Alan Wake, Epic Mickey among award-nominated video game scores

by Randy Nelson on Oct 17th 2010 3:30PM

Set to be announced in advance of the Hollywood Music In Media Conference running November 18-20, 2010 in -- where else -- Hollywood, CA, the 2010 Hollywood Music In Media Awards nominees include nine video game scores under the category of Visual Media. The bombastic orchestral sounds of God of War 3 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood are joined by the more moody fare of Alan Wake and -- a bit out of left field -- the score to Disney Epic Mickey.

The winning score will be revealed on November 11, 2010, and you can find the complete list of nominees after the break. Cue dramatic end-of-post theme.

Garry Schyman - BioShock 2
Jesper Kyd - Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
Jim Dooley - Epic Mickey (Disney Interactive) Wii
Knut Avenstroup Haugen - Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer
Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori - Halo: Reach
Petri Alanko - Alan Wake
Ramin Djawadi - Medal of Honor
Cris Velasco, Mike Reagan, Gerard Marino, Ron Fish, Jeff Rona - God of War III
Tom Salta - Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands

Via: @remedyalerts on Twitter
Source: Hollywood Music In Media Awards

Tags: age-of-conan, Alan-Wake, assassins-creed-brotherhood, bioshock-2, epic-mickey, god-of-war-3, halo-reach, Medal-of-Honor-2010, microsoft, nintendo, pc, playstation, prince-of-persia-the-forgotten-sands, ps3, psp, sony, wii, xbox

Reader Comments (66)

I like how Epic Mickey could win an award nearly a month before it's release.

@Alexisonfire
Neither is AC: Brotherhood.
The musical scores are all done, and clearly were submitted for consideration. If either game got postponed to 2011 it might be disqualified.

Reply fail. Meant for @sammo21

Ummm, how can Epic Mickey be up for something when it's not out yet.

@sammo21
Why does it have to be a released product? The public isn't voting on it.

@sammo21

Maybe the judges subscribe to the Barack Obama Nobel Peace Prize strategy.

They gave Epic Mickey a nomination based on the potential for accomplishment, and not so much for actual accomplishment?

"Hey guys. You know, I bet Epic Mickey is going to have a pretty bangin' score. Let's give it a nomination, eh?"

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

You can listen to the soundtrack
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2U3dQBjE8Q

@sammo21
I don't know but Sucker Punch should send in the musical score for infamous 2. The little I have heard is amazing.

@Chazzr

Ahh, that battle theme. So amazing.

Where is Red Dead Redemption on this list?

I'm surprised that Castlevania: LOS wasn't nominated. That score is excellent, easily one of my favorites this year.

@bigwhiteyeti

yup. this.

@bigwhiteyeti

Third. It's embarrassing that it isn't on that list.

@bigwhiteyeti

I Fourth that! I have the soundtrack and I can't stop listening to it! Final Confrontation is my favorite track!

This is a terrible list, mainly because Super Mario Galaxy 2 has basically the best soundtrack in videogame history and it's not on this list.

@MatthewBlackwell Galaxy 2 has a great soundtrack but nowhere near the best considering a third of the themes are just recycled and remixed versions of Galaxy 1 tracks.

No Epic Yarn? No Ys 7? No Starcraft 2?

No Heavy Rain? I thought the theme music was pretty powerful.

@Mayor West

Exactly what I was about to say.

@Mayor West I know what you mean, the music was integral to the game. I actually got the OST to Heavy Rain because it was done so well.

@Mayor West

My thoughts exactly. The Heavy Rain OST is fantastic.

@Mayor West

I agree, I absolutely love that Piano song from the intro.

I'll go with Tom Salta's Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. Love the musical score....

I am surprised that no one has mentioned Reach here. I've always thought the music in the Halo games is always some of the best in videogames in general.

@Liquidfingers Reach just isn't good enough since nothing stood out, Halo 3 had the memorable "Never forget" that I still love to listen too.

