Game music you DON'T remember

[Akafez]

Okay, so after playing the Last of Us, I noticed that the music played in my head for a good while afterwards. I went to my other games and tried to remember their music as I looked at their covers. Skyrim immediately brought up the start menu song, RE5 it's credit song and mercenaries theme, Dead Space 2 pulled up those ominous "dun. dun." bits when you get a view of space, FO:NV had it's radio stations, Demon's Souls had the Penetrator and Tower Knight theme, Left 4 Dead 2 the special spawn queues, and so on. What didn't bring anything to mind were Black Ops and MW3, Resistance 3, Darksiders 2, RE6, and Dead Island.

I feel it's a bit of a letdown when a game's music doesn't stay with you, because a memorable soundtrack or whateveryoucalltheambientnoises can really improve your opinion of a game, at least in my opinion. So I'm wondering what games, good or bad, didn't leave much of an impression on you when it came to their music.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Just looking down my PS3 games on the shelf- Assassin's Creed (all of them) GTA IV, LittleBig Planet, Far Cry 2, Mirror's Edge, Infamous, Prototype, Batman AA, Mass Effect 1, Just Cause 2, Deus Ex HR, Dark Souls, Battlefield 3, SSX, Dragon's Dogma, Spec Ops the Line, Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3. The others I remember because they used pop songs or they had good soundtracks or I remember the soundtracks for some other reason (similarity to other soundtracks, like XCOM EU)
I find indie games usually try for good music, like Spelunky or FTL or Minecraft. Well, good compared to forgettable ones but not as good as full orchestral.

 

[Launcelot111]

Pretty much any game with guns and without licensed music. Upon reflection, the only games/series I can think of in which guns and good music were both involved are Goldeneye, Fallout, and Borderlands (and only for the opening credits of each).

EDIT: And most Rockstar games. Aside from LA Noire, the dominance of licensed music being the standout remains true

 

[ScrabbitRabbit]

Well, good compared to forgettable ones but not as good as full orchestral.

Eh, I'm not sure this is always the case. FTL's synths work far better for it than a fully-orchestral soundtrack would. Plus, a fully orchestrated soundtrack probably wouldn't mesh well with a pixel-art aesthetic.

OT: Most modern AAA games. That doesn't mean the soundtrack is necessarily bad, just that its understated. A lot of them are quite dull and uncreative, though. Generic tribal drums (I swear to God every composer out there has started using Drums of War for Kontakt as a crutch) and lots of foghorn-sounding brass and staccato strings with no real melody going on.

Darksiders 2 actually has a fairly nice soundtrack, it's just really low in the mix in the game. Listen to it outside the game sometime, it ain't bad.

 

[Evonisia]

I can't remember most of the Call of Duty music (besides World at War and Black Ops II). Most AAA games these days will be unmemorable to me and I'm not sure why. Worst offender to me: Halo 4. I know Bungie's beautiful composers couldn't return but darn it, it's a damn shame to leap from Halo: Reach's opening theme or Halo 3: ODST's "Finale" to err... what was in Halo 4 again? Even Halo Wars managed to have some nice tracks, the main menu theme, multiplayer snow, multiplayer grass and the battle music remain in my head.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Well, good compared to forgettable ones but not as good as full orchestral.

Eh, I'm not sure this is always the case. FTL's synths work far better for it than a fully-orchestral soundtrack would. Plus, a fully orchestrated soundtrack probably wouldn't mesh well with a pixel-art aesthetic.

It'd say it depends on the genre, having a synth soundtrack. For sci-fi, such as yes FTL then synth is more fitting, and for example in ME3 used is an orchestral soundtrack with synths as well, which is fitting. However for a game like Spelunky or Papers Please a synth soundtrack isn't really fitting and just sounds a bit dumb. In Spelunky it's at least a good soundtrack even if it doesn't fit, but it still suffers.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Let's see... I don't really remember much of Red Dead Redemption beyond the characteristic Western whistling/snapping. RE5 I played so much I think I remember every track in the game. Looking at Arkham Asylum I actually remember music from Arkham City (specifically "Initiation Time"). Dead Island I remember the intro song (obviously) and the melancholy tune that plays when you're back in the safehouse. I also seem to remember there's a banjo riff playing over the menus ans such that reminds me A LOT of Diablo 2. Borderlands I remember the intro too, again, obviously. Assassins's Creed music I confuse with Prince of Persia's and don't remember much of 2. Demon's Souls I don't remember anything even though I was playing the damn thing last night.

I could go on but bottom line I don't remember RDR, AssCreed 2 and Demon's Souls.

