Video Game Music - The Good, the Bad and the Underrated
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- Опубликовано: 10 июл 2024
- Yes, that is a Sonic 'Thriller' parody.
"Video Game Music - The Good, the Bad and the Underrated"
Hey folks, in this video I want to take you on a Magical Mystery Tour through the wonderful world of video game music. Which game has the worst music? Why do rhythm games seem eternally popular? What do video game composers do better than their Hollywood counterparts? All of these questions, AND MORE, answered in this compilation of seven music-related microvideos. Enjoy and please let me know your favourite and least favourite soundtracks in the comments.
Chapters :-
00:00 The History of Video Game Music
04:21 Rhythm Games
08:54 Licensed Music
12:52 Games with Two Soundtracks
17:33 Adaptive Soundtracks
22:12 Bad Game Music
26:40 Underrated Game Music
A huge thanks to, in particular, @longplayarchive . Without them, this video simply wouldn't be possible as I no longer own all of the games I discuss in this video. This video was inspired by @Matthewmatosis 's Mega Microvideos video.
Please consider giving the video a like if you enjoyed and subscribing for more video game and Sonic videos in the future.
Find me on Twitter: / thejohnnyvector 
Игры
Sonic music hits hard and Sonic R's OST still sounds great almost three decades later.
Yeah, it's aged really well. A little cheesy, sure, but incredibly catchy.
@@JohnnyVector the cheese is my favorite part
The irony is I thought it sounded dated at the time.
@@tarttooth6022 Not really, these tracks are totally in the 90's.
As someone who adores video game music to the point where I don't even have to play the game to love it, no amount of little sister trash talking is going to stop me from enjoying the best music. Safe to say that I was trilled when I saw this video pop up.
Awesome! Got any particular favourite soundtracks or playlists?
You listen to your younger siblings opinions?
The GBA might have had sound limitations, but some games still had banger songs, such as the nostalgic "Ending B" from Sonic Advance 3 or the jazzy "Club Rouge" From Sonic Battle. Or "Egg Rocket Zone" from Sonic Advance 1.
Metroid, F-zero and Megaman as well.
Absolutely! Sonic Advance 1's music is great from start to finish. Really fun Sonic game too.
That thumbnail should be a cover of an album of sonic greatest hits called "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Xperience"
Haha, the thumbnail art is from a bootleg vinyl of Sonic 3's soundtrack.
I've loved video game soundtracks ever since I was a kid. The first game I ever remember playing -- Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games -- has a great soundtrack with both nice-sounding original pieces and wonderfully nostalgic remixes from both franchises. It's awesome. Also, there are plenty of composers in the Friday Night Funkin community that are real standouts, like Saster and Saruky.
I'm not sure Mario & Sonic Olympic games would spring to mind for a lot of people when the topic of game music comes up but yeah, they're great!
Ragnarok Online has such a unique and nostalgic sounding OST. I always use it as background music for browsing the internet or when I wanna listen to music while I work. It can fulfil a ton of purposes.
Good shout. I've never played it, though I've read a lot of the Ragnarok manhwa.
RO's soundtrack is truly something else. I haven't played the game in well over a decade but I still listen to the soundtrack.
The OSTs of ToeJam & Earl games are definitely unique.
Great shout! That main slap bass-sounding beat in the first game is criminally catchy.
A great video. Love the Road Rash honourable mention. I'd forgotten about that game, but it had a great soundtrack.
Me presenting video game music to my class knowing is a blast:
Take a load of this!
Wow, Commodore got shafted in your history of music chips segments.
The Commodore 64's SID chip beat the NES to the punch when it came to incredible wave table based music and the Commodore Amiga beat the SNES by many years with its sample based chipset.
Shadow of the Beast came out a year before the SNES even hit store shelves and showed what could be done with sample based music.
Love your channel by the way! Just wanted to give some extra context since it seems that a lot of people seem to forget that Europe started what a lot of Japan finished.
Thanks for the extra context! I need to check out for Commodore 64 soundtracks.
*Sonic music just hits different!* So good 👍. Next to that, probably *Kingdom Hearts,* and then *Mario for nostalgia reasons.*
Dynamite Headdy has a phenomenal soundtrack! Definitely one of the best and most varied on the Megadrive!
Treasure games in general.
I'm glad you agree. Treasure put out some absolute bangers.
