Video Game Music.

[Dr. Paine]

Please note: This is NOT a place to talk about songs that happen to be used in video games, but tracks/songs written specifically for video games, or most known through them. This can include 'real' songs (e.g. Still Alive, some of the Silent Hill songs), or instrumental tracks... which I'm sure this thread will be primarily composed of Just avoid listing songs that are given a ton of radio play- these are mostly found in racing games/Guitar Hero and the like.

 

So! Any games you know of with particularly good music? Any tracks that could put most of what's on the radio right now to shame? Any soundtracks you own/want to get?

 

To throw my suggestions out there... Mass Effect. First and second games. Jack Wall's composition was bloody beautiful, and really does an amazing job of setting the tone for whatever's going on in the games, be it a suicidal mission, a more tender moment between characters, or sheer loneliness and the true, final loss of a people. The character themes for Mass Effect 2 also deserve some mention, as they manage to capture each character perfectly, while retaining some common themes (or even callbacks, in the case of one non-organic...).

 

... -coughs- Sorry, got a bit carried away there I'd love to own the soundtracks, but sadly, that has yet to happen. Honorable mention goes to the ending song for Mass Effect, M4 Part II. Sadly, I don't think it was recorded specifically for the game, but it's a good listen.

 

I'd also like to say the Metroid series (especially the Prime games) have had some wonderful music in their time, but listing everything would take a while.

Edited February 21, 2012 by Dr. Paine

[BlueApollo]

I'd just like to say first off the I went to the Video Games Live concert this year and it was amazing! (Minus the fact that I didn't recognize half the games that they played music from, but it was still awesome)

 

Anyway, I'm bigger on film soundtracks, but video game soundtracks are still important to me. I think my favorite would have to be the Halo soundtracks (Combat Evolved, 2, and 3). Marty O'Donnel and Michael Salvatori did a spectacular job of taking just one simple set of octaves (the E octaves) and turning them into some really amazing music. After those three games, though, it all started to go downhill and the music started to sound like (dare I say it?) music for po/rnographic features. It was really, really annoying and I couldn't bear to listen to those anymore.

 

The Legend of Zelda soundtracks are also pretty good. I just haven't gotten around to listening to much beyond Twilight Princess. The Civilization series music (especially IV and V) is also spectacular.

Edited August 12, 2011 by BlueApollo

[TheFallenAngel6236]

The Shin Megami Tensei games have amazing music tracks. Most of them are vocal rather than only instruments. And then the Final Fantasy series has some amazing tracks Like 'Cloud Smiles' and 'Roses of May'. The World Ends With You has some pretty good tracks as well.

[Lila]

WAVERACE INSTRUMENTAL

 

I looooooove it.

[Renhart]

Lol, beat me to it.

 

I'm a big fan of video game music. Some of my favorite soundtracks include Final fantasy, LoZ, Secret of Mana, and WoG. Aswell as almost anything from the 8-bit era. I recently went to a Video games live concert and I hope to attend the LoZ 25th symphony sometime next year.

 

Found this through StumbleUpon:

http://vip.aersia.net/vip.swf

It's free and streams almost instantly.

Edited February 24, 2012 by Booo

[BlueApollo]

Lol, beat me to it.

 

I'm a big fan video game music myself. Some of my favorite soundtracks include Final fantasy, LoZ, Secret of Mana, and WoG. Aswell as almost anything from the 8-bit era. I recently went to a Video games live concert and I hope to attend the LoZ 25th symphony sometime next year.

 

Found this through StumbleUpon:

http://vip.aersia.net/vip.swf

It's free and streams almost instantly.

Oooh! I'm listening to that website now. Thanks for sharing it! ^.^ There's lots of music, and it's actually got some pretty good new stuff for me to listen to. Yay for discovery!

[soupnazi]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPFg_D8PB0Y

 

This is some of the best instrumental music I've heard in a video game.

 

NOT going to list the other Still Alive because that is too fanboyish and I don't have time to look for a good video.

[Aquenee]

As soon as I got back into ACE online, I was wondering if there was a thread for this.

Here are some of my favorites:

Pandea Point A/B

Can't remember what map this is. Might be Rock's Nest Middle.

Lumein Volcano?

Violence Blizzard/Rock's Nest Top(?)

 

And my overall favorite, Sunshine Born.

