25 Days of Christmas: Video Game Music

One of the best parts about the Christmas season (to me anyhow) is the music. The various versions of Christmas classics like Silent Night, Jungle Bells or All I Want for Christmas just brings a warm feeling to my soul. However, like anything else in life, Christmas music is always changing and evolving. A few years ago, I came across this track from OCRemix, Super Mario Sleigh Ride, and it opened my eyes up to Christmas music inspired by video games. As a nerd, well you know it went into my rotation and has been there ever since, but it isn’t the only song. Here we present songs that are either inspired by Christmas or wouldn’t feel out of place in any Christmas album.

[youtube]RKMgleUxD9w[/youtube]

Super Mario Sleigh Ride like I said before was the song that inspired this whole notion of Video game Christmas music in my head. I love the way the song plays with familiar melodies from both Super Mario World and fantastical holiday music.

[youtube]kawOX90pKY[/youtube]

Here is another one from the same remixer as it meshes music from Lufia 2 and Silver Bells to create another awesome track.

He isn’t the only show in town however as Rush Coil created an entire album called 8-Bit Christmas. You can listen to the full album/download it from their site. As with any album, the songs are hit and miss, and sure some people will enjoy tracks that I didn’t so won’t mention which like and didn’t like.

[youtube]ukm9bheSSvg[/youtube]

Now we get into video game music that wouldn’t sound too out of place in a playlist, this track comes from the Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and it has a dark side to it, but parts of it are very seasonal and reminds me of Carol of Bells meets Danny Elfman.

[youtube]qfbWKwe4M4E[/youtube]

Here we have a song from the n64 classic, Banjo-Kazooie, Freezeey Peak, which as expected is very uplifting and light and does just enough to pass as both a track for a stage, but feels at home with the rest of your Christmas collection.

Next up is our Kirby Epic Yarn section, I only mention it because well a LOT of music from that game could be inserted into a Christmas playlist. The music has this cheerful but sleepy method about them, which means them very peaceful. Take a listen

[youtube]MHZ9EjMz5n0[/youtube]

[youtube]NrG3IAhnJPU[/youtube]

[youtube]UGnzTtc52EQ[/youtube]

[youtube]7MC9LBk-FYA[/youtube]

And I didn’t just pick all the ice world music, I skipped one or two because they sound more game-y than anything else, but these tracks really do bring home the spirit of the season.

Finally, no look at video game Christmas music could be complete without a trip into Christmas Nights.

[youtube]CfEz0jt4Qu8[/youtube]

[youtube]TR3xTSpFFMM[/youtube]

That should do it for our trip down Musical Lane, but as always if you can think of anything that we didn’t include, don’t be afraid to hit up the comments section below.