Video Game Music You Love

[Geno9999]

It might take several days before I can collect all the music that I love.
So first Sonic series:
City Escape
E.G.G.M.A.N.
What I'm made of

Team Fortress 2:
Main Theme
Right Behind You
ROBOTS!

[ShneekeyTheLost]

And, of course, let's not forget Dr Wily's Castle from Megaman 2.

[Cespenar]

I can't provide links since I'm at work, but I'll drop the names nevertheless.

Megaman 3 Main Menu Theme.
Bunch of level themes from Megaman X1-3.
Castlevania 1.
Pokemon R/B/Y.
Deus Ex Main Menu Theme.
Bunch of stuff from BG2, like the dragon theme, final battle, Brynnlaw theme, etc.
Build That Wall (Zia's Theme) from Bastion. Though it's mostly in context.

I won't repeat the obvious ones from before- Tristram and Morrowind and Deionarra's Theme and... other stuff.

[RagingKrikkit]

Deus Ex Main Menu Theme.

Which sounds a lot like the Song of Unhealing.

[Brewdude]

Pretty much the only reason to play Command and Conquer
Act on Instinct

and Red Alert
Hell March

From Portal 2

PRESS THE BUTTON!

[Lentrax]

It isn't all strictly video game music, but this.

Powerglove is so awesome, I had to mention it.

[ThiagoMartell]

Small of Two Pieces, the ending song for Xenogears. Just... beautiful.
The Chrono Cross world theme.
Frog's theme from Chrono Trigger.
Baldur's Gate II main theme.
I can't believe no one has mentioned Guile's Theme from Street Fighter II yet! I have it set as my ringtone! (it's a metal version by Charlie Parra del Riego, but still)
The boss battle theme for FF VII. So badass!
The song that plays when Bang Shishigami uses his Furinkazan in BlazBlue.
Legacy, from Full Throttle.

[Rake21]

The Legends of Zelda has always been among the very best, when it comes to music.

Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker, my favorite in the series, gives us stuff like Maine Theme, Legendary Hero, and The Great Sea theme.(Good thing it's enjoyable, too. You hear it alot.)

Skyward Sword, meanwhile, has some great tunes, too. Ballad of the Goddess is particularly awesome.

If you want to hear some of the best the series has to offer, here's the 25th Anniversery Orchestra. It's fantastic.

In other news, it's kind of hard to go wrong with some of the music from Mass Effect. Mass Effect 2: Suicide Mission is a personal favorite.

[RagingKrikkit]

I think Suicide Mission is everyone's personal favorite.

[The Succubus]

Monty on the Run is the greatest thing made since clef was invented.

Didn't the chap also do the music for Glider Rider as well? That was pretty incredible for an 8-bit music system.

A few recommendations:

Bastion
The Witcher 2 soundtrack
Lament of the Highborne and Nightsong from World of Warcraft
The Void soundtrack
Sentinel Returns on the PSOne. Very, very creepy.
Rain In The Night from the original Command and Conquer. Beautiful and haunting.

[Drakeburn]

So much to choose from.........

Sonic boom from Sonic CD

All most of the music from both Vectorman games (but Recycle or Die is my favorite)

And then there was the Can You Feel The Sunshine acid remix (do remixes count?)

[Thump]

Only one person has mentioned Halo so far...

I haven't been able to part from that music since ODST came out, it's just so good. I have also found some of the Guild Wars 2 soundtracks decent, and I agree with almost everything Skyrim.

[willpell]

I would put Yatsunori Mitsuda and nearly the entire Chrono Trigger soundtrack up there with the two in the OP. Schala's Theme in particular gives me chills, and the Big Boss Theme is about the most epic fight music I've ever encountered. Also seconding Final Fantasy 6, particularly the non-boss fight music. And Diablo 2 for sure.

Super Metroid and the two VBA Metroid games are amazing at times, particularly the boss themes. The VBA Castlevanias also have a lot of awesomeness; in particular I always love the Rotating Room theme.

Front Mission has some good music, but Front Mission 2 is far better. "Secret Story" is probably my single favorite track there.

Have only momentarily dabbled in "Super Robot Wars: The Lord of Elemental", what with my copy being in Japanese and thus rather hard to play. But there's definitely some great music in there; the best track by far is "Division". Unfortunately they're all extremely short.

