Best videogame soundtrack?
- Thread starter titaniumwombat
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Wow, you're right. How could I forget those. There's been a few titles in the Wipeout series that featured some...well...less than ideal songs, but for the most part they used some of the best electronic music that the music industry had to offer at the time.Zac_Dai post=9.74951.851740 said:
Also, Eldritch reminded me of Metroid Prime series. I can't believe I forgot about them too. Well, mostly the first game. The sequels, while amazing games, didn't quite have the musical oomph of the first. Metroid Prime still remains one of my favorite games, and it's soundtrack is one of the deciding factors in that opinion.
My favorites are:
Legend of Zelda (original theme)
Mario Brothers (probably the most recognizable and iconic sound track out there)
Oblivion (because it sounds so great. It could easily be the main theme to a fantasy movie it's so good).
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (the way they time the music so that the famous fanfare hits when you do the hardest stunts and the way the spooky theme hits when monsters appear is just great and makes you feel like you are in an Indy movie).
Legend of Zelda (original theme)
Mario Brothers (probably the most recognizable and iconic sound track out there)
Oblivion (because it sounds so great. It could easily be the main theme to a fantasy movie it's so good).
Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine (the way they time the music so that the famous fanfare hits when you do the hardest stunts and the way the spooky theme hits when monsters appear is just great and makes you feel like you are in an Indy movie).
Guild Wars I liked the ambient music a lot.
StarCraft is simply classic, though - the awesome song for each race just as characteristic of it as the units they use ^^
StarCraft is simply classic, though - the awesome song for each race just as characteristic of it as the units they use ^^
Final Fantasy VI. Effective, beautiful music that truly interacts with the game.
Secret of Mana gets honourable mention.
Secret of Mana gets honourable mention.
I love the Advent Rising soundtrack. It wasn't a totally great game, but it had a bundle of joy thrown in every now and then, accompanied with manly chorus. *of course Halo was cool too*
Good link for Wipeout music fans.
http://www.coldstorage.org.uk/music.html
Cold storage did some quite a few tracks for the first two Wipeout games and you can download them free off his website.
Another great game for music I forgot about was SSX tricky, some awesome tunes and that cool effect of the track slowing down when you got air was a nice touch.
http://www.coldstorage.org.uk/music.html
Cold storage did some quite a few tracks for the first two Wipeout games and you can download them free off his website.
Another great game for music I forgot about was SSX tricky, some awesome tunes and that cool effect of the track slowing down when you got air was a nice touch.
The Witcher probably has the best soundtrack of any game I've played in the last couple of years, though some others have come quite close, as the competition is very fierce. Still, I think The Witcher's music is able to be beautiful, moving, epic, powerful, ambient, all within a consistent musical paradigm, and that's something few other games really accomplish - that sense of consistency and theme.
Okay, I can see why people would like the soundtracks for games like Halo and Oblivion. Their orchestral scores give a sense of grandeur to almost any of the scenes in the game, and they usually help provide an atmosphere that graphics alone could not accomplish. That being said, for me, what makes a song, let alone an entire soundtrack, truly great is how memorable it is. Soundtracks like the one for Morrowind, while engaging during gameplay, never truly get in your head after gameplay. Besides one song from the Halo series, the songs from these kind of games just seem to mesh together with their lengthy, droning melodies and interchangeable crescendos.
Some might respond to my previous opinions by saying to themselves, "this guy just doesn't have a taste for classical music." I happen to like many classics, but I'll use three as examples of songs that are both classical and memorable:
Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven - This song has a haunting, dreamy melody, and gives me goose bumps whenever I hear it. (Fun Fact: This song was featured in Earthworm Jim 2, and I still remember the level vividly because of the song)
Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - A song that practically embodies its title, it really does sound like the buzzing of a bee, if not many bees.
O Fortuna by Carl Orff - Few operatic chants can match the sheer feeling found in the opening of this piece.
I only recently learned the names of these gems, but the melodies have stayed with me ever since I first heard them, especially Moonlight Sonata. So while the Oblivion soundtrack might sound "epic (gosh, I hate using that word)," I can't remember a single tune like the aforementioned songs.
