What was the best video game music of all time?

Tetris

Why? Because upon having said that I know its now playing in all of your heads.

Katamari Damacy. It's got one of the most infectiously joyous soundtracks of all time -- an eccentric, richly-produced, and incredibly catchy melange of funk, salsa, bossa nova, experimental electronica, J-Pop, swing, lounge, bamboo flute, hair metal, buoyant parade music, soaring children's choirs, Macintalk fanfares, and the single best theme song this side of Super Mario Bros. And beyond being insane earworms, many of the tracks have surprisingly deep and meaningful lyrics.; my favorite is probably the beautiful "Cherry Tree Times", which I've seen described as "[using] the gameplay mechanics as a metaphor both for the twinge of nostalgia we could feel even in childhood toward our younger selves and for the experience of falling in love."

The Halo Trilogy I truly believe is the best video game music. The original from CE instantly became iconic and felt pivotal to the game. Then each iteration tweaked the formula in a way that represented the respective game. The heavy rock Breaking Benjamin style from Halo 2 represents the rebellious nature of the story (and honestly it represented gaming culture at the time). Then the music really matured with a heavy piano theme for Halo 3. The score made you feel the sacrifice of the characters and us saying goodbye to a brilliant story.

Some great tracks:

https://youtu.be/JX5O3n9K_d0

https://youtu.be/m_cwHnQ7Xsg

FFX To Zanarkand is gut wrenching. Powerful and moving. The song captures completely what the story is about.

Baba Yetu from Civilization IV is the correct answer. First video game composition to win a Grammy (before there was even a video game category).

Command and Conquer Red Alert and the fact that this isn't top comment, yet alone already mentioned has me seriously doubting the taste of this establishment.

How can anything beat Tetris?

Outer Wilds.

The whole soundtrack is just so atmospheric, I regularly listen to it while working as a kind of focus music, but some tracks are so good I get the chills while listening.

First instinct was to say Chrono Trigger. My second choice is Tony Hawks Pro skater.

Has anyone said Minecraft? I haven't played games myself for years (well before Minecraft) but live in a house where it was played for hours at a time. Soundtrack never became annoying & whenever I hear it it instantly takes me back in time.

The entire soundtrack of Nier Automata, for a more recent contender.

For me it's is:

• Final Fantasy 7 (sheer volume of classics, listen to it regularly)
• Resident Evil 2 (PSX)
• Tekken 3
• Silent Hill 2
• Spyro (come on, it's Stewart Copeland!)

Chrono Trigger.

Donkey Kong Country and Diddy's Kong Quest set some bars when they dropped.

My vote for best - Secret of Mana

My personal favorite - Jet Set Radio Future

Either Halo or the new Doom games.

Very few themes are more iconic than Halos chanting and basically all of those are simple themes without depth. Halos theme makes you feel a flood of emotion when you hear it.

And nothing on this earth nothing is more bad ass than the Doom music. Just hearing it makes you feel like you could go to hell and kill gods.

Katamari Damacy!!!

Final fantasy 6! The renditions of the victory fanfare and chocobo theme are terrific and multiple other songs are dramatic, exciting, enthralling. And there are some legit jams on the soundtrack, too. The Veldt, Magitek Factory, and Zozo all are amazing.

Other games music that are great are Tropico, Frostpunk, and RimWorld.

Mass Effect.

That opening scene, with that music playing… it really hooked me from the first second.

Portal 1 and 2, for sure.

"This was a triumph..."

Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim soundtracks. Diablo 2. Wow classics soundtrack....hell many expansions in wow have amazing music. Halo 1, 2, 3s soundtrack.

For me it’s Dark World Theme - Zelda ALTTP (SNES) and Big Blue - F-Zero (SNES).

And in general the Zelda OST.

Vice City

Chrono trigger OST imho

Hotline Miami

Splinter cell - chaos theory

Ori and the blind forest

"Setting Sail, Coming Home" from Bastion deserves a mention, from the same studio as Hades. They put the effort in when it comes to music in their games.