One game whose being in Japanese did not stop me from getting as much enjoyment out of it as I probably would have regardless: River City Ransom. The upbeat 80s song that plays during the first chapter (as far as I ever got) isn't especially good in and of itself, but it fits perfectly as the backdrop to my experience of having my guy in the game wander around this hotel or mall or something, randomly beating up various passers-by without my having any clue who he was or why he was doing it. The two just seemed to go perfectly together.

I'm not too proud to admit my love for much of the music in Mortal Kombats 2 and 3, but it utterly fails to measure up to the bar set by Killer Instinct, particularly the themes for Riptor, Glacius, Fulgore and Saberwulf.

It's something of a guilty pleasure, but I was deeply addicted to the Donkey Kong Country series as a teen and have not quite outrown it. Even if you have, though, don't neglect its soundtrack, as they spared no expense making the thing immersive and atmospheric. The Ruins theme in 1, the Hornets' Nest and Haunted House in 2, and the Factory themes in both 1 and 3 are the most excellent examples.

A slightly obscure one: Pitfall The Mayan Adventure on SNES, some neat Indy Jones type flavor there.

A really obscure one: old strategy game called Deadlock: Planetary Conquest. You get a particular music to go with each of the seven races you can choose to play, and they all do a great job of getting you into the mood of that species - the insectile Ch'Ch't have a bouncy bustling theme that suggests their vast labor force and quick building, the telepathic Re'Lu have a dreamy crystal-spires-and-togas soundtrack, the sinister Cyth theme is dark and brooding, the warrior Tarth have a great martial-industrial sound, and so forth.

Have never played Command and Conquer, but the "Hell March" and "Radio 2" songs have interested me as the game itself almost certainly never will. The end boss battle theme from "Oni" is also a lot of fun. But the absolute king of this trope for me is a game called "Silver"; I don't even know offhand what genre it is, have never seen an advertisement for it or anything, but the GM in my Vampire the Dark Ages campaign uses it as a mood-setting device and it is quite amazing.

I'm sure there's more, but this is what I can think of offhand. Been gaming for literally half my life and music was always one of the big draws; a great soundtrack can make up for a mediocre game, and awful music can ruin an otherwise stellar experience.

[joeaverage]

Heroes of might and magic 4: Dirt Theme

[A Rainy Knight]

The song that plays when Bang Shishigami uses his Furinkazan in BlazBlue.

I have to link this one so that people can appreciate its manly glory.
Beat a nail with your hammer!!! The famous "BA-BA-BA-BANG" starts around 0:53.

[Teutonic Knight]

People have already mentioned Tales, Persona, Halo, Blazblue, Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, etc.

For Pokemon I would like to add from Pokemon Coliseum.
Also I would like to add:
Metroid Prime's 1, 2, and 3
Wild ARMS 4
Phantasy Star Online Episode 1 and 2

[DJ Yung Crunk]

I wouldn't say there's really any video game music I "love". But if I had to choose a video game soundtrack I'd call my favorite it would be...

...the FEZ Soundtrack by disasterpeace. It was between that and Final Fantasy VIII by the always talented Nobuo Uematsu. FEZ won out for two reasons; a) because any 4 hour albums (soundtrack or otherwise) are going to have consistency issues and b) because nothing Uematsu does on FFVIII is new. The jazz fusion, romantic classical, power metal, electronica and god knows what else is ground well traveled. Meanwhile FEZ, while not groundbreaking or game changing, is certainly the only album I can think of that can be called "ambient chiptune".

So, yeah, the FEZ soundtrack. Best seven bucks I ever spent.

[Psychonaut]

Going to post in bits and pieces because if I start searching for more, the next thing I know I'll have spent the whole day browsing game music on youtube.

Let's start with some music from Kirill Pokrovsky, easily one of the best "generic fantasy" composers of whom I'm aware.

Divine Divinity - I love the music in this game. It's one of the reasons I've replayed it (or started to, at least) more than once, despite not generally being a fan of Diablo clones. There's not a single area where the music that plays doesn't fit the mood/atmosphere, and most of the pieces are pretty good as standalones too.

War and Peace
Just in Time for an Ale
The Four Seasons Singing
A Perilous Path
Relentless Wandering
Dancing With Mirth
Run, Zandalor, Run!
Suffering And Shame
On The Brink Of Defeat
Stones And Trees

Divinity 2 - a game that continues in the tradition of the original Divinity's music. I especially like how the music in this game enhances the mood of various parts (e.g., the epic feeling of the music when scaling the tower in Broken Valley or taking flight as a dragon).

