What video game music have you been listening to lately?

I've been loving the London Philharmonic Orchestra doing music from some of my favorite games. It's a delight to listen to! Definitely recommend the Sons of Liberty theme if I had to give one recommendation. How about you, SW?

For whatever reason randomly Youtube'd The LOTRO soundtrack today, as I remember vaguely playing it years back when it was first released.

It's 7 hours long

This. So badass and rock/metal too

Listening to this helps me relax.

F-Zero GX. Awesome stuff.

I don't really listen to game music, but the latest quality track that i came by is this

Not big on video game music for casual listening. It's generally made to fit a scene and while it can be good, it's not really great (for me, at least) out of that context.

I did listen to The Last of Us soundtracks (yes, both of them) the other day after listening to the Get Played podcast. Really good soundtrack with a very interesting composer. Uses a lot of different instruments, creating a technically varied but stylistically consistent soundtrack (i.e. you can tell it was made by the same guy, even if the instruments were different).

@uninspiredcup: did you listen to the entire 7 hours lol

Mainly Freedom Planet 2 and DBZ Dokkan Battle

I happened to see this trailer and decided to listen to the entire Ace Combat Zero soundtrack for the first time in a while. It makes me seriously consider buying an LP player, haha.

This is the last game thing I've listened to...

But this should be in something, like need for speed underground 3

Been listening to some obscure kickass video game EDM from the early '90s that sound impressive for their time:

Mirrors (NEC PC-88) − "Prayers" (1990) − ambient deep house/techno music

Mystic Warriors (Arcade) − "Majestic Fortress" (1993) − Japanese-house fusion music

Ace Driver: Victory Lap (Arcade) − "Haze In Daylight" (1995) − ambient drum & bass music

@Jag85: God I miss games sounding like this. The Mirrors one is like Tangerine Dream and Streets of Rage 2 decided to rub squishy bits.

I regularly got the Jet Set Radio and Future soundtracks on.

Nuts that the soundtracks are still available to this day from SEGA but the games nah.

@dimebag667: Katamari is god tier

@SolidGame_basic:

It came out before Streets of Rage too. Here's another cool techno track from Mirrors that was ahead of its time:

Mirrors (NEC PC-88) − "K&V" (1990) − ambient acid techno music

@Jag85: keep em coming!

@dimebag667:

If you like classic EDM and Streets of Rage, you should check out other music from Streets of Rage composer Yuzo Koshiro:

The Revenge of Shinobi (Sega Mega Drive) − "China Town" (1989)

Misty Blue (NEC PC-88) − "Catch the Step" (1990)

Eye of the Beholder (Sega CD) − "Main Dungeon" (1994)

@Jag85: Nice👍 I generally dig the darker toned ones most.

I've been digging this for a while.

The Persona 5 Strikers album is sick. A must for all weebs.

@dimebag667:

That's giving me Ys vibes...

Ys I & II (PC Engine CD-ROM) − "Termination" (1989) − composed by Yuzo Koshiro

Ys III: Wanderers from Ys (PC Engine CD-ROM) − "The Strongest Foe" (1991) − composed by Mieko Ishikawa

Ys Origin (PC) − "Genesis ~ Beyond the Beginning" (2006) − composed by Ryo Takeshita

Song goes hard in the paint and I wasn't expecting it to.

Really good song. Love the old alien horror vibe.

To me, this song is Devil May Cry. It really hearkens back to how the soundtrack has always came off in a Devil May Cry game. Plus, it's just a really good song.

While it is different for a Sonic game, I have to admit there is something that definitely has me listening to it.

@kejigoto: Damn good soundtracks.

I was gonna say, you and your weeb stuff, but then i noticed that you've even suggested it to weebs, so i accept your weebness.

@SolidGame_basic: First time hearing Persona 5 Strikers. That's a good song... But it's not really weeb without any high pitch vocals. That's kind of a requirement to be a weeb song.

@Jag85: Nice👍 I especially dug "The Strongest Foe".

You seem to have a pretty good head for this stuff, and I'm wondering if you can solve a mystery I just bumbled into.

I was listening to this earlier, and decided to browse the comments. The first comment that pops up for me is by vee - let's take a moment in silence for those who can't find this song. Now the first response is by Nocturnal Recluse, who is looking for a British club/dance song from the 90's that he can't remember. Seeing how this seems to be your wheelhouse, and that this all happened at the same time, I'm wondering if you are up to the challenge! Haha, no worries if you're not. I just really want to know what song he's looking for.

The shadow of the colossus soundtrack. Absolute banger.

There’s an inner weeb in you, I can sense it. You just need to embrace your feelings and believe in your friends… and do like a thousand side quests.

Lol. Lyn is the best!

@dimebag667: What comment? I don't see the comment you're referring to. But that song's a classic. Didn't know what it was called until now, but I used to hear it quite a bit as a kid in the '90s. Back in the days when club/dance music used to have soul, something that's missing from modern club/dance music.

@SolidGame_basic: Is that the singer's name? Lyn's English sounds pretty good, unlike the "Engrish" we hear from other Japanese singers. And she has soul in her voice, unlike most modern pop singers.

