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Music is an essential part of any videogame, and while many games merely come out with recycled trite a few rise above their genres and mediums to offer music which hugely adds to the quality of the game, and which helps to define the experience of playing the game. What are the games that offered the best music?

For me, the list includes:

1. Super Mario Brothers--the medium was crude, but the results were extraordinary. The songs are all classics of videogame lore.
2. Icewind Dale--brilliantly scored, with flawless sound quality.
3. X-Wing--even though the quality of sound files back then left something to be desired, X-wing's use of music from the SW trilogy was a thrilling part of the experience.
4. Donkey Kong Country II--The fun, upbeat music was beautifully matched to the setting.
5. Metal Gear Solid (series)--I can't pick just one, so I'll cheat and use all three. These games featured spectacular music.

the Command and Conquer Games all had great soundtracks (not sure of generals, not having played it) But i do often hum Hell March under my breath when im feeling in a particulery strange mood

hmm. no real way to pick one (and i'd swear we just did this not too long ago, so. . .)

chrono cross/trigger.
metal gear series
xenogears/saga series
Tekken Tag Tourney
parappa the rapper (yes, it was a cheesy game, but damn it had catchy tunes).

Master of Ossus wrote:Music is an essential part of any videogame, and while many games merely come out with recycled trite a few rise above their genres and mediums to offer music which hugely adds to the quality of the game, and which helps to define the experience of playing the game. What are the games that offered the best music?

For me, the list includes:

1. Super Mario Brothers--the medium was crude, but the results were extraordinary. The songs are all classics of videogame lore.
2. Icewind Dale--brilliantly scored, with flawless sound quality.
3. X-Wing--even though the quality of sound files back then left something to be desired, X-wing's use of music from the SW trilogy was a thrilling part of the experience.
4. Donkey Kong Country II--The fun, upbeat music was beautifully matched to the setting.
5. Metal Gear Solid (series)--I can't pick just one, so I'll cheat and use all three. These games featured spectacular music.

Can never have one of these threads without mentioning TIE Fighter. Which, while it used the same old MIDI engine that X-Wing did, managed to combine familiar SW trilogy music with original SW-based compositions.

We have this sort of thread quite often, don't we?

Oh well, I'd still say the Castlevania-series has some of the best game music ever. Dracula's Curse probably had the best music of the entire NES-era (in my opinion, of course). Symphony of the Night's music is utterly beautiful (a bit of a let-down though that they used one of the more boring songs, Final Toccata, throughout most of the Inverted Castle). Konami always seems to be able to do the best with what they have.

And I also think that TIE Fighter had better music than X-Wing. Gotta love the opening theme of Star Wars turning into the Imperial March, and Thrawn's theme.

Mechwarrior 2 - the perfect accompaniment to the action.

I really like the main theme in Rome TW

Tetrisphere has a surprisingly good and broadly-ranged techno soundtrack.

Dooey Jo wrote:And I also think that TIE Fighter had better music than X-Wing. Gotta love the opening theme of Star Wars turning into the Imperial March, and Thrawn's theme.

Thrawn has a theme? Cool.

EDIT: You can find all of the TIE Fighter MIDIs here:

++Link Removed /Faram

However, Thrawn's theme isn't that great after hearing it. (shrug)

EDIT DEUX: Wow, I heard that Title theme switch into the Imperial March and must say I'm impressed with it. I thought the main theme would play out and then it would segue into the IM, but that completely caught me off guard.

Sorry I am not sure if that link is legal, so I err on the side of caution
//Faram

I see. So if anyone's interested, PM me.

Command & Conquer and C&C: Red Alert and Red Alert 2.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Total Annihilation

Soldat*





*Being the Best Game Ever, it is only logical that it also has the best game music ever.

Final Fantasy goes without saying. Unfourtunately, we'll probably be seeing its decline now that Uematsu left.

Red Alert 2 and Force Commander had fucking awesome music. I still listen to both long after I quit playing them. I would kill to have those tracks on CD. Grr...

