Your Top 10 Favorite Game Scores of All Time

[Lunatique]

I don't think it's ever been done here, but I'd like to know what everyone's favorite top 10 game scores are. I'm not talking about game scores where you listen to it on its own and think "This is really good music"--I'm talking about game scores that really immersed you in the game and took you to a different world. (This would have to assume you're actually a passionate gamer too--not just a composer)

Mine (In no particular order)

System Shock 2
Half-Life
The Longest Journey
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
Unreal Tournament 200X series/Unreal Championship series..etc
Silent Hill
Metal Gear Solid 2
Lineage II
Omnikron: Nomad Soul

[Cobalt Katze]

Good topic to liven things up a bit :)

Here's mine as well, in no particular order except #1, which is clearly my favourite game soundtrack.. which I'll describe.

Vagrant Story
A beautiful and immersive score that colors all the dark tones of the lost city of Lea Monde where it takes place. The intro is especially spectacular, using dynamic music within a 10 minute piece combining cutscenes and gameplay in one sequence. Particularily innovative for a PSX title. The samples and instrumentation were also notable for that generation, using a heavy dose of extended techniques not usually explored with that system's playback. Though the game lacks voiceovers, the music carries each character's theme along and almost speaks for them during the cutscenes through well-crafted pieces.

Silent Hill 2
Chrono Cross
Chrono Trigger
Shadow of the Colossus
Xenogears
Valkyrie Profile
Metal Gear Solid 2
Ico
Shadow of Destiny

[Lunatique]

Fan of Japanese games, eh? :D

[Sil]

Final Fantasy VI - the first game I noticed the music as playing a significant role
Secret of Mana - also significant in terms of melodic writing for synths
Final Fantasy VII - made several leaps forward, crossed many genre boundaries
Final Fantasy Tactics - how could anyone not notice this great Wagnerian effort?
Wild Arms - the Morricone-Western approach shows how film music styles could work in games
Total Annihilation - monumental effort on Soule's part, how did he do this?
The Dig - shows you do not need an orchestra to make an effective score
Heart of Darkness - Bruce Broughton's score to this again shows how effective film-like scores work in games
Outcast - I feel this game's soundtrack has yet to be surpassed in terms of its massive scale
Shenmue - can't understand why there aren't more game soundtracks like this one

[His Frogness]

ten's too many for my brain:

Zone of the Enders
Armed and Dangerous
Diablo
Undying
Medal of Honor
FF VII
Star Wars: KotoR

:)

[Symbiotic]

My brain isn't working this morning either, but here are my notable mentions. As you can tell, I'm a sucker for the old skoolers...

The Legend of Zelda (Original NES)
Kid Icarus (NES)
Metal Gear (NES)
Metroid (NES)
Myst (really the whole series is outstanding, but the original is still my favorite for nostalgic reasons)
Final Fantasy X
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metroid Prime
Ico


And I just started playing Beyond Good And Evil, and I'm really enjoying that soundtrack. Tim Larkin comped me a copy of Myst V and he's done some great work with that as well.

More as I can remember them... :)

[Will Roget]

I'm so glad someone mentioned Vagrant Story! A few years ago I'd just heard an mp3 or two from it, and was immediately wowed by its level of expression and innovation; soon thereafter, it became the first game soundtrack I ever bought. I could go on and on about it, but for now I'll just say that to this day I've never heard anything quite like it - perhaps it was the first "Expressionist" videogame soundtrack (in the Schoenberg sense). Kind of a shame he hasn't had a chance to do much else in this particular manner, but Final Fantasy 12 is coming out soon....

Anyways, my list:

Tied for #1) Vagrant Story || Medal of Honor: Frontline
Tied for #2) Metal Gear Solid 2 AND 3
...3?) Morrowind
Screw the ordering) Chrono Cross/Trigger, Xenogears, Final Fantasy 6, Final Fantasy Tactics

I think that adds up to 10. And yeah, I realize there's a lot of composer overlap... when you're hot you're hot, what can I say http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/images/smilies/wink.gif

[SeanHannifin]

I don't play enough to be able to name 10 :D But I would include:

Monkey Island
the Myst games
SimCity 3000
The Zelda games
Ico

I've heard some of the Final Fantasy music, but I've never played the game. The music, however, is awesome. :)

[Serge]

When you get older you're less hormonal and have only a top 5 :)

Myst Riven
Syberia
Myst Exile
Omega Stone
Schizm

SergeD

[jc5]

A top five in no particular order...

