Saturday, April 4, 2009

My Obligatory Top 10 Soundtracks for Video Games...

Lately, I have been feeling like I should blog more even though Twitter has pretty much taken over. So I might as well do another obligatory top 10 list in relation to games, which is for my favorite game soundtracks for now (Keep in mind - Mostly recent stuff, no RPGs, and licensed stuff, sorry - plus this list could change anyway).

10) Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike



Even though I'm not that good at 3rd Strike, this game is still a crowd favorite even though SF4 is out. The music for the Street Fighter games underwent a new direction with 3rd Strike being more hip-hop, which is something that's worth it. Certain standouts from the soundtrack are Elena's theme, "Beats in My Head," and Ken/Alex's theme "Jazzy NYC 99."

9) WipeOut HD



Okay, maybe we are starting to get a theme going with the hip-hop/electronica, but I love the soundtrack for WipeOut HD. It fits the futuristic theme and makes u want to blast the sounds way up. Even though custom soundtracks are more preferrable to this game for more electronica music, the base soundtrack alone is still worth listening to while racing at breakneck speeds.

8) Super Smash Bros. Brawl



What happens when a soundtrack gets the ultimate Nintendo fan service treatment, you get Super Smash Bros. Brawl. A great mix of new and old tracks from Nintendo games of the past and the present. Even the third-party franchises, Metal Gear and Sonic, had a great selection of tracks in this game. Then again, if you're a serious player, you are probably sick of the Final Destination theme since that stage gets played a lot in tournament-level events. Despite whether or not the fans love or hate Brawl because of the gameplay changes, it is still an amazing package and the soundtrack is one of the reasons why its amazing.

7) Bionic Commando Rearmed



BCR's soundtrack is arugably the greatest example of how a remake should be done. The remixed tracks just sound amazing from the theme song or the albatross theme at the end of the game. It has the sense of both old and new for the fans of the original game on the NES. I just hope Grin will deliver on the 3D Bionic Commando soundtrack as well when the game is out next month.

6) Super Mario Galaxy



Once again, another example of a soundtrack consisting a bit of the old and the new making it special. If u remember, Super Mario Galaxy is my favorite game of 2007 despite the stiff competition from Halo 3, COD4, and Mass Effect, because the game is that damn good. The soundtrack is the main reasons why SMG is such a special game with the orchestral tunes at Battlerock and Gusty Garden to the nostalgic remixes of the Airship theme from SMB3 and the Bowser theme from Mario 64. Every song this game offers just puts a smile on your face because it is that special and epic.

5) Street Fighter IV



Love or hate the intro song, "The Next Door" by Exile or "Indestructible," Street Fighter IV's soundtrack is still another great mix of the old and new from the remixed character themes to the some of the other stages' music. Personally, its the character themes that make the soundtrack special and #5 on the list even though they rarely get played (only in single player rival battles and online lobbies).

4) Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion



I still think the Tekken franchise offers the greatest soundtracks for fighting games and Bloodline Rebellion is another example of that. There is lots of variety contained in this soundtrack within the stages from the Electric Fountain theme of techno reminding u of Maximum Tune, to the random yodeling stage of awesomeness, which is the Hidden Retreat.

3) Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune (franchise)



Alright, I'm counting the entire Wangan Midnight Maximum Tune franchise as one spot in my top 10 because Yuzo Koshiro is too awesome and this is just an example of his greatness with his music. Maximum Tune 3 DX does contain some new songs, but also contains the soundtracks of the previous 3 games, which is cool hearing stuff like "This is My Destiny," "Blue Blazes," "Get You Cornered," and more. This soundtrack is too good that I sometimes blast it while driving in my car because its actually relaxing music for me to drive to that I don't need to change track on my iPod that much. Even though it feels like driving electronica music, it is also randomly club music in some way as well, which is crazy.

2) Rez / Rez HD



I finally showed this off to friends last night (Even though I showed them area 1) and yeah, they don't get the awesomeness that is Rez, aka agruably my favorite game of this decade. I already put up a video of the greatest level in all of gaming, area 5 in previous posts, so might as well post the video for the second greatest level in all of gaming, area 4. If u played Rez before, Area 4's song just keeps building and building to the main event, aka the boss battle, which is one of many reasons why Rez is awesome in so many ways. I just wished I can show off these areas to more people because even though it is still trippy stuff, it is one of the greatest games ever among the hardcore crowd.
 


1) Streets of Rage 2



So my favorite gaming soundtrack for now is Streets of Rage 2 because it is just filled with memorable tunes from beginning to end with "Go Straight," the greatest song in all of gaming, "Dreamer," and the hype fest that is "Expander." I just love this game too much I guess as u just want to blast the music loud while beating up fools and perhaps even dance to it at a club, which is the case in the video below. (Skip to 4 minutes for "Dreamer") Quite simply, Yuzo Koshiro is still my favorite video game composer and SoR2 is a showcase of his greatest work and WMMT is most of his recent stuff.



Okay, this post is getting long. Might as well end it here. More obligatory top 10 lists coming soon.

UPDATE - Honorable Mention: The Mortal Kombat movie theme song!!



Okay, it is in this clip that YouTube user TheSwitcher made featuring the awesomely bad movie, Mortal Kombat Annhilation (Hey, it was cool when I was young). This video is actually the movie in ten minutes in case u have never seen this thing called a movie (Actually the first movie was pretty good).

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