Video Games/Awesome Music/PC Only

This is the Awesome Music page for PC only games.

Note: Some of the music from the older games (Mostly DOS games before Windows 95) were composed with specific hardware in mind (Sierra games' music was made with Roland MT-32 in mind, for example) that are not possible to emulate on modern soundcards and DOSBox. Fortunately, as of summer 2011 the fans made considerable progress in emulating the Roland MT-32 hardware.

The. Battlefield. 1942. Theme. Let's get out there and kill some Nazis.
Indie game To the Moon has "Everything's Alright" by Laura Shigihara is a big Tear Jerker in context.
- Out of context as welk, see for youself [1]
Indie game Hamsterball has good music tracks. Exhibit A: Wobbly Race (World of Daze), Master Race (Symphony of the Master), and Impossible Race (Absolute Rodent).
The Main Themes of Secret of Monkey Island and Curse of Monkey Island are cool stuff.
The Far Cry menu theme. Oh my lord, the way it kicks in at 0:30.
The Dwarf Fortress theme is so awesome it's the only track in the game, played on a six string guitar by the Toady One himself. The haunting notes suspend one's sense of time's passage and accentuate the despair felt as Fun begins to propagate through one's fortress.
EVE Online has this, which is just one song in a seriously awesome set of music tracks, saved especially for blowing stuff up.
- And then there are Below the Asteroids and Red Glowing Dust that set the mood perfectly. By now the Soundtrack of Eve Online consists of over 100 songs with many of them being candidates for this page.
That Old Army Game, Nightmare Buzz, Buzz Battle, and Inside the Claw Machine from the Toy Story PC Game.
Painkiller has the battle music from the Leningrad level, the Soviet Anthem with the damned screaming in the background
The Main theme of Quest for Glory IV: Shadows of Darkness is simply epic
- If you fail to stop any of the elementals in Quest for Glory II, Trial By Fire, the music is very awesome, even though technically you lost.
- And yet no one has mentioned Erana's Peace from Quest for Glory I: So You Want To Be A Hero, considered by many to be a classic of video game music. Even the original MIDI version is beautiful beyond words.
Skyroads has some excellent tunes that fit the subject well.
Dawn of War has some great themes for each of the factions, matching them quite well. Notable ones are the apocalyptic (well, it definitely gives that feeling) Chaos theme, Asian orchestral Tau Empire theme and the Military March-style Imperial Guard theme.
- Unless you enjoy bolter rounds to the face, you'd better include the Space Marines' theme.
  - An' if ya don' wanta be krumped, youze better inklood Da Orks theem!
- Overall, Dawn of War's soundtrack is so good, that for the last few years, whenever Games Workshop (The creators of Warhammer 40,000) need music for promotional movies on their own website, they use this game's soundtrack.
- Of course, before all that, you had Chaos Gate, which gave us the Ultramarines' Chant.
- The Winter Assault expansion had some nice title music.
- The best thing on the Dawn of War soundtrack may be an obscure little track called "Chant" that consists of nothing more than a mournful Latin chorus.
- Dawn of War 2 used a new composer and didn't give us any remixes of the classic themes, but instead gave us "Dark Future of War" and sweet theme music for the Orks and Tyranids.
- Even better, the entire soundtrack of Dawn of War 2 is downloadable on their website for free here.
- Speaking of which, the Eldar theme here took the ethereal, ancient race of the eldar and added a completely badass chant to them that makes the listener instantly want to pull out a singing spear and start impaling Mon-keigh.
- Force Commander.
- To be fair, Doyle W Donahoo's soundtrack for DOW 2 is full of Crowning Music of Awesome. Just a few examples are Angels of Death for the Space Marines and The Green Horde Rises for the Orks. The Tyranid themes perfectly capture the sinister, alien nature of their race, and nothing says run for your life like The Great Devourer. The Eldar music explores both sides of the race: Khaine's Wrath paints them as the tragic heroes fighting for the very survival of their species, while For The Craftworld reminds us that they still can and will kick your ass.
  - And then the Retribution expansion gives us the Imperial Guard theme.
  - I can top that - Pit of the Maledictum, anyone?
Codename Panzers: Phase One. It may be just an overlooked Hungarian game about the most commonly played war since the war itself, but, dammit, it has some good tunes. Apologies for the low quality, but the CNP 1 music is sparse on Youtube.
Baba Yetu, the main theme of Civilization IV.
The main theme of Tropico.
- Also, Macho Picchu
"Adagio for Strings" always kicks ass, but the vocal arrangement used in Homeworld was particularly awesome. It was appropriate as the introductory music that plays while the camera pans around your iconic Mothership, inspiring awe and wonder. And it was shockingly appropriate when used while watching your adopted home planet, Karak, burn, along with 99.9% of your species.
- The Turanic Raiders had a nice theme, too.
- The Imperial Taiidan battle theme from the first game. You know there's going to be a fight when you hear it, and you know it'll be big.
- The theme that plays for the planetkillers in the end of the second game. Fits perfectly.
- The Battle of Hiigara in Cataclysm will always be a personal favourite of mine. Honestly, look up the scene itself if you can find it, and you'll see why. So simple, so calm, yet so fitting and Epic.
- I give you the Mover battle. You want chilly? This scene. You want upbeat? HW 2's credit screen which is a slightly more upbeat version of the Sajuuk battle theme. The lyrics (?) are in sanskrit.
- ALL the music in ALL the Homeworld games was awesome. My particular favourite was the Garden of Kadesh background theme, closely followed by the Swarmer Attack theme of the same levels.
- Someone remixed the Imperial and Swarmer (no YouTube for this one but here's a download link) themes.
On the whole, Neverwinter Nights was unremarkable in this regard, but its soundtrack did include a few gems.
The Neverhood has the impossibly epic Battle of Robot Bil.
- It also has the brilliant "Pop Goes The Weasel" scene.
