Thankfully videogame music nerd Jake Kaufman – who cut his teeth making music for the Game Boy Color in the early ‘00s – does a bang up job of bringing to mind the golden era of chiptunes.

Head here to stream the list as a single YouTube playlist.Įvery good 8-bit game needs a good 8-bit soundtrack, and in putting together their NES-era homage Shovel Knight, developers Yacht Club Games knew they had to make sure there was as much attention paid to the sound as there was the rest of the game’s presentation.

We hope this list brings back some memories for you too. This list brought back a lot of memories, more than your typical retrospective list, and during the very long process of growing it these tunes brought us back to specific times - Christmas mornings, drunk nights as teenagers, half-forgotten Blockbuster rentals and so much more. Gaming is a medium that’s meant to be engaged with, and these reactive, organic scores are no different. But it has to be said, if you really want to get the full experience for these soundtracks give these games a spin. That way we can include even more games that might have gotten snubbed otherwise (there are, obviously, some exceptional cases).įinally, we’ve included a song for each entry and a playlist for them all. For example, some of us really love Megaman 3, but Megaman 2 is here to take the trophy home for the whole NES team. Also, since video games can have a tremendous amount of sequels we have occasionally chosen our favorite from a series that deserves recognition as a whole. This means no Beatles Rock Band, no Tony Hawk, and no Grand Theft Auto (for what it’s worth, Vice City is the best) because to mix those with original soundtracks is simply unfair. Most importantly: licensed soundtracks - an incredible act of curation and an art form in their own right - are out of bounds. Ordering decades’ worth of timeless video game soundtracks into a definitive top 100 requires a few ground rules. But what are the greatest examples of this marriage? From Nintendo 8-bit classics to stirring cinematic scores that have accompanied modern masterpieces like Red Dead Redemption and The Last Of Us, here’s our ultimate guide to the best ever video game OSTs. Video games and music have always gone hand in hand.

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