The Video Game Music Challenge [Official Game Thread]

[SQron188]

@mobius:

Spoiler

1. Buried In Time title screen/intro.
https://youtu.be/nkB7UAG0xCs?t=225

Pretty good atmosphere in that one, nice.

@DireKrow

Spoiler

1) Oh yeah, Allister Brimble's good in Alien Breed Tower Assault, Alien Breed 2, or All Terrain Racing.
2) Some of the best C64 music I know, Turrican 3 (it's a fan game BTW!)
3) That's great to read! So cool to see someone appreciate Parodius for its music as well! Cheers!

I've seen Diablo mentioned in another reply. I've played that quite a lot, my favourite track is "Catacombs".

@Armani

Spoiler

You know what, I've beaten Fallout 1 fairly recently. For the eighth time, I think.

@Turrican

Spoiler

I must've heard that Z-Out theme somewhere, I know it! Anyway, it's a great one!

@grams88

Spoiler

I myself enjoy the Amiga version of the title theme of Menace the most. Nice choice!

@607

Spoiler

Donkey Kong Country 2! I really like nearly all the music in this game, which I can't say about most of the games I know! The ice level track is no exception.

When it comes to Parodius, then of course I've played it! I've even got a longplay of it on my channel, look: https://youtu.be/qPaBs4rlcTw?list=PLh-NqKHZgzK32XFIASCQlGs71wOh3ltPC

@Colorful Arty

Spoiler

2) Well, to begin with, the 1) title theme is the Amiga version; the track I put in 2) is a tune from C64! They're simply different machines. If you mean the intricacies of the quality of the videos on YouTube, then I don't really know.
3) The soundtrack of Parodius is comprised mostly of renditions of classical pieces like that, so it's similar to Lemmings in that regard, and I really recommend it as the music is pulled off masterfully, some of the best ever VGM, in my opinion, and particularly on SNES!

[IchoTolot]

Really a great variety of tracks here!

@Arty No I haven't put my first song in a lemmings level yet, but I did a let's play of the game on my YouTube channel.

I noticed that there were quite a few MegaMan tracks here. I must confess though that I never had a nintendo console so nearly all of mario and megaman passed me completely. I only had a gameboy back in the days apart from access to a PC. So it's nice to hear some tracks I don't know about here!

It's also nice to see Jazz and Turrican music as through SQron and Simon I was already introduced to quite a few of them.

[grams88]

I loved the atari st version of the Titus the fox music, it felt very atmospheric and made the game more magical and interesting.  Cool I noticed Jazz Jack rabbit as well getting featured, the music is actually quite good in that one, it reminded of the days my brother and I were doing a competition against each other to see who would get the furthest.

Sorry I haven't gotten to everyone.

[JRT]

Spoiler

1: Star Ruler - Star Ruler - Artem Bank.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvAmCDOnbko
The whole soundtrack is fantastic. If you want 90 minutes of mostly chill electronic music, give it a listen.

2: Awesome - Boss - Tim Wright
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGjVE35EmxQ
Again, good soundtrack all round from Tim Wright. Never played it. I like all the tracks but this one would be great as a Drum & Bass reimagining.

3: 1986, I'll get back to you. I guess pick the fave tracks from Metroid or Castlevania, neither of which I've played.
I wish I could put 2004 - CIV IV - Baba Yetu so I could be 16 again.
Uggghhhhh, Nebulus was 1987, so close.

[607]

Responses to LanaAndCo's picks

1.1 I probably would've picked Jazz Jackrabbit if the prompt was asking for menu music specifically!

1.2 Interesting track!

1.3 Woohoo, Jerry Martin! Yeah, I got to love jazz through SC3K's soundtrack. It also introduced me to minimalism, even though I didn't know it at the time, of which I became a big fan when I learnt about it in school. Maybe a track from that game will be appropriate later. I've never listened much to the soundtrack of The Sims though, I'll try to remember to do so!

Responses to JRT's picks

1.1 I like it! Doesn't sound like electronic music to me, though. Seeing it had a commercial release, I was hoping it would be on StreamingSoundtracks.com, but unfortunately not. Might still give more of the soundtrack a listen some time if I remember.

1.2 That's Amiga music? Woah. Very cool!

1.3 Baba Yetu is from 2004? I thought it was from around 2010! Nebulus would've been a good pick from 1987, indeed.

[Nessy]

Second Round!