In no particular order.

OSTs:

• DOOM 2016

• FTL: Faster Than Light

• Halo (most, but especially 1-3 and Reach)

• Command and Conquer series, especially Yuri's Revenge and prior.

Non-OST games:

• Gran Turismo 2

• TRAIL:OUT

I listen to all of these in my free time fairly regularly.

Weight of the World - Nier Automata

The Japanese version when you're finishing the game is the most emotional I've gotten during a game

Undertale. Megalovania. Anyone?

Risk of Rain 2 is phenomenal.

Warframe has great music all over the place.

Tony Hawks Underground and Underground 2 soundtracks contain songs I listen to today.

Need For Speed: Most Wanted 2007 and Burnout 3: Takedown basically defined my music interests from an early age.

I really enjoyed Cyberpunk 2077s but that was likely primarily because of the inclusion of Run The Jewels.

Celeste was a great gang and has a great soundtrack, and then there are b sides and an epilogue all with their own music

https://youtube.com/watch?v=VXIqXaX1blY

Shadow of the Colossus

Some of my favourites:

• Max Payne 3 ost (1 and 2 are great too but I just love the violin)
• Star Wars The Old Republic saga - some examples Balmorra The Forge and Alderaan The Throne
• Mass Effect trilogy - example In Pursuit Of Saren
• Magical Diary Horse Hall & Wolf Hall - playlist
• All Skyrim (and generally The Elder Scrolls songs and soundtracks) - example The Dragonborn Comes by Malukah

If I remember any more I'll update the list. I listen to these all the time.

The entire Homeworld franchise is awesome in this regard. Including Deserts of Kharak.

Hardspace: Shipbreaker is also great for some chill beats. So unique. You all should give it a listen.

Almost all the music from :

Castlevania symphony of the night The legend of Zelda wind waker Final fantasy 7 and 8 Metal gear solid Pokémon blue GTA Vice city FTL:faster than light

Some from timesplitters 2 like streets or return to planet x

Metroid! The sound track was so awesome a heavy metal band recorded it as an album.

Halo (most), Super Paper Mario, Baten Kaitos, and Ocarina of Time.

Disco Elysium!!

Someone already said Shadow of the Colossus, so I can plug my other favourite Outer Wilds. Especially the tracks from Echoes of the Eye. Dark Passage is raw dread in audio form, the River is a spectacular adventure theme, and the jam at the end of the universe is a perfect ending

Fields of Ard Skellig from Witcher 3, also A story you wouldn't believe.

Journey.

Sometimes I well up just thinking about it, let alone listening to it. Wonderful.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

I don't know if I'm brave enough to say of all time. but the tracks from jazz jackrabbit 2 are pretty awesome. I have them on my ordinary music playlist.

I'd struggle to set a ranking between DOOM 2016/Eternal, Witcher 3, and Civilization 6.

Maybe Civ 6 wins just by sheer dint of tracks, plus they have so much cultural significance.

Kingdom Hearts

Ctrl+F Hotline Miami.... No one's mentioned this banging track yet?

I've barely played the game, it wasn't for me, but I fell instantly in love with the Bastion and Transistor soundtracks the moment I heard them.

It is my second most played game soundtrack right behind the metal songs from the Alan Wake series. Third is all 3 Hell March songs from Red Alert series. Fourth and oldest is probably Unreal Return to Na Pali and generally all of the two Unreal and four Unreal Tournament game tracks. And the Frozen Synapse series and Uplink soundtracks is probably close to the top too. And I don't know if it counts but the artist behind the Wheel of Time game soundtrack released a separate almost-soundtrack, which I played A LOT while reading the book series.

And thats just a few of my favorite tracks. I love video game music! I can't really decide on a single best one.

Final Fantasy VI

There's just way too many to list. A few of my favorite composers are

• Tim Follin
• Jochen Hippel
• Matt Furniss
• David Whittaker
• Jeroen Tel
• Yuzo Koshiro
• Rob Hubbard

The Super Mario Galaxy duology has the best overall OST in my opinion. The orchestral music is amazing for so many of the tracks.

