Favorite VGM

[evil_ash_xero]

What are some of your favorite video game songs?

I'm a big fan of the theme to Metal Gear Solid, particularly the slow rendition of it on MGS2.
The Zelda theme is eternal.
Castlevania has too many to pick, honestly.
Thunderforce IV has the greatest shmup music ever.
Sonics' had some surprisingly good music, for a mascot platformer. Like "Flying Battery", "Green Hill Zone", and "Emerald Hill Zone" are pretty great.
The original Contra theme music was great. Then again, it seems like Konami had/has some great music guys all together.
Mega Man 2 was pretty awesome music-wise.
Ikaruga- stage 4...*drool*
Streets Of Rage 2(first one wasn't bad either)
Revenge Of Shinobi
Panzer Dragoon

That's what's coming to mind. What about you?

[Ed Oscuro]

La Mulana, mentioned recently, has great musics.

Crack Down, arcade, has some tunes that sound very familiar.

Most recently Action DOOM 2 has delivered the amazing tunage (though I'm discounting the lyrics to the rap, haha).

I recently completed Link to the Past on GBA; hard to get tired of the theme but I've heard better. The music doesn't rank on my list of annoyances related to that game, though.

[CStarFlare]

mother 2
mega man 3 (people always gobble 2's knob but 3 is slightly better)
final fantasy vi was my favorite final fantasy ost by far
phantom brave was really nice and is probably the only nippon ichi ost I would consider worth owning
pink sweets is best shmup ost
every track from SOTN was gold; almost every other castlevania has good music too. thank god for that 16 disc music box! (even if it doesn't have the dracula battle albums)
silent hill 2 is top-notch, and 1 and 3 are pretty great as well when I'm in the mood for them
I feel the need to mention motoi sakuraba in here, so I guess I'll say valkyrie profile was his best vgm

[neorichieb1971]

Panzer Dragoon
Panzer Dragoon Zwei
Mario
Zelda
I got the Prince of Persia one, which I like for its Persian type sounds
Turok 2 I like
Some of the Tekkens have absolutely outstanding tunes, part 2 is the best.
Rez


I am sure I have more but can't think right now.

[ZOM]

+1 for La Mulana, and agreed about akumajou - lots of great tunes to be found there, especially if you dig out stuff like the "Dracula New Classic, Perfect Selection": I particularly like track 04 - monster dance on that disc.

Other faves include most tracks from Brandish 1-3, Xanadu, various Sorcerian stuff, various Ys tracks - especially Ys I, II & III, etc... too many to list.

[Observer]

Agreed on Megaman 3. For some reason I also prefer this one over 2. And Megaman 4 and 5 are good as well. Same on Silent Hill series. The first (with its incredibly ominous and old fashioned feeling, tango included) and the second (with extensive and mysterious droning, weird songs and a strange, ethereal feeling) are pure gold.

Damn, also agreed on the Panzer Dragoon and Panzer Dragoon Zwei soundtracks.

I would add the first Xenosaga and Chrono Cross (both by Yasunori Mitsuda) and the Homeworld soundtrack, Yes song included, it was pure sci-fi awesomeness with an eastern feeling.

I guess I might be alone but Psyvariar 2's punchi-punchi jazzy tunes, the Layer Section/Ray series and Darius Gaiden (Visionnerz comes to my mind and the song used for Neon Light Illusion is ace) music are all really nice.

Oh, the Virtual-ON (the original) music was catchy as hell.

[Gespenst]

This has plenty

[moozooh]

Semi-crosspost from another forum.

Cave Story (PC, 2004), Pixel.

Gradius V (PS2, 2004), Hitoshi Sakimoto.

Deus Ex (PC, 2000), Alex Brandon.

Battle Garegga (Arcade, 1996), Manabu Namiki.

Earthworm Jim Special Edition (Sega CD, 1995), Tommy Tallarico. It's that better than the already good original score.

Darius Gaiden (Arcade, 1994), Hisayoshi Ogura.