1) Favorite music that plays during the credits shown at the end of a game
2) Music you like from a game that you have played and disliked
3) Favorite final boss battle music

Round will end on July 30 at 14:00 UTC

[Colorful Arty]

Round Two

Spoiler

1) Favorite music that plays during the credits shown at the end of a game

This one was really tricky for me, since there are so many that I love. Paper Mario has the best credits ever, but I'm not sure if the theme is the best (plus it's like a 10 minute track divided in two, so no one wants to listen to that) In the end, I went with a classic from my childhood: Frogger - He's Back! It's a beautiful medley of many of the other tracks in the game. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjCf3aCkGfg

2) Music you like from a game that you have played and disliked

This one was easy: Village of the Blue Maiden from Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures. This is an amazing theme (even though you only hear it for like 10 seconds), but I HATE this game so much. It's a complete failure of a multiplayer game, but I could write an essay on why it's a bad game. No one wants to hear that, so just listen to this amazing music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ErPnv2V8Yg

3) Favorite final boss battle music
This one was easy. It's got to be Guardando nel Buio from the HD Remake of Kingdom Hearts. I don't know if I'll ever hear a more epic final boss song than this one. The intro and the part at 1:41 always give me chills. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wsB5mZRp5I

I apologize for the extended version. It was the only one I could find that didn't have audio issues or spoilers. The loop ends at 2:12.

[IchoTolot]

My second round:

Spoiler

1) Favorite music that plays during the credits shown at the end of a game

This has to go to Command & Conquer Red Alert 1 - Reload Fire, I link the remastered version here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ctlK_ag0oA

It was one of the first games I completed and it took ages back then! The music plays during the credits of both campaigns.

2) Music you like from a game that you have played and disliked

I can only choose between very few games here as I usually inform myself before buying/playing. So it goes to a track from a game that I played just to see how bad it really came out and the soundtrack was the ONLY part of it that was acceptable! Otherwise I cannot stress enough how terrible this game is

Command & Conquer 4 Tiberian Twilight - The End Of All Things:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hfwXPrQYWA&list=PL10F91B1DD8074E40&index=20

3) Favorite final boss battle music

This was very tricky for me: A large portion of games I play don't have a final boss, only a final level/stage at most. From the remaining I narrowed it down to 2 choices and decided on this one:

Mick Gordon - The Icon Of Sin (DOOM Eternal OST): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SQYRT26mPE&t=122s

I especially love the metal choir in there which Mick assembled for the tracks of the game. It's just one of the best tracks for fighting a giant demon while ripping apart the smaller ones that come for you and it's literally ripping here. You can really see in the game that you are the one the demons fear and that it's not the other way around - this shines through especially before you execute them. Little compilation for that (maturity waring!) :  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stJ-d8ua6lY

Some may even argue for it to be the most christian game out there as you really "tidy up" hell's forces here.

[LanaAndCo]

Credits music

Kirby Super Star - Staff Roll (https://vgmsite.com/soundtracks/kirby-super-star/yatxwtaqnq/65%20Staff%20Roll.mp3)
This is truly one of the closest to my heart. Each time I listen to it, I'm getting very emotional. While I didn't grow up with the original version, I do prefer it over the DS remake, the one that I had. In the SNES version, I feel like the sound is richer (which I assume is normal, the SNES did have a better soundchip than the DS if I remember correctly).

Music I like from a game I don't like

Cocoto Kart Racer - Heaven (https://fi.zophar.net/soundfiles/nintendo-ds-2sf/cocoto-kart-racer/07%20BGM%20%2307%20%5BMUSIC_HEAVEN_THEME%5D.mp3)
This game... ahahah... It's the poor man's Mario Kart. I can't recall if I had this one before Mario Kart DS or not but what I'm sure of, it's that this game isn't really good. I just love to hate it. Some of the musics are nice to listen to at least, especially this one. Too bad that I can't dissociate it from the freaking tight 180° turns of the racetrack on which it plays!

Final boss music

Puyo Puyo - Final of Puyo Puyo (https://fi.zophar.net/soundfiles/sega-mega-drive-genesis/puyo-puyo/12%20-%20Final.mp3)
Now, here's a boss fight I never got to (I seriously suck at Puyo Puyo). I always thought that the best music genre for the MegaDrive was hard rock/metal. This track is no exception and is even one of those I like the most. Too bad that my only chance to heard it while playing is in the two players mode of Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine...

[DireKrow]

Second Round

1) Favorite music that plays during the credits shown at the end of a game
Ori and the Blind Forest - Light of Nibel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN_LvY97Rco
The credits music to my all time favourite game soundtrack and one of my all time favourite games. I cried the first time I heard this. Also, even after hearing this a bunch due to speedrunning the game, I'm still not tired of it.

2) Music you like from a game that you have played and disliked
Risk of Rain - Surface Tension
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzJlzGaQFoc
Very difficult category for me because I am picky about which games I play. Consequently, I tend to enjoy everything I play because I only play something if I'm quite sure I'll like it. So I played Risk of Rain 2 first and quite enjoy it, however when I went back to Risk of Rain 1 after playing 2... oof. Did not like it at all. I felt it was so punishing and janky. That said, RoR1's OST is far superior to RoR2's OST imo, so... that makes it a good fit for this category. Love this song.

3) Favorite final boss battle music
Undertale - Megalovania
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FCvzsVlXpQ
It's a shame this soundtrack, and especially this song, are so overplayed that nobody can take them seriously anymore. Because I think it's freaking awesome. I still unironically love this song and could think of hardly any other final boss themes I like as much as this one.

[Proxima]

Second round

4) Favorite music that plays during the credits shown at the end of a game

"Further" (Iji). No surprise that I love this game -- my username comes from it, after all I won't give out any spoilers here, but let's just say that the resolution of the storyline is really powerful, and this song fits so well with the mood of the ending and the themes of the whole story. This was an immediate choice.

5) Music you like from a game that you have played and disliked

Sports Tribe (Lemmings 2: The Tribes). I know this will be a controversial pick, but I've never made a secret of the fact that I don't get on with L2 and its ridiculous bloat of skills, when the best thing about the original game was how much potential there was in just a few. Also, I could not think of any other song for this category; like DireKrow above, I have only really played games I like, especially in recent years.

6) Favorite final boss battle music

Donkey Kong Country. This was a hard choice just because there are so many great themes I could have picked. But hey, this will always be a classic. DKC (1 and 2) have great soundtracks, including some themes I like even more than this, but for capturing the mood of an intense but fun final boss battle, this is perfect.

[SQron188]

Second round:

Spoiler

1)Turrican II - Freedom
2)9 Lives - ingame music
3)Pokemon FireRed/LeafGreen - Champion Battle

[grams88]

Spoiler

SQron, my brother hates that game with a passion the nine lives game, it actually ends up not a bad game well a lot of people probably were not too keen on the controls of the cat but loved the music.

Proxima, I was wondering if that sports tribe song is from something else as well as lemmings, I could be wrong totally but that music I actually quite like. IT must be from another game surely, I'll leave that one to the lemmings experts. I did read somewhere that a lot of lemmings fans weren't too keen on the sports tribe music.

Ichotolot sure likes his real time strategy games similar to my brother. We used to do the imaginary where I pretended the computer opponents  were characters from the red alert games, I'm probably still learning to play that game as my brother gives me challenges on that one. I actually think you might like the Star Trek Amada game, it's a real time strategy.

[DireKrow]

Re:Turrican R1

1. I was unfamiliar with this one. It's decent. I really should go through all of the Amiga main themes at some point since there's some real incredible ones. In fact, this one inspired me to do a bit of searching and I ended up finding a new menu theme I quite like, from A Prehistoric Tale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bzFbrufMyw
2. Hey, a Basiscape soundtrack! They're a bit hit and miss for me as a group, but this song you linked is pretty good. I have several acquaintances who are obsessed with them though, so they'd be super happy to know you picked something from the group. I don't think I've played any SHMUP that they did the music for myself, so I can share one of my favourites pretty much freely. From DoDonPachi DaiFukkatsu: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeyVsRCfGHg
3. Apparently the original Space Invaders released in 1978 and is considered by some to be the first game ever to feature continuous looping background music... even if it's just 4 notes repeated. The more you know.

Re:WillLem R1

1. Amiga is quite the popular choice so far for this category, as expected from a Lemmings forum. This one's pretty good. Continuing from my response to Turrican, I did some more searching (since Amiga isn't my strong point) and found another new menu theme I like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTzVI02TjQg
2. I love the Ace Attorney series! If you're okay with a lot of reading, I'd highly recommend it. Unfortunately, I've played all but one of them myself, and the one I haven't I'm not familiar with its soundtrack either... so I can't link you any of my favourites in this category. So instead, have a chiptune I recently discovered from a game I hadn't heard of until recently: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1RzhSGR5cg
3. The Tetris theme is an absolute classic. I like it as well. Luckily, by 1984, music in games was becoming more common. I'm quite partial to the normal in-game music from Tower of Druaga https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTCywoVdgGA (0:07-1:02)

