Best Music on SNES?

[icest0rm]

What game do you think had the best music on the SNES?

To me, I have to go with Actraiser. When I first heard the music on that game, I was simply awed. That was the first time video game music had ever "wowed" me.

[kainemaxwell]

Early SNES I'll second Actraiser (especially Fillmore Act 1) and Castlevania IV. Later games I'll say all of Square's titles (Secret of Mana, FF4 and 6, Chrono Trigger).

[Raedon]

ff3

[digitalpress]

The first game that came to mind, like Raedon's, is FF III.

I have a soundtrack CD of the game, and I still listen to it from time to time, even after all of these years. It's inspiring.

[NE146]

Yeah I had the same awe from Actraiser as well. Maybe because it was so early in the SNES release when NES was still fresh in our minds (Genesis/TG-16 notwithstanding).

[DDCecil]

Super Turrican and Actraiser pop into my mind. All of Square's RPGs have great music, too.

[ubersaurus]

I loved the soundtrack to the SNES version of Dracula X...Chrono Trigger also had a fantastic soundtrack. And that synthesized harmonica wail of yoshi's island is just too memorable to forget. Mario RPG was another great, alogn with F-Zero.

Great sound that thing could do!

[Bratwurst]

Demon's Crest.

[Kid Fenris]

Final Fantasy III and Chrono Trigger had great soundtracks, but I'll never forget the music from Secret of Mana. Sometimes, I'd turn on the game and let the title theme play over and over . . .

[jaydubnb]

One word: Axelay.

Perhaps the most complete gaming soundtrack ever. Nothing but memorable tunes. Stage Two's music is f'n AWESOME.

[Daniel Thomas]

Funny how it is that we're choosing the earliest SNES games we saw. Does that say more about how impressed we were at the beginning, or how mundane the later soundtracks became.

Personally, I'll go with Castlevania 4. There was such a sense of creative freedom in that title; wonderfully moody, with one of the only jazz-infested scores I've heard in a game. The standout song is this heavy piano piece that plays as Simon Belmont is climbing a waterful. When I was in college, this song actually gave my roommate nightmares.

[WiseSalesman]

Chrono Trigger and Donkey Kong Country

[Arqueologia_Digital]

Final Fantasy III
Actraiser
Super Metroid

[Starcade]

Super Metroid
Chrono Trigger
Actraiser
Mega Man X3

[Retsudo]

i love the music from Gradius 3. Also I really love the tunes from Streetfighter 2 :D

[Ruudos]

I liked the music of Uniracers

[Kamisama]

Super Robot Taisen had some great tune as well as those RGPs imo

[Kairi]

Final Fantasy VI (3 US) and Chrono Trigger. :)

[badinsults]

Super Castlevania IV and Super Return of the Jedi.

[Eternal Champion]

Actraiser--Music by Yuzo Koshiro, who of course did the music for Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage 2 and 3...
I haven't encountered music on SNES that struck me as much as those games or Thunder Force 2 and 3...

[dreamcaster]

A music thread I see? (dreamcaster's eyes glisten with joy).

But restricted only to the SNES? :(

Oh, well, there's enough there!

Here we go (in no particular order...):

Top Gear 3000 - damn cool futuristic tunes.

Super Metroid - Most atmospheric and dark music ever!

Super Mario All-Stars - hearing those classic SNES tunes in multi-channel, hi-quality stereo sound was just heaven! Still is!

Nigel Mansell's World C'ship Racing - There's not much variety, but that tune that plays while you're racing is excellent!

Starwing/StarFox - Excellent theatrical and dramatic music. Especially the end theme!

Stunt Race FX - catchy and funky music throughout. Plus the end credits theme is just bliss!

PilotWings - Soothing and flowing tunes. Best heard through stereo speakers.

There's more (Super R-Type, Top Gear 2) plus some more I can't think of right now...

[ManekiNeko]

Konami's, easily. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters sounds spectacular. I've always loved Konami's intense music orchestratration... it really adds punch to the games they create. Too bad most of their soundtracks are much more subtle now...
Am I the only one that got a headache from listening to the supposedly great Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts soundtrack? All those synthesized instruments drove me nuts... I actually preferred the less advanced but more gentle themes in Ghouls 'n Ghosts for the Genesis.

JR

POST 32!

[metal_head]

Some that come to mind for me are the watery theme from Donkey Kong Country, fabbo chill out music that I have listened to on many occasions, and another is an old Amiga game called " Fury of the Furries".

"Project X" on the Amiga had a cool intro tune too.

And "Ghostbusters" on the C64...and "Shadowfire" on C64 ( I think it was Shadowfire....an icon driven game from Beyond software).

Some of the tunes on "Apidya" for the Amiga were cool too.

Dont know if you got all these in the states.......

[zmeston]

I always loved the tunage in Equinox.

-- Z.

