Game info: itch.io
Listening: Bandcamp
Info
Alright, back to the real important business of listening to falling block game soundtracks. PCB was made for a nine-day jam and is about dropping different colored tiles and connectors into a frame and then wiring through a bunch of them to rack up a good score. The optional theme of the jam was “Analog Memory,” so wiring components together is a good fit for that, though the aesthetics are much more solidly in the digital age, with the UI featuring large blocks of bold colors, big text that’s not always in English, and fake logos, a Designers Republic kind of feel popular in the mid- to late ’90s.
The soundtrack by surasshu also draws from that age and slightly later, being directly inspired by PS2-era sounds. It’s a mix of synths, electronic drums, and transposing chords, sometimes dreamy and ambient and sometimes more tense and jungle breakbeat-y. DS and WiiWare games were another stated inclusion on the mood board and you can hear that too in some of the instrumentation and the sparseness thereof, though every time you might be feeling like a track could fit as smooth cute 2000s Nintendo menu music, something intentionally spiky happens to knock you out of it: an abrasive sound, background detuning, mixed meter, etc.
It’s pretty fun, a nice throwback sound mixed with small doses of weirdness to keep things fresh. It’s also a decently indulgent size for the scope of the game, with a unique theme for each of the eight different brands (stages) that’s usually more than a minute-long loop; we love having compo-experienced composers who can crank out the tunes fast.
Recommended tracks:
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“Omocha Toy Corporation” has those detuned background synths, along with some nicely distorted bass and claps
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“Nanobots” has a bunch of nice random electronic sounds
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“FINALBOSS” is surprisingly chill for what is evidently the final stage theme (I haven’t actually played it)
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