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Twelve Game Music Tracks Worth Keeping
The field of game music has gotten considerably better over the years, a fact that Games Radar highlights in a simple 'list article' about iPod-worthy game music. They highlight some obvious recent gems, like Coulton's "Still Alive" and "Hikari" from Kingdom Hearts, but also bring back some older goodies with choices like "Everybody Jump Around" from Jet Set Radio or "Chemical Plant" from Sonic 2. "Sonic games used to have amazing music. And while single-player Mystic Cave Zone came a close second, this has to make the list. It may be basic compared to modern CD recordings, but just listen to how each of the console's sound channels is used - it's remarkable. Intricate and dramatic, this industrial anthem builds and builds before seamlessly looping in a non-annoying way."
Just for the record... Guitar Hero Soundtracks should not count as they were not designed with the game in mind. Just thought I would get that out there before all the guitar hero freaks start saying Stairway to Heaven is the best game song of all time:-P
I think the music from the above mentioned PSone game was amazing. I think I must have played certain levels I didn't need to go through for the millionth time just so I could listen to the music. My favs are the Holy Chapel music, the Abandoned Mine music. Anyways just my two cents.
genius. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADvKn2fRWFs
Seriously, some of the work Jeremy Soule has done on games such as The Elder Scrolls and Guild Wars is astounding.
But more jarring then that seems to be the complete lack of Chrono Trigger. Or ANY Square(SOFT) music. Seriously, Kingdom Hearts? Hardly the best they have done.
On a side note, each track is on a different page, without a list to organize them by. Obviously a cheap ad-grab.
I think that "Planescape: Torment" also had some beautiful music tracks. Among my favourite themes: the main theme, the "smoldering corpse" and the credits (really different from others, but still "right atmosphere").
Elen sìla lùmenn' omentielvo
Come on, how can you put a list like this together without mentioning the Cannon Fodder intro?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRaFfFuEOj0
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
The music for Metal Gear Solid, especially that for Snake Eater, is awesome.
Quake 1, Doom, Deus Ex 2, Interstate 76, that I can think of offhand...
A lot of the tracks on the Wipeout XL soundtrack were developed directly for the game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpFFzWPzA2c
I tried to purchase the JetSet Radio soundtrack. At $40 bucks, I thought it was a rip-off - especially since I had the game. Maybe one of the torrent sites has it.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
I remember the craze over the game when it came out, but honestly I'm surprised the song is still that popular. Not that it's outright terrible or anything, but thinking back, I seem to remember it being relatively run-of-the-mill saccharine J-pop.
Again, not horrendous, but not really memorable either. There's much better game music out there. Look to Jeremy Soule, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Shoji Meguro, Yuki Kajiura, or Kurt Harland for examples. The article was spot-on in recommending Yamaoka's Silent Hill scores, though you do have to be just a little bit unhinged upstairs in order to enjoy SH1 as casual-listening material.
Offhand, I'd recommend Sakimoto's "Vagrant Story" score, Kajiura's "Xenosaga Episode 3," Meguro's "Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne" for those willing to let the ambience set in, or "Digital Devil Saga: Avatar Tuner" if you want something more casually listenable, and any of Harland's work on the Legacy of Kain series.
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Video game music has come a long way, and I have about... oh, a LOT of it on my comp00tar at this point. I can't pick 12 favorite soundtracks, let alone 12 tracks. What I *can* do is recommend composers.
1) Yasunori Mitsuda. Some dislike him, but he has a certain style that can really draw the listener in. Xenosaga's orchestral pieces are very ambitious for a game. Notable scores: Chrono Cross, Xenosaga Episode 1
2) Yoko Shimomura. She has a problem using some really low-quality samples in some tracks, which is very apparent in KH2, but is generally quite good. Legend of Mana's end credits are fantastic. Notable scores: Legend of Mana, Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2, Mario RPG
3) Jeremy Soule. Every self-respecting gamer has to recognize this name at this point. A British composer who specializes in background orchestral music. Notable scores: Morrowind, Oblivion, Guild Wars
4) Koji Kondo. Composed the original Mario and Zelda themes. Very respected in the industry, but has yet to fully adjust to more current standards of using high-quality samples.
5) Hitoshi Sakimoto. Composer of FFXII's amazing score. While quite different from Nobuo Uematsu's FF scores, focusing less on melody and more on "theme," his music is reminiscent of John Williams with its complexity and orchestral balance.
6) Nobuo Uematsu. The great master himself, composer of many Final Fantasy scores. One of the most respected men in the business. Notable scores: FFVII, FFVIII
7) David Wise. Few have heard of him but this guy is one of the greatest. He wrote the music for Rare's games during its time with Nintendo. Playing the Tawfret track from the JFG soundtrack while going through a forest or swamp in an RPG makes the experience about ten times more immersive. This guy is a genius. Notable scores: DKC, DKC2, Jet Force Gemini
There are other great composers out there, but I encourage everyone to give these a listen for sure.
I like basketball!!1!
Propeller Arena: Aviation Battle Championship had an excellent punk rock soundtrack. And the game kicks ass! Too bad it was never (officially) released.
Circumcision is child abuse.
For what it's worth, I think George Oldziey's work on the Crusader: No Remorse and Cruasader: No Regret is the pinnacle of (old school) video game music.
Tracks that really rock the house: PARTY from No Regret, and M04 from No Remorse.
As for newer stuff, I have found myself listening to the Halo soundtracks a lot recently.
*shudder*
God, those voice-overs were terrible. Fortunately, the music was more than enough to make up for them, though it did have the unfortunate tendency to leave me scrambling for the mute button when a dialogue sequence would come up, as I would previously have had the volume cranked up to enjoy the tunes. I think I've played and/or replayed more 'Vania games for their BGM than for their gameplay. Which is saying quite a bit considering the solid platforming fun to be had in the 2D series installments.
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Chemical Plant Zone is actually already on my iPod - you can get a MIDI remix of it, and most older games, from VG Music. Spend a few hours on that site and relive some of the best games of all time.
rm -rf
You claim to the love the darkness. Go then and dwell there for all eternity. Knowing these quotes mean simply I really need a life. What is a poor gamer girl to do though??