- Skullmonkeys has the amusing and extremely satisfying Klogg Is Dead song.
- Not to mention the hilarious Lil' Bonus Room.
- And also Klaymen's Theme and, of course, The Neverhood Theme itself.
The relatively obscure planetary air-trading sim Hard War had a soundtrack entirely comprised of artists from the Warp Records label, ranging from awesome techno-industrial to even funky drum n' bass.
The Descent series had quite a few gems. Let's start with the title theme, shall we?
- The Level 18, Level 11, Level 8, and Level 3 soundtracks from the original game. The last of which got a positively epic rock remix in the Macintosh port.
  - Level 5 Mac, a TV Tropes Made of Win Archive techno remix of the aforementioned Level 18 PC music.
  - Callisto Tower Colony, and its Macintosh counterpart.
  - Europa CO2 Mine from the PC version, and Titan Mine from the Mac version.
  - And the Mac version of Lunar Scilab.
- Descent 2's soundtrack will make you feel dangerous. See Tracks 5-7.
- Even the original FM MIDI soundtrack had its high points. IMO, it give the game a gritty, cybernetic feel.
- Descent 3's soundtrack, although contested like the game itself, had several epic moments, such as the climax of Level 4, and Level 7(unfortunately not on the OST).
RuneScape MIDI power! comes apparent in Route Of The Problem.
- Some Dungeoneering bosses like Night-gazer Khighorahk have a great theme.
StarCraft. Terran theme 1. Enough said.
- Protoss theme 1
- Also Terran 2, around the time it moves on from ambience and starts getting funky.
- Hell, let's make a trifecta: Terran 3. Shame neither Protoss nor Zerg invented drums.
- Radio Free Zerg
- The Terran Brood War track
- The end track during the epilogue of the original/Brood Wars campaign. Such a moody piece from the Protoss campaign. The first minute or so perfectly fits into the whole moody atmosphere of the Protoss story.
- The main menu theme pretty much was the best musical introduction to a epic sci-fi RTS. The best thing of it all: the track gets a slightly updated version in the second installment, which sounds even better.
StarCraft II. It has lots of really good music, but "Card to Play" is the pinnacle. Though the title music, "Wings of Liberty" gives it a run for its money.
- As does the choir-tastic, Rousing Speech-emboldened "Fire and Fury".
- Bonus points for this track for having a brief reprise of Tassadar's sacrifice at 3:30, and a reprise of the background music of DuGalle's suicide at 5:12.
- Ah, hell, let's just say ALL the music in StarCraft II WoL. Especially the Terran themes, which combine violin, string guitar, drums, and electric guitar to make wonders. And the Zerg themes, eerie and unease-inspiring - nightmarish, some may say (and yes, regarding the comment in the first game's section above, Zerg music does indeed become more awesome with lots of drums). And the Protoss themes, with their mix of tribal and ethereal/otherworldly elements (and occasional snippets of their themes from the first game). And even the main menu music, a superb redux of the original game's main menu theme.
- Don't forget the short and sweet campaign victory theme. Best minute ever.
- Terran Up The Night, one of the credits songs has to be the anthem of the Humans Are Warriors trope.
Practically any mid-90s release from the company then known as Epic MegaGames.
- Everything from Jazz Jackrabbit.
  - Can't forget the title theme!
  - And how about this Mario Paint Tubelectric remix?
  - Don't forget absolutely everything from Jazz Jackrabbit 2. Everything. Even expansion pack music.
- Epic Pinball's music was from the same composer. First time this troper ever heard Amiga-style music in an MS-DOS game, and it still rocks.
- Not much love for electronic music around these parts, but the soundtrack to One Must Fall 2097 should bring back a lot of memories to a few. Awesome memories.
  - The music played in the Lightning Power Plant arena is probably the best of the arena songs.
  - Battlegrounds, though a lackluster sequel, has an ass-kickin' remix of 2097's main menu theme.
  - The reconstruction of the theme by Kenny Chou, the man who composed it in the first place.
- Tyrian. This troper remembers driving his parents mad by leaving the game on pause for hours, just so the music would be playing... Check Tyrian, the song, Sarah's Song, Rock Garden, Asteroids, One Mustn't Fall and Tyrian, the level
  - Add "Gyges, Will You Please Help Me?" and "A Field For Mag" to that list.
  - Transon, from the (pre-expansion) last level.
  - Even more awesome is the fact that the music sounds much better with older sound hardware. General MIDI? Meh. FM Sound? Awesome cranked up to 11!
- Anyone remember a game called Radix: Beyond the Void? The first mission theme rocked pretty hard.
- Any Jill of the Jungle fans? The intro theme was pretty awesome given the limitations on sound quality.
Baldur's Gate. Like the BG2 Main Theme or the First game one or the song that plays when fighting When fighting dragons which is probably the most epic song EVER.
- The Bhaalspawn battle music from the expansion.
- Throne of Bhaal final battle
- The Throne of Bhaal main theme.
Skeleton of a Town(/Town of Targos) from Icewind Dale 2 is absolutely gorgeous, as is the rest of the soundtrack. But then, Inon Zur's soundtracks usually are.
While the music from Star Control II is universally agreed to be mind-blowingly wonderful in general, the Yehat theme is considered to be the best.
- I favour the Orz and Ur-Quan. But we could argue all night, and the best would still be the combat theme. It's practically synonimous with the game! Heck, even the combat victory themes were sweet!
- There's also Precursors Team -- a remake project with original artists involved.
La-Mulana with very few exceptions (2-3 mediocre songs) is the Crowning Soundtrack of Awesome, but Earth Wind deserves special mention. And also Curse Of Iron Pipe.
- Tiamat's theme is "Interstice of the Dimention (sic)", which has an extremely badass rock arrangement, and Mother's theme ("Good Night Mom") is also definitely worth mentioning.
