^ (Credit to "Leno" for this drawing of Mario.)Today's blog entry: Some of my favorite video game tunes. I'm going to go ahead and make this a monthly series of sorts, where I choose 10 from a list of my favorite video game themes. I don't want to pick ones that are overly cliche, but some you may recognize.
Note: I'm going to jump around back and forth between newer games and older games. I like some of the old pieces with old-fashioned 8-bit themes and I like orchestral music that is used with some of the current generation games and systems.
These aren't in any particular order of interest, but they're numbered in order to note the same song in the post:
Anyhow!
#1 - Yoshi's Story - "Ending" (N64)
Anyone who knows my gaming habits will know that this is my stage/song of choice in Super Smash Bros. Brawl Matches. Stage: Yoshi's Island with this song playing. Personally, I like the cruel irony of four people beating the hell out of each other to such a sad song.
And the Super Smash Bros Brawl Remix!
#2 - DuckTales "Moon Theme" (NES)
Seriously, one of the most underrated songs of our time. I haven't even heard of the game or the song myself until video game music enthusiast Brentalfloss did a remix of it. (Below)
I don't know who at Capcom was doing the music for that game, but they are an 8-bit genius.
#3 - Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals - Sinistral Battle Theme (SNES)
This has to be one of the most badass boss themes I've ever heard. Ever. I used to beat this game repeatedly when I was 6-7 years old just to hear this over and over.
Taito and Natsume really had a good series going from them, Square-Enix owns the rights to this franchise now, and they recently re-did the game for the DS. While it is a great action RPG in its own right, the remixed soundtrack doesn't hold a candle to the SNES classic.
#4 - Final Fantasy XII - The Paramina Rift / "Seeking Power" (PS2)
This is one of the Final Fantasy titles that veteran of the series Nobuo Uematsu didn't do any of the regular compositions for and just contributed the main theme. Hitoshi Sakimoto contributed the other themes to the soundtrack, and this is my favorite out of the game.
#5 - Super Mario Land 2 - Star Maze (Game Boy)
I actually forgot about this game's soundtrack, I haven't played this game in years, since I had a Game Boy Pocket. Recently, I heard an interesting YTPMV remix of this theme starring Jack Black's appearance on Sesame Street by cs188.
#6 - Pokemon Black and White - "Emotion" (Nintendo DS)
My friend sent me a URL to this song a few months back out of the blue. I'm very surprised to hear this out of a Pokemon game, they really put some new directions in their pieces, and this one was an unexpected twist. (As I hadn't gotten that far in the game when he sent it to me as he completed the game before I did.)
#7 - Breath of Fire III - "Life's a Beach" (PS1)
Breath of Fire is an underrated RPG series by Capcom that was primarily developed in the 1990's. I only played the third in the series, but this theme is really catchy! Probably my favorite in the game for sure. (I will need to play through it one of these days.)
#8 - Final Fantasy XIV - Track 50 (PC/PS3)
I have not heard this theme in-game yet, but I have to say that it's one of my favorite newer themes from Uematsu. I think if the game didn't have such of a catastrophic launch, then there would possibly be more cutscenes in which this theme would be used, but everything got kind of put on hold. I'm looking forward to hopefully hearing this in game soon.
#9 - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - "Bramble Blast" (SNES)
Probably one of my favorite 16-bit era platformer themes. David Wise composed the music for DKC2 and I find it to be shameful he wasn't signed on for the new DKC:Returns for the Wii. Donkey Kong Country 2 had the best music and gameplay in the series by far, and this is one of my favorite themes out of them.
There was also a Brawl Remix and a fan remix involving the Fresh Prince.
#10 - Super Mario 64 - Bomb-Omb Battlefield / Super Mario Galaxy 2 - Throwback Galaxy
These two share the theme, but it's a classic. This game did a lot to the 3D platforming genre, and is probably one of the most memorable themes of the N64 and the 3D Mario era.
Koji Kondo FTW. :D
No comments:
Post a Comment