Top Ten Video Game Soundtracks

[Joffas16]

After seeing Mycroft Holmes's thread to create a forum top ten games list based on everybody's top tens I decided that this was an awesome idea and decided that I would use this system for something I had been thinking about lately.

I want to know what the Escapists favourite video game soundtracks are. To find out I will use the same system used in Mycroft Holmes's thread. Everyone can post their top ten and a forum top ten will be created based on these.

Edit: 27/10/2013

Thanks to some suggestions from Battenburg I'll be changing this slightly, now all entries will be worth 1 vote since most people weren't ordering their lists anyway and it is probably fairer that way. And, people can now post as many games as they want in their lists, and any that have already been posted can be added to since I haven't started counting yet. I won't add to mine though because I think that ten is a nice and neat number.

1. Chrono Cross
2. Hitman 2: Silent Assassin
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
4. Jet Set Radio Future
5. Castlevania: Nocturne in the Moonlight
6. To The Moon
7. Final Fantasy 6
8. Street Fighter 2
9. Pikmin
10. F-Zero X



So Escapist, what are your favourite games? I really do want to know.

Oh, and also, I'd like to thank Mycroft Holmes for coming up with the idea I'm using for this.

Edit-29th: First Count is finally done! Here it is, the Escapist's top ten soundtracks.

Spoiler: Top Ten

10. Chrono Cross, Street Fighter 2, Oblivion, Halo 3, Persona 3, The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker (5)
9. Final Fantasy 6, Mass Effect 2, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Megaman 2(6)
8. Deus Ex: Human Revolution (7)
7. Morrowind (7)
6. Chrono Trigger (7)
5. Shadow of the Colossus (8)
4. Persona 4 (8)
3. Skyrim (9)
2. Final Fantasy VII (10)
1. Bastion (11)

Also, here's the rest of the data if you want to see the runner ups.

Spoiler: Warning, massive pile of words within

11: Bastion
10: Final Fantasy VII
9: Skyrim
8: Persona 4, Shadow of the Colossus
7: Chrono Trigger, Morrowind, Deus Ex: Human Revolution
6: Mass Effect 2, Final Fantasy 6, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Megaman 2
5: Chrono Cross, Street Fighter 2, Oblivion, Halo 3, Persona 3, The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker
4: Final Fantasy 9, Halo: Combat Evolved, Portal 2, Okami, Journey, Mass Effect, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XIII, Bioshock
3: To The Moon, Metroid Prime, Homeworld, The World Ends With You, Xenoblade Chronicles, Metal Gear Solid 3, Silent Hill 2, Half-Life 2, The Legend of Zelda: Majora?s Mask, Pokemon X & Y, Mass Effect 3, Donkey Kong Country, Infamous 2, Kingdom Hearts
2: Hitman 2: Silent Assassin, Final Fantasy XII-2, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Halo 3: ODST, Halo 2, Command and Conquer: Red Alert, Brutal Legend, Portal, Super Mario Bros, Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon, Red Alert 2, Saints Row 4, The Witcher 2, FTL: Faster Than Light, Terraria, Audiosurf, The Last of Us, Homeworld 2, Crysis 2, Modern Warfare 2, Final Fantasy Crisis Core, Banjo Kazooie, Paper Mario, Super Mario Galaxy 2, Braid, Vampire: The Masquerade ? Bloodlines, Red Dead Redemption, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Final Fantasy IV, Guilty Gear, GTA: Vice City, Megaman X, Knights of the Old Republic 2, Assassin?s Creed III, Super Metroid, Ninja Gaiden, Tetris, Sonic the Hedgehog, The Binding of Isaac, Assassin?s Creed Revelation?s, Knights of the Old Republic.