- The short intro riff of that plays right when you first enter the ruins--and never again, unless you start over or use the La Mulana Jukebox--sets the tone of the exploration perfectly and leads into the excellent Fearless Challenger.
- Mr. Explorer, Grand History and Giant's Cry.
- Giant's Rage is considered by many players to be amazingly epic. It's definitely one of the most epic sounding boss themes, with an excellent instrumentation, and fits its boss fight to a T. In The Bottom is also very good.
- Even though it's only a short loop, Requiem. It plays in the boss room when you have met the requirements to fight the boss. It's the soundtrack's way of asking, "Are you ready?"
While we're on the subject of Type-Moon, doujin Super Robot Wars clone Battle Moon Wars has some pretty amazing music as well.
- Counter Attack. Original Generation character Haruna's theme. While it doesn't prelude any particular moments of awesome, you'll want to turn off attack animations so that it doesn't stop.
- Reprisal. The theme for Irisviel and Kiritsugu. An anthem to the Power of Love. Also one of the more challenging boss fights in the game. Probably because of said power.
- RoSHIaKI's theme. Because even joke characters need to have awesome music sometimes.
- Ancient Weapon. Pretty much cements Kuu's status as a Lady of War and preludes a beatdown of epic proportions on your characters as she slams her chosen target with multiple, potentially unavoidable WaveMotionGuns.
- Let It Go. The theme for the final boss. Let's just say it contributes to the entire Crowning Moment of Awesome and leave it at that.
Age of Mythology has some great background music (with odd names) but n. d. nile would have to be the best.
The music in the second half of the Chzo Mythos, especially the "you are going to die" theme, could probably be counted as one, if not for their unfortunate tendency of evoking memories of the Tall Man.
When you think of I Wanna Be the Guy, music probably isn't the first thing that comes to mind. Still, it has some very good tracks that make the torture a little bit more bearable. Case in point: Mecha Birdo's theme.
- Every single song in that game is lifted from somewhere else (even the generic metal-sounding tracks for the file select, first area, and infamous "GAME OVER" jingle, which are all from Guilty Gear Isuka.) Mecha-Birdo's theme is from Ikaruga. The soundtrack used is amazing and fitting, even if unoriginal, Kayin at least has very good taste in video game music.
- The game uses several songs already listed on this page, in particular The Moon from Duck Tales and the songs from Monty on the Run and Cheetahmen.
Basically everything from Rome: Total War. Divinitus and Forever deserve a special mention.
- The Middle Eastern menu music is a hell of a lot of fun, too.
- True to the name, Medieval II: Total War doesn't disappoint, and opens the game with some amazing main menu music - two of them, actually.
- What about Shogun: Total War? the first mobilisation track and second battle track spring to mind.
Iji. The final boss' theme. Just add Macross Missile Massacre to it and you'll start bleeding awesomeness from your ears, courtesy of Chris Geehan & Dan Byrne McCullough.
- And the regular boss theme. This is pretty much the sole reason why I wanted to play this game, and it ended up being cool anyway. Also the artist made it a looping song, meaning if you add the beginning right at the end, it'll loop perfectly. Tom Mauritzon is a genius.
- There's also a fair amount of awesomeness in "Kinda Green" and the strangely named "3 Cans Later".
  - Well, one of the other songs is called "Welcome to the Party, Pal"
- And then there's Organ Smash, a song so awesome you'll wonder why the hell it isn't actually in the game.
- To be perfectly honest, the entire soundtrack is made of awesome.
FX Fighter is an obscure MS-DOS fighting game from 1995. While the graphics and gameplay left much to be desired, it had a surprisingly good soundtrack.
The soundtracks of 2000, 3000, and 4 Rush Hour by Jerry Martin. Most of it is jazz or jazz inspired, but check out the pieces for 3000 and Rush Hour and hear for yourself
Battle Realms: the "pragmatic" Serpent Clan's first theme song, Fall of Serpentholm
- "The Swan's Pool", another Serpent theme, is also kickass.
Ready to feel your face melt from kickass nostalgia? Yes? Well, here you go: The Incredible Machine 3: Progressive (Soundtrack Version)
The Mechwarrior 2 soundtrack. It's probably among the most memorable video game soundtracks ever. It makes even the most mundane activity in the game seem epic. Even listening to them outside the game, they sound like they should be played while something epic happens.
- Especially Rogue Chariot! This track just gets me pumped for no reason at all.
- Wednesday 7 from Mechwarrior 4: Vengeance is up there too. In fact, a lot of the Mech' series music is good, whether it's from #4 Mercs, either of the 'Commander games, or the other 'Warrior games. Also in #4 Mercs; Behemoths for the Heavy/Assaults and Skittersprint/Floodgate for the Lights and fast Mediums.
Frank Klepacki composed the soundtrack to Empire at War. Three Words: Tyber Zann's theme.
The shareware game Raptor: Call of the Shadows has some great music.
Every track from the indie game Aquaria is downright beautiful, only magnificently adding to the game's amazing Scenery Porn.
- Examples: The Abyss, Remains, Icy Waters, The Sun Temple, and Open Waters. All three of them.
  - The boss music isn't too shabby either. Just check out the miniboss music.
The Free Space series has excellent music, including gems like Chaser, Monolith, Exodus, and the incredibly badass Revelation
- The best part is, Dan Wentz did the music for the Red Faction series too, so if you listen closely, you might hear some familiar themes from Free Space whilst playing the Red Faction games.
- The Blue Planet mod is known for its excellent soundtrack, which, in addition to several remixes of the original game's music, includes such songs as Nobuo Uematsu's "Those Who Fight Further"^[1] and Immediate Music's "Spiritus Elektros".
The music from Ragnarok Online.
- Here's one from Gonryun. 'Not so far away', and another from job changes, 'Believe in myself', 'Dread and Bold'
- Din Don Dan Dan Fo from the second game
- We Have Lee but You don't Have of Juperos, Monastery in Disguise of Nameless Island's Cursed Abbey, Erebos' Prelude of Thanatos' Tower (Floors 1-3), Christmas in the 13th Month of Nifflheim town, and more songs that just aren't done justice by Youtube's quality.
