What was the best video game music of all time?

TheBananaKing@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 189 points –

For my money it's a tie between Eurydice's song from Hades, any of the tracks from VVVVVV and Still Alive. But what do you think?

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Katamari Damacy. It's got one of the most infectiously joyous soundtracks of all time -- an eccentric, richly-produced, and incredibly catchy melange of funk, salsa, bossa nova, experimental electronica, J-Pop, swing, lounge, bamboo flute, hair metal, buoyant parade music, soaring children's choirs, Macintalk fanfares, and the single best theme song this side of Super Mario Bros. And beyond being insane earworms, many of the tracks have surprisingly deep and meaningful lyrics.; my favorite is probably the beautiful "Cherry Tree Times", which I've seen described as "[using] the gameplay mechanics as a metaphor both for the twinge of nostalgia we could feel even in childhood toward our younger selves and for the experience of falling in love."

The Halo Trilogy I truly believe is the best video game music. The original from CE instantly became iconic and felt pivotal to the game. Then each iteration tweaked the formula in a way that represented the respective game. The heavy rock Breaking Benjamin style from Halo 2 represents the rebellious nature of the story (and honestly it represented gaming culture at the time). Then the music really matured with a heavy piano theme for Halo 3. The score made you feel the sacrifice of the characters and us saying goodbye to a brilliant story.

Some great tracks:

https://youtu.be/JX5O3n9K_d0

https://youtu.be/m_cwHnQ7Xsg

FFX To Zanarkand is gut wrenching. Powerful and moving. The song captures completely what the story is about.

Came here just to make sure this one was mentioned.

Shit, just the home screen music gets me man.

Command and Conquer Red Alert and the fact that this isn't top comment, yet alone already mentioned has me seriously doubting the taste of this establishment.

RA2 music better than RA1 music for me.

RA2 is the best RTS of all time, no question.

I don't care which one it is, all 3 had an excellent Hell March.

And while I loved both RA2 and RA3 for their style, CnC Generals was the better RTS just for being better balanced. Unfortunately no memorable music in Generals.

Yeah TibSun and Red Alert 2 basically defined my music taste in life. Halo got me into orchestra, but everything else can be traced back to C&C

How can anything beat Tetris?

First instinct was to say Chrono Trigger. My second choice is Tony Hawks Pro skater.

Outer Wilds.

The whole soundtrack is just so atmospheric, I regularly listen to it while working as a kind of focus music, but some tracks are so good I get the chills while listening.

Has anyone said Minecraft? I haven't played games myself for years (well before Minecraft) but live in a house where it was played for hours at a time. Soundtrack never became annoying & whenever I hear it it instantly takes me back in time.

My vote for best - Secret of Mana

My personal favorite - Jet Set Radio Future

JSRF was incredible. Still listen to some of the songs every now and then. That Xbox bundle that came with it was so good

It's the entire reason I still own an original Xbox.

For me it's is:

  • Final Fantasy 7 (sheer volume of classics, listen to it regularly)
  • Resident Evil 2 (PSX)
  • Tekken 3
  • Silent Hill 2
  • Spyro (come on, it's Stewart Copeland!)

have you listened to ff7 lofi remixes on YouTube though? 👀

Thankyou! I have a lofi playlist and this is going to be added immediately.

I have not, but am going there right now! Any particular playlist?

Final fantasy 6! The renditions of the victory fanfare and chocobo theme are terrific and multiple other songs are dramatic, exciting, enthralling. And there are some legit jams on the soundtrack, too. The Veldt, Magitek Factory, and Zozo all are amazing.

Other games music that are great are Tropico, Frostpunk, and RimWorld.

I shouldn't have had to scroll this far but I guess the average gamer is younger than this masterpiece now.

I think ff7 also was "the" final fantasy game people played and think back to.

But ff6 has a dope soundtrack. Like when you lift off in the falcon for the first time.

