Have you ever played a game and wondered if you’ve heard a specific sound before, like a pot crashing or a door opening? Or the sound of a character’s footsteps? Oh, you have? That’s great! Because yeah, some of your favourite video games blatantly use stock sound effects in many areas, such as during dungeons and in menu navigation.
To be more specific, the remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening used a stock pot crashing effect, and the classic Resident Evil games did the same for the clicky clack of their menus. Then there’s the level-up noise used in countless platformers and, of course, the Willhelm scream from, well, you know. So, yeah, this stuff has propped up in more games than you might’ve thought, so that’s cool.
And no, this doesn’t mean developers are lazy or devoid of creativity because, no, that would be dumb as hell. It’s the opposite. With budgets ballooning, companies chasing graphical fidelity, and an ever-growing list of studio closures, it makes all the sense in the world for teams to use stock sound effects. They’re not bored per se. Instead, they’re making the best of their time.
Plus, stuff like this can create humour or give the player a sense of nostalgia—for example, the Willhelm scream has appeared in countless Star Wars games to this day, and nobody ever complains about that. But complaints aren’t the only thing we have to worry about here. Nope. It’s much worse.
Over the last couple of years, the rise of AI has started to take over nearly every profession in humanity’s existence — or at least it feels like it. Beyond the apparent safety and morality reasons, AI is coming for our jobs, so we better act quickly. Now, this might be too heavy of a topic to discuss about something as fun as stock sound effects. But why should it be? AI has been in our lives for far too long, and if we don’t at least get some legislation in our hands, it will only get worse before it gets better. We don’t want to lose the human touch in what we love to play day in and day out, so this article is both a way to laugh and reflect.
Based on everything discussed, we can at least say that developers need all the help they can get. Stock sound effects are an excellent way for teams to inject a bit more fun into their games while keeping their budget intact and pleasing fans. Whenever you hear a pot crash, a clicky clack, or some heavy footsteps, think about your favourite developer, thank them for their work, and keep playing their games.
The 5 Most Seminal Stock Sounds Effects In Games
Since you ate all your vegetables and made it all the way to the bottom of this fun little piece, here is a list of the most seminal stock sound effects in gaming.
1. The Level-Up Sound
Whether you’re playing Dark Souls, Final Fantasy, or Xenoblade, you’ve probably heard something very similar to the famous one-up sound that started all those years ago when the concept of levelling up your character was invented in Dungeons and Dragons. It’s become so ubiquitous that whenever a game uses it, people almost always try to guess what game it’s from. While this can be annoying to some, level-ups have become so well-known that it’s hard not to do the same thing yourself.
2. The Wilhelm Scream
The Wilhelm scream is unquestionably less well-known than anything from Mario. However, with so many Star Wars games coming out these days, almost all of them including said scream, it would be disgusting not to put it in the second spot. It feels like you could go up to anyone on the street and ask them, “Hey, do you know what this scream is from,” they would say, “Yeah, absolutely, that’s from Star Wars.” Its movies may be more iconic than its games, but people worldwide love the Star Wars franchise, so it nicely fits into the second spot.
3. Resident Evil’s Inventory Change
Now, this one was put here just because of how satisfying it is to listen to; seriously, how did they get it to sound so good? You will be in that menu A LOT in the classic Resident Evil games, so the dev team had better make it satisfying to listen to. And wow, they sure did. While nowhere near as iconic as the other entries on this list – Resident Evil has become so well-known and liked that it just had to be on here.
4. Royalty-Free Pot Crashing Sound Effect
Yeah, you know it. We all know it. This was even mentioned just above the sentence you’re reading right now if you scroll up. But it should be here because while a pot-crashing sound effect is one of the most juvenile things in media — it’s still popping in mega franchises. For example, the remake of what was originally a Gameboy game called The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. Yes, even Zelda, which you could argue is the most classic franchise in video games, needed help from our old friend, known as Royalty Free. Does this make the developers look extra lazy? Does it hurt the series’ reputation? Who cares! It’s all for fun.
5. Door Opening Sound Effect From Doom
Now, here’s an effect that might seem relatively unknown; however, if you look a little deeper, you’ll see how this isn’t all that true. Originating from the Canadian-based Sound Ideas, one of the world’s largest collections of commercially available sound effects, this one obviously deserves to be here. It has appeared in countless games like Jet Force Gemini, The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, and The Simpsons Hit & Run.
So, there you have it. What did you think? Is there something missing here? Sound off in the comments section!