 

[an annoyed writer]

As much as I love the series, I really don't remember or care for Bioshock's music. There's just not much there, especially when you remove the period '50s and 1910s music. Also agreed with Novgorod on the music from Arkham Asylum: I remember the sequel's score much more.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Most of the music from military shooters is forgettable. Some exceptions exist, such as the pre-2010 Medal of Honor games, the first Call of Duty, and the early Battlefield games. However, those are very few when compared to all the ones I've played.

Let's see, there's also:
The Batman games. I remember liking some of the songs, but I don't remember any of them.
The BioShock games. Well, I played the first one to the point of eventually picking them up, but none of the soundtracks are particularly memorable.
Super Meat Boy. Regardless of how much time I spent with that game, I honestly don't remember any of the songs.
Fallout 3. Was there even music in that game?
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow. I remember liking the songs, but I think they were just too generic to be memorable.

There's plenty more, but I'm having trouble remembering all of the games that I've forgotten the soundtracks for.

 

[Liquidprid3]

Yeah, I turned off the music in Super Meat Boy completely, and it wasn't until I had 5 more bandages before 100% completion that I realized it was off. I turned it back on, and the songs are great. However, none of them are really memorable. I think it's someing that I would listen to on my own time. Binding if Issac has a similar artstyle, and it's music is very memorable. I will say the SMB music is fitting, though.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

I don't remember most music from games despite how good it might be. Mostly if i think of a game and some music doesn't immediately come to mind it probably was just not memorable enough.
Like I actually was thinking about something today, movie related though, where I loved the original Star Wars trilogy's score (the ORIGINAL movies) but I can't think of one damn song aside from Duel of the Fates that I even remotely remember from the prequels.
In fact most post-80's movies I can't remember shit for the musical scores... That really sucks.

 

[lacktheknack]

Pretty much every game that's action-packed.

I can't imprint the music to my brain when I'm being chased! D:

Pretty much the only exception to this is early Tomb Raiders, and that's because the music is infrequent and loud (and typically shows up to cue something). Also Fallout 3, because he hackin' and whackin' and smackin' dat meat...

 

[NeutralDrow]

I didn't even consciously realize Dark Souls had a soundtrack until maybe halfway through, when I heard the Stray Demon and Moonlight Butterfly themes enough times to remember the first couple of bars. And I think I may have remembered the Smough/Ornstein battle theme at one point, but no longer.

An incredible letdown because I practically worship Motoi Sakuraba for his work on the Tales and Baten Kaitos series.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Anything TES ESPECIALLY SKYRIM - people seem to make claims that Skyrim had an awesome soundtrack.
I can't for the life of me even remember one single track. It's just pure meh.

Well, there was the menu theme, which was really good. Anything past that was forgettable.

Fallout 3. Was there even music in that game?

OMG really?

That particular game had a stellar soundtrack and it played over and over in my head!
To this day hearing the songs conjures up memories of travelling through the Capital Wasteland.

Spoiler: more

For starters, the comment about it not having a soundtrack was a joke. I kept Galaxy News Radio turned off for a vast majority of the game, so I was obviously keeping myself away from about 90% of the available music. To me, it was just an annoying distraction when I was trying to sneak/fight my way through enemies. I'd occasionally listen to it when I was doing odd stuff by myself in an area I knew was clear of enemies, but that wasn't enough for me to remember anything.

 

[PsychoticHamster]

Most games' music sticks with me, but shooters or gun games certainly have a lower chance of making an impression. Off the top of my head, Gears of War, the Halo series and TF2 probably have the best soundtracks for "gun games". Overall, the elder scrolls series stick in my head the most, even after all these years sometimes I'll just remember a track and I feel like I'm playing them again, although I felt that a lot of Skyrim's tracks were more forgettable than Morrowind of Oblivion's.

 

[MrBaskerville]

I´d say most games have pretty generic soundtracks, sounds like run of the mill movie music for the most part. I can´t even mention any particular titles, it would be easier to mention games with memorable soundtracks. It´s a long list, but the list with forgetable music is waaay longer. There´s probably a few western rpgs in there, they often seem to be ripping of Lotr, just without memorable melodies.

 

[Yoshi4102]

Yeah, I turned off the music in Super Meat Boy completely, and it wasn't until I had 5 more bandages before 100% completion that I realized it was off. I turned it back on, and the songs are great. However, none of them are really memorable. I think it's someing that I would listen to on my own time. Binding if Issac has a similar artstyle, and it's music is very memorable. I will say the SMB music is fitting, though.

Hmmm, I find it interesting that you didn't find the SMB track memorable. It may be one of the most memorable sound tracks to me (especially hell), except for the rapture (or whatever it's called I haven't played for a loooong time) and I got 100% as well.

As for soundtracks I DON'T remember, that's a tough one to think of. I will say though that the most memorable are the chip-tunes because they generally rely on their melody. There are too many games I've played in my lifetime to come up with something that isn't memorable.