Video games aren’t just entertainment, they’re works of art. Like movies, a soundtrack can make a movie great or it can make it memorable. Here’s a list of our favorite video game soundtracks.
Of course, everyone has their favorite soundtrack to a video game. Do you have one that’s not listed? Please share them with us!
The Legend of Zelda (any of them)
This can be any Legend of Zelda title. Composed by legendary composer and Nintendo employee, Koji Kondo, the music is so unique and distinguished that folks from all ages can recognize the music as from this franchise. Winning numerous awards throughout the years, the soundtrack for The Legend of Zelda made this one of the most popular franchises in the gaming industry. Without it, I feel it would simply be another RPG.
Red Dead Redemption
As a western, you’d expect western style music and you’ll have plenty of it in Red Dead Redemption. What sets this soundtrack apart is how well the music pulls you into the story. Artists Bill Elm and Woody Jackson didn’t create some random western riffs and guitar playing, but scores that seem to expand on the story during your adventure and truely immerse you into the game.
Katamari Damacy
Katamari Damacy has one of the, well, silliest soundtracks of any game. But in a good way. The game is fun and the music is catchy and playful. One would think that creating a soundtrack for a game where you roll over everything and anything into a giant ball would be difficult, but the composers did an astonishing job of making it happen.
Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3
I’ve always been a Command and Conquer fan and the soundtrack when the game was released was a big part of it. The theme of the music pulled me in and hyped me up to take command and annihilate my enemies. The reason I specified Red Alert 3 is that it remade much of the older music and remastered them to sound much nicer (modern technology and all that). In the same way Eye of the Tiger motivates you to exercise or warm-up before sports, Red Alert prepared you play a wargame and kick ass doing so.
Final Fantasy VII
Arguabely the best Final Fantasy game out there. The soundtrack, composed by Nobuo Uematsu was simplistic in its style, but captivating in its implementation. Unlike other soundtracks of Japanese centric titles, the Uematsu preferred a realistic style over the silly/exorbitant style that one would find in other titles such as Katamari Damacy The audio itself was rather basic as it was created to use the original playstation audio processor, it still provided tunes that both aligned perfectly with the game and had a few songs that could get stuck in your head long after hearing them.
Silent Hill
One of the biggest ways to pull you into a survival/horror title is a great soundtrack. Silent Hill is known to be one of the most disturbing and suspensful horror titles out there and with good reason. It’s soundtrack seemed to creep along with you during your exploration and assist in scaring the crap out of you at just the right moments. I’m looking at you, Scarlet Boss!
Super Mario (any of them)
You can’t have a list like this and not include Mario in some form. Spanning 40 years(!), Super Mario has become a staple of any household with virtually any video game system used today. Super Mario has taken form in a multitude of genre’s of all kinds but one thing stayed the same, the music. It’s been remade, remixed, remastered but always kept its classic tune. It’s one of those soundtracks that will always stay in the hearts of gamers everywhere.
The Last of Us
The Last of Us is one of those games that defined a genre. It wasn’t simply a survival game, but one that put you in the position of caring for one of the characters in such a way that you felt paternal in your efforts of making sure nothing happened to her. Composer Gustavo Santaolalla ensured that each piece reflected the emotion that was happening in a way that one would feel watching a drama scene. It wasn’t overdone, nor tacky, but refined in its simplicity to really make you feel as if you were Joel caring for Ellie.
