Video Game Music Appreciation Thread and 500th Post Dance Party

Cafe Society
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As you might have noticed from a few of the other threads I’ve started/posted in, I loves me some video games. But few people really appreciate the music therein.

Games with outstanding soundtracks:

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: All of the Castlevania series have had good music, but this, for me, stands out as the best of 'em. I especially like the Library theme (I am a sucker for the harpsichord); but the hidden track on the disc (pop it into a CD player and go to track 2) is one of the best hidden features on any game I know of. The intro by Alucard is good for a laugh, too.

Final Fantasy VII: Another series with outstanding all around music. VII beats all of them in my opinion, simply because of two pieces: the Shinra March and One Winged Angel (final boss theme). One Winged Angel stunned me when I first got to the end boss. Then I heard the orchestral version. I kid you not, it was like a musical orgasm.

The Parodius series: Only one of these games ever got a release outside of Japan, and even that really only made it to Europe. Anyway, Parodius is Konami’s parody of Gradius. It’s goofier than a monkey on nitrous oxide riding a dog while smoking a cigarette and farting. The music tends to be classical pieces redone in a completely wrong style. One theme was Dvorak’s New World Symphony, mashed-up with cheesy hockey-arena style synth organ.

Super Mario Bros. 3: My, but what they made the Nintendo sound processor do. The snares in the Underworld theme and the tympani in the Castle theme really impressed me when I first played it Og knows how many years ago. The theme to Pipe World was a masterpiece of 8-bit funk.

New versions of old favorites:
OCRemix Gigabytes worth of video game remixes, most of which are very well done. They even have an option to snag the whole thing in two big chunks with BitTorrent.

Minibosses A band dedicated to the Nintendo.Good stuff.

Mario Systems A decent selection of Nintendo music performed on piano. Of particular merit are the Magnet Man theme from MegaMan 3, and the Zelda Labyrinth.

Also: 500 posts! BIG AMERICAN DANCE PARTY!
Who is driving? Bear is driving! How can this be?

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I prefer X on the whole. Mostly for the Hymns of the Fayth. And I think it’s got the best Chocobo music so far.

To Zanarkand and Otherworld (the ‘themes’ more or less - To Zanarkand is played over the opening credits, Otherworld over the first major cutscene and a variant used for the final boss fight.) are also fun.

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Bungie software’s Marathon, natch.

Add to that most of Maxis’ games from the early to mid 90s. (They really captured the whole zeitgeist, man!)

Oh…and the Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and Spearhead. (Gotta love a video game soundtrack with a full friggin’ orchestra. AND a chorus.)

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Metroid (for the NES): there is not a song on that cartridge that isn’t good. The best video game music, ever.

The Legend of Zelda: Orcarina of Time: lots of great tunes; the Song of Time is my cell phone’s ringtone.

Final Fantasy 3: I love the music when you win a battle.

Final Fantasy 1: The victory music isn’t as good as 3, but the battle music is really cool, despite the fact that it’s using an NES sound system.

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I was never much into video games. But after the Mario on Guitar thread just now, I decided I want to learn the pinball (comes with windows…) theme on piano…

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I’ve got over 3 gigs of video-game-music MP3s, and am always collecting more. Some were ripped from the original game CDs, some were captured from the games themselves, and some come from imported Japanese game soundtracks. Though I admit I don’t really care for classical music too much, which locks me out of the abundant field of most RPG soundtracks.

A few game soundtrack nominations: Einhander, Dance Dance Revolution Extreme Nonstop Megamix (have to get the Megamix, not the individual tracks), Sonic R, WipeOut XL, NinjaWarriors (for the old Super Nintendo game system), and Outrun.

50 bonus points to any doper who owns the ultra-rare never-released Defender 2000 soundtrack CD. :wink:

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I would have to say Halo has the most kick-ass music I’ve heard in a game. Marathon was pretty cool too.

