Awesome Music / Seventh Generation

This is the Awesome Music page for Wii, PS3, 360, DS, and PSP.

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• Brütal Legend, Lionwhyte's Pleasure Tower, stage load-out event. Crap falling down? Check. Invincible monsters chasing you in the Deuce and knocking MORE crap out of the way? Check. Nitro fire? Check. Something epic to play alongside it? Well, we have DragonForce. How about the fact that the first song you hear is the opening bass to "Children of the Grave", and it erupts once Eddie picks up the axe. That is class.
  • Cry of the Banshee during the fight with the Metal Queen. Just... this.
  • Electric Eye from Judas Priest.
  • The use of Painkiller during the final boss. Seriously, final boss + Judas Priest = one of the most awesome boss fights in video game history.
  • Ozzy Osbourne's "Mr. Crowley" goes perfect with the sad cutscene that shows us what happened to Ophelia.
  • The cutscene where Eddie dreams of seeing normal Ophelia again, the two of them lying underneath a tree, and slaying demons while running along the shore, all while Scorpions' "Holiday" plays.
    • Followed by its unholy twist into the dark and haunting "So Frail" by Mirrorthrone.
• Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game has some great songs from Anamanaguchi, a composer who uses a style that mixes real guitar and chiptune stuff. Some examples:
  • Another Winter.
  • Twin Dragons.
  • Rock Club.
  • Matthew