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Top 5 Video Game Soundtracks of All Time
When a video game has great music, it usually points to the care in creation that's needed to be make one of the better games of all time. As you will notice with our top 5 video game soundtracks, these are also some of the greatest games ever made. You won't be finding "Paperboy" or "Ghouls n' Goblins" on this list. Only the best games have the best music. They go hand in hand. When you travel the world of a great RPG, great music is a necessity for identifying the different lands. When climbing up a dark, shadowy castle, appropriate music is needed to instill a feeling of suspension and unease in the gamer, and this all must be done in a unique way to give the game its claim for greatness, an ambition that is not necessarily sought after in modern gaming. After close inspection in our listening sessions, we have chosen these 5 video games. The music in these games reminded us of playing them at younger ages, and sometimes overcame us with a sense of forlornness, in knowing that the once nuanced affectivity of these games can't hit us again like they hit us the first time we played them. Nonetheless, the music in our top 5 video game soundtracks are the best examples of great music in great games, music so great that they are often instinctively listened to outside the game itself, maybe even in your car when your around the right crowd of nerds who could appreciate such a thing.
5. Super Castlevania 4 (SNES)
 Like every game for the Castlevania series, this game is loaded with great music. Super Castlevania for the SNES is loaded not only with it's own great music, but remixes of all the prior Castlevania themes which you encounter in the last three stages of the game, from the first stage of Castlevania 1 and 3 to the morning music of Castlevania 2. This is not to say that the best songs in the game are the remixes. Super Castlevania does not have 1 below-average song in the entire repertoire of the game. From the spooky salience of the first level, to the classical harpsichord musings of the first level inside the castle, this game never disappoints in interesting, and contagious melodies. Even as the game progresses and the mood and music continually become more lugubrious, never does this get in the way of the major themes of the songs being stuck in your head. The real payoff for Super Castlevania though is the 4th level once inside the castle after the basement level. What is normally called the "Gold level" or "Treasure Level" is augmented with arguably the best song not only for the Castlevania series, but the best for any game council. As you are playing the level, you stop for a minute and let the musical motif soak inside you, and you realize that whoever created the music for the Castlevania series is a genius, compared to all the new video games now that are always filled with trite, cacophonous, modern rock songs. The entire Castlevania series is full of sweeping, majestic music. It's in your interest to try to get a hold of these golden oldies.
4. Mega Man X (SNES)
 Mega Man X came as a huge surprise to all mega man fans in that they did not expect a new series of mega man to be as good as the original. Mega Man X did not skimp out in the music area either; in fact, Mega Man X is the best music in the entire mega man series. Everywhere the levels are enhanced by the moody urbane musical stanzas of Mega Man X. When Zero is about to die, a sweeping aggrandized musical flourish washes over your ears, strengthening your resolve and making you ready to move on to take on the nefarious Sigma once and for all. The Mega Man series has always had a great skill at creating fitting music for the stage that they were making the music for. We remember this specifically with bubble man stage in Mega Man 2, but we remember it just as well when thinking about the song for Chill Penguin stage in Mega Man X. When you defeat all 8 stage enemies in mega man X, the dreaded Sigma props up right in the middle of your screen to choose for the final battle in the game. The music here is one of the best themes in the game, evoking an infectious, militaristic march, reminding one of the often overlooked pieces of Maurice Ravel, especially his "Bolero". Mega Man X without a doubt had more of a "new age" music style that at first may have turned one off for not being more like the original music in the series, but when the game was played into the depths of the stage levels, one realized that much care was taken into creating the soundtrack for this game. The Mega Man series, like the Castlevania series, always have music you love to hear even outside of playing the game itself.
