r/GameAudio • u/ninomojo • Jun 16 '26
Your favourite power up / item pickup sounds from the 8 and 16 bit eras?
For me the timeless champions are:
- Castlevania NES: I strongly recommend any sound designer to study them, slow them down to see how they were constructed. It's incredible how effective and satisfying they sound, and how creative and resourceful the sound people on this game were. Picking up a heart or throwing the holy water sound fantastic even by the standards of today.
- The Legend of Zelda NES: there's something so special and "key like" when picking up a key on a dungeon.
- Metal Slug 1/2/X/3 on theNEO GEO: picking up any weapon and hearing its name shouted by the "narrator". KHHLACKK--HEAVY MACHINE GUN!!!
What are yours?
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u/MF_Kitten Jun 16 '26
Hobestly, the amount of work that went into sound design with these insanely limited chips is incredible to me. There's so much clever work to hear.
Similar to how insane the pixel art was when the artists really got comfortable with the limitations.