The original Zelda (NES)
Zelda III (SNES)
Final Fantasy II (SNES)
Final Fantasy III (SNES)
Actraiser (SNES)

Hmm... starts to put a date on my gaming eh? ;)
Thing is, past a certain age that youthful enthusiasm to play a said game for countless hours (thus allowing the music to really drill itself into your head!) was no longer there...
You play, but not as much - it just doesn't hold the interest as long.. I know I'm not the only one too, friends of mine who if anything were much bigger fanatics have reported similar feelings..

These days I find myself turning game music off, not because it isn't good but because of the endless repetition - no matter how good a theme or musical gesture is, it just can't survive being heard every five minutes over a gaming session lasting several hours... :(
Which is unfortunate since one then never hears the music that comes later on in the game.
The stuff that borders on sound design is even less tolerable over extended game play... the winning themes in things such as Zelda III or Final Fantasy II (perhaps my favourites overall..) is what made them tolerable, even enjoyable over those long stretches of hours.

Sorry for having veered off the topic.. :|:

[dwdonehoo]

I have been playing computer games since Doom and Unix text-line games ("You see a table with a coin on it. What do you want to do? > " I have a few favorites I play still. Here are a few favs:

Total Annihilation - Still the best RTS ever made, and I have seen nothing newer near its depth. J.S. did the music.

Battlezone - Best RTS-FPS shooter ever made, and again, nothing newer is as good with the same depth. With the patch, the graphics still rival today's games, and nothing matches its melee violence in gameplay.

Doom - All of them.

Myth - All of them. Bowmen, dwarves, swordsmen, warlocks, deer hunting! A great RTS.

Call of Duty - Great combat and finally innovation in gameplay.

Unreal Tournament - All of them.

Tribes - First king of online shooters.

Homeworld - Great story, cinematic in spades, great battles.

Dawn of War - a simple RTS, but the cinematic graphics...wow...

The Suffering - Best Doom-like shooter after Doom. Creepy. Interesting music.

Quake - It was not Doom, but something else. Great gameplay.

Mechwarrior - All of them and their related brothers. Build mechs and go to war. Fun until the Microshaft copy protection made it impossible to play for legal users.

Ground Control - Another great cinematic RTS that has to be seen...

Ghost Recon - Bang, you're dead. Music by Bill Brown.

OK, thats 14, but I did not want to stop on 13....

[Lunatique]

dwdonehoo - are you talking about games you enjoyed playing, or game music that you enjoyed while playing?

[dwdonehoo]

dwdonehoo - are you talking about games you enjoyed playing, or game music that you enjoyed while playing?

Both.

(Even the Doom midi stuff.)

[Theodor]

Zelda - Links Awakening/Majoras mask/Ocarina of time/A link to the past
Crono Cross / Crono Trigger
Super Metroid / Metroid
Final Fantasy VI / VII
Shadow of the Beast
Monkey Island 1 + 2
Super Mario World
Ghouls 'n' Ghosts
Gargoyles Quest
Secret of Mana
Castlevania
Turrican
Deus X
Apidya
Agony
Loom


More than ten :o

[Symbiotic]

Don't know how I could have forgotten to give props to The Fat Man:

Wing Commander I and II.

[Andrew Aversa]

Gotta agree with Theodor.. there are some fantastic American game soundtracks but a lot of the classic NES/SNES/PSX RPGs from Japan just had beautiful scores that haven't been topped.

[Rogles]

Gotta agree with Theodor.. there are some fantastic American game soundtracks but a lot of the classic NES/SNES/PSX/TurboDuo RPGs from Japan just had beautiful scores that haven't been topped.

It had to be added http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

[Theodor]

Don't know how I could have forgotten to give props to The Fat Man:

Wing Commander I and II.

Fat Man also did the conversion of Tchaikowsky's music to midi for Loom. That game was one of the best gaming experiences i had mainly because of the music!

Fat man rocks :)


EDIT: Turbo Duo never made it over to Greece... It used to be in all the magazines back then and i remember it having some Arcade quality shooters. Never knew it had good rpg's, gotta check them out sometime! Thanks

[Andrew Aversa]

Turbo Duo.. I'm ashamed to say I haven't even heard of that system :(

By the way, I strongly recommend any fans of video game music check out OverClocked ReMix (www.ocremix.org). It's a website devoted to arrangements of video game music from the C64 era to today.