Festival of Immortals
Majesty of the Fjords
Ancient Presence
Goblins! No Time to Waste!
Battle Force
[Returning to Broken Valley as a dragon]
[Flying fortress dungeon]
A New Dawn
Sleepless Nights
Damian Attack
Bandit Camp
Final Battle

I've heard the music in Beyond Divinity is good too, but I've never played it due to the horrible reviews it received even among fans of the Divinity series.

[Zargodia]

i cant believe no one has mentioned Xenoblade Chroncles
(beware the comments contain spoilers on some of the videos)

super mario world's soundtrack is amazing as well

Crush 40 is my favorite band

FFV is has some great tracks as well

there are so many others it would take me a while to put them all in so ill stop there

[Psychonaut]

Mark Morgan is another of my favorite game composers. He excels at atmospheric music that blends into the background of the area in which it's played and possesses a subtlety that many game composers lack. I can't quite find the words for it, but basically his music mostly seems less in-your-face than most (with some of his Planescape: Torment pieces being the only exception I've encountered). His works also stand out for their tendency to employ a lot of environmental sounds and relatively unusual instruments.

Morgan is best known for his work on the Planescape and Fallout soundtracks, but some my favorite pieces from him come from the Zork games - particularly Nemesis, where nearly every piece fits perfectly and the music does a great job of enhancing the already-excellent atmosphere of the game.

Fallout (note: many of these tracks are rather bleak and foreboding - appropriate, I'd say, for a game set in the wasteland 84 years after a nuclear apocalypse)
Vats of Goo ("War. War never changes.")
Khans of New California
Desert Wind
Trader's Life
City of Lost Angels
Radiation Storm


Planescape: Torment
Main Title
Deionarra Theme
Annah Theme
Dak'kon Theme
Ignus Theme
Fall-From-Grace Theme
Ravel Theme
Sigil Battle
Curst Battle
Sigil Theme
Ravel's Maze

Zork Nemesis
Temple of Agrippa
Frigid River Branch Conservatory
Steppinthrax Monastery
Under the Temple

Zork Grand Inquisitor
Crossroads
Port Foozle
GUE Tech

Edit:

Another one, since I had a bit more time. Clint Bajakian did some excellent work with the Outlaws soundtrack, which IMO features better western music (not to be confused with country music - think banjos, trumpets, and violins, not people in cowboy hats singing with Texan accents), than most western films.

Outlaws
Outlaws
Sanctuary
Anna's Theme
Sanchez The Outlaw
The Last Gunfight - hell yes
Showdown

[enderlord99]

This is a fusion-remix of several songs from Super Paper Mario... and it, itself, is also in that game.

[Klose_the_Sith]

Very little video game music will ever pass by my standards, I consider nearly all of it to be 'background chatter' at best.

But I do have a pretty big soft spot for this

[Triscuitable]

Ghost Trick has an amazing soundtrack. You should also play it right now. I'm so happy it was ported to the iOS, because it was my handheld GOTY last year.

No More Heroes also has a stellar soundtrack. Every song on it is just as memorable as the insane boss fights.

Marty never fails to impress.

MadWorld's soundtrack is full of really subtle raps that add a sort of percussion to the carnage that goes on in the game.

You know you love to hate loving it.

This whole album is free. So don't think twice; just download it. You'll thank me later.

Chrono Trigger was a different sound from anything to come out of Square Enix's offices. Maybe that's why I love it so much.

Something a bit more recent should also be included. This entire soundtrack, like all the above, is unbelievably good.

Only one person has mentioned Halo so far...

I haven't been able to part from that music since ODST came out, it's just so good. I have also found some of the Guild Wars 2 soundtracks decent, and I agree with almost everything Skyrim.

ODST is brilliant; my only qualm with it is that to really, truly enjoy the soundtrack, you need to have context to the song. That's my opinion, anyways.

I think Suicide Mission is everyone's personal favorite.

Leaving Earth.

[Astrella]

I'm still rather fond of Ride the Worm from Emperor: Battle for Dune and the rest of that game's soundtrack. Probably a bit of a nostalgia factor at work here because this game and Dune 2000 were the first video games I ever played.

[Krazzman]

Skyrim is probably a pretty awesome soundtrack... but I hate it that they don't give it to you anymore as a bonus (they did it for morrowind and Oblivion).

Devil May Cry has some pretty awesome tracks... the battle ones (Time Has Come, Shall Never Surrender) are pretty awesome.

Final Fantasy X's Hymn of Faith still rampages thorugh my brain cells every now and then... despite haven't played anything related in about 3 years.

