My Top Ten Favorite Video Game Songs

Hey y'all!  I finally, finally got done compiling information for my "Top Ten Top Ten: Video Game Music" blog.  I now have all the final votes I need to present a complete and proper list of everyone's top ten favorite game songs.  However, it's gotten really late, and I'm tired and cranky.  Don't worry, it'll be up soon

As for now, here are my ten favorite video game songs!  No, I won't be counting them as a part of my "top ten top ten", because even if my list made sense, that would just be unfair.  So, here we go!



10. Fight Against Culex, Super Mario RPG -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICBR9zCgAT8
- I loved this song forever.  It's so powerful, and really outdoes normal Mario music.  Mario music generally fun, but rarely epic.  This is epic, and you get to listen to it while you play the hardest boss in the game.  Awesome!  I used to collect mad red essences before fighting that guy.

9. Rainbow Road, Mario Kart 64 -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXjBH9LigUo
- Everything about this level is awesome, from the neon Mario characters to the practically impossible shortcut.  The music just kicks everything into gear, and you feel like you're in the middle of something epic.  Everything about this just owns, and it takes you away to a fantasy world that you've never seen before.  I don't think I've ever heard any other game music as emotional as this is to me.  And it really pisses me off when dorks say the SNES version was better.  Bah.

8.  Game Over, Batman NES -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE1xeroCUTw
- I have literally forced myself to remember this theme over the years that I last heard it, and thank God for youtube or I'd have to keep doing it.  I haven't played this game in literally decades, and yet that game over music never ceases to get out of my head.  This song is creepy beyond words.  Sorry, Batman, but it looks like you've failed once again...

7. Unknown Intro Song from Unknown computer game -- Sorry.
- As bad as it is to do this, I have to.  There is a song that is forever in my head, and I know I'll probably never hear it again because it's a really obscure computer fighting game.  Before the game started, there was a long intro where a B-2 bomber (or some similar plane) would fly across the screen as a beautiful song played and the sun set in the background.  For some reason the theme always reminded me of a mermaid playing a conch.  I really, desperately love this song, but I don't know where it came from, and I probably never will ever hear it again.  But I will remember it forever.

6. Victory theme, Star Fox SNES  -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLKz8PLC2j0
- Everything about Star Fox is close to me.  My dad found this game in an old rental house, and because the renter was gone so long, Dad got to take the game and give it to us kids.  What makes this theme so epic is that you really feel like you've won something when you hear it.  It's the ultimate victory, where absolutely nothing is wrong, and you've won the day.  Awesome!  You rock!  CONGRATULATIONS!!! WEEEEEEEE!!!!!  Okay, I'll stop now.

5. Mechwarrior SNES, Bar Theme --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpuFyYL8bhg
- Mechwarrior, as a series, has always been better on the computer than the console.  The SNES version really is a much simpler version, and that includes the music.  Though personally, I really like the haunting nature of its sparse soundtrack, especially as you enter into the bar.  It's a simple, yet evocative jazz piece, one that will haunt me probably forever.  Mostly because of our neighbor.  We borrowed this game from him, and only two days after we returned it, he was fatally struck by a car.  He was only ten or so when it happened.  He was more my brother's friend than mine, but to this day I can't listen to this song without thinking of him.

4. Corneria, Star Fox SNES -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hF_lEHUxIHE
- This may mean two Star Fox games in one list, but bah humbug.  Star Fox deserves it.  No song says "I'm on a space adventure" more than this.  None at all.  Well, unless there's a really great Metroid song I haven't heard.  When working on my Top Ten Top Ten list, I did come across some good Metroid tracks.

3.  Every single Mega Man 1-5 song. -- See youtube user JPhands.  Or try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH7NXFQ0FIw
- That's right.  I'm not going to pick, and you can't make me.  I love all of these songs so much.  MM1 is alien, 2 is adventurous, 3 is party, 4 is dark, and 5 is relaxed fun.  Which one I like the best depends on my mood, and if Capcom ever released an OST album of these, I would buy it.  Absolutely.  How could I ever choose between Fire Man's theme, that used to glitch like awesome because of Game Genie?  What about Cut Man's and Snake Man's themes, whose songs I consider the standard for all good Mega Man songs?  There's the Wily theme from MM2 everyone loves, or the Cossack theme from MM4 that just pwns as well.  And doesn't Dust Man's theme sound like an apocalypse?  

Do I like some of the songs here better than others?  Sure.  Crystal Man's was my favorite when I was young, but now each one of these has a unique place in my heart, and I'm not going to pick a favorite child.  So there.  Well, not that I composed these, or anything like that.

2.  Stickerbrush Symphony -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J67nkzoJ_2M
- There it is, the only song that could possibly beat all of the Mega Mans 1-5.  This song just brings me back.  That first level where it plays, Bramble Blast, was the first and probably only level where I actually got the Cranky coin before my brother did.  I also remember looking through an American Girl catalogue to this song, pretending I could afford anything in it.  But those are not the reasons why I like this piece so much.  This is the most evocative tune to ever come from Donkey Kong Country.  As awesome as the other tracks are, and despite the fact I really shouldn't, I always feel a bit, just a little bit, irked when someone prefers Gangplank Galleon over this.  GG is fun and all, but the epicness is just not there.

Mellow moods....

1. Stickerbrush Symphony (rock) -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXrmi1W4uPQ
- I told you that Stickerbrush is the only song that can beat the Mega Man soundtracks, and I meant it.  So naturally, the only song that can get better than that is a rock remix!  This song sounds like the greatest thing ever.  It sounds like tyrants getting toppled, jet planes cruising through the air, plants growing giant before your eyes, and all your wishes coming true.  In mood, it's the opposite of the original, but dang if it isn't great.



So yeah, that's my list.  The Top Ten Top Ten for video game music will be up soon, and then we'll find out which tunes everybody apparently likes the best.  Until then!