Underrated and unnoticed video game music?

[Bad Atom]

The music from "Monster in My Pocket" (NES) has always been a favorite of mine, especially Stage 4:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX3xNau0xgg

[exit]

I'm not sure if this was mentioned, but Phantom 2040 is a true underdog. I randomly looked it up after remembering the commercials for the animated series that I never watched and it was generally praised from what I saw, so I got it for SNES off of Goozex and I was wowed on how well made it is. It's one of those games that should have done well, since it had everything going for it from gameplay to an actual good use of a license.

I'm guessing it did bad because it was a relatively unknown show, which is a real shame.

[Guru of Time and Space]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bde7m...eature=related

Time Lord, baby.

-GoTaS

[NayusDante]

Iridion II (GBA)

This is a game that knows it has good music. The title screen even lets you play around with the music engine by mixing different elements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue-R0tO7BBc

It's a good shooter as well, and it pulled off some neat 2.5D tricks for a unique visual style.

[vxkens]

Iridion II (GBA)

This is a game that knows it has good music. The title screen even lets you play around with the music engine by mixing different elements.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue-R0tO7BBc

It's a good shooter as well, and it pulled off some neat 2.5D tricks for a unique visual style.

I agree. The quality of music in that game is so far beyond most games on GBA. The song you linked to is maybe my favorite song on the system. Stylistically, it reminds me of an 80's Amiga game.

In comparison, the Nanostray games on DS have fairly generic and unmemorable soundtracks. They also aren't as fun IMO as Iridion II. The pathetic shooter lineup on DS has been quite disappointing.

I also found where someone finally posted some music from Mega Man Battle Chip Challenge to youtube. It's not that great a game, but I love the music. This is the battle song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVcGzW9cQJg

[Mathius]

+1 Legendary Axe

[Ed Oscuro]

My vote's in for Tradewest's "PLOK" game OST. It's just incredible, incredible music. It's hard to believe some of the sounds are even possible for the SNES, with only 4 out of 5 sound channels utilized for the music. Hudson's Air Zonk also has a lot of awesome songs, my favorite being the Baseball Stadium one.

Years ago PLOK was pointed out to me for just that reason. It doesn't make the Top 100 on SNESmusic.org though (nor the bottom 100, at least).

[Smashed Brother]

My vote has gotta go for Valkyrie Profile (PS1)! Every review on this game talks about the innovations that it brought to the RPG genre, but few (if any) mention the soundtrack in more than a passing word. The soundtrack for this game is, in two words, f'n beautiful! Especially when fed through a nice sound system. The music fits this game and the story perfectly. In fact, no game soundtrack besides Castlevania SOTN has moved me this much. Seriously. Sample some of this noise:

Awesome Song 1
Awesome Song 2
Awesome Song 3

[staxx]

Bonk II (PCE)
Aldynes (Super Grafx)
Thunderforce III
Thunderforce IV
Forgotten Worlds
Spriggan (PCE CD)
Spriggan MK2 (PCE CD)
Thundercross 2 (Arcade) ... it's starting to get some recognition though
Fighting Street (PCE CD)
Soulblazer (SNES)
Devil's Crash (Megadrive)
1941
Hybris (Amiga)
RType (Amiga Load Screen)
LED Storm (Amiga)

[Aussie2B]

My vote has gotta go for Valkyrie Profile (PS1)! Every review on this game talks about the innovations that it brought to the RPG genre, but few (if any) mention the soundtrack in more than a passing word. The soundtrack for this game is, in two words, f'n beautiful! Especially when fed through a nice sound system. The music fits this game and the story perfectly. In fact, no game soundtrack besides Castlevania SOTN has moved me this much. Seriously.

I definitely agree with you on the quality, but it's a very popular soundtrack among game music fans. It's pretty wildly regarded as one of Motoi Sakuraba's best, and Sakuraba himself is getting fairly well-known among RPG fans these days.

I'd say the problem you're encountering is more the fact that most reviewers can't critique game music to save their lives. If they even bring it up, usually it barely goes beyond "the music is good" or "the music is annoying". I consider myself lucky as a reader if they can even state a genre and describe a few instruments the music has/mimics. And it's not like somebody has to have a background in music to make a basic description and assessment. But game reviewers, especially amateurs, tend to suck in general at writing, and the sound section takes the brunt of that lack of ability.

[Ed Oscuro]

1941

Speaking of which, I think all the stuff on Capcom Game Music Vol.2 (CD) is rather underrated: Street Fighter 1, Rush 'n' Crash, and Side Arms - the last two especially have some epic sounding stuff, reminds me of music being played on an organ for a silent film, or something.

[staxx]

Speaking of which, I think all the stuff on Capcom Game Music Vol.2 (CD) is rather underrated: Street Fighter 1, Rush 'n' Crash, and Side Arms - the last two especially have some epic sounding stuff, reminds me of music being played on an organ for a silent film, or something.

Agreed and I forgot about Side Arms. I gotta listen to the PCE CD arranged version again. Street Fighter 1 on the PCE CD/T16 had a great arranged version also.

[Ed Oscuro]

Nothing compares to the...experience of listening to that CD though. They mixed in yells and other voice sound effects almost randomly, but it's interesting. I uploaded the entire 9+ minute track some years ago and posted it here, dunno if it's still up though.

[heybtbm]

Herzog Zwei (listen)
...basically anything from Techno Soft in the late 80's.

[Slate]

I'm not sure if this was already posted but I've noticed multiple games on the Saturn have really "Out there" Soundtracks. The only one I can name off the top of my head is Earthworm Jim 2 but darn.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByVPTBpbzPs

Skip to 1:18 to get to the gameplay music.

Austin

[Az]

I really, really liked the 32x's Cosmic Carnage (aka Cyber Brawl). Some really great tunes there, both the quality and composition. For some reason it reminds me a lot of Sega's System 16 soundtracks.

Alien Crush had a nice theme, especially to be the one song that you will hear pretty much the entire time you play the game.

[vxkens]

Speaking of which, I think all the stuff on Capcom Game Music Vol.2 (CD) is rather underrated: Street Fighter 1, Rush 'n' Crash, and Side Arms - the last two especially have some epic sounding stuff, reminds me of music being played on an organ for a silent film, or something.

The first level from Side Arms is a song that's always stuck with me, at least the Amiga version, which if I remember correctly was pretty faithful to the arcade.

The PC Engine HuCard version of Side Arms has some really nice chiptunes... I prefer its music to any other version of the game, including the Super CD-Rom version.

[somesortofrobot]

Bomberman Hero on N64 had some really good tunes