The Game Music Thread

[nocturnal YL]

Hmm, interesting. Star Fox Adventures music didn't leave much of an impression on me...

I played it in a few long-separated attempts, stopping whenever I feel I'm stuck. I managed to reach the end, but wasn't all that impressed at all.

Anyway, long ago I talked about SFC/SNES music here. This time, I'd like to talk about the other systems.

Normally speaking, game music I like are from games I like. and they usually have an apparent base or are upbeat (see FE4 and Sutte Hakkun music in my last post). Those music either gives a filled-with-soul or uplifting feel. Anyway, here's a small selection of those...

Famicom / NES
I don't have lots of favs for the NES, mainly because chiptune with few sound channels aren't that friendly for the ear.
Fire Emblem Gaiden - Celica Map 2
Kirby's Adventure - World 7 Map

Famicom Disk System
Zelda II - Battle theme
Zelda II - Palace theme

Nintendo 64
Super Mario 64 - Credits
Bomberman 64 - Green Garden (I'm glad the SM64 hack Star Revenge includes this)
Banjo-Kazooie - Treasure Trove Cove
Kirby 64 - Above the Clouds

Nintendo GameCube
Super Smash Bros. Melee - Hyrule Temple
Nintendo Puzzle Collection - Panel de Pon Title
Kirby Air Ride - Sky Sands
Kirby Air Ride - Water

Wii
Super Paper Mario - Staff Credits
Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn - Ascent
Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Cloudy Court Galaxy
Kirby's Return to Dream Land - Desert Theme

Wii U
Super Mario 3D World - Forest level
Super Mario 3D World - World Bowser Map

Game Boy
Game & Watch Gallery 1 - Manhole

Game Boy Color
Mario Tennis (GBC) - Main Menu

Game Boy Advance
2 COMBO! Golden Sun 1 - Venus Lighthouse
3 COMBO! Golden Sun: The Lost Age - Air's Rock
4 COMBO! Mario Golf Advance Tour - Mushroom Tournament
(Actually, let's just say most of the music by Motoi Sakuraba are awesome!)
Fire Emblem: Binding Blade - Beneath a New Light
Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones - Fly with the Breeze
Kirby & the Amazing Mirror - Candy Constellation
Rhythm Tengoku - Menu 1
For a system with a weak audio system and lots of broken soundtracks in remakes (looking at you, Super Mario Advance series), there sure are a lot of good music...

Nintendo DS
Yoshi Touch & Go - Title
Mario Kart DS - Airship Fortress
Mario & Luigi 3 - vs Final Boss
Fire Emblem 12 - One who carves a new history
Fire Emblem 12 - Endless Battle
Fire Emblem 12 - friend

Nintendo 3DS
Super Mario 3D Land - Beach Theme
Mario & Luigi 4 - vs Semi-Final Boss

Neo Geo Pocket
Neo Geo Pocket system menu

Genesis
Sonic the Hedgehog 1 - Marble Zone (I wanted this in Brawl)

Dreamcast
Sonic Adventure 1 - Egg Carrier
Power Stone 2 - Blue Sky Area

It's already this big. It's not all of the music I like, obviously.

[Nester the Lark]

Do you like the opera scene from Final Fantasy VI? Do you also like "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen? Do you have nine minutes to spare?

Then check out "The Impresario," an Overclocked Remix by Jake Kaufman and Tommy Pedrini:

[Shrikeswind]

Here's a bunch of music I like. So yeah. Lot of stuff. I'm gonna list 16 highlights, with my top favorites towards the end and my all time favorite last.

Donkey Kong Country - Forest Frenzy
Jet Force Gemini - Rith Essa
Jet Force Gemini - Water Ruin
Super Mario Bros. 3 - Desert Hill
Donkey Kong Country 2 - Hot Head Bop
Super Mario Land - Chai Kingdom
Super Mario World - Title Screen
Pokémon Red/Blue - Route 1
Link to the Past - Hyrule Castle
Ocarina of Time - Temple of Time (Song of Time)
Donkey Kong Country - Fear Factory
Jet Force Gemini - S.S. Anubis
Donkey Kong Country - DK Island Swing
Majora's Mask - Stone Tower Temple
Jet Force Gemini - Battleship Sekhmet
Tetris - A Type (Korobushka)

[Deleted]

So, some of Bayonetta 2's music has shown up on the website. I'm surprised, but totally not disappointed!

[parrothead]

Here are my ten favorites. This list might change in the future:

Raiden series - I repeatedly listen to this music. It's that good, with the exception of most Raiden Fighters trilogy songs. I also like Go Sato's other works like Seibu Cup Soccer and Zero Team.

OutPost 2: Divided Destiny - This is like my thinking music. Great for working on homework, even though I'm out of school and college both.

