Can't mention best NES tracks without Tim Follin. Silver Surfer level 1 is insane. Also the soundtrack for the unreleased game Time Trax.

One of the tracks from Mc Kids NES (a sort of McDonald's themed game). It has a lot of the components that I strongly associate with NES music. Idk if there's names for the different techniques.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhYM63nfMNA

all the MegaMan on the NES

The Thunderforce III and IV, the 3 (yes, three, including the experimental soundtrack of the third!) Streets of Rage on the MegaDrive
Anything Nobuo Uematsu on the SNES (Final Fantasy IV, V, VI, Chrono Trigger, Actraiser, etc.) and U.N Squadron

Soldier Blade and Final Soldier (and Air Zonk!) on the PCEngine (that a small part of the world calls TG16 for some reason?!)

Mystic Quest has so many bangers. I feel like it's getting the acknowledgement it deserves nowadays, but I remember when it was a pretty deep cut on music posts like this one.

The Dark King is still probably my favorite final boss theme, and Doom Tower right before it is amazing too.

Basically the entire soundtrack is way better than it deserves to be for the game that it's in.

The IG Donkey Kong Country, underwater levels. It was a major shift in game mechanics and mood when it started.

Excellent comment. One correction, Chrono Trigger music was by Yasunori Mitsuda, not Nobuo Uematsu.

I'd personally add Castlevania and maybe a few other Konami games from the NES to the list. I have a Castlevania track as my ringtone right now.

Agreed. LTTP is peak Zelda.

All the Megaman NES music was really good, but Megaman 2 is also my favorite. The first Wily track you linked is one of the best along with Airman and Bubbleman.

The boss track is also amazing. The soundtrack had no business for being this good, especially so early in the consoles lifetime. This game was also my very first turn based JRPG... it was a bit sad in Europe for RPG fans back then... BTW he did another SNES RPG soundtrack "Rudora no Hihou". It doesn't sound as good off course, but is worth exploring: Strange Encounter

The La Mulana sound track is amazing.
I really need to play the sequel already. I even kickstarted it.

Select screen by Zelda Link to Past completely messed with my brain, I've started to loop the theme since I first played the game for the first time months ago: https://photon.slrpnk.net/post/slrpnk.net/39723494

The OST was always decent on mystic quest, but the game itself was not so much. Also, good as the OST was, it was surrounded by (imo) superior OSTs from other Square games.

Most of my favorites have been covered here, but I haven't seen F-Zero for the SNES mentioned. It had a ton of great tracks (no pun intended).

F-Zero - Big Blue Theme. Still stuck in my head decades later.

The Stunt Race FX theme also goes hard.

While I do think anything by Mitsuda beats it, imo Mystic Quest is the best Final Fantasy soundtrack by a healthy margin (but then I also think Uematsu is pretty overrated, so that might not be so surprising).

I don't agree, but hey that's what opinions are for. I do have a distinct love for the Chrono Trigger and Xenogears OST that none of Uematsu's work can top though.

🤝

WOAH that pictionary track!

Danzen Dungeon - Dynamite Headdy
https://youtu.be/wkSSg4ozvQQ?is=08GE7sXjBJN6nug1

Hydrocity Zone Act 2 - Sonic 3
https://youtu.be/PNYL4w-qxcE?is=99ozwJkZyBA3fmhM

You're both right: Both of them worked on Chrono Trigger with Noriko Matsueda.

NES is Contra Jungle

SNES is Simon's Theme from Super Castlevania IV

N64 is probably most of F-Zero X

The 'Cube is rough since I grew up with it so I love a lot of it. Luigi's Mansion, Mario Sunshine, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess. Too hard to pick.

TG16 is the original Bonk. That level 1 music lives in my head.

Interesting, it appears Uematsu did compose a handful of the 60+ tracks. The vast Majority were composed by Mitsuda though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGcEZmb_LCg&t=322s

Been obsessed with this track from Hany in the Sky for PC Engine. Also you may be interested in the Legacy Music Hour podcast. They play tracks from third and fourth generation consoles and talk about them. It's no well known, but it is the longest rubbing VGM podcast. It is two comedians (well I guess one former comedian turned barber), but it is not a comedy podcast.

Oh yeah Super Castlevania IV has fantastic original music but especially Simon's theme.

