. (though looking into it... it actually had a few good peices hidden there)

Ok here is the Opening song, it is the "second best" peice of music in the game... so you know how high the bar is (mostly it is because the game's music is ALL atmospheric)
-Edit: Dang nevermind it isn't. The game has about 3 good peices of music hidden in here. but I still can't find the opening guitar theme

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4xjUu8vyME&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE1aKio7z1E English... with a dog yapping...

Admittingly I actually like it... It matches the majesty of the game and its boundless energy that likes to reach out and touch your inner child. I can't find the english version so easily

*checks out other music*

Dang... nevermind the game has quite a few good themes hidden in there. So can anyone give games with bad music that had one good theme? I'll keep looking for that guitar theme.

Actually I should just... make my own thread.