Final fantasy 6. Probably did the most with the least. It is an all-time banger for that along with super Mario 3.

Either Halo or the new Doom games.

Very few themes are more iconic than Halos chanting and basically all of those are simple themes without depth. Halos theme makes you feel a flood of emotion when you hear it.

And nothing on this earth nothing is more bad ass than the Doom music. Just hearing it makes you feel like you could go to hell and kill gods.

Mass Effect.

That opening scene, with that music playing… it really hooked me from the first second.

Love the reaper sounds. I think my favorite scene is from mass effect 2 when the reapers are coming to a planet you're on and destroying everything.

Vice City

I would argue that Vice City has a great soundtrack, one of the best. but it has real music, not "video game music" in other words music written specifically for it.

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"Setting Sail, Coming Home" from Bastion deserves a mention, from the same studio as Hades. They put the effort in when it comes to music in their games.

In no particular order.

OSTs:

  • DOOM 2016

  • FTL: Faster Than Light

  • Halo (most, but especially 1-3 and Reach)

  • Command and Conquer series, especially Yuri's Revenge and prior.

Non-OST games:

  • Gran Turismo 2

  • TRAIL:OUT

I listen to all of these in my free time fairly regularly.

Scrolled through to see if someone would mention doom, I was gunna post it if not.

That OST was a big part of the game.

Doom 2016's soundtrack is so incredible not only because the tracks themselves are great but how well it combines with the game itself

Risk of Rain 2 is phenomenal.

Warframe has great music all over the place.

Tony Hawks Underground and Underground 2 soundtracks contain songs I listen to today.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted 2007 and Burnout 3: Takedown basically defined my music interests from an early age.

I really enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077s but that was likely primarily because of the inclusion of Run The Jewels.

Nice to see Risk of Rain mentioned. Agreed

Btw the first most wanted was released in 2005 not 2007. But I definitely agree with you it's what got me into rock music.

Wrong year, my bad, but yeah. Definitely was big for my tastes

Weight of the World - Nier Automata

The Japanese version when you're finishing the game is the most emotional I've gotten during a game

Some of my favourites:

If I remember any more I'll update the list. I listen to these all the time.

The entire Homeworld franchise is awesome in this regard. Including Deserts of Kharak.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is also great for some chill beats. So unique. You all should give it a listen.

Yes, hardspace! I was searching for this. It's not your typical rock or techno. It's more bluegrass. It fits the game so perfectly bc of the working class exploitation theme. Wish I could have gotten the vinyl.

Castlevania games have the best music hands down in my opinion

The fact that I read your comment and three songs started playing simultaneously in my head shows you might be on to something.

Metroid! The sound track was so awesome a heavy metal band recorded it as an album.

Disco Elysium!!

I've been listening to the OST A LOT lately. Discovering Sea Power and similar artists is one of the many many great things that came out of playing that game.

Halo (most), Super Paper Mario, Baten Kaitos, and Ocarina of Time.

Ctrl+F Hotline Miami.... No one's mentioned this banging track yet?

Easily this. It’s almost functionally a rhythm game with the way the soundtrack effectively pulse drags you through levels, and then smash cuts to a droning track for a “comedown” after the high of each completion.

The Last of Us is the next best for me.

And then I know it’s cheating, but the Theophany Time’s End II cover of Majora’s Mask is a masterpiece. If this was in-game, it’d be my number one.

The only OST better than Hotline Miami is Hotline Miami 2. Seriously, that Carpenter Brut track is unreal

Journey.

Sometimes I well up just thinking about it, let alone listening to it. Wonderful.

Almost all the music from :

Castlevania symphony of the night The legend of Zelda wind waker Final fantasy 7 and 8 Metal gear solid Pokémon blue GTA Vice city FTL:faster than light

Some from timesplitters 2 like streets or return to planet x

I don't know if I'm brave enough to say of all time. but the tracks from jazz jackrabbit 2 are pretty awesome. I have them on my ordinary music playlist.