@Jag85: The starting comment is by someone named "vee" (with like 200+ replies) "let's take a moment in silence for those who can't find this song". And the first reply to that is someone named "Nocturnal Recluse", who is searching for a different song that they can't remember.

That's basically all they give to go on. If you could find the thread, you could see what people suggested. He also said it was similar to this:

And you are correct... this modern world needs better music.

Tenka (It's a 1st person shooter on PS1). Cuz it rux.

Or in plain English: Because it rocks.

Not a great game, but this song was dope and I rediscovered it during all the AC reveals. Pretty addictive...

@dimebag667:

I still can't see the comment under the video, but can see the screenshot. All that comes to mind is the Mortal Kombat movie ending theme:

Mortal Kombat (1995 movie) − "Halcyon (On + On)"

It has "LaaaAAAaaa" vocals, so this is all I can think of. The song plays right at the end of the movie, after Liu Kang defeats Shang Tsung and his brother's soul is freed. The song has a soulful feel to it, which matches the "soul" theme of the ending.

This was one of my favourite tracks from the Mortal Kombat movie, which probably has the greatest EDM movie soundtrack of all time... unlike the MK games, which had dull forgettable soundtracks.

"Touch Me (All Night Long)" is a really good song. The original 1984 version also sounds pretty good:

@SolidGame_basic:

Speaking of weeb music...

Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA (Sega) − "Nyanyanyanyanyanya!" (2010) − a.k.a. the "Nyan Cat" meme song

Touhou Project (Shibayan) − "Tiny Little Adiantum" (2013) − a.k.a. the "Omae Wa Mou" meme song

...And speaking of Touhou Project, there's also this kickass funky EDM song:

Touhou Project (Shibayan) − "Fall In The Dark" (2012)

Because I'm playing Xenoblade Chronicles here, naturally I'm all about that soundtrack right now.

@Jag85: Yeah, it's kinda buried in there, but you seemed to get the gist from the screenshot. I suck with lyrics, but if I could get them hum some bars, that would really help.

And I love that Halcyon song. It's also in Hackers and Mean Girls (allegedly 😏). That soundtrack is great all around.

One of my favorite industrial metal songs and albums.

• Here's some more audio gold to flying sidekick your sister to.

That og 'touch me ' was solid too.

@Sushiglutton: That's one of the sad things about Ass Creed. The art teams (visual and audio) put ridiculous amounts of work into it, that's the good part.

@dimebag667:

Reminds me of the heavy metal song in FFX:

Final Fantasy X (PS2) − "Otherworld" (2001)

And let's not forget the most iconic Mortal Kombat song:

Mortal Kombat (Sega CD) − "Techno Syndrome" (1993)

@Jag85: lol very weeby! Lyn is her English stage name I guess. She’s done a ton of songs for Persona. She was even on The Game Awards last year lol

@SolidGame_basic: When I look up Lyn singer, first thing that comes up is a K-pop singer, lol. But her full name is Lyn Inaizumi, to avoid confusion.

Lyn's most iconic Persona song:

Persona 5 (PS3 / PS4) − "Wake Up, Get Up, Get Out There" (2016)

@uninspiredcup: Ubisoft games are basically virtual tourism at this point. The biggest selling point of the Assassin's Creed and Far Cry games is that you get to explore interesting locations. AC shows us historical settings, while FC shows us modern settings. That's what Ubisoft games have going for them, despite constantly repeating the same tired old Ubisoft formula.

@Jag85: "Ubisoft games are basically virtual tourism"

Yea, pretty apt description.

@Jag85: Yeah there's some similarities. The FF one kinda sounds like that and this put together.

But I totally goofed. The song Demanufacture isn't in the movie. The song where Johnny Cage is fighting Scorpion in the creepy ladder world is Zero Signal... but it's on the same album

And I agree that Techno Syndrome is the best. It's one of those rare songs I can't skip. And it always reminds me of Mortal Monday 😎

And this reminds me of this

@dimebag667: Interestingly, that "Time is Mine" song came out just a few months after FFIX's Japanese release. Was there any influence, or is it just a coincidence that they sound somewhat similar? But Nobuo Uematsu's FFIX song was certainly influenced by this 1977 classic:

After all, Queen were famous in Japan, where Freddie Mercury ('80s moustache version) has been parodied in plenty of anime and games... Pretty sure Mike Haggar from Final Fight is a parody of Freddie Mercury.

Same here. Playing Xenoblade 3 so its all the Xenoblade soundtracks for me too. God dammit they are good. Worth the entry fee alone.

Very true! Hard to be an artist for a company with the main idea to pack their games with ”content” to sell MT..,

@Jag85: I wonder if they heard an advanced copy, or maybe that track leaked early on Napster or something, or like you said, maybe just pure coincidence.

And I can't blame them for being influenced by Queen. They're great 👍

I could be wrong, but I always assumed this dude was inspired by the guy from Cyborg. Which I've heard was weirdly supposed to be a sequel to Masters of the Universe, but was so not related, that they were just like "call it something else".

Maybe not, but that looks like a video game villain.