Which brings me back to my long-awaited point. I prefer songs that once heard become instantly recognizable. With that in mind, here are some of my favorite gaming soundtracks:
Chrono Trigger - This game pushed the SNES to its limit in terms of both graphics and music, and Lavos, the main antagonist, quite possibly best exemplifies both. His sprite was massive as well as staggeringly detailed, but it was his theme that really made me remember him. The emphatic opening of the song instantly portrayed a sense of grandiose power and evil. I also find it humorous that after the strong chorus is played a few times, a slightly altered version of the Game Over music plays, as if to say "You're actually trying to fight this thing? Yeah, you're pretty much dead." Other great songs from the game include the battle against Magus and Frog's theme.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - I'm surprised that both of the games I've named so far are SNES titles despite the fact that I've never owned an SNES in my life (I grew up playing the Genesis). I played the PSone version of Chrono Trigger and the GBA version of Yoshi's Island. Nevertheless, this game is another example of a game with catchy tunes. The two that stand out most in my mind are the "Obstacle Course (as named by the SSBB sound test)" and the final fight against giant Baby Bowser. Obstacle Course was a perfect blend of a kinetic tempo and a fun beat, perfect for the locales in a Yoshi game. The final boss music, however, is a much more bombastic song that starts with a throwback to the castle theme from SMB 3 and builds into a frenetic battle ballad complete with SNES-ified guitar riffs.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Okay, I'll admit, I grew up with Sonic, so you could probably name any level from a Genesis Sonic game and I'd know the entire track. However, Sonic 2 was filled to the brim with great songs. One such song is the theme for Chemical Plant Zone. Like most good Sonic songs should be, this song had a fast tempo, and it also gave the appropriate atmosphere, which is not an easy task given that the area is a giant, neon-ridden factory producing blue and pink chemicals as a blue hedgehog and his mutant fox sidekick run through it like a playground. Another theme from the game that I remember fondly is the Oil Ocean Zone. It combines elements of deep woodwinds (I can't quite place the instrument; it sounds like someone is blowing into a partially filled oil drum with a flute) and hard, factory-esque bass to give the level a feeling all its own. Other good themes from the game include Emerald Hill Zone and the boss theme.
Guardian Heroes - With Chrono Trigger and Sonic, you can argue that nostalgia might have skewed my perceptions of the validity of the songs. Heck, just playing these games might have skewn my perceptions since I might be remembering the atmosphere more than just the songs themselves. Fair enough. However, I have never once in my life played this game. Heck, I had never even heard of it until very recently (and by that I mean "days ago" recently) when I instantly fell in love with the two tracks featured in this video:
http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/benzaie/gsymdk/1633-guardian-heroes
These songs might feature the best use of a saxophone in any video game ever made. I have been humming the tune to that first song in my head ever since I heard it. I have played this video multiple times just to hear the songs. I want to get a Sega Saturn, find this game, and play it just from listening to these songs and seeing the little bit of gameplay in the video.
An honorable mention of mine is E-102 Gamma's theme from Sonic Adventure. While Open Your Heart and Gamma's theme are probably the only two tracks anyone really remembers from Sonic Adventure, Gamma's theme was a great amalgamation of classical piano and techno melodies. E-101 Beta's boss theme is also a great track for many of the same reasons as Gamma's theme.
Well, I've probably left a few great soundtracks out of this list, but I've typed too much as it is. And yes, I know that all of the games I've named are at least a little old. I'm not someone who denounces newer games; I just think that everyone's favorite tunes came from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras for a reason. Back then, composers were limited by their technology, so they had to be creative with their compositions. Anyway, I think I've said more than enough.
Some might respond to my previous opinions by saying to themselves, "this guy just doesn't have a taste for classical music." I happen to like many classics, but I'll use three as examples of songs that are both classical and memorable:
Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven - This song has a haunting, dreamy melody, and gives me goose bumps whenever I hear it. (Fun Fact: This song was featured in Earthworm Jim 2, and I still remember the level vividly because of the song)
Flight of the Bumblebee by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - A song that practically embodies its title, it really does sound like the buzzing of a bee, if not many bees.