- Many of the city themes are epically awesome. This troper is particularly fond of Juno, Aldebaran, and Louyang.
- Wanna Be Free!! deserves some love too.
  - Especially the vocal version. Which is three different shades of awesome.
- Though the game is not out yet (and likely will not be played by many) nearly the entirety of the soundtrack (warning: free membership site, sorry) of Ragnarok Online 2 is simply stellar. Of course, it IS scored by Yoko Kanno...
- Special mention to the battle theme
- Since one of the last Patches, Morroc Satan got revived, this deserves a place here.
- Don't forget Steel Me. Newcomers to Einbroch were standing around for hours listening to it.
The MMORPG Lord of the Rings Online is starting to amass a seriously impressive backlog of awesome music, with more undoubtedly to come. (Better links will hopefully be posted at some point.)
- The music at Tom Bombadil's house, which was also awesome because it's right in the middle of a really difficult and scary (at level 10 or so, anyway) forest.
- Most of the songs that play in the Trollshaws are awesome (some play in Ered Luin as well). There's a clip of one of them in the first part of this trailer. And let's not forget Rivendell itself!
- Most of the soundtrack in the Shire is really good, but this troper nominates the music that plays when trying to cross the Brandywine Bridge (I apologise for the lack of a Youtube, trying to find one), leaving the Shire for Bree-land. This troper has a hard time bringing himself to cross the bridge (hence "trying") because the soundtrack is just so good, and fits the Shire so perfectly.
  - Here is the link for it. It is called Hills of the Shire. And it has a Dark Reprise called Warpipes, which is equally awesome and is heard when the Nazgul comes to the shire, as well as in the skirmish 'Trouble at Tuckborough,' during which goblins raid the shire.
- Mirkwood. Strangely, this music was in the official soundtrack before Mirkwood was added to the game. It is heard during the Ford of Bruinen skirmish, and made this troper participate in it again and again just for the music. This is the PERFECT music for a Big Damn Heroes moment.
- And we can't forget the Dwarves, now can we? Thorin's Gate and Thorin's Hall, the Song of the Dwarves, and of course, Baruk Khazad.
Planetarian has mostly sweet, extremely melodious tunes for its soundtrack. They are simple, but extremely effective in setting the mood.
Aveyond. Anything. From. The. Aveyond. Series. Period.
- Field of Wind, the overworld theme from the first game, a lush and melancholy theme.
Sierra games are known for having some excellent scores. For instance, the ending anthem to King's Quest VI. Literally crowning music of awesome. The ending scores for any of the Quest for Glory series also count.
- It says something when the Award Bait Song is the lamest things on a King's Quest soundtrack.
- Quest Studios For those of you unlucky enough to miss out on the awesome. These guys also composed their own Crowning Music of Awesome for the AGD Interactive Fan Remakes. Their score for the KQ2 remake, especially the Air Gem tests, is on par with Sierra itself. The flash-forward scenes to King's Quest III "Daventry in Ruins" and "Walking with Connor" (with the King's Quest Mask of Eternity character) incorporate the Leitmotif from both games beautifully.
- And while on the subject of Sierra games, let's talk Gabriel Knight, shall we? Here is a small sampling of the music from the first game, which includes the main theme. In addition to that: GK1 Intro + Credits, GK1 Wolfgang's Theme, GK2 Chapter 1 Intro, and GK3 Intro.
  - And while not a Sierra game itself, the music for Gray Matter was done by the composer for Gabriel Knight, Robert Holmes, so the music is similarly awesome.
MDK's soundtrack. Facing the Inevitable is amazing, as is most of the game's music.
Deceased Crab, who did a Let's Play of Cave Story, says "Anyone who doesn't love the Outer Wall music is a monster." Geothermal is also pure awesome. And it's amazing that all this was made by one guy.
- It's easier to list the tracks that do not qualify for this list. There are none.
- There was also a remix project, which managed to make them even more awesome. Sadly, the original links to the music at Shack Space are gone, but other people have been able to upload mirrors, such as here^{[dead link]}, as a huge bundle of more or less every song listed in this entire Crowning Music of Awesome section! Some standout tracks:
  - Grass Stains, a remix of the Grasstown theme with some awesome guitar.
  - Island of Eden, a medley of various songs with epic guitar.
  - Ball of Ballos, the already epic Sacred Grounds theme but even more awesome.
  - Never Die, the final boss theme made ridiculously awesome.
  - The Last Battle OC Re Mix Polar Star Overdrive, while not on the Cave Story Remix Project, may be even better than Never Die.
- White, King's theme song, barely sliding into the actual game as a secret track.
- Running Hell, Last Battle, and particularly Living Waterway. And -ahem- the main theme.
- And let's not forget this amazing OCRemix of Moonsong.
- What about the Cave Story Medley? The pianist makes a few mistakes, but it didn't stop this from being a great listen.
  - His rendition of Moonsong in the Medley is so emotional that he eventually redid it as a four hand version. Hear it here.
- Tsuki No Uta by Akineko. Let me put this straight: metal remix of Moonsong. And it works.
- There's also the kickass Wind Fortress, which is unfortunately a Cut Song.
- Someone named SBK made this cool trance remix of "Moonsong".
- This guy^{[dead link]} made an album's worth of Cave Story mashup songs. "Oppression vs. Genesis" and "Mimiga Town vs. Harder Faster Better Stronger" are the best.
- Leaf Xceed did some very cool metal remixes: "Core Oppression", "Cave Story War", "Town of Leaves", and "HUZZAH".
- DrellisSkiad tought that the Wii version soundtrack was atrocious. What better revenge than to recompose the entire soundtrack her/himself?
