If Music Be The Food Of Love, Play On

I've decided to follow up on my post about gaming soundtracks and their composers. Because today I will run you through some of the series and games that are among my favourite gaming soundtracks. I'm a fan of instrumental music anyway and some of these albums and pieces rank up there with some of my favourite music of all time. Here are some of the best soundtracks ever made. Unfortunately some gaming soundtracks cannot be bought because they were never printed officially and some are incredibly hard to track down or are sold at extortinate prices. If you can't buy them...get them through other methods. I might be able to help if you ask nicely!

Anyway here are some of the best soundtracks ever made in gaming. This does not necessarily mean they are brilliant games (although most of them are). These are just the ones with the best music. There are many more beyond this as many of the series featured have great ones spanning all games. (Disclaimer: I am only including original works so no Guitar Hero or Rockband or Triangle Hero or whatever the hell they've released now!)

Silent Hill 2 by Akira Yamaoka

This soundtrack is a masterpiece. I'm not kidding. It amps the terror and horror of Silent Hill 2 perfectly. Expresses the themes of the characters, plot and setting through music perfectly but the music is great in it's own right. I think what impresses me most about this soundtrack is that it has a collection of pieces that you can listen to in different moods and feel something different every time. Very few pieces of music I find, have that quality.

Here is one of my favourite songs from the soundtrack:



Pokemon Colosseum by Tsukasa Tawada

Pokemon Colosseum is actually a pretty good game overall. But to be honest the soundtrack is the standout point of the game for me. I think the best thing about it is that it's varied. There are some really nice peaceful and quiet pieces here that you can definately relax to. Also it has the best pokemon battle music theme ever (which is sadly underused in the game!)



Zelda: Ocarina Of Time and Zelda: The Wind Waker by Koji Kondo

Zelda had to feature somewhere. These two soundtracks are so great, that I can't compare them. The sheer number of pieces here is astounding and pretty mcuh all of them are wonderful to listen to and evoke some serious imagination and mood. Luckily both of these are not too hard to find but they may not come cheap!

Here's one from Ocarina Of Time by Koji Kondo



Here's one from Wind Waker by composers:Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, Toru Minegishi and Koji Kondo



Golden Sun by Motoi Sakuraba

This mention is a bit bittersweet. Now this game in itself is amazing but the soundtrack even more so. It is some testament when a Gameboy Advance game has a sountrack that can stand up to home consoles with better soundchips. The composer did a fantastic job with this and so did the developers to get the sound out of the GBA. Unfortunately you can't buy this and the only way to get the songs is to rip the audio from youtube videos but I have a better suggestion that I reveal next time. Find people who have re-arranged the songs already or perform them with groups. But that is something I will cover next time.




Enjoy these soundtracks and please feel free to comment on what some of your favourites are! Could also just be video game songs or themes!

Peace out guys!