1y ago

What was the best video game music of all time?

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?

254 comments

Tetris
Why? Because upon having said that I know its now playing in all of your heads.
- Korobeiniki
- I liked the 'B' music best. 'A' is a classic but 'B' was my jam.
  Check out this remix of it from years ago.
  https://youtu.be/Tnyk1xoQWJI

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.

Baba Yetu from Civilization IV is the correct answer. First video game composition to win a Grammy (before there was even a video game category).
- I used to love love LOVE this song until I heard it over a thousand times trying to figure out which mod was making my game crash.

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?
- I work so hard in arranging the blocks...
  
  I hadn't seen that one in years! Thanks for the memory.
- Guess what I’m humming right now after reading tetris?
  
  You will all hum it the whole day: https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tetris_theme.ogg

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.

Chrono Trigger.

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

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.

The entire soundtrack of Nier Automata, for a more recent contender.
- Game: Masterpiece. Soundtrack: Masterpiece.
- Had to scroll way too far for this

Donkey Kong Country and Diddy's Kong Quest set some bars when they dropped.
- I bought the DK Country album when it came out
- DKC3 also had a killer soundtrack.

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.
- I love love you love love me

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?
  
  Or Team Teamworks’ Vinyl Fantasy 7?

Katamari Damacy!!!

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.
- Also the old Doom games.
  Now I've got E1M1 in my head

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.

Portal 1 and 2, for sure.
"This was a triumph..."
- go make some new disaster!

Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim soundtracks. Diablo 2. Wow classics soundtrack....hell many expansions in wow have amazing music. Halo 1, 2, 3s soundtrack.
- Morrowind has my favorite overall soundtrack, but Halo 3's One Final Effort is the best video game music ever written. Cool piano rendition of One Final Effort and Halo's main theme

"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.

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.

Chrono trigger OST imho
- Chrono Cross OST. Trigger may be the better game, but Chrono Cross's soundtrack is unparalleled.

For me it’s Dark World Theme - Zelda ALTTP (SNES) and Big Blue - F-Zero (SNES).
And in general the Zelda OST.

Hotline Miami
Splinter cell - chaos theory
Ori and the blind forest
- Hotline Miami +1

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.
  
  NEDM
- Doom 2016's soundtrack is so incredible not only because the tracks themselves are great but how well it combines with the game itself
- Ftl is such good chip tunes

Undertale. Megalovania. Anyone?
- 8 bit songs rule

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

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

Shadow of the Colossus

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.

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.

Metroid! The sound track was so awesome a heavy metal band recorded it as an album.
- You can't say that and not say which band.
  
  They're called metroid metal

Celeste was a great gang and has a great soundtrack, and then there are b sides and an epilogue all with their own music
https://youtube.com/watch?v=VXIqXaX1blY

Some of my favourites:
Max Payne 3 ost (1 and 2 are great too but I just love the violin)
Star Wars The Old Republic saga - some examples Balmorra The Forge and Alderaan The Throne
Mass Effect trilogy - example In Pursuit Of Saren
Magical Diary Horse Hall & Wolf Hall - playlist
All Skyrim (and generally The Elder Scrolls songs and soundtracks) - example The Dragonborn Comes by Malukah
If I remember any more I'll update the list. I listen to these all the time.
- Came here for Max Payne, awesome OST

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

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.

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
- Yep, that banjo really hits hard...

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

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

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.

Kingdom Hearts
- Yoko Shimomura is my favorite Square Enix composer, hands down.
- 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

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.
- Khmer atomic era is so good

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 😅
- Well this brought back memories! Thankyou.

FFXIV

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.
- 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.
- 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

Final Fantasy VI

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 .

254 comments