I have lots of favourites but I feel like most will be suggested by others so I’ll go for one that isn’t as popular: Monaco: What’s Yours Is Mine. The whole soundtrack is amazing start to finish. Some of the best piano tunes to ever be in a video game, and a super under-appreciated game. It should’ve been way bigger than it was. Unfortunately it’s being tainted by its less-than-stellar sequel which came out recently. Don’t play the sequel, but definitely play the original. It’s fun solo but it really shines co-op with a friend (or three). It supports up to four players and I’d definitely recommend co-op if you have the means. I used to play it on 360 with a friend of mine and it’s some of my most fond gaming memories. It’s not a difficult game to figure out but it’s not an easy game to get good at. But all that is to say, play the game, or if you can’t, absolutely listen to the soundtrack. It’s awesome.
Patient Gamers
A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
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Halo 1, 2 Reach
Animal Crossing (personally Wild World and New Leaf)
Mario Kart DS, Wii, 7, 8(D)
Bionicle Heroes DS
Art of Balance
Ghostrunner 1 and 2
Midtown Madness 3
Pokemon (Any gen)
Celeste.
The synergy between the soundtrack, the gameplay and the mechanics is just unparalleled.
SUPER MARIO GALAXY. IT HAS SUCH A LEGENDARY SOUNDTRACK. If you wanna just try it out, first listen to "Gusty Garden Galaxy" Literally one of the most beautiful game soundtracks.
Almost 200 comments and not one single mention of Disco Elysium? What are we doing here guys? It's one of the most fitting , most perfect and beautiful soundtracks I've heard. Captures the vibe so perfectly Robert Kurvitz personally convinced Sea Power to get on board, including - allegedly - by being the man inside the bear costume at one of their gigs.
Have listen: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_n9enLNuLjWTn67qj2aXP6FuJbX239vQdI
Quake, by Nine Inch Nails https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1SsBMsauvE Industrial / Ambient
Being able to listen to tracks 2-11 of the game disc in a regular CD player felt like wizardry to 14-year-old me.
I liker Cyberpunk 2077's soundtrack so much I incorporated that specific style of music in my general listening habits because of it.
Outer Wilds - The way this game uses music and ambient sound to foster a sense of wonder, dread, excitement, sorrow, and much more is nothing short of incredible. Probably the best game I have ever played.
Subnautica - Equally impressive use of music as Outer Wilds, many of the same feelings, but a much much different vibe and genre.
Return of the Obra Dinn - A grim game where the soundtrack with church bells and heavy string instruments really underscore the mood.
Some which come to mind are:
- Bastion
- Lost Eden
- Duke Nukem 3D
- Flatout 2
- System Shock
- Arcanum ...
But there are probably a lot more which I have played and are great.
In no particular order:
- Warhammer 40k Mechanicus
- Total Annihilation
- Doom 2016
- Hotline Miami
- Rome Total War
- Witcher 3
- Halo
- StarCraft
Killer Instinct 2013
Mick Gordon... Hopefully he didn't get screwed on that one like he did with Doom. It is a wonderful soundtrack.
A lot of great ones have already been mentioned: (Old School) Runescape, Bastion, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Braid, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Celeste, Chrono Cross, Chrono Trigger, Crypt of the NecroDancer, Cyberpunk 2077, Deus Ex (2000), Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2, Doom 2016, Earthbound, F-Zero GX, FTL, Hades, Halo, Hi Fi Rush, Hotline Miami, Jet Set Radio and JSR Future, Kirby (any of them), Legend of Mana, Mother 3, Neotokyo, Nier: Automata, Pizza Tower, Quake, Ratchet & Clank (any of them), Risk of Rain 1 and 2, Shadow of the Colossus, Shantae (any of them), Shatter, Shovel Knight, SimCity 3000, Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic CD (Japan), Sonic Mania, Sonic Rush, Stardew Valley, Tower of Heaven, Transistor, Trine, and VVVVVV
Here's some that haven't been mentioned yet:
Ape Escape
- PS1 game, soundtrack by icon of the 90s era Japanese House music scene, Soichi Terada. All of his tracks are bangers. I've seen the soundtrack described as House, Jungle, and DnB. Probably my favorite game soundtrack ever, but that's probably nostalgia talking.