Jungle Fevah, Jazz be damned, Dark groove and Tubelectric kick ass! (Not that the others don't, I just particularly like those ones)

Alexander Brandon is a legend

I love castle level and streetwise, myself 😅

Someone already said Shadow of the Colossus, so I can plug my other favourite Outer Wilds. Especially the tracks from Echoes of the Eye. Dark Passage is raw dread in audio form, the River is a spectacular adventure theme, and the jam at the end of the universe is a perfect ending

Fields of Ard Skellig from Witcher 3, also A story you wouldn't believe.

I'd struggle to set a ranking between DOOM 2016/Eternal, Witcher 3, and Civilization 6.

Maybe Civ 6 wins just by sheer dint of tracks, plus they have so much cultural significance.

Kingdom Hearts

Oh no don't you say you won't walk away please c'mon baaaybeee...

Which i only remember from the stupid commercials they played non-stop. One of the few videogame commercials of that era

Agreed. If you haven’t heard of then, you should check out Project Destati. They’re great at capturing the magic of KH music in orchestra style

For the whole soundtrack Shadow of the Collosus. For a specific track the one I listen to most often is Instrument of Surrender, or Off We Go Into The Wild Pale Yonder from Disco Elysium

I've barely played the game, it wasn't for me, but I fell instantly in love with the Bastion and Transistor soundtracks the moment I heard them.

It is my second most played game soundtrack right behind the metal songs from the Alan Wake series. Third is all 3 Hell March songs from Red Alert series. Fourth and oldest is probably Unreal Return to Na Pali and generally all of the two Unreal and four Unreal Tournament game tracks. And the Frozen Synapse series and Uplink soundtracks is probably close to the top too. And I don't know if it counts but the artist behind the Wheel of Time game soundtrack released a separate almost-soundtrack, which I played A LOT while reading the book series.

And thats just a few of my favorite tracks. I love video game music! I can't really decide on a single best one.

If you haven't already heard it, I highly recommend Pyre's OST! I'm a little biased, it's one of my favorite games of all time, but I feel the OST especially improves on elements of Bastion/Transistor's soundtracks but with a style all its own.

also yasssss frozen synapse rules

I love Supergiant Games titles like Bastion and the rest have nearly all their music be Diagetic and in case with Transistor is neccessary for the plot.

The key apparently is because Darren Korb is the in house team working on day 1 with them.

I would love to see more musicals have their songs more Diagetic or immersive as a result,, and would love to see more films integrate music better rather than treating it as post production stuff or leaving the temp music in.

Firelink Shrine from Dark Souls, it's so peaceful and melancholic

From games all have amazing soundtracks. I just played through everything from demon souls to Elden ring including sekiro and bloodborne and realised they all have amazing, but very different, soundtracks. Most bosses have completely unique soundtracks it's amazing the attention to detail and you miss it if you aren't specifically listening for it .

The Super Mario Galaxy duology has the best overall OST in my opinion. The orchestral music is amazing for so many of the tracks.

For any individual song, however. It would be Weight of the World from Nier Automata. For context: ::: spoiler spoiler it's the very emotional song that plays during the credits scene of the game, after you complete all 5 of the main endings :::

EDIT: I want to give an honorable mention to the Ace Attorney OST, across all of their games. A lot of people may know the Pursuit - Cornered theme, but every game in that series has banger tracks. Not as widely praised, and very underrated imo, hence the honorable mention.

There's just way too many to list. A few of my favorite composers are

  • Tim Follin
  • Jochen Hippel
  • Matt Furniss
  • David Whittaker
  • Jeroen Tel
  • Yuzo Koshiro
  • Rob Hubbard

Kinda hard for me. I'm split between NieR:Automata, ultrakill and Doom 2016/Eternal

Then again, I just started Baldur's Gate 3 and the soundtrack so far is pretty bangin so this might change

Space Harrier or Outrun, for sure.