One Winged Angel was awesome ingame, awesome as soundtrack and even more awesome performed as a Bonus by the WDR-Orchestra while sitting nearly directly above the orchestra and... well having a superb sound-experience.

Final Fantasy VIII and X had a few other tracks I liked.

Brutal Legend has a pretty awesome Soundtrack... and Portal 2 of course... but I mostly skip those songs due to... let's just say they don't motivate to work/work-out.

Orcs Must Die 2 has a pretty solid Soundtrack and gives the feeling of action! now I have to move! in quite some works from them.

Darksiders has one song that get's my GF to yell at me to skip it because it is so sad... and is on it's whole pretty awesome.

Kingdom Hearts of course has some gems but most of them are too happy/lighthearted for me.

[Fri]

One of my top favourite vgm of all time might be Wild Arms 2 Opening.

Special mention should be Final Fantasy V's Ahead On Our Way. Why is that? Because I never actually played final fantasy v, but ever since I watched the opening of ffv years ago, I never able to get it out of my head.

Now, for less known songs...

For me, the single video game that might got my favourite overall soundtrack, was Brave Fencer Musashi, a lesser known action rpg in the psx back then. Just listen to Twinpeak Mountain's theme.

Ragnarok Online also got a good and very diverse soundtracks. It got rock songs, orchestral music, folksy music, and all kind of genre, instead of just your typical rpgish music. But my favourite song from that game is Christmas in the 13 Month, the soundtrack for niffleheim. It brings back a lot of personal memories for me.

And of course, from one of my favourite game of all time, Megaman Legends. Flutter vs Gesselschaft is quite well known now, and is the song that's always got remixed everytime megaman legends got into another vs capcom game.

And a less known one, This battle theme which is a remix of one of the second game's main theme. I always love those kind of things.

[smuchmuch]

Man there are a lot of video game with good soundtracks, so much to choose fom hard to name favorites. but on top of my head.

Planescape torment

Ghost trick (A captive of fate and 4 minutes variation are the two best for me personaly)

The Ace Atorney series have a great soundtrack (particulary investigation)

Two games that had a fun concept, a sadly somtime lacking gameplay but lots of ambiance enhanced by very good and very apropriate soundtracks.
Evil Genius,
Ghostmaster

Psychonauts:
Meat circus.

Monkey island:
Lechuck theme

Grimm Fandango:
The whole of the soundtrack is really great. The game is great. Play it, is all I have to say. My favorites:
Companeros
M Frustration man
Tube switcher room (seriosuly why such a music for a room you spend a total of what ? 30 s into the whole game ?)
Casino Calavera

Discworld Noir:
Small gods temple music.
HA troll of destruction
You can't remember... (okay these two aren't so much good as hey made me laugh haaard. )
Also while I'm in discworld games: That's death

Earthbound/Mother3.
Rock and Roll (spicy)
Get on the bus/runaway five on the move/Sky runner
Piggy guys
Kraken of the sea
Pokey means buisness/King Porky.

Oh and: A test to know if someone was around when the oiginal gameboy was here:
Once you heard it, enough time it haunts you. Forever !

[ShneekeyTheLost]

One of my top favourite vgm of all time might be Wild Arms 2 Opening.

If you liked that, you might want to try the original Wild Arms opening theme. Never fails to get an emotional response.

[Triscuitable]

If you're interested in video game music, you guys should listen to the weekly podcast, VGMpire. It's a pretty cool compilation of game music from a composer, series, genre, or single game; usually one of them in each episode. It's hosted by the guys who made TalkRadar, so if you've heard of that podcast, it's actually the anti-thesis of that show. Slurs are censored, they're not drinking, and tangents are minimal, as the main star of the show is the music.

No, Laser Time is what you want for drunken, cursing, nostalgic 30-year old men who work in the games journalist industry going over things they liked as kids.

Ghost trick (A captive of fate and 4 minutes variation are the two best for me personaly)

But... But Cabanela!

[JoshL]

I am a huge Zelda fanboy, so that goes without saying. And lots of people have mentioned Final Fantasy, so we're well covered there. I really love the music and/or sound design from the Fatal Frame games (well, I love everything about them, really).

One of my favorite NES tunes. Lots of fun music in that game, but the main theme is the most memorable by far.

Oh, and everyone needs to own this album. Music from The Neverhood and Skullmonkeys, done by Terry S. Taylor. Weird and whimsical, absolutely amazing.