Favourite video game soundtracks?

Post by **tulip** » Mon May 04, 2009 20:52

I was just going to post the same as I read the thread. Yeah, Monkey Island I + II are awesome.

I liked the soundtrack of diablo hellfire back then, because it was so atmospheric (the one in the crypt)

No I like happy soundracks more like Super Mario World and Rayman 1.

XkyRauh · Post by **XkyRauh** » Tue May 05, 2009 1:48

I made my original post here before having played LittleBigPlanet, and that game has helped me realize how much I appreciate dynamic music in games. The way the game-specific music is pieced together out of five or six individual pieces, and the way those pieces' volumes can be adjusted mid-level makes the gameplay so fluid and engaging for me, I love it. :)

I'm such a sucker for The Wilderness's music, too--the background music for the snowy levels "The Frozen Tundra" and "The Bunker." So friggin' awesome. :)

Bonevelous · Post by **Bonevelous** » Tue May 05, 2009 10:38

I like quite a few game sound tracks...
I like most of Xargon and Jill's sound tracks... I love what I can remember from Jazz Jackrabbit , and I generally enjoy Jazz 2's music. I also like Ken's Labrynith's music and Keen5's soundtrack; specially the help, menu music, I love that song

I love Rayman's music (particularly the music that I heard in Amazing Learning Games (which is still a great game even now, many years later (I played it when I was... 2? maybe?), and is the best educational game in existence). I also like Haunted Mansion's music (perhaps the only time where, from what I can remember of the movie, the game is actually better than the movie. Excellent movie to game conversion, excellent game over all), Kingdom Heart's music, and Super Mario Galaxy's music. I also like Gubble and Gubble 2's music (best midi music in the world!!:D) I like other game music as well, but if I mention it all, my list will go on forever.

Let's also mention our least favorite music, just for the heck of it.
I've seen videos of the NES pirate port of DarkSeed, a pirate GB game called Rockman 8 (poor man's Mega Man), and a pirate Super Mario Bros Hack called Mushroom, for example, and they all had horrible music (specially Mushroom). For legal games, probably Action 52 for the NES.

Galaxieretter · Post by **Galaxieretter** » Tue May 05, 2009 14:52

*Rez killed topic.*

I would have to say over all, Tyrian has the best music.

But the theme for Doom 3 was awesome because it was made by Tool.

DSL · Post by **DSL** » Tue May 05, 2009 18:07

Sorry for awakening the this undead thread, BUT game music is such a fun subject and it's something that has been very overlooked by game developer since 2000 or so. More focus on graphics and physics than sound and music.

Man i feel that this is going to be a long post :D

I feel i have to post my favourites as well, game music is something i hold dear :o Let's start out somewhat chronological shall we.

The Keen games (ofcourse)
I bet the music from the Keen games won't need introduction at all. :D
I actually heard the music long after i first played the games, since my first contact with Keeniverse was through a friends old PC, one with a PC-speaker only and therefore no music. Good memories tend to stick onto new things and when i finally heard the music some years later it was instant classics.

Monster Bash
I guess the video speaks for itself. Any kid with imagination would find this game fascinating back in the days :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rXGPtW56lc&fmt=18

There are so many good NES-games out there i dunno where to start...
Most obvious is perhaps
Megaman
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CX63D-cSCI0
Chip'N Dale Rescue Rangers (not the first level though :P)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOSDVFF3ZjU
Wizzard And Warriors-series.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOpMWtbkpjA
The early Castlevania games ofcourse, but CV4 for SNES was the best as mentioned earlier.

Also Donkey Kong Country for SNES!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PIijGwV5JY

Day Of The Tentacle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vJioAZ1oIY&fmt=18

Doom
Doom was a very special experience back in the days. Not only the grewsome graphics but also the haunting music scores.
Made huge impression on a nine-year-old kid like me ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pbh3ZYuTBDY

Duke Nukem 3D
When Duke showed up it was so much more realistic than Doom... Laughable when you think about it today :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eb7RUWXGRjs

Blood
This game came rather late compared to the earlier two FPS but this one had such thick atmosphere it still stands out today. I like refer to the theme of the game as 'necro pervoism'. Still today there is no game that matches the sinister sadistic feeling Blood has, and that's very much thanks to the music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd5IAs2CwFM

Sim City 2000
On the lighter side of gaming this game was the one that got me hooked on sim/tycoon/management games. At the time SC2k came out there was nothing like it and the music was very melancholic yet uplifting.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoEs6bVYfA8

Rayman
Pure platformer extacy this game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptadmgXmDTM

Unreal
It's amazing how well tracker music can sound if made right. This game set the standard for the Unreal franchise. The music is so well made and unique in style it gives you chills.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glnpnifV4Fk

Well, that's the most obvious ones... I can mention some other great games with great music while i'm at it.