Morrowind had good music, I just don't think it had enough music. Pretty anemic in that department, I'm afraid. It's still one of the greatest games. Ever. Of all time.

*can't wait for Oblivion*

Zelda. Zelda, Zelda, Zelda. Awesome music.

Red Alert 2 and Force Commander had fucking awesome music. I still listen to both long after I quit playing them. I would kill to have those tracks on CD. Grr...

Last I checked, you could (legally) download the Rage and Leviathan mixes from LucasArts.

Praxis wrote:Zelda. Zelda, Zelda, Zelda. Awesome music.

Uts has said that he's been particularly impressed with the music in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

The whole Ys series by Falcom has a special place in my heart, but Ys V is my favorite of the whole lot - maybe my favorite of all. It's...it's just really hard to describe, there're so many things I could say about it. The scores are so magnificent, so vibrent, so fitting to each area and circumstance: it probably pushed the abilities of the SNES to its limit with the superb quality of the audio, almost sounding as thoug it was a real orchestral track instead of a set of cued samples running in sequence. Nothing could possibly top it on my list - from Digest, Field of Gale and Wind Knight to Sand Castle, Partisan and Crime and Punishment, every single track is pure bliss.

Now I just have to pick up Ys VI - The Ark of Napishtim and the console to play it on...sigh...

Zelda has damn good music, although Ocarina of Time was missing a certain something... What was it...

Oh, how about the OVERWORLD THEME!? Sheesh. That glaring absence almost ruined the soundtrack. Good otherwise.

Sharpshooter wrote:The whole Ys series by Falcom has a special place in my heart

I loved Y's III myself. Especially when the JDK Falcom band covered its soundtrack.

Of course, Symphony of the Night is perhaps the greatest one I can think of.

Xenogears and Chrono Trigger

The Donkey Kong Country series (at least 1 and 2) I thought were phenominal.

Megaman X1-X3 kick ass. Megaman 2 is also quite good. Especially all the remixes of it done at www.vgmusic.com. Ninja Gaiden should also be included on this list.

Final Fantasy IV, VI, and VII.

one thing just occured to me that i'm surprised nobody else mentioned. the phantasy star series from sega. always did like the music that series had.

Zelda Series: Just brilliant.

Skies of Arcadia: I love SoA's music. For an example, I love the way the basic sailing them subtly changes depending where you are. Plus, Ramirez's theme is the best single piece of game music ever.


And Total Annihilation has some great battle music.

However, the best RTS music ever is the Red Alert Hell March. That rocked in a literal way.

Deus Ex
Heavy Gear 1
Halo 1 and 2
Mechwarrior 2 (including expansions)
Unreal 1

I don't think I'd be able to choose between Zelda and Final Fantasy. So I won't; they're both wonderful.

Since I don't think anyone else has brought this up, I'm going to post this link that Kuja sent me a little while back. It's a bunch of piano arrangements of video game music, and it's fantastic. If you haven't seen it before, definitely check it out now. Simply beautiful.

PS: Any reason you didn't want this in AMP, MoO?

Because it's about music from video/computer games.

Zaia wrote:
Since I don't think anyone else has brought this up, I'm going to post this link that Kuja sent me a little while back. It's a bunch of piano arrangements of video game music, and it's fantastic. If you haven't seen it before, definitely check it out now. Simply beautiful.

I've been going to VGmusic for awhile now. OCRemix.org is pretty good too, but doesnt have the volume of songs VG does. Great site.


DOH, the link in my previous post is wrong :p

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:Because it's about music from video/computer games.

Right, and music is the main point of discussion.

I figured I'd ask because there are a lot of people who forget that AMP is for music now too. Wasn't trying to be difficult.

Despite it's many faults Metal Gear Solid 2 had some brilliant music, which you should expect since they hired Movie composer Harry Gregson Williams to do it.
My pick of the bnch would be the Intro sequence's, just when Snake leaps off the bridge and the choir (i think) kicks in.
It's a pity the game wasn't as good as the music.