...and whole soundtracks, not single pieces to boot: Quake 2 and MechWarrior 2. Both had excellent music for the whole game.
Amazing that the Portal ending song hasn't been mentioned yet.
CyberKender
Apparently Appointed Lord Mayor of There
Quake 1 - the whole soundtrack. NIN also one of if not the only PC game that was designed to be put in a CD player to listen to the soundtrack.
Life is pain. Anyone who says differently is selling something.
I am probably dating myself, but M.U.L.E had one of the catchiest tunes that I ever heard. The actual intrument sounds weren't all that great, but what do you expect from a Commodore 64?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.U.L.E.
Awesome game, awesome music.
"-1 Troll" is the apparently the same as "-1 I disagree with you."
Espeically the opening theme. But the entire game had a top end sound track. Some of the reorchestrated FF stuff is amazing as well, but since not actually part of the game hard to put down. Really Nobuo Uematsu should have more mentions.
What about the title tune from Wizball by Galway, or the tune from IK+ by Rob Hubbard.
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Bah, no list that has Sonic music is valid if it doesn't list the music to Casino Night zone. Especially with Lyrics!: Oh, casino night zone, casino night. Casino night zooone, casino nigght zoooone
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
1111 Race
12112
It's kind of funny, but when I was kid for quite a while I would -only- listen to video game music, and had sort of a disdain for "normal" music. I guess that changed sometime in middle school, and I like all sorts of music now, but I still have a fondness for VG music. Here's a few more of my personal favorites, not listed in the article:
* "Radio" from Command and Conquer: Red Alert
* menu song from Forsaken (it's track 6 or 7 on the game CD... not sure if it has an actual title but the band that performed it is "The Swarm")
* "Tangerine" from Earthworm Jim 2 (soundtrack by Tommy Tallarico)
* the intro song from Earthworm Jim 2... I don't think I've ever seen it on a CD, but it's probably the first "a cappella" song I ever saw in a video game, even though it was just samples on a SNES/Genesis
* most of Mechwarrior II
* most of Katamari Damacy
* "Beyond the Bounds" from Zone of the Enders: Second Runner
* the operatic tracks from Heroes of Might & Magic II
* most of the Interstate '76 soundtrack
* one of the songs from Dr. Mario ("fever"?).
* "Skyward Fire" and "Save Me" from Unreal Tournament
Also, for those of you who haven't seen it already, OverClocked Remix has plenty of great freely-downloadable remixes of video game songs:
http://www.ocremix.org/
I think that the music from Homeworld definitely deserves consideration. The combat themes help to highlight the different personalities of your enemies, and the thematic music for each music matches the deep-space atmosphere almost perfectly. The soundtrack was actually so popular that it was released as a separate CD in the "Game of the Year" edition.
Personally, I'd put their use of Samuel Barber's "Agnus Dei" (the choral version of his Adagio for Strings) at the top of any games-related music list, but they seem to be focusing on music especially composed for a game.
"If they send someone here, I'll arrange the usual 'accident.'" -- Alice, "Dilbert"
The soundtrack from the original is my favorite.
it's -amazing- the sound that the Capcom developers got out of that console.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7tpIdDfoLk
I personally think Ecco 2: the tides of time has one of the best soundtracks for the mood of the game (which is very somber). Too bad the game was not too popular (probably because it's very hard and frustrating).
What about the song that plays during the credits of Portal?
I rather liked the music in 3DO's _Starfighter 3000_.
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Can't beat NES Metroid music (not me in video), particularly "Kraid's theme" - 2:03 in video.
while [ 1 ]; do echo -n -e "\xe2\x95\xb$((($RANDOM&1)+1))"; done
House of Sacred Remains, Dark Palace of Waterfalls, and Garden Forgotten by Time.
And in Symphony, you forgot "Dance of Pales" (Olrox's headquarters)
The music from the main town in Diablo has been in my music collection since the game came out. I believe it plays in Tristam in Diablo II. Beautiful piece of music.
UTF-8: There and Back Again
What a thrill...
In all seriousness, I have quite a few game soundtracks. Both Jet Set Radios, FF VII, MGS: 3 (which works very well away from the game), Katamari (and the sequel), a Zelda or two... there is quite a bit of very good music in games if you are listening. My favorite is probably my Super Smash Brothers: Melee CD. I got it as a pack in with an issue of Nintendo Power a couple of years ago. It has a bunch of fully orchestrated tracks from the game and sounds fantastic. It has a Metroid track, Yoshi's Story track, Kirby track, Pokemon track, and many more. I'd have gladly paid $20-$25 for it.
Too bad it's not all like that. It's hard to get many soundtrack CDs in the US (have to order them from Japan). Worse is that some games that have soundtracks I want have terrible soundtrack CDs. I thought the music in SSX 3 was fantastic, so I bought the soundtrack to it. It has like 10 tracks, only one of which I like. The game it's self had a ton more. The GTA soundtracks had everything, there was no excuse. Then again, there were missing tracks on the JSRF disc too (where was Aisle 10 by Scapegoat Wax?)
Oh well. Great music.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
You're not wrong on Soule's work. I didn't like Guild Wars, but I don't regret buying the collector's edition purely because you got the game's soundtrack on CD, and the music was outstanding. As you said, his work on The Elder Scrolls was also good.
But considering they were going back into the console days, omitting one of the greatest tracks EVER imo is a great disgrace. The ending theme to Chrono Trigger (ranked the greatest RPG of all time on at least one list I've seen, and I don't disagree) is a piece called "To Far Away Times." It's a perfect blend of subtlety and power at different times. The music overall for the game is also a cut above nearly everything else, but this piece just pulls out all the stops and makes a masterpiece.
I found it on YouTube from an ending playthrough a guy did: here The song itself starts at EXACTLY 1m in, and ends around the 5:20 mark.
Both 3000 and SimCity 4 have some masterful tracks.
There's actually a really awesome Castlevania remix that incorporates those voice samples...
The intro track was pretty cool. I think it was by a band called the Gone Jackals, but it was a long time ago so I don't remember.
