I'll be right up front and honest with you, I'm not a huge fan of this game's soundtrack. I know it gets praise from a lot of other gaming outlets, but not only do I not think it's anywhere close to Secret of Mana in quality, but it's average compared to most of Square's other work and even for RPGs in general. The best songs are remixes of Secret of Mana songs and the instrument sample quality is generally poor, with the single exception of the piano. The electric snare drum is nowhere near as realistic-sounding as it was in Secret of Mana, and there generally is not a lot of exciting, electrically-charged music. It's mostly laid-back, simple, plodding melodies. Well, anyway, enough of my complaining, here are a few songs I thought were okay, but I'm probably not going to be putting up too much else from this game unless it eventually grows on me.

I never really got into playing this game, and it doesn't seem to have a very good reputation, but land sake's, it's got a great soundtrack! Tim and Geoff Follin really strut their stuff here.

I can't confess to being a huge fan of this game's soundtrack, but there is one song that really stood out to me above all others, which I'll spotlight here. This mp3 was swiped from Galbadia Hotel, so go there if you want more from this game's soundtrack because they've got the whole thing.

A rather obscure SNES game that has some good music and graphics. Too bad it was a little too short and easy of a game.

Not only is Star Fox one of my all-time favorite games, but it also includes one of my favorite game soundtracks. It combines John Williams-ish symphonic pieces (a la Star Wars) with rock music borne on quirky sound samples to form one of the most unique and memorable game soundtracks that exists (far superior, IMO, to Star Fox 64). It's too bad Hajime Hirasawa gave up videogame music composition for ringtones, but at least he left his mark before he did.

Music also featured on:
Game Ending Songs Extravaganza
Rec Room Spotlight: Star Fox

The game that launched the fighting game craze still remains one of my all-time favorite games. It has some good music, too! Some early Yoko Shimomura work is present in this soundtrack, although I'm unsure exactly which compositions are hers. Note: These are all from the original SNES version of Street Fighter 2: The World Warrior except where otherwise noted!

The music of Stunt Race FX is a guilty pleasure of mine. Normally, I'm not too fond of goofy-sounding calypso silliness, but occasionally a composer will "get it right", which is usually accomplished by doing something a little out-of-the-ordinary with either the melody or the choice of instruments or both. In this case, I think it helped that they reused some of the quirky sound samples from Star Fox.

I once described Super E.D.F.'s music as being the "light rock" of shooter music, and that's pretty much what it is. Here are my three favorite songs from the soundtrack.

This game has a great symphonic score. It rather impressed me when I first heard it.

Three great melodies from this fantastic 3D platformer, although only one of them ("Dire Dire Docks") took full advantage of the N64's capabilities of handling dynamic tracks (in other words, music that changes slightly as you move around to different areas). Some fantastic stuff that exemplifies why Koji Kondo stays near the top of his field.

I could not have a great game music feature on this site without including the original Super Mario Bros. theme. While I cannot say it is my personal favorite videogame song, I can easily see an argument for it being the greatest videogame song of all time. Most videogame songs before Super Mario Bros. were either very short, simplistic jingles consisting of only a few squarewave notes, or were variations of pre-existing songs (such as Bach's "Toccata & Fugue" in Gyruss). The Super Mario Bros. theme (which is well over a minute before it loops) demonstrated that videogame music could be as long, complex, memorable, and timeless as any other form of music.

Aside from having some of the most memorable tunes in the Super Mario Bros. series, SMB3 also features some of the most realistic-sounding PCM timpani drums on the NES. I put up most of the soundtrack since almost all of it is excellent, and only skipped a few things here and there that were more functional than listenable (like the short fanfares and jingles and the Ice World map which I don't really like so much.) I've also included some of the Super NES remakes of these songs from Super Mario All-Stars.

Music also featured on:
Game Ending Songs Extravaganza

Yoko Shimomura is one of my favorite game music composers. Her Super Mario RPG score is wonderfully whimsical - a perfect fit for the game's story, tone, and characters.

About half of Super Metroid's soundtrack is slow-paced, ambient stuff, which I don't find very memorable even if it does sort of work in-game to amplify the alien atmosphere. Here are some of the more standout songs from my #2 favorite game of all time.

Super Ninja Boy features a lot of music that was reused from the NES predecessor, Little Ninja Brothers, and the Game Boy's Ninja Boy 2, as well as some original tunes and cameo tunes from other Culture Brain game series. Unfortunately, the choice of generally poor sound samples makes them inferior to their NES counterparts. They're not terribly bad because the melodies are still (for the most part) intact, and they're good songs to begin with. I just wish they had done a better job and taken full advantage of the Super NES's sound capabilities. The original compositions and the Game Boy conversions turned out a little better.

Music also featured on:
Magic of Scheherazade Oddities

Okay, this game is not that good (really, it's not), but eh, some of the music is kind of catchy and neat.