Game Music: Difference between revisions
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* The ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' soundtracks have provoked remixes by Dean Kopri, Marcus Trogen and Michael Plichta.
* The ''[[Command
** Two of its most famous tracks are "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RJQPlPE2yQ&feature=related Act on Instinct]", the first track usually heard in the original game, and "Hellmarch" ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9U3a9ZVjF8M Original]) ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fSl7shRzsk Hellmarch 2]), which is effectively the theme to the ''Red Alert'' series as a whole.
*** Hell, Act on Instinct was what hooked me during the C&C demo, and from there the RTS genre as a whole.
** You can hear these, [[But Wait! There's More!|and other]] [[Gushing About Shows You Like|awestruck testimonials]], at [[Command
* ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' is well known for both its classic 16-bit songs from the various zones [levels] and the later vocal tracks from the 3D games and the various [[Animated Series]].
** From Sonic 1: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-78CMKME4o Green Hill Zone] (Same one the [[Green Hill Zone|trope]] comes from), [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mqmN6mw4R8 Star Light Zone].
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** From Sonic 3: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K1rV9kFs6I Hydrocity Zone Act 1], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPYzgCI6Q1I&feature=related Hydrocity Zone Act 2], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYxlqTpZ-24 Ice Cap Zone Act 1].
*** Also of note is the entire Sonic CD soundtrack, which had two distinct but equally amazing soundtracks depending on which region the game was released in.
* ''[[Jazz Jackrabbit]]'' (especially ''Jazz Jackrabbit 2''), which, as the name suggests, if full of music influenced by Jazz, Soul, and Funk music.
* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' has a [[One-Winged Angel|very well known]] [[Final Boss]] [[Theme Tune]] which has been heard way too many times to count. Includes [[Ominous Latin Chanting]] to boot!
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZi0RRVD5S4 Battle on the Big Bridge] (''[[Final Fantasy V]]'') by the Black Mages, a band formed by Nobuo Uematsu, who composed most of ''[[Final Fantasy]]'''s music.
** ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' in general has released as many if not more remix albums than actual soundtracks, including piano albums, hard rock albums, vocal albums, orchestral albums, and trance albums. There have been live concerts, as well, including ''20020202: Music From Final Fantasy'' and the ''Dear Friends'' concert series (named after a track from ''[[Final Fantasy V]]''.
** And there's of course the original Epic Final Boss Fight Theme, the magnificent Dancing Mad, of resident nutjob Kefka. It's 16 minutes of pure awesomeness.
** ''[[Final Fantasy IV]]'''s theme, Theme of Love, was even incorporated into the Japanese music education curriculum.
* Yasunori Mitsuda's music has often been almost a selling point for the various video games he has worked on, which include the ''Chrono'' series, the ''Xenosaga''/''Xenogears'' games and others.
** ''Xenogears'' would probably not had been the same if not for its greatly mood enhancing music.
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* Several bands, such as [http://minibosses.com The Minibosses] and [http://www.megadriver.com.br Megadriver], have formed specifically to play rock versions of video game music.
** The band [http://www.pressplayontape.com PressPlayOnTape] specialises in covering Commodore 64 tunes, although a few Amiga tunes have crept into their repetoire.
* And then there's [https://web.archive.org/web/20161230032438/http://www.videogameslive.com/index.php?s=home Video Games Live], a traveling concert that features fully-orchestrated versions of game music.
* ''[[The King of Fighters]]'' series has an arranged soundtrack for damn near every game it has, with real instrumentation replacing the [[Neo Geo]] sound. There's also usually an [[Image Song]] on each soundtrack as well.
* The ''[[Guilty Gear]]'' series may have been the first ones to use heavy rock pieces in the soundtrack, but surely the [[Trope Codifier
* ''[[Castlevania]]'' has absurdly good music, dating all the way back to the original NES game. The high point is undoubtedly ''Symphony of the Night'''s OST, composed by Michiru Yamane.
** Though North America missed out on it, ''Castlevania III'' in its Japanese incarnation has ridiculously good music. Konami added a special audio microprocessor chip to the cartridge, [[wikipedia:Castlevania III#Version differences|which added a lot more dimension to the music]] - alas, the North American NES couldn't handle it, and thus this side of the pond got, in return for that loss...a much more difficult version of Final Dracula...which is compensation ''how''?
