Soundtrack Review: SimAnimals (2009)

Posted by Jorn Tillnes

January 27, 2009

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012109 1201 soundtrackr11 Soundtrack Review: SimAnimals (2009) This is a review of the video game soundtrack for SimAnimals by Winifred Phillips.

“Winifred Phillips has created a wonderful score to accompany the Sims universe, in this case the game SimAnimals which no doubt will be a huge hit and I hope the excellent soundtrack will feel the effect as well”

Winifred Phillips, the composer of Speed Racer (VG), Shrek the Third (VG), The Da Vinci Code (VG) and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (VG) is composing the music for the latest game in the famous ‘Sim’ series. With a game like SimAnimals I expect a lot of repeated use of the 19 cues that is on this video game score. I am so glad that there are 19 different pieces of music because otherwise it would get boring quite fast. It’s about 36 minutes in total and the question remains whether this is enough to fill all the hundreds of hours which no doubt a lot of people will put in. I used to play these Sims game quite a lot many years ago, but they became to addictive so I had to stop. Music is so important and the question is whether Winifred Phillips efforts will be enough to please fans of the series, soundtrack fans and music fans.

Track List

SimAnimals Theme (*****)
Trailhead (***)
Free Play (*****)
World In Need (***)
Dry Gulch (***)
Grassy Glen (*****)
Castle Ridge (****)
Friendship (****)
Hard Times (***)
Happy Place (***)
Orchard Playground (****)
Danger Woods (****)
Foggy Wallow (****)
Absolutely Positive (****)
Woodlands (*****)
Perfect World (****)
Misty Bog (*****)
Quality Time (***)
Forest Song (End Credits) (****)

Light and Cheerful

As expected, this score is very light from the get go with a lot of airy sounding instruments. The ‘SimAnimals Theme’ is a wonderful piece of music that you could easily see glide perfectly in the Sims universe. It’s light, bright and sounds a bit comical and very fresh. It boldly sets the standard to which the rest of the cues are measured. ‘Trailhead‘ is a cue that starts of just as boldly as the main theme, but is soon overtaken by chirping birds. It’s interesting, but maybe they decided to mix the ambient sounds in with the music instead of putting it on a separate sound track. Nevertheless it works as intended, and it’s not bad at all. In most cues there are some kind of fx on it, mostly chirping birds or the sound of a relaxed riverbed, but I am not worried about that as I’m sure it’s perfectly suited for the game.

In ‘Free Play’ there is no fx because I suspect that it’s on the menu where you can choose sandbox or free play mode. It’s a beautiful cue using all kinds of instruments, some which are used to imitate animal sounds. It’s all perfectly put together in a rare mix that will put a smile on your face raring to play the game. Another one of my favourites is a cue called ‘Grassy Glen’ which has a very strong fx track with birds and water running, but here the music is very much in the front. It’s also quite thematic, especially in the beginning. In the cue ‘Castle Ridge’ is where we first get introduced to some ethnic sounds, in this case the very Indian sounding flute that starts this cue. It soon goes into familiar territory, even though it has its own uniqueness. I just wish Winifred has continued with the ethnic sounds. What a great use of strings in the beginning of ‘Friendship‘ with a playful happy tone that sounds like someone said something funny and laughed. This cue is also without fx, and it doesn’t need it. I feel that Winifred uses a lot of instruments to sound like forest animals, especially birds. Thoughts goes back to the old classic blue Disney birds, it’s all very light and friendly.

Dark Times

Of course it’s not all light and happy in the forest, something which ‘Hard Times’ tells us with it’s much more serious tone and use of a more chaotic motif. ‘World in Need‘ and ‘Dry Gulch‘ are also a lot more darker than most of the material on the Sim Animals soundtrack. ‘Danger Woods’ is a very scary cue which reminds me of a horror movie scene in the dark and dangerous forests. The trees are scary, almost looking at you, grabbing after you. Winifred Phillips has got it perfectly down and this is no doubt a eerie scene to play out in the game.

The Sim Animals video game is no doubt for children of all ages, from 5 to 50 and beyond. That is of course why the soundtrack has to feel as light and playful as the game. After all it’s all about having fun and no one can blame Winifred Phillips to not have fun with the various motifs and composing for this game. Most cues are very short and definitely worth a listen. There are only a few cues which are average, the rest are very good to excellent. Funnily enough, it’s the darker cues which are least interesting to me with the exception of ‘Danger Woods’. ‘Trailhead‘, ‘World in Need’, ‘Dry Gulch’ and ‘Hard Times’ are perhaps a bit dreary, but they are far from bad. With the exception of ‘Happy Place’ and ‘Quality Time’, all the cheerful cues on this score are very good, even great like ‘Woodlands‘ and ‘Misty Bog‘. The last cue of the Sim Animals video game soundtrack is ‘Forest Song (End Credits)‘ which is a nice mix of folky music mixed with forest animal sound. It’s also different from the rest of the cues in that it uses a lot of percussion which is not much used elsewhere on this soundtrack.

Conclusion

There’s is a lot of varied music in here and it makes me want to jump in the game to see how it all plays out. It’s very exciting music that is not annoying at all. That was my number one worry, that the music could be annoying after a while. I have listened to the music several times now and it really grows on me instead of pushing me away. Winifred Phillips has created a wonderful score to accompany the Sims universe, in this case the game SimAnimals which no doubt will be a huge hit and I hope the excellent soundtrack will feel the effect as well. I highly recommend the Sim Animals video game score to soundtrack fans and video game fans alike.

012109 1201 soundtrackr2 Soundtrack Review: SimAnimals (2009)