3. Chrono Trigger (SNES)
 The Squaresoft RPG's were notorious for being perfect games. Great game play, great graphics, and Count of Montecristoesque storylines all contributed towards making the Squaresoft RPG's the best games to ever come out for the platform systems. What is never overlooked though, and for the absolutely right reasons, is the music in these games. Chrono Trigger is a perfect example of a game that delivers big time on its music scores. We are struck when walking the world map of 500 A.D. when listening to the subdued, subtle tinkerings of the 500 A.D. theme. Go on Youtube right now, and you can listen to a variegated amount of renditions of the song, from the peculiar oboe version, to the standard guitar attempts. Some good, some pretty bad, nonetheless, this song struck a chord in those who played the game. Elsewhere in the game there is often grandiose heroic music reflecting a new partner you have acquired on your journey (Frog) to the darker vivacious musings of boss battles, specifically the one where you meet Magus and have to battle him for sole supremacy over the 500 AD world. The ocean palace theme is yet another stand out song in Chrono Trigger, evoking a serious, "world-on-the-line", hook combined with a more modern electronic stylings. Because Chrono Trigger traversed the ends of time, the game had to account for all the different musical styles that were developed throughout time, from the primitive caveman waltz of the prehistoric age, to the sophisticated suspension of the "end-of-time" theme. Chrono Trigger delivers at all stages of the game, proving once again and often tirelessly, that Squaresoft was the best video game maker of all time.
2. Castlevania SOTN (PS)
 Castlevania "Symphony of the Night" for Playstation had music you could climb mountains to on your own, and listen to on your own as if you were listening to your favorite band of all time. The "Dance of Gold" matched the greatness and grandeur of Beethoven's symphonies. The "Dance of Pales" evoked emotions of Chopin's waltzes and Beethoven's piano sonatas. Classical music came to the fore in Castlevania SOTN done in the most stunning fashion by the genius that’s Michiru Yamane. The score of SOTN would be become so popular and sought-after that Yamane would often play the score with a full orchestra in concert halls across the globe including an annual festival in Germany for the greatest video game music of the day. The often conspicuous existential motifs defined a score that could be listened to at any time at any place beyond the actual video game. Hiking a mountain in the dead of winter to "Lost Painting" gave one a sense of self the size of the world, but also a self-effaced modesty the size of a piece of dust. SOTN projected serious, calm, and comedic motifs in one package, giving you a vast amount of choices to define yourself to when listening to this soundtrack. The Castlevania series is clearly the best series ever created on a musical level and arguably for an overall game playing level. After Super Castlevania, one did not think it was possible to create a better sound track than the former and all the previous installments in the series before it. SOTN superceded all expectations and would become a favorite album/soundtrack for a myriad of people across the globe.
1. Secret of Mana (SNES)
 Secret of Mana is arguably the best game ever made, which we argue for in our top 100 list. One of the characteristics of this game that attributes to its pure quality is the music. Never has there been a soundtrack so consistent for any video game, and so memorable. It is easy to argue that the piece entitled "Into the Thick of It" is the most memorable musical theme ever put to a video game. What overcame you as you and 2 friends journeyed the massive world of Secret of Mana to this song, was nothing short of epic. This song perfectly embodies the feeling of knowing you have such a long way to go in your quest but with an overriding calm that you're not racing to get anywhere, but to enjoy this entirely new, incandescent world. "Prophecy" was another memorable song as your flew over the massive world of Secret of Mana on your hermaphroditical dragon, sometimes never landing so you could listen to the same motif over and over again. "Whisper and Mantra" is the type of song that will stick with you for ages. This theme was always re-introduced as you defeated the main boss of an area and received a much-sought-out mana seed. Play this game through, then wait a year and download or buy the soundtrack, and you will understand exactly how affective and important this music will be to your life. It will remind you of how at one time in the making of video games, you were able to live out its golden age; A time when you actually didn't realize how great the games you were playing were. It's with the diminution of video game making into its non-inspired modernity that you will realize that you probably played the best video games of all time, and listened to some of the best scores of music from any time or age. Secret of Mana is the best example of the golden age of video games and its music.
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