* The ''[[Super Smash Bros.]]'' games (especially ''Brawl'') are packed with music from other Nintendo games.
** Brawl especially is also filled with all kinds of remixes and even obscure tunes.
* Back when copyright prevention in games was especially brutal, the warez scene exploded in popularity as a way to remove oppressive lockout systems. Many of the people that “cracked” these games to remove such code would insert their name into the title screen or loader for posterity, and as these credits became more and more elaborate in one-upsmanship, they became an artform in and of themselves. Called “cracktros,” they eventually split entirely from warez to become the demo, spectacular feats of audiovisual wizardry packed into astoundingly tiny amounts of code to create effects far beyond the commercial game industry's capabilities in sophistication, and rapidly developed a peculiar genre of music all their own.
** Some of the scenery crews involved in this ultimately ended up working in the games industry. An early example of this was ''[[Star Control]] 2'''s soundtrack. The developers announced a contest online for people to send in sound tracker modules based on descriptions of the game's thematic content, the result was one of the best soundtracks in the history of gaming.
* The ''[[Crusader: No Remorse|Crusader]]'' games had decent quality music; the second added a large number of tracks and improved quality, as well as remixing the main theme from the previous game from techno to a harder rock sound. Both games had the ability to cycle through music by pressing a key in-game.
* ''[[Deus Ex]]'' was admired, despite not quite using CD-quality audio, for its soundtrack, interactivity (having one theme for combat and one for other activities, and nimbly toggling between the two), and persistent use of the main theme. (For example, the Knight Templar level uses a variation of the main theme, except the main tune is rendered on an
** This was a feature of the [[Game Engine|Unreal Engine]] that didn't get much use in ''[[Unreal]]'' games, but a few mods took advantage of them. But the themes of ''[[Deus Ex]]'' had some epic blockbuster qualities, and a few of the tracks turned out to be [[Ear Worm
** ''Banjo-Kazooie'' does this as well, the main overworld theme [[Variable Mix|switching]] from normal to jingle-bells-ey (outside the winter level) to piratey (outside the beach level). There was a variation for each level entrance area, and they seamlessly faded in and out to each other depending on the player movement.
* The ''Infinity Engine'' games all had a soundtrack that was very well-liked by its players, though it was probably ''[[Planescape: Torment]]'' that was the most admired for setting the mood.
* The first three ''Spyro the Dragon'' games on the Playstation had an amazing soundtrack. The songs were composed by Stewart Copeland, who was in The Police. The game's music is what makes these games held in high regard.
* ''[[Metal Gear]]'' from Solid onwards has had the theme music composed by Harry Gregson-Williams.
* The ''[[Wild
* ''[[The World Ends With You]]'' was praised for its all-vocal soundtrack mix, consisting of J-Pop, rap, and R&B. All the more wondrous considering it's all crunched into a [[Nintendo DS]] cartridge!
* Part and parcel of ''[[Emulation]]'' is the emulated sound scene. You can find music ripped directly from game code for most console generations right up to the [[PlayStation 2]]. Its legality is arguably a bit better than downloading MP3s directly, especially if you already own the game, but nobody has really tested it.
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* The ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' series is popular enough in Japan that they get entire orchestras to play arrangements of the music.
* ''[[Tekken]]'' and ''[[Street Fighter]]'' both get large amounts of acclaim for their soundtracks, especially the heavily electronic ''Tekken 4'' and the hip-hop influenced ''Street Fighter 3 Third Strike''.
* ''[[Civilization]] IV'' bizarrely averts this trope by having mostly a [[Classical Music]] soundtrack for the Medieval, Renaissance, Industrial, and Modern eras, featuring everything from Gregorian chant and polyphony to Mozart, Bach, and Beethoven. The Modern era soundtrack is composed entirely of the strange, hypnotic Minimalist music of contemporary American composer John Adams (like [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYy5pmpIM-U this]). On the other hand, other parts of the game do have original music, and the main-menu music--"[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmut6FBx4xk Baba Yetu]," a setting of the Lord's Prayer by Christopher
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[[Category:Videogame Culture]]
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