 

[Ryotknife]

in no particular order:

Chrono trigger
Xenosaga 3
Final Fantasy 13-2
Metal Gear Rising Revengence
The Last Remnant
Disgaea series
Soul Nomad
Devil May Cry 3
Kingdom Hearts 2
Final Fantasy 9

 

[spartandude]

1. Morrowind
2. Halo 3 ODST
3. Halo 2
4. Pokemon Generation 2
5. Halo Combat Evolved
6. Oblivion
7. Skyrim
8. Halo 3
9. Neverwinter Nights
10.Metroid Prime

 

[Abomination]

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Homeworld
Final Fantasy (series)
Civilization 4
Command and Conquer: Red Alert
Brutal Legend
Portal (series)
Team Fortress 2
Super Mario Brothers

 

[TheEvilCheese]

I would assume that those doing lists with no order just have each counted as a 1 for collation purposes.
My list:

1. Chrono Trigger.
2. The World Ends With You.
3. Bastion.
4. Persona 4.
5. Ocarina of time (3d)
6. Oblivion
7. Dissidia 012: Duodecim (or however you're supposed to write that one)
8. Super Smash Brothers Brawl.
9. Muramasa: Rebirth.
10 Maplestory. (Seriously, it's a grindy Korean MMO, and honestly not the best IMO, but it has consistently excellent music.)

 

[munx13]

1. Quake 2
2. Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon
3. Medal of Honor (1999)
4. Red Alert 2
5. Unreal Tournament 3
6. Stronghold
7. Killing Floor
8. Brutal Legend
9. God of War
10. Dawn of War II: chaos rising

So far none of you have put Quake 2 on your list. THE POX ON YOU, AND YOUR KIND!

 

[Scarim Coral]

Let see (in no order)

Metroid Prime
Viewtiful Joe
Xenoblade Chroncile
Golden Sun
Okami
Fire Emblem Blazing Sword
The World Ends With You
Phantasy Star Online
No More Heroes
Guild Wars 2

 

[Tuxedoman]

In no order, as I don't know which one I like the most really

1: Deus Ex: Human Revolution
2: Warhammer 40k Dawn of War 2
3: Halo 3
4: Saints Row 4
5: Witcher 2
6: Payday 2
7: FTL: Faster Than Light
8: Battlefield 2142
9: Dark Souls
10: Terraria

Honorable mention goes to Audiosurf.

captcha: You dont say!
Hah. Hah hah. Captcha gets the joke.

 

[ForumSafari]

ITT: So much JRPG...

1. Command & Conquer: Red Alert/Counterstrike/Aftermath
2. Quake Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon
3. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2/Yuri's Revenge
4. Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater
5. Devil May Cry
6. Final Fantasy 8
7. Super Mario 3
8. Doom
9. Wipeout 2097 (but most of them)
10. 7th Guest

 

[Casual Shinji]

I don't think I have enough favourite soundtracks to even fill out a top 10.

Silent Hill 1,2,3
The Last of Us
Wind Waker
Journey
Shadow of the Colossus

And that's about it. Though I recently did rediscover this great track from Klonoa 2...

 

[R4ptur3]

1. Bastion
2. Final fantasy crisis core
3. Banjo-Kazooie
4. legend of Zelda: ocarina of time
5. Mass effect 2
6. Oblivion
7. Sonic adventure 2
8. Shogun 2 total war
9. Super Mario bros
10. Paper mario

 

[Hero of Lime]

This is in no particular order.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
2. Pokemon Black and White
3. Halo 3
4. Golden Sun: Lost Age
5. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
6. Super Mario Galaxy
7. Super Mario Galaxy 2
8. God of War II
9. Paper Mario
10. Pokemon X and Y

Too hard to choose just ten, like the list of top ten games.

As a side note, even though I will gladly champion Ocarina of Time as my favorite game, other Zelda games have it beaten in regards to music for me personally.

 

[MysticSlayer]

Sort of hard to place them in order, but oh well:

1. Xenoblade Chronicles
2. Super Mario Galaxy
3. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault (expansions included)
4. Call of Duty
5. Tales of Vesperia
6. Prince of Persia: The Two Thrones
7. Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault
8. Mass Effect (trilogy)
9. Braid
10. The Last Story

Yeah, essentially, I run on three criteria:

1. It can't simply be a combination of a bunch of other great songs, so games like Smash Bros. is automatically out. Games that re-use old songs in the series lose points (part of the reason Allied Assault is #3 instead of #2), but I don't discount them entirely.
2. It had to have drawn me into the game.
3. It had to have songs I actively sought out outside of just the game.