Silent Hill-series.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. - Shadow Of Chernobyl

Aquaria
This indie game is highly recomendable for those who like Metroid-style games. I was so suprised of the quality this game had to offer.
Some of the music is sooooo soothing...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJEpxPWJAh8&fmt=18

Two very strong themesongs from the past would be the themes from Badtoys3D and Metersteiner Beer Manager, those themes have never left my head!

And btw, Doom3 was so inferior to the original Doom when it comes to music!!

StupidBunny · Post by **StupidBunny** » Tue May 05, 2009 22:47

DSL wrote:And btw, Doom3 was so inferior to the original Doom when it comes to music!!

Doom3 is inferior to the original Doom when it comes to anything.

DSL · Post by **DSL** » Wed May 06, 2009 5:51

StupidBunny wrote:
DSL wrote:And btw, Doom3 was so inferior to the original Doom when it comes to music!!
Doom3 is inferior to the original Doom when it comes to anything.

Well, not graphical technology.

Galaxieretter · Post by **Galaxieretter** » Wed May 06, 2009 14:01

DSL wrote:And btw, Doom3 was so inferior to the original Doom when it comes to music!!

Noooo! How can you compare Robert Prince's boring, repetitive midi crapola to REAL GUITARS?! Besides there was only one song in Doom 3. I will admit "At Doom's Gate" was pretty good but I didn't like the rest of the songs as much. Well the in between level song was pretty cool.

StupidBunny wrote:Doom3 is inferior to the original Doom when it comes to anything.

I think Doom 3 surpasses the older Dooms in both look and feel while keeping true to the genera. They made the game more "hellish" as in "ARGH, why won't they DIE!?" *reloads plasma gun*

Arjak · Post by **Arjak** » Wed May 06, 2009 15:20

Okay, here's a sleeper!

Sapphire - PC Engine/TurboGrafx

I love the music in the first three levels! Shmup rock at its finest.

As you can tell, I love the obscure stuff.

Commander Spleen · Post by **Commander Spleen** » Thu May 07, 2009 2:27

Galaxie wrote: How can you compare Robert Prince's boring, repetitive midi crapola to REAL GUITARS?!

I love the original Doom soundtracks, and would love to hear them played with real instruments (I know there are a lot of remixes around, but none that I've found are live performances). And as you say, Doom 3 didn't have much music to it--I think more music wins over one higher quality song.

I think Doom 3 surpasses the older Dooms in both look and feel while keeping true to the genera. They made the game more "hellish" as in "ARGH, why won't they DIE!?" *reloads plasma gun*

Meh, while I certainly found Doom 3 fun and atmospheric, it wasn't nearly as epic as the classics, and the final boss was terribly uninspired compared with the downright creepy things they came up with in spriteland.

Deltamatic · Post by **Deltamatic** » Thu May 07, 2009 3:27

Another good game soundtrack I found was from the little-known adventure game A Tale of Two Kingdoms. Not that it's totally professional, but it has a feel all to itself.

DSL · Post by **DSL** » Thu May 07, 2009 6:04

Galaxieretter wrote:Noooo! How can you compare Robert Prince's boring, repetitive midi crapola to REAL GUITARS?!

Real guitars are overrated!
Back then MIDI, Adlib or NES sound chip was what real game music should sound like. But it was a technical limitation ofcourse, you know that as well.
But the sound added to the atmosphere still.
This is an example of what the Doom music would sound like with more pro techniques http://ocremix.dreamhosters.com/songs/D ... _ReMix.mp3 (love this one.)

And yeah, i know many of the Doom tracks are based on other songs, but still they do their job well.

Dynamo · Post by **Dynamo** » Fri May 08, 2009 22:07

Command & Conquer music in general.

Catwafer · Post by **Catwafer** » Thu Jun 04, 2009 6:05

Tetris! Theme B!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VNyQgGSXzQ

_mr_m_ · Post by **_mr_m_** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 16:30

XkyRauh wrote:Hmm... This is really hard for me.

As far as narrative, programmatic background music goes, I'm definitely a huge fan of Day of the Tentacle; the opening sequence, from start to finish, is fantastic.

I actually did orchestrations of (most) the songs in the game. I tried to cover all the important story parts, or songs that sounded good with the studio software I had at the time..if only i remember what I did with them

Anyway, Day of the Tentacle had a great soundtrack, so did Sam & Max Hit the Road. Anything Bobby Prince did was pretty damn good.

And oh yeah, Nobuo Uematsu's (spelling?) works were (and still are) pieces of art. Try to find the live Final Fantasy concert DVD/CDs ("Tour de Japon" (?) and "Voices" (it was conducted by Arnie Roth); they really capture the vision of his work.

But the award for the very BEST Videogame Soundtrack ever goes to Keen Dreams!