Jake Kaufman wrote a chiptune score for Shovel Knight that sounds like it was beamed directly from 1991 and polished with modern ears. "Strike the Earth!" is one of those stage themes that gets permanently lodged in your brain after two loops, all bouncy arpeggios and this heroic pulse that just refuses to quit.
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"The Starlit Wilds" pulls everything back for the campfire scene, quiet and aching in a way you don't expect from an 8-bit styled game. Then boss tracks like "The Decadent Dandy" crank the intensity with these rapid channel switches that feel authentically NES but way more dynamic.
Genuinely the best argument for retro-styled soundtracks existing in modern indie games.