The last 3 boss battles in Contra III for super NES had some of the coolest music I’ve heard in a video game. Most games, even those with very good music (Final Fantasy III, Chrono Trigger) still serve as ‘background’ for me, but the boss music for Contra III really got me amped up to kick some alien butt.
Hot Buttered Toast: Good, another GG fan. I like Writhe In Pain (the original GG version is actually the best in my opinion. More violins) and Awe of She. Of course, in GGX, Dizzy will probsbly kick your ass before you get through the intro. They chopped off the intro in GGX2, which is fitting because she’s no longer the boss.
Mojo: Gears of Madness. Bravely Folk Song. All kinds of good tracks in Soul Blade. Gamecube’s Soul Calibur II has a nice rendition of The Legend of Zelda’s overworld theme, too.
av8rmike: Never did play The Neverhood, but a friend of mine from tech school had the soundtrack. It’s good stuff, like you said.
Best Licensed Music in Games:
Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 had a nice selection including Anarchy In The UK.
Crue Ball A pinball game for Genesis that had music from Motley Crue.
And honorable mention to Rock ‘N’ Roll Racing, just for the version of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid on the first track.
Since no one has said Betrayal At Krondor I can only conclude that the bunch of you are punk kids with your newfangled video-toys like X-Station and PlayCube and GameBox.
Rassin’ frassin’ kids, don’t respect their elders…
I don’t think you’d be able to find an NES game that is considered a classic that doesn’t have a great soundtrack. Super Mario Brothers, Metroid, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Kid Icarus, Wizards and Warriors, Dragon Warrior, Crysalis, and a hell of a lot more.
What I really love is that so many people are making remixes of these songs in all kinds of different styles. Tenticle Monster mentioned OCRemix, but there is also www.vgmix.com that has some really good songs. Also, check out the **Neskimos **, which are very similar to the Minibosses, but they have a bit more energy in their songs. There are also the Black Mages, also similar to the Neskimos and Minibosses.
I run a videogame internet radio station, here, that plays both remixes and original soundtracks. A lot of the soundtracks mentioned here are on the station, or will be soon, such as Guilty Gear, Jet Set Radio, Soul Calibur, Final Fantasy X2.
One game that I can’t believe hasn’t been mentioned yet is Xenogears, which I think probably has a soundtrack as good as, if not better, than any Final Fantasy game. It, too, is on the radio station, one of the symphonic remixes. It is amazingly good.
I’ll see your Paranoid and raise you a Highway Star. I had heard it before on classic rock stations but wasn’t really aware of it, but Rock ‘N’ Roll Racing with its (IIRC) seven music tracks burned it into my brain.
All of the THPS games have good music (THPS2 being my favorite by far) but the first Dave Mirra game had good tunes as well, even though the gameplay was slop.
I can’t believe I forgot to mention the SSX series. The first one probably had the best use of a song ever, on the Untracked stage. The song fit perfectly with the feeling of flying down an icilly beautiful mountain with nothing around you but the wind and snow. The effect they used, turning down the volume of the song in conjunction with how long you had been in the air, only to crank it back up to full volume when you land was superb.
I still occasionaly get the theme from RC Pro-Am stuck in my head. Of course, there was also the old Atari XE game, King of the Mountain that had great music, but then again, it was taken from Greig, so that doesn’t quite count.
I’ll also mention Final Fantasy VIII for not only the main theme, (Vithos), but for the songs playing during the boat landing, the parade, and the final castle.
As for the horrific musical hall of fame, I nominate Legend of the Dragoon, specifically the Winglee area battle music. If anyone else knows which song I’m talking about, I’m so sorry.
To this day the Mega Man normal background music plays in my head. When I was a kid my friend Rob’s brother made up words to the song, and we would all sit there singing this truly odd song while playing.
Let me be the first to mention Chrono Trigger, a popular favorite. Among other RPG music I like is the Earthbound series, including Mother (Earthbound 0), as well as the Super Mario RPG series, with Paper Mario and Superstar Saga. The music from the Pokemon games, especially the battle themes, are very underrated, I think, and are some of my favorites.
Pretty much every Mario and Zelda game has memorable music. Rare games also have great music, ranging from the generally upbeat Donkey Kong and Banjo-Kazooie series to the more epic Jet Force Gemini.
On a more obscure note, Gradius III for SNES had a great soundtrack.
I better stop there, I could go on all day about game music.
I’m a big Silent Hill fan, so I’ll nominate that series, especially the music from Silent Hill 2 . Just hearing Theme of Laura Reprise makes me tear up. And the “scare music” in all the games is excellent.
Oh yes, Silent Hill. I still need to pick up SH3 (comes with a soundtrack CD!). But easily the best pieces have to be:
The music from the Dog ending in SH2
The music from the UFO ending in SH3 (my roommate back in tech school had it)
I have SH3, and the music on it is so-so, save for a few good songs. The song near the end of the CD, which uses the originial SH theme music, is awful beyond words.
