I love these games and I think the soundtracks are underrated as an essential part of their appeal. I’ll Start with one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk72RMv9d0s
Tube of Medusa from Ecco2: Tides of Time.
Personally, I think the Sega CD version soundtrack is… fine, but it has a different composer. If I remember correctly, it;s the composer from the first Ecco. In my opinion, it’s inoffensive, but completely forgettable.
EDIT: I have edited the topic to include older stuff.
Sonic CD specifically the Japanese Soundtrack is phenomenal! My favorite song from the game hands down is Quartz Quadrant Present. Though when it comes to the Genesis Sonic games, Sonic 2 has my favorite soundtrack.
NES: megaman 2 - wily castle or megaman 6 - knight man stage SNES - megaman X - spark mandrill (really that whole soundtrack)
I have that shit on vinyl
Megaman 3 is my favorite.
Is that the one with protomans castle? That theme is great.
Chemical Plant Zone from Sonic
They went so unnecessarily hard on that one but it’s great
I’m pretty fond of David Wise’s work. The easy pick is Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2 for the SNES, but he also worked on Iron sword: Wizards and Warriors II for the NES which has some great tracks too. Also the entire Battletoads and Snake Rattle n Roll soundtracks if I recall correctly (I was a Nintendo kid, if it isn’t obvious).
If it isn’t stretching too far forward, Einhander on the PS1. It’s still the side scroller I judge others against and the soundtrack just feels “right” from start to finish.
Dave Wise is probably my favorite retro Game Music composer. It’s kinda hard to say that given all the other amazing music, but man, from the NES all the way to the modern era he’s fantastic.
The Solar Jetman soundtrack is amazing to me.
Stickerbrush Symphony from Donkey Kong Country 2 is still goosebumps territory.
And so many awesome remixes etc.
Chrono Trigger has a few bangers
Guardia Millennial Fair and Frog’s Theme are absolutely brilliant
We often have music on in the office, and anyone can put on whatever they want. Chrono Cross Scars of Time came on and I nearly gave myself whiplash. I found who put it on and he started playing game music for the rest of the day, including CT and Final Fantasy. It was great.
Came to also post Chrono Trigger, but for me it is the Zeal theme.
Ducktales NES Moon Theme: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KF32DRg9opA
The gamefeel on those cane mechanics 👌🏻👌🏻👌🏻😩
It’s unfortunate to me how memed the song has become. It is a delightful product of the time and I truly adore the song, but it’s getting overused.
It is? Like where? Not any of the videos I see.
Mega Man II.
Dr. Wily’s castle stage 1.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8tRMB0J4rM&pp=0gcJCYsCo7VqN5tD
All the Megaman NES music was really good, but Megaman 2 is also my favorite. The first Wily track you linked is one of the best along with Airman and Bubbleman.
The live performance of this by bit brigade was possibly the coolest thing I’ve ever seen:
https://youtu.be/MUHlVdqRlPA?t=1548
Time stamp links might not work through lemmy but it starts around 26:00 👍
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. They still haven’t made a better Zelda or Zelda-like game. (No disrespect to the Ocarina of Time fans, but I consider 3D Zelda to be a different type of game… and not really one I want to play. I’ve tried, it’s just not for me. I do love the 2D ones though.)
Replayed it recently, and even looking through my intense nostalgia for OoT, I must agree. lttP holds up shockingly well.
Try A Link to the Past Randomizer sometime.
Also try the A Link to the Past + Super Metroid crossover Randomizer, where one plays both games connected through portals. One has to collect items in the other game for progression. I’m sure you are aware of it, just telling it for anyone reading these comments who aren’t. Man I love the Mods and Romhacking community.
Triforce hunt, green hearts, my avatar is some streamer (I forget who, I don’t watch her streams but it’s a cute character), there’s a mode to guarantee an offensive weapon (not just the sword) from the uncle, I turn off the beeping… I usually win partway into Dark World. I love ALttPR.
Also, I only called it A Link to the Past because that’s the official English title. What I actually play is Triforce of the Gods, which is a ROM hack that restores cut content and enables a lot of the cool shit from Randomiser. Like turning with the boots mid-dash. (For those who don’t know, Nintendo had strict policies outside of Japan that Japan was not held to, and one of them was religious iconography. Triforce of the Gods (a translation of the Japanese title) had a lot, and it was changed for the English release. It’s mostly stuff you wouldn’t notice unless it was pointed out, but Nintendo didn’t want to offend anyone back then. Oh, it also fixes some weird translation issues, like the infamous “Zelda is your…” cutoff that made everyone think Zelda was Link’s sister or cousin. We later learned the left-off word was “destiny”. In the GBA port, the uncle instead says “Our people are fated to do so,” and I think that’s what my version says. Oh, and on top of all that, just like Randomiser, it enables a lot of the 1.0 glitches, like “free flippers” (the only one I use, and really, only in Randomiser, so I can check under the bridge and, if I have moon pearl, I can check the cave just south of the Zora area.
It’s my favourite game… I might know a thing or two about it. ;) But no worries, if someone else learned something, all the better.
Now if you wanna post speedrun times, that’s different. I’m not competitive. Loads of ALttP/R fans can do it faster than me. I just enjoy the game.
Have you tried Tunic? It’s probably the closest non-Zelda game to scratch the Zelda itch for me.
Yep. Love Tunic. Pretty sure I 100%'d it on either PC, when I had one, or Xbox. I know I own it on both.
A Link to the Past was the first videogame I got obsessed with and truly love it. Glad I’m not the only one preferring it over Ocarina of Time. However, over the years I started thinking that maybe I was too hard on Ocarina of Time. But compared to A Link to the Past, I just don’t want to replay it again. So maybe I was not wrong after all.
