I'd like a game based around prog rock and set in the Court of the Crimson King. It'd be like that Dante's Inferno game but way less stupid. I mean, the gameplay could be all over the place and challenge the heck out of you with musical puzzles that require serious music theory knowledge or super trippy space travel sections where you shoot mind bullets at transgendered-clown-puti (flying baby angels). . . wait. Now I'm getting into avant garde. So nix the flying-baby-clown-transgendered-angels and replace them with a manticore. Yeah! A manticore. Love those things. 

Really though, you make a good point. The great games always have great music. Why not start there? Speaking of which, I just read that the Megaman series was conceived with music in mind.

I want to play the Starless and Bible Black level. :)

Ooo, that would be a good one. You could make each area of the game represent different lineups of the band. The Starless and Bible Black area could be a lightless dungeon in a castle infested with The Inquisition. Your object is to escape torcher and get out, kind of like Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. 

Megaman being based around it's music makes total sense, actually. Although I always hated megaman games on the SNES. I played them at an arcade first, and the home console ones just felt so sluggish and unresponsive in comparison.

 And lol. Any game which requires intense knowledge of any subject matter for puzzles should be banned.

Megaman games are so difficult, but I'm going to keep trying them. 

I make soundtracks for games that don't exist.  

So I hear what you're sayin.  

Well make the bloody games now then :p

I owe them so many articles this weekend ... grad school just loves piling on this time of year. 

Music is a nice plus on my games so I support basing some games around music.

I listened to Anamanaguchi last night and kept thinking of a Shmup game were a flying colorful character would use a keytar to blast enemy ships to the rythm of Blackout City, as in the chiptune of that song and notes are the bullets. Really interesting the implementation of music and game experience.

I wanna see that! Flying laser shooting keytar players! Oh yeah!

Thank you for exposing me to Anamanaguchi! I would totally love a shmup or retro japanese sidescroller based around that music!

Also, nothing to do with what I said but relevant to the topic, this game was recently released, coincidentally a few days after you uploaded your article.

Anamanaguchi did the soundtrack for the Scott Pilgrim platformer that came out a few years back.

Great article, Blake. So good I shared it on Facebook, I have a lot of musician friends on there.

The game that immediately sprang to mind for me was Journey. That's the only OST I've ever actually bought. That game would not have had nearly the impact on me without that music. I also like games like Dragon Quest VIII with the full-orchestral soundtrack, it heightens the experience for me in ways that computer-generated music doesn't.

I went back to DQVIII for a few hours and that orchestral music really stood out to me. It's so good, you could really just listen to it without playing.

Thank you Tami! Thanks heaps :D

 I really need to get around to playing Journey. Unfortunately I don't have a PS3 atm, because my flatmate lent it to his sister for a bit. I have however listened to the OST on youtube a few times and the music in that game is utterly fantastic. It wouldbe interesting to see how it worked in conjunction with the gameplay.

Mindblowingly. That's how the music works in conjunction to the game play. 

Another great article! What inspired you to write about music? I was going to do a blog about my favorite music in games. I personally enjoy good sound design. I was recently playing through The Wolf Among Us and I read an article that said that the soundtrack was jazzy, but I don't remember jazz music. I just remember the music subtley kicking up when things got intense. It has more atmospheric music. The opening theme is more of a dark 80's synth. I'm just saying subtle music is just as good as a nice loud sountrack. One of my favorites is from the final boss fight of Lightining Returns. Sounds like an opera.
 

Well I'd been listening to more music than I had been playing games, so it kind of just happened that way. Then I went back and started replaying Doom and Quake + discussions with a friend.