Given his immense success with not only the Kirby series, but also the Super Smash Bros. franchise, legendary video game developer Masahiro Sakurai has more than a little authority when it comes to critiquing requirements for gaming masterpieces.
In his latest upload to on Creating Games channel, Sakurai shares the facet of video game experience he feels is most crucial when it comes to a title becoming a masterpiece.
“Some games out there are masterpieces despite having bad graphics,” he starts. “Others ended up masterpieces even lacking coherent game essence. And yet, I can’t think of a single example of a masterpiece with bad audio design,” says Sakurai.
Most minds will immediately fly to music, which has an unequivocal significance to the discussion, but audio design also very much includes sound effects as well as strategy behind all audio delivery.
Sakurai challenges us all to think back to our favorite titles and consider what the first things that come to mind are. Visuals will surely be there, but even more prominent tend to be audio cues and musical themes.
Yes, Ryu and Chun might be fighting on a busy Chinese street, but you can hear Chun’s theme and Ryu’s “SHORYUKEN” add life to the scene. Yes, you may see a KF7 Soviet and a green-clad Goldeneye guard getting lit up, but it’s all a sequence underscored by those satisfying shot sounds (and you know next you brain is going to inevitably start playing that iconic Goldeneye pause music from the musical geniuses at Rare).
Maybe you envision riding Epona out in Hyrule Field as Link in Ocarina of Time, but you know full well you hear horse hooves and that tranquil ocarina/harp intro theme right along with it. Sakurai definitely has a point that audio, though not always as immediately conspicuous as other facets of gaming, has a fundamentally powerful impact.
“Audio is what hits you right in the heart,” as he puts it in the full video below. Give it a watch and let us know in the comments if you agree with Mr. Sakurai on this point, or if you can think of gaming masterpiece with less than stellar audio.