Ocarina of Time is too easy to play now. There’s the original N64 version which should run on any machine. My iPhone can run it (via Delta, it’s in the App Store). There’s Ship of Harkinian, which is a PC port of the game which also runs on macOS, Linux, and Android. (Probably iOS too, but you’d have to sideload it and Apple does not make that easy.) I run it on my MacBook, it runs great. (I still suck at it.)
Sticking to legal methods, the 3DS port is probably the best version of it, since you get motion controls. The 3DS is also super easy to jailbreak with a 100% success rate, so you can go that route, but I own a 3DS (XL but not New 3DS) and I have the cart. Of course, I’ve dumped it to the 3DS internal memory, but I do own the cartridge. If you have a Switch (1 or 2), you can play it in the Virtual Console area. And of course the remake is coming to Switch 2.
I think Ocarina is worth a chance. I got farther in it than ever since when I was a kid. I remember I got to the village and was collecting chickens. Since then I haven’t gotten past the first dungeon. The 3D stuff just doesn’t work for me. Nintendo insists on making their controls ass backwards (they invert X which is weird AF but they don’t always invert Y, which I absolutely need). So I can make the controls right on Ship of Harkinian, or most emulators where you can remap the controls. But it still doesn’t quite move right for me. I wouldn’t call myself a differently abled gamer (though, I do have hearing issues), but my issue with 3D Nintendo games falls somewhere in that category. I bought Super Mario Odyssey for the Switch and I have difficulty with that as well.
Going on a tangent, my wife got me Pragmata for my birthday, and I told her she should play the demo to see if it’s a game she’s able to play. By that I meant, it looks like a third-person shooter in the trailer, which is fine, but it’s really a game where one person controls two characters, much like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (which she finished). However, unlike Brothers, you have to act fast. For those who aren’t familiar, you play a mercenary/soldier, and a little robot girl. The soldier shoots and the android hacks. A lot of the gameplay is having the android hack enemy defences while you shoot them with the soldier. The android rides on the soldier’s back, so unlike Brothers, you don’t have to move both of them (at least, not in the demo). But doing hacking minigames with one stick while aiming with the other is not something every gamer is going to automatically get, and some gamers, I assume, won’t be able to play the game… much like I find myself unable to play 3D Nintendo games.
Yo, my PC is full or Roms and emulators. :D And I have Romhacks for Ocarina of Time too (and my 3DS is also hacked). So finding a way to play the game is not an issue for me. I played it back then (and finished), but never had the urge to play the regular game again. There are so many other games I want to play, that just can’t find a good reason for Ocarina. But after playing Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom (for hundreds of hours), on Yuzu BTW, I am thinking back to how Ocarina of Time was. Especially so with the Remake off course.
Now I do not want to buy a Switch 2. The question is, if I want to play the game again, do I play the unmodified original on N64 emulator, or some version with Romhacks applied to it or even the Ship of Harkonian on PC. Or even the 3DS Remaster? It’s astonishing how many ways we have to play the same game. :-)
Agreed. LTTP is peak Zelda.
Top Gear - Mad Racer (first track in the game)
NES Batman, the first level. That is pops into my head all the time. Also, the main theme and cabin interior music from Friday the 13th. Final mention, Legend of Kage had some rad tracks.
Talking NES: I mean you gotta give it up for Solstice, I find the game a snooze but that opening track is just balls to walls you can feel the heat rising off that poor NES sound chip as it cranks out the jams. Personally I really like Kickmaster, its my NES fave and the soundtrack is pretty good and evocative of the era. Kirby’s Adventure is maybe the best wall to wall absolute jock jams in a game. I was playing it with my kids last night and the tunes are just iconic.
SNES: Super Mario World is very memorable. Lots of amazing iconic tracks there.
Genesis: Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (or 1 I guess) is also just amazing. But ECCO 1 and 2 are peak. So atmospheric.
Super Mario Land or Mario Bros. 3. Amazing.
all the MegaMan on the NES
The Thunderforce III and IV, the 3 (yes, three, including the experimental soundtrack of the third!) Streets of Rage on the MegaDrive Anything Nobuo Uematsu on the SNES (Final Fantasy IV, V, VI, Chrono Trigger, Actraiser, etc.) and U.N Squadron
Soldier Blade and Final Soldier (and Air Zonk!) on the PCEngine (that a small part of the world calls TG16 for some reason?!)
Excellent comment. One correction, Chrono Trigger music was by Yasunori Mitsuda, not Nobuo Uematsu.
I’d personally add Castlevania and maybe a few other Konami games from the NES to the list. I have a Castlevania track as my ringtone right now.
You’re both right: Both of them worked on Chrono Trigger with Noriko Matsueda.
Interesting, it appears Uematsu did compose a handful of the 60+ tracks. The vast Majority were composed by Mitsuda though.
In short: This was the first big title to do music for Yasunori Mitsuda. He poured everything into it and got sick. That’s why Nobuo Uematsu helped him out finishing the project and wrote a few tunes alongside. Here a more detailed story what happened: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrono_Trigger#Music
Oh thanks for the precision! After checking both Yasunori Mitsuda AND Nobuo Uematsu are credited for Chrono Trigger OST! we were both right! <3
Ristar
jeff’s theme ~ maniac mansion
he was dumb as hell and completely useless but the theme was a banger
but also LITERALLY all of shadowgate nes <3
oh and secret of mana ~ snes, simcity ~ snes
and sonic 1 game gear just cause it reminds me of my uncle’s house