Special award for Ghost n Goblins or Commando and some others like Dragon's Lair.

Ori And The Blind Forest is definitely up there

Surprised I've not seen more people mention this. Will of the wisps music was bomb too. Gareth Coker is an incredible composer.

Objectively speaking the answer has gotta be something from FFXIV. But which one?? Too many candidates....

The most I've ever felt from a video game's music to pump me up was "Shadowbringers" playing once you start the fight with Hades.

So I'd say that.

aquatic ambiance from Donkey Kong country is up there. Also IGN made an actually cool video about it recently.

Yes! People like to chalk up DKC2 and having the better music. And while sticker brush symphony slaps, I feel like DKC1 had more memorable music.

Aquatic ambiance, minecart madness, the title screen, bonus stage, hell even the first stage. So good!

Here's an obscure one.

The Batman game for NES.

That stage 1 & 2 song was like no other game music on the NES before or since.

Also, shout out to Blaster Master.

Like no other before or since? You'll have to jam out to playing Gun Smoke for the nes, released before batman. The entire track is bangers and the game was awesome as well.

Bro, you put a Super Giant game and don't mention "Build that Wall" from Bastion, tsk tsk.

Appearently Trump tried to get the license for that song for his campaign

/s

There are many great ones. Off the top of my head, each with a sample:

(All links point to a Piped Instance, which is a privacy-friendly YouTube frontend/proxy. If you want to visit YouTube directly and tell Google what you're watching, just change the domain name)

In bg3 I'm currently in a fight with a certain trickster and the music for that is freaking great.

It is ** Brütal Legend** by far!!

Always forget about this game! Also one of the best for sure

Well thats kinda cheating, most of the music is just old rock and metal! 😊 Though I do have that Swordhenge guitar bit in my playlist. Unforgettable.

some of my favourites

streets of rage 1 and 2 wave race 64 aerobiz supersonic platoon nes donkey country snes katamari damacy ps2 earthbound snes pictionary nes ristar genesis bomberman hero n64 castlevania 3 nes

I think Zelda: Wind Waker's ost is one of the greats. I'm also surprised nobody has mentioned Earthbound and Mother 3 yet. They have amazing atmospheric tracks like nothing else.

It's nice to see so many different awnsers, gaming has just so many good soundtracks.

Personally, I love the soundtrack of the original Xenoblade Chronicles. "Engage the Enemy" really hits during the cutscene it plays.

Another recomendation is Xenoblade Chronicles 3's "Words that never reached you"

Final fantasy 6 Chrono trigger Street fighter 2 Street fighter v Super Mario Bros 3 Mega Man 2 Undertale And this is really unfair but Def Jam fight for New York

The song from the first level of Sonic Adventure 2 (the one about escaping the city). It catchy to listen to while all of the action of Sonic unfolds.

Im a sucker for the witcher 1& 2. Also stardew valley/minecraft are both worth mentioning

So many great answers already, but one I don't think I've seen mentioned yet is the soundtrack for Bastion

MW2: Mercenaries was pretty awesome.

Other ones that come to mind are Crazy Taxi and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.

I love soundtracks from Splatoon, all series. Especially Chip Damage/Blitz it! is my favourite.

Jet Set Radio Jet Set Radio Future Bombrush Cyberfunk

You just have to understand the concept of love!

And if you wanna go hard - DOOM (2016)

Almost all Deus Ex soundtrack, and maybe the Synapse level was the best of them.

Ahhh but which Still Alive?

You probably meant the one from Portal, but I much prefer the one from Mirror's Edge! Beautiful song!

90% of the Sonic Frontiers "Cyberspace" tracks are S tier. The best soundtrack in recent memory.

There is a reason Touhou has two fandoms, one for its games and the other for its music. The music alone saved it from being another Oregon Trail and eventually got it its own anime.

Personally, Quake (1996). I remember playing it as a teen and actually feeling my heart rate increase with the music. It was the first game that the music really immersed me into the game.

