here's a lot
shinobi III: return of the ninja masterone of my earliest games and to this day one of my favorite game soundtracks. high-energy, saturday morning, and sometimes even bluesy. the genesis generally kicked the snes in the fucking head when it came to soundtracks; this is just one of many examples re: that.
the world ends with you"this is some cheesy jet set radio rip off bullshit" i say to myself roughly five years ago, "so why do i like it so much"
scott pilgrim vs. the world: the movie: the gameanamanaguchi is a rock band that uses an nes and famitracker to make music inspired by video games, and they were contracted to make music for a game inspired by a film inspired by a comic inspired by video games, which brings everything full circle. this is better + singier than almost any real nes soundtrack; apart from
some exceptional, great, rare work like this, you'll not likely hear something quite this upbeat and wonderful on a console that basically everyone seems to agree was good in hindsight without really giving much good reason as to why
hotline miamiit's hotline miami. this is a bit of a cheat maybe but i don't care; everything here fits the game flawlessly and is 90 percent of why i spent 5 hours after buying it just playing it straight through to the end.
viewtiful joei
fucking
love
this soundtrack. i love all of these, but i need to emphasize it on this one a lot because this is an ost that doesn't get bandied about as much; everything on here is absolute one hundred percent gold. especially (especially) the track directly linked to, "joe the hero"
animal crossinga game that should be the equivalent of doing homework is one of the most compelling things ever put to disc, and it's in large part because of this fun and oft gorgeous soundtrack. this has everything; one of the top tier gcn osts ever done.
sonic cd (jp) (usa has some excellent stuff too)sonic cd is my favorite sonic. it's my favorite sonic soundtrack. sonic will never be good again, i cry, as i take another ritualistic bite of my daily chili dog, reminiscing of the days when the color blue didn't spell depression and the idea of a character inspired equally by michael jackson and bill clinton didn't have a ring of ridicule to it
cave storyit's cave story i'm not elaborating
katamari damacyholy shit. besides warioware, what other huge successful game has had an ost this off the wall? this goes all out with its weirdness and owns it and doesn't even try to make it cool. which is, you know, part of why it's so cool.
super monkey ball 2this is another one of those gcn games that has an amazing soundtrack that's undervalued, i think. it's the same team and composer as
f-zero gxwhich makes a lot of sense; the two games share a love of trancey vibes and dx7; they also love sawtooths. like, a lot.
f-zero gx goes way more eclectic, though, which leads to some oddly affecting cheeseball stuff like
this mid-2000s sonic-y buttrock hererayman originsdude! christophe héral should probably always do music for michel ancel games, it's like the proverbial reese's effect. beyond good and evil is great; this is
transcendent. dialing down the seriousness allows the music to open up and be a lot freer and breezier, and the mandolins, ukes, and singsong make this ost a pure fucking joy.
fezfez is another obvious one. i don't need to talk about fez much. you know it. it's slow, it's melodic, it's happy, it's synthy, it's got an analog vibe despite being definitively made all with digital instruments. it's good.
the last of usi'm not usually a fan of super-modern orchestral filmic soundtracks, but this one
nails it. it doesn't just feel like something perfunctory; there's actual melodies, actual music with a hummable tune to it that fits the mood well. honestly music is at its best as accompaniment to images when it manages to work on its own as something approximating pop work; this pulls it off with aplomb (especially in the linked section)
phoenix wright: ace attorneythis whole damn series has incredible music but it really never tops the first installment; this is where all the melodies hit the hardest.
ripe for rearrangements, too, so yeahwarioware (all games, but especially twisted! and touched!)you...really have to hand it to intelligent systems. they're not only responsible for paper mario and advance wars but also super metroid and the vast majority of warioware games. it's
unfair, really. warioware (especially the two games mentioned above) are probably the most g-funky top 40 ass nintendo games ever released, way heavy on synthy california melodies and cheesy pop tunes. amazing stuff all around, honestly.
and zero other nintendo games have ever really done anything nearly like
this. ever.
also, some of these songs arejust
impeccable for the
smash bros treatment, so uh yeah
jet set radio futurehideki fucking naganuma. need i say more? dude does a
norman cook better than norman cook does; his
chemical brothers impression makes them bite their own dust
. amazing fucking work.
vib ribboneasily my favorite playstation one game is a little-played or seen rhythm title with tempest-y wire art and procedural music library-based levels years before audiosurf ever happened.
it has a built-in soundtrack written for the game that's some of the best pop music i've ever heard in my entire life, without exaggeration. this is straight up
land of the loops territory; when i discovered this game i could physically feel my mind actually blowing.
command & conquer (series from 95 through red alert 2)the thing about the command and conquer series is that it's really difficult to nail it down as any one game's soundtrack or aesthetic being the definitive one; the first (which is linked) is likely the most eligible candidate, as it's the simplest, the punchiest, the most 90s, but a case could be made for any one of these fucking games.
frank klepacki is to blame for all of this. he composed every damn track on every damn one of these games and they're all great. every single one.
i favor tiberian sun because i'm a terrible idiot but red alert and c&c 95 have some incredible industrial bass stuff if you haven't heard them. red alert also has some
gorgeous tinkly synth stuff i never heard until recently because i hadn't played multiplayer until very recently. when i was a kid, my computer didn't have internet. it's not my fault.
that's maybe enough for now
no it's not one more:
comix zonehave you not played comix zone? you should! it was great. it's an incredibly polished, stylish brawler for the genesis that nobody actually played because the damn thing was released right around the end-of-life for the console.
game had a
great soundtrack by fucking accident. transmuted from
terrible wannabe nirvana grunge songs; because the composer of the soundtrack couldn't emulate the sound of the guitars and whiny vox well, it ended up becoming something far weirder and better, and thankfully his melodies are pretty damn good when they're not sung by someone who would have been kicked out of oasis
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