Asuka 120% BURNING Fest. franchise - Keishi Yonao did an excellent job on this series. He also worked on Strania for XBOX 360 and the Mad Stalker titles.

Psyvariar 1 and 2 - Some songs in these two titles keep me going.

Ketsui - I listen to the arrange album when walking for 30 minutes back and forth down my long driveway.

Wave Race 64 - This is what got me interested in video game music. So interesting, I tried to go to music stores to find it, which they didn't sell video game music back then. Today, finding video game music is easier thanks to the Internet.

Star Fox (SNES) - This was the golden age of my childhood. I miss it very much. My mother bought it straight from a movie rental store on my birthday. Some people compare Hajime Hirasawa's best known work to Star Wars, but I don't think so.

Wolf Fang / Rohga: Armor Force (Arcade) - Probably my favorite soundtrack from my favorite video game music band. It helps me wait patiently on certain things.

Panzer Bandit - Someone compared it to Mega Man BGM, but it's too strong to be comparable to Mega Man BGM. Its composer Kanta Watanabe said he had some extra strong metal music removed by Banpresto and Fill-in-Cafe. He also said its opening song was inspired slightly by the Neon Genesis Evangelion opening, which I also like, but not a big fan of the anime. I might check it out someday.

Ginga Force - The Sampling Masters made this soundtrack very addictive.

[nocturnal YL]

King Dedede's got a few new games out recently: Kirby Fighters Z and Dedede's Drum Dash Z. Those games' tunes are beyond awesome, as expected from HAL Sound Team (Hirokazu Ando is behind these games' music).

Dedede's Drum Dash Z - all special stages, platinum medal (huge spoilers, obviously)
Kirby Fighters Z title screen BGM
Kirby Fighters Z versus Team Dedede

Dedede fans rejoice! Between Triple Deluxe and these expanded sub-games, out beloved king has returned to his full glory! After almost a decade of being overshadowed by Meta Knight...

[Nester the Lark]

I've been listening to the Ys soundtrack lately, and I noticed that some of the tracks sound similar to music from other games. Now, I'm not saying they're exactly the same or that anyone deliberately copied anything, but I wanted to mention them to see if it was just me or if you guys noticed the similarities also.

So, the original Ys was released in 1987 for the PC-8801 and numerous other platforms, and had a soundtrack originally composed by Yuzo Koshiro. (Fun fact: Koshiro still composes all of his music on a PC-88 emulator.) The soundtrack has been remixed numerous times over the decades, but I'm going to use the original PC-88 version for these comparisons.

Ys - "Feena"
Metroid - Title Theme (Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka, 1986)

These tracks have completely different structures, but I think "Feena" sounds very similar to the Metroid theme that kicks in at the 30-second mark. Also, while the Metroid track starts off with that ominous repeated chord, it also shows up in the Feena theme at about 1:56 with a similarly ominous vibe.

Ys - "Treasure Box"
Metroid II: Return of Samus - Item Get Fanfare (Ryōji Yoshitomi, 1991)

The jingle that plays whenever you collect an item in either of these games sound remarkably similar to me. Not exacly the same, of course, but very close. This version of the Metroid item fanfare first appeared in Metroid II, and has been used in the series ever since.

Ys - "First Step Towards Wars"
Golden Axe - "Wilderness" (Tohru Nakabayashi, Y. "Dolphin" Takada, 1989)

Perhaps the most famous song from the Ys soundtrack, "First Step Towards Wars" starts off with a very similar melody to the music from the first stage of Golden Axe. (It might be easier to hear in the slightly slower tempo Genesis/Mega Drive version.) They diverge a bit after that, but both tracks have pretty much the same overall structure.

And while I'm at it, let me take the opportunity to post some of the epic remakes that appeared in later games:
"First Step Towards Wars" - TurboGrafx CD version, Chronicles version
"Wilderness" - Sega Ages version

So, what do you guys think? Striking similarities, or am I just hearing things that aren't there?

[nocturnal YL]

I can tell the similarities, yeah. Don't think they deliberately copied eachother though.

I've always wanted to see them release these games on some of the platforms I have, being somewhat interested in ARPGs in general. That never happened (at least not with modern systems; they stopped releasing non-PlayStation versions since 2009, and I didn't think about trying this series until 2012 after I've played The Last Boss is in the Next Room (rough translation)), and I'll continue to not get a chance to play the Ys series...

[Nester the Lark]

The TurboGrafx/PC Engine version of Ys I & II is available on Wii Virtual Console. There are also DS versions of Ys I & II, but I've heard they're not very good. The PC versions of Ys I & II Chronicles+, Ys Origin, and The Oath in Felghana are all available on Steam (and are also in the Japanese store), and XSeed has hinted that they're also coming to GOG pretty soon. (Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky just got released on Steam, GOG and GamersGate.)