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I wonder what game music you guys like. Not mainstream games like Mario and Sonic and Final Fantasy and whatever, but those catchy tunes from those Mega Drive games you only rented or borrowed from that kid from school and nobody talks about, you know what I'm talking about. Don't you? I'm just looking for some good less-known game music.

In my case, I guess it had to be Arrow Flash, the first level song. The Mega Drive had some awesome shoot-em ups and most of them had great music.

They're not exactly retro, but:

• Shatter has some cool tracks. I particularly enjoy Hyperspace.
• Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door's soundtrack has a bunch of good songs. Much of the music captures its target mood very well.
• Evolution & Evolution 2 for Dreamcast both had music I remember really enjoying, though I don't remember any particular songs now. I don't think either ever got a soundtrack, but I'm seeing some stuff on YouTube now, so maybe I should poke around again.
• I sometimes find myself humming music I thought was from Mario's Tennis for Virtual Box for reasons I don't understand. Sadly, I can't fins a better clip of the song than this.

I still get this one stuck in my head from time to time. Brilliant tune.

On the topic of game music that more people should listen:

• First off, a piece from Langrisser FX. I have no idea what the name of the song means, but that hardly matters.
• There's also E.V.O. - Search for Eden's final boss bgm. The soundtrack as a whole isn't really that good, but at least it's catchy.
• The Valis games have some pretty nice tunes, such as this and this one. That said, I hope the rumors of a proper revival of the series are true.
• Now, for something completely old: Monty on the Run. Also with an orchestra version!

And here are a couple of slightly more mainstream recomendations, for those that never heard them.

Speaking of Paper Mario, here's some pretty good stuff from Super Paper Mario.

Also, Blimp Off. Oh god, how I freakin' love Blimp Off.

j-man wrote:I still get this one stuck in my head from time to time. Brilliant tune.

Needs more of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gIVbJPQCVzg

Level 5 of Rocket Knight Adventures for Genesis is one of my favorites.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdkWEdBVEas

Probably no other boss theme has ever got my blood pumping like this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6-une2PLU4

Seriously now, if i were to fight the devil in hand to hand combat, and the whole fate of the universe rested on me, and the devil let me choose which music would be playing in the background while we fought, i would choose that theme. Seriously.

Opa-Opa wrote:In my case, I guess it had to be Arrow Flash, the first level song. The Mega Drive had some awesome shoot-em ups and most of them had great music.

Dude, that was pretty awesome.

Reminds me a bit of some of R-Type 3's music.

j-man wrote:I still get this one stuck in my head from time to time. Brilliant tune.

Woah, didn't expect that, I was going to post Dynamite Headdy myself! Easily my favourite game soundtrack ever.

Here's some more awesome stuff.

I know almost all of these are boss theme, but Dynamite Headdy has amazing boss themes! And almost every boss has a unique piece of music, too!

Also, here's something interesting I found while searching for stuff.

Although I haven't played it in two years, give or take, the soundtrack to Panzer Dragoon Saga (surprise! yes, still obsessed) still wows me to this day. Very atmospheric, and very foreign-sounding tunes literally seeping out of the title's pores. Beautiful theme tunes (either one), beautiful in-game tunes ("Rest", "By the Source of the Protective Flame" and "Village of the Seekers" for instance), beautiful cutscene tunes (eg: "Sealed Spirit" and "Into the Promised Land"), beautiful fight tunes ("Mutation I", "The Black Fleet", a remix of Zwei's final boss theme, and naturally "Atolm Dragon")... it can practically do no wrong aurally.

Oh, speaking of Zwei, I also love "Forest of Taboo" (or Episode 3, if you prefer). That bit with the pan flute at 0:37-1:08 hits all the right notes, especially when the strings kick in.

Moving on to another series, I really like MDK's title tune (0:00-0:38), and the little Latin-esque ditty following it is also really good. Tommy Tallarico really produced some kickass tunes back in the day, huh? The first two Earthworm Jim soundtracks are also great. The one for 3D is also rather underrated, honestly.

And finally, although this is getting very mainstream, I just have to mention "Grabbag". It is pure testosterone in the form of heavy metal. If there is not a single version of this in Forever there will be hell to pay.

Mother 3

Crowbar wrote:Also, here's something interesting I found while searching for stuff.

