My Favorite Video Game Soundtracks

“It’s less awful than it sounds, I swear”

If you ask my mom what video game songs she knows, she’ll probably start to hum a few bars from Dr. Mario if she’s played it recently.  If you ask my dad, he’d probably say something about the incredible Rayman Legends version of “Black Betty” and whatever music you can listen to on the Far Cry 3 radio.  If you ask my brother, I think he’ll shrug and start singing the Portal 2 credits song.  But if you ask me, I think I’d probably go with Reel Big Fish.

The world of video game music is an odd one, because despite popular opinion, it isn’t just chiptunes and variations on the Mario theme song.  Believe it or not, most video games these days have multi-channel songs arranged by professional composers and sometimes even performed by massive orchestras, occasionally for live audiences.  This isn’t to say it’s always been this way; of course, the music started off as Mario, Zelda, Tetris, and the like.  But like any art form, the music of video games has grown since then, and some people, like the London Philharmonic Orchestra, have taken note.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has put out a couple of albums of the greatest video game songs of all time, often arranged specifically for the Orchestra, and these albums are absolutely incredible.  They give a dramatic flair, a sense of permanence and development, a sense of history that just listening to the song as it was played by a computer can’t do.  It elevates the songs beyond just background noise and into something like Holst’s The Planets or John Philip Sousa marches.  But they aren’t the original pieces.

Besides the fact that the London Philharmonic Orchestra albums are missing some of my personal favorites, they aren’t the original songs.  They’re something different, yes, something far more worldly and far less interested in making money, but the originals are themselves just as special for different reasons.  Catchy chords are one of the most effective ways to stick in someone’s memories, as advertisement jingles know perfectly well. And at least for me, video game music can make or break an experience.  Especially with setting things like mood and ambiance, something like Hyrule Field just wouldn’t be right without the heroic fanfare it comes with.

I don’t really want to talk about the importance of music in general, or the psychological reactions associated with music, or how music can build a sense of place, or the sheer genius of professional video game composers like Koji Kondo, or anything like that, because it’s been done before.  I could do it again, but honestly, I don’t want to.  For as much as I write about music, I know very little about music theory.  But what I can definitely tell you is the music that I like.

I think that video game music tends to get a bum rap because it’s usually just seen as background noise, and in a lot of games, it is.  Dark Souls uses music beautifully to raise the stakes in its boss battles, but I wouldn’t recognize a single one of them if you played them on the street.  They’re swelling orchestral pieces, but they sound very much like something I’d play in high school band.  Which is why the greatest, most memorable video game pieces are something different entirely; as much as I love the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s covers, video game music in its purest form is a different genre of music entirely.  It isn’t made to be played in a concert hall.  It’s made to be a part of an experience.

Which may make listening to video game music out of context kind of jarring.  I get why people like my mom or brother or anyone else doesn’t enjoy listening to my video game playlists.  To them, it’a just instruments, like listening to a symphonic band.  Some video game songs can stand on their own, sure, but to me, a great many of them get their power from the associations that memory carries with them.  At least that’s how I justify listening to them when I work out.

I like to make up music videos for songs in my head as I run on a track or lift weights, and video game music is perfect for exactly this because there’s no distracting lyrics and each song is specifically tailored to develop a certain emotion.  It’s thrilling to imagine fight scenes in my head even as I run in circles for an hour, and it helps relieve the boring monotony of going to the gym.  I appreciate video game music for that, too; for being something special, something very exciting.  It isn’t like generic pop music, or even like generic rock music.  It’s something else.

None of this particularly matters much.  Music is music is music, and art is in the ear of the beholder and all that.  Everyone has their own tastes and preferences, and I just happen to like upbeat instrumental pieces just as much as I like upbeat classic rock tunes, and video games happen to have the best upbeat instrumental pieces I know, besides maybe Beats Antique.  So, anyway, here’s some of my favorite soundtracks from video games, and some of the songs that I like to run by.

Undertale

Despite what’s good for me, I apparently talk about Undertale a lot.  I’m not proud of this fact.  As incredible as the game is for so, so many reasons, I find no pleasure in publicly admitting this.  Which is why it’s especially painful to admit that I sometimes lift weights to the sound of “Megalovania.”

One of the greatest parts of Undertale, and of Toby Fox’s work as a whole, is the soundtrack.  It’s all without words, all electronic, all made by one man, and all incredible.  It does such a fantastic job of emulating feelings and moods, from the nostalgic “Home” and “Undertale” to the flamboyant “Bonetrousle” or “Death by Glamour.”  And don’t even get me started on the brilliant mayhem that is “Your Best Nightmare” or the final “bossitude” of “Megalovania,” to quote Fox himself.  Every song feels like a hit, and the fact that Fox continues to do this just astonishes me.

I especially like “Megalovania,” in case I didn’t make that clear.  I want it in the movie adaptation of that one horror book I’ll eventually write. And these are the things that keep me occupied at the gym.

Pikmin Series

This post may end up feeling a bit lengthy for people who don’t particularly like video games or don’t really know what I’m talking about, so I’ll try to keep it short and to the point.  The point being that I can’t choose just one Pikmin game because the music on all them of is great.

As I’ve said before and as I’ll say again (probably a few times), video game music is special because it evokes a particular time, place, and mood, and Pikmin does this is spades.  The eerie guitar-picking in the background of “The Forest Navel,” the depressingly reminiscent piano of “The Wistful Wild,” the soothing sounds of rain in Pikmin 3, each game has something in it that makes it stand out in my memory, for one reason or another.  It may be partially because I now associate Pikmin with my childhood, and these memories bring peace, but that’s just another part of the magic to me.