For any individual song, however. It would be Weight of the World from Nier Automata. For context:

EDIT: I want to give an honorable mention to the Ace Attorney OST, across all of their games. A lot of people may know the Pursuit - Cornered theme, but every game in that series has banger tracks. Not as widely praised, and very underrated imo, hence the honorable mention.

Firelink Shrine from Dark Souls, it's so peaceful and melancholic

FFXIV

Kinda hard for me. I'm split between NieR:Automata, ultrakill and Doom 2016/Eternal

Then again, I just started Baldur's Gate 3 and the soundtrack so far is pretty bangin so this might change

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The Last Of Us.

Bro, you put a Super Giant game and don't mention "Build that Wall" from Bastion, tsk tsk.

It is ** Brütal Legend** by far!!

Goldeneye on N64

Objectively speaking the answer has gotta be something from FFXIV. But which one?? Too many candidates....

Here's an obscure one.

The Batman game for NES.

That stage 1 & 2 song was like no other game music on the NES before or since.

Also, shout out to Blaster Master.

some of my favourites

streets of rage 1 and 2 wave race 64 aerobiz supersonic platoon nes donkey country snes katamari damacy ps2 earthbound snes pictionary nes ristar genesis bomberman hero n64 castlevania 3 nes

FF IX for me

For the whole soundtrack Shadow of the Collosus. For a specific track the one I listen to most often is Instrument of Surrender, or Off We Go Into The Wild Pale Yonder from Disco Elysium

Space Harrier or Outrun, for sure.

Special award for Ghost n Goblins or Commando and some others like Dragon's Lair.

Persona 5 Royal

Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Lelelelelele.... need I say more?

aquatic ambiance from Donkey Kong country is up there. Also IGN made an actually cool video about it recently.

MegaMan 2 Tony Hawk franchise Halo (Bungie days)

Lots of great answers here already. To me not only is this extremely subjective, this is highly dependent on how you define "best".

Is it the one that exposed me to the most new music, and most help shape my music tastes today? Then I'm going with Tony Hawk or Guitar Hero.

Is it the best entire original soundtrack, the one that best creates the aesthetic of the game? Bastion comes to mind, but I think there are good arguments to be made for quite a few RPGs. Mass Effect doesn't have a lot of hummable tunes, but damn do they nail the feel of the world.

Is it the most technically impressive? I'm going with the original Mario soundtrack. What they did with so few possible notes and so little memory to create different sounds is nothing short of miraculous, and they are tunes and riffs that are instantly recognizable worldwide.

Is it the best individual song? Hard pick but I really adore the main theme of Skyrim to this day.

Is it just my favorite overall? I think I'd go with Earthbound.

There are many great ones. Off the top of my head, each with a sample:

• Baldur's Gate 3 (recent addition)
• Return of the Obra Dinn
• Portal 2
• Deep Rock Galactic
• Doom Eternal
• Deus Ex - Human Revolution
• Ori and the Will of Wisps (haven't played it enough yet but music stood out)

(All links point to a Piped Instance, which is a privacy-friendly YouTube frontend/proxy. If you want to visit YouTube directly and tell Google what you're watching, just change the domain name)

Considering how often I still find myself humming or whistling the songs years after I played, gonna have to go with Undertale.

Not sure about best but the music the black mesa game did for the half life remaster was amazing.

Im a sucker for the witcher 1& 2. Also stardew valley/minecraft are both worth mentioning

Chrono Cross OST

Awesome for the Amiga

So many great answers already, but one I don't think I've seen mentioned yet is the soundtrack for Bastion

I think Zelda: Wind Waker's ost is one of the greats. I'm also surprised nobody has mentioned Earthbound and Mother 3 yet. They have amazing atmospheric tracks like nothing else.

Outer Worlds - Hope

Ori And The Blind Forest is definitely up there

Super Mario Galaxy has an amazing soundtrack!

