So I'm sure at one point or another everyone here has played a game
with either a custom soundtrack, or they played their own music while
they played a game. Now my question is, what do you think about custom
soundtracks? Should they be in every game? Should they be left out? Or
should we stick to the music that's in the game arleady and never listen
to music outside of it?
Well I actually LOVE custom soundtracks, but at the same time I feel that it depends on the game.
As some of you may know, Crazy Taxi is one of my favorite games of all time. I used to play it every single time I went to walmart (or any place that had the arcade), and when I got the Dream Cast for Christmas one year, I ended up getting Crazy Taxi as well. Me and my friends put 100s of hours into that game, and it ended up being one of our favorite games of all time. We played that thing every day for hours, and listened to the music on it all the time. We just loved the game.
Well I'm sure that most of you know that the game was released for download within the past year, but what you may not know is that it was also released on the PSP before that! I never did bother getting the 360 version, mainly because it was a port of the PSP version rather than a port of the DC version only with some features removed, but I did get the PSP version.
The PSP version of the game included both Crazy Taxi 1 and 2 (which I owned both on the DC), added in some new features, like the ability to knock people out of cars, and it added in the custom soundtrack feature. This was my favorite feature for the game.
Why did I like the custom soundtrack so much in CT? Well after the release of Crazy Taxi 3 SEGA actually lost the rights to the brand names, and to the original songs that were included in Crazy Taxi. Because of this SEGA was forced to get new voice actors to avoid using any brand names, they had to redo/change any signs on buildings, and they also had to get all new songs. Songs that I really wasn't a fan of...
So yep, thanks to the custom soundtrack I was able to add in every song from the original games I loved, plus any extra songs I could think of (Offspring's Stairing at the Sun really fits well with their other songs IMO).
Really it's only times like these that I use custom soundtracks, but I still love having them. I also used custom soundtracks in Another Century's Episode R simply because I wanted the full versions of songs that were included in the game. I really love a lot of the anime's openings/endings that were included in the game, but none of them were full versions and most of then didn't include lyrics. I made sure to fix that problem by adding in the full songs, as well as any other song from the animes that I loved (it was awesome playing through the last level as Lacelot with Worlds End playing in the background).
The only down side to custom soundtracks would be getting the songs/finding a way to be able to use them. Most of the time songs aren't free so it would cost you a bit more money to get them (unless you already had them somewhere), and different devices like to use different formats. If you look at systems like the 360, you HAVE to convert any song you download off of iTunes into a AAC format or else it will not play/show up on the list, but when it comes to systems like the PS3 or PSP, you HAVE to have the songs in MP3 format.
This can really be a pain sometimes since you might end up having to have two or more copies of the same song on your iPod/mp3 player inorder for them to be able to be played on different systems. Now sure sometimes systems can play other formats (such as the 360 being able to play normal MP3s), but it also depends on where the song came from (iTunes, or any other music service out there).
Still I really love custom soundtracks and I feel that most games should include them. Sure, I know I would never use them in most games, but sometimes a game shows up where custom soundtracks just seem to make them better.
Well I actually LOVE custom soundtracks, but at the same time I feel that it depends on the game.
As some of you may know, Crazy Taxi is one of my favorite games of all time. I used to play it every single time I went to walmart (or any place that had the arcade), and when I got the Dream Cast for Christmas one year, I ended up getting Crazy Taxi as well. Me and my friends put 100s of hours into that game, and it ended up being one of our favorite games of all time. We played that thing every day for hours, and listened to the music on it all the time. We just loved the game.
Well I'm sure that most of you know that the game was released for download within the past year, but what you may not know is that it was also released on the PSP before that! I never did bother getting the 360 version, mainly because it was a port of the PSP version rather than a port of the DC version only with some features removed, but I did get the PSP version.
The PSP version of the game included both Crazy Taxi 1 and 2 (which I owned both on the DC), added in some new features, like the ability to knock people out of cars, and it added in the custom soundtrack feature. This was my favorite feature for the game.
Why did I like the custom soundtrack so much in CT? Well after the release of Crazy Taxi 3 SEGA actually lost the rights to the brand names, and to the original songs that were included in Crazy Taxi. Because of this SEGA was forced to get new voice actors to avoid using any brand names, they had to redo/change any signs on buildings, and they also had to get all new songs. Songs that I really wasn't a fan of...
So yep, thanks to the custom soundtrack I was able to add in every song from the original games I loved, plus any extra songs I could think of (Offspring's Stairing at the Sun really fits well with their other songs IMO).
Really it's only times like these that I use custom soundtracks, but I still love having them. I also used custom soundtracks in Another Century's Episode R simply because I wanted the full versions of songs that were included in the game. I really love a lot of the anime's openings/endings that were included in the game, but none of them were full versions and most of then didn't include lyrics. I made sure to fix that problem by adding in the full songs, as well as any other song from the animes that I loved (it was awesome playing through the last level as Lacelot with Worlds End playing in the background).
The only down side to custom soundtracks would be getting the songs/finding a way to be able to use them. Most of the time songs aren't free so it would cost you a bit more money to get them (unless you already had them somewhere), and different devices like to use different formats. If you look at systems like the 360, you HAVE to convert any song you download off of iTunes into a AAC format or else it will not play/show up on the list, but when it comes to systems like the PS3 or PSP, you HAVE to have the songs in MP3 format.
This can really be a pain sometimes since you might end up having to have two or more copies of the same song on your iPod/mp3 player inorder for them to be able to be played on different systems. Now sure sometimes systems can play other formats (such as the 360 being able to play normal MP3s), but it also depends on where the song came from (iTunes, or any other music service out there).
Still I really love custom soundtracks and I feel that most games should include them. Sure, I know I would never use them in most games, but sometimes a game shows up where custom soundtracks just seem to make them better.