Honorable mention, The Housebuilding Song from RDR2. Just a perfect way to lighten the mood after such a hard hitting chapter.

Some great ones:

Gyruss (arcade)

Bubble Bobble (arcade)

WipeOut 2097(XL) (psx - probably the best example of songs that compliment the gameplay)

Afterburner II (arcade - just one specific track called City 202, at time 15:34)

Edit: 2 more

720 ( arcade - blistering)

Rolling Thunder ( arcade - max funky )

For me personally some of my favorites (most memorable) are:

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin main title (and first half of the OST)

Divinity Original Sin 2 main title

Original vanilla WoW main title music

Sanctuary from Borderland 3’s OST

BFG Division from DOOM

Pretty much the entire Skyrim soundtrack

Most of the Witcher 3 soundtrack. My favorite is probably On the Champs-Désolés, which is from the Blood and Wine expansion.

Def hollow knight, I think it captures the essence of a long decaying kingdom perfectly.

I love listening to Rimworlds OST and Hotline Miamis soundtrack.

Pretty much the entire Castlevania : Symphony of the night soundtrack... It's all so good. And nostalgic too. One of my favorite games, and favorite soundtracks.

Definitely my top choice. The music added so much depth and it really set the bar for video game music in the disc age.

Celeste and Pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of sky

Others have mentioned kingdom hearts, donkey Kong country and Jet Set Radio Future which are some of my favorites, but another one I love is Maplestory. Great simplistic map BGMs that I still listen to quite often when studying or focusing

And now I've got the Henesys music playing in my head. Old MS was so fun back in the day. Mesos pls :'(

half life franchise (seriously every game has perfect and fitting soundtrack) super meat boy (both the original 2010 soundtrack composed by danny b and the 2015 soundtrack made by various artists rock. but the 2010 soundtrack is one of the most iconic soundtracks ever made in my opinion.)

I’ll add two of my favourites that haven’t been mentioned yet - Metroid Prime is my all time favourite and Horizon: Zero Dawn and Forbidden West which I’ve been listening to a ton late lately

This message brought to you by "that one part you can whistle in Chozo Ruins" gang

IDK if it's best of all time but the soundtrack to Guardians Crusade, a jrpg for kids on the PS1, is pretty up there and waaaaaaayyyyyy better than it has any right to be.

Jet Set Radio Future and Jet Grind Radio. No question. Hideki Nakanuma is a genius.

Oh and Dance Dance Revolution 3rd, 4th, and 5th miss.

That's a tough one. And I don't think it's fair. From one generation to the next, music in video games has evolved quite a bit.

And each console had its own quirks for the music chip. Some later consoles played directly from CDs.

On the NES, I think Megaman 2 and Journey to Silius had kick-ass chip tune soundtracks.

On the SNES, I'd say Uniracer had a great rock soundtrack. Star Fox also had an epic soundtrack. Oh and Killer Instinct was fantastic. It even came with a music CD with the soundtrack. But my all time fave has to be the TMNT IV game soundtrack. And I'll give a special shoutout to Chrono Trigger.

On the Sega Genesis, I think the Sonic series had an amazing newjack and fusion jazz style soundtrack.

On N64, and PlayStation I particularly LOVED the Wipeout racing game soundtracks with music from my all time favorite electronica bands of the time. Goldeneye 007 holds a special place in my heart as well.

After that it gets really hard because so many games have incredible music. It's hard to choose.

Right now I'm going to have to go with a tie between Brok and Graff from Brok the Investigator and the legacy soundtrack piece After The Flames by Josh Woodward from SuperTuxKart.

Definitely the best video game music is from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Stains of Time is my favorite.

Okami has a truly beautiful soundtrack, my favourites are the 'The Sun Rises' and The Eight Dog Warriors Theme'. Also Calamari Inkantation from Splatoon is fantastic.