Can’t wait for Halo2…Bungie just rocks.

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I’m ashamed to say that I never played Marathon, but I keep hearing over and over what a classic it was. I’ve got to check it out.

My choices:
Jet Set Radio The original is still the better (although JSRF had “Funky Dealer”, which just kicks all kinds of ass), and I still listen to the soundtrack constantly. Hearing “Funky Radio” playing while the Noise Tanks were introduced, or listening to “Sweet Soul Brother” while the doors open and a pack of high-stepping police thugs run out shouting “hai hai hai hai hai” in unison – these are the transcendant moments of videogaming.

Space Channel 5 I still vividly remember being at the E3 trade show, waiting for the next Jet Set Radio show to start, when suddenly I heard a bit of music that sounded vaguely like Thunderbirds or Avengers music. The screen filled with an image of a giant 60’s style spaceship, then women in go-go skirts started strutting out on catwalks above the stage. As the song (“Mexican Flyer”) picked up, Ulala strutted out on center stage, holding a microphone in one hand and a ray gun in the other. She was joined by a guy in an alien costume who started dancing like Rerun from What’s Happenin’? My jaw dropped, and a tear came to my eye. I only wish the game itself could’ve been as achingly cool as that moment.

Gitaroo-Man I keep mentioning this one, and people keep not playing it. It’s a cool game, and the music is just neat. The track “Born to be Bone”, that’s played by skeleton banditos, is about as cool as they come.

Super Mario Bros. 3 seconded.

Monkey Island Phenomenal music on the first three games (I’ve never played the fourth). I had a version of MI 1 with the music done as Redbook audio, and I think I ended up listening to it as an audio CD more than I played the game. Curse of Monkey Island had some brilliant stuff, too; my favorite was the music played inside the barber shop on the first island.

Grim Fandango The music was the best thing about this game, which is saying a bit considering the set direction and character design was so cool.

Outlaws More good LucasArts music; I didn’t like the game so much, and I generally don’t like Western music even, but this was just great stuff.

Final Fantasy Tactics As I’ve already established several times, it’s the best videogame ever made, and the music is just as excellent. I’ve heard the getting-ready-for-battle theme billions of times by this point, and I can never get tired of it.

You said it. Still, I think that The Sims has the most clever music in any videogame – just the music itself is funny. I was kind of upset that the music in SimCity 4, although it was good, didn’t incorporate any of the themes from SC3000, which I still think of whenever I think of the game. At least in the expansion pack, they managed to put in a nod to the earlier games; when you drive the ice cream truck and play the music, one of the tracks it plays is the theme to SC2000.

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I loved Homeworld’s music. Aside from the incredible opening choral piece, the music as a whole played a big part in setting the mood, establishing the incredible vastness of deep space, and the desperation of the battles you were fighting. And the battle music was cool and slightly trippy. I found Yes’s contribution to the game forgettable, though.

The demi-sequel Cataclysm wasn’t nearly as good; it went for pulpy sci-fi, and the music fit that pretty well, but one of the things I’d loved about the original was the semi-mystical exodus/homecoming story it told, the intangible epic feel the story had.

I thought Knights of the Old Republic acheived something impressive: creating a Star Wars score that had a similar feel without simply reusing the music from the original trilogy.

As for Final Fantasy games, I think my favorite music is from 3 (6 in Japan). It’s been a really long time since I played any of the FF games, though, so I’m probably forgetting other worthy songs from them.

Wind Waker, as befits a masterpiece, has a well-crafted soundtrack.

Thing is, I remember the themes from Homeoworld. It takes effort to conjure up the music from Windwaker; it fits its world perfectly, but it doesn’t stand out the way Homeworld’s do.

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I like music from the Guilty Gear series. It tends to get stuck in my head very easily, like Ky’s theme (Holy Orders) or Chipp’s theme (Suck A Sage).

It’s a pity that some of them have titles that make no sense whatsoever. Take Jam Kuradoberi’s theme, “Babel Nose”. Decent, but the title is just…weird.