  - Ah, but now the the Wii version has been updated, and the new music sounds wonderfull. Take a gander at the new version of Egg Corridor Balrog's Theme and Gravity with the drum track. You didn't know what was missing until you've heard this.
  - Meltdown 2 sounds much, much better in the new fixed rearrangement.
- The 3DS version of Cave Story has some pretty awesome remixes. On to Bushlands and Plantation are a couple of good examples, and the Last Battle is also totally epic.
- Charge is one of the best boss themes you'll ever find in any game. It also happens to be less than fifteen seconds long.
Bonesaw has some awesome tunes. Listen to the OST here.
Doujin shmup EXceed 3rd: Jade Penetrate brings to the table "Intersect Thunderbolt" and "The Fate of...", the themes of the final boss and her super form.
The original theme song to the Nancy Drew games was pretty awesome by itself, as it caputred the mystery, suspense, and overall mood of the games. For that reason, many fans were unhappy when it got cut from the opening halfway through the series. When the theme song finally did return a few games later, it came with an all-new level of awesomeness.
And let's not forget the various scores to the games. And those are just a few examples. Kevin Manthei has a knack for capturing the mood in each game perfectly.
Seiklus' soundtrack consists entirely of a bunch of previously-existing Demoscene tunes. But the thing is, they're all good. What Clysm lacked in composition skills, he made up for in the ability to find incredibly catchy music. Particularly noteworthy are "Rainy Summerdays" and "Believe in Yourself (Extended Remix)".
Nuclear Winter's theme from Freedom Force. [2]
The Quake soundtracks are what happens when you ask Trent Reznor, Sonic Mayhem and Frontline Assembly to work on your game:
- Let's start with the most awesome track from Quake II: Quad Machine.
  - Then there's of course, the dynamic Quake II menu theme which is a whole load of awesome in itself.
  - Another great qualifier is Descent Into Cerberon
- And then, there's Quake III: Team Arenas intro track (also a Quake III Arenas regular track) - Quad Damage.
- Two words: Pressure Zone.
- Anti-Logic is EXTREMELY kickass.
Nexus: The Jupiter Incident. Period.
- Raptor and Nexus are this troper's favorites: the former plays during the first serious space battle of the game while the second comes with brutal Scenery Porn (translation: Epicness turned Up to Eleven).
- Vardrag, the track that gives Ominous Latin Chanting a new meaning.
- Also, Haegemonia and it's expansion, The Solon Heritage. Even better, both versions has the soundtrack in MP2 format without encryption, compression or custom codecs, neatly organized in the game folder!
Diablo. The second game's soundtrack never struck much for This Troper, but the first game featured some ridiculously atmospheric tracks. Tristram theme comes to mind.
- Raise some hell. Sadly there is no studio version of this.
- That's not to say the second game doesn't have it's good tracks. Case in point.
The entire soundtrack of Rosenkreuzstilette, except for most of the talk themes (but not Dark Purple Moon, which was instead wasted.) Of particular note are the intro stage theme The Ground Which Can Shine, Luste's stage theme 26, Freudia's boss theme 22, which also plays when she saves Spiritia from Iris, the first Iris stage theme, Red Pollusion, the theme of the Garden of Time, Space, and Chaos, Winter Breath, and the final stage theme, ys008 The Final Duel.
- Mention must definitely be made for the final boss theme, "Requiem for Myself"
- Its sequel Freudenstachel has been showing strong signs of this: Zorne's new stage theme Eruption Trigger and Sichte's new stage theme The Ancient Cry are much more awesome than their original stage themes. Sadly, Eruption Trigger can't be found on YouTube... yet.
For a Crowning Music of Tear Jerking, the battle theme in Rise of Nations, for when you are losing, really drives home the extent of your failure.
- This troper particularly enjoyed Waterloo
Four letters: Doom. Check out Sign of Evil, Nobody Told Me About Id, and from Doom II: Opening to Hell or Evil Incarnate.
- Hiding the Secrets is also a great "totally ruining shit" theme.
- Ahem. Into Sandy's City, anyone?
- At Doom's Gate, which is great for starting off your day at UAC with filling a zombie's face with pistol lead.
  - Hangarmageddon is an awesome version of it. And whilst we're on the subject, the Playstation version intro, whilst the title rises slowly from a sea of flames, still sends shivers up this troper's spine.
- ZX Spectrum home port makes you wish you had that music on original version.
- Don't forget Kitchen Ace (And Taking Names) and the intermission music.
- Message For The Archvile, especially the guitar solo at 3:33.
- The Doom 3 heavy theme. Reason being that besides the startup, you'll only ever hear it again when you're victorious, and almost invariably at the end of any Doom 3 mod episode too. It's sort of like an awesome music of crowning.
- "Nobody Told Me About Id" is so good, it was used for the super secret level of The Plutonia Experiment and gets a new remix for every community-made sequel for it. So far we have Nobody Told Me About Plutonia for Plutonia 2 and I Already Know About Id for Plutonia Revisited.
A little-known game by Apogee called Rise of the Triad did this with half the music in the game. Instead of going atmospheric and moody like most first-person shooters of the time, Triad had music that made you want to charge in, guns blazing - and given that almost all the game mechanics revolved around the Rule of Cool, this was not only feasible, but totally awesome to do.
- Goin' Down The Fast Way. Run Like Smeg. How'd I Do? Oww!!! And, of course, the Fish Polka.
- It's made even better, somehow, through having a good chunk of the Doom fan-expansion Hell Revealed feature its music for a good portion of its frenetic stages.
- To put it in perspective, someone remixed Goin' Down The Fast Way with Mega Man X instruments. Not only is it still awesome, but it would feel right at home in one of the SNES titles.
X3: Terran Conflict has a fair collection of "spacey" music, some uplifting, some haunting, most of it just being there, without you really noticing it. But then, one day, you make the jump into Kingdom's End and you get this.
