Game Music

[Omnius]

I recently came across the music from the Command & Conquer games. And wow that was a (good) blast from the past!
Act on Instinct (Command & Conquer)
Hell Marches (Command & Conquer Red Alert)

What are your favourite game tunes? (old or new)

 

[Rii]

I'm crankin' the Red Alert 3 OST right now.

 

[P0sitr0nic]

FF6, Chrono Trigger and Cross, Ragnarok Online, to name a few.

 

[Omnius]

I almost forgot Michael Giacchino & Christopher Lennertz' soundtracks for the Medal of Honor series.
Orchestral score's that would easily pass for a good movie soundtrack.

 

[Garrett]

My recent favorites are Mass Effect for its throwback to 80s sci fi music and Fallout 3. There's at least a few songs on the Mass Effect soundtrack that remind me a lot of Vangelis, including one of the battle tunes that sounds quite a bit like the end credits music from Blade Runner.

I ended up downloading all of the songs I could find on iTunes that were played on GNR, plus a number of songs from around the same time period. Some of which were songs I'd been meaning to get for awhile. I love listening to GNR, but wish Three Dog would shut the hell up.

Alex Brandon's soundtrack for Deus Ex is also great. That's one of my all time favorites. Some of his tracks from Unreal are pretty good, too.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Anything from Donkey Kong Country. Seriously, i think that game has some of the best video game music of all time.

There's also that one song off Red Alert that absolutely kicks ass. Not sure about the rest, but definitely that one.

 

[Commander Vaughn]

I've always enjoyed the Halo soundtracks. Call me crazy.

 

[Geckothan]

UT99 had decent music.

 

[TheGodBen]

Act on Instinct (Command & Conquer)

Ah, Act on Instinct, I used to play C&C just to hear that track. I have it on my MP3 player these days.

 

[ATimson]

Any of the Unreal/UT games, though the first in each series was probably the best.

Advent Rising.

Mass Effect.

The Halos.

Medal of Honor, at least out of game--never actually played the games, but I liked Giacchino's work on Alias so I diversified.

The N64/GameCube Zelda games, with special props to Wind Waker. There's orchestrated versions of the OOT/MM soundtracks that I prefer.

Super Mario Galaxy.

Blizzard's stuff is pretty good, though I think I prefer the cutscene scores to the in-game soundtracks.

And I'm looking forward to Bear McCreary's score for... ummm... some Capcom game I forget.

 

[Blamo]

Mass Effects soundtrack does a great job at evoking 80's sci-fi movies.

Red Alerts Hell March is outstanding, almost makes me want to reinstall it and play the game again.

The song for Xenogears "Small Two of Pieces" in English is absolutely hauntingly beautiful. Really should be in the top-ten of game music.

Thinking back over a decade ago, I'll have to say I think Noriyuki Iwadare doesn't get enough attention. He was kind of like the John Williams of JRPGs and his music always had this epic upbeat feeling about it.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

Red Alerts Hell March is outstanding, almost makes me want to reinstall it and play the game again.

That's what I was thinking of. Great song. Actually, thinking back, Red Alert has a lot of great songs, really sets the mood for the game.

 

[Orac Zen]

Alex Brandon's soundtrack for Deus Ex is also great.

Agreed - the music is one of the many things I enjoy about DX. The DX mod RedSun has one of the most ridiculous (barely existent, in fact) plots I've played but some of the music for it is excellent, too.

 

[MyCylon]

What comes to mind:

- Halo 3
- Sim City 4 (not really my kind of music but somehow perfect while playing)
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Streets of Rage
- Tomb Raider

One of the biggest disappointments for me in terms of the music has got to be HL2. I really love this game. But the music does nothing for me at all - it adds nothing to the narrative and actually detracts from the atmosphere in parts. Granted, it's used very sparsely. So it doesn't do too much damage. But I really hope this is something they will change for future releases.

 

[clint g]

The Command and Conquer games have all been winners with the soundtracks. I loved the Xenosaga OSTs and the Final Fantasy X ost.

 

[Omnius]

OMG, how could we all forget the Nintendo Tetris tune: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whBg7IF5JUg

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Unreal, UT, Chrono Trigger/Cross, Homeworld, Deus Ex, FF4, FF6, FF8, FF10, C&C, Morrowind, Quest for Glory (the whole series), Space Quest (ditto), Master of Magic, X-COM: Terror from the Deep (very spooky theme), and many others I am no doubt forgetting. I am quite a sucker for video game music.

I'm surprised no one has mentioned VGMusic, which has MIDI files of thousands of classic games.

There's also the High Voltage SID Collection, which is music made using the capabilities of the Commodore 64. Oh, yeah, I love me some chiptunes.

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Pilot Wings 64 Birdman music

Talk about chilling out and just taking it easssssssy...coool man...real coool.

And no CD music in sight, all done on a cartridge.

 

[backstept]

The song for Xenogears "Small Two of Pieces" in English is absolutely hauntingly beautiful. Really should be in the top-ten of game music.

Xenogears is my all time favorite

 

[msbae]

I'm surprised no one has mentioned VGMusic, which has MIDI files of thousands of classic games.

I was just about to post that link.