Ask Lemmy

Tetris

Why? Because upon having said that I know its now playing in all of your heads.

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.

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).

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.

How can anything beat Tetris?

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.

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!)

My vote for best - Secret of Mana

My personal favorite - Jet Set Radio Future

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.

Donkey Kong Country and Diddy's Kong Quest set some bars when they dropped.

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.

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.

The entire soundtrack of Nier Automata, for a more recent contender.

Katamari Damacy!!!

Mass Effect.

That opening scene, with that music playing… it really hooked me from the first second.

Portal 1 and 2, for sure.

"This was a triumph..."

Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim soundtracks. Diablo 2. Wow classics soundtrack....hell many expansions in wow have amazing music. Halo 1, 2, 3s soundtrack.

Chrono trigger OST imho

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

And in general the Zelda OST.

Vice City

"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.

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

Undertale. Megalovania. Anyone?

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.

Hotline Miami

Splinter cell - chaos theory

Ori and the blind forest

Shadow of the Colossus

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.

Metroid! The sound track was so awesome a heavy metal band recorded it as an album.

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

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.

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.

Halo (most), Super Paper Mario, Baten Kaitos, and Ocarina of Time.

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

Disco Elysium!!

Castlevania games have the best music hands down in my opinion

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

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.

Ctrl+F Hotline Miami.... No one's mentioned this banging track yet?

Kingdom Hearts

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

Journey.

Sometimes I well up just thinking about it, let alone listening to it. Wonderful.

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.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past