I was listening to my playlist of video game best songs, and I realized that there is probably a ton of hidden gems that I never listened due to never playing the game or never paid attention to.
So I would love to hear what songs you recommend: either from barely mentioned games or soundtracks from known games that you think are underrated.
You must log in or register to comment.
This has been going hard in my mind for 33 years.
Jurassic Park Game Boy OST Level 1
I wish I had more to contribute but it’s early and I’m on a phone. I’ll get back around to this thread later. Great post!
Indie Ace Attorney-like, Gyakuten Live, defined its own investigation, objection, cross examination themes. Given how beloved those themes are in the original games, they did a great job.
They sort of took it to another level with the idea of “final confrontation” cross examination themes. Last one for the newest case kind of goes insane, managing to build in both tension and uplifting battle elements. Rather than stop the music on one contradiction, it does the “rising instrumental” approach of layering the track up based on when you’ve found a key flaw in the argument. You can tell a lot of the effort for that sequence went just into getting the music to match up.
Mechanicus. To quote the great Mandalore “most music drop the bass, Mechanicus drops a pipe organ”.
Project Wingman. Love letter to Ace Combat that gets the music on point.
Rogue Trader. The most epic track on the OST is used for one minor fight.
If we’re talking obscure…
- Leap Year - the march DLC also has some good music, but I don’t think anybody’s uploaded it.
- Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga - Teehee Valley - definitely nostalgia speaking, but that game has a whole bunch of good music. It’s all crusty, by virtue of being a GBA game, though.
- Particle Fleet - Perhaps a bit too epic for the gameplay, but I enjoyed it while playing back when it came out, and coming back to it I’m still very much enjoying the tracks.
- Cultist Simulator - Not sure how well-known this one is, but it’s very atmospheric, mysterious, mostly slow
- CrossCode - as an example, Autumn’s Rise - Nice upbeat “overworld” type of track, and I might be a sucker for synths
TowerFall started on Ouya console, which was based on Android, and later ported to other platforms. Name changed to TowerFall Ascension. The game is a 4 player co-op sideways pixel art action game to fight against (or together in story mode) to eliminate in an arena. One of my favorite all time multiplayer games ever.
I recommend the Ascension soundtrack, as its the same as the original but polished and enriched more. It has this oldschool vibe and I don’t know how this sounds for anyone who never played the game. For me listening to this soundtrack has some personal meaning and connection with friends.
- La-Mulana for sure
- The gate of guidance theme really stood out to me.
- Oh, and the village’s theme too, and several others.
- Virgo Versus the Zodiac Isn’t the type of game I’d normally look at if it wasn’t part of a bundle, but the soundtrack was so good (and the game itself was pretty enjoyable too).
- La-Mulana for sure
X-Universe games. Particularly X3, X Rebirth and X4.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lpPp2cMcDxB-9TdVyL-8u52xU0o_eWkIM
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL2DE76FAF3D895DD0
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRNrultsQ-TjRZXR6TFg5rpRN2UzChGg4
No clue if this counts, but given how little I see it mentioned in online spaces I will suggest Frostpunk’s soundtrack. Even if you don’t play the game, it is an amazing soundtrack that perfectly captures both the hope and desperation depicted in the game itself. Especially “The City Must Survive” is an absolute banger.
since Rome ttw was already mentioned, some of my all time favorite game soundtracks:
[edit and some more] rimworld
Citizen sleeper 1 and 2
Blue revolver
Don’t know about the obscurity, but:
“Gothic 3” all the way! Kai rosenkranz’s work here is amazing!
No particular order:
It’s kinda cheating, but the game Capsized is a decent XBLA-era side scrolling shooter-platformer with an excellent soundtrack. That’s because it uses the existing album Movements by Solar Fields.
Solar Fields actually scored a different game with an excellent soundtrack: Mirrors EdgeUplink and Darwinia, Introversion Software’s first two games, have lovely soundtracks.
Nitronic Rush, a student game that got remade into the survival racing game Distance, has one of the greatest Christmas songs ever made on its soundtrack.
The original Lemmings and its expansions used quite good chiptune renditions of classical and classic pop songs. Each platform has a different soundtrack, but Amiga is probably the best.
PPPPPP, the soundtrack to VVVVVV is very crunchy chiptune. The last track is weird though.
Outer Wilds is simply amazing.
Psychonauts and Psychonauts 2 have great, varied soundtracks.
dustforce has a great soundtrack by lifeformed. the game is a 2d precision platformer with incredible animation and gamefeel too
Fester’s Quest for the NES
The zero escape series has so many good ones. Virtue’s last reward in particular has the best ost. As an aside if you enjoy absolute bullshit storylines ala nano machines from metal gear, I highly recommend playing the zero escape games.
