DDD’s Top 10 Video Game Tracks!

     If you can recall when I wrote about my top 5 favorite Nintendo soundtracks, I spoke about the soundtracks as a whole and not the individual pieces of the music. For those who do not recall, this is what I had listed as my top 5 favorite Nintendo soundtracks of all time.

5. Super Mario RPG – Yoko Shimomura

4. Metroid Prime – Kenji Yamamoto and Kouichi Kyuuma

3. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island – Koji Kondo

2. Banjo-Kazooie – Grant Kirkhope

1. Super Smash Bros. Brawl – Various Composers

      Now, I compared each of these soundtracks to each other as a whole in attempt to sort out which soundtrack I liked altogether. It was very difficult to leave certain soundtracks off the list because I do like a wide variety of Nintendo soundtracks and many individual tracks within the games separately. It was hard to pick out an all-time favorite from the many soundtracks I enjoyed. Likewise, it was very difficult to pick out individual songs/pieces of music as my all-time favorite pieces.

      Regardless, here we are, and this list will not be biased towards the soundtracks I picked above. How a soundtrack holds up as a whole is a lot different than liking individual pieces of music from a soundtrack. That’s not to say I will refrain from putting songs I like from the above list of games onto this one, it just means that they are not the deciding factors as to why I like an individual song. The game could have a bogus soundtrack, yet have one piece of music that stands out above the rest. Likewise, the opposite can be true. A game can have an excellent soundtrack, but not have any individual pieces that really stand out.

Grifflon’s top 5 game soundtracks

Music can make or break a game. A good game needs to combine all the elements of entertainment and sensory perception; sound and vision must be fulfilled. The soundtrack of a game can be its defining feature that makes it memorable or blend with the gameplay and plot to make something magical. So I’m going to focus not just on what game has the best soundtrack but the games that are standouts BECAUSE of their soundtracks.

#5

 JAK AND DAXTER TRILOGY

Jax and Daxter series – Naughty dog

‘Jak and Daxter Theme’

Jak and Daxter the dynamic duo have their own share of fantastic music that evolved with the series, changing from the childish fantasy in the Land of the Precursers to hardcore teenage years in Haven City. As Jak grew and hardened over the years so did the music. From the very beginning, light hearted tone of Sandover Village to the desolate and defeated drone of Haven City.

Top 5 Best Nintendo Soundtracks

As much as I love video games themselves, we have to remember all of the components that make up a good video game. Typically, there involves a story, good gameplay, nice visuals (you don’t need good graphics to have nice visuals, but it’s a nice bonus), and of course, music. Next to the actual gameplay and control of a game, I think the music and the ambient sounds play a huge role in the success of a game.  I extend the term music to apply to a game that even uses silence to set a mood. Music is so very important, it can determine whether a game is worth it to play or not.

This being said, there are many great games out there with amazing soundtracks to go with them. Even narrowing the range to just Nintendo soundtracks, there are many incredible titles out there. I’ve compiled a list of my top five favourite Nintendo soundtracks. These are just some of my personal favourites, and these were really difficult to pick out from the many great games Nintendo has made. Agree or disagree, here is what I think to be some of Nintendo’s finest.

Kingdom Hearts – The First of Many

With the announcement of Kingdom Hearts 3, the September release of Kingdom Hearts 1.5 and being my first review it seems only fitting that I start off with my childhood favourite game and introduction into the RPG genre; Kingdom Hearts.

 

Kingdom Hearts was like Christmas came early, Disney and Final Fantasy combined in one. It was in March 2002 that two fandoms collided and were never the same again.

Recently DDD played Kingdom Hearts for the first time and I found myself having to explain key elements of the gameplay and story to him until it really sunk.

“At first when I saw the Disney characters I thought it was a joke but as I dove deeper into the gameplay and the story I fell in love.”  -DDD