I'm interested in seeing what you turn up! I know the composer is Jeehun Hwang (Korean) who's also done some work with early Quake games, but I never really looked into him - was just happy to listen to the music. I would also like to add that the expansion "Ghost Bear's Legacy" had some good tunes as well... The other addition, "MW2: Mercenaries" was a very different affair and had more of a metal/rock sound to it. Probably more up Otus's alley than mine I used to crank up the stereo and blast the main theme whenever our neighbors were being loud.
I've started working through the suggestions on this thread and I'm really liking it so far! Thanks for all the good discussion guys. I'd like to add something that came up in my suggestions, which is the Ocarina of Time soundtrack (youtube link). One of the most beautiful things about video game music, in my opinion, is its versatility; some of it could even be applied to movie scenes or similar things. It often goes unnoticed and unappreciated in my opinion, so its great to see people appreciate it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57cOmxB12XI Transistor Soundtrack: It's better in game, and by that I mean it is a pretty powerful soundtrack that is worked into the game, might I say it is an essential part of the game. It was enough to get me to play through the game two in a half times.
Ocarina of Time is another one of Koji Kondo's masterpieces! Quite some tracks were reused in Majora's Mask, probably because that game had quite a short development time, but Majora's Mask has also got some amazing new tracks, so I'd recommend that as well! It's hard to decide on in what order to post soundtracks. But as I referred to this against Rhy... Here's Harvest Moon: Animal Parade. The game goes too slow for me, and I haven't played it the most. But it is certainly a beautiful game in all aspects except loading times, and the music is amazing too! The entire soundtrack is amazing, and I'll share a link to it later. But for this post, I'll give my comments on some pieces in particular. This intro is amazing! I used to not want to watch it, as it contains a lot of scenes in the game that I hadn't got to yet, and didn't want to be spoiled. But if you don't play the game anyway, you certainly might as well watch it. The music tells a gorgeous story when just listening to it, but it's nice to see it with the context! Then, like any Story of Seasons (formerly Harvest Moon) game, there is a song for each season. There are also themes for specific places, but when outside, the theme for the season you're in will play, so you'll hear it a lot. But that's no problem, as they're amazing, and rather long! Here's the spring theme, which you'll hear a lot in the beginning, as the game starts at the first day of spring. In older Harvest Moon games, after a certain time in the day the music would stop playing, and you would hear ambient sounds to emphasise it being night. In this game, however, for every one of these themes there's also a night version! They are a lot more laid-back, to make you feel like you should wrap things up and relax. Here's the spring nighttime theme. As you can hear, it's got a very different atmosphere, but it uses the same melodic motives! You might remember that when Rhy shared a certain theme, I got reminded of a cave theme from this soundtrack. I didn't quite know which theme, but I believe I found it! Very nice, isn't it? Lastly, I'd like to share a theme heard very often, and fairly simple. This is the theme you hear in your own house (unless you somehow get it to change, as there are 3 themes, but I only know the first one ) Here's the entire playlist. I've never actually listened to it in full, though, partly because I wanted to save some themes for hearing them in-game. Edit: I'm sorry for not including any information on the composer or composition process; I honestly don't know anything about how this soundtrack was made.
Don't worry about that at all, sometimes it's nice just to have the music and be able to listen to it! Will definitely check it out once I finish these others. I might try and make a large spotify playlist depending on how many of these are on there / when I have time to do so
Very few. There's one soundtrack I'm going to share that's on Spotify, but all others only have arrangements or remixes on there, or nothing at all - and these arrangements/remixes are rarely done by the original composer. I know because for the start of University we've got a Spotify playlist, and I wanted to add some video game music but could find very little.
I agree. I purchased it and enjoy listening to it when I bicycle. I like his minecraft volume alpha but I'm not as big a fan of the other stuff he did. Little trivia. Did you know that the sound of a ghast is taken from the sound C418's, aka Daniel Rosenfeld, cat makes.
