Games Soundtrack Appreciation / Discussion Thread

For some reason I just thought of this soundtrack - I love it:

Hey y'all, since we're all putting up YouTube videos, I found a Firefox plugin that lets one play all of the linked YT videos on a page in order:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...

Using it right now, and it works pretty well so far. Hope y'all find it useful.

@tboon - Skaven, eh?

Wow - Tannhausered by Spunior! Chris Hülsbeck doesn't get enough recognition. It's amazing what he managed to wring out of the c64 SID chip as well as the Amiga.

The Great Giana Sisters would have been much easier to forget had it not been for his epic title theme.

More by Chris:

Another man who doesn't get enough recognition is Dan Wentz - composer for Descent: Freespace, Red Faction, and several other great soundtracks.

It really picks up at 1:25

These songs were especially epic when you were in your fighter in the midst of big space battles.

Finally, one of Wentz's finest.

Veloxi wrote:

Hey y'all, since we're all putting up YouTube videos, I found a Firefox plugin that lets one play all of the linked YT videos on a page in order:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/fir...

Nice find, just downloaded it.

Another great c64 tune (although the really good part only goes until 1:30):

and also:

EDIT: Yet one more favorite from my early gaming days.

It looks like most of of my faves have been mentioned. I'll just say that Tomas Dvorak's Machinarium is my personal favorite. I saw a couple people posting some youtube videos from that. Tomas Dvorak does non-soundtrack music under the name Floex. That stuff is really good too.

Machinarium is the only soundtrack that I listen to on a very regular basis. I actually listen to it at least once a week.

My other favorites are Bastion, Sword & Sworcery, TW1 & 2, Journey, Pixeljunk Eden, L.A. Noire, Braid, Stacking, Plants vs Zombies, To the Moon, Limbo (just kidding, that one doesn't have music :)), Fallout 3, Alan Wake, and 8-bit Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog (not really a game but worth mentioning).

I guess I'll post a video so that I can be part of the club.

Edit: Just noticed where Top Score was posted. +1 to that program!

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

It looks like most of of my faves have been mentioned. I'll just say that Tomas Dvorak's Machinarium is my personal favorite. I saw a couple people posting some youtube videos from that. Tomas Dvorak does non-soundtrack music under the name Floex. That stuff is really good too.

Machinarium is the only soundtrack that I listen to on a very regular basis. I actually listen to it at least once a week.

My other favorites are Bastion, Sword & Sworcery, TW1 & 2, Journey, Pixeljunk Eden, L.A. Noire, Braid, Stacking, Plants vs Zombies, To the Moon, Limbo (just kidding, that one doesn't have music :)), Fallout 3, Alan Wake, and 8-bit Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog (not really a game but worth mentioning).

I guess I'll post a video so that I can be part of the club.

I didn't see Top Score mentioned. It's an MPR Podcasts with game composer interviews and very interesting if you are in to classical music.

*cough*

Also, Limbo does have some music, but it's music concrete - composed primarily of sounds that the composer, Martin Stig Andersen, recorded out and around his home, then procedurally mixed, based on where you are in the game.

Very nice selections in this thread, including a bunch I love. So I'll just drop the following in here:

One of the things I love in sequels are music call backs:

And here's another:

(Try the link directly if the video below doesn't appear: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NxGV...)

Speaking of The Sims... Jerry Martin did a wonderful job with Simcity 3000 and Simcity 4

Oh, I saw it before you had to correct me, Tangle. It only took me a minute. I was hoping I would get to it before you found out. It's been awhile since I've played Limbo, I can't remember if the sound effects felt like music to me or not. At any rate, the absence of a score really helped the isolated and alone feeling. I think they made a good

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

Oh, I saw it before you had to correct me, Tangle. It only took me a minute. I was hoping I would get to it before you found out. It's been awhile since I've played Limbo, I can't remember if the sound effects felt like music to me or not. At any rate, the absence of a score really helped the isolated and alone feeling. I think they made a good

re: Limbo, I haven't actually played it yet, but I saw the composer give a really good talk on it last month

Tanglebones wrote:

re: Limbo, I haven't actually played it yet, but I saw the composer give a really good talk on it last month :P

Nice!