[TheRedEye]

Hell, I'll limit it to one song. "Gangplank Galleon" from Donkey Kong Country.

[NEOFREAK9189]

for me Super Metroid Actraiser. super contra super double dragon

[metal_head]

Sorry 'bout listing those Amiga games earlier....just got carried away.

:D

Another cool SNES soundtrack is "Plok".... :-D

[Xipe]

Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2
Castlevania IV
And F-Zero (Big Blue)

[Neonsolid]

Gone.

[Canadian Psycho]

One word: Axelay.

Perhaps the most complete gaming soundtrack ever. Nothing but memorable tunes. Stage Two's music is f'n AWESOME.

I second that. That is an awesome track. Starts slow, but becomes extremely "catchy" if you will.

Other games woth noting for their music (bear in mind I'm more a fan of the "rockish" stuff than the orchestral soundtracks) : U.N. Squadron, Mega Man X, Y's III, CV Dracula X, etc. Super Nova's first level music is very good. There are many more, but off the top of my head, that's all I got.

[Aussie2B]

Hell, I'll limit it to one song. "Gangplank Galleon" from Donkey Kong Country.

*sees an opportunity to plug her boyfriend's work*

Have you heard of "Kong in Concert"? It's an awesome fan arrangement of the entire DKC soundtrack. My boyfriend did Gang-Plank Galleon Pt 2, and his remix totally owns me. o_o It's best heard directly following Dhsu's Gang-Plank Galleon Pt 1.

</end of cheap plug>

As for my favorite SNES music, well... Dave Wise's DKC music is obviously great (my fave DKC music is from the second game, though), and I'm a total Sakuraba whore... but as wonderful as the Star Ocean soundtrack is and the other SFC work Sakuraba did, I have to go with the Chrono Trigger soundtrack. I'm in love with nearly every track in the game, and they never get old.

For some other picks...

Most Uematsu music back then was excellent. Final Fantasy 2 and 3 of course. However, when Square went with some more unknown composers, they often had great(er?) results, such as with Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, Secret of Mana, Super Mario RPG, and Secret of Evermore.

Enix games also faired well. Actraiser, Wonder Project J, Dragon Quest, lots of great stuff.

Lufia 2 DEFINITELY deserves more credit (haven't played enough of Lufia 1 to make a call just yet). It's no coincidence that the Lufia 1 & 2 soundtrack now sells for hundreds of dollars. Rarity + extremely high quality = big bucks.

The Capcom and Konami teams did some impressive music, Mega Man and Castlevania, respectively, representing some of the best.

And finally I have to mention Nintendo's own composers. Koji Kondo is a brilliant man, and those who worked on other soundtracks for games such as Super Metroid, Marvelous, Fire Emblem, etc. also did an excellent job.

[Dr.Yang]

Personally, I'll go with Castlevania 4. There was such a sense of creative freedom in that title; wonderfully moody, with one of the only jazz-infested scores I've heard in a game. The standout song is this heavy piano piece that plays as Simon Belmont is climbing a waterful 100% agree, or the stage before that...the cave ...its unbelivable, generally speaking it is the best videogamesoundtrack ever. :D
also outstanding:
super contra (stage 4 and the final stage are most notably)
axelay (off course!)
the legend of the mystical ninja ( konami at its best again!)
pop`n twin bee (pretty candy happy sound, i love it)
gradius III (spacesynthiepop that makes u feel good shooting aliens)

at these times konami was unrivaled

[Escape•From•Jenny•Island]

Chrono Trigger
Terranigma
Tales of Phantasia
Star Ocean
Tactics Ogre- Ogre Battle Saga Episode VII: Let Us Cling Together
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars
Front Mission
Ogre Battle Saga Episode V: March of the Black Queen
Final Fantasy VI
Super Metroid
Axely
Demon's Crest
Actraiser
Super Castlevania IV
Illusion of Gaia

[TomMage]

The music in FFIII is very good. And I loved the dungeon music in 7th Saga. People saying 7th Saga was tough, I know a few dungeon battles could be tough but don't remember anything else particularly hard (although could be this game where is was very hard to get to last boss, battles on way were tougher than boss?)

http://members.aol.com/avatartom/7dungeon.mid

http://members.aol.com/avatartom/ffiiibat.xm


Tom

[Predatorxs]

Games that spring to mind... Are :

Zelda! - a link to the past (Can't believe nobody mentioned it!)
Super Metroid
Super turrican (Hell, sometimes i play the game just for the music!)
Actraiser
Yoshi's island
FF3
Chrono trigger
Street fighter II (all of em'... c'mon if your gunna kick ass! kick it to SF2, Ryu and Kens stage a pretty sweet!)
Donkey Kong country

That'll do for now! ;)

http://www.xs.dsl.pipex.com/avator/ms_ufo.gif..XS

[Lord Contaminous]

super Turrican music is the best. I got a wav file of that, and I got a program that can transpose to different note signatures, and it sounds awesome like that.

My personal favorite SNES tunes:

Rockman and Forte
-The Robot Master music, in fact it's my no 1 favorite boss battle music for the whole Megaman series period.
-Ground Man
-Cold Man
-Intro stage

Lufia 2
-"To The Savior of Those On Earth"- the tune that plays when escaping the Doom Island maze after the final battle
-The Sinistral battle

Batman Returns
-All music. The only Batman video game to have the orchestrated style heard in the batman movies.

Brandish -The gameplay music itself

Final Fantasy V
-The second palace music in the second world
-Neo Exdeath battle. I just love extremely upbeat final boss music that's made to make people nervous.

[Sibs]

My personal favorites:

Lufia 2-Pretty much all of the music was good, but I loved the Sinistral battle music the best.

Mega Man X-All of the music in this game is memorable, especially the first Sigma stage.

Final Fantasy II-Favorite tunes from this game are the overworld theme, boss theme, underworld theme, and the airship theme.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest-All of the battle music in this game is awesome and still some of the best I've heard for any RPG period.

[Ed Oscuro]

Square's stuff is good (take your pick).
Super Castlevania 4 is great! One of my true favorites right there. Gradius 3 isn't half bad either. Tactics Ogre is good fun.

Plok has some very high quality sound, but eh. Fun listen though.
Tales of Phantasia. Pretty good. Macross (dunno subtitle offhand, unfortunately) has a great tune for the third boss.

F-Zero and Zelda: Link to the Past are all time favorites of...everybody, pretty much.

Aero Fighters has some GREAT sound in it. Very high on the list of technical accomplishments.
DOOM. Sure, those songs are cliches by now, but it's the best sounding version of the game out there (I do like the 3DO version's music every bit as much for some tracks, though). Rates higher than Aero Fighters for me...dunno why, though.

Goemon 4, also by Konami..!
And...Demon's Crest/Blazon. Even better than Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts - though level 5 of SGnG is an all time favorite individual track of mine!

There's some pieces in Maten Densetsu that I like. Plus, SPIES7300 is the coolest name for a satellite in a video game, ever.

[Habeeb Hamusta]

Never plaid actraiser. Gradius III has good music. So does the MegaMan X series.

[Ed Oscuro]

Never plaid actraiser.
That's because it's not Scottish, see.

[Neonsolid]

Gone.

[Psycho Mantis]

Dracula X, Crono Trigger, And Earthbound had the best music to me. I always go around, humming those tunes in my head.

[Black_Tiger]

Super Ghouls N Ghosts... and of course FFII/IV.

[Psyleid]

Any Super Mario music.

I like the star music most :)

[SirDrexl]

Yeah, I'm gonna cheat and say the Super Star Wars games.

For original music, I would say FFIII/VI.

[ae.tc]

... And F-Zero (Big Blue)

-_- Obviously F-Zero
Death Wind, Fire Field, Port Town, Red Canyon, Silence, Sand Ocean, Mute City

:bad-words: White Land 1 & 2!

[Super Mario Fan]

From what I have played, the best music for a game on the Super Nintendo is Donkey Kong Country 2. That's the only video game music that makes me fell fuzzy inside.

[RockyRaccoon]

Donkey Kong Country II and Final Fantasy II (the US's Final Fantasy II ).

[stevec1636]

Rock N' Roll Racing has the best music hands down.

[DragonMaster Sam]

Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past
Earthbound
Super Metroid (definitely love the lower Norfair theme)
Final Fantasy IV (I've got the soundtrack that was released after Chronicles)
Chrono Trigger (same for Final Fantasy IV)

[Dilemma]

I will agree with Dreamcaster here... Definitely Super Mario All-Stars. All those great scores on 1 cartridge was bliss. I like the originial graphics better, (because I like originiality and I think the only time we should see Mario's face in the first game is when he's going down the pipe :D ) but the tracks were sweet.

[Eldergod]

Whatsup Dilemma?

I'd have to say that A Link to the Past has the best music on the SNES. I swear I hum that music in my sleep...

[Teo]

I think Final Fantasy III was one of those games that seemed to have the best nusic out of all the American NTSC releases. Not sure about if there are any (J) NTSC releases that might have better music but there is a good chance as games rwere rolling out for the Super Famicom years after the games quit being made on the SNES however. Either way I still think it's my favorite 16- bit music, that of Final Fantasy III... Especially the 16- Bit Battle theme. :evil:

[Avatard]

Yea, FF3, Castlevania IV, and Metroid. I still listen to those on my MP3 player. Sometimes I still get Yoshi's Island music stuck in my head though, gahhh.

Also the Super Star Wars series for pure sound effects. Super Battleship had excelent sound effects too I though.

[VGfan]

Super Metroid.

[VG_Maniac]

I think Chrono Trigger has the best music on the SNES.