- Soundtrack: Game Rip, Fan Remastered or Originape Soundtrack/Official Soundtrack CD (Note: Terada has released his own remastered tracks in the 2020s since the Originape CD, but they are split over multiple albums and I'm too lazy to track them down at the moment)
- Standout tracks: Peak Point Matrix/Galaxy Monkey, Primordial Ooze, Thick Jungle- Woods, Dark Ruins, Crumbling Castle, Specter's Factory- Outside, Time Station
Final Fantasy Legends III / SaGa 3 Jikū no Hasha: Shadow or Light
- Originally on Gameboy, Japan only remake on DS (fan translation patch exists). This is really a game in the SaGa series, but was released under the Final Fantasy name internationally for marketing purposes. Characters don't have levels, their stats change based on what they do. Enemies also drop meat and parts that you can apply to a character to change their class, with some unique mechanics for different types. Features a time traveling stealth bomber, THE TALON, that may possibly be the only airship in gaming with a working toilet. DS Remake is generally better, but it kills overworld exploration by turning it into "select an adjacent POI" instead of free roam.
- Soundtrack: Gameboy, unfortunately I can't find this version with track names. DS Remake
- Standout Tracks: Setting off into the future, Holy Ruins (a criminally underused track in game), Oasis (has some odd animal sfx added in the middle in this remake version), Stronghold (imo, one of the best dungeon themes in gaming), THE MOTHERFUCKING TALON THEME (this is the GB version, as the DS remake loses the countermelody which imo weakens the track)
Ghost Trick
- Originally for DS, has been remade for just about everything now. It's effectively a VN with fancy gameplay segments, and the music really helps carry the whole thing. Beautifully done sprite animation too.
- Soundtrack: DS, 2023 Remaster
- Standouts: Ghost Trick, Lynne- Red-Headed Target, Awakening, The Mystery Surges Ahead, Cabanela - Lanky and Loose Lawman, Jowd- Fated Jailbird
Gunpoint
- Old indie sidescrolling noir stealth game. The main gameplay revolves around puzzle solving by hacking buildings' electrical systems. Hook that lightswitch up to the secure door lock. Rig that motion sensor up to short out a power plug and take out a guard instead of it just turning on the lights. Delightful jazz soundtrack.
- Soundtrack
- Standouts: Security, Circuitry and You, Subterfuge Shuffle, Cold Halls and Footfalls, The Five-Floor Goodbye
Megaman ZX
- DS sequel to the Megaman Zero series for GBA, but now with a Metroidvania twist.
- Soundtrack: ZX Tunes- Official remix/rearrange soundtrack
- Standouts: Innocence- 90s style anime opening, Green Grass Gradation, Rockin' On, Brilliant Show Window, Cinq Ville - C`est Notre Espoir, Gauntlet
And I've spent way too much time on this comment. Here's more not mentioned so far that I don't have time to do a writeup for: Skies of Arcadia, Super Meat Boy, Tomba 2: The Evil Swine Returns, Uplink, XCOM (Original), XCOM (Reboot), XCOM 2 (Reboot)
World of Warcraft
OST ones:
- Pizza tower
- Jet Set Radio/Future
- Doom 2016
- Psychonauts 1 and 2
- The Binding of Isaac Rebirth and DLC
With licensed music:
- Pretty much any GTA
- THPS series
- NFS Series from 2 SE up until Most Wanted 2005
pictionary nes. trust me. wave race 64 but slow it down to 56% speed. waterworld, platoon, alcahest, evergrace spiderman nes - first level, solar jetman, aerobiz supersonic, uncharted waters, dune msdos
i could go on
I got one I'm betting we won't find on here yet...
Alone in the Dark 5, an incredibly ambitious game that fell short, but had some great ideas.
One of which was how that incredible soundtrack by Oliver Deriviere drove this particular playable sequence, 59th Street .
The whole soundtrack done in conjunction with "The Mystery of Bulgarian Voices" is absolutely stunning for an action-horror title.
It was the best part of the game and an incredible example of meshing soundtrack with cinematic gameplay.
. . . actually? All the stuff he does is freaking awesome, so see/listen to his other titles like:
- Remember Me (Awesomely underrated!)
- Obscure
Other (lesser known / thought of?) good soundtracks off the top of my head:
- There Came an Echo (by Big Giant Circles. So good they used the theme in Stranger Things! Season..2?)