[tinakhal]

All the Halo Soundtracks. My favorite is the Rock Anthem for Saving the World. That was my favorite thing to listen to every time Halo 2 started up, and at the last level of Halo 3. Oh the memories. I really can't wait for what Marty O'Donnell comes back with in Halo 4.

 

After that...well, it was made for the movie... which eventually became a video game.

Harry Potter Theme

[Jet Raptor]

I have tons of video game soundtracks loaded into my itunes. |D

I was just listening to some stuff from Jet Force: Gemini. Imo, Rare had some of the best video game music ever.

Mario music is pretty epic, too. 'Specially Super Mario 64 and Super Mario Galaxy.

Koji Kondo is amazing. ._.

[YukiSenoue]

All the games Jun Senoue worked as composer have awesome soundtracks. Some games I played just for the soundtrack (like Victory Goal '96 for Saturn - I HATE soccer games, but that soundtrack... oh my God. ).

 

Kenichi Tokoi, Fumie Kumatani, Tomoya Ohtani, Hideaki Kobayashi, Naofumi Hayata... and of course Jun Senoue Sonic Team have some of the best music composers of the VGs.

 

Some of my favorite "main themes":

 

Burning Hearts ~Honou no Angel~ - Takenobu Mitsuyoshi (Burning Rangers)

 

 

 

[Dunno where this music is used in the game... the NASCAR Arcade machine I played was malfunctioning... no music =( ]

 

Crush 40 overdose, lol. Haters gonna hate

Edited August 15, 2011 by Neo Metal Sonic

[Fortune86]

I'd have to say I like a lot of the SMT and KH songs and pieces. FF I can sometimes take or leave, although I do like 'The Extreme'.

[Dianacat777]

I adore the music from Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess, and the music from Prototype.

 

Have my favorite tracks on my Zune

 

Some Prototype stuff

 

Edited August 15, 2011 by Dianacat777

[ToonYoshi]

Gusty Garden Galaxy. It has awesome music.

 

But my fav has to be Bulblax Kingdom from Pikmin 2.

[Abandonship]

Skies of Arcadia definitely has the best soundtrack of any game I've ever played. It's all orchestral and it sounds absolutely amazing.

[El3m3nt]

Passion/Sancturay By Utada Hikaru! used in most if not all KH games

[DarkLadyNyara]

The Final Fantasy games in general have good music. Even the earliest games in the series have some really nice songs.

[Stromboli]

I have the Halo soundtracks. Like 'em a lot. :3

I also liked a lot of the music from Twilight Princess.

[Trikonasana]

The Pokemon games have some good music, too - my favourites from the series are:

- Dark Cave and Dragon's Den themes from G/S/C

- Elite Four and Champion battle themes from R/S/E

- Ending credits theme from B/W

Among others, of course; the series has so many neat tracks.

 

The Kingdom Hearts games have fantastic soundtracks, too. Another of my favourites is the Dire, Dire Docks theme from Super Mario 64 - an amazing track, despite being one of the lesser-known ones.

[RheaZen]

I have the entire soundtrack for Tales of Symphonia in iTunes. I downloaded it from... somewhere. I don't remember anymore.

 

[TikindiDragon]

I love the music composed for the title sequence of Civ IV. The music for the whole game is, to be fair, epic, but a lot of it's recordings of actual classical pieces. That particular one was, however, originaly created for the game.

[Trikonasana]

I forgot about one of the best soundtracks for a game I've played - Okami.

 

Okami White Light Majesty is a brilliant track, but the whole game has fantastic music.

[psyshock]

I'm like in LOVE with practically ALL of the Kingdom Hearts music. My favourite would probably either be Ventus' theme, Roxas' theme, Xion's theme, the orchestrated and normal version(not the Planit-B remix version) of Hikari, Kairi's theme, Sanctuary and much more.

Edited September 21, 2011 by psyshock

[Aquenee]

I love the music composed for the title sequence of Civ IV. The music for the whole game is, to be fair, epic, but a lot of it's recordings of actual classical pieces. That particular one was, however, originaly created for the game.

That song is the best reason for why I still love Civ IV, even if I usually play it as a boredom killer.

 

I'll also come in and say that pretty much any music from Kingdom Hearts is very nice. My personal favorite.

[dragon_mando]

the WoW and LotRO soundtracks <3 also all of the Star Wars games' soundtracks (KotOR and KotOR II especially).

 

So much love.