Team Fortress 2 OST

Warhammer 40,000 Mechanicus Just embodies the Techpreist vibe so well, a near perfect hybrid of church organs and industrial music.

Its actually hard to pick a favorite track, it evenly split between Children of the Omnissiah and Noosphere.

Turrican 2 on the Amiga

I can’t pick just one, but these are among my favourites:

• Prince of Persia 3D
• Grim Fandango
• Descent
• Skyrim
• Far Cry 2

MW2: Mercenaries was pretty awesome.

Other ones that come to mind are Crazy Taxi and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater.

I love soundtracks from Splatoon, all series. Especially Chip Damage/Blitz it! is my favourite.

The song from the first level of Sonic Adventure 2 (the one about escaping the city). It catchy to listen to while all of the action of Sonic unfolds.

It's nice to see so many different awnsers, gaming has just so many good soundtracks.

Personally, I love the soundtrack of the original Xenoblade Chronicles. "Engage the Enemy" really hits during the cutscene it plays.

Another recomendation is Xenoblade Chronicles 3's "Words that never reached you"

• GTA Vice City
• NFS Underground 1 and 2
• NFS Most Wanted
• Gris
• Retrowave

For ambience, Anarchy Online.

Final fantasy 6 Chrono trigger Street fighter 2 Street fighter v Super Mario Bros 3 Mega Man 2 Undertale And this is really unfair but Def Jam fight for New York

Jet Set Radio Future and Jet Grind Radio. No question. Hideki Nakanuma is a genius.

Oh and Dance Dance Revolution 3rd, 4th, and 5th miss.

Others have mentioned kingdom hearts, donkey Kong country and Jet Set Radio Future which are some of my favorites, but another one I love is Maplestory. Great simplistic map BGMs that I still listen to quite often when studying or focusing

Some great ones:

Gyruss (arcade)

Bubble Bobble (arcade)

WipeOut 2097(XL) (psx - probably the best example of songs that compliment the gameplay)

Afterburner II (arcade - just one specific track called City 202, at time 15:34)

Edit: 2 more

720 ( arcade - blistering)

Rolling Thunder ( arcade - max funky )

IDK if it's best of all time but the soundtrack to Guardians Crusade, a jrpg for kids on the PS1, is pretty up there and waaaaaaayyyyyy better than it has any right to be.

TF2

I still listen to the NSFU2 soundtrack today when I feel the need for a bit of hard hitting sound, with some variety.

90% of the Sonic Frontiers "Cyberspace" tracks are S tier. The best soundtrack in recent memory.

Celeste and Pokemon mystery dungeon explorers of sky

Almost all Deus Ex soundtrack, and maybe the Synapse level was the best of them.

half life franchise (seriously every game has perfect and fitting soundtrack) super meat boy (both the original 2010 soundtrack composed by danny b and the 2015 soundtrack made by various artists rock. but the 2010 soundtrack is one of the most iconic soundtracks ever made in my opinion.)

Ahhh but which Still Alive?

You probably meant the one from Portal, but I much prefer the one from Mirror's Edge! Beautiful song!

Risk of Rain 2

Okami has a truly beautiful soundtrack, my favourites are the 'The Sun Rises' and The Eight Dog Warriors Theme'. Also Calamari Inkantation from Splatoon is fantastic.

Teenage mutant Ninja turtles iv: turtles in time

Right now I'm going to have to go with a tie between Brok and Graff from Brok the Investigator and the legacy soundtrack piece After The Flames by Josh Woodward from SuperTuxKart.

Definitely the best video game music is from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Stains of Time is my favorite.

Interstate 76

Beyond Good and Evil

Sonic Mania - Hydrocity Zone Act 2

Halo is my top pick.

Goldrunner was also fantastic in its way.

Total Annihilation

Jet Set Radio Jet Set Radio Future Bombrush Cyberfunk

You just have to understand the concept of love!

I love listening to Rimworlds OST and Hotline Miamis soundtrack.