Donkey Kong Country 1 & 2 (SNES, 1994 & 1995), David Wise et al..

Alien Soldier (Genesis, 1995), Norio Hanzawa.

Jets'n'Guns (PC, 2004), Machinae Supremacy.

Honorable mentions: Perfect Cherry Blossom, Rondo of Blood, Killer Instinct, Half-Life 2.

[Ruldra]

Rock Fantasy table from Extreme Pinball. The other tables had some fine soundtrack too.

[Ex-Cyber]

Several of my favorites are already mentioned, so I'll just add:

Damn near anything by Yuzo Koshiro is awesomeness (e.g. Actraiser, Revenge of Shinobi, Beyond Oasis).

I'm a bit more mixed on Yasunori Mitsuda, but the Chrono Trigger soundtrack is pretty great.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Chrono Trigger (don't think I would've endured Xenogears' cackness and Chrono Cross' mediocrity without Yasunori Mitsuda's music)
Planescape: Torment
Diablo ("The sanctity of this place has been fouled.")
Ōkami
...not just the songs I linked to. The entire soundtracks. There are of course, particular themes from other games I adore. Arcade tunes are separate category, though. "Gallantry" by Akira Satō as it sounds in Raiden DX is THE archetype of arcade music for me.

[moozooh]

Diablo ("The sanctity of this place has been fouled.")

Oh yes, how could I forget this? Matt Uelmen has done a great job on both Diablos. I'm very disappointed Blizzard has hired another composer for the upcoming sequel.

[Ruldra]

Also, One Must Fall 2097 had some great soundtracks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjj9umuLn0w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cR8Pb7ZGBtM

[moozooh]

Hah, another one I forgot. Thanks for a unpremeditated reminder!

Rise of the Robots (SNES, 1994). Not sure who did the music for this, but it was by far the only part of the game that was actually very good.

[jonny5]

top gear SNES....it only has 6 songs they use for all the tracks but god they are awesome....keep meaning to hook up the snes and sample the shit out of that one

[Slump]

One of my favorites in a shmup is the song from stage 2 in R-type II. I also liked Darius Gaiden's soundtrack quite a bit. Otherwise if I had to pick one I could sit down and listen to it would have to be the old final fantasy's (ie. IV and VI) or something from Mass Effect/Mass Effect 2. I thought the Mass Effects had an excellent sci-fi vibe.

[Jon]

Just a few of the top of my head:

Stage 8 (spiky dungeon) theme from Super Castlevania IV
Overworld theme from Xenogears
Ending theme from Bonks Adventure

[ZacharyB]

Super R-Type. That hidden solo for stage 1 always stood out for me as going above and beyond video game music. Very good composing for something so early in the SNES's history.

[Ed Oscuro]

In before people start thrashing Rockman and Final Fantashi tunes. Oh, wait.

There is a nifty remix of something Rockman related on the Capcom Game Music Vol. 2, which has the original Street Fighter music and other good stuff. I like the theatrical organ sound of Capcom's early arcade releases (~1986-1988) like Side Arms and Section Z.

[Specineff]

No love for Xenosaga 3? Yuki Kajiura made a believer out of me with her varied compositions.

[Herr Schatten]

Jets'n'Guns
Battle Squadron
Turrican II
Apidya
Thunder Force IV and V (Justice Ray Part II, mainly)
Castlevania series
Grand Monster Slam (title tune)
Katakis (C64)
Hollywood Poker Pro
IK+
Wings of Death
Gods
Zelda
Out Run
Bubble Bobble

Too many to mention them all, really.

