Out With the New, In With the Old: Memorable Video Game Music

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver / Information Society - Ozar Midrashim

Ah, classic video game music just brings back old memories. I love Mario's themes, then the three races' themes from the original StarCraft. Contra's commanding ever-so-LSS-type music really brings me back, as well. FFVII has always been in my heart, and the Final Fantasy theme played in Scott Pilgrim vs The World movie.

FF8 - Fisherman's Horizon One of my favorite

FF10 - Zanarkand

FF8 - Eyes on me possibly the best

FF9 - Crossing those hills

Halo 2 - Unforgotten

Lastly this one crosses the movie music area as its been in both

Pirates of the Caribbean - He's a Pirate

FF8 - Dont be afraid (battle theme song) only memorable because you heard it literally 10000 times kind of like the mario theme song

Jets n Guns soundtrack by Machinae Supremacy - really awesome.

FF X, FF XII, FF VII

I could never pick a "favorite" when it comes to music, so Im just going to list some that Ive enjoyed.

Final Fantasy lX OST

Persona 3 OST

The Tetris Theme

Deus Ex (2000) OST

Star Craft OST

FF7 and Chrono trigger were some of my favorite soundtracks.

Id say its more because the older tracks were simpler.

Out of the top of my head.

Mega Man X Spark Mandrill's stage

Sonic 3 Final Scene

Capcom vs Snk 2 Wicked Fight

Tekken 4 Authentic Sky

Final Fantasy VIII Premonition

They're not top 5 but yeah that'll do.

#1 for me is Banjo-Kazooie

#2 Banjo-Tooie

#3 Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts

#4 World of Goo

#5 The Sims 3

So we have the first two which are really old (you guessed well), one which copied the first two and the last two which are fairly new!

Shinobi III for Sega GENESIS

Hitman codename47

Prince of Persia Warrior Within

they are my favorits

I annoy my friends by humming old school game music from the Megadrive (genesis) and SNES and even the Playstation. Half the time I don't realize I'm doing it.

just pure geniusawesome video

I still remeber the tunes from Doom 2, creepy yet fantastic.

'Awe of She' and 'Momentary Life' of Guilty Gear are still on my playlist. Most recently Borderlands and Assassin's Creed 2 blew my mind.

the main theme from mass effect 3. very simple yet incredibly haunting and foreboding. it really says to me "this is it. the end."

half life had some great music. Prince of Persia WW music rocks.

the good OLD memorable game music.

what is the game at 1:15 ?

Schala's theme. Simplest song ever, absolutely masterful. I child could play it on 5 different instruments within a week and it is one of the most mesmerizing melodies I have ever heard.

On newer games defense though: Crysis 2 (not sure about the previous ones) had an extremely memorable and catchy theme. I actually hanged around in the menu to hear it from time to time; something I had not done since Ocarina of Time, probably.

The whole Ocarina of time soundtrack brings my nostalgia to life

Simple and Clean XD I love that song! Kingdom Hearts FTW!!

As much as I agree with this, Halo and Assassin's Creed II have great music.

The first guitar hero had memorable music

Wait... No mention of TBoI?

Guess it's up to me to get you all hooked! :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikTwG27I1qc

Final Fantasy VII: "Jenova Synthesis Theme"

Chrono Trigger: "Lavos Core The Extreme Theme "

Metal Gear Solid:"The Best is Yet to Come"

Killer Instinct I: "Killer Feeling: Orchid's Theme"

Kingdom Hearts: "Simple and Clean"

My top five most momorable tunes just off the top of my head, because there's way too many awesome soundtracks to name a few.

-NST

I see music memorability as directly competing with sensory overpowerment. Memorable music is often a relatively simple and repeated tune, usually with few instruments. Among the instruments, I tend to feel that the flute, recorder, violin, and piano are the most memorable instruments because they tend to stand out in a crowd and usually lead the melody. Memorable music rarely floors you though, and music that does that is incredibly entertaining and powerful and leaves you with a "wow!" feeling, but then you can't recall a single note of it. Crysis, for example, floored me when I was finished, but I could recall a thing musically. Kingdom Hearts II, on the other hand, left me feeling wonderful with a great tune in my head.

I have to name some old game series instead of particular music tracks because I like many old game tunes. To name a few, Super Mario 64's Metal Mario and Water World themes, Zelda 64 Final Boss theme, Xenogears (several themes), Chrono Cross (before it was remixed to death and made somewhat annoying as a result) and many tunes from the FF series. Most of the FF games have at least one memorable theme, if only that game's vision of the classic Crystal Theme, which was mysteriously absent in FFXIII and FFXIII-2, neither of which had very memorable themes (XIII had a memorable battle theme only because it was a great tune that was played in the first trailer years before the game's release and put unaltered into the game so you could hear it in every...single...battle). XII had a fantastic orchestral Crystal Theme, X's To Zanarkand theme and its variations were superb, IX had some great tunes (OCRemix's The Rose General is incredible), VIII had its intro theme, VII had some battle themes, VI had many themes, and I before that I only played IV, but that was so long ago that I hardly remember it.

