Underrated and unnoticed video game music?

[BetaWolf47]

Whenever we talk about music, it's always the same titles that get mentioned: Donkey Kong Country, a couple of RPGs, Mega Man, and some other common title. What are some that have slipped under the radar? Let me begin:

Battle of Olympus (NES) - Pretty much the whole soundtrack
Pandemonium! (Saturn, PC, PSX) - Skull Fortress

[AB Positive]

I don't think this gets enough press, but EA's crew did a damn fine soundtrack job on the port of Starflight to the Genesis.

[Oobgarm]

Cobra Triangle (NES)

[cityside75]

I'm gonna throw in a modern game - SSX Tricky. I especially love the menu music, which starts out very minimalist, and adds an element to the song each time you progress to the next menu.

I love the overall vibe of the game, and I think people will look back on it as a fine example of early 2000's video game aesthetics.

[kupomogli]

a couple of RPGs

A couple of RPGs? The genre is just as well known for having a lot of good music as it is to, sometimes, having a good storyline.

Anyways. A fairly unknown game so underrated and unnoticed video game music would probably fit. Wild Guns. While there's not much, the music is good. The gameplay itself is also very good. One of my favorite SNES games.

*edit*

Music from the first stage, Carson City, and boss music. Two best music tracks in my opinion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX5cmANKK-Q Carson City
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-ryebyLMw4 Boss music

[Push Upstairs]

I think the "Cheetah Men 2 theme" has no right to be as incredibly awesome as it is.

[MissingNo_1231]

I kind of like the soundtrack to Friday the 13th on NES.

It's not the same (or as good) as the movies, but there's something about it I enjoy.

[Profoundemonium]

I really love the soundtrack to Prophecy: The Viking Child.

[Blanka789]

I love everything about the Sonic Chaos soundtrack, although Gigalopolis Zone and Special Areas are personal favorites.

[Aussie2B]

Video game music in general doesn't get much attention outside of some small circles, so I'd say the majority of good VGM is underrated/unnoticed. Just looks up any composer you like and I'm sure you'll see at least one or two games you've never heard of among their projects.

Like take Hiroki Kikuta, for example, a lot of people love the music for Secret of Mana and, to a lesser extent seeing as it was a Japan-exclusive, Seiken Densetsu 3. But then you got the soundtrack to Soukaigi, one of his most acclaimed among hardcore game music fans, yet it's a game and soundtrack that most everybody else has never heard of. But even among the hardcore fans that do know Soukaigi, few don't know and/or care about his hentai PC soundtracks for games like Sora no Iro, Mizu no Iro and Sakura Relaxation. Some people who do know of them steer clear when they see the word "hentai", but really that's unfair to Kikuta because we're only talking music here, not actually playing the games. If you listen to them, you can't really tell that the tracks are for a hentai game. They basically just sound like awesome lost Secret of Mana tracks.

This kind of scenario will play out with just about every composer. Even kids that are crazy about Uematsu generally don't know about his early Famicom work or stuff like Hanjuku Hero.

[Gavica]

Warsong for the Sega Genesis, the Music and Game I think are saddly underrated, I wish they would of brought the sequels to NA.

[ShinobiMan]

I'm a huge fan of the Bonk games on TG16. Having said that, I feel that Super Bonk on SNES goes highly unnoticed. The music in that game is especially a treat. So fun and vibrant, I sometimes play that game just so I can hear the music from Stage 1.

Here it is - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNQuMFhfku8

[The Shawn]

I would have to say the theme music for the game Shadowman on the N64/Dreamcast. I remember plugging the audio into my amp from the N64, I liked it that much at the time.

Wonder if there was ever a soundtrack CD released for it?

[robotriot]

One of my favourites of the more unknown video game music examples is the Skeleton Krew soundtrack. The game itself is pretty crappy, but I really dig the music on all platforms. It's interesting to note that the CD32 and Megadrive versions had entirely different music, genre-wise. The Amiga floppy version music is closer to the CD32 one, but again slightly different. Here are examples of the MD and CD32 versions:

MD http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOJpWhXrmFY
CD32 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsBXYD7co_E

[swlovinist]

My vote is for Dark Wizard for the Sega CD.

[Nintega Grafx-16]

China Warrior for Turbo Grafx-16. The game may not be anything special but the music is great.

[tom]

The pause mode in Snoopy and the Red Baron, excellent stuff.

[Doonzmore]

Skyblazer (Snes)
Puggsy (Genesis)
World of Illusions (Genesis)
Cold Shadow (Snes)

[T2KFreeker]

Ah, the world of Videogame Music. Some lost gems out there that get no love for sure.

Tempest 2000 has probably one of the best Techno Soundtracks ever that isn't licensed music and set the tone for things to come.

Robotron X also has some really well done music and is really overlooked.

WipEOut for the PC/PSX/Saturn is awesome sounding.

QUAKE was genius. Trent Reznor was brilliant with this one.

Boogerman, yeah, the Genesis version sounds awesome man. I don't care what anyone says but the mu8sic is awesome on this game. Very well done.

Mickeymania for the Sega CD has some really nice red book audio that gets lost on some people because they skipped it for the SNES and Genesis versions.

All three of the Splatterhouse games are also something to listen to. I would still love to get an orchestral version of these soundtracks as I believe it would be particularly creepy.

Vectorman still puts a smile on my face too.

Legendary Axe for the Turbo Grafx 16 also has some of the most awesome sounding music I have ever heard in a game for said system. Very cool stuff.

There's just a few man.

[Therealqtip]

OMG LIEK FF7, oh wait.