VVVVVV has what may be the best chiptune soundtrack in a new game since Cave Story. For just a sampling, try "Pushing Onwards", "Potential For Anything", and "Pressure Cooker".
- Most of the soundtrack is awesome, but the one that stands par to "Potential For Anything" in terms of awesomeness is "Positive Force". It takes "Pushing Onwards" and raise its motive to a whole new level.
- "Predestined Fate" is also excellent.
- Popular Potpourri, the credits is also pretty great.
Civilization IV. This (atheist) troper cries every time he listens to Baba Yetu.
- Baba Yetu just won a Grammy. The first time ever for a piece of computer game music.
- Especially when combined with the rotating world.. But IMHO the whole game has awesome music. Just the fact that every leader got it's own piece, which is performed by increasingly more (modern) instruments as the civilization advances.
- And especially the tunes that are newer versions of old themes, which give an awesome moment of nostalgic realization, and of course, an opportunity to remember how amazing those songs were as well.
  - Like Mao Zedong's Theme, which becomes ten times better when you realize it's an new arrangement of Civilization II's The Shining Path.
  - Montezuma's theme, an brand spanking new arrangement of Tenochtitlan Revealed.
  - Hatshepsut's Theme every bit as calmingly amazing as when it was Harvest of the Nile
  - This troper's personal favorite is Justinian I's theme
- Lets not forget the music from Civilization III, which honestly saved the game for me. While only a few of the songs have names, many of them still stand out, like the Ancient Era Theme for the... well... Ancient Era, and especially the Modern Era songs: Smash, Techno Mix, and Stars Full
- Civilization V has a number of great pieces as well, especially Russia's war theme and Greece's peace theme, especially considering it is the oldest surviving example of a complete musical composition from anywhere in the world.
  - And then there's Spain's war theme, England's war theme, Persia's peace theme, the Ottoman war theme even has a Genius Bonus by including snippets of Beethoven's Turkish March, the list goes on!
  - Even the ambient music has some brilliant pieces - all culled from some of the best musical pieces from around the world. Here's a small sampling. A SMALL sampling.
Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption has its main theme, available in Dark Age and Modern Age variants.
Wonderland Woods from American McGee's Alice.
Most of the Planescape: Torment soundtrack is made of awesome. A small taste is the Main Theme and Transcendent One. The latter is chillingly awesome in game, with its first appearance being right after the Nameless One has moved on after defeating Ravel Puzzlewell. The Transcendent One, aka the Nameless One's disembodied mortality (and final boss of the game) arrives and this theme starts up. He and Ravel proceed to have a truly epic battle against one another, which made the previous battle against the Nameless One himself seem like little more than a warm-up. Can be seen here. There's also a bit of Sigil Battle and the theme from Ravel's Maze to be heard there as well, which are cool in their own right.
- Smoldering Corpse Bar
Killing Floor soundtrack mostly consists of industrial/trash metal like music. And when you have something coming up against you that has a rocket launcher for an arm, all you could do is abandon all...
The music that plays when entering the Crash Site neighborhood of the Rikti War Zone in City of Heroes.
Tubular Worlds, a shmup for PC, Macintosh and Amiga, has an absolutely amazing intro theme.
Pathalogic: You need not go any further then the Main Menu to already know that you're in for some mind-blowingly scary stuff.
Princess Waltz- The song "Battlefield of Steel" alone is worth the price of admission, and the rest of the soundtrack is pretty catchy too.
The four-disc soundtrack to the doujin Shoot'Em Up Cho Ren Sha 68K, which includes the already-awesome in-game songs, such as the music to Stage 4, "Infinity", as well as fan- and self-remixed songs such as this remix of "Impossible One"
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault
- The music that plays in Allied Assault during the level where you hijack the King Tiger tank and go a merry rampage. Awesome.
- The Nebelwerfer Hunt, originally from the Undercover in Crete mission in Medal of Honor: Underground.
- Schmerzen, a reworked version of the Fort Schmerzen theme from the original game.
The theme to the Battlefield series.
- This troper thought the Armored Fury remix of the song was pretty awsome.
- Battlefield 2142's theme sounds even more symphonic and epic to me, on the other hand, the upcoming Battlefield Heroes' theme song is just damn catchy and fun.
- And lets not forget the version of the theme played during the loading screen of Wake Island 2142. Played with electric guitars.
- You want electric guitars? Battlefield 3's theme for you. Sounds kinda futuristic... then the Battlefield theme kicks in at 1:16...
  - That track isn't actually the theme, it was composed by Remo Baldi, but is not included in the game. This is the Official BF3 Theme. It sounds like a thunderstorm.
StepMania, a free implementation of DDR, holds competitions for songs--composing, writing steps, doing background art. Some of them are at least as good as the tracks in the commercially-released games.
- Vienna Core by JAKAZiD
The IIDX-like game O2Jam has its share of musical awesomeness, such as:
- V3 by Beautiful Day, a remix of Beethoven's "Pathetique" (the same song that the Pump It Up song "Beethoven Virus" remixes).
- RoseHoliC by SHK, which is described as "digi-occult" music. No relation to the IIDX song "Holic" or anime series ×××HOLiC.
- Beautiful Day by...well...Beautiful Day.
- Red Sign by Kevin.O2sE.
Star Trek Starfleet Command not only neatly avoids The Problem with Licensed Games, it also boasts wall-to-wall awesome music. Highlights include the wistful Federation theme, the menacing Romulan march, and the gleefully retro Lyran theme. Go and listen to them. Go and listen to them now.
- Inon Zur did a quite awesome job on SFC II, as well.
Starsiege has some meh songs but Mechsoul sticks in this troper's mind a decade after playing the game.
Secret of the Solstice 's BGM mostly qualifies for this. But the Magic Forest, and the Jotunheim theme are brilliant.
Crysis theme was pretty awesome whenever it appeared in the game.
Wing Commander 2: Vengeance of the Kilrathi. Pretty much everything, starting right from the main theme.
