Standout winter music in video games

Polygon compiled a selection of the best winter-scene compositions in video games, focusing on tracks that evoke snow, frost and tundra rather than jolly, Christmassy tunes. Highlights include Metroid Prime’s 'Phenandra Drifts' (Kenji Yamamoto, Kouichi Kyuma), noted for ominous synth washes, piano glints, stuttering digital drums and a heavy descending bass; Pokémon Gold and Silver’s 'Ice Path' (Gō Ichinose, Junichi Masuda), driven by a churning bassline and descending arpeggios; and I Am Setsuna’s 'Voices of Winter' (Tomoki Miyoshi), a wistful, melodic piano piece.

Stardew Valley’s 'Winter (Nocturne of Ice)' (Eric Barone) is described as a chiming glockenspiel over synth chords, while Skyrim’s 'Tundra' (Jeremy Soule) favors atmospheric string swells and a wordless choir. Other picks include EarthBound’s 'Snowman' (Keiichi Suzuki, Hirokazu Tananka) with its piping melody and waltzing bass, Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom’s Lanayru Temple (music director Hajime Wakai) blending choir, triangles and isolated woodwind and cello, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King’s 'Mountains of Thunder' (Glenn Stafford) for orchestral sweep, Okami’s 'Wep’keer II' (Masami Ueda, Hiroshi Yamaguchi, Rei Kondoh, Akari Kaida) which adds drums and acoustic guitar, and Donkey Kong Country’s 'Northern Hemispheres' (David Wise, Eveline Novakovic, Robin Beanland) with eerie, fragmented synths and stuttering, cracking sounds.

Key Topics

Culture, Metroid Prime, I Am Setsuna, Stardew Valley, Skyrim, Earthbound