Best Video Game Soundtracks

[HeuristicsInc]

Also, personally I think the PS3 version of The Orange Box (another good soundtrack game, although of course most of it fades into the background aside from Still Alive from Portal)

I actually pulled the mp3 files out of the Portal PC game files using GCFScape along with some of the computer's vocal pieces and made a CD of it, alternating the two. I think it sounds pretty great as listening music when you're not playing the game, too. Warning, if you do this, the voice parts are way louder than the music so you'll want to normalize or some such.
-bill

[Reist]

I do! I have a lot of systems, actually:

NES
SNES
N64
GameCube
Wii
GBC
GBA SP
Nintendo DS
Dreamcast
Playstation (modded for imports)
PS2
PS3

Wow. That's a lot.

I used to have an NES, but when we got an N64, my dad assumed we didn't want the NES anymore, so he gave it to my cousins. And you know what happens when you give stuff to cousins.

[fluffy]

Also, personally I think the PS3 version of The Orange Box (another good soundtrack game, although of course most of it fades into the background aside from Still Alive from Portal)

I actually pulled the mp3 files out of the Portal PC game files using GCFScape along with some of the computer's vocal pieces and made a CD of it, alternating the two. I think it sounds pretty great as listening music when you're not playing the game, too. Warning, if you do this, the voice parts are way louder than the music so you'll want to normalize or some such.
-bill

I got the soundtrack by downloading the Audiosurf demo, which had the complete Orange Box soundtrack in its sample content folder. Odd.

[HeuristicsInc]

Yeah, I saw that, but does it have everything in it? Not sure, I'd have to look. And no awesome GLaDOS gems like "Please note that we have added a consequence for failure. Any contact with the chamber floor will result in an unsatisfactory mark on your official testing record, followed by death. Good luck."
-bill

[obscurity]

The theme tune to Gabriel Knight: Sins Of The Fathers is (imao) the best game theme music by an absolute mile.

[No Horse Town]

video game music, huh? There was a ton of good stuff on NES. Seems to me most of it went downhill once they got CD audio on everything. Big swelling orchestral stuff mostly replaced the catchy little bleep-bloop tunes. Man, there was a LOT of good stuff on NES.. I can't rightly think of most of it, but Faxanadu comes to mind. Or Metroid. Y'know, there are a couple of bands that cover a lot of that stuff.. I think the most prominent one is called The Advantage. My friend found this one guy on Myspace or something who did metal covers of all the music from Metroid and Super Metroid. It's pretty rockin' stuff. Hmmm... yeah, SNES had its share of good music too. I remember I really liked the boss theme from Illusion Of Gaia.

Yeah, none of it really stands out like the old stuff. I'm sure there have been a few good tunes here and there, but I can't really remember them. I just scanned through all my PS2/DS games, and nothing jumps out music-wise. Well, except, like, Guitar Hero or something (speaking of which, 3 was a big disappointment. I actually liked "Rocks the 80s" more than that crappy selection of songs on 3. Goddammit! Kiss? Social Distortion? Come on man, those songs are BORING... and don't get me started on what they did to the "bonus" tracks. Where's mah Freezepop? Where's mah Made In Mexico? OH, you got a bunch of crappy nu-emo-metal-bullshit instead... bleahh...).

My friend Aaron is all into the Splinter Cell games and I guess this guy Amon Tobin(sp?) did the soundtrack for one'a those. He swears it's awesome. From what I've heard of the guy, it's pretty good atmospheric music, but it's not really what gets me hot.

Actually, in elementary school, I didn't listen to any "real" music at all, (except that "We Don't Need No Education" Pink Floyd song), and could usually be found running around humming/singing NES tunes and trying to get my friends to, like, accompany me or something. My mom thought I was a freakin' weirdo, and I guess that's only reasonable. I didn't listen to radio/tapes/CDs/music at large at all until I was... 15? 16? In retrospect, I think the video game music has had more influence on my tastes than most of the 'real' music I've heard since.