- Anything by Supergiant lol.
- Oni (bungie / rockstar)
- FTL
- Metro 2033, Metro: Last Light, Metro: Exodus
- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
- X-COM: Enemy Unknown and X-COM 2.
- King's Quest VIII: Mask of Eternity
I'll probably add to this if I think of any more. :)
The answer is always Chrono Trigger.
30 years later, and still nothing has topped it. No game even comes close.
I’ve seen a lot of good mentions here already but haven’t seen Nier: Automata yet. I thought the game was overrated, but there are a lot of great audio tracks
I’ve seen a lot of good mentions here already but haven’t seen Nier: Automata yet.
A number of people have suggested it. I linked to the playlists on one comment here. Note that if you're using the Lemmy Web UI, it
unfortunately, in my opinion
uses AJAX "infinite scroll" loading for comments, and has no way to disable this functionality. Thus, if you are using a web browser and search for text further down in comments, you won't find it, as the web browser doesn't know that it should load the rest of the comments to search through them. You have to scroll all the way to the end of the page, keeping yourself at the bottom to force the Javascript on the page to load all the content chunk-by-chunk until it's done, then do a search. This is one of my irritations with the AJAX "infinite scroll" design, that it breaks browser "find in page" functionality. I'm not saying that there's never utility to it, but I'd generally rather have the ability to turn it off for situations where the list I'm loading is bounded in size and where I have a fast connection.
Reddit's old Web UI at least had a one-click link to load all comments on a post; it would load the first 200 and then have a single click that would load all comments. Lemmy's Web UI presently lacks this functionality.
Megaman 2 still reigns supreme IMO. The most consistent soundtrack for any video game ever. Bangers end-to-end.
Sexy Parodius is also fantastic. It's a demented mix of jacked up, synthesized classical and folk tunes. This is probably my favorite track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlRO9Q0dbQA&list=PLAdIErLpAnQCc5Mk19_MAyeV5bMGsFRpG&index=24 The synth-sax is incredible!
Jetset radio
Dustforce
Scott Pilgrim vs the Wolrd the Game
River City Girls 1 and 2
Okami
skyrim might be THE greatest soundtrack of all time
fallout 1 and 2 (and new vegas as it reuses the soundtrack) are really cool and eerie. fallout 3 and 4 are good too
i quite enjoyed the soundtrack for south of midnight
also, this next one isnt an official soundtrack made for the game but a collection of good songs. but madden 10 has probably the most ludicrously stacked soundtrack ive ever heard for a sports game
Cyberpunk has ton of awesome tracks
Pon Pon Shit
final fantasy, anything thats NOT 7 simply because its played to death.
Risk of Rain 2, by Chris Chris, is such a fucking bop! I particularly recommend The raindrop that fell to the sky and The rain formerly known as purple
RoR one is good too, but not as much
axiom verge 1 and 2 - good in different ways. i liked to put first on for long coding sessions, and the second expanded in interesting directions
transistor & pyre & hades - all scored by Darren Korb, but different genres. from first moment, transistor has such vibe in big part thanks to it's soundtrack, and is among my all time top games
Nier automata - won awards for it's soundtrack, clear to hear why
crypt of the necrodancer - rhythm game should have a good soundtrack, and it does
witcher 3 - the battle themes - like "silver for monsters" are unique style of action-y folk, very rare to find anything else that scratches that itch.
dusk - awesome and dynamic metal
risk of rain 1&2 - first game itself didn't click with me, but, oh man, that solo in "Monsoon" get me every time, and "Coalescence" is poignantly melancholic in a similar way to "song of the ancients" from nier - which is (a very high praise and) much more expected from nier's type of game than a "risk of rain"'s. "face of the deep" from ror2 from second is head-spinning in a good way
no man's sky - it introduced me to 65dos, for which i'm very grateful. that soundtrack is still probably my favourite album of theirs
noita - low-key psychedelic, very vibes
unreal tournament 99 - and i think it's not just nostalgia, because one of my favourites - "mechanism 8" - is from the map i almost never played
"Ultrakill" - good soundtrack, and yet cyber grind tracks from guest composers are still my favourites. "The cyber grind" in particular is just exhilarating
individual tracks i overheard from games i haven't played:
old "touhou project" games - their soundtrack is full of gems, even if it's not my genre of game
system shock 2's "Med Sci 1" and "Engineering" - very nice, i want more of that and can't find
"Clair Obscur: Expedition 33"'s "Lumière" - made me wishlist the game just for having it
"Final Fantasy IX"'s "You're not alone" - very nice melody i like to whistle sometimes. considering playing it just for having it
original "Castlevania"'s "Vampire killer" rocks
Ape Out really only has the one song... but it is perfectly utilized to puncuate the gameplay experience.