I am a GIANT Uematsu fangirl. If I had to pick a "To Zanarkand", I prefer the performance done by the New Japan Philharmonic for the DVD version of the "Tour de Japon" series (each location had a different orchestra). The strings section has a richness to it that's lacking in the Distant Worlds CD performance.

I also really like their version of Ronfaure.

Go listen to the whole thing - all 12 tracks are well played, and you can also get a shot of Uematsu himself directing the Final Fantasy Main Theme starting about about 1:30.

To shift a bit, for sheer kick-a-little-ass awesome, it's hard to beat Jet Set Radio and Jet Set Radio Future:

As usual when these game music threads come up, all my top favorites have already been mentioned. +1 to Deionarra's Theme, Siege of Madrigal, Valkyria Chronicles, all the Nobuo Uematsu music, and Super Metroid, those all come up frequently in my playlists.

Since my favorites are taken, a few runners up:

Persona 3 - Battle Hymn of the Soul:

Kingdom Hearts - Hikari (PLANITb Remix):

Halo - Covenant Dance (and many others, Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori in general are amazing):

Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Dark World (easily the best remix of a Zelda theme ever, period):

and top it off with some good ol'...
Castlevania - Vampire Killer (Harmony of Despair version):

EDIT: Oh, I almost forgot, Ancient Stones from Skyrim (Jeremy Soule is also amazing):

While not from a game soundtrack per se, this is my favorite nerdy band playing an amazing metal medley of the most memorable Final Fantasy IV songs:

Speaking of metal, this thread wouldn't be complete without bringing up the Minibosses and Stemage's Metroid Metal.

If someone held a gun to my head and said name the single best theme in all of video games, I would probably say this one.

momgamer wrote:

Go listen to the whole thing - all 12 tracks are well played, and you can also get a shot of Uematsu himself directing the Final Fantasy Main Theme starting about about 1:30.

Thanks for posting the Journey tracks, Dyni. Unfortunately not going to be playing it anytime soon (no PS3, no friends with one) but I like the music on its own merits. Do you know if the music's for sale any place?

Parallax Abstraction wrote:

One of my favourite game soundtracks of all time is an oldie but still gets me every time. Star Control II:

Ah, music to my ears. Star Control II is pretty much what got me into video gaming. I'd played some Commander Keens before that, but it was The Ur-Quan Masters that showed me just how amazing they could be.

My favorites from SC2:

Hyperspace

Yehat

Melnorme

Dominic Knight wrote:

Super Mario Galaxy - Wind Garden

Slacker1913 wrote:

Planescape Torment - Deionarra's Theme

Glad someone took care of posting them, now I don't have to. Love those two.

Pikey26 wrote:

Btw, do you guys listen to soundtracks in any particular fashion different from how you'd listen to regular music?

Well, I don't listen to this "regular" music you speak of. My auditory diet is strictly instrumental. Or at least, languages I can't understand.

But no: I'm happy to listen to video game soundtracks alongside the other things in my library - classical, movie soundtracks, etc.

--------------------

I have a few soundtracks I adore all around, and will get around to figuring out what to post from them later. For now, some individual tracks that stood out for me.

Deus Ex - Main Theme (remix of original PC version and orchestrated PS2 version)

C'mon, how has this not been posted yet? :p Surely I'm not the only one for whom DX was square and center in a personal "golden age."

Beyond Good & Evil - Hyllian Suite

There are some other good tracks from this game, but I think this has got to be the best.

Batman Arkham Asylum - Ch3Admin A1 Combat 03

I may have a soft spot of this one just because of a memory of an amazing experience playing the associated brawl map. Still, I think it's a good'un.

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II - Rebuilt Jedi Enclave

Not even going to claim this is a great piece of music by itself. But, having played it and associated this music with one particular scene near the end, it really brings the game back every time I hear it.

Timesplitters 2 - Neo Tokyo

If you want to know why I love this one, listen to 1:45-2:40.