Re:grams88 R1

1. Pretty good. I don't think I'm familiar with any Atari ST music before now, so this was a nice thing to see. As I'm unfamiliar with that system, I'll instead focus on the fact this is a peppy, energetic menu theme from an unusual source and recommend this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkYC9AhMLgw
2. JW-esque orchestral movie scores aren't really my taste, but it's good to see it represented. I think this is the first posted? I can't think of any orchestral songs in this style from games I haven't played that I really like, so instead I'll focus on the fact KOTOR is an early 2000s western RPG and recommend one of my favourites from Deus Ex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYqv75ANPik
3. This one is gameplay footage rather than the song. Can't hear the song too well since it shares sound channels with the sound effects. As for 1988, some pretty iconic pieces were released back then. Super Mario Brothers 3, Ghouls 'n Ghosts, Mega Man II for instance. Keeping with the theme of intensity that Menace brings, I'm personally fond of this one from Ninja Gaiden: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u2LF2t4YlBI

Re:607 R1

1. Very nice intro song. It's a shame a lot of people would probably skip over it considering where it plays. For me, when I think racing game with catchy, memorable title themes, my mind goes to Re-Volt's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tCMImYsCnE - Believe it or not, this was something I thought of back when I was making my own pick, but in light of your choice for #3, I feel the need to post about it~
2. DKC2 is one of my favourite SNES OSTs and David Wise is one of my favourite composers. Love them. Naturally then, I like the song you picked~ For DKC2, my favourite is Mining Melancholy, but... I've actually played the game, so I wouldn't be able to use for this category. Instead, I'll link the snow theme I really like from DKC Tropical Freeze: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdBpGPyGv40 - Quite a different take, focusing more on the intensity of climbing a snowy mountain rather than the beauty of winter as in DKC2's.
3. It's one of my favourite racing games from my childhood! Last year actually I rediscovered it via RVGL and still play it off and on to this day. Love to chat about this game. In terms of its music, my favourite is actually WestVolt (the song that plays in Ghost Town 1 & 2), but I enjoy basically every song, this one included. As for 1999 itself, a certain other racing game was also released that year with one of game's most iconic intro songs (which I also happen to love): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQMlzcbfz0I

Re:LanaAndCo R1

1. Awesome song and one of my favourite selections so far in the thread. Love the bouncy rhythm. Both Jazz Jackrabbit games have such good music. Have another funky theme song, ToeJam & Earl's: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kv5KuryOe4
2. Ay, my favourite Actraiser song. Very good choice. I haven't played this game either actually. I definitely agree it sounds like a Castlevania song. It was composed by Yuzo Koshiro, who is great and made a lot of other music I also really like from games I haven't played (including a Castlevania, coincidentally). I particularly love some of the songs they've done for Etrian Odyssey. My absolute favourites from the series have some incredibly intense FM synths which aren't to everyone's taste, so instead I'll link this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KmcSXVyzzM
3. Piano is actually my favourite instrument. This is a very good, upbeat, fun piano piece. Thanks a lot for sharing this one. I'll share one of my own that I like from 2000, albeit one with a far simpler composition. From Final Fantasy IX: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxZlJGtFGcw

Re:JRT R1

1. This one's a bit plain for me, admittedly, but it's nice to see some modern 4X represented. It's funny you mentioned Baba Yetu in #3, because if you really wanted to use it... you could have used it here, since it's Civ IV's title theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJiHDmyhE1A
2. I can't believe they straight up named the game 'Awesome'. Pretty good song. Aside from Lemmings I haven't played any Amiga games so I could put any here, this game  included. I do like the one that was featured in Lemmings itself too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-3FySgabMA
3. Arcade music was hitting its stride in 1986, so even if you didn't want to pick a Castlevania, Zelda or Metroid song, you could always enjoy a nice Magical Sound Shower: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzsqx5uXmpA

Will go through all the R2 picks at the end of the round. I probably won't recommend songs in them anymore because it takes ages to do (this post literally took me 3 hours lol).

[JRT]

Spoiler

1
Perfect Dark - End Credits
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRdXiUwQjiQ
There are two tracks here, "End Credits" and "Alien Invasion". Both great.

2
I'll get back toy ou

3
Soccer Kid - End Boss
https://youtu.be/uA1aQNSqBio?t=2234
It's all bosses except the second one actually, its pretty funky.