Also, with the Pikmin franchise’s focus on nature and the natural world, the fact that most of this music sounds like something you could hear in a garden is quite refreshing compared to some of the more jarring pieces of music that I like to listen to.  I actually did a project in high school where I made a medley of my favorite Pikmin pieces for an electronic music class, if that tells you anything.  Nintendo, I’m willing to contribute to Pikmin 4.  Please.  Please, just make the damn game already.  Hey! Pikmin didn’t cut it.

Halo Series

Halo means something to me mostly because it’s another game I associate with my childhood, and the first M-rated game I was allowed to play.  Specifically, I was first introduced to Halo: Reach, and while it may not be everyone’s favorite iteration of the shooting formula, it got the music right.  The whole series gets the music right.

I don’t know the names of the songs by heart, but looking them up, a couple of my favorites are this one and this one and this other version, and I feel pretty confident that if you’ve played any Halo game, you’ll recognize at least one of those.  I know I said earlier that I didn’t remember the Dark Souls music because it felt very much like something I’d heard before, and Halo, for much of the time, is the same way.  But then you get these absolute masterpieces that come along on the soundtrack and blow your ears away.  There aren’t a lot of other first-person shooters that can claim that.

Donkey Kong Country Series

I never actually played Donkey Kong 64, but I know that stupid, stupid rap from Smash Bros.  And yet, despite the strange mess that DK64 seems to be, the first two Donkey Kong Country games and the later ones on the Wii and Wii U have some of the absolute jazziest songs I’ve heard outside of actual jazz.

“Aquatic Ambiance.” “Stickerbrush Symphony.”  “Jungle Hijinx.” “Minecart Madness.” All the “Rocket Barrel” songs.  “Gangplank Galleon.” Gangplank fucking galleon.  God, I love that song.  And I love to work out to it.  It makes me feel so pumped up, so ready to go.  Yeah, I want to lift these weights and throw my crown at people!  YEAH! LIZARDS!

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Donkey Kong, who swings from tree to tree, has swing music over a lot of the games.  It’s jazzy, it’s catchy, it’s upbeat, and it’s just a great soundtrack to listen to even as you die over and over to those bullshit minecarts.  There aren’t a lot of video games that utilize the power and versatility of jazz and blues, but at least there’s Donkey Kong Country. And Cuphead.

Super Smash Bros. Series

Alright, I’ll admit it, this one is cheating.  In much the same way that the London Philharmonic Orchestra remastered and remade so many seminal video game classics, Super Smash Bros. regularly creates new renditions of old favorites so you can listen to the greatest hits of an entire series while you beat the ever-loving shit out of Mario.  And because of this, and the fact that Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has over 800 fucking songs, I think it’s cheating to include that soundtrack.  But I’m going to do it anyway.

You’ve got the classic masterpieces from Mario, like songs from Super Mario 64 or Super Mario World or Super Mario Galaxy.  You’ve got the beautiful melodies of Zelda’s Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, not to mention Wind Waker and Skyward Sword.  You’ve got new versions of Mega Man songs, new versions of Sonic the Hedgehog songs, new versions of Metroid songs.  And you’ve got “Vampire Killer.”  Oh yes, I love “Vampire Killer.”

If I ever needed one soundtrack to listen to for the rest of my life, it would easily be Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.  The composition and variety are incredible, and it takes the absolute best pieces from the absolute best games.  If you ask me, it’s the ultimate set of video game music, maybe ever.  While it doesn’t have Undertale, or Halo, or Banjo-Kazooie, or Hotline Miami, or Minecraft, or Silent Hill, or Portal, or Doom, or Cuphead,or Return of the Obra Dinn, or the special Chuck Ragan soundtrack, it does have “Waluigi Pinball,” and what more could you ask for?

Disney Extreme Skate Adventure

I had to include this one.  There’s no way that I couldn’t.  Even though it goes against everything I’ve been saying about video game music, since every song has lyrics and not a single one was made for the game specifically, it still takes me back to special memories, like any other great video game soundtrack.

Keeping in line with the other Tony Hawk skating video games, Disney Extreme Skate Adventure (or DESA) utilizes hip-hop and punk to create a soundtrack straight out of the late 90’s and early 2000’s.  The difference between DESA and the other Tony Hawk games is that all the songs on the DESA soundtrack are kid-friendly.  It’s incredibly dated now, and I’ve never heard some of these bands outside of this game, but I still know every word to every song on this soundtrack.

My brother and I would play this game for hours.  We’d have our friends over and just skate around in the Toy Story and Lion King levels for a seemingly endless amount of time.  We’d grind on elephant bones, jump from spaceships, and do sick tricks all while listening to the same twelve songs over and over again, and we loved it.

A friend of mine recently booted up an old copy of the game on his Playstation, and my brother and I played it for a while, and that was when I realized that these songs are permanently seared into my brain.  It was also what inspired this article. And honestly, I kind of love it for that, these permanent memories.  It takes a special sort of skill to create a soundtrack that’ll stick with you for all eternity.  Whether that skill is good or bad, I don’t really know.

But you know what?  “Sell Out” still smacks, as my brother says.  Ska doesn’t get old.  And neither does Smash Mouth.  Or Lil’ Romeo.  Oh, yes.  I love these songs. All of them. Forever.