Emphasis on
your. We all know there are noted and recognizable classics in the industry. I don't think I know a single child or adult that doesn't know the Mario level 1-1 song. While songs like the overworld for the original Zelda, One-winged Angel, or the Halo opening are surely great and deservedly popular, they just aren't always my personal favorites. So here is my personal list of favorite gaming tunes. Post your own favorites as well. Maybe there's a game you or I haven't played and therefore a killer song we haven't heard. I'm always excited to discover another great tune!
I found it difficult to compare old school beeps and boops to modern-day orchestrated soundtracks. These should almost be separate categories. Also, I think I could make my top 10 list almost exclusively off of the FFXIV soundtrack...but I won't. So many outstanding pieces of music in that game!
Some of these are just because they're absolute jams, others are because they were impactful of my time growing up gaming, most are both.
Mega Man 3 - Shadow Man Move over Wily's Castle (MM2) and Bubble Man, this song is just too good.
Super Mario 64 - Dire Dire Docks One of my favorite Mario songs. Water themed levels always seem to have great music.
Donkey Kong Country 2 - Stickerbrush Symphony Until orchestrated tracks came along this may have been my number 1 video game song, it's still close.
Final Fantasy Tactics - Opening Possibly the first game intro that had me sitting through the opening just to hear the music
Kingdom Hearts III - Opening (CHIKAI) All apologies to Hikaru Utada, but there is something about the heavy violin replacing the lyrics that is just outstanding! Despite KH3s flaws, I couldn't load up my save without first sitting through the opening at least once. Perfectly emotional for the theme of the game.
Final Fantasy XIV - Close in the Distance This might be the single greatest piece of music to come out of a video game ever. I can't speak highly enough about it. If you've played the game to it's epic conclusion, you know exactly how hard this song hits!
Might & Magic Darkside of Xeen - Lava Town / Necropolis This song is a SoundBlaster jam! There was some kind of bug in this game that was never fixed where if you died and/or loaded your game repeatedly every once in awhile the music would not start. You could fix this by going into the settings and toggling the music off and back on. When you did that this was the song that would play until you moved to another area. As a kid I remember intentionally getting this bug to occur so that I could hear my jam before a tough dungeon or battle.
World of Warcraft - Legend of Azeroth Main Title It's not that great of a track, but damn if I didn't listen to it for hundreds of hours on end. As an avid original WoW player, this is what you hear each time you start the game, cycle through character selection, etc. Not to mention when I would time out of the game busy doing other things, this song would echo through the house to let me know I had been logged out. Such a strong nostalgic song for me and my time as a borderline WoW addict.
Heroes of Might and Magic II (Expansion) - Necromancer Castle In the expansion for Heroes II were alternate castle theme songs. The Necromancer castle was so damn good. Listen to that piano solo 50 seconds in! I grew up on this game and go back and play it often.
Castlevania Bloody Tears An all time classic. It was the first song I learned on keyboard as well. The entire Simon's Quest soundtrack (all 5 songs or so!) is excellent!
Honorable mentions, or maybe in my top 10, I don't know:Final Fantasy XIV - Endwalker Another intro I could sit and watch before logging in. Also, same as the WoW intro, when I time out of the game, this will start playing.
Sonic the Hedgehog - Green Hill Zone Probably one of the most widely accepted classic tunes and for good reason. I just didn't grow up on Sonic and didn't have a Genesis until well into my teenage years when I bought a used one myself. So, Sonic and it's awesome soundtrack just doesn't have a strong nostalgic presence in my mind.
Final Fantasy VI - Terra's Theme and
Chrono Trigger - Corridors of Time Two of my first and favorite RPGs as a kid. I can listen to these soundtracks on repeat. These are probably my favorite song from each game, but it's REAL close. While they don't make my favorite singular songs, they would definitely make my top 10 if I ranked entire game soundtracks.
Castlevania Symphony of the Night - Lost Paintings This and Tragic Prince are top notch. Another game that while doesn't have one of my top all time songs, it's probably a top 3 overall soundtrack for me.
Kirby's Adventure - Rainbow Resort Quite possibly the first song I ever heard from a video game that truly made me pay attention to how great a video game song could be. Kirby's Adventure is another game with a killer soundtrack.
Silent Hill 2 - Promise (Reprise) I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the awesome piano work woven all through the Silent Hill 2 soundtrack. Haunting, catchy, perfectly captures the mood and theme of the game.
I'm not sure I could rank these if I tried aside from FFXIV - Close in the Distance, it might be my new and forever number 1. Also, there is a lot of guilt for not having more FF songs on here...almost every FF battle/boss/Prelude music is worthy of a top 10 list. DKC, Chrono Trigger, Castlevania, and Mega Man all have additional great songs, but I wanted to keep my list varied and not take too many of the great ones!
Enjoy!