Corneria from Star Fox is a fucking banger.

Plok

Try A Link to the Past Randomizer sometime.

Came to also post Chrono Trigger, but for me it is the Zeal theme.

There are a lot of comments mentioning Follin's work. Plok, Solstice, Silver Surfer, Pictionary, it's all there.

Have you tried Tunic? It's probably the closest non-Zelda game to scratch the Zelda itch for me.

Oh thanks for the precision! After checking both Yasunori Mitsuda AND Nobuo Uematsu are credited for Chrono Trigger OST! we were both right! <3

right! such amazing futuristic earworms!

That's also Tim Follin. 😂

Rye Umemoto is a legendary composer who worked on a large library of Japan-only PC games in the 90s, in particular, NEC PC-98 computers.

The PC-98 used a slightly more advanced but older FM synthesizer soundchip that was a relative of the one SEGA used in the Genesis. The Genesis had the YM2612 and the PC-98 had the YM2608.

His work on Xenon, Desire, YU-NO, EVE Burst Error, Grounseed, etc were just fire. I think his works were the best during that era. I havent found a single one of his songs to be subpar. He definitely knew a good song fit the mood of the game, and didn't only have fancy arpeggios.

Grounseed - Morning

Desire - Ishtal

YU-NO - Intro

Grounseed - Real. Life

EVE Burst Error - Room (Marina)

Because I haven't seen these posted yet:

My GOAT, Vectorman - https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLErsx10Ke4uzHIN8IfCxR42aNjNJXaW8s

Sonic & Knucles - https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL60EFD683648EAABA
Flying Battery Zone in particular.

X-Men - https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLErsx10Ke4uzRC7XAllJklKSGOqLBNV5U
Honourable mention, at very least it vibes thematically.

I am kinda boring since I'm usually not as big of a fan of music from the 16 bit consoles when compared to the next gen, but due to childhood nostalgia of playing Sonic Mega Collection, I love the Green Hill Zone theme alongside Emerald Hill Zone theme. I personally think they sound marvelous when I listen to them with headphones plugged into my Genesis.

I cannot make any meaningful statements about my other favorite, Palm Tree Panic ( present ) JP version since I don't have a Mega Drive, Mega CD, and Japanese copy of Sonic CD. But it's still a bop in my book.

Outrun. Magical Sound Shower. Splash Wave. Passing Breeze. Perfection.

The credits theme of Dragon Warrior II, released as Grow in CarboHydroM's remix album

See also CarboHydroM ~VG Rocks!~ - The Duck Side of the Moon

https://youtu.be/UAYRIYdh340?is=gmAPiRcMvQVbBvNp

the first and only thing that came to my mind. sure i have nostalgia for other game soundtracks like Tetris it smb on nes, or sonic on ps2, but road rash on Genesis was like another character in the game to me. thanks for making me think about this and pulling up the video so i could relive it!

Triforce hunt, green hearts, my avatar is some streamer (I forget who, I don't watch her streams but it's a cute character), there's a mode to guarantee an offensive weapon (not just the sword) from the uncle, I turn off the beeping... I usually win partway into Dark World. I love ALttPR.

Also, I only called it A Link to the Past because that's the official English title. What I actually play is Triforce of the Gods, which is a ROM hack that restores cut content and enables a lot of the cool shit from Randomiser. Like turning with the boots mid-dash. (For those who don't know, Nintendo had strict policies outside of Japan that Japan was not held to, and one of them was religious iconography. Triforce of the Gods (a translation of the Japanese title) had a lot, and it was changed for the English release. It's mostly stuff you wouldn't notice unless it was pointed out, but Nintendo didn't want to offend anyone back then. Oh, it also fixes some weird translation issues, like the infamous "Zelda is your..." cutoff that made everyone think Zelda was Link's sister or cousin. We later learned the left-off word was "destiny". In the GBA port, the uncle instead says "Our people are fated to do so," and I think that's what my version says. Oh, and on top of all that, just like Randomiser, it enables a lot of the 1.0 glitches, like "free flippers" (the only one I use, and really, only in Randomiser, so I can check under the bridge and, if I have moon pearl, I can check the cave just south of the Zora area.

It's my favourite game... I might know a thing or two about it. ;) But no worries, if someone else learned something, all the better.