One of my favorite gaming soundtracks is Sonic Colors (both original, DS, and ultimate). Every song matches up with there stage perfectly like how Planet Wisp is a relaxing paradise for the wisp. Or how Tropical Resort gives you beach music vibes. OR OR, how the Asteroid Coaster is a fun and exciting joy ride. OR OR OR, how Aquarium Park sounds like your discovering all about sea life. And Reach for the Stars is generally perfect in my opinion. And I will not be taking any counter arguments.
Colours DS's special stage theme is one of my favourites on that soundtrack
I'd even say that the lower quality bitrate version of several themes are better than their home console counterparts.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I agree there are some bangers on the Colors OST. Sonic games in general have a strong history when it comes to soundtracks. Even the bad Sonic games have great music.
@@JohnnyVector Yeah, like Sonic Colours Wii.
Sonic Colors Wii isn’t really that bad of a game. In fact, I had a lot of good things like the Wisps and the amusement park.
For underrated video game soundtracks, I'll nominate King of the Monsters 2, specifically the SNES version I had as a kid. It has a strange blend of orchestral samples, heavy rock drums, and sinister melodies that perfectly captures the game's cartoony kaiju aesthetic.
Sounds awesome, I've got to check it out
What I find the most suprising about this video isn't about the music itself, but infact that at 9:26 he showed footage from the Ed Hunter game. Ed Hunter was a game that featured around the mascot of the band Iron Maiden, the game released in 1999 along side the Ed Hunter Compilation Album.
Why on earth didn't this show up in my feed? I always tune in for your stuff and I love the topic!
I'm not sure but I'm glad you found yourself here Phantom! Do you have any game soundtracks you adore?
@@JohnnyVector One of my favourites is Jeremy Soule's Morrowind OST. One of the most beautiful soundtracks I ever heard. I'm quite a fan of the atmospheric spooky soundtrack from the original Abe's Odysee and Exodus too. Build the fear-filled alien world so damn well. Edit: Oh and Metal Gear Solid Music is amazing too!
@@phantomstrider Interesting choice. I've never played but I'll try and check it out! I remember Final Fantasy IX blowing me away when I first played it. I imported the soundtrack from Japan and it's remained a favourite ever since.
Yoooooooo it’s you :’D
Best notification of the week.
Haha thank you. It's been a while!
A soundtrack (and game) that is VERY underrated is the soundtrack for the precision platformer "Tightrope Theatre".
Its soundtrack is clearly inspired by sample-based sound chips of consoles like the SNES and DS.
Every song is good, but the songs "Flaming Finale" and "Aquatic Acrobat" are especially good.
Thanks for sharing. I've not heard of Tightrope Theatre before but I'll check it out!
A game I feel is underrated in the music department is the space shoot em up, Tyrian 2000. That had a quality soundtrack that I spent a lot of time in the jukebox mode listening to instead of playing the game.
I like how you pronounce 1999 as "nochy-nonchy-nah"
Haha, damn Northern Bri'ish accent
The community has a lot of differences within it, but all of us can agree, you can find at least 2 amazing Sonic songs in every Sonic game!
Agreed. Sonic soundtracks always go hard.
As someone who is speedrunning sonic eraser, I'm glad you understand my pain 😭
Haha, oh dear! Best of luck. Push through the ear pain.
The soundtracks for Pac-man world 2 and Pac-man world rally are 2 of my favorite soundtracks that I think are underrated.
Agreed! Pac-Man World 2 is a ton of fun as well
Air Diver on the Mega Drive was and is one of my fave soundtracks. So good!
Thanks, I'll have to check it out.
Donkey kong country Tropical Freeze has a severely underated OST. It has such an incredible variety, going from orchestral to metal in a span of some levels. Some of my favorites are Big Top Bop (the first boss theme), Wing Dings and Homecoming Hijinx
Homecoming hijinx
Jammin jams
Punch bowl
Busted bayou
Sawmill thrill are all Amazing
Alleste Gaiden has a shockingly good soundtrack. It's a weird scrolling shooter with a jump button, that doesn't carry many of the usual staples of the Alleste series, and I believe was originally distributed in MSX magazines, so I was shocked when I hit stage 5 and was met with an absolute banger of a track.
THPS and Crazy Taxi were directly responsible for my taste in music, even to this day.
You have excellent taste!
Stardust Speedway is my favorite video game music
Good choice. American or Japanese version??
@@JohnnyVector Japanese
In terms of Sonic it's hard for me to choose a favorite almost impossible
i like the usa one better just that one damn part it always gets me
Hey, I'm that other guy with the gigachad profile picture! This is my main account, I wanted to let you know that I've been binging all of your content and I am loving it!
I have a video idea. Could you cover all of the one-off/side characters seen in the main games?
Despite the fact that i've been a diehard sonic fan since i was 2, I still don't know most of the characters. I do know that you have been covering most of the obscure characters in your own series, but I'm mainly talking about characters like Marine the Racoon, Terios the Hedgehog and Tangle from the comics.
Those were some pretty long microgames
I have....so many favorite game soundtracks, but off the top of my head the ones i listened to the most over the years was uhhh.
Undertale, Okami, Rule of Rose, Dishonored, LOZ: Twilight Princess, Skyward sword, windwaker, annnd Sonic Adventure 2 Battle. Thats just a very short list of some favorites
Terraria has a great soundtrack: it manages to combine bit crushed chiptune with modern instrumentation very well, and it is a pleasure to listen to throughout the game.
But some of the earlier track sound worse than some of the later compositions (like Eerie vs Crimson Underground or even the Lunar Event).
Thanks for sharing. I've never had a play of Terraria. I'll try and check it out.
When it comes to underappreciated VGM, Taiwanese bootlegger Vast Fame comes to mind. Despite their often dodgy copyright status, VF’s games are usually alright and have scarily good music that’s among the best I’ve heard on the Gameboy, even if a few pieces seem to be covers or based on pre-existing tracks (like the Forrest Gump theme in Space Time Star Beast). Check out the OST for Zook Hero Z (a mega man clone), it’s so damn good, rivalling legit stuff, and even includes remixes of two MM5GB Tracks
Thank you for the recommendations! I haven't heard of these but I'll check them out.
@@JohnnyVector please do. They are about as underrated as it gets
MAH MAN JOHNNY! Crystal Chronicles and Bomberman hero are hands down some of my fav osts ever. I show everyone I know Bomberman hero 😂
Haha, great minds think alike. You have great taste in game music!
Megaman 11s music did eventually grow on me. Its not as good as other mm soundtracks but personally I wouldn't call it bad.
Yeah it's decent but as you say, not as good as other MM ones (I enjoy 2, 3 and 9 in particular)
another banger video
Thank you!
Hearing Johnny talk about Halo gave me total whiplash
Also Halo 3 ODST isn't DLC (Master Chief collection aside) also you don't play as a average dude, you play as a kind of slightly lesser Chief
Yeah, you're completely right. I think I got a little mixed up because the ODST disc also included some exclusive Halo 3 multiplayer maps that were later available as DLC or something? I don't know but thanks for the comment
@@JohnnyVector also Halo 2 anniversary has a Sonic Origins situation, they had to remove Blow Me Away by Breaking Benjamin for copyright issues and replaced it with any old music you would expect here, but in Master Chief collection if you switch to the old graphics you can still listen to it and it's because of this I play in the old graphics (Also Combat Evolved anniversary looks like 💀, got the Sonic Adventure DX graphic treatment)
@@JohnnyVector It's a weird situation, what happened was Halo 3 released in 2007, then they released some multiplayer map packs as DLC throughout 2007 and 2008.
And then, in 2008, they released Halo 3 ODST as a standalone game, even though it was originally planned as DLC.
ODST was 2 discs:
- the first one including Halo 3 ODST itself,
- the second disc was Halo 3's multiplayer+the map packs released in 2007 and 2008, this was called Halo 3: Mythic
(So basically if you bought Halo 3 ODST you got the entire H3 experience, except the original Halo 3 campaign)
The Resident Evil one was propably the fault of a sound designer who messed up the instrument assignment in the MIDI file of the basement and put a trumpet in place of an organ used in the original, and I think CAPCON rushed this version just to acomodate the recent dualshock controler release, thats why no one of the testers notice the error, we didn't have first day patch in the time ... funny story tho!
The composer was kinda a scam for lying about being visually impaired.
Yeah, I heard the "fixed version" in a video called "Basement Music Fix/Rehash".
Thanks for the added context. Definitely a bizarre situation
The genesis has some bangers, man.
Like thunder force iv lol
My favourite OST for a video game would be Shadow of the Colossus (the original one not the remastered PS4 version)
Mizuguchi's game music are great.
Agreed. His games always have amazing soundtracks and sound design.
Some of my favorite video game soundtracks are
Wario land 4
Wario land shake it!
Final fantasy 9
Kingdom hearts 2
Megaman 2,3,4,7,9
Megaman x
Donkey kong country 1,2 and tropical freeze and land
Both super mario galaxies
Crash 2
Spyro 3
Kirby dreamland 1,2,3
Kirby 64
Every modern Kirby
And sonic games
That's a strong list. You've got great taste.
@@JohnnyVector Thanks
Might not have fit in with any of your points in the video, but anything with Shoji Meguro as composer is platinum 💯
Damn right. Digital Devil Saga and smt Strange journey are fucking great! And dont get me started on ryota and the other megaten composers, because they are also really good!
I got to see my DS has the old music of sonic three
Yeah, a lot of ports of the game have the old music. That might change going forward post-Origins
For me, a video game's music can be instantly destroyed if the SFX are too loud... but overall, just a gripe
It's terrible when that happens
How about a Sonic 2 Iceberg video.
tbh one of my favorite examples of regional music is the snes shoot em' up biometal. For the japanese version, it used a standard and pretty generic adventurous sci fi ost for most of the game. But for the stateside release, activision somehow for some reason got the license for are you ready for this renditioned in the snes soundchip, which is the games' new title screen music and also plays in stage 2
Is that the song from Space Jam?? That sounds...amazing. I wonder why they decided to do that..?
video game music is W 🗿🍷
huge W
Sonic music will always be the best. i absolutely hate Sonic and the Secret Rings but that soundtrack is amazing.
Sonic mania soundtrack is the best video game soundtrack ever made in my opinion
Runner ups are thunder force iv, persona 5, chrono trigger and way way more
Reply for more fire OST. I know a crap ton of them
Sonic music rules. What's your favorite sonic ost?
It's a toss-up between S3&K and Sonic Adventure 2. How about you??
@@JohnnyVector my favorite has to be sonic unleashed soundtrack. Sonic unleashed is also my favorite sonic game along with frontiers
@@JohnnyVector For me it's a toss up between Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Sonic Unleashed and Sonic '06
@@devinsauls9137 oh yeah! sonic unleashed, baby!
My top 3 are sonic adventure 1, sonic CD Jpn, and mania
In terms of repetitive music that gets annoying - Kingdom Hearts 2, Halloweentown. "This is Halloween" can be a fun song, but not listening to a midi version of it over and over and over and over.
Wooo 🥳
Thanks Gracekim!
i agree with you on like all of your opinions
Excellent!
Sega CD kind of did the CD audio thing before the Saturn. Sonic CD's OST be it US or Japanese both rock.
Sonic1 songs are so good
Guitaroo man was overlooked in this brilliant observation
Yeah klonoa
Sir have you played the murder of sonic the hedgehog visual novel mystery detective game 🦔🔪🤔🕵️🎮
YOU SHOWED ED HUNTEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘
Haha, yeah, I really enjoy all of the midi interpretations of Maiden songs in that one! Can't believe it came out in 1999 though, it looks more like an early '90s game.
@@JohnnyVector the phantom of the opera one is awesome imo though i rarely listen to iron maiden. But ive been wanting to listen to the game version of that song for ages
Spinball menu and Eraser themes sound great to me. Genesis heavy metal music is way more pleasant to me than "real" heavy metal which I actually hate listening to. Blaster Master 2's music is similarly underrated for the same reason.
Michael Jackson Carnival Night is boring and doesn't fit the fast paced level. With Ice Cap I would take act 1 of the prototype and 2 of Hard times, and Launch Base is equal to me, both are the best themes in Sonic 3 but prototype doesn't fit being the last level as it was written before the split into two games.
Wily Fortress theme in Mega Man 11 is in my opinion better than the one in 2, and while some stage themes like Block Man don't sound that great none are as annoying to me as Heat Man or Ring Man. My favourite Mega Man soundtracks are 2, 3, and 5 for the Game Boy, with 3 having the best final stage theme of the franchise.
The worst soundtrack I ever heard would be Taz-Mania for the Game Gear. Just listen to it, it sounds randomly generated like Crazy Bus. The game itself is just as good.
We're you serious in the first sentence lol
Gacha games osts are underrated just because they're from gacha games 😭😢.
Like arknights, genshin or blue archive.
Also you should listen to Project moon games osts like Roland or Angela
That's the issue, those games barely have any gameplay so the music and pictures are the only good things about them.
@@ikagura You'll lose your hair if you play half the games I mentioned also with they're difficulty.
sonic cd usa soundtrack is better then sonic cd jp soundtrack