It’s a rare event when a video game licences the soundtrack and gets above-average results. Sure, EA Sports will continually drive “whatever the kids are listening to” down your throat while playing NHL or Madden, and at times a random sandbox title will throw down some cleverly chosen classic tunes. Hell, their was a Prince of Persia video floating around a few months ago that had a Sigur Rós song in it. But never in any of my experiences have I seen licensed music in a video game that could have easily been the lineup for day two of the Pitchfork Music Festival. Of course, most people that have seen and played Little Big Planet on the PLAYSTATION 3 will argue that there has never been anything quite like Little Big Planet.
The most noticeable (and some would argue definable) track that indie rockers across the globe will recognize is the Go! Team’s “Get it Together,” which not only perfectly defines the mood and play of the game, but sets the stage for every other licensed track. Sure, as with all video games, the original compositions have their moments, but I would argue that running around as a burlap sackboy and dodging fire while clinging to felt and listening to Battles’ “Atlas” has got to be one of the greatest moments in video game history.
If Go! Team and Battles aren’t surprising enough, then perhaps the rest of the soundtrack is — would, say, DJ Krush’s “Song 2″ surprise you? Or maybe James Pants’ “Rhythm Trax 7?” How about the absolutely adorable “My Patch” by Jim Noir? For the worldy folks we get tracks from Café Tacuba, Ananda Shankar and the Toumani Diabate’s Symmetric Orchestra (who incidentally set back the release date of the game due to some “controversial lyrics”).
The point doesn’t have to be who the bands are, but the fact that these bands are in a VIDEO GAME — not in the title screen, playing in the background, title of a sports game, not in the pattern-copy, glorified Simon Says kind of way of Guitar Hero, not in the “radio” function of a sandbox car thieving of GTA IV — the music is an integral part to the look and feel of how Little Big Planet works. It’s a massive toy for the world to play with and share, and embraces the ideal’s of D.I.Y. with a massive, creative level builder. This is our game, not the developer’s not the publishers — this is your game and mine, we make it what we want.
It might be too early to call whether Little Big Planet will be the video game industries Garden State or its Wes Anderson, but the point is that it gets closer to both than anything before it.