Now if you wanna post speedrun times, that's different. I'm not competitive. Loads of ALttP/R fans can do it faster than me. I just enjoy the game.

Yep. Love Tunic. Pretty sure I 100%'d it on either PC, when I had one, or Xbox. I know I own it on both.

A Link to the Past was the first videogame I got obsessed with and truly love it. Glad I'm not the only one preferring it over Ocarina of Time. However, over the years I started thinking that maybe I was too hard on Ocarina of Time. But compared to A Link to the Past, I just don't want to replay it again. So maybe I was not wrong after all.

Also try the A Link to the Past + Super Metroid crossover Randomizer, where one plays both games connected through portals. One has to collect items in the other game for progression. I'm sure you are aware of it, just telling it for anyone reading these comments who aren't. Man I love the Mods and Romhacking community.

In short: This was the first big title to do music for Yasunori Mitsuda. He poured everything into it and got sick. That's why Nobuo Uematsu helped him out finishing the project and wrote a few tunes alongside. Here a more detailed story what happened: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrono_Trigger#Music

Ocarina of Time is too easy to play now. There's the original N64 version which should run on any machine. My iPhone can run it (via Delta, it's in the App Store). There's Ship of Harkinian, which is a PC port of the game which also runs on macOS, Linux, and Android. (Probably iOS too, but you'd have to sideload it and Apple does not make that easy.) I run it on my MacBook, it runs great. (I still suck at it.)

Sticking to legal methods, the 3DS port is probably the best version of it, since you get motion controls. The 3DS is also super easy to jailbreak with a 100% success rate, so you can go that route, but I own a 3DS (XL but not New 3DS) and I have the cart. Of course, I've dumped it to the 3DS internal memory, but I do own the cartridge. If you have a Switch (1 or 2), you can play it in the Virtual Console area. And of course the remake is coming to Switch 2.

I think Ocarina is worth a chance. I got farther in it than ever since when I was a kid. I remember I got to the village and was collecting chickens. Since then I haven't gotten past the first dungeon. The 3D stuff just doesn't work for me. Nintendo insists on making their controls ass backwards (they invert X which is weird AF but they don't always invert Y, which I absolutely need). So I can make the controls right on Ship of Harkinian, or most emulators where you can remap the controls. But it still doesn't quite move right for me. I wouldn't call myself a differently abled gamer (though, I do have hearing issues), but my issue with 3D Nintendo games falls somewhere in that category. I bought Super Mario Odyssey for the Switch and I have difficulty with that as well.

Going on a tangent, my wife got me Pragmata for my birthday, and I told her she should play the demo to see if it's a game she's able to play. By that I meant, it looks like a third-person shooter in the trailer, which is fine, but it's really a game where one person controls two characters, much like Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (which she finished). However, unlike Brothers, you have to act fast. For those who aren't familiar, you play a mercenary/soldier, and a little robot girl. The soldier shoots and the android hacks. A lot of the gameplay is having the android hack enemy defences while you shoot them with the soldier. The android rides on the soldier's back, so unlike Brothers, you don't have to move both of them (at least, not in the demo). But doing hacking minigames with one stick while aiming with the other is not something every gamer is going to automatically get, and some gamers, I assume, won't be able to play the game... much like I find myself unable to play 3D Nintendo games.

Yo, my PC is full or Roms and emulators. :D And I have Romhacks for Ocarina of Time too (and my 3DS is also hacked). So finding a way to play the game is not an issue for me. I played it back then (and finished), but never had the urge to play the regular game again. There are so many other games I want to play, that just can't find a good reason for Ocarina. But after playing Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom (for hundreds of hours), on Yuzu BTW, I am thinking back to how Ocarina of Time was. Especially so with the Remake off course.

Now I do not want to buy a Switch 2. The question is, if I want to play the game again, do I play the unmodified original on N64 emulator, or some version with Romhacks applied to it or even the Ship of Harkonian on PC. Or even the 3DS Remaster? It's astonishing how many ways we have to play the same game. :-)

jeff's theme ~ maniac mansion

he was dumb as hell and completely useless but the theme was a banger

but also LITERALLY all of shadowgate nes <3

oh and secret of mana ~ snes, simcity ~ snes

and sonic 1 game gear just cause it reminds me of my uncle's house

Ski Or Die

Super Mario Land or Mario Bros. 3. Amazing.