[jonny5]

agreed on outrun....i love the music in that game

[gameoverDude]

Some I just thought of:

Razing Storm - Stage 1, Stage 2 (hard-driving drum patterns & slap bass), Stage 3-1 (sniper theme), Boss 3 (sounds quite close to Giga Wing boss BGM), Stage 4 (simply fucking awesome, the bleep-bleep-bleep sound in this one is cool). Takeshi Miura has kept on delivering since Time Crisis 3.
Time Crisis 4 - Another good one by Takeshi Miura.
Time Crisis 3
Crisis Zone
Border Down
Metal Black
Ridge Racer 1/2/6/7 - Right now my favorite RR tracks are Shinji Hosoe's "Dat Dan Day...A" - something similar to Rotterdam Nation, and Sanodg's "Grip".
Xevious 3D/G
Darius Gaiden
Dragon Saber
Ketsui
Zed Blade
Street Fighter EX3 - The game isn't very good, but the music blows away Street Fighter IV's soundtrack.
Giga Wing - "COME ON!!!" (Shinnosuke's 1st stage), Boss BGM, Stage 5
Thunder Force II, III, IV, V, & VI (I can't get enough of the Phoenix Everblue theme in TF6, and the Phoenix Cerberus II theme isn't bad)
Turrican (Amiga)
Turrican 2 (Amiga)
Mega Turrican aka Turrican 3
Super Turrican
Battle Squadron
Midnight Resistance (Megadrive version by Hitoshi Sakimoto & Shogo Sakai)
Shadow Force (arcade)
Rolling Thunder 2
Streets of Rage 1/2/3
Super Shinobi I & II
Double Dragon (arcade)
Double Dragon II (arcade) - Stage 2
Double Dragon II (PC-Engine)- Stage 2 & 7(Rolling Thunder 2 style jazz)
Return of Double Dragon (stage 4 especially- this BTW is stage 1 in the US version)
King of Fighters '94 - Best KOF soundtrack, especially the sinister sounding Rugal themes.
Enduro Racer - In game theme (even better than Out Run IMO)

Hell, just consider anything from Super Sweep (Yack, Aya & Megaten) as part of this list.

EDIT- Added Border Down, Metal Black

[Aquas]

Big fan of the Crystal Chronicles OST on the GameCube. Relaxing world arrangements, and the whole soundtrack is very listenable, and good for Summer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CaiPBrjk ... =1&index=3

[Zaarock]

Most of my favorites have already been mentioned, I'd add:

- HellSinker's soundtrack has an awesome variety of songs (heh, four last boss themes all in different styles is always nice) Also, yay for syncing some of the music to gameplay.
This guy has uploaded the whole soundtrack on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/Zikondrius

- the WipEout series has always had good soundtracks.

- Mother 3

My favorite Zuntata tracks are in rayforce and Yack always makes great soundtracks.

Also, I dont like the Gradius V soundtrack much apart from the remixes. I like the songs in Souky and Ikaruga more but maybe I've just gotten frustrated at it through the game

[junkeR]

Top Gear Rally (N64)
Headhunter/Headhunter Redemption
Mischief Makers
Bangaioh

[Ruldra]

Demon's Crest has one of the best soundtracks for the SNES:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qei29E3Q-BU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtYii9dbiJs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7n1X1KBWU0

The intro stage track of Megaman X2 also deserves a mention:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjlT_oikeoM#t=16s

[Ed Oscuro]

Diablo ("The sanctity of this place has been fouled.")

Oh yes, how could I forget this? Matt Uelmen has done a great job on both Diablos. I'm very disappointed Blizzard has hired another composer for the upcoming sequel.

There's always Torchlight I suppose.

The Diablo 3 tracks I've heard are amazing though.

Overall, this reminds me of a repeat of the Fallout franchise music's handling.

[Lavis]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=455z59SZItg

Everything from Yack.

[Vexorg]

Personal favorite game soundtracks include:

-Super Metroid (In particular, I really like this one)
-Soulcalbur
-Radiant Silvergun
-Super Mario Galaxy
-Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (in particular the Underground Reservoir theme is a favorite of mine)
-Lufia and the Fortress of Doom (unfortunately I can't seem to find the good tracks on YouTube)
-Out Run
-Gradius 3

Probably a lot more I'm forgetting right now.