Sorry about the long-ass post. I hear there's some program that lets you recreate the old-timey NES square-wave/triangle-wave/whatever-they're-called sounds. I should go check that out. Peace out, Gs.

[john m]

Some are great for their originality (Katamari Damacy), some are great for their timelessness (anything Koji Kondo writes), some you know aren't the best but they still won't get out of your head (Super Mario RPG), but I have to put three obvious ones above anything else:

Chrono Trigger
Final Fantasy IV
Final Fantasy VI

Not really in order. IV set standards for RPG music ("Fight 2" and "The Dreadful Fight" are still unbelievable, and are far better than any subsequent FF interpretations of music for similar scenarios), VI was absolutely epic ("Dancing Mad" is insane), and Chrono Trigger was so diverse and powerful (... I can't pick favorites).

... and I know this specifically was not being contested, but I'm so sick to death of the overhype of VII. Among a million other complaints, One Winged Angel fucking sucks, and is further example of how VII is just VI, AGAIN, but worse.

[Adam!]

Well, I came here to post Mr. Driller, but fluffy beat me to it long ago. Still, it's pretty much the only time I've ever heard industrial-ragtime in a game soundtrack. Or anywhere, for that matter.

Recently I can't get enough of the Vladivostok FM, ElectroChoc and The Journey radio stations in GTA IV. There's nothing like driving through rainy virtual New York listening to music from Koyaanisqatsi.

[No Horse Town]

IV set standards for RPG music ("Fight 2" and "The Dreadful Fight" are still unbelievable, and are far better than any subsequent FF interpretations of music for similar scenarios)

Oh damn, I forgot about FF2/IV! Hell yeah man, not sure which ones you're referring to, but all the boss music in that game was outstanding! The normal battle music was pretty good too.

... and I know this specifically was not being contested, but I'm so sick to death of the overhype of VII. Among a million other complaints, One Winged Angel fucking sucks, and is further example of how VII is just VI, AGAIN, but worse.

WORD. To the word. FF7 was garbage. Not just the music, either. I'm sure you don't wanna go into your million other complaints, but OH HOW MUCH I DO WANNA GO INTO SOME OF MINE. I hate that fucking game and everything associated with it.

Plot summary: blow up a few things in the big city, then find out about Sephiroth... THEN SPEND THE ENTIRE MIDDLE OF THE GAME LINEARLY VISITING EVERY LOCATION IN THE WORLD, under the pretense that you're "hunting" him, but that's BULLSHIT, you're just being fed one-off "now let's visit THIS character's hometown" crap. Then someone dies and you find out you're really a guy with a different color of hair. Or his clone. Or something stupid like that. And the materia crap was broken and lame. Oops, that last bit isn't plot. Oh well, fuck it.

I actually watched that "Advent Children" bullshit, too. A friend of a friend who wasn't even into the game rented it because of the "awesome visuals". BLEEEAAAAHHHH it's boring and pointless and nothing but fanservice for people who are still hyped about these fucking non-characters. As in, "I'm hyped to see an animation of, y'know, what they look like". They're not even characters. They're dolls. People watch that movie to look at dolls. Dolls with big hair and bigger swords. Ohhhh I hate FF7, prolly more than I should... it just pisses me off how it gets so much fanfare. Same deal with "X". They're both bad in the same ways. And they're the most popular FF's. Go figure.

sorry to rant/hate/flame/troll/what the fuck ever, but... wait, no, I'm not sorry. Oh yeah, music. This is supposed to be about the music. Guess I got a little off topic there. Not sorry for that either. I'm preaching the True Word, brothers. Whenever/wherever it strikes me. That might make me a dumbass, but not as dumb and assy as that fucking worthless FF7 trash. Blergh.

P.S. - I can't remember any music from FF7 except that weird haunted seashell village theme or whatever it was... that track was OK, but still not up to snuff. However, I very clearly remember that this was the game where they took out the classic victory theme. Replaced it with... I dunno, something very un-memorable. Fuckers.