I wonder if anybody else still remembers what Stéphane Picq was able to do on the Dune soundtrack with a mere Ad Lib sound card? Damn, I loved what that guy made so much. I still own the Lost Eden soundtrack CD -- back in the day, making CDs of video game musics was unheard of. Gosh, I feel old now. :)
-- B.
This sig does in fact not have the property it claims not to have.
I found Mass Effects score to be quite enjoyable. It has a very Blade Runner feel to it. Very pulsing rhythms and synth seem to enhance the moments of tension in the game, and the ending credits are something I'd love to play on rock band.
...Ice Cap Zone.
:D
Hands down the best evar. Fucking glorious.
Not sure about another eleven though. Probably a fair few Sonic ones in there.
How is it even physically possible to write this list without including Chrono Cross?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDnPYoGzW78
Sub-Terrania (Sega Genesis)? Great music, really good at setting the mood on some levels. I love the Crystal Space track.
Tonight's contestant is another "Secret Contestant"
Anonymous Writes:
SLASHDOT SUX0RZ Ooooh! Horrible start! Well, this post is about music in games and soundtracks worth keeping. Perhaps if you talk about the preferences of a nerdier crowd shying away from a game and justify this statement, you'll still be able to recover. Just don't do something like post ASCII porn or goatse... _0_
\''\
'=o='
Well that's all for this installment, but stay tuned for the next installment of The Slashdot Moderation Game!!!
Well, back to rejecting software patent applications.
Original game music:
-Might and Magic (and Heroes). Might and Magic VI, VII, and VIII had the tunes as CD tracks so they are easy to get if you own the game. Heores III had them as MP3s so that's even easier. I think most of the tunes are by Rob King. VII is my favorite
-Silent Hill 3 has a great soundtrack included with the PS2 game (at least the one I got).
-Oblivion. "atmosphere_07" is awesome. The theme is good as well, but Morrowind's is better.
-Wing Commander Privateer has some great tunes, esepically the New Constanople and Perry music. It is probably still there somewhere, but I downloaded all the tunes from http://www.wcnews.com/. I couldn't find it after a quick search.
Remixes: -Sonic the Hedgehog 1 - Marble Zone. http://www.ocremix.org/remix/OCR01416/ -Lots of Final Fantasy remixes. "To Zanarkand" has a couple good ones.
Album Rexies:
-Final Fantasy 7 - Voices of the Lifestream http://www.ocremix.org/album/final-fantasy-vii-voices-of-the-lifestream/. Cid's Theme starts out wierd, but gets good. The Prelude and Main theme are good.
-Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo - Blood on the Asphalt http://www.ocremix.org/album/super-street-fighter-ii-turbo-blood-on-the-asphalt/ Cammy, Ryu, Ken, Guile, Sagat, and Balrog stages are my favorite.
I liked the music in the late 80 and on pinballs.
The games that Brian Schmidt did the music on are good.
Chris Granner also did some good work on many games as well.
alot of the system 11 and later wms games have real good music like
Black Knight 2000
Banzai Run
Big Guns
Earthshaker
Swords of Fury
Space Station
Whirlwind
At the same time Data East Pinball games used a stereo sound midi like sound system for the music.
The pre DSC Williams WPC games also have good midi like music
The later DSC and stern S.A.M system games use recorded music and most of the games have good music.
The Capcom Pinball games used a cool mp3 based sound system with real good sound and music in them.
Alot of the pinball and video games that used the BSMT 2000 sound chip have good music also.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BSMT2000
Battletoads arcade is on of the games with good music that uses that chip
More info about the pinball sound systems is hear.
http://www.vpforums.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=34698&highlight=pinball+sound+systems
If you get the opportunity, check out the soundtrack to Emperor of the Fading Suns. The Game CD can be put into a cd player and played just like any other, though the first cd track is the data track for the game.
It's really incredible music and nothing like what you'd find in a typical game. if you like classical music, you'll love it. I just don't know of any websites to send you to.
If you can read this, I forgot to post anonymously.
Descent 2
Carmageddon 2
Carmageddon 1
Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries
Total Annihilation
Liberation Day
All are rock/metal escept for TA and LD.
Very rich, well rounded soundtracks for all of the levels! And it was the first RealTime Stat game that I was exposed too... changed my expectations of what a game should do! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herzog_Zwei
The original .mod files were pretty good for the day, but the "official Ur-Quan Masters remix" packs are a step up as well
http://sc2.sourceforge.net/downloads.php
my associative arrays can kick your hash - TCL
No love for Mute City on Super Smash Bros? Made me burn it to a CD to jam along with on guitar.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_Throttle_(computer_game)
a sample
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jx3Vz6cpXY
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
http://www.quake3world.com/files/#music
Many games from the genesis had really excellent music, but I think one of the best is the classic Comix Zone. It had a distorted, grungy feel, apt for the time it came out. Also, Altered Beast had a sick synth driven horror fantasy soundtrack. Oh and also Streets of Rage 3 with its alienated disillusioned techno. So many. An "I'm Feeling Lucky" google search for video game music will reveal the be-all end-all of this conversation.
Honestly, other than the really awesome artwork and cel-shading done, Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future has some of the best music for a game that I've heard. Nice mix of everything.
Of course, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Castlevania 3, Chrono Trigger, Quake, and even Doom had some really nice catchy tunes.
The entire soundtrack of Outlaws is outstanding, I play it to this day. And since it comes on the game discs as CD music, it's darn easy!
Snake eater is on the list!
not even mention Battletoads?!?!?!?!!?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
still love the quality samples and music
straight from trent reznor and dave oglvie
back in the day we didnt have no old school
Repetitive music rules ok, right?
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
late goodbye? that's probably one of the best original songs, with lyrics for a game (okay.. its probably second best to still alive, but its darn close)
I went to a Video Games Live (VGL) event about two months ago. I got to hear some old tunes (e.g., Rastan, Gauntlet, Frogger) that were not in FM MIDI format or so. They sounded great with real instruments. I'd love to hear these (not some crazy remix), but VGL's album isn't ready yet. Are there any other sources of game music that aren't using cheap FM MIDI?
I personally love soundtracks from Command & Conquer (original and Red Alert by Frank Klepacki), DOOM (1 and 2), etc. These are real or high quality music instruments that the composers intended to play. No crappy FM MIDI, etc.
