Favorite SNES music

[electricmastro]

A thread about music favorited from the SNES. For me, I tend to favor the bouncier, energetic melody-driven songs, especially if they also have a slower tone that manages to give it a sort of elegant grace to it. My favorites include:

 

Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest - Hot Head Bop:

 

 

Final Fantasy V - Clash on the Big Bridge (Battle vs Gilgamesh):

 

 

Spanky's Quest - Underwater:

 

 

Spider-Man & X-Men: Arcade's Revenge - Gambit:

 

 

Super Castlevania IV - The Forest of Monsters:

 

 

 

Edited April 25, 2022 by electricmastro

[Steven Pendleton]

Here's one that I'm sure nobody else will mention: the beta version of Simon's theme.

[Punisher5.0]

 

 Could name any sound track from the trilogy but this level has it all for me. Awesome sound track, cool sound effects and those neat looking light shafts peeking through the trees.

 

 

This one is for blowing my mind back in the day.

[electricmastro]

Most people prob like the main Dark World theme the most from this game, but I think I might prefer the dungeon version more:

 

 

[SlidellMan]

-The Donkey Kong Country trilogy (Or anything else that Grant Kirkhope, Robin Beanland, David Wise, and Evelyn Novakovic did for the system.)

-Tales of Phantasia

-Star Ocean

-Super Mario World 2

-The Magical Quest Starring Mickey Mouse

-Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster Busts Loose

-Super Castlevania IV

-Super Turrican 1 & 2

-Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars

-Demon's Crest

-Kirby Super Star (KSS Ultra felt off, and more ways than one.)

-Nosferatu (I wish Koji Igarashi would consider remaking this.)

-Mega Man X-X3

-Actraiser 1 & 2

-Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and Terranigma

-R-Type 3 & Super R-Type

-Star Fox

-Treasure of the Rudras

-Earthbound

-Gradius III

-Contra III: The Alien Wars

-Skyblazer

-Spawn: The Video Game

 

Yes, that is a lot.

[electricmastro]

8 hours ago, SlidellMan said:

-Super Mario World 2

Featuring one of the happiest songs ever:

 

 

[SlidellMan]

I have made at least three cover songs from that game. They can be found on my Band Lab page.

[Bloodreign]

No one's given a mention to the entire soundtrack of Plok, a decent game that somehow got a fantastic soundtrack that pretty much blew away anything on a cart at that point.

Edited October 24, 2022 by Bloodreign

[Kirk_Johnston]

In terms of quality sound, I'd put Actraiser right up there:

 

 

One of the tunes that I think is really impacting though is this one from Tetris Attack (literally made me cry):

 

 

Also, because you totally wouldn't expect to hear something this kickass on SNES:

 

 

And there's all the big-hitters that everyone loves, like Star Fox, F-Zero, Donkey Kong Country, Super Metroid, A Link to the Past, etc.

Edited October 24, 2022 by Kirk_Johnston

[Wayler]

My top 3 SNES soundtracks as a musical experience would be:

1. Super Castlevania IV

2. Axelay (a shocker, I know)

3. Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest

the top 2 are by the same composer: Taro Kudo, the only soundtracks he did for the SNES. Oh what could have been...

 

As for individual songs that haven't been mentioned, here's a few:

The title screen/intro for Stargate is a real banger, even though the rest of the game is a bit crap.

 

 

Lemmings 2 has a few good tunes and my favorite is for the Space Tribe

 

And finally, the whole soundtrack for Waterworld is truly a hidden gem, but that's understandable because the game itself is garbage. This soundscape deserved a better game. Just listen to Map or Diving.

 

[SlidellMan]

Enjoy!

[91SNESplayer]

Toy Story? It has a good soundtrack but the sound quality in particular is excellent, very clean and crisp unlike the muddled sound that some people associate the system too.

Also, who could forget The Lion King! The soundtrack is fantastic.

[SlidellMan]

I might as well include Energy Breaker:

For those who want extended versions of its songs:

 

[Trinity]

Star Fox

[Lostdragon]

 

[+frankodragon]

One that blew me away when I first played it,  The Lost Vikings intro.

 

 

[WavyGravy]

I concur with all the usual suspects, nice to see Waterworld make an appearance. At least we got something out of that mess!

 

My pick is Front Mission: Gun Hazard. Same duo as Chrono Trigger composing, and it sounds like they reused a lot of Chrono Trigger and FF7 samples. The whole thing sounds like a mashup of alternative FF7 and CT tracks, and it's exactly as awesome as that should be. 

[Wayler]

I'm actually playing through Gun Hazard for the first time and I'm absolutely hooked on it. Can't say the music does anything special for me though, it's got some excellent pieces but the overall soundscape is too militaristic and ambient for my taste. Works great on the confines of the game though.

 

 

I'd like to highlight Shadowrun. An original cyberpunk RPG with a wonky control scheme. I'd recommend using the mouse support patch for playing: https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/6653/

But the soundtrack, it is awesome. Moody and dark with surprising beats and harmonies. I'd nominate Morgue for the most hummable tune in the SNES library.

 

Also check out this excellent tribute for the soundtrack with modern instruments and a slightly metal edge. You can't go wrong with 8 minutes of Morgue.

https://juliandaniels.bandcamp.com/album/shadowrun-snes-soundtrack-tribute

[Bloodreign]

Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow, aka Donald Duck in Maui Mallard outside of the US, some groovy music in that game. Is it my favorite soundtrack for the console? No, but the music is pretty relaxing, and definitely fits the game quite well.

[SlidellMan]

@Bloodreign Fun fact about Maui Mallard in Cold Shadow: Michael Giacchino was the game's composer, and that was before The Incredibles.

Anyways, I found some songs that can help calm down the easily agitated.

 

Granted, it's only three songs, but they're great songs. By the way, this was released in Japan as Trump Island, and features pixel art from Gainax.

[Austin]

Super R-Type:

 

 

[SlidellMan]

I thought I would share this hidden gem of a soundtrack:

This OST was composed by Yasuaki Fujita, and this was the last Super Famicom game he ever worked on.

[Kirk_Johnston]

Here's another one I love, the title screen theme from Yoshi's Island (YI), and indeed the music throughout the whole game (YI was already mentioned previously, but I second the motion):

 

I love how it builds from the sound of the waves lapping on the beach to layering the extra individual sounds and instruments and then the full tune kicks in, and the rotating island and other little visual elements really sells the whole scene.

Edited September 7, 2023 by Kirk_Johnston

[KidGameR186496]

Hmmm... It's very tough for me choosing my favorites but i have some titles on my head right now:

 

- F-Zero

- Axelay

- Top Gear

- Kirby Super Star

- DKC1 & 2

- Winter Gold

- Super Castlevania IV & Castlevania Dracula X

- Terranigma

- Mario World (obviously) & Yoshi's Island

- Super Metroid

- Pilotwings

- Umihara Kawase

- Ogre Battle

- Chrono Trigger

- EarthBound

- Plok

- Equinox (Solstice II)

- Green Lantern (unreleased)

- Waterworld

- HyperZone

- Alcahest

- Demon's Crest

- Magic Sword

- ActRaiser

- Sutte Hakkun

[Kirk_Johnston]

I think the Addam's Family Values music worth a mention:

 

It's got a sound and quality that I think, if you close your eyes, could convince you that you were listening to an '80s-'90s movie soundtrack rather than a video game.

 

A couple of the tunes give me a Night of the Demons main theme vibe in places:

Edited October 8, 2023 by Kirk_Johnston