I got to know this game through SimonNaar, a German streamer whom I know from Lemmings Forums. He speedruns Jazz Jackrabbit. It's a great game, and when I got to know it, I also started listening to the soundtrack. I've downloaded the game's files myself, and usually play the music in OpenMPT (if you do this, be sure to have Resampling set to 'No Interpolation'). However, it's on YouTube as well. The stereo separation is very high though, and that might be awkward if you're using headphones. But this is a soundtrack to check out, so I'll be content with that! This game, developed by Epic MegaGames, was released in 1994, and the soundtrack was composed by Robert A. Allen. It's really good! The tunes are quite long too, which means that in Simon's speedruns you don't hear a single one in its entirety. (every song plays twice in this compilation)
In my opinion, the soundtrack to the simulation / game Universe Sandbox 2 is one of the best. It's so calming hehe I listen to it outside of the simulation (which I use a lot due to me being obsessed with astronomy) when I need to relax or am outside looking at the stars.
Interesting, I've never heard of that! Again, it's hard for me to pick... There's a similar thread on another forum I'm at, but I write less in-depth posts, there, as... it's not EMC. But it's a forum about Wario, and because of that I didn't cover any soundtracks from the Mario universe, as I expected everyone to know those already. I should do so now, though! Let me start with Wario Land II, a very simple soundtrack. This was composed in 1998 by Kozue Ishikawa. The game is a platformer, in which you can't die (getting hit only makes you lose some coins). I called this soundtrack 'very simple'. With that, I mean that when you listen to it, it's fairly easily to follow all the melodies and figure out the tune - which is very nice for when you want to arrange a theme for piano, as I often do. Motifs are often repeated in different octaves, in especially many cases getting higher and higher. Here's my first example. Here's another track, that's quite different: It does again feature the idea of things repeated at a higher (or lower, near the end) pitch, though! Here you can also hear the use of vibrato on sustained notes. That's a very nice addition! (although it makes it harder to play on piano ) Besides the level themes, there are themes that play while Wario is transformed: he can become fat, flat, springy, et cetera... this is what plays while you are turned... zombie! Something which isn't very prominent in any of these 3 tunes, but also applied often, is playing any melody on two different channels, using a different octave and/or instrument. But this soundtrack has got many more memorable tunes, and the ending theme is, as is often the case in video games, a great joy to listen to. However, I'd recommend listening to the soundtrack in its entirety and ending on the ending theme, instead of looking it up right away. Here's a compilation of the entire soundtrack.
Let's go back to the beginning. Well, not quite. But this is probably the first time that video game music was used to its full potential, and perfectly complementing the gameplay. There's a reason these are some of Koji Kondo's most famous, and in fact video games' most famous, pieces of music ever. This is Super Mario Bros., on the Famicom or NES, composed by Koji Kondo in 1985. So very memorable that people are whistling it to this day. This soundtrack, being a small one by today's standards, but quite large for the industry at that time, has got some other, shorter, works as well. But I'll assume almost all of you know them anyway, and otherwise you can check this playlist. What I'd like to share now, is another soundtrack, coming from the first game I owned. Super Mario Bros. Deluxe, released in 1999 for the Game Boy Color. I am honestly not quite sure about how the soundtrack was composed, but in the staff roll, Yuichi Ozaki and Masami Yone are credited under 'Sound'. For this game, the original tunes were ported to the GBC, and quite nicely so, although not perfectly. But as this 'Deluxe' version of the game has got quite some extra game modes, there's also new music! And I'd like to point some out in particular. Very sweet. Very funky! And lastly, an amazing albeit slightly short theme built off the original Starman theme, used as the credits theme for the game. Here's the full playlist. Here too are some more nice themes that I didn't get to in this post!
I really like this! I think Mario music from some era holds a special place in people's hearts, because for many it was the first video game that they played. Thank you for sharing!