[Rogles]

Turbo Duo.. I'm ashamed to say I haven't even heard of that system http://www.northernsounds.com/forum/images/smilies/frown.gif

By the way, I strongly recommend any fans of video game music check out OverClocked ReMix (www.ocremix.org (http://www.ocremix.org/)). It's a website devoted to arrangements of video game music from the C64 era to today.

Are you sure? Turbo Duo aka Turbo Grafx CD aka PC Engine? A cult favorite system due to games like Ys Book I & II, Ys III, Ys IV, and Dracula X (that Castlevania CD game that only came out in Japan). It was the first CD game system and most of it's CD games featured music via redbook audio. Cool system and it has a place in the history of game music (though usually forgotten).

[Andrew Aversa]

Turbo Grafx sort of rings a bell. I know of those games because of their ports.. but I've never played that system or even seen any games in stores from it. The primary consoles I know of are C64, NES, Genesis, Master System, SNES, PSX, PS2, Xbox, N64, Gamecube, the Sega Saturn, and then the variants of the Genesis like the 32x.

[Berk]

hello to all,

my favourites:

Diablo
Total Annihilation
C&C
Crusader - No Remorse
Wipeout
Pacman;)


regards


Berk

[Jamesmcwilliams]

Battlezone - Best RTS-FPS shooter ever made, and again, nothing newer is as good with the same depth. With the patch, the graphics still rival today's games, and nothing matches its melee violence in gameplay.
.

ahhh, Battlezone! One of the best games of all time. Good choice!

[Insanely Sane]

Hi all.. Interestingly enough no one seemed to mention some of my personal favourites:

Starcraft
Street Fighter 2 (themes represented the characters and their worlds.. you dont get that these days in the newer games)
Diablo II
Myst URU
Warcraft & Warcraft II
Clive Barker's Undying
Legend Of Zelda 3 (SNES) & Ocarina of Time (N64)
Final Fantasy series

[Jimi]

Sorry for the obvious bias here... I just can't be impressed by the generic hollywood movie drone-fests that pass for game soundtracks these days.

In no particular order:

Actraiser -Yuzo Koshiro.
The live symphonic CD of this is awesome.

Revenge of Shinobi -Yuzo Koshiro.
Great variety and tons of tracks.

Y's Book I&II -Yuzo Koshiro
An early CD soundtrack, blew away the lucky few who got to play it.

Metroid -Hip Tanaka
Genius!

Strider (arcade/Genesis version) -don't know.
Totally unique, bizarre, moody, superb

Zelda III -don't know
The castle theme near the start (with the string glissandos) is my favorite.

Megaman 2 -don't know
Everyone I know who played this way back when has the tunes stuck in their head to this day.

Target:Earth (Assualt Suit Leynos in Japan) -don't know
An overlooked gem with many memorable tracks (the ending music is especially inspired)

Thunder Force 3 -don't know
Possibly the best shooter ever made, with killer tunes to go with it.

Magician Lord -don't know
Not too many people played this early Neo Geo game, but it had some great tunes that really enhanced the dark theme.

Soul Blazer -don't know
I still break this out every now and then just for the great tracks. Gotta love that atmospheric underwater theme, Dr. Louies Lab, and the funky bass+trumpet riffs on a couple dungeons.

Platoon -don't know
OK, this game sucks, and the BGM sucks too, but the title screen music kicks ~~~!

Bionic Commando -that vintage Capcom person
I'm still considering a ripping full orchestral version of the first stage music. I'm thinking a batterie of snare drums.

Salamander -don't know
Unfortunately, some of these great tracks got butchered for the NES "Lifeforce" game. The Konami sound hardware for the arcade version was killer.

Haunted Castle (AKA Castlevania etc) -don't know
Like Salamander... sounded super sweet on the arcade hardware. The console Castlevania games also had a lot of great music, the first stage of the old gameboy version being my favorite.

Galaga '88 -don't know
OK, there is only music on the bonus stages, but it kicks ~~~ anyway.

Landstalker -don't know
Great composition throughout for one of the best games ever made. Too bad not many people got to play it...

