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Since the art of game music has substantially advanced since the mid-90s, I have noticed this occurrence becoming more common. Has anyone else noticed that when an accompanying tie-in game is produced for a film, sometimes the music is superior that that produced for the film?
I think the first hint that this might be possible would be way back in 1997, when Michael Giacchino did his first orchestral game score, for The Lost World. This was certainly a quality effort but certainly was not superior to Williams's own excellent score for the film IMO.
I think the first time this happened was also Giacchino, if you count the original Medal of Honor (it wasn't an explicit tie-in with Saving Private Ryan, but it was connected to the film and Spielberg-produced.) I think the Medal of Honor series may still be Giacchino's magnum opus, and as music that first game score completely eclipsed Williams's understated film effort.
Giacchino's friend and protege Chris Tilton has had at least a couple instances of topping the film score, by my estimation. I am a huge John Powell fan (as so is Chris, incidentally), but for me, Jumper was one of his less inspired film scores with just a few highlight cues. Chris's score for the game Jumper: Griffin's Story was a much more consistent and powerful effort. Then a year later he topped Silvestri for Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. Both of these two scores were available for free on his website some years ago, though I don't know if they're still there.
Chad Seiter, mentored by both Chris and Michael, is a young and upcoming composer who beat the latter at his own (former) game: His score for the 2013 Star Trek tie-in game was amazing, though it received no official release. I thought Giacchino's Star Trek Into Darkness was a good score for a terrible film, but Seiter's Star Trek was an even better score for (by all accounts) an even more terrible game. I remember that when he put up four or five cues on SoundCloud or something, people on this board were really excited that he was doing new and interesting things with Giacchino's Star Trek theme, which I and others found previously to be one of the composer's most simplistic and undeveloped motifs.
There are other examples, of course: Colin O'Malley's fresh Superman Returns game score (he was required to come up with his own thematic material) was roundly praised by those who heard it as superior to John Ottman's simplistic score for the film with "dumbed down" Williams themes. And James Hannigan's Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix / Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince were both widely considered to be far superior to the respective Nicholas Hooper film scores. Some of these instances may be a matter of talent, and some may be a matter of opportunity (possibly fewer temp-tracking, artistic compromises and "cooks to spoil the soup" when it comes to a lower-profile tie-in game as opposed to a big Hollywood film with a huge budget). What do you all think, and can you think of any other good examples besides those I've listed?
Yavar
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Oh let me tell you Yavar what you have started here was the subtext of a major row thread when Mr. Shore's work was rejected for King Kong 2005. Will have to find it. Anyway, everything since tells me a few of us were right on target.
I've heard that Chance Thomas wrote a good orchestral score to the King Kong tie-in game, but I've never listened to it myself. But despite it's rushed nature, I loved Newton Howard's replacement work on the film overall (even if I would have loved -- and would still love -- to hear what Shore recorded), so I'd be surprised if I actually prefer Thomas's work...
Yavar
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