Also, much much love for the StarCon2 soundtrack I briefly tried composing mods with my best friend right around when it came out - 1993ish?

Bioshock, yes indeed. Here's one of my favorites from Bioshock 2:

Dragon Age 2 - Qunari on the Rise

Another one I probably like for the musical memory as much as the actual piece. Always brings DA2's Act II finale to mind.

Frozen Synapse - Concentrate

Frozen Synapse - A Functioning God

Arkham Asylum music should be replaced with this:

Wringing every last bit out of the ZX Spectrum audio:

Also, this.

After my crushing defeat by Tanglebones earlier, I decided to come back for a win. Here are the soundtracks I managed to get on vinyl. Machinarium came with 3 beautiful prints and Sword & Sworcery came with one. I am going to frame them at some point.

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/H5ONil.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/6eTUel.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/J2MI3l.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/M7GdLl.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/Fey5ol.jpg)

IMAGE(http://i.imgur.com/tiVBtl.jpg)

Warriorpoet897 wrote:

If someone held a gun to my head and said name the single best theme in all of video games, I would probably say this one.

momgamer wrote:

Go listen to the whole thing - all 12 tracks are well played, and you can also get a shot of Uematsu himself directing the Final Fantasy Main Theme starting about about 1:30.

I'd pay money to play in that orchestra.

tuffalobuffalo wrote:

After my crushing defeat by Tanglebones earlier, I decided to come back for a win. Here are the soundtracks I managed to get on vinyl. Machinarium came with 3 beautiful prints and Sword & Sworcery came with one. I am going to frame them at some point.

Sir, you have been redeemed

jollyeskimo wrote:
Warriorpoet897 wrote:

If someone held a gun to my head and said name the single best theme in all of video games, I would probably say this one.

momgamer wrote:

Go listen to the whole thing - all 12 tracks are well played, and you can also get a shot of Uematsu himself directing the Final Fantasy Main Theme starting about about 1:30.

I'd pay money to play in that orchestra.

Watching that led me down a youtube rabbit hole and led to watching the live version of the opera scene, and I've been again been reminded that I really want to see an opera at some point. The vocalists are just amazing sometimes.

Leisure Suit Larry. Even the old chirps out of a cheap PC sound card sounded great.

I'm not going to link to any videos, however. They tend to be complemented with the not-work-safe opening sequence from the game.

I get the Chocobo riding theme from Final Fantasy VII stuck in my head at odd times. My opinion of the game is extremely low, but that song is still catchy.

And on that note, this song haunted my teenage years:

To me, naming an Atlus game is just cheating. It's safe to assume the music there will be great.

Going WAY old-school, how about The Neverhood?

momgamer wrote:

If I had to pick a "To Zanarkand", I prefer the performance done by the New Japan Philharmonic for the DVD version of the "Tour de Japon" series (each location had a different orchestra). The strings section has a richness to it that's lacking in the Distant Worlds CD performance

Just wondering, what do you think of the vocal version on The Black Mages' second album?

Kloreep wrote:

Thanks for posting the Journey tracks, Dyni. Unfortunately not going to be playing it anytime soon (no PS3, no friends with one) but I like the music on its own merits. Do you know if the music's for sale any place?

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/jou... and on the Playstation store. $5 for the whole album, an absolute steal.

Tanglebones wrote:
tuffalobuffalo wrote:

After my crushing defeat by Tanglebones earlier, I decided to come back for a win. Here are the soundtracks I managed to get on vinyl. Machinarium came with 3 beautiful prints and Sword & Sworcery came with one. I am going to frame them at some point.

Sir, you have been redeemed :)

Now that I'm home and actually have a bit of time, I wanted to say that I didn't think about that whole Limbo thing through properly. The amount of sound was perfect, and you could definitely consider it music. It's just been awhile, and I can't recall how the sounds combined together because it wasn't a traditional soundtrack. I'm going to have to play it again. I think one reason that the Sword & Sworcery soundtrack works so well is that it does that type of thing (context audio) combined with a traditional game soundtrack. That wouldn't work for Limbo, but it sure works for Sword & Sworcery.