I’ll add two of my favourites that haven’t been mentioned yet - Metroid Prime is my all time favourite and Horizon: Zero Dawn and Forbidden West which I’ve been listening to a ton late lately

Pretty much the entire Castlevania : Symphony of the night soundtrack... It's all so good. And nostalgic too. One of my favorite games, and favorite soundtracks.

SNES Wild Guns final theme Song

Def hollow knight, I think it captures the essence of a long decaying kingdom perfectly.

That's a tough one. And I don't think it's fair. From one generation to the next, music in video games has evolved quite a bit.

And each console had its own quirks for the music chip. Some later consoles played directly from CDs.

On the NES, I think Megaman 2 and Journey to Silius had kick-ass chip tune soundtracks.

On the SNES, I'd say Uniracer had a great rock soundtrack. Star Fox also had an epic soundtrack. Oh and Killer Instinct was fantastic. It even came with a music CD with the soundtrack. But my all time fave has to be the TMNT IV game soundtrack. And I'll give a special shoutout to Chrono Trigger.

On the Sega Genesis, I think the Sonic series had an amazing newjack and fusion jazz style soundtrack.

On N64, and PlayStation I particularly LOVED the Wipeout racing game soundtracks with music from my all time favorite electronica bands of the time. Goldeneye 007 holds a special place in my heart as well.

After that it gets really hard because so many games have incredible music. It's hard to choose.

Personally, Quake (1996). I remember playing it as a teen and actually feeling my heart rate increase with the music. It was the first game that the music really immersed me into the game.

Honorable mention, The Housebuilding Song from RDR2. Just a perfect way to lighten the mood after such a hard hitting chapter.

Mortal kombaaaaaaat

Pa pa pa tum tum tum pa pa pa

Modern Warfare 2 (2009)

Left 4 Dead

Warcraft classic - TBC - WOTLK - Cataclysm

They are Billions

It’s not better than Tetris I’ll admit. But I’ve always had a soft spot for the Mass Effect soundtrack.

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Castlevania, Zelda and Silent Hill (though I'd say all first 3) mentioned so I'm gonna say Alundra. Sure it's very Zelda/JRPG, but that game had some amazing music that just sticks with you.

Also a little tongue in cheek, but Adventures of Lolo. I'm not sure if there's just one song throughout the trilogy, but it sure feels like it. Weirdly it doesn't bother you. It's like a hypnosis that just makes you play one more level. One more try. Kind of like the Tetris soundtrack, but it never gets old.

Your reality is amazing

Shadowrun for Sega Genesis

Hands down, DOOM Eternal

Unorthodox opinion here but Wasteland 3, the first time the Battle Hymn of the Republic played over a fight was incredible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqAYMZSOQao

My pick for best chiptune track

I am personally in love with Far Cry 5's soundtrack.

The original Destiny sound track was fire

Tunic has an otherworldly soundtrack. It's perfect music to listen to while working. https://youtu.be/nnvjKf_mRYM

I'm surprised that no one mentioned the Metal Gear Solid series. The music was incredible, and it's got one of the most memorable songs in Snake Eater. I'm also a big fan of Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday .

I played a beautiful game last year called Omno, and the soundtrack to that was just breathtaking. I listen to it all the time

Just one track? The Requiem of Shield Knight from Shovel Knight.

Ys

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=33ZP8_aAdNI

Kenshi has some of the best ambient music. Scorching wind gives chills every time.

I'm going to give honorable mention to Buck Bumble on the N64.

I remember basically nothing about the game, or even if it was any good, but I rented it once at blockbuster and like 2 decades later the theme song still pops into my head once in a while.

A few i havent seen mentioned.

Sonic 2 and 3 on megadrive. Especially the ice zone with the snowboard on 3. https://youtu.be/hYxlqTpZ-24

Icewind dale. The kuldahar music is epic. https://youtu.be/B92P1-OUNJo or easthaven in peace https://youtu.be/ERd5stTsaBc