Following the release of Shovel Knight yesterday, the game’s excellent soundtrack has now been put up for sale online–and, in an extremely fan-friendly move, you’re free to download it for any price you wish.
The 48-track album is comprised of retro-style music that is well-suited to the 2D platformer, which was released yesterday for $15 on PC, Wii U, and 3DS to positive reviews. You can stream the entirety of the soundtrack through Bandcamp’s website, or you can buy it at any price you choose–including $0. The latter options allows you to download the album in a variety of formats, including MP3 and FLAC.
According to the soundtrack’s Bandcamp page, composer Jake Kaufman (who previously worked on games like Contra 4 and Mighty Switch Force) used free tools designed for hobbyists to create the game’s soundtrack and sound effects. The result is a total of more than two hours of chiptune music.
A separate arrangement album that features work from Manami Matsumae of Mega Man fame is also available as a name-your-price download. Additionally, Kaufman is encouraging fans to do whatever they want with the music, including writing lyrics, making arrangements, and creating music videos.
Perhaps even better than that is an NES-compiled version of the soundtrack–clocking in at less than a megabyte, compared with 141 megabytes for the MP3 version–that is available for download here. Kaufman says this “contains the machine-language code for the music, and can be played back directly on real NES / Famicom hardware, using special hobbyist flash cartridges–or listened to in dozens of free NSF players available on every imaginable computer OS or phone.” If you’re looking for such a program, he’s tested it in VirtuaNSF and NotSoFatso, both of which are free downloads.
If you plan on downloading the soundtrack, how much do you intend to buy it for? Let us know in the comments below. And for more on Shovel Knight, check out GameSpot’s review.
| Chris Pereira is a freelance writer for GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @TheSmokingManX |
|---|
| Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email [email protected] |
Powered by WPeMatico