O Fortuna by Carl Orff - Few operatic chants can match the sheer feeling found in the opening of this piece.
I only recently learned the names of these gems, but the melodies have stayed with me ever since I first heard them, especially Moonlight Sonata. So while the Oblivion soundtrack might sound "epic (gosh, I hate using that word)," I can't remember a single tune like the aforementioned songs.
Which brings me back to my long-awaited point. I prefer songs that once heard become instantly recognizable. With that in mind, here are some of my favorite gaming soundtracks:
Chrono Trigger - This game pushed the SNES to its limit in terms of both graphics and music, and Lavos, the main antagonist, quite possibly best exemplifies both. His sprite was massive as well as staggeringly detailed, but it was his theme that really made me remember him. The emphatic opening of the song instantly portrayed a sense of grandiose power and evil. I also find it humorous that after the strong chorus is played a few times, a slightly altered version of the Game Over music plays, as if to say "You're actually trying to fight this thing? Yeah, you're pretty much dead." Other great songs from the game include the battle against Magus and Frog's theme.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - I'm surprised that both of the games I've named so far are SNES titles despite the fact that I've never owned an SNES in my life (I grew up playing the Genesis). I played the PSone version of Chrono Trigger and the GBA version of Yoshi's Island. Nevertheless, this game is another example of a game with catchy tunes. The two that stand out most in my mind are the "Obstacle Course (as named by the SSBB sound test)" and the final fight against giant Baby Bowser. Obstacle Course was a perfect blend of a kinetic tempo and a fun beat, perfect for the locales in a Yoshi game. The final boss music, however, is a much more bombastic song that starts with a throwback to the castle theme from SMB 3 and builds into a frenetic battle ballad complete with SNES-ified guitar riffs.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Okay, I'll admit, I grew up with Sonic, so you could probably name any level from a Genesis Sonic game and I'd know the entire track. However, Sonic 2 was filled to the brim with great songs. One such song is the theme for Chemical Plant Zone. Like most good Sonic songs should be, this song had a fast tempo, and it also gave the appropriate atmosphere, which is not an easy task given that the area is a giant, neon-ridden factory producing blue and pink chemicals as a blue hedgehog and his mutant fox sidekick run through it like a playground. Another theme from the game that I remember fondly is the Oil Ocean Zone. It combines elements of deep woodwinds (I can't quite place the instrument; it sounds like someone is blowing into a partially filled oil drum with a flute) and hard, factory-esque bass to give the level a feeling all its own. Other good themes from the game include Emerald Hill Zone and the boss theme.
Guardian Heroes - With Chrono Trigger and Sonic, you can argue that nostalgia might have skewed my perceptions of the validity of the songs. Heck, just playing these games might have skewn my perceptions since I might be remembering the atmosphere more than just the songs themselves. Fair enough. However, I have never once in my life played this game. Heck, I had never even heard of it until very recently (and by that I mean "days ago" recently) when I instantly fell in love with the two tracks featured in this video:
http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/benzaie/gsymdk/1633-guardian-heroes
These songs might feature the best use of a saxophone in any video game ever made. I have been humming the tune to that first song in my head ever since I heard it. I have played this video multiple times just to hear the songs. I want to get a Sega Saturn, find this game, and play it just from listening to these songs and seeing the little bit of gameplay in the video.
An honorable mention of mine is E-102 Gamma's theme from Sonic Adventure. While Open Your Heart and Gamma's theme are probably the only two tracks anyone really remembers from Sonic Adventure, Gamma's theme was a great amalgamation of classical piano and techno melodies. E-101 Beta's boss theme is also a great track for many of the same reasons as Gamma's theme.
Well, I've probably left a few great soundtracks out of this list, but I've typed too much as it is. And yes, I know that all of the games I've named are at least a little old. I'm not someone who denounces newer games; I just think that everyone's favorite tunes came from the 8-bit and 16-bit eras for a reason. Back then, composers were limited by their technology, so they had to be creative with their compositions. Anyway, I think I've said more than enough.
DoDonPachi Daioujou.
Boss fight theme and stage 5 theme are awesome. Hibachi theme is great too.
Boss fight theme and stage 5 theme are awesome. Hibachi theme is great too.