Memorable music is not a thing of past games and is neither something dead in anyway, it just has a lot to do with genres. Platformers allow for simple and more authoral melodies, and they're still there, with platformers (go play MeatBoy, Fez, Braid or VVVVVV, they all have awesome memorable hummable tunes). RPG's need themes that help the player to connect with the story (and J-RPG's are kind of in a slow pace right now...oh well). But shooters - today's popular genre - don't require a memorable tune playing in the back (though sometimes you have gems like the Halo 3 soundtrack, or Metroid Prime's...but they're sci-fi, so I guess it's different). Specially military shooters, when it's about the expericence of being in a battlefield (or at least they say it is), where the shooting and explosions come first, and a theme song, if needed, comes second. Also, there are more games (like, MUCH MORE) nowadays, and more composers, and new technology, and this technology can help not only good, but bad composers. A well-produced generic song can pass unnoticed, while it was difficult to do it back then with only 3 tracks midi composing. Today's games have complex themes filled with instrument layers (sometimes brilliantly mixed together). Great composers are hard to find, but they're still there. There's just so many games being launched, that we forget to praise them.

Special mention here to Bastion's whole soundtrack...and Katamari. Talking about memorable...I know how to sing that and I don't even speak japanese.

I recommend searching for the Extra Credits episode about game music and you'll get some more about why you shouldn't just say videogame music has changed to worse, and why today's themes aren't any less memorable than yesterday's. Also, good episode of OWTN:IWTO! I like when this subject is brought to discussion. Keep up the good work!

Thank you for making this video and I completely agree. In my opinion, the quality of the music is in direct correlation to the quality of the story. Better music back in the day, better story, better game play. Things are to wrapped up in graphics, return to telling an epic tale. I recall back when I was nine and I got Final Fantasy 1 for NES for christmas, plugging that game in and hearing the opening theme. I still get shivers thinking about it. This is 22 years later. Life will never be as simple as when I think back to those days. Then four years later playing Final Fantasy 3. Walking into Doma hearing the melancholic lone flute, conveying the lost honor of a samurai, a town poisoned, a wife lost. . .Chilling.

While Final Fantasy takes the cake, don't forget the electric keyboard plinking away in Rock and Roll Racing, Stephenwolf, George Thorogood, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple. All set to 16 bit graphics.

Top 5

Suikoden 2

Final Fantasy 6 (still better than 7, IMO)

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Xenogears

Chrono Trigger

They don't make superb soundtracks like these ones.

I think people over exaggerate the nostalgia factor a lot of the time. Sure, it exists, but some of these classic games really do deserve the recognition they still receive. For example, I was a latecomer to FF7, playing it only 2 years ago, in the current gen of gaming. Sure the graphics were "outdated" but they were still skillfully utilized, and the gameplay, story, etc are second to none. It became my favorite game of all time regardless.

This video's argument has plenty of merit to it. In the midst of all our technical video game improvements, we might just need to bring back some of that old fashioned style that made the games of yesterday so memorable.

I agree with this video. There are a few exceptions as he mentioned though. Another one I'd like to add are the Super Mario Galaxy games. It's not just the music in those games though. It's that it doesn't forget that it's a game! It's not all about the music though. Some of it is the artistic direction games are going. More realistic and cinematic. It's not so playful anymore.

Sonic 2 - Mystic Cave

http://youtu.be/TVEyGntyOZQ

Why is this discussion limited to music? Everything aside from graphics has gone CONSIDERABLY downhill, even since PS2, not to mention since PS.

Donkey Kong Country 2 - Stickerbush Symphony

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J67nkzoJ_2M

/thread

My favorite music is from Super Metroid and Megaman X hands down. The only current gen music I've enjoyed is from Blazblue and a few boss songs from Dark Souls.

a sample of old school midis would have been nice... give me some mega man x, chrono trigger, and demons crest any day.

Whenever I'm running late for work, especially when I'm going to cut it close, I call up "Escape" from Metal Gear Solid and race down 95 to the job at 100mph. I keep it on even as I race to my spot in the garage...!

I've played so many games over the years, games I've liked and games I've disliked, games that I just thought were okay... I don't know if I could narrow it down to the 5 most memorable songs of all time.

FF7 had really great music and might be my top pick, but then it's pretty much my favorite video game. I can't really pick a favorite song from it, but the overworld theme had a lot of variety in mood that I think kind of sets the tone for the world of that game. Pretty much every FF game had fantastic music.

Zelda did have a lot of good tunes over the years, most notably the Windmill theme. I even enjoyed a lot of Disgaea songs, since they fit the mood of the battles in that game. I remember when I played the game Evergrace I really enjoyed the same repetitive song that played the entire time (pretty much) because it was so different. In Dark Cloud, every time I cleared a dungeon, as I would run around checking out the remaining chests I'd get into the fun and up-beat music that played then. Even Halo has some decent music, despite much of the stage music being meant to get the adrenaline going.

I think it's safe to say that a lot of video game music is more memorable to me than regular music. I don't think a song needs to have lyrics or realistic instrument sounds to be a good song. It's just gotta fulfill its job well, and invoke the right feelings and the right mood.

1- Chrono Cross Time Scar

2- Chrono Cross Dreams Creation

3- Kingdom Hearts 1 Theme song

4- Final Fantasy X To Zanarkand

5- Final Fantasy X Hyme of the Fayth ( this is the lulaby I sing to my daughter lol.)

I'm sure there are more that I can't remember.

5.Metal Gear Solid 2 theme

4.Grandia 2 - Despair and Hope

3. Final Fantasy X - To Zanarkand

2. Journey - the entire soundtrack (it was so perfectly coordinated with the action on screen-another tear jerker)

1. Ocarina of Time ending theme (c'mon - you know you got choked up when Navi flew away at the last note of the song)

I am proud to say I was whistling by the end of this episode and I am continuing long after it was over.

Zelda Ocarina of Time definitely had my favorite music.