One of my favorite things to listen to while working or doing photoshop things are videogame soundtracks and remixes. Pokémon goes without saying (I love the remixes from GlitchXCity and Pokemon Reorchestrated.) I also listen to old SNES soundtracks frequently, especially the Donkey Kong Country series as they are such a huge part of my childhood and general interest in video games. For more modern games I have some Undertale, Ori and the Blind Forest, Bastion, Hotline Miami and Beatbuddy in my playlists. Pondering on it now I think my all time favorite soundtrack is the one for Final Fantasy Tactics, from epic battle themes that get your blood pumping to slow ballads that give you the nostalgia tingles, it's got it all.
My iPhone and iPad have more video game scores than actual songs. I will willingly state that. Pokémon has always been one franchise that I enjoy. Some of my favorite tracks on there are: N's Bridge, Hoenn's Victory Road, Geosenge Town, Lumiose City (believe it or not)...just about the entire Sun & Moon soundtrack floored me. Halo's another one. I became a big Martin O'Donnell fan after he made it seem so vivid and realistic all the way until he left after Halo: Reach. Even afterwards, the new Halo tracks don't have that same feel as the older ones, but they still fit and adhere closer to the storyline with more emphasis on it and dramatic ques. I like Gears of War's OSTs as well.
any of the field themes from acnl blow me away, but 1 am is literally the best thing the game has ever put out there Spoiler
i love love love the soundtrack for the mystery dungeon games, especially for red/blue rescue team and explorers of time/darkness/sky. they're amazing as heck and really convey emotion and always make me emotional whenever certain ones come up. the sonic series in general for me has amazing music, specifically from the games sonic 3 & knuckles, sonic adventure (specifically lost world and final egg as well as open your heart), sonic adventure 2 (specifically final rush/final chase, live and learn and green forest/white jungle) shadow the hedgehog, and sonic heroes. i also love the soundtrack from undertale ofc, amazing game and amazing soundtrack. kirby and the amazing mirror also has a good, cute soundtrack as well and kirby air ride.
Uncontrollable from Xenoblade X, Deep Darkness and Desperate Situation from Devil Survivor 1 & 2, Wallys theme from ORAS, and everything from persona 3. Uncontrollable just makes you feel badass when you're fighting a tyrant (especially if its a giant one) Deep Darkness just adds so much emotion to Yuzu's ending, letting you know just how much you goofd, and Eternal Life is just as good when you get the good endings. Wally's theme is just too awesome for a Pokémon game, making you feel so powerful when you're beating up a child with asthma.
If there's anything I have to say that makes me happy to buy Sonic '06, it's the gameplayTHE MUSIC. And any Sonic game in general. I love the feel and essence of Sonic music that makes it awesome. I like the worst games for their music, the best games for their music, and I don't even own any games! That means I don't know anything about them other than how good the music is. If there's a SINGLE game I have to call to for its superb music, *SPOILER ALERT* it's Pac-Man Championship Edition 2. Yes, it is not a Sonic game. I love Sonic game music as a whole, but not one single game. Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 IS a single game, and boy oh boy, it delivers with the music. I just love the style of it and how fast-paced it is. **FREE COOKIE STAND OPEN, COME GET YOUR COOKIES** *notice: these cookies are only for those who have read this far.*
*high-five* Metroid Prime has one of the best soundtracks ever, and definitely is top 5 for that generation - across ALL platforms.
Ooh, good video game music. Games these days have a lot more TLC put into their aesthetics. While this music ranges from nostalgic sounds to charming melodies and haunting orchestras, each one is fine-tuned to fit the atmosphere of the game. One game that tops many others in this respect, I think, is Hollow Knight, a hand-drawn 2D Hack-and-Slash platformer. The game has a melancholy air to it, but that never takes away from some of the more unique and bright places to explore, and the music shows that abundantly. From curious, ambient music in the background to epic and inspiring boss battle music, the game has it all. I think that my favorite piece, Hornet, describes the whole soundtrack in an immediately captivating way.
I had pokémon mystery dungeon blue rescue team for a while, so that's got some of my favorite soundtracks. I dunno if TPP's church of the helix choir count, but they've got some nice songs too.
Rescue Team and Explorers' OSTs are excellent, to hop on that bandwagon, heheh. I don't listen to them as much anymore, but I probably should, since listening to them always motivates me to write PMD stuff. If there's any soundtracks that I think never get old, though, it's Crypt of the Necrodancer and Sonic Mania's. Crypt in particular is really good, though given it's a rhythm game it'd have to be.
The entire Payday 2 soundtrack just blew me away when I played the game for the first time. Sometimes the only reason I go loud in a heist (apart from my horrible stealth skills) is just to listen to the awesome tunes.
I'm glad to see a few mentions of Donkey Kong Country here. I was actually listening to the DKC2 OST earlier today, 90% of it is amazing, with my favorite being Lockjaw's Locker. DKC1, DKC3, and DK64 are also great, but not as consistently good as DKC2 in my opinion. Aside from the popular choices like the Zelda and Mega Man and Kirby series, I have a few favorites that come out of left field: Perfect Dark's end credits, Goldeneye N64's dam level, F-Zero's Mute City (any game's version of it), and of course, Yoshi's Island's Giant Baby Bowser fight. Apparently I'm really biased for the SNES-N64 era of game music. As far as Pokémon music goes, I was recently reminded that the bug-catching park in Johto has some really impressive music. A hidden gem.
The main series Pokémon games has plenty of good pieces. I find most of the villain and team leader themes to be exceptional, particularly for Team Aqua/Magma, Team Galactic, and Team Plasma. Music from the Mystery Dungeon games also tends to be solid, though I haven't played one of those games in years. I'm a sucker for orchestral pieces, so games that feature that kind of music earn my approval. The scores for Halo and Destiny are gorgeous, so much so that I bought the soundtrack for Destiny 1 and 2. League of Legends also produces some beautiful pieces, though that music is usually featured at the login screen as opposed to in-game. LoL, in my opinion, does an exceptional job of capturing the themes of their characters in music (with the best example of that, to me, being Azir and his login theme). I could list dozens of pieces here that I adore, but I'd have a wall of YouTube links, and nobody wants to slog through that.
Finishing up my repeat playthrough of Spirit of Justice a little while ago, I am reminded of what absolute gems are hidden in the soundtrack - everything from dramatic atmospheres to war marches to ominous heavenly chanting. I'm surprised at how much mood is captured in each of the pieces, and while I remembered the first two, I didn't remember the chanting one at all - so it was a pleasant surprise. (I unfortunately can't link them here, as they're all partly or fully spoiler-related, but those who have played through the game will know what tracks I'm talking about.)
Monster Hunter Stories has pretty good battle music and also when you roam around. It's got that 'kids' rpg' feel. But whatever, still good and I wouldn't knock it none!
Xenoblade's soundtrack is pretty bomb all across the board! The battle themes never fail to get me hyped!
Tons of Mario soundtracks stick out to me. Say what you will about Undertale, but you can't deny that soundtrack is one of the best to come out in ages, along with Xenoblade Chronicles. Also, I don't know what it is, but Earthbound is downright addictive. I also really adore Mischief Makers' soundtrack. There's just something uplifting about it. But to me, the best franchise when it comes to music is the Mystical Ninja franchise. After all, it had this: