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Twelve Game Music Tracks Worth Keeping

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the not-just-de-bips-and-bloops dept.

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."

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  1. A few more of my favorites by FleaPlus · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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/