Personally I love Splatoon's soundtrack, and bought Splatune to enjoy it away from the game as well. I wouldn't turn it off, it adds to the mood and vibe. BUT, I do wish there were more music in the game. So much of their soundtrack is wasted on the campaign you play once, plus the Squid sisters music you only get on Splatfest days. It needed more variety in battles. Maybe they'll offer a music content DLC/Amiibo with the new content they offer since they announced it at a concert?
There was always something that felt incomplete about Kirby Air Ride though. It was pretty low in content and lacked polish. City Trial was definitely awesome, however.
Of course. I have plenty of songs from western games too. I don't care what country the game is from; if the music is good, I'd like to have it.
The difference, however, is in the culture. Japan seems to be a country whose game industry's composers and sound directors want their music to be memorable and stand out, whereas the United States' game industry wants to be like Hollywood and have music that blends into the background and you either forget it as soon as it ends or you don't notice it at all. There is nothing inherently wrong with this approach; I just don't like it quite as much.
Video game music DOES seem to be taken more seriously in the United States (and Europe) as of late though, with stuff like Symphony of the Goddess and the rush of iTunes game soundtracks. Still has a stigma of it not being "real music" though. Back in 2007 in college, I had a roommate who, upon finding out I listen to video game music wanted to "get [me] off that stuff" with a smile. Very nice person, but it illustrates the status of video game music in the mainstream.
That really plays as a whole into the Western motif of gaming though: Cinematic interactive movie experiences, versus the Japanese school of stand alone interesting activities. Strangely "hardcore' games now means "is the most like a movie that you play" while "non-hardcore" tends to mean "addictive complicated games that require maximal effort to make the most of and will devour your soul." Weird era of gaming in the West.
Though I also think that Japanese games ape the pop genre with catchy melodies for their soundtracks, in some cases quite literally (Squid Sisters, SMTxFE, Anything SMT actually...) Western studios tend to pull from classical symphonic soundtracks. (Zelda being the crossover, but of course, Zelda is more well received in the West than in Japan, so...)
I think some people who are not into orchestral music tend to view anything orchestral as "background" or "blending in" where, those of us more interested in classical are more able to pick the ones INTENDING to be background and the ones that stand out on their own, both in film and in games.
In games, I'd cite ANY work of Jeremy Soule as must-own-at-any-price music. O'Donnell & Salvatori's music in the Halo series is exceptional as well. Those sound tracks make you sit still and listen to them any time they appear. I splashed out for Soule's autographed limited edition disks of Skyrim's music and I don't even like Skyrim. There are certainly others, but these are anything but background. The Oblivion soundtrack, like Halo soundtraks makes you simply freeze in place when it comes on. I first discovered Soule back on a strategy game called Total Annihilation - it wasn't even Hollywood orchestral, it was flat out classical in the style of a Russian ballet, a little Rimsky-Korsikov mixed with Stravinsky. VERY brooding, like Stravinsky.
And in Hollywood, so many generic sountracks to blend in, which is their intended purpose in many cases. What has John Williams become? So background, so cliche of his own work, once such a powerhouse, it's sad. Horner, Goldsmith remain such icons of bold scores that were anything but background, but the current living master remains Shore. What he did with LoTR is create the first symphony of the modern age which will endure as long as anything Schumann. It wasn't a film score. It was a symphony, or, rather, a complete ballet and then some. That SHOULD have been a wakeup for a both game and film studios, but it's slumped so much toward mediocrity again.
Where I think game soundtracks get their bad reputations is : So many games for so long with synthesized soundtracks rather than real recorded instruments. I get it, orchestras are $$$$ and a guy with a keyboard is not. But it will always sound weird even if you're a fan, and leaves a stigma. Also, battle music. Please stop putting almost all battle music on a soundtrack CD. With a few exceptions battle music is supposed to add to adrenaline, but the over-epic, over-tempoe'd music simply does not sound good on its own. Worse, it's usually a variety of short tracks. If you don't have enough music to make all tracks at least 2:00 without looping, don't release a soundtrack - you don't have enough music for it. There are some games where this is not true, and real full length music is used for battle. It may be desired "disc 2 content" for fans, but it can't be expected to be taken seriously by non-fans.
