Best/worst in game music

[Radec]

Stolen the idea off one of the posts in the hardest game thread but which games had the best/worst music/soundtracks.

Mostly from my arcade/SNES days, the good ones

Outrun - magical sound shower
Street fighter 2 - player themes
Super Turrican
GTA had some great tracks

[mike80]

Cannon Fodder intro!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiYuq6Ac3a0

[HustleRussell]

Another win for the GTA series in my opinion, especially Vice City

[boxst]

My favourite from a long while ago is Monty on the Run:

https://youtu.be/4EcgruWlXnQ

[SturdyHSV]

GTA realistically takes this for me, and would also agree that Vice City is the best of the GTA series.

In terms of original music, I'd put the Metal Gear Solid series up there, good old Harry Gregson-Williams

Serious honourable mention goes to Interstate '76, absolutely brilliant all original funk soundtrack (if HEAVILY inspired by period tracks) and the game CD worked in a standard CD player too.

[aka_kerrly]

GTA has always had super sound tracks!

Forza and Gran Turismo deserve a mention, the forza horizon series has a Hospital Records radio station which is particularly good.

[Mr E]

I’d suggest this category needs to be for “music when you had 4 channels and no space”.

Otherwise anything from the PlayStation onwards could basically have your favorite band or a full orchestra. Or both.

Agony on the Amiga had amazing music.
Turrican 2 from the 8 bits was pretty awesome.

[Donbot]

Resident Evil directors cut - the inexplicable basement theme replacement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kcF7E69C6Q

[FunkyNige]

Most annoyingly catchy that I still think of about 15 years after I last played it is the lift music from Blood 2
https://youtu.be/QZcxaptD5N8

[Radec]

If anyone remembers Hotline Miami, that had an awesome soundtrack.
Deffo worth checking out.

[Mannginger]

Tetris surely?

More modern: Halo CE

Bit of a cheat: Barber's Adagio used in Homeworld when you come back to your home planet and it's been devastated

[deckster]

Mr E said:

I’d suggest this category needs to be for “music when you had 4 channels and no space”.

Otherwise anything from the PlayStation onwards could basically have your favorite band or a full orchestra. Or both.

Agreed. Racing to Prodigy on Wipeout 2097 was iconic, but it was basically just playing a CD.

That said, some of the things they can do these days with dynamic music that responds to what's going on in-game is pretty awesome. I think Elite Dangerous was the first time I encountered this and it's amazing how much atmosphere it adds.

[Stevil]

Radec said:

If anyone remembers Hotline Miami, that had an awesome soundtrack.
Deffo worth checking out.

Yes, that was a really catchy one and suits the game down to the ground, I even recognised it immediately when I heard it on the recent Last Of Is 2 gameplay demo where someone is playing it on a Vita in-game. Streets of Rage as a series has a great soundtrack.

[DiamondLights]

GTA Vice City obviously had the greatest sound track of all time. 1980's era? Riding a bike into the sunset along the beach with Bryan Adams on the radio? Yes please. And who can forget the smooth DJ sounds of Fernando...

Honourable mentions to Metal Gear Solid (best game of all time) and Streets of Rage techno tunes (FYI SoR 4 releases this year and looks fantastic!)

[cerb4.5lee]

Radec said:

Outrun - magical sound shower

Splash wave is my favourite, but I do really like magical sound shower too though.

[Ransoman]

This is very much a topic I am into as a lot of my day to day listening is Video game music.

Here are just some of my favorite OST's and some of my picks of the soundtracks from each:

Streets of Rage - Mega Drive - Level 3
Ecco the Dolphin - Mega CD version
Gauntlet IV - Mega drive - Sortie
Shantae 1/2 Genie hero - Various - Neo Burning Town
Nier: Automata - Various - The whole soundtrack is gold.
Nier - PS3/Xbox 360 - the ultimate weapon, Gods bound by rules
Final Fantasy VII Remake - Intro
Final Fantasy XV - Various - Wanderlust

I could go on.

[A Winner Is You]

Donbot said:

Resident Evil directors cut - the inexplicable basement theme replacement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kcF7E69C6Q

Fun fact - the composer claimed to be deaf and was exposed as a complete fraud

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/resident-evil-on...

As for the best, so many to choose from, especially from the 16 bit era:

F-Zero
Donkey Kong Country
Jurassic Park
Secret of Mana
Doom (pretty much all of them
Killer Instinct (original and remake)

[Leicester Loyal]

GTA Vice City and all GTAs are the obvious choice, so I'll go for something a bit different.

The menu music on the original GRID game has always stuck with me, I loved it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhNRweaZEkY&t

Also the intro music by Queens of the Stone Age was great too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azLeHF7Py7k

[Radec]

I used to love this level just for the music

https://youtu.be/HMvkkqxs8m0

[Matt Cup]

MSX FM on GTA 3 will always have a place in my heart. Probably my favourite radio station out of the entire series.