Area 88 (AKA U.N. Squadron) -Capcom dude again
Like Thunderforce 3, an uncommonly good soundtrack for a shooter.

Valis III -don't know
Fairly obscure, great music.

Willow (arcade version) -some Capcom person again
A sweet game, with a sweet soundtrack to boot.

Blaster Master -don't know
One of the best games of all time, anyone who played it remembers the music fondly.

Fester's Quest...
A fairly crappy game, but dude, the first stage song seriously rocks! What's it doing on this cheesy game?

Burning Force
Hella obscure, some nice vintage Namco tunes.

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker
JUST KIDDING! HAHAHAHAHA

[KingIdiot]

Sorry for the obvious bias here... I just can't be impressed by the generic hollywood movie drone-fests that pass for game soundtracks these days.

In no particular order:

(lots of games...)


jeez..theres a ton of my faves in there...

BTW, I actually beat Fester's Quest, it was my job o actually play all the games we had in our catalog at beat them to figure out what kind of game genie codes we should make back when I worked at Galoob. So, Fester's was one, as was Bill and Ted's Excelent adventure....gack!!!


alot of the classic games were some of y faves tho

Ghous & ghosts/Ghosts and Goblins

Mega Man, I can a cappella teh music right after you mick your character from MM2, and one tune that is stuck in my head, but I dont know what stage..it IS stuck there

has anyone mentioned Contra yet?, I mean rock n roll come on!!

and while we're at it, Bionic commando.

Alot of the early sega games were really synth heavy because of the synth chip, but there were some good soundtracks, RoS already mentioned, but Toe Jam and Earl is another.

I'm Still a fan of all the variations on the Mario stuff, especially listen to the great voicings and subtle harmonies used on the SNES remakes.

always a Final Fantasy fan, 6 has some especially great musical themes, even if they are a tad soap opera like with the minimilist piano at times.

I loved teh music in Destony of an emperor.

all the castlevania's of course

and as mentioned above Blaster Master, I F'in loved that game to death, even remember the old pause when you shoot a boss trick.

gunstar heros had some good stuff

some of the phantasy star stuff I loved, some I utterly HATED!!! Its taught me what not to do in some instances

ninja Gaiden....come on...

down to the early Media Ventures tyope cinema music, ingle bas line driving the moment HAHA

man I cant remember all teh stuff I liked alot....

its hard for me to label new games because I'm so fond of the older ones. Not to mention that alot of the newer stuff is so film like, that I start to compare it to films rather than older games.

Crash Bandicoot Twinsanity had some really cool sounding stuff from Sipralmouth tho, I'm surprised no one ever metnions it (maybe no one played it)

I dig the MGS stuff, and Shadow of the Collosus was damn nice

[Jimi]

"jeez..theres a ton of my faves in there...
Ghous & ghosts/Ghosts and Goblins"

I like the soundtrack on the sequel (Ghouls n Ghosts) quite a bit.

"Mega Man, I can a cappella teh music right after you mick your character from MM2, and one tune that is stuck in my head, but I dont know what stage..it IS stuck there"

I bet it's Crashman's stage!

"has anyone mentioned Contra yet?, I mean rock n roll come on!!"

Oops they slipped my mind... those tunes are brilliant. To really get a taste of how rocking they really are, check out the minibosses live rock band version, man the waterfall music rips with the fuzz bass!

"gunstar heros had some good stuff"

Gunstar is one of my all time favorites, and the tunes are cool, I especially dig that subway mine cart level music.

"some of the phantasy star stuff I loved, some I utterly HATED!!! Its taught me what not to do in some instances"

Very hit and miss...

[Jimi]

Alot of the early sega games were really synth heavy because of the synth chip, but there were some good soundtracks, RoS already mentioned, but Toe Jam and Earl is another.

I just remembered another: Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse. Top notch composition all the way through! Another early Genny game with some nice tunes is the grandaddy of RTS games, Herzog Zwei (same composer as Thunder Force 3 I reckon). Koshiro's score for the first Streets of Rage did some nice things with the Genny soundchip, as far as a cheesy beat-em-up game goes.

I also forgot the 1st Ducktales game, especially the Gameboy version... great stuff, Moon level, Vampire level, etc.

Another Yuzo Koshiro score, Legacy of the Wizard, had a couple classic tracks and the rest are solid.

