Song or score? A tale of two approaches

When I was growing up, video game music was mostly made up of simple songs. For instance, you'd go into a town in Final Fantasy, and you'd here the "town song." Getting in a fight brings up the "battle music." Distinct songs that play in certain situations.

Occasionally a game would come along with a different musical approach. The original NES Metroid is one that sticks in my mind. Metroid didn't use a tuneful approach. It used something more like a musical score, with undertones, small musical swells that didn't serve to give the listener a melody that would play in a person's head. It instead serves to give atmosphere and feeling.

I prefer the "tune" approach in games, but Metroid got it right. I think many games today, however, use too much "underscore" and not enough *song*. What say you?

Looking forward....

Here is a little list of games I'm anticipating for this summer and beyond:

1. Metroid: The Other M

I'm an optimist. So when Nintendo tapped the Team Ninja guys to do Metroid, of course I assume this means they'll successfully marry the vibe of all the other Metroid games (lonely deep space exploration) with the kind of high powered aesthetics that powered the recent Ninja Gaiden titles.

While Metroid Prime 3 was an awesome game, I think Nintendo was right to move in another direction. The 3D Metroid thing had run its course, at least commercially.

2. The Wii Zelda Sequel that may happen this year

I say "may" because these things have a nasty way of being delayed again and again and again. Of course these delays are partly why 3D Zelda is all kinds of awesome.

I personally rank Twilight Princess as one of the greatest action adventure games of all time. I think people's beefs with it are based more on the usual things people hate about Nintendo these days (no true voice acting, iterating instead of re-inventing) than about the quality of the actual game.

In any case, one thing I'm not a huge fan of is the Wind Waker oriented DS titles. I liked Wind Waker well enough on Gamecube, but I was sort of done with it. Plus the DS games are too puzzle heavy for my taste; Zelda is of course about puzzling, but with just the right amount of combat mixed in. Its a delicate balance, and I thought the Phantom Hourglass got tedious. Plus I hate the whole stylus sword swing thing.

3. Alpha Protocol

I really like RPGs, but like many I've grown tired of the whole swords n' sorcery/sci-fi thing. So I relish any RPG that is made with a different premise. Plus I love, love, love espionage stories (well, I guess I prefer non-fiction spy accounts as opposed to fiction novels, but anyway...).

Games I want to play that are already out:

Super Mario Galaxy 2 (SHOULD have arrived in the mail yesterday, but didn't.  Grrr...)
3D Dot Game Heroes
Battlefield: Bad Company 2