I'm putting these in a spoiler from now on, as most of the thread is becoming my reviews (which is fine with me, I can access them easily later, this way ), and they are sometimes rather long, with many embedded videos. I do honestly like being able to scroll past all soundtracks and seeing the text and thumbnails, but I've got to think of the people on mobile devices, or using slow internet! This is another soundtrack on which I'm not certain how it came together. However, these 3 composers are credited: Kenichi Nishimaki Masanobu Matsunaga Minako Hamano So thanks to them. This is Mario Kart Super Circuit. It was released in 2001 for the Game Boy Advance and is probably the least popular main Mario Kart game. However, I actually really like it! What shines most about it, though, is the soundtrack. Mario Kart soundtracks are often great, but this is one of the best. Except for one thing... the GBA didn't have a lot of room on its cartridges, and Super Circuit is quite a big game, with 40 tracks (the most in the series until a few years ago). There was apparently little room left for the music, as the samples were compressed down a whole lot. When hearing the music out of the GBA speaker, you don't really notice it, but if you're listening on modern devices, or using headphones, it sounds really muffled... I wish someone would once remaster it! I'd do it if I had access to a good sample library. For this soundtrack, I'm using the soundtrack as posted on the BrawlBRSTMs3 X channel; I usually don't listen to his soundtracks as they are all extended, and so you have to end the video manually when you've heard enough. However, I don't know how it was done, but the music here sounds slightly better than it does in all other versions (although perhaps not better than the one I ripped myself, but I haven't yet uploaded it as I didn't realise that), and I think that's good. So please end the video whenever you've had enough! (I usually stop after hearing the tune twice) If you want to get the entire playlist: the link is in the description of each video. Here's the intro and title theme. What an awesome start! Right away, you get introduced to the great heavy basslines apparent throughout the entire soundtrack. And the greatly manipulated electric guitar sample! After that, you suddenly hear some un-muffled sounds in both ears: those are simple waveforms, used throughout the soundtrack as well. It really adds a lot of character. There's also a version of this theme with a different intro, that you get after getting 3 stars (the highest possible rating) on all Nitro cups (containing tracks made for this game; in addition, all tracks from the original game return). Another one that I've got to share is the Menu theme. https://youtu.be/_2BYzMBk6QY (you can only embed 5 videos per post) This gets you in the mood greatly!! :D It's paired with great graphics, too; but I can't show those now. This theme is, contrary to all others, very short, but it's supposed to, as it's a menu theme, and you shouldn't spend too much time in the menus: you should be racing! ;D Now, I'll pick three track themes... on one hand, that's a tough choice, as there are much more amazing track themes... on the other hand, I know right away which ones I'm going to pick. Because there are three that are definite favourites of mine. Haha, I'm getting goosebumps while listening to this. <3 It's so gorgeous!! I won't analyse this piece for you, as I'm honestly not that much of an expert, and it's more fun to do it for yourself. But it's so good! One think I would like to point out that is exceptional in this theme, is the looping point. The track loops so naturally that when I didn't know it well yet, I often missed it looping at all. I just thought it went on to yet another different part... and then I realised I had heard this part already. Looping is very important in video game music, as you don't want to notice "Hey, the tune's over" while racing! Secondly, here's the best Bowser Castle music ever. I'm convinced of that. There are many themes in both the Mario Kart and Super Mario Bros. series, but this is with certainty my favourite. It's a minute long, with 3 different parts to it, and the entire theme actually makes reference to Super Mario 64's Bowser theme - but in such a different context and flavour that I only noticed it when somebody pointed it out! Lastly, here's Rainbow Road. I love the cute intro! The rest of the theme is so amazing too! The basslines are as great as ever, the melodies are fun and happy, and the entire theme's got such a drive to it! I can play this track on piano (it's hard...) and it's incredibly fun!! Also remarkable is the length of this tune. Not counting the intro, it's got 4 quite different sections that are all elaborate, and transition to each other in fun ways. I said this of the Bowser Castle theme as well, but to me, this is the best Rainbow Road theme ever! Lastly, I do want to share the Credits theme. As said before, you're supposed to only hear this after beating the game, but I don't want anyone to miss out on this. When I got to this point of the review, I actually wanted to upload a video myself... because as I said before, the channel whose videos I'm using here, has the themes extended... and for a credits theme, that doesn't really work. The other videos of the theme that are on YouTube are not only in lower quality, but don't include the entire theme. This credits theme is so long that people apparently didn't realise it wasn't yet over, and there are many videos on YouTube that have the theme fade out before the end. There is no definite end, at the end it loops infinitely, but it is over 4 minutes long! So here we go. Fortunately I've got fast internet here in Amersfoort. What a theme. Enjoy! I won't say this is the best credits theme in the Mario Kart series: that will be featured later, probably. But it's incredibly nice to sit back to and relax, being proud of whatever you have achieved!
