Video Game Soundtracks/Songs

You can't have a video game soundtrack without mentioning TES



So beautiful, it gets you right in the mood for the game. I remember just sitting in Oblivions main menu just listening to it.

 

I really love OST from Ori. It's very atmospheric

 

Dark Souls has a great orchestral soundtrack. It is the first game I think of when asked for my favourite ost.

 

one of the best menu themes

 

Borderlands chooses some great introduction songs, in fact the introduction song for Borderlands 2 is what made me buy the game.

Civ V has some fantastic pieces of music in it's huge soundtrack, the European war themes in particular are brilliant.

The music in Mass Effect 3 was faultless, really captured the mood of the game in a way that makes me want to replay it every time I hear it's soundtrack

No soundtrack thread is complete without Civ IV's title track, Baba Yetu. It's the Lord's Prayer in Swahili and it's wonderful.

I love anachronistic music, postmodern jukebox in youtube do anachronistic covers and got me into the style, then bioshock infinite came along and sneaked the songs into the game very well, in one of the few moves in that game that made it feel like the world was fleshed out beyond your storyline.

Does music from the trailers count if it's not included in the game itself?

ADD:
Say what you will about the soviets, the red army choir could sing, and this song from Command and Conquer 3 is top class "oh fuck, the Russians are coming and they've got angry, armoured war bears" music.

Hitman: Blood Money, the only hitman game I played and this music was such a good choice for that game.

 

The whole Rayman 1 soundtrack. Pure nostalgy, and just so amazing...

Rayman M / Arena also definitely has nice music.

As do Rayman 3 Hoodlum's Havoc and Hoodlum's Revenge for the GBA.

Rayman 2 has some nice music too, to a lesser extent.

The Land of the Livid Dead's theme music from Rayman 3 is nice too.

Monopoly Tycoon has excellent music, especially in the earlier years.

Lego Racers 1 is awesome as well.

Command & Conquer Red Alert 2's soundtrack, as well as Yuri's Revenge's to a slightly lesser extent. Frank Klepacki is awesome.

Command & Conquer Generals and Zero Hour, too.

Total Annihilation, Supreme Commander (1 and Forged Alliance, 2 not so much, I think - unsure), and Planetary Annihilation, for anyone who loves epic orchestras. 'Risk, Relief, Victory' and 'The Art of War' are quite good in specific.

Hitman 2 Silent Assassin has some nice tunes; the exploration theme is amazing, and the Russian tunes are great too.

The first three Harry Potter games; the Hogwarts theme is so magical and nice.

The Elder Scrolls, of course, especially Oblivion.

Civilization III has excellent music too.

Hotline Miami, 1 more so than 2, is also great.

Far Cry 1's menu theme is great as well.

Europa Universalis III's music is also good. Never played IV though.

Deus Ex's menu theme (the original)! Pure awesomeness.

Monaco, perhaps? Or The Binding of Isaac? Unsure if I'd list them here... Probably not.

And, seriously, a lot more. I can't even be bothered providing links for all this.

 

I always found the Sonic themes were the best to listen to as a kid. I always loved how catchy and cool either the retro or modern themes sounded, even if Heroes is cringey as hell now:


And of course the Mario themes were pretty damn great as well:

 

https://sonicisreal.bandcamp.com/releases

Is a fun listen if you liked the sonic adventure stuff

 

Speaking of video game soundtracks: This guy makes a lot of brilliant covers.

 

I'm a huge sucker for upbeat retro/arcade sounding game soundtracks, so a lot of my favourite game music has come from indie titles, but I'll go through some of my all time favourite soundtracks since the indie list is just too massive.

Jazz Jackrabbit 2: JJ2 is the reason I got in to game development, these days it's mostly a nostalgia thing but the soundtrack and its creator Alexander Brandon are both something I always come back to for inspiration and general listening. JJ2 was a full on arcade styled platformer with music that always seemed to fit the current world brilliantly, it added so much to the game for me and for a lot of people who remember playing it. Example: Labratory Level

Rolan's Curse 2: RC2 is a GameBoy game, so the music is very chiptuney and restricted, but the composition is what made it so memorable for me, it was completely unlike anything else I was playing at the time. Example: Metals

Jade Cocoon: Jade Cocoon had a very ambient soundtrack, some tracks went for a more tribal/jungle theme when it was appropriate. It was a PlayStation game that drew a lot of comparisons to Pokemon in that you would capture monsters and fight with them, only the plot was a lot more serious (save the village save the world etc), probably the most memorable music from the game was the battle themes but if you're at all interested in the sound of this then I highly encourage you to give the whole thing a listen. Example: Area of Space Time Part Two (2 Player Battle Theme) (Playlist Included) (the forest themes and genesis are also worth a listen)

Dark Souls: A way more recent title, a lot of you have probably played this one. The soundtrack is actually very scarce, it only really occurs in a select few cutscenes and the boss fights, which made them a lot more stressful for me going in for the first time. The Ornstein & Smough, and Artorias fight themes stand out especially for me whenever I come back to this soundtrack, to the point that I got inspired to paint Artorias. Example: Artorias the Abysswalker

Fez: This game was phenomenal, everything about it looked and felt like so much effort was put in to it, and the soundtrack was no different. It's mostly ambient with a flush of 8-bit instruments and sound effects to go with the pixel aesthetic. If you want something to just chill out to then there's plenty of stuff in this soundtrack. Example: Flow (Playlist Included)

Cave Story: I only played this game a few years ago when the remake hit Steam, I had heard about it before but I never really knew much. After beating it, I read up about it to find that the original was made entirely by one person over 5 years. Everything. They wrote the plot, programmed the game, did the art and the soundtrack entirely themselves, and they not only pulled this off over 5 years but they did everything to an amazing standard. It's easily one of my favourite games and soundtracks, if you haven't played the game but you're into platformers then I highly encourage you to go and experience the soundtrack through the game. Example: Geothermal (Playlist Included)

I hope that with my new rig I'll be able to play more of the big triple A titles that are coming out, I've always felt like I've missed out on them especially when I see people pointing to them as having their favourite soundtracks.

 

Some of my favourites:

That's all I can think of at the moment.

 

Skyrim

 

Not a fan of the big ochestra, grand bethesda music, prefer stuff like this, probs my fab videogame song

(shit, obscure game btw)

 

Guild Wars 2

 

as a response too Jack at the start of the thread i saw this a while ago.








Not entirely the orginal videogame music from sonic 2 exactly but still wanted to place it in here.


from vrally 2 bit odd to have in a rally game but oh so good some parts in this is.


Can't leave out some of the older stuff in the need for speed series mentioning video game music












that will be all for now.