And yes, the music from the Dog ending. It’s happy and bouncy and yet creepy at the same time, and every time I hear it I see that dog licking James’ face. Good times.
Betrayal had MUSIC?
The best thing about the Amiga was its sound, and there were plenty of games with fantastic music. Apidya and Shadow of the Beast especially, as well as Battlestorm on the Amiga CDTV (anyone remember that pile of junk? The first home computer with a CD-ROM drive, basically). The music from Lemmings wasn’t good, exactly, but it was definitely memorable. The main theme from Lotus Turbo Challenge was really good too.(da nehnehnehnehnehneh na na na, nehnehnehnehneh na na nehnehneh…)
The original F-Zero had great music, as did Super Metroid. Metroid Prime’s has the best atmospheric soundtrack I’ve ever heard.
For my money, though, Killer Instinct has to win the best game-music award just for its main theme The Instinct (a sort of steel pipe banging on concrete beat with a sequence of guitar chords and an emphatic synth bit at the end of each bar).
the psychotic music in Alice.
Wild ARMS, the first decent Playstation game I ever played (the first one was Bubsy 3D), had some great Western-style tunes. It’s been years since I’ve played it, but I can still hear Boomerang Flash’s boss theme (mainly because he kicked my ass so many times it was funny).
How could I have forgotten Chrono Trigger? Great tunes across the board. Did the battle theme remind anyone else of the opening theme to the old Nickelodeon show Mr. Wizard?
Incredible Crisis had some great tunes from the Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra. Pity I was the only person to ever play it.
Perhaps because (in Vice City at least) the songs were actually comercially produced, so it’s not exactly strictly video game music. But VCPR is realy good, and there are some good songs as well (One Thing Leads to another, Tempted, La Vida Es Una Lenteja, Video Killed the Radio Star, and Keep Feeling Satisfaction are some of my favorites)
And I love the song Automatic (“I’m walkin’ blindfolded/completely automatic/all of my systems are down, down down down down”).
Square’s always had music going for it. The Airship theme from FF6 is a classic, and I enjoyed quite a few others that my mother insisted were originally by Bach. Secret of Mana and Chrono Trigger has memorable music, also, SOM having made me sit in dungeons and listen for hours, when summed together.
The whole Soul Blazer trilogy had its moments, getting better with each game (SB, then Illusion of Gaia, and finally Terranigma).
The original Breath of Fire for the SNES had two of the most touching moments of plot, and the second field background music was my favorite BGM for years, having been introduced at the perfect spot and being amazing on its own. Sadly, it had almost nothing else going for it, though it was fun to play. The sequel had Twisted Bridge and the Dreamland music, both of which deserve a place in any VGM hall of fame.
The arguable best music in any game, however, is from the absolutely painful to play Lufia and the Fortress of Doom. The first hour or so of the game is great, then only the music can hold you. The opening when you just turn the game on is amazing, the field music is amazing, the boss battles are amazing, the important dungeons are amazing… You get the idea. You just don’t get sick of it.
Of course, my two lovechildren, Brandish and Popful Mail merely have music that you could only call “fitting.” I couldn’t say anything but the mine stage in Popful is that great, but you’d be hard pressed to find anything that’s more right for the area than what they put in.
I’m one of the judges at the previously mentioned ocremix, so naturally I’m into game music, here are my picks:
Castlevania - melodic classical fusions. A bit sugary, but fun stuff. Seems to be heavily influenced by euro-metal.
Silent Hill - most game music (while enjoyable) is fairly shallow. But the SH soundtrack is a complex, mature, modern and thoroughly artful work. The uncompromising electronic textures have the feel of a somewhat minimalist expressionism.
Wordtris (SNES) - melancholic new age. Good, but the game is pretty hard to find.
Shivers - one of the more successful horror game soundtracks. Not as artful as Silent Hill, but well-done nonetheless.
I generally believe that most game music pales in comparison to the music one can find elsewhere, but there are some gems.
Wow. Shivers. You mean that game by Sierra (Dynamix?) with those nasty elemental thingies? Came out about the same time as Phantasmagoria? Holy crap. I think about twelve people played that.
Haven’t seen you around here. Nice to have someone here representing OCRemix.
Yeah they’re commercial songs, but I loved the soundtrack to BMX XXX how many games have N.E.R.D. on them?
Also there was a fighting game for the old 3DO system that was all White Zombie.
As for actual video game music, I’m a big fan of Old-school Zelda.
Yep- that’s the one. I’m really fond of that game. Even did a remix of the main theme But you’re right- it didn’t get much attention. Which is a shame given that it was much better than the much hyped Phantasmagoria.