Best Video Game Music
 

Seeing as how we've got threads for Best and Worst games you've played, how about a thread for your favorite video game music? I'll start us off, and in no particular order...

Banjo Kazooie - Rusty Bucket Bay -- Theme for a level in an oily, grungy harbor, complete with giant cargo ship!

Battletoads in Battlemaniacs - Ragnarok Canyon -- The theme of the first level.

Chrono Trigger - Frog's Theme -- The theme of Frog, a knight cursed to assume the form of a humanoid frog. He has not forgotten his honor or duties as a knight, though.

Command & Conquer - Act on Instinct -- The most recognized theme from Tiberian Dawn.

Command & Conquer: Red Alert - Hell March -- The iconic theme from the Red Alert series.

Command & Conquer: Renegade - Command & Conquer -- A great theme for the first real mission.

Dark Chronicle (Dark Cloud 2) - Gundorada Workshop -- The giant facility where the secret weapon to fight Emperor Griffon will be constructed.

Dark Cloud - Gallery of Time -- A trip through time, traveling 400 years into the past to unravel the mysterious past of your 'rival'.

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness - Hystelic Kingdom -- An awesome upbeat military march from an awesome tactical RPG.

Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories - Etna Rock -- The rock theme for Etna, Demon Beauty Queen! (Japanese lyrics, though).

Doom - Hiding the Secrets -- The theme for E1M9 or E1M8, I believe. I forget which level exactly.

Earthworm Jim 2 - Title -- A snappy vocal theme with finger snapping and clapping. Difficult to describe, but just plain awesome.

Final Fantasy 5 - Clash on the Big Bridge -- The battle theme of Gilgamesh, fought on a long bridge that stretches between two continents.

Final Fantasy 6 - Dancing Mad -- The final battle themes. Four separate tiers, one awesome piece.

Goldeneye - Dam -- The music of the very first level.

Homeworld - Agnus Dei -- A sad choral piece, played during the third mission, where you return to your race's planet to find the surface is burning, and there are no survivors left on the planet.

Homeworld 2 - Battle 2 -- One of the many battle themes from Homeworld 2.

Jazz Jackrabbit 2 - Laboratory -- It's just plain cool.

Jet Force Gemini - Sekhmet -- One can really get a sense of the majesty of the mighty warship Sekhmet from this track.

Ogre Battle - Revolt (Thunder) -- An upbeat military march, played on many of the early missions.

Seiken Densetsu 3 - High-Tension Wire -- A fast-paced boss battle theme.

Space Station Silicon Valley - Battery Farm -- The theme for level 4.

Soul Blazer - Southera -- Pirate island music!

Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together - Avilla Henya -- Played during a mission in the middle of the night, where you must defend a village from being razed.

Terranigma - Dark Side Field -- Played when the player is navigating the frozen wastelands of Dark Side (a world within Earth).

Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri - NewHope -- Track played during missions on the planet NewHope.

Tetris - Music A -- The classic game's classic music!

Zool - Candy Land -- An unexpectedly awesome rock piece for a very strange game.

That's all for now... I've already listed far too much. What about the rest of you?

The music in Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga when you are fighting the burglar guy (does anyone remember his name?).
Yes, I do have a strange taste for music.

Super Mario rpg forest maze theme.

The Silent Hill series, hands down. Examples:
Room of Angel Absolutely chilling song, and one that gets a LOT of play from me.
Killing Time Just awesomely catchy guitar work.

You mentioned some of them, but everything from the original Command & Conquer. I haven't played the game in ages, yet can clearly remember several songs. "Mechanical Man", "Fight, Win, Prevail", "Act on Instinct", "Just do it up", "Thang"

Aye, they were all great, but I tried to restrict myself to picking one song per game I listed. Otherwise the post would've been at least three or four times as long, and I was already pushing it to begin with!

I think it was Popple.
Anyway, best music in a game has to go to The World Ends With You. It's generally pretty removed from what I listen to, but I love it anyway.

Conquests of Camelot and Space Quest III by Sierra

Loom and Monkey Island by Lucasfilm

oh there are so many.

Ooo, another one I forgot to mention is LucasArts' Star Wars TIE Fighter for DOS. The game had a dynamic MIDI soundtrack, using the iMUSE engine. Music samples used in battle ranged between 2 and 10 seconds long, and were pieced together to make a fluid soundtrack that reflected the state of the mission. If nothing was happening, say during a routine patrol, the music would be slow and somewhat ethereal. But when a rebel cruiser jumped in, the Rebel's leitmotif would play and the soundtrack would swing into a more battle-oriented theme. You need to see it to understand how awesome it is.

Monkey Island 2. That game has wall-to-wall great music.

As standalone tracks...
Gunstar Heroes - Rescue Yellow!
Resident Evil 2 - Escape From The Underground Lab

For overall soundtracks, these are what I pick...
Shadow of the Colossus (Favorite: Revived Power.)
Psychonauts (Favorite: Meat Circus.)
Grim Fandango (Too many favorites... I'm such a sucker for Jazz... Top favorites has to be Mr Frustration Man, Smooth Hector, and Hi-Tone Fandango.)
Final Fantasy Tactics [the original Playstation version] (Favorite: Antidote.)

I want to say Final Fantasy 7, but that soundtrack is overused in such lists.

I've had the theme from the Metropolis level of the original Ratchet and Clank stuck in my head all of today: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=aHk2G_xY_5Q

Oh god I love Ratchet and Clank 1 so much <3 <3 <3

I have to agree with Frog's Theme. Of course, Chrono Trigger hadsgreat music all around.

Altogether, I think Grim Fandango has the best soundtrack. I think Casino Calavera is my favorite there.

I loved the music in Master of Orion II. And why hasn't anyone mentioned our hosts yet? Jared's stuff just keeps getting better and better.

The Metroid prime theme.I also liked the music for the first level in the original Metroid.

Oh yeah, I guess Mario Galaxy had some good music. Bowser's Galaxy Reactor and Gusty Garden Galaxy being my highlights.


Cave Story was totally kicking crazy rad in terms of its soundtrack too.

This is true. Though my favorite Sam and Max song is still the Ted E. Bear song.

...hmm. Or the mariachis. Now I'm torn.

Im not sure but I heard Super Smash Bros. Brawl music is cool.

Banjo-Kazooie and Tooie did have great background music, that just stylistically screams "Banjo-Kazooie". I like that distinctness, and it's very light and fun. My favorite track for Kazooie, though, would have to be the music for Freezeezy Peak. The best music in the series, though, goes to Jolly Roger's Lagoon, hands-down.

The early Sonic games had some of the best beepity-boopity music ever, in my opinion. I mean, who doesn't think Green Hill Zone had awesome music?

Final Fantasy has some incredible music. Too bad I don't enjoy any other aspects of that particular series.

[Isn't that 90% recycled(or at least remixed) from the music of other Nintendo games?

I'm problably forgetting a few good ones.

I really liked the theme song for Brawl.Since my school orchestra played the Halo theme last year, I don't see why this couldn't be redone well.