Man I loved that first tune. It's from Flashback. I believe it's from the scene where Conrad is getting his memory back with his friend Ian in New Washington. That game was great, best Arnold Schwarzenegger sci-fi movies rip-off ever.

This tune from Toki Tori is aces; sometimes I just load up that area and listen to the track.

And Henry Hatsworth's soundtrack is superb. It's not hard to imagine all the EA composers reveling in the opportunity to let loose after years of sports games. I seriously recommend you to download it, if not play the game.

24 Effects is good. So are select tracks from Ur-Quan Masters.

But I still gotta say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kmMMUv8 ... re=related

Just found out about the main theme to Monty on the Run today. It's very awesome.

Brazillian Cara wrote: [*]Now, for something completely old: Monty on the Run. Also with an orchestra version![/list]

Yep! Anyway this'ne in particular earned notoriety via I Wanna Be The Guy and this

But man do I love me some SID chip tunes. I have no idea why. Can't be nostalgia.

One Man and His Droid (also by Rob Hubbard)

Great Giana Sisters (Blatant Mario clone)

Tinhead for Sega Genesis. Interestingly enough, produced in the UK but released only in North America.

Alpha Waves (aka Continuum) is an interesting early 3D platformer with some trippy tunes. I wouldn't recommend actually playing though.

VVVVVV has some good chiptunes; my favourite is Potential For Anything which I could probably listen to for hours, but this is pretty good too.

Puyo Puyo Tsu is great in many ways, but people often neglect to mention the music. I think Area B and Last Area are pretty grand, but then again I'm the only person who's ever heard them.

Crisis wrote:VVVVVV has some good chiptunes; my favourite is Potential For Anything which I could probably listen to for hours, but this is pretty good too.

Let me throw in links to Pushing Onwards and Pressure Cooker, my two favorite tunes from the game...

Don't know if it really counts, but I've been a lot into STG music lately, mainly by Manabu Namiki and of the Mushihime-sama games (To Shinju Forest, Like a Night of Falling Stars, The Direction to the Heart of the Forest, Sea of Frozen Crystals, The Black Shell Beast King and On the Verge of Madness) and some assorted tracks (Dai-Fukkatsu's Sally, Flotage 3-B and Vertigo). I already mentioned Battle Garegga somewhere else, it also has smashing tracks (the arranged Degeneracy is one of my favorites).

Here's another C64 tune: Comic Bakery. Apparently Ocean liked it so much they reused it for the NES and GB (my favorite) versions of Jurassic Park, making the theme to two of the biggest things from my childhood.

Course the game's shit, but that's what YouTube's for.

So necromancy, 'cause why not? I've come across some soundtracks that deserve a bit of love (on a forum with a single-digit active members list).

Cosmic Spacehead for Sega's 16-bit majin. This game as a whole deserves more than its abject obscurity: lighthearted, irreverent click-and-point married to a mediocre-but-tolerably-insubstantial platformer. The NES version's music is phenom, too, but it really comes alive on Sega (also the jump physics are worse here).

The light Corridor for the ZED EXX SPECTRUM. Haven't actually played this game, or any games for that system for that matter, but I get the impression the music much better than Sinclair's machine has any right to play.

Erik the Viking for NES. Unreleased though, which is a pity, I guess. But if it's like the composer's other NES oeuvre James Bond, Jr., perhaps it's best that it's enjoyed retroactively through unofficial Youtube OSTs.

These are assuredly better than most of what I posted prior.

Sure, I guess.

Tonic Trouble has a pretty amazing soundtrack, composed by Eric Chevalier (of Rayman 2 fame). The songs were actually composed with different moods in mind, with the idea that the music would change as you progress through the levels.

Until recently the only things floating on the internet are recordings of the game audio, but I managed to crack the format for the audio containers and extract all the individual bits, including the ones the game doesn't want you to hear. Unfortunately they're in 22050Hz ADPCM, so the quality kinda hits the shitter when you have really high pitched sounds (like the whistles in Doc's Cave), which is why I'd like to also to scavenge the early, "special edition" for its files, but so far I haven't had luck on that front.

Anybody play this game called atomic robokid? It was a pretty good game despite the difficulty. I always thought the music in that game was pretty sweet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ku1rCTBUbvc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-u7SqhST ... B58F658BB2

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Dsj89Eu ... B58F658BB2