My personal bias is music from the Wild Arms series. Michiko Naruke is a top-tier composer.

Castlevania, Zelda and Silent Hill (though I'd say all first 3) mentioned so I'm gonna say Alundra. Sure it's very Zelda/JRPG, but that game had some amazing music that just sticks with you.

Also a little tongue in cheek, but Adventures of Lolo. I'm not sure if there's just one song throughout the trilogy, but it sure feels like it. Weirdly it doesn't bother you. It's like a hypnosis that just makes you play one more level. One more try. Kind of like the Tetris soundtrack, but it never gets old.

It’s not better than Tetris I’ll admit. But I’ve always had a soft spot for the Mass Effect soundtrack.

Not exactly answering the question, but hearing every generational rendition of Proof of a Hero throughout the Monster Hunter games still gives me the feels

Modern Warfare 2 (2009)

Left 4 Dead

Warcraft classic - TBC - WOTLK - Cataclysm

They are Billions

Samurai Shodown series has an amazing soundtrack. A mix of traditional Japnese sound, rock music, chaotic jazz, and ambient sound that barely resembles a song. The ending of 3 is my ultimate 'get pumped' song:

https://youtu.be/smKr282S8-I

I am personally in love with Far Cry 5's soundtrack.

Wingspan. I have the Vinyl OST.

Monument Valley is quite nice too.

Tony Hawk was a big one. The EA sports games always have some bangers that get stuck in your head. One of my favorite video game moments, though, was bombing the tobacco fields to Bomba Estereo's "Fuego", in Far Cry 6. They employed music well, throughout, but that moment was really enveloping.

I played a beautiful game last year called Omno, and the soundtrack to that was just breathtaking. I listen to it all the time

I'm going to give honorable mention to Buck Bumble on the N64.

I remember basically nothing about the game, or even if it was any good, but I rented it once at blockbuster and like 2 decades later the theme song still pops into my head once in a while.

For me definitively the soundtrack of Boneworks (which is also the best VR game I know). Especially its main theme ("Bone Theme") and "Who am I"

Some more awesome OSTs in no particular order: Minecraft, Banjo-Kazooie / Banjo Tooie, Witcher 3, Risk of Rain 2

I still listen to the NSFU2 soundtrack today when I feel the need for a bit of hard hitting sound, with some variety.

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Skyrim was pretty epic… even the “wandering around” music was perfect.

But my #1 is Still Alive (closing theme song to Portal).

Unorthodox opinion here but Wasteland 3, the first time the Battle Hymn of the Republic played over a fight was incredible.

Hands down, DOOM Eternal

Eternal had some great beats. Hell on earth is a great track. I love the demonic chant for the arctic hell base too.

This is going to be highly subjective.

For me, this may not be the best, but it's one of the more memorable soundtracks.

Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic, Manaan theme. https://youtu.be/CNe4XHbkEZA

Deep Stone Lullaby fro the Deep Stone Crypt raid in Destiny 2.

It’s an absolutely beautiful piece of music, but so much impactful more when tied to where it appears in the raid as you battle your way across the underside of the space station, all of the other sounds muffled by the vacuum of space.

I don’t know who the guy is, but this video of DrLupo playing it with an orchestra playing the track live while he does is pretty damned amazing.

I'm going to go for a bit of a deeper cut and say Mad Rat Dead. They took a genre which relies so heavily on the strength of its music (rhythm platformer), and produced a soundtrack where literally every song is a banger, and produced some great emotional moments as well--the transition from Cottage House to Kind of Hope and Neuchatel still makes me choke up just thinking about it.

@TheBananaKing

I'd say Sayonara Wild Hearts. It's a rhythm game so expertly crafted with the musicsoundtrack it gives me chills. It's so, so good

My favorite is Dragon Age Origins, personally.

The really cool war chant for the Ostagar scene, Lelianna's Song, and the soundtrack of the Brecilian Forest are my favorite.