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Here you can try some karaoke! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7V83YeQnPHo
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LocoRoco Music plays a large part in LocoRoco, with each LocoRoco singing the song for each stage, and at the title screen. These LocoRoco have different voices depending on their color, varying in pitch and tone. Individual LocoRoco may also sing when they are split or merged together into one, producing choir-like singing or solo singing, respectively.
The lyrics of the songs and "LocoRoco Language", a fictional language were invented by Tsutomu Kouno to ensure that the music would be the same worldwide.[2] The music was composed and performed (except for the vocals) by Nobuyuki Shimizu and Kemmei Adachi.
My vote goes for the C64 Last Ninja soundtrack. Absolutely awesome.
A-Bomb
I agree about Command & Conquer, personally I thought Red Alert 2 in particular had some great music in it.
Also:
* Syndicate Wars - brilliant, Blade Runner-ish soundtrack (and playable in a CD player from the game disc)
* Deus Ex - the music throughout is excellent and adapts very well depending on location and events
* Dune II - the various House themes were great, as was the in-game music
And, although is sort of doesn't count, Tie Fighter had great in-game music as I recall.
Read Pynchon.
The list seemed to be the best console music, not game music. Games I would definitely recommend music wise to anyone would be Hitman 2, 3, and 4 (I've not played 1). Jesper Kyd composed the music for all 4 and did a dynamite job. Hitman 2 is an epic orchestral score, recorded by a real orchestra. Hitman 3 is a very electronic score, though with some orchestral elements, and Hitman 4 is a great blend of the two.
He won an award for the music in 3 and it was well deserved.
It's been a long day at work and I've been listening to the Powerglove cover of Holy Orders - awesome for the metal-inclined. The original is great too, and is really helping to keep me awake.
SimCity 2k has some great tunes, including a great jazz track Central Park Sunday, or something like that. You can download the tracks for free from EA, or at least you could a year ago. Great stuff.
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Still epic after all these years.
Wow, surprised no-one's mentioned Ace Combat yet, specifically Aces 4 through 6, X and Zero, all featuring some stunning orchestral compositions from the likes of Keiki Kobayashi and Tetsukazu Nakanishi.
neuro at well dot com (when I post, it's my opinions, no-one elses)
The PS2 game Okami (which is being ported to Wii for next year) was filled with excellent music, among the best I've ever heard in a videogame... here are examples:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Kl3YSO_ChE Intro
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZSuSn3LH48 Izanagi Cavern
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3_uOagQNnE The Rising Sun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGb71mUlgr8 Reset
The ending of ICO had some of the best music I've ever heard in a videogame:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DIx3W6gmgs (damn, listen to the whole thing!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FQ-0vqHAro You Were There
Shadow of the Colossus also had a fantastic orchestral soundtrack:
http://bluelaguna.net/music/shadow-of-colossus-ost-soundtrack/mp3s.php (download them all!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4UvBI9vADc (Intro Cutscene)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diOVyUj_xe4 (Battle 4)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i_FxqyW2PE (Colossal Requiem)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGO5XEjEp_M Official Trailer
Among my other favorites are the soundtrack of Hitman 2 and Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal.
At home I have a lot of SNES rips which I listen to sometimes, Chrono Trigger and Seiken Densetsu 3 are the most memorable examples I can think of, but there was lots of good music in that console era.
I just love this soundtrack, one of the first ones I ever ripped.
HEX
Horror & SciFi Erotic Nudes
Metal.
Also, who could forget the lyrics:
The population has greatly decreased
and now the odds are greatly increased
That I may someday get a chance
To kiss your lips
I thank the lo-oooord each day
for the apocalypse
Folks are mostly disfigured or dead
darlin' I won't let it go to my head
My Momma's face has dripped down into the dirt
and me, I'm still chasin'
chitluns, whiskey and skirt.
(Yodeling)
Two choices on there are practically the worst music in the series: Sonic and Metroid.
First off, Metroid Prime 2: Title Theme is, far and away, the worst title music in the series out of a series of incredible themes. Metroid Prime 1's title music was amazing, and half the tracks in that game make my top 30 list of game music, but Echo's music and title music was horrendous, and sounded like a bad attempt at recapturing the glory of the original.
Second, I've heard the comment about Chemical Plant in Sonic, and I don't get it. That music is obnoxious as hell, and seeing that the first 3 games have a number of killer hits, why that one? Green Hill, Scrap Brain, Starlight, and Special Stage from the first title, are absolutely stunning. The Ice stage from the third is amazing, I really can't remember ANYTHING from the second game, but the Chemical Plant sticks out as incredibly obnoxious.
Some must-have game music:
Metroid: Lower Norfair / Magmoor Caverns - Timeless
Mega Man 2: Flash Man stage - Deep Purple and Metallica put to shame by an NES synth
Everything from Final Fantasy 6, 8, and 9
Chrono Trigger main theme
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night title theme - I've never played the game, and even *I* know how awesome that is.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
Gates of Thunder and Lords of Thunder.
'nuff said.
Here's some tracks from Shadow of the Colossus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTsQZog5IiY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQjrD6ToZr8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEd_Jcufpdo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSsEhrvnf6c
Not only is it one of the more unusual games out there, it has an awesome orchestral score. Very epic-feeling game.
Silent Hill 4's "Room of Angel" is one of the most hauntingly beautiful songs I've ever heard, video game or not. I actually bought the game's soundtrack for that one song.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Best game soundtrack ever.
I still have -- and occasionally listen to -- the mp3s in my music collection.
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factor 966971: 966971
Man, the average age of Slashdot has just been revealed.
I like a lot of the suggestions being made here, and I'd simply like to add in (or emphasize) a couple of soundtracks and pieces from my collection:
Megaman 2 and 3, Megaman X and X4. Seriously, the original title of the character was Rockman, his sister was named Roll, Protoman was originally named "Blues", his dog sidekick is named "Rush" and his bird sidekick is named "Beat". The franchise was designed with good music in mind.
Yasunori Mitsuda's work: Chrono Trigger theme (Chrono Trigger), Time's Scar (Chrono Cross), 90% of Xenosaga Episode I (including Resurrection, Gnosis, Battle of KOS-MOS, Ormus, Song of Nephilim, and Kokoro), 90% of the Xenogears soundtrack (special mention to Awakening, Knight of Fire, Small of Two Pieces and June Mermaid - they still give me chills when I hear their atmospheric melodies).
Yuki Kajiura: hasn't done too much, but Xenosaga: Episode II's Communication Breakdown, Image theme of Xenosaga II, and Jr. are the best. Xenosaga Episode III was a huge improvement. Go for "The Battle of Your Soul", "Promised Pain", "Godsibb", "Testament". A lot of good tracks aren't included on the CDs, but somebody at Glabadia Hotel has ripped the music from the game. Look for Assault #2 and Battle vs. Yuriev.
Nobuo Uematsu: okay, bear with me - he makes a lot of good music, but he reuses a lot of chords and melodies from game-to-game, and has a hard time branching out. BUT, what he gets right he gets very right. One Winged Angel - Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Zanarkand (FFX), YOU'RE NOT ALONE (FFIX), Vamo' alla Flamenco (FF IX), FITHOS, LUSEC, WEPOS, VINOSEC (FF VIII), Cyan (FF VI), Trojan Beauty (FF IV), and My Home, Sweet Home (FF V "Dear Friends" soundtrack).
F-Zero (Guitar Remix): Endless Challenge, Long Distance of Murder
Gran Turismo: Moon Over Castle
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: Bloody Tears
And something I haven't seen yet:
Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete - Luna's Boat Song and the Intro Theme. When you watch the animation sequence for the Boat Song, you will be hooked into the game. It's perfect and expresses the game's lighthearted, romantic, colorful world. And the Intro Theme rocks, too. Yes, they're in English.
Lunar: Eternal Blue Complete - Eternal Blue and Lucia's Theme. Same as above, but longer and better. These're also in English.
I cannot believe nobody mentioned Lunar...
Does anyone remember Zany Golf on the IIgs? I thought it had an incredible soundtrack, heck, I can still remember a couple of them. I think I'll fire up the emulator and take a listen.
Sporadic
Sega was king for convenience, but... there were gems EVERYWHERE.
If you got into the Sega CD or Sega Saturn, you got a double treat. 1st off, video game music makers, now with the storage power of CDs could go wild. Secondly, these games tended to have a few music tracks on the disc, plus an occasional message on track two telling you to take it out of your cd player before the data track (track one) played and hurt your system. The message was especially great on Albert Odyssey. For a few good tracks pop in Daytona USA, Magic Knight Rayearth, Guardian Heroes, Nights and XMas Nights, Virtua Figher, Virtua Cop 1/2, Sonic CD (a real treat), to a lesser extent Sonic R, and if you want to experience heaven... any of the Panzer Dragoons.
Recent Sonic games have their own soundtracks, but how the heck did we get from happy electronic music to bad rock, bad rap, bad r&b etc. Some, (most?) of Sonic's old music was by a band called "Dreams Come True" who did much better than whoever Sega has called in lately. Much of Sonic Adventure 1 was good (if not fitting what came before), but it had duds and the games have gotten steadily worse since.
The PS1 followed Sega's music track on the CD trick on a few games, but it didn't seem as wide spread.
Some Dreamcast games had goodies on the disc, open PSO in a PC. You get a few soundfiles and wallpaper.
Nintendo wasn't a slouch. Mario tunes stuck in our head for more reasons than just because we played Super Mario Brothers far too much. One of the best soundtracks of all time was the original Super Mario RPG. It's taken Nintendo until now with Super Paper Mario to come up with anything comparable. (SPM still isn't as good, but it's far better than what came between.) Metroid and Zelda have been pushing CDs for years. Mario Kart (especially 64) sounds awesome. Much of Mario 64 was lackluster, but what it did well, it did VERY well.
Final Fantasy itself has been pushing music CDs for years. Part of why FF outsold Dragon Quest was likely the tone. DQ was too happy, looking and sounding like it was only for a young age group. If the Dear Friends / More Friends spawns off another tour and you have the chance to go... do. This was one of the best things I've seen in my life... FF music performed live with a full orchestra. (Although Atlanta could have used a better choir for One Winged Angel)
Dear/More Friends isn't all that's been about. There was another general games concert called Play a year or two back.
On the topic of FF music, Square also outdid themselves with Parasite Eve. Sure it looked awesome at the time... it sounded even better.
Capcom made catchy beats in the Mega Man games for years, although moving to CD seems to have hurt them a bit. MM2, 3 and X1 are looked back on fondly by many.
Katamari Damacy was well known for its happy music, which unlike DQ fit. When the plot of the game is your dad (God) destroyed the universe while stumbling home drunk, leaving you to fix it, quirk is the sound of the hour.
Contra and SuperC were awesome on the old NES. Start the SuperC sound test, scroll all the way down to "Medoley", start it up, sit back and enjoy.
The original Kirby had an awesome soundtrack.
If you pick up the all in one dozens of bomberman games soundtrack floating around you'll be pleasently surprised after the 1st few tracks. Many of the Bomberman games have had great music. Many of the later games had enough music to fill their own soundtracks. While the 2 NES games might have been a little lacking, by the time Bomberman hit the SNES and Genesis, the music was worth going out and buying.
For good game music - the original No One Lives Forever, well themed music that fits the game. Warcraft III soundtrack, well defined background music that can stand on it's own as well as fit the game nicely.
Has everybody gone nuts?!!! The best game soundtrack ever is the one from The Neverhood.
Mega Man 2 and Katamari Damacy are not on that list. As far as I am concerned, it is worthless.
The song for Rockman 2's Dr. Wily stages 1 and 2 is my favorite song for any NES game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b71t6Grvlk - has the song, but is also a funny video from how badly they glitch the game.
"Screw Sun, cross-platform will never work. Let's move on and steal the Java language." - Visual J++ Product Manager
Just about every song from the 32X gem Knuckles' Chaotix is top notch... Same goes for SEGA's other under-appreciated platformer, Ristar! And let's not forget Rez for DC/PS2/360 Live Arcade! Man, SEGA's on a roll :)
In terms of oldskool gaming I don't think there is much that can beat Mega Man 3, especially the title screen music.
People in bamboo houses shouldn't throw pandas...Jesus said that! -Ninja
Jump around - teh suck Out of cake? - likee muchly! Skin and Bono - eh - not good... Sorry, what? - cute and lovable if you're like 12 years old or less. Pinch me - boring Shower time - ok, but the cutman battle song for mega man totally blows this out of the water it's driving thru.. Class onion - better than most of the yucks - but not by much. Bonded Snake - James Bond theme done by idiots.... Chemical smile - dancy old school game theme - decent jump Star quality - Contra had 5 better songs - but not bad Soulful sounds - there's a reason why 90's pop metal fell on its face and died. Hikary - video - my nuts exploded. How much for Utada Hikaru, and when can she be delivered?
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
I have to second this one. And if you grok Japanese the lyrics are just as catchy as the tunes. They're full of puns about rolling, sticking, growing, etc. There's one in English too: "Que Sera Sera" by Charlie Kosei.
"I see you rolling me / I wanna wad you up into my life"
one of my favorites is "To Zanarkand" from FFX. the ending theme "Suteki da ne" is good too.
stuff
Criticize Red Steel all you like, but I for one quite liked the soundtrack. Sure the game was not GOTY material, but I thought the music was quite cool
Make SELinux enforcing again!
Quake and Spy Hunter.
Someone already mentioned that the Quake soundtrack was done by Trent Reznor and was playable in an audio CD player (even just the $5 shareware release on CD was).
But the Spy Hunter soundtrack is perhaps even more significant for its time. If anyone else ever listens to SecretAgent Radio on somafm.com, you will even encounter that song played on occasion. And it is how old now? I think I even heard an instrumental version (with actual instruments) played on a local jazz station a couple months ago.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Heroes of Might and Magic II had awesome Opera type music for each of the castles. I need to dig out my CD and rip those files,
The game over music from "Wizball" on the C64.
It's lucky it's the game over music, not the start of game music, because it is physically impossible not to let go of the joystick and frantically air-guitar along with it.
"The Lil' Bonus Room" from Skullmonkeys is one of the most hilarious songs I've ever heard in a video game. Too bad it's quite obscure. Granted, all of the Neverhood and Skullmonkeys music is great. BTW, Imaginarium (the album containing both soundtracks) is available online.
Can we please have no more of these lists? They are not news, not even for nerds, and they belong on Digg, not on /..
-- Cheers!
Anyone? Big Blue? Fire Field? That game was nothing but a musical masterpiece
Even if you didn't like the game, you could still pop the disc in a cd player and just listen to the tracks. You can't beat this stuff.
1. Mojo Nixon - UFOs Big Rigs & BBQ
2. The Beat Farmers - Baby's Liquored Up
3. The Reverend Horton Heat - Nurture My Pig
4. Cement Pond - Trash Can
5. The Beat Farmers - Gettin' Drunk
6. The Reverend Horton Heat - Wiggle Stick
7. Cement Pond - Vixen
8. Mojo Nixon - You Can't Kill Me
I don't seem to recall FF12's OST too well myself. However, if you want some really impressive Sakimoto work, listen to Vagrant Story. It's possibly his best. If not his crowning achievement, it's damn close. Track 3, "Climax of the Greylands Incident" demonstrates his greatness quite well.
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Kondo and Uematsu? They're notable but not great.
Sakimoto is underrated.
Shimomura is overrated.
Missing but critical?
Jonne Voltonen, Rich Jacques.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
-NT-
Yasunori Mitsuda really is one of the best composers in the game industry. Make sure you check out the Xenogears soundtrack if you like CT. It's probably as good overall, but I don't know if anything tops "To Far Away Times" in my book either. Secret of Evermore's soundtrack (Soule) was a bit maligned in the press, but I still think it's one of the highlights among RPG soundtracks.
The Metroid Prime games have truly excellent music, but my all-time favorite remains the game intro music from Super Metroid. It's moodier, more subtle, more ominous, and more powerful than any of the admittedly wonderful pieces in the Gamecube and Wii successors. In the well-done digital sample from the 16-bit days: "The last metroid is in captivity. The galaxy is at peace." Youtube for Super Metroid Intro for the original in game version, and hunt down the even better version released on CD if you can.
The only other non-RPG soundtrack on 16-bit that I would call amazing is the original soundtrack from Contra III: The Alien Wars. The game is still one of the finest platform run/jump/gunners ever, and the music is some of the best written electronic music I've ever heard. Stage 5's music mars the rest horribly, but the other 5 are inspired composition. The Contra: Hard Corps and Neo Contra (PS2 titles) are as clever and well-built and maybe more impressive in their CD-quality production, but not as epic.
The most inspired electronic music I have ever heard, video game or otherwise, is the soundtrack of Square's shooter "Einhander". It's rare to find musically sophisticated non-formulaic electronic music, especially in a shooter, but this is so good that people who don't like electronic even give this soundtrack a nod. I have no choice but to recommend every track on it, especially as many of them are very short and atmospheric and tend to set each other up. They use interesting time signatures and rhythms, clever modulation and tempo variation, and all the tracks are very distinctive and quite literally jaw-dropping on the first listen. Yes, it's that good and I'm not exaggerating. It's the most impressive musical accomplishment among all the pieces I'm rattling off in this post. Ruins (and Chase, which compliments it), Badlands, Madness, Conflict, and Thermosphere are all high art.
I also agree with another poster about OCRemix. It's one of my favorite sources of music these days. There are some astonishingly talented artists, amateur and professional alike, who submit remixes to the site for public consumption. They show incredible technical skill in composition and arrangement, artistic interpretation, and studio production. The most amazing tracks tend to be obscure compositions with unrealized potential that somebody found by chance and worked to fruition. They're not all gems, but those that are make it worth your time to search or browse.
And of course there are great re-interpretations of already great pieces. For this I wholeheartedly recommend Jormungand's piano arrangement of "Dark Star" from "The Secret of Mana", called "Dark Star Scherzo". "Ziwtra" has done some great work too: check out his Xenogears Skyline remix and Soukaigi Aftershock remix.
Some of the finest execution I have yet encountered on OCRemix, even among the above standouts, is the "Secret of Mana Dragon Song" remix by Harmony. It's part vocal, part acoustic, and part electronic. The song is done so well that the lyrics sound corny in comparison. Supposedly the guy did it when he was about 17, and already had professional level skills. I'm sure he's making a lot of money somewhere, and he richly deserves it.
When I said Contra: Hard Corps, I meant Contra: Shattered Soldier. The former is for the Genesis, the latter is the PS2 title I meant to reference.
Although most of her work is far anime, TV and movies, she has done some outstanding game tracks as well. And I consider her to be the best composer alive, bar none.
I find it odd that I have not seen a single mention of the music from the Myst series. For me, sitting abck and listening to a Myst soundtrack is a very relaxing and deep time. Just try and listen to the Main Theme from Myst 3: Exile, and not get chills down your spine. Myst 3 was the reason I got interested in soundtracks in the first place.
Anyone remembers this Psygnosis gem? I was replaying it just to hear the music again (the DOS version).
That's a somewhat moot point when you realize that many other game music tracks were reused in more than one game. E.g., Square has reused some of their tunes in half a dozen games. So while they might have been designed for _a_ game, they weren't likely designed for the game you're currently playing.
;)
Also, it wouldn't be the first time that a song wasn't designed for a game, and ended up in a game anyway. E.g., the original (German) version of Gothic included an In Extremo concert. It was literally the other way around: they put some work into building and animating a game piece around a song.
You can even do it yourself in a lot of games. E.g., most Bethesda games let you drop your own MP3s into the music folders, and they'll actually get played. Metallica's Call of Ktulu works pretty darn nicely as exploration music, for example. Or if you're not into metal, you have quite a bit of choice of classical Russian music to invoke that feeling of wild wide-open spaces. And that's stuff, you know, written more than a century before video games.
Or I remember a WH40k video game (Chaos Gate?) which used the Confutatis Maledicti track to good effect. Really put one in the mood to go smack some chaos cultists, ya know? For the Emperor!
Paradox's games also come with songs from the apropriate era as tracks. So if you're playing Europa Universalis 2, you get to hear some folk music and the like from the late middle ages or renaissance, while Victoria gives you some music from the 18'th century.
Tropico used some latin american music, and it was as in-character as it gets for a city-building game set in that time and place. Plus a Lou Bega song which IIRC hadn't been written for the game.
Etc.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
It had great music, one of the first games I remember using CD tracks as music
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Fools!!!
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
No love for one of the most epic soundtracks of all time, Shadow of the Colossus? It's been on my main playlist for years; I listen to it whenever I need to get pumped up for something.
Also, the best song in all Sonic games is Ice Cap Zone. Anyone who does not agree with that is a fucking idiot.
Mega Man 2. Seriously, all the stages. Download a NES emulator and check for yourself.
Both the Crusader games, No Remorse and No Regret had awesome soundtracks.
The music from Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway, Ben Daglish and Mark Cooksey for various Commodore 64 games would come high in my list of best all-time game tracks. RH's "Monty On The Run" would be near the top, if not at #1.
Due to the limitations of the ZX Spectrum, there aren't many tunes high up apart from "Fairlight"'s intro tune which I prefer to the version used in the C64 game "Wizardry".
R Tape loading error, 0:1
What about the intro music from "Gods" ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZ-GRHWgzG0
Freakin' awesome.
but Mechwarrior 2 still has to be my favorite game music of all time. I still can listen to it in my car and don't tire of it.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I really enjoyed the music from the later DOS games. Warcraft, Warcraft II, Mechwarrior, Descent, Command and Conquer. I still get the music stuck in my head plenty of times. I realized early one that games used audio CD tracks for music and I made a cassette tape of Warcraft II music that I listened to while I mowed the lawn, I even remade the tape when I got the Beyond the Dark Portal expansion. My MP3 player has both Hell March from Red Alert and Hell March 2 from Red Alert 2 on it. When they come up in the rotation I crank them and hit repeat a couple of times. If my player supported OGG I would have Serious Sam 2 - Grand Cathedral on it too. That game had a ton of great music on it as well. Anybody get the music from Pilotwings stuck in their head while looking out the plane window? I do. As I'm writing this post though, I keep having a bunch of great songs that I like go through my head. Now I'm going to have to dig up all old games and rip the music tracks from them again. The key part to make the music great is not only does it sound good on its own, but it really needs to fit in the game too.
Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra! Best soundtrack ever.
Most people forget the soundtrack that Devo did for the game Neuromancer...
ttyl
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
Surprised it hasn't already been mentioned. GamingFM has streams of game music from classic consoles, modern consoles, PC games, and everything mixed together.
I think of the mac Game "Dark Castle" when I hear "Toccatta in " whatever it is. That and Horror movies
And also had a pretty cool soundtrack on the CD.
Anyone remember the Zone 66 intro music? Pretty badass.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t13uJYwsC8A
While music in games has been around since Pacman's intro notes, video games as a medium for orchestral masterpieces all owe something to Phillip Price and Gary Gilbertson. While many might not have even heard of them, Phillip pioneered some of the earliest forms of video gaming music by developing the AMP Engine (advanced music processor) which allowed music to play discrete tracks timed to animation and lyrics.
Gary Gilbertson used this engine to full effect in one of the earliest animated game introduction screens for Alternate Reality: The City and again in The Dungeon.
And yes, I have both themes on my portable MP3 player.
I remember holding my walkman's microphone up to the TV speakers in order to capture the music to particular games. In some cases where the music was in-game (and before I learned how to hack them out), I'd have to play the game for as long as possible without dying (and causing as few sound effects as possible) in order to tape it.
There were several 8-bit masterpieces I liked that are well known (Rob Hubbard's, for instance) but I liked a lot from the Amiga too. Hybris, Turrican, Project X, Shadow of the Beast to name a few, plus of course lots of the music from demos - I don't think anything will ever beat the music from Static Chaos by Silents for me.
The good news is there are tons of sites full of fans of this music, Aminet is the best place to start.
Great list of game music! I thoroughly enjoyed castlevania: sotn and had my own copy once, thinking this was nothing special as it was a "greatest hits" title. I lost it and when I went to find a new one, I was surprised to see it priced so high as a "collector's item". Fortunately, you can buy it for ps3 and psp as a download for $10.
It's very fun in a rpg-warcraft kind of way, and after you clear the castle, you play the second half of the game in the same castle completely turned upside down, which required all the abilities you had gained. I forget exactly how they explained that, I think it's underground or something...
Another thing that made it cool is you start out with your character fully geared with the most awesome items in the game. But then you get them all knocked off or taken away somehow and are left to start fresh.
Very fun game, and worth checking out if you can. Oh, and the music was indeed beautiful. The cd had actual red book audio (I think?), which made it easy to get the music out to more ears.
I absolutely LOVE the music to those games, and they are on my IPod.
Little Big Adventure
Twinsen's Oddesy
Best soundtrack from any PC game, ever.
The music really makes the atmosphere of The 7th Guest, one of my all time favorite games. In particular "Skeletons in the Closet," the song that plays over the credits, is a great catchy tune that's still stuck in my head. I'd link to it, but I can't find it anywhere. Perhaps someone with stronger Google-Fu can help out?
I've spent a while listening to and collecting music from games, and while I do really enjoy the stuff from square games, I think people focus too exclusively. That being said, however, Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross have phenomenal soundtracks (I like Frog's Theme).
For other game music that you might enjoy, I recommend the following:
"Baba Yetu" by Christopher Tin; it's the main menu theme from Civilization 4, and I think the composer offers it for free on his website if you send him a "thank you"
"Still in the Dark" from the Guilty Gear XX soundtrack. I don't know who plays it.
"Katamari on the Rock" from Katamari Damacy.
I don't know if this really counts, but the choral version of "Adagio for Strings" by Samuel Barber from Homeworld is incredible. Probably the best-PLACED piece I've ever heard. To convince yourself of this, make sure you listen to it while you think about your home planet burning beneath you as you're in orbit.
I want to say some of the Tetris themes, but I have no idea what they're called and again, I'm not sure they count since I believe they're just Russian folksongs.
Mega Man has perhaps the most complex, energetic soundtracks of any game. They've been adapted into tons of other styles, covered, hell, even sung by 2ch'ers. I can say personally I've played through the Mega Man games hundreds of times and have yet to get tired of hearing the soundtrack. I don't think I can say that for any other games.
I'm sure it's the place many a geek first got into techno:
http://www.amazon.com/Wipeout-XL-Various-Artists/dp/B000003RYJ/ref=pd_bbs_sr_6?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1197042838&sr=8-6
Wipeout XL
It should be noted that we've been able to run the actual music programs from NES, SNES, C64, and other games on iPods for a while now. The NSF (for NES), SPC (for SNES), and SID (for C64) files for these games are only a few tens of kilobytes each. A few GB is all that's needed to store essentially all the music from every game for all these systems!
Of course, Apple's firmware doesn't support these, but alternative firmwares like iPod Linux and Rockbox do.
The games they pick do have great music tracks, but I was surprised not to see ANY final fantasy games on there. Nobuo Uematsu is an amazing composer. There are some great orchestral performances floating around for the series, especially Final Fantasy VI (check out the piano sheet music if you play!). Of course, I'll always have a nostalgic love for the simple, but elegant midi of the first Final Fantasy. Simply amazing.
The Killer Instinct Soundrack ROCKED!
How much is your data worth? Back it up now.
Anyone remember Hell March from C&C: Red Alert? One of the best tracks of any C&C game.
If whales learn how to use weapons we're all screwed!
I don't know about you but the music of the Ace Attorney games has been great in my opinion, especially the cornered themes of 1 and 2, the gyakuten sisters theme and godot's theme. (Fragrance of Dark Coffee)
The orchestrated and jazz albums are definitely worth listening too.
The way to corrupt a youth is to teach him to hold in higher value them who think alike than those who think differently
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stones_(song)
The links underneath take you to archives of various versions.
Now I know it's cliche to say that FF7 was great, but seriously, the music played during the first opening fights of the game, the Golden Saucer music, the end theme w/ Sephiroth...these are truly moving songs IF you've played the game. They capture so much of the experience, and bring back all those feelings and memories. Fantastic music.
"I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer." -Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear
Mercernaries: Playground of Destruction (XBOX) and Kurushi Final (PSone).!
Did the article really have to be twelve seperate ruddy pages?
tmp;dr;, so to speak.
Descent 2's soundtrack was in part created by Ogre from skinny puppy. And I really think it could be part of this list.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
What about Jesper Kyd and Martin O'Donnell?
The Human Race
Comic Bakery
Thrust
Max Headroom
Warhawk
Mancopter
M.U.L.E.
How to be a Complete Bastard
Commando
Alien
Spy vs. Spy
Ballblazer
Master of the Lamps
Uridium
There are some great C64 remixes at http://remix.kwed.org/.
A bit more recently, I really love Dean Evans' soundtrack from the game Silver (1999), and The Resident Evil 2 soundtrack. The latter is very haunting, great mood music!
This isn't exactly game music in quite the same way, but I really enjoyed "Indigo Prophecy"'s use of the song "Sandpaper Kisses" by Martina Topley-Bird (audio here, alongside someone's machinima music video that's unrelated to the game). It's pretty, and yet has a mellow softness that really stands well to being played on loop a couple times. I remember sticking around that scene in the game for several minutes, just listening to the music flow and relaxing somewhat. It helps that the majority of the game has a rush-rush-world-is-slowly-insane feel to it, and yet in that interlude with the song you get a lovely burst of calm.
I love music from the Banjo Kazooie games, all composed by one Grant Kirkhope. They're all so dang catchy!
No Duh that music is on there. Too bad my codec is not working. I am a Sonic fan, and the music is good. DAda-da ba da da da.(Goes on with Green Hill Zone tune). LIVE AND LEARN!!!!!
Mods, bring my karma down but I cannot help myself but cry out what a shitty list of the worse-cheesy-pop game tunes ever this is! (except of course Still Alive) C'moon no E1M1 from Doom?
excellent techno soundtrack