And who can forgot the 5-second-loop-for-the-entire-game madness of Bubble Bobble and Kid Niki? Hahahaha. Instant aural torture!

[Rogles]

Actraiser -Yuzo Koshiro.
The live symphonic CD of this is awesome.

Agreed.


Revenge of Shinobi -Yuzo Koshiro.
Great variety and tons of tracks.

Yes.


Ys Book I&II -Yuzo Koshiro
An early CD soundtrack, blew away the lucky few who got to play it.

Hell yes.


Strider (arcade/Genesis version) -don't know.
Totally unique, bizarre, moody, superb

Agreed. Definately unique.


Zelda III -don't know
The castle theme near the start (with the string glissandos) is my favorite.

Best track in the game.


Megaman 2 -don't know
Everyone I know who played this way back when has the tunes stuck in their head to this day.

Hell yes.


Target:Earth (Assualt Suit Leynos in Japan) -don't know
An overlooked gem with many memorable tracks (the ending music is especially inspired)

Unbelievable someone else actually remembers this one! It only has a few tracks but they are good.


Soul Blazer -don't know
I still break this out every now and then just for the great tracks. Gotta love that atmospheric underwater theme, Dr. Louies Lab, and the funky bass+trumpet riffs on a couple dungeons.

Indeed.


Valis III -don't know
Fairly obscure, great music.

Another great one. Heh, my username is actually related to this.

Blaster Master -don't know
One of the best games of all time, anyone who played it remembers the music fondly.

Agreed.


Great list Jimi.

[Jimi]

(Target Earth)
Unbelievable someone else actually remembers this one! It only has a few tracks but they are good.
Great list Jimi.

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. Pretty cool that I got to spout off about these to a sympathetic audience... naturally people in real life just look at me like I'm a Martian if I extoll the virtues of these compositions.

Regarding Target: Earth... it certainly does have a weird allocation of music... there are a few pieces, the opening cinema, the great little "setup" tune before each stage, the death music, the underground level, the final level, the final boss(love this one, great fake "guitar solos" ha ha), the ending. Yet somehow, they decided it was a good idea to switch between two main BGM's on every other stage. Granted, they are great tracks, but I think the first stage music is on maybe 4 other stages! The very cool 2nd stage music is used even more! Weird. Then again, the game is kinda weird in general.

Believe it or not, I once beat it on maximum difficulty... I had to let my mech's lifebar recharge every five seconds. I think it took me about 10 hours. Naturally, without a time bonus you get jack for weapons, so I had to shoot lots of enemies, so I set a book on the button, and left it on to rake up points while I went to the store or whatever. Still, the parachute (after atmosphere re-entry) stage is virtually impossible without the jetpack, and I'm still not sure how I got through it.

[Rogles]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it. Pretty cool that I got to spout off about these to a sympathetic audience... naturally people in real life just look at me like I'm a Martian if I extoll the virtues of these compositions.

Regarding Target: Earth... it certainly does have a weird allocation of music... there are a few pieces, the opening cinema, the great little "setup" tune before each stage, the death music, the underground level, the final level, the final boss(love this one, great fake "guitar solos" ha ha), the ending. Yet somehow, they decided it was a good idea to switch between two main BGM's on every other stage. Granted, they are great tracks, but I think the first stage music is on maybe 4 other stages! The very cool 2nd stage music is used even more! Weird. Then again, the game is kinda weird in general.

Believe it or not, I once beat it on maximum difficulty... I had to let my mech's lifebar recharge every five seconds. I think it took me about 10 hours. Naturally, without a time bonus you get jack for weapons, so I had to shoot lots of enemies, so I set a book on the button, and left it on to rake up points while I went to the store or whatever. Still, the parachute (after atmosphere re-entry) stage is virtually impossible without the jetpack, and I'm still not sure how I got through it.

I was only able to beat it using the cheat code. It's one of the most difficult games ever made.

[Von Richter]

Great lists, Jimi and others. While we are on the subject of more obscure scores, I'll toss in a thumbs-up for the soundtrack to Heavy Nova. Supposedly the mega-CD version is the same tunes with real recordings. Man I'd like to hear that!

In case anyone is digging out emulators after this thread (I know I am!), my favorite tracks (on the sound test menu) are 01, 03, and the especially memorable 10.