The problem is that very seldom are game soundtracks good on their own merit. They always rely on the scenes they are set to and very seldom are they actually enjoyable to just turn on because you want to listen to some music.

Also note that I haven't completed Eternal Sonata, yet, so I didn't bother to add that, but based on the songs I've heard from the game it would make the top ten.

 

[Ashadowpie]

FFIX
Assassins Creed 2
World of Warcraft
Skyrim
Zelda Oot
Donkey Kong 2
Okami
Sky Cooper 2
FFVII
Pokemon X

 

[Fireaxe]

1. Warcraft 2
2. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
3. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind
4. Deus Ex: Human Revolution
5. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
6. Diablo
7. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
8. Super Mario World
9. Myth 2: Soulblighter
10. Donkey Kong Country

 

[Battenberg]

I want to know what the Escapists favourite video game soundtracks are. To find out I will use the same system used in Mycroft Holmes's thread. Everyone can post their top ten and a forum top ten will be created based on these. The game in the number one spot will get 2 points, second and third will get 1.5 and the rest all get 1. Please don't place any games in as tied for a spot and only go up to ten, that will help keep this simple.

May I suggest an alternative system? People post every game soundtrack they think is good enough to warrant listing (or possibly just limit it to picking your _one_ favourite) and each time a game is listed it gets one point. No points for general series/ franchise mentions - ignore them and maybe do a seperate thread if you want a seperate list other wise votes may get crossed (e.g. if I vote for the whole FF series why would I also specifically vote for FFXII?/). You can already see from the posts here that some people don't always have exactly 10 suggestions they think are worth mentioning (myself included), some only have a couple, some may manage up to 20 plus quite a few people don't have any specific order (myself included). Not to mention that the points system you're suggesting is flawed in my opinion. It implies that, on average, people will like their first place entry twice as much as their 4th place entry and their 4th place entry exactly as much as 10th place. I know it's your thread but I think you might struggle to get a decent top 10 with those rules, make it a 1 point per vote system with either 1 or infinity votes; simpler for everyone.

On topic my list would be:

Crash Team Racing
Final Fantasy XII
Gitaroo Man
Skyrim
Hitman 2: Silent Assassin (this would probably be my #1 choice if I had to pick one)
Uncharted 2
Borderlands (1)
Red Dead Redemption
Assassin's Creed 2
XCOM: Enemy Unknown
The Last of Us

 

[Joffas16]

There's no way you're getting an overall order out of this as it stands because people aren't posting the nice neat ordered top 10s you...

May I suggest an alternative system? People post every game soundtrack they think is good enough to warrant listing (or possibly just limit it to picking your _one_ favourite) and each time a game is listed it gets one point. No points for general series/ franchise mentions - ignore them and maybe do a seperate thread if you want a seperate list other wise votes may get crossed (e.g. if I vote for the whole FF series why would I also specifically vote for FFXII?/). You can already see from the posts here that some people don't always have exactly 10 suggestions they think are worth mentioning (myself included), some only have a couple, some may manage up to 20 plus quite a few people don't have any specific order (myself included). Not to mention that the points system you're suggesting is flawed in my opinion. It implies that, on average, people will like their first place entry twice as much as their 4th place entry and their 4th place entry exactly as much as 10th place. I know it's your thread but I think you might struggle to get a decent top 10 with those rules, make it a 1 point per vote system with either 1 or infinity votes; simpler for everyone.

You make a very good point, I'll change the rules a bit based on your suggestions, thanks a lot.

Also, it's good to see that I'm not the only one who enjoys the Hitman soundtracks. Jesper Kyd is one of my favourite video game composers, right up there with Yasunori Mitsuda and Koji Kondo.

Too hard to choose just ten, like the list of top ten games.

As a side note, even though I will gladly champion Ocarina of Time as my favorite game, other Zelda games have it beaten in regards to music for me personally.

Well, you're in luck. This thread now runs on a new system, post as many games as you please and they don't have to be ordered if you don't want to.

And in regards to the Zelda soundtracks, I get what you mean. I don't think that Ocarina of Time has many of the best tracks in the whole series, but overall I think that the music in that game is used incredibly well and is of a very high standard. If I had to choose one game to represent the music of the whole series, I think I would choose that one.