How what if we talk about games with dynamic music?

[ArchienineArchienine's icon]

So many people know the concept of dynamic music (a track changing depending the situation you're in-game, shouldn't be confused with themes sounding on specific locations) for first time thanks to Banjo-Kazooie (1998) that uses it extensively but there are some earlier games that uses it but way less than the aforementioned game like Super Mario World (1990) where drums are added to the level theme if Mario is riding Yoshi or Ristar (1995) in where a entire level consists on returning speakers to birds in order to they can sing again. When more and more birds sing, the more instruments are added to the main theme.
But my favorite example is this:
There exists a unfortunate and often overlooked series named 'De Blob', the premise of the games consists on controlling a mass named Blob that have to bring back the color to the world and defeat the evil INKT corporation that wants to turn the world black & white.
Blob can absorb colors and paint everything only with touching it, the levels start being all grey and with a sad/eerie music but when Blob starts to paint the level, rescues the civilians and defeats the INKT soldiers, the music slowly starts to being more chill/upbeat with the add and quit of instruments. Also the colors in which Blob can turn on have instruments asigned to each one like piano, flaute or freaking beatbox.

Returning to the music, a level can start like this:

And later change to this:

And later this:

And finally change to this:

There are so many examples of dynamic music that i don't mentioned, which one is your favorite?

 

[MegaDrive1987]

Doom 2016, that soundtrack was absolutely superb.

 

[SamanthaSamantha's icon]

The original Deus Ex had four banger tracks per mission (action, exploration, dialogue, cutscene), and it's one of the reasons I still play the hell out of it.

 

[nobitakun]

Oboro Muramasa. Music emphasizes when in combat, flawlessly executed.

 

[ChronoArcaile2025]

I can give off a great example of This with A stage changing Midway with "Drum Sample beats" Added to the Mix,one Great example would be the Starlight Casino Game Planet Stage in "Bomberman 64: The 2nd Attack" for the "Nintendo 64", its a Very long Stage (including a majority of the stages in this game in general.lol) but during the 2nd half of the Stage,after you defeat one of the Astral Knights "Zhael",after you defeat her,the Music than "Changes Midway" and adds more "Chaotic Drum samples to it" making this one of my fav stages in the game:P

Also,the very first Stage in "Alisia Dragoon" for the "Sega Genesis" is also a huge Real Banger,and the song is pretty long for a "Stage 1 theme" which as the song gets to that awsome halfway point,it adds more "FM-Synth Drum Samples" into the stage to hype up the suspense to get alisia dragoon prepared for her First Boss Fight as she's grinding Those levels for her Dragon Partners!

 

[Lokgamer]

Metal Hellsinger is the perfect definition of dynamic music

 

[RBDragonite]

Rabbit & Steel is a recent example.

FF13-2 has some of my favorites.

Definitely one of my favorite things in video game music.

 

[Graw]

I always liked the way the music changed in different situations in Metroid Prime. Phendrana's probably the best area for it. There's like three or four variations of the main track used depending on where you are in the area and what's happening. I also remember playing a jrpg where the battle music would change depending on how the battle was going but I can't remember what game it was.

 

[Chicken]

A neat, but niche example of dynamic music that I know about is the OG Xbox game, Kakuto Chojin. Basically when a match begins, at first the music that plays is a slow pace track of some kind and then the moment a hit lands from either player, the true track kicks in.

Here's some gameplay of a match:

Here's the track(s) itself:

 

[jankusanagi jankusanagi]

Shogo is a great example of dynamic (and very nice) music

 

[Vardalis]

I feel like I heard System Shock does dynamic music from a review I read. But it was so subtle and non-pronounced that it mostly went unnoticed and they dropped it for the sequel.

 

[Isegrim]

Street Fighter 2 and all it's upgrades. Everyone had a pressure theme that kicked in when the match is close to being decided.

 

[random0nonsense]

De Blob is a great example of this. My immediate thoughts were for Monkey Island 2 or Ape Out, though.

 

[facsimile]

When you reach Bowser's Castle in Pape 64, a new instrument is added to the base theme for each floor the farther you can go!

Also, when in Toad Town, you casually hit to points to which there's OST transition:

This one being my fav in-game mix/mash up: