The Trent Reznor music from Doom III. Gets my blood pumping, ready to fight!
The Halo theme is a close runner up.
Everyone is Someone in L.A /Tony Hawks American Wasteland
Wet hands
Unbreakable Determination from Ninja Gaiden.
Either Nemesis the Warlock or Planescape: Torment’s ‘Bones of the Night’ by Mark Morris.
Baba Yetu from Civilization 2005 is the first video track to win a Grammy.
Hidden character from Tekken 3
Tim Follin’s music for the first level of Bionic Commando on C64. It sounds like coming up on acid.
Probably Stickerbush Symphony from Donkey Kong Country 2.
Lots of good Final Fantasy tracks from Nobuo Uematsu and Chrono Trigger/Cross ones from Yasunori Mitsuda too. But Stickerbush Symphony was the first video game music that really moved me, like more than your average SNES soundtrack. David Wise went hard on those Donkey Kong Country games.
I could not even describe this song when I first heard it as a kid. As an adult, I realize this is the funkiest shit ever.
Red Alert, Hell March
Still Alive
That’s the video game song that gets in my head the most.
Interestingly, despite how it’s not as good of a song, I probably think about Want You Gone about as often as Still Alive. It doesn’t really come through as a song, just the phrases. “Now I only want you gone.” “You’ve got your short sad life left. […] I’ll let you get right to it.”
Goodbye, my only friend
Oh, did you think I meant you?
That would be funny
If it weren’t so sad
I wish Want You Gone was more popular, because it’s genuinely a better song and plays the relationship double entendre so well.
Shoutout to You Wouldn’t Know, which rounds out the trilogy of songs.
Still Alive from Mirror’s Edge is also excellent.
They really had to give the ending credits song the same name huh.
I’ll give you two albums worth:
*Bastion OST
*Transistor OST
I’ll add Hades OST, Supergiant generally do amazing soundtracks.
Ready to see The Rapunzel meme happened in real time?
I didn’t like Hades.
Chrono Trigger - Corridors of Time
Lots of great music in that game
That would be the opening prelude of Final Fantasy VII. You immediately understand what the themes of the game are when listening to it, it’s highly effective in portraying things/feelings like loss, despair, melancholy, overcome, hope. And all of that with a rather limited set of instruments (compared to other compositions). It’s pure and sincere without being kitschy. Nothing is hidden or ambiguous or pretentious. It wears its big broken heart on its sleeve in the best possible way. It’s a masterpiece.