I think nothing top the JRPGs. My current favs would be Nier: Replicant & Nier: Automata. There's also this rather obscure game I love called Ar Tonelico in which the music is part of the story; of course that wouldn't do if the music suck.
Other than that, I love the entire soundtracks for both Cult of the Lamb as well as Stray.
Nier Automata
Edit: it was mentioned already but I'm keeping it
Neon White has a killer soundtrack by Machine Girl. Highly recommend it for anyone into DnB (the game also isn't bad).
Ape Escape. I think Cryptic Relics is my favorite track but they're all so good. They're all drum and bass bangers.
For entire OSTs: any of the FromSoft soulslikes, Lies of P, Diablo 2 + Lord of Destruction, any Monster Hunter game really (especially the ones in Pokke village, so Freedom 2 and Freedom Unite/Portable 2nd G), Hollow Knight, currently enjoying Ridge Racer's (PSP) soundtrack for working out, Deltarune and Undertale, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and Bboy the Game for some perfect-vibe licensed music...
Disco Elysium's is my current favourite OST, but the game itself might also just be current favourite game.
As for individual tracks, I like the Spanish guitar portion of "The Drive/First Contact" off the RE4 soundtrack. Back when I started out with breaking ("breakdance"), think 2008/9ish, we had a remix of that specific part of the song that would play often - I've got very fond memories of that. The song itself, its remixes and the remake versions actually are some of my favourite running music for the gym.
Here's the remix in question if anyone's interested: https://youtu.be/SMWV-3pbcLE
As for one favourite individual song from each of the aforementioned OSTs:
- Hunter's Dream (Bloodborne)
- Shadow Flower (Lies of P)
- Rogue (Diablo 2) + Lord of Destruction intro
- Pokke Village theme (MH Freedom 2/Unite/Generations (Ultimate)) and Mizutsune theme (first fought in Generations)
- Mantis Lords (Hollow Knight)
- Rotterdam Nation - Remix (Ridge Racer)
- Ruins (Undertale) and My Castle Town (Deltarune)
- I'm a Swing It by House of Pain or Ace of Spades by Motörhead (THPS3)
- Don't Sweat the Technique by Rakim or Apache by Incredible Bongo Band (Bboy the Game)
This was lots of fun to think about. I hope anyone reading can find something of value here. :)
Going through the lists everyone has posted I realized I’m surprised I haven’t seen anything from the Medal of Honor franchise posted. I only ever played Medal of Honor: Frontline because a roommate had it, but it was scored by Michael Giacchino, who also composed the scores for the original Medal of Honor, Medal of Honor: Underground, Medal of Honor: Allied Assault, and Medal of Honor: Airborne. Giacchino won awards for the first four soundtracks in the series and it was his video game work that caught J. J. Abrams’s attention and led to him scoring Alias and Lost, starting his TV and movie career.
Also, if you enjoy soundtracks, you might like StreamingSoundtracks.com. It’s been around since 2001 and features soundtracks from movies, tv shows, and video games. It’s a free streaming radio service with the playlist queued by listeners along with limits on how frequently any track can be played, so you won’t hear repeats very often. A manager at a past job played it most days. One year someone took advantage of the “No repeats” rules and played all the horror tracks throughout October so that on Halloween there were basically no horror tracks available, angering many when they realized what had happened. I found it one of the more impressively planned and executed pranks I’ve personally witnessed.
All the Astro Bot games have phenomenal soundtracks, Kenneth CM Young (of MediaMolecule) is brilliant and knows how to write really catchy earworms. Really got stuck listening to Trapped in Time and Papa Tree.
/u/tal@lemmy.world is a hero for linking all the tracks in this thread.
Journey
The game is a piece of art and the soundtrack plays a big part of it.