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There was a game put out by Dreamworks Interactive in '95 I think, called The Neverhood. It was a story-puzzle-type game, set in a digitized Claymation world (called, well, The Neverhood). Sort of “Wallace and Gromit”-type sight gags and cleverness. Anyway, its soundtrack was by a guy named Terry Tate, I think, and was very folksy-bluegrass guitar music and scatting vocalizations that really fit with the lighthearted game play. Too bad no one else remembers it.

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I loved almost all of Final Fantasy VI’s music, but in particular I love Cyan’s theme. It’s too bad that it was never one of the themes that they chose to orchestrate. It seemed like the same pieces were chosen over and over again to arrange–I guess I can’t appreciate Uematsu’s taste in his own music, or something!

And another: Trisection (I believe) from FF Tactics. It’s the music played when you battle Algus and co. Amazing.

The Orchestral Game Concert arrangement of the theme from Romance of the Three Kingdoms, a game I’ve never played, blows me away with its beauty. But then, I think it was written and arranged by Yoko Kanno, so . . .

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Terry Taylor. Terry Tate is the office enforcer:) He also did the soundtrack to Skullmonkeys for the PS- the game itself was an average sidescroll action platformer (with cool claymation graphics) but the soundtrack kicked ass.

Most of my faves have been mentioned- Jet Grind Radio, SMB, Castlevania, Metroid, Space Channel 5. Pretty much any of the video game tunes that the aforementioned Minibosses cover rock- Rygar, Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, Ghouls and Ghosts, Zelda, etc… If you get a chance to see them in concert, GO.

Almost forgot one of my all-time favorites- Soul Blade. “We all need, to shine on, to see…”

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Have you tried Disgaea? I liked FF : Tactics, but Disgaea was so much better. And it has good music, too.

I was also always partial to the music from The Seventh Guest.

And in Final Fantasy X - it may just be a short sting of music, but the Summon Yojimbo’s little intro theme… I just loved that.

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Whoops! I thought the name sounded familiar, but it didn’t seem right. Thanks for the correction, Mojo

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One of my favs is from Civ 3, modern era. That jazz piece, with the electric guitar and sax, went right onto a CD for road trips.

Second the original Metroid nomination. I like what they did with the (Norfair?) tune for the Talon IV overworld in Prime. Why, oh why did they need to change it to this cruddy Michael-Jackson-from-the-70’s theme after you beat Thardus?

The opening choral is awesome. It’s a slightly up-tempo version of Samuel Barber’s “Agnus Dei,” which I like better than the way it’s usually performed. Interestingly (to me, at least), Agnus Dei is a choral version of another Barber piece called “Adagio for Strings,” which was performed in FDR’s funeral procession.

It is possible to extract the Homeworld music and get it on a CD, but it requires three pieces of software, one of them very hard to find.

Some good parts there, but I liked Ocarina’s much better. Come to think of it, I liked everything about Ocarina better.

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It’s such a relief to see intelligible discussion of video games on a message board. On video game message boards, posts are illiterate at best and usually incomprehensible.

Nice to know that cronic video game exposure doesn’t eventually cause people to lose the ability to use punctuation and paragraphs.

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I’ve always liked the music in Donkey Kong Country.

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I’m shocked…no one has mentioned GTA3 or GTA:VS. Don’t quite know why, but I never seem to tire of hearing Too Young To Fall In Love when I’m driving around causing vehicular mayhem. <slight hijack>…or the talk stations.</sh>

To flip it topic around, I’ll nominate the old NES unclassic Blueprint for most annoying, still-stuck-in-my-brain-fifteen-years later theme music.

Tom Cruise save us! You can’t handle the truth!

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SimCity 3000 hadsome great peppy music, a lot of jazzy and toe-tapping pieces. Sadly Sim City 4 couldn’t quite live up to that level in the music.