Favourite Game Soundtracks

[legios]

So, I was sitting there playing Bio-Shock recently and thinking how atmospheric its choice of music was, which lead me to thinking about game soundtracks in general and how very effective some of them can be.

My favourites, and the reasons for them are below, what videogame music ranks up there for you good folks?

Karl's favourites:-

Ace Combat 6: A striking combination of electronic music and a symphonic score. More effective than that it sounds - especially in some of the tracks where the two sounds come together and weave in and out of each other. It has a nice epic feel to it, which creates a sense of being in a sweeping war movie, and its "heroic" theme really does the job of making you feel like an ace pilot with your back to the wall.

Deus Ex: There is something about the tenor of the music - especially the main menu track which creates a nice hybrid post-cyberpunk atmosphere. The music goes a long way to establishing that this is a setting where the wearing of mirrorshades indoors, at night, is not just acceptable but almost mandatory.

Bioshock: Like the above, it is all about atmosphere. More than anything else it is the choice of music that really sells the idea that this is an environment that got frozen in a twisted nightmare version of the thirties/forties. It doesn't matter that the time-frame is supposed to be some time in the seventies, in Rapture human achievement ended in the time of Gangsters and G-Men.

Halo: One of the really successful scores for a game. It was the music that made me unnerved before I encountered the Flood for the first time - and the same music still puts me a little on edge when I replay it. Some of the sub-themes worked really well in terms of their ability to manipulate the player. I like to hang back and harrass the enemy from range when I am playing FPS games, but it was hard to keep doing that when the music was ramping up for a fast-paced melee.

So those are the ones that are really memorable for me, what about you folks?

Karl

[The Doctor]

Pah! who need pretty music tracks when one can have the calming beeps of the glorious ZX Spectrum!

*goes back into cave*

-Ralph

[Hero]

I'm partial to the Revenge of Shinobi soundtrack from the old Megadrive/Genesis game. Or basically anything composed by Yuzo Koshiro in general.

TMNT: Turtles In Time (Snes/Arcade) is also another favourite, and it even features the annoying but catchy instrumental version of 'Pizza Power' from the Coming Out of Their Shells tour. The soundtrack or rather a fan rip is available to download HERE

The Soundtrack of Braid is also a pleasure to the ears.

[Deleted]

Got be old school stuff for me. Martin Galway wrote some incredible emotive pieces on the Commodore 64 so most of his stuff would be fighting for places in my top five and it would be pretty hard to pick one or two of them out.

On the Amiga it would probably be Turrican - technically brilliant and just a stunning suite of tracks that fitted the action perfectly.

On a more contemporary note, Grand Theft Auto IV for the real-world feel that the soundtrack adds to the game and Guitar Hero Aerosmith / Guitar Hero World Tour

[Benn]

Top 5 Game soundtracks... Hmm.. Okay.

1. Final Fantasy VII
Other games in the series had better music, but it was the first I got into, and a lot of these still send teh chillz down my spine.

2. Fantasy World Dizzy
That title screen music!

3. Sonic The Hedgehog 2
Especially the Metropolis Zone.

4. Metal Gear Solid 2

5. Kingdom Hearts II
Earns a place on my list, just for the opening theme "Passion"

[Kingoji]

I'm loving Harry Gregson Williams' Metal Gear themes, especially for Guns Of The Patriots. But then I can't find a single thing about that game not to love.
I also like Akira Yamaoka's Silent Hill works for wonderful creepiness.
Then we get somewhat old-school with Micheal Land's scores for the first couple of Secret Of Monkey Island games.
And I really love the recurring themes for Street Fighter's Ryu and Ken.

[Deleted]

The rousing orchestral music of the Legend of Zelda games are my favourite with Ocarina of Time being the best of them all. I also like the music featured in Super Mario 64 as I felt it really fitted the levels they were heard in.

[Gav]

Shadow of the Colossus has my all time favourite game score. Big sweeping orchestral score - fits perfectly into the action, creating a real sense of heroism as you tackle the various beasts throughout the game. I'd recommend downloading it.

Other than that I'd go for Zelda: The Wind Waker. Extremely under-rated game with an excellent score - just as high a standard as the rest of the series - with some jaunty sea shanties thown in.

In terms of overall sound design - the recently released Dead Space on the 360 takes some beating.

[Deleted]

Yesterday I received the soundtrack CD for The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask off an Ebay shop. This will now go with my soundtrack CD of its predecessor Ocarina of Time.

Majora's Mask was by far the darkest of all Legend of Zelda games and as such the music reflects this with a few of the tracks sounding a little creepy. Also, because it was a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time some of the in-game music from that game was carried over into this one and those tracks are repeated on the disc. All in all its a nice game music disc although not quite as good as OoT.

[Benn]

A nice little old-school sounding soundtrack that I have just discovered to one of my favorite games;
Klonoa: Door To Phantomile. PS1 classic! Not orchestrated, just what sounds to be a MIDI chipset of goodness!

Must get the sequel now...

And does anyone on here frequent OCRemix? I love that site.

[Cullen]

Have I not posted in here? Well lets sort that out.

Another vote for Shadow of the Collossus - truely brilliant score. There are few soundtracks (and not just game ones) that I find as uplifting. There's a couple of battle with the collossus themes that put me right back into the game. I can almost smell the fur of those beasties.

My all time list is pretty much my all time games list (Zelda: LttP, Super Metroid, FFVI, Secret of Mana) but here's some of the more exotic ones I like:

Legend of Mana: the games not to everyones tastes and its certainly a disappointment to anyone expecting more Secret of Mana or Seiken Densetsu 3, but I loved it. What really made the game for me is the magical score.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: Fantastic game but the score is great too. I must admit to liking the cheesy ending song, I am the Wind, more than I probably should.

Mass Effect: downloaded the score for this immediately after finishing the game. Cracking stuff and now I'm getting into Faunts who did the credits theme.

[Deleted]

Zelda: Link to the Past has an excellent soundtrack much like most of the Zelda games that followed it.

[legios]

Jul 25, 2009 22:02:26 GMT Cullen said:

Mass Effect: downloaded the score for this immediately after finishing the game. Cracking stuff

I've been meaning to buy the CD release of this. It is indeed a fantastic score - it does have a fantastic space-operay feel to it. The piece from the opening cinematic, with the dramatic walk-through of the Normandy really sets up the mood brilliantly.

Karl