- The scramble music from this series in particular.
Some of the scrapped/rarer Hellgate: London tracks (one in particular from Sascha Dikiciyan and Cris Velasco) are also decent epic stuff.
Action Doom 2 Urban Brawl has a couple of great tunes, such as the Bridge music.
Melty Blood 's Pe-Ri-Ca has been the backdrop to many an intense and high speed fight for this troper.
- No mention of Melty Blood's World End Roar?
- Or Melty Blood's Seijaku no Fortissimo? 'Bad ending theme? I think you mean badass ending theme.' indeed
- Aoko's theme from the night version of the Grassy Field stage in Re Act.
The opening music from Space Quest 1 VGA played on an MT-32. Awesome.
- It can be downloaded from Quest Studios' SQ1 digital music page here.
Anachronox is considered by fans to have one of the best video game soundtracks.
every piece from the MechWarrior 4 Soundtrack. When this troper was learning violin, the first piece I taught myself was 'Aftermath' from this game.
Lacuna Coil's "Swamped" in the credits of Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines, when you (well, at least in one ending) walk out of Ventrue Tower that just blew up. With that asshole prince Lacroix inside. Crowning Music of Awesome indeed.
- Bloodlines, for all its problems, was blessed with a great soundtrack, both in terms of ambient themes and licensed songs. Chiasm's "Isolated" and Tiamat's "Cain" (the Asp Hole theme) tie in sublimely with the game's theme and mood.
Da-da, da-da, da-da da-da da-da dah! Da-da, da-da, da-da da-da, MARATHON!
- How could you forget Marathon's "SPLASH!"? It totally defines this trope!
  - And Rushing, although to a lesser extent.
    - Flippant is also excellent. I'm actually quite disappointed there's so few remixes of the Marathon music, I can't find a single one of the Marathon 2 theme.
The first two Fallouts. If Fallout 2's Beyond The Canyon doesn't sound amazing to you, then there is ~~most likely~~ something wrong with you.
- Anything that plays on Galaxy News Radio. Oh, the Soundtrack Dissonance...
- Even though it's not the same composer, it isn't surprising that Fallout 3's main theme can stand tall with these two.
- On the subject of Fallout 3, This brief piece that plays when you step into the wasteland for the first time... magnificent. And then, of course there's "Civilization" and "Anything Goes", for all your Soundtrack Dissonance needs...
  - The Fallout franchise has always had some crowning selections, and This Troper is pleased that's one thing Bethesda got right. A mention of Mighty Man should be included for another beltable example. And Let's Go Sunning for a crown of dissonance.
    - No discussion of Fallout music is complete without the marvellous "Butcher Pete". Hack! Whack! Choppin' that meat!
- Fallout: New Vegas has an beautiful main theme that's sort of a grandiose reworking of the already awesome Fallout3 theme. And of course, you can't have Vegas without Frank Sinatra...
- One of the developers contributed some surprisingly awesome songs for the different radio stations -- some are original, and some are "Fallout-ified versions of well-known tunes. "Home, Home on the Wastes" is "Did-I-just-hear-that" hilarious, and "Cobwebs and Rainbows" is downright sexy.
- Coming from someone who can't stand country music, This Troper is forced to admit that "Big Iron" is made of 24-carat badass and win.
- Fallout Brotherhood of Steel may have had some ... questionable ... music choices, but the delightful "A Nuclear Blast" is absolutely spot-on.
Ground Control, Crayven Theme. That is all.
- - Listen closely. WOOF WOOF MEOWWWWWWW.
- The Main Theme starts as march and has quite a bit of shit around the middle.
S4 League has tons of incredible songs-- arguably one of the best parts of the game (if jumping and flipping and shooting don't do it for you).
Evil Genius has a surprisingly badass main theme, for such a light-hearted game. As for the pause menu music, well...
- All the music is available for download seperately here or as a package here^{[dead link]}.
Nexus War has no music normally, but this makes up for it. It won't make sense unless you play the game.
Jets'n'Guns. Brazillian developer Rake In Grass thought their game didn't feel old-school and PC-ey enough, so they hired Machinae Supremacy, a self-styled SID-Metal band. That's right, a SID chip synthesiser is one of their key instruments. Check it out.
Just about anything from La Tale qualifies. The game is fun, but nothing amazing. The music, however, is very good. Most of it has a sort of upbeat techno feel, and it's very catchy. (The soundtrack can be found here, by the way.) This troper has almost the whole soundtrack on her iPod, and her personal favorite is Bird Against the Storm. She rarely plays the game anymore, but still loves the music.
Distorted Pain from Gore Screaming Show. It is the opening song, but still it is creepy enough, matching the atmosphere of the game.
From the X68000 game Mad Stalker, we have Stage 1's theme. The game was later remade on the PC-Engine CD and PSX, but this song just didn't sound quite as good in those versions.
The song 'Stones' from the Ultima games. It's been around since Ultima V (where it was bleep-bloopy, of course), but later versions keep making more elaborate arrangements. The version from Ultima IX and the vocal version from Ultima Online are probably the best, however.
The Computer (Atari ST,Commodore Amiga and MS-DOS - well, MS-DOS if you have a proper sound card then and even then some corners were cut) versions of The Bitmap Brothers' Gods: Into The Wonderful. Way ahead of its time, even on the PC version if you paid for a good sound card back then. Too bad the SNES and Genesis version used a different theme (and thus sucked), and that's practically the only song in the entire game on the computer versions of the game.
- To make up for it, however, the Genesis version had an awesome ending theme.
If this theme is not awesome, I don't know what is.
Ever 17 has the tear-jerking Karma, the rocking Drittes Auges, and the ecstatic Aqua Stripe
Most of the soundtrack of "Outcast" [3], especially since the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and Chorus was used.
The obscure fangame Dizzy Lives takes the in-game music from the Spectrum game Spellbound Dizzy and one-ups it with a remix.
