Music refers to a looping audio track composed to enhance gameplay experience. Most music heard in Nitrome games falls under the genre of chiptune or electronic music. Currently, two musicians and one company have been credited with composing the music for Nitrome games: Lee Nicklen, Shockwavesound.com and presently, Dave Cowen. Tracks from selected Nitrome games were made available to purchase on the Nitrome shop upon its official release on August 26, 2010.

HistoryEdit

When Nitrome released their first game on the Nitrome.com website, entitled "Hot Air!", it was Lee Nicklen who composed the music. As fans began to play the game, the music became one of the most memorable components of the game.^{[citation needed]} Except for the mini games Gift Wrapped and Go! Go! UFO (done by Shockwavesound.com), Lee Nicklen continued to compose all the music for Nitrome until March 2008, when Nitrome introduced a new musician - Dave Cowen.

Dave Cowen did the music for some of the games in 2008 and 2009, the first of his works appearing in Knuckleheads, but Lee still composed the majority of Nitrome's games music in the two year period. By 2010, however, it was Dave Cowen that composed the majority of the music for games. Lee's last composition before 2010 started was Cold Storage.

It was only until May, 2010, that Lee composed less music for Nitrome, doing the music for Bullethead and later, Worm Food. In October 2011, Lee Nicklen silently set up a Facebook fan page and started to release remasters of all of the music he had composed for Nitrome, including some rare tracks that never ever got used. It was then Dave Cowen who composed the majority of Nitrome's music in 2010.

Music typesEdit

Two types of music are always present in a Nitrome game: one known as "Menu Music," or Track 1, and the other "Main Music," or Track 2. "Menu Music" is the music that plays when the menu is browsed, or in other words, when the player is not playing a level.

The second type of music in a Nitrome game is "Main Music", which is the music played during levels. It is usually composed so that the player could play the game without much distraction from the music.

In some games, there is a third type of music that plays. Sometimes the 3rd type of music is known as "Boss Music", which plays when a boss is fought. All games do not necessarily have "Boss Music", as only three games are known to have it: Skywire 2, Hot Air 2: All Blown Up and Nitrome Must Die. Sometimes the third track of music played could serve a purpose such as it does in Pixel Pop, where the music is played in the second level, since the first level music is played in the first set of levels and the Titlescreen music doubles as the music for Level 3.

Some games also may include short clips of music to indicate when a player has completed or failed a level. Different music may play when a player browses a menu, such as in Bad Ice-Cream, Knight Trap, Office Trap and Mega Mash where there's a little clip when failing or completing a level. These compositions are usually shorter in length, as they are only to indicate the status of the player's progress for a level or for easy browsing when in the menus section.

FXEdit

Effects, also known as FX, is not a type of music, but the sound played when certain things are done. The most recurring effect is the Nitrome Jingle, played at the end of a startup, both appearing in every single Nitrome games.

There have been several FX's made for Nitrome games. The second most used effect was a sped up version of the Nitrome Jingle, which was first used when point related objects were picked up. It was first used for the sound made when the yellow star from the Hot Air series was picked up. The sound was later replaced with a different effect..

While some FX's are reused throughout other games, others are used only once. Typically, an option to toggle the sound effects is placed next to the "music off" button.

Cover artEdit

Tracks available to purchase on the Nitrome shop have cover art to accompany the music. It is a screenshot from the specific game with an overlay of the game's name and composer on the top of the cover art. Below is a gallery of these music covers, in order of release date.

GalleryEdit

Twin Shot 2 music cover

Rustyard music cover

Toxic 2 music cover

Space Hopper music cover

Mutiny music cover

Onekey music cover

Magneboy music cover

In the Dog House music cover

Bomba music cover

Castle Corp music cover

Skywire 2 music cover

Twang music cover

Tiny Castle music cover

Small Fry music cover

Final Ninja Zero music cover

Knuckleheads music cover

Double Edged music cover

Cave Chaos music cover

Blast RPG music cover

Avalanche music cover

Tanked Up music cover

Snow Drift music cover

Flipside music cover

Flash Cat music cover

Ice Breaker music cover

Hot Air music cover

Parasite music cover

Fault Line music cover

Droplets music cover

Bullethead music cover

Twin Shot music cover

Skywire music cover

Rubble Trouble New York music cover

Toxic music cover

Pixel Pop music cover

Final Ninja music cover

Fat Cat music cover

Feed Me music cover

Chisel music cover

Cheese Dreams music cover

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List of Nitrome music availableEdit

If the "Music Available" field says "NO", the music cannot be purchased even though the other fields are filled in. Time for the tracks are provided from websites the song is purchasable on. Some tracks are only available in certain countries, while others cannot be found on the shop, but can still be purchased directly from the music store.

TriviaEdit

• The longest track in a Nitrome game is the titlescreen music to Feed Me, which, according to iTunes, is 3 minutes and 54 seconds long.
• The shortest track of music in a Nitrome game is the titlescreen music for Blast RPG, lasting for a duration of thirty seconds (0:30).
• In Pixel Pop, all 3 tracks are exactly one minute and twenty-one seconds (1:29).
• The music for Hot Air 2: All Blown Up on Nitrome.com was completely different then the music on Miniclip. 3 tracks completely different than the Nitrome.com music for Hot Air 2 were made and released only in the Miniclip version of the game for unknown reasons.