I love these games and I think the soundtracks are underrated as an essential part of their appeal. I’ll Start with one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk72RMv9d0s
Tube of Medusa from Ecco2: Tides of Time.
Personally, I think the Sega CD version soundtrack is… fine, but it has a different composer. If I remember correctly, it;s the composer from the first Ecco. In my opinion, it’s inoffensive, but completely forgettable.
EDIT: I have edited the topic to include older stuff.
Chrono Trigger has a few bangers
Guardia Millennial Fair and Frog’s Theme are absolutely brilliant
We often have music on in the office, and anyone can put on whatever they want. Chrono Cross Scars of Time came on and I nearly gave myself whiplash. I found who put it on and he started playing game music for the rest of the day, including CT and Final Fantasy. It was great.
This is my cellphone ringtone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KC-B3Q0cRrY
But I really like Road Rash 3 speed metal soundtrack https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZVx18ONA5M&list=RDMZVx18ONA5M
The music in the Streets of Rage games is so unique. The song you linked to from Road Rash 3 is great.
Highly recommend the Streets of Rage Red Bull Music Festival stream where both creators perfomed most of the classics live for anyone who hasn’t seen it.
People know about the bizarrely complex prog rock intro theme from Sosltice (NES) but in case you don’t, listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_gObHt1uZA
That’s also Tim Follin. 😂
Ducktales NES Moon Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF32DRg9opA
It’s unfortunate to me how memed the song has become. It is a delightful product of the time and I truly adore the song, but it’s getting overused.
It is? Like where? Not any of the videos I see.
The gamefeel on those cane mechanics 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻😩
Wanna also highlight the theme song for Phantasy Star 4: End of the Millennium. Amazing game. Way ahead of its time! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMplusdva5k
I’ve chosen two Genesis/Megadrive songs, even though I’m generally a SNES guy, lol.
right! such amazing futuristic earworms!
Top Gear - SNES:
https://youtu.be/cxAXTHBxgTw?si8nO81VKWhW6JohvY
This was better than a lot of electronic music available in the US at the time. Absolute bangers.
I would have brought it up myself if someone hadn’t already.
Top Gear 2 is just as good in my book:
@bilb Jurassic Park 2 has a surprisingly good soundtrack. Barely played the game other than listening to the .spcs though
Mega Man 2 still has the most consistently awesome soundtrack of any video game ever. Just banger-after-banger.
Sonic 2 - Mystic Cave Zone
Wonder Boy III - The Dragon’s Trap on Sega Master System has some great tunes as well.
There are too many. I’ll post here some lesser known tracks and games, and no JRPGs. And no CD based tracks, just good old 8-bit and 16-bit chip music. :-) Invidious is a privacy respecting alternative frontend for YouTube, so I have both links to the songs. Also I have a little bit of bias towards SNES.
- Slime World 1 - Global Gladators by Tommy Tallarico (Genesis / Mega Drive): YouTube | Invidious
- Stage 03 - Over Horizon by Masaharu Iwata (NES): YouTube | Invidious
- Track 5 - Monster Max by David Wise (Game Boy): YouTube | Invidious
- House of the Dead - Addams Family Values by Keith Tinman (Super Nintendo): YouTube | Invidious
Alright, I can’t hold it any longer back, here are few which doesn’t care my above rules:
Mystic Quest has so many bangers. I feel like it’s getting the acknowledgement it deserves nowadays, but I remember when it was a pretty deep cut on music posts like this one.
The Dark King is still probably my favorite final boss theme, and Doom Tower right before it is amazing too.
Basically the entire soundtrack is way better than it deserves to be for the game that it’s in.
The OST was always decent on mystic quest, but the game itself was not so much. Also, good as the OST was, it was surrounded by (imo) superior OSTs from other Square games.
While I do think anything by Mitsuda beats it, imo Mystic Quest is the best Final Fantasy soundtrack by a healthy margin (but then I also think Uematsu is pretty overrated, so that might not be so surprising).
I don’t agree, but hey that’s what opinions are for. I do have a distinct love for the Chrono Trigger and Xenogears OST that none of Uematsu’s work can top though.
The boss track is also amazing. The soundtrack had no business for being this good, especially so early in the consoles lifetime. This game was also my very first turn based JRPG… it was a bit sad in Europe for RPG fans back then… BTW he did another SNES RPG soundtrack “Rudora no Hihou”. It doesn’t sound as good off course, but is worth exploring: Strange Encounter
I’m very surprised no one mentioned Earthbound/Mother 2 yet. The whole thing is just banger after banger, but this one’s my favourite:
Your right, there’s nothing else on the SNES that sounds anything like it. It’s fantastic. Smiles and Tears makes me cry. https://youtu.be/gJs5YXUeFug?is=1EkPMZqZzCP3Z4_G
Turtles in Time for the SNES, every song is a banger
R-type. Specifically the tg-16 version.
Okay, so La-Mulana is technically a more recent game, but I remember the original version from 20 years ago looking just like an MSX game.
Anyway, the gate of guidance theme really stood out to me. Oh, and the village’s theme too, and several others.The La Mulana sound track is amazing.
I really need to play the sequel already. I even kickstarted it.
Here’s the most of my playlist called YM2612:
Guess I’ll save this thread for later >:)
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If only I could upvote twice