The Realms of Arkania games, little known outside of Germany, had quite impressive soundtracks. Case in point: the first game's intro theme.
4D Sports Boxing already had a nice theme playing on the title screen... then, somebody made a rock remix.
Star Trek New Worlds. Dreadful game. Fucking FANTASTIC soundtrack.
The freeware game Blue Wish Resurrection Plus has some pretty good tracks.
Age of Empires III Title theme. Awesome.
- That's been the title theme since the first game. It's been updated as the era (and the software capability) has changed since Age of Empires.
  - Age of Kings: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je3J5AIriTI&feature=related
  - The Conquerors (best version): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VlTKjkDdbs&feature=related
From Crashday: Another place, another time, another Crashday!
Maple Story: While the first levels have pretty average music, recent updates gave us some really awesome tunes.
You might not expect a racing sim like GTR 2 to have some epic music, but god dang.
Arcanum. Absolutely amazing songs include Demise of the Zephyr, The Main Theme, and the Villages Theme. Really though, the entire soundtrack counts. Bonus points for being free to download.
Three words: The Incredible Machine. Each of the games has a fair share of amazing soundtracks, such as Rock, Jazz Fusion, New Age, and Progressive Rock. YMMV on the greatness of the songs though, due to different tastes in genre. Overall, these games produce some kick-ass music.
- Hip Hop, Progressive Rock, Experimental Jazz and Old Title Theme are just some of my favourites!
The trailer for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim ends in some seriously badass lyrics.
- Even the song poking fun at it qualifies
- On the subject of The Elder Scrolls, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion has a truly beautiful opening song called Reign Of The Septims.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R's music is pure distilled nightmare fuel. For your post-apocalyptic nuclear pleasure!
Vangers: Crazy Awesome music for a Crazy Awesome game, in particular, these themes.
Old, obscure DOS game Mystic Towers had little music, scratchy sound effects, and was generally somewhat forgettable, but the main menu theme is just pure early Soundblaster goodness.
Transport Tycoon. Transport Tycoon (and Transport Tycoon Deluxe) had some AMAZING pieces of jazz, easy listening, blues and so much more. Amazingly, this music sounds better on the old Adlib and Sound Blaster cards. Here, have a sample!
Also from the same person who did Transport Tycoon's music; X-COM. This game had some good music, on all the versions (PSX, PC and Amiga). Here, have a listen.
Earth 2150 has some excellent pieces. Each of the factions have a certain musical theme: the ED is militaristic/orchestral, the UCS perfectly illustrates the the state of the Earth and the LC is distinctly sci-fi.
- The sequel foregone faction-specific music but in exchange, the soundtrack is EPIC with a capital E. The main menu theme is simply beautiful with the setting's cynical tone.
Dark Reign has eight songs in the whole game. Sounds bad? Not when it's this good.
When you're fighting the final battle of one of the chapters of the MMORPG Mabinogi, you can pretty much bet that the music which is playing will be awesome.
- Glas Ghaibhleann from G1, Claimh Solas from G9, the Doppelganger from G10, Ouroburos from G11, and especially Nuadha from G12.
Vindictus is not without its awesome music as well:
- This music is always satisfying to hear, especially after you've gone through hell to complete a mission.
- From Boat 1, the Gnoll Boss theme saw many players through their throwdown with the Gnoll Chieftain.
- From Boat 2, the White Tyrant theme.
- From Boat 3, the Vampire theme.
- The Hoarfrost Depths boss theme.
- And from the most recent chapter in Korea, Glas Ghaibleann makes the jump to Vindictus, and his theme is suitably awesome.
- Now we have Colru
Psygnosis' Novastorm for Playstation had forgettable music, but the PC version of it was positively epic - in particular, Stage 4-1's approach to the Big Bad's space station, the evasion of the perimeter defenses, entry into the station itself, and a frenetic dodge-and-weave through obstacles are set to a pulsing techno piece that keeps building the energy right up to the stage boss.
Creepy indie game The Path has some great music. In particular, there's the Forest Theme. It will haunt you.
Tearing up Spacetime from Acid Tetris is ridiculously catchy
The soundtrack from Minecraft (available for download here) is simple but absolutely outstanding. The entire soundtrack, Sweden in particular, really sets you in the mood of being the only human alive.
The Boss Battle theme from Terraria, much more awesome than the bosses themselves.
- And now that version 1.1 brought more bosses, we have more boss themes
Ni Miedo from the MMO Granado Espada . Nice and relaxing
Zoo from Sleepwalker. DAT BASS
The music in the third official trailer[4] for TERA Online. The second half is just plain awesome.
Not sure if original works from ROM hacks count, but the overworld themes from the talkhaus production A Super Mario Thing are nothing short of excellent. Judge for yourself.
Trample Machine from the freeware FPS game Another Bound Neo. Some really nice piano and violin.
The Steampunk MMO Neo Steam: The Shattered Continent has this theme playing in Greticos - especially fitting for the PC's first visit to the national capital.
Hearts of Iron gave us this masterpiece of music for the theme to their second installment, while the third game arguably topped it with its less intense but no less awesome theme here.
The Shoot'Em Up Hellsinker is known for having some rather unusual music but manages to set the mood regardless, such as the multilayered Rusted Dragon's theme to the One-Woman Wail driven theme of the Apostle's of the Seed.
- And of course let's no forget the final boss.
- But on top of the intire soundtrack we have the Shrine of Farewell.
From the shmup game Sora, Rendezous, that is a sort of a long song but quite varied but awesome all the way through.
Blood has some great pieces of music. The midi version sounds a lot more ambient than the CD. The two that stands out are The Haunting (CD version), -the creepiest levels in the game- and Unholy Voices (CD version).
The theme for the city-building game Cities XL has an unexplainable "Hell Yes!" kind of touch to it.

↑ Advent Children version specifically

[1] Advent Children version specifically

[1]