I became obsessed with Shovel Knight's soundtrack, after playing the game myself... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6akIKaXBeU2Er-xoILp4CxJ3DH1lL1BP ...especially this one from the Specter of Torment campaign: Some of the music in this game was made by a former Mega Man composer. -
While doing the dishes, I usually listen to music on my phone, on Shuffle. Most of the music on there consists of video game soundtracks. Now, if I've got time after doing the dishes, I'll write a review on the soundtrack that last played. It was a while until I got this game, but I've always loved the soundtrack. In fact, even before I ever heard it, I already loved it, because a remix of the main theme was used in a Flash game I used to play a lot, and I really liked that. The soundtrack was composed by Hirokazu Tanaka - I actually didn't know that, Jun Ishikawa popped up in my mind, but that's the composer for the Kirby games. The main theme of Super Mario Land is not nearly as well-known as that of Super Mario Bros., but it's certainly very memorable! This entire soundtrack shines in its beautiful simplicity, and happiness. It really fits the game! The entire game is a bit bare-bones and child-like, but very cute and nostalgic - even to those who haven't ever played it before, I would expect! A very different feel! To be honest, I don't like how some parts only play in one channel. However, it was probably impossible (at least at the time) to have something panned at an in-between level. A sound either plays in both channels, only on the left, or only on the right. But when playing, it doesn't matter, as I never played Super Mario Land using headphones. It's a soundtrack that feels more natural out of the Game Boy speaker. Here's another happy upbeat tune. And you might be surprised to hear that we're already half-way through the full soundtracks. That's why I'm sharing all: there's not much use in picking a few special ones and then letting you hear the rest for yourself, as the rest are mostly tunes that work best primarily in context, and aren't so good when hearing them on themselves, and most are very short as well. This is a rather short game, with only 12 levels, and the soundtrack is short as well. But it was one of the six Game Boy games that came out with the system, consider that! This was 1989, and a lot of advancements have been made in the Game Boy's lifespan. This one's got some quite elaborate sounds for the Game Boy chip! It's apparently mimicking Chinese instruments, but I honestly don't have experience with Chinese music, so I couldn't have told you. Lastly, here's the ending theme. It's one of my favourites! It loops, while I usually prefer credits themes to actually end. But it works well for the theme, and for the game. It's nice that you can listen to it repeat the main section for as long as you want, before finally turning off the game. As next time you'll have to start from the beginning; there is no keeping of saves in these old games! This one needs some more discussion. Firstly, note how the melody in the first section is almost exactly the same as the melody in the Overworld theme. If you don't notice, go back and listen to that again. I'm pointing this out because I actually didn't notice at first, and it's really cool! It's played in such a different tone that I didn't even recognise it for a while, and yet it being the same melody does probably make it feel more like coming home, subconsciously. Then there's a fairly long section building up excitement, leading into the final sections that will keep repeating. It's so pleasant!! :D Something about the execution that I really love is the vibration on the sustained notes in the melody. Gorgeous. <3 I hope you enjoyed! Now I'm off to play this on piano.
Well, I was gonna give these a pass, but somehow we're into Page 2 and nobody except me has even mentioned Sonic music. That is an absolute travesty. So here we go! Sonic 2 is the defining Sonic game for me, and had some of the best music of the Sega Genesis era. Green Hills might get more attention, but I never cared much for that one myself - played through it as quickly as possible so I could get here, to the Chemical Plant. I absolutely love the energy in this piece. Mystic Cave is another one I just love. It feels slightly weird and off-key somehow, but in a good way, and does a great job of setting the abnormal tone of the level. I had some of the most fun exploring this one, although those lightning bugs drove me nuts... The Ending theme was a great finale to the journey - a fitting reward for a well-earned victory. Sonic 3 should probably get its own post, but if I didn't at least mention the Ice Cap zone, I'd never forgive myself. Might be the most remixed Sonic track ever - my personal favorite is 'Breaking the Ice' by DigiE. (I used to spend a lot of time on OCRemix, okay?) Will pick out a few other favorites later, if no one else gets to 'em first.
I thought Green Hill Zone was Sonic 1, and Sonic 2's first stage is Emerald Hill Zone? But yeah, it's a great soundtrack! I don't think I had ever heard the ending theme before! I guess this is a track Micheal Jackson worked on. I hadn't heard it before. I don't think I'll ever be posting about Sonic music myself, here, as I know very many great soundtracks, and I'm not personally involved with Sonic in particular.
I got something real old and gold. Just working on getting this game to work again... Here is the main Theme, SOOO NOSTALGIA <3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plEN8IFZxZY