[fluffy]

Calm down, Oats.

[No Horse Town]

Calm down, Oats.

zing! hahahaha, oh I love you guys. Well played, fluffy.

[rone rivendale]

I think the comment that sums up the last few posts is the one about how FFVII is the most or close to the most popular of the whole series.

Peer pressure says if it's mainstream it sucks.

Personally I loved FFVII and I love the music too. One Winged Angel is great and the Jenova Theme is my fav FF track.

FFVI had great music too. I like the battle theme (and wtf is up with saying FVII's battle theme was bad, it's the SAME as the other FF games. ) and I liked the theme for Kefka. And Kefka is by far the greatest villian in the history of everything.

Also the Kuja theme in FFIX is great.

[No Horse Town]

Peer pressure says if it's mainstream it sucks.

That's not it, man. I love tons of mainstream stuff. I really do hate the game, on its own uh, merits. Prolly shouldn't've gone off so much, but I swear I'm not trying to be a hipster about it or nuthin'. That is not how I.. uh, roll.

(and wtf is up with saying FVII's battle theme was bad, it's the SAME as the other FF games. )

not the battle theme, the victory theme. FF1-6 all had that same recurring theme (well, maybe, I'm not sure about japanese 2 or 3) Unless my memory is seriously trippin' (possible!), they took it out in 7. Not the "datata-TA duh day DA-TA-TAHHH!", but the music after that. Not that it was particularly awesome in the first place, but.. at least it was catchy.

I also like the Kefka theme. A lot. Yay, common ground!

Peace!
-NHT

[john m]

not sure which ones you're referring to

Fight 2 - Boss battles
The Dreadful Fight - The fight against all Four Fiends. Perhaps you've heard The Black Mages version.

Peer pressure says if it's mainstream it sucks.

Right, because no one could possibly have formulated those opinions by themselves when the game first came out. I've been criticizing VII since before the vast majority of the Western world even played the game, let alone rendered it popular with that piece of shit Advent Children.

The graphics have always looked terrible (and yes, I've heard the "but at the time, they were amazing" argument, and I'm sorry, but no, they weren't. I followed video games more closely than anything back then. they were not.), Sephiroth is a Kefka ripoff (except emo and shit), Materia is an Esper ripoff, and more importantly to this thread, the soundtrack is only average compared to other great FF soundtracks.

And again, Advent Children was terrible. It served its purpose exactly, though, which was to bring a new generation of fans to VII, and it did so to great effect. Now all these 13-16 year olds are proclaiming this overrated piece of garbage to be the greatest RPG of all time, when they've maybe played two or three others (two of those probably being Kingdom Hearts), all because Sephiroth is a hero to shitty emo kids ("one winged angel," jesus christ), Tifa has ridiculously huge tits and Aeris dies.

So what if one fucking girl dies? THE ENTIRE FUCKING WORLD ENDS halfway through VI.

Also, people forget that before AC, copies of VII were sitting on store shelves for $15 for years. (Original black-label copies, no less!) Pardon me if I can't take any kids seriously when they talk about VII.

And, stupidly, about the only notable aspect VII that didn't rip off VI is the main character. Whereas Terra's evolution from confused girl to confident lead through realization of her true self makes her a fascinating protagonist, Cloud's entire basis as a main character is that HE IS A FAKE.

Anyway, I'm done. Sure, I'm resentful of the fact that VII is as popular as it is over FAR MORE DESERVING games in the series such as IV and VI, but VII's popularity is not why I hate the game. I hate the game because it was a tremendous disappointment following two stellar releases on SNES (V not included, though I'd still rather play that than VII).

I also hate brainless reactionary responses like "you just hate [thing] because [thing] is popular."

[Adam!]

I also hate brainless reactionary responses like "you just hate [thing] because [thing] is popular."

You just hate brainless reactionary responses like "you just hate [thing] because [thing] is popular" because brainless reactionary responses like "you just hate [thing] because [thing] is popular" are popular.

[john m]

Exploding high five!