@The angry pro consumer gaming ga

really? i love the intro that plays when you start the game, it's great if you have a good sub. and i always sit it the menus for a bit before i get into a game just listening to the music. i felt like the music in Reach was on par with the other Halo games.

that said, they're all incredible. Halo's audio is one of it's defining features. Marty is a genius.

How can the O'Donnell/Salvatori Halo Reach score be left off of this list. Their work is one of the defining attributes of the Halo franchise.

@ypod

Halo 3 was nominated last year but it didn't make the list this year.

@ypod
Ummmmmmmmmmmmm......

Might want to look at that list one more time.

@ypod

yeah, it's on the list, Joystiq just didn't mention it in their paragraph.

in related news, i want to have Marty's babies. the man is incredible at what he does.

For those asking about:

Epic Yarn
Ys 7
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Castlevania: Lords of Shadows
Final Fantasy XIII
Etc.

These games were made in Japan (well, partially in LOS's case) and, if you notice, all the games nominated are western developed titles. I would personally say that FFXIII has the best music of this year's games, but if you just look at western developed titles this year, I'd say this is fairly solid list.

@Alexisonfire

Totally agree with you Alexis.

@Ezio Auditore da Firenze

Indeed. So amazing I instead turned on the Black Mages albums on my hard drive.

It's most likely that the ones nominated were culled from a list of submitted soundtracks. Western developers would probably submit, and the Japanese developers just don't care enough about this award show to submit something and fly all the way here.

They don't nominate any game, it has to be submitted to them first.

(I wouldn't be surprised if these were the only submissions, ha)

Marty O'donnell seems to be missing.

@PipBoyV3
"Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori - Halo: Reach"

@Alexisonfire How is it possible that I missed that?!

@Chazzr

gleam
[gleem]
–noun
1.a flash or beam of light: the gleam of a lantern in the dark.
2.a dim or subdued light.
3.a brief or slight manifestation or occurrence; trace: a gleam of hope.
–verb
4.to send forth a gleam or gleams.
5.to appear suddenly and clearly like a flash of light.

Not being so much of a grammer nazi as much as someone who doesn't understand what the point is you're trying to get across.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTsD2FjmLsw

I think we all know this should be on the list

@Eternz

Mass Effect 2 was good, but the Mass Effect 1 soundtrack was fan-freaking-tastic. I felt ME2 lost some of its good 80's Blade Runner-esc sound and was lacking in the personality ME1 had.

Could have been a result of the second chapter being darker, but it lacked more laid back tracks like 'The Citadel', 'The Presidium', or even 'The Normandy'.

@Chazzr

I totally agree with you. I haven't hear such a fantastic overture as in that game!

I have to mention SMG 2, as well. Really good OST.

I don't think SMG soundtrack would win awards. I love listening to it, its lots of fun, it fits with the gameplay, there's a bunch of ear candy, but music judges have to be pretentious and are gonna grade stuff for subtlety and such which SMG has none of.

Alan Wake is in the right place ...

@Chazzr Too bad it's Japanese so can't be nominated ;p

Marty!!!!!!

lol remember that video when that guy destroyed the alan wake disk in the ew 360

new*

@Alexisonfire

He means glean.

I haven't listened to Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer, but the original Age of Conan track release was some of the best music I've ever heard. If its anything like that then it should be a contender.

I do like Jesper Kyd's music - haven't heard Brotherhood yet. I have purchased all of the Halo soundtracks. As much of an advocate of all things Marty and would normally give him the vote, Reach wasn't that much of a departure for him. Some standout tracks, but not enough to totally win the vote. But I do have the soundtrack and enjoy it.

In terms of what I have heard my vote goes to Alan Wake. It has the right level of atmosphere and the piano riff for the title theme is great.

Im now sure these people dont represent the majority of gamers, and thats fine. But then why should we care ? Theres a lot of games that should be up there. Even though its based on opinions, i think gamers need their own vote counted.

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Alan Wake

Alan Wake, Epic Mickey among award-nominated video game scores

Reader Comments (66)

Posted: Oct 17th 2010 3:33PM Alexisonfire said

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