Video Game Music

[jveezy]

The RPG thread got me thinking about video game music. I have quite a bit of it in my music collection. Of course we've all heard the Mario land theme and tetris and the Zelda theme. I'm talking about some of the lesser known ones (at least as far as the casual gamer is concerned).

My obsession with video game music started while playing RPGs (mainly SNES ones on an emulator) and whenever I got stuck somewhere I'd always get the tunes stuck in my head and I would notice that 6 hours after I was done playing I'd still be hearing it. Music can be a powerful tool for setting moods and video games is one place where that's absolutely crucial but you don't always notice it.

So throw up some youtube videos of some of your favorite video game songs. They don't have to be theme songs. They can come from anywhere in the game.

Before I start I'd also like to suggest Overclocked Remix. A site where musicians remix video game themes. They have quite a collection and every so often they'll even pick a game to release a full album of all the game's songs remixed (Yes. There's a Chrono Trigger one).

I'll get started with a double feature of sorts. The Corneria Theme originally from Star Fox (SNES) adapted for Super Smash Bros Brawl.



I'll go really old school with the second one. The Moon level from DuckTales (NES) followed by a really sweet dance version by Star Salzman from OC Remix.





There you have it. I'll add more later, but let's see some of your favorites first.

 

[Xander45]

I could put about a hundred different bits of music from Final Fantasy games but i shall only put one each from vi, vii, viii, ix and x.











And now for something completely different:

 

[Ixion]

This is slowly becoming my favourite piece of videogame music (although Aeris' theme might still just pip it):

 

[R.N7]

 

[GDH]

 

[KingEric7]

Let's hope this turns out to be more popular than my Video Game Music thread!

May as well post this one again, because it is, in my opinion, the best that Nobuo Uematsu has to offer who is, without a doubt, the best video game composer of all time:

 

[Olly Gunnar Solskjær]

I love the old NES/SNES/Megadrive era themes;





And you can't beat some Castlevania;

 

[101]

I memorised the whole playlist in order of Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004

 

[SmashedHombre]

It's this

 

[Xander45]

I think there should be a whole seperate Uematsu thread. The man is a genius.

 

[Ronaldo No.9]

The Metal Gear Solid series has some off the best music I've ever heard in a computer game:

Enclosure:




Metal Gear Solid 2 main theme:




Metal Gear Solid 3 theme:




Metal Gear Solid 4 theme:

 

[Wonder Pigeon]

 

[Wonder Pigeon]

 

[Wonder Pigeon]

And of course, the classic:

 

[WeasteDevil]

I actually do not view modern video game music (from the CD age) as being in a genre of its own, it's not any different to a CD track, there are no hardware limitations, there are no chips to program. The best video game music probably comes from the computer that actually introduced digital music to the masses, the Amiga.

 

[Doogie]

 

[esmufc07]

I can't believe no-one has mentioned Final Fantasy 7!

Also, the MGS4 soundtrack is absolute genius. My favourite soundtrack of the MGS series and the best soundtrack of any PS3 game thus far.

 

[nimic]

I'll just post the same as the list time this was brought up.



And, as always.



And, of course.



One of the best games ever, and pretty good music too.



Honestly, I think this is awesome. Listen to it for a while, you'll realize its awesomeness!



More Amiga!



God I loved that system.




I could do this all day.

 

[WeasteDevil]

You have to laugh!

 

[nimic]

You referring to that annoying person in the Lethal Weapon video? I guess we've got to give him some credit, as he recognized the Lethal Weapon Amiga music to be so good, but then I'm not sure I've ever met anyone who has heard that and didn't like it. I do like some of the non-Amiga tunes, but those are exceptions. The Amiga just sounds very, very good.

I think I'll have to find out if our old Amiga 500 still works. It probably doesn't, but I'll definitely try to get my hands on one some time later, when I can spare the money. It didn't just have good music, they were normally accompanied by great games

 

[jveezy]

Let's hope this turns out to be more popular than my Video Game Music thread!

I searched for one but didn't see any. Maybe I didn't look hard enough. I guess the timing seemed right for this one.

 

[jveezy]

The Brawl version is a nice orchestral touch.

I can't believe no-one has mentioned Final Fantasy 7!

I think people wanted to stay away from the obvious ones like Aeris and One Winged Angel but there's definitely some other gems on that soundtrack.

If someone wants to make a separate Uematsu thread, I won't be offended. I figure this thread will be full of his work soon enough if there isn't a separate one.

 

[WeasteDevil]

I think I'll have to find out if our old Amiga 500 still works. It probably doesn't, but I'll definitely try to get my hands on one some time later, when I can spare the money.

It probably does, mine does, and it was bought in 1988 I think.

My three year old and I are having a lot of fun with this at the moment.

About 40% of the games don't work, but it's got a 50Mhz full 68030 and 10MB of RAM in it with a 80MB (yes, megabyte) hard disk in it. There is a word processor called Final Writer installed on it, and I swear to god that performance wise it's not that much worse than Word 2007 running on a 3.8GHz XP box.

 

[R.N7]

Since almost every song in OoT is a masterpiece, it's really hard to choose a particular one.

 

[jveezy]

Since almost every song in OoT is a masterpiece, it's really hard to choose a particular one.

My personal favorite is Gerudo Valley.



Strangely enough. I haven't actually played most of these games.

I just really like the music.

 

[nimic]

It probably does, mine does, and it was bought in 1988 I think.

My three year old and I are having a lot of fun with this at the moment.

About 40% of the games don't work, but it's got a 50Mhz full 68030 and 10MB of RAM in it with a 80MB (yes, megabyte) hard disk in it. There is a word processor called Final Writer installed on it, and I swear to god that performance wise it's not that much worse than Word 2007 running on a 3.8GHz XP box.

Hmm.. I think I'll have to check ours then, it might still work. We got it in the early 90s, but we bought it used, with a whole stack of games. We were ecstatic when it was lying there when we got home from something or other. I think it was my first foray into gaming. Oh, if only my dad had known

 

[Massive Spanner]

I really like the opening music to F.E.A.R. Really set the tone for the game.

 

[WeasteDevil]

As always, probably the most underated game of this console generation.

 

[Xander45]

I can't believe no-one has mentioned Final Fantasy 7!

Also, the MGS4 soundtrack is absolute genius. My favourite soundtrack of the MGS series and the best soundtrack of any PS3 game thus far.

In the second post i put one piece from final fantasy vi through x. I put the main theme from vii as it is my personal favourite in it, also another excuse to listen to the tour de japon brilliant stuff.

 

[marrakoosh]

It probably does, mine does, and it was bought in 1988 I think.

My three year old and I are having a lot of fun with this at the moment.

About 40% of the games don't work, but it's got a 50Mhz full 68030 and 10MB of RAM in it with a 80MB (yes, megabyte) hard disk in it. There is a word processor called Final Writer installed on it, and I swear to god that performance wise it's not that much worse than Word 2007 running on a 3.8GHz XP box.

Shadow of the Beast II? AMAZING!

 

[jveezy]

Moar!

Mega Man 2 - Dr. Wily Stage 1

 

[WeasteDevil]

Shadow of the Beast II? AMAZING!

That's the 3rd one. Lovely machine though. I don't think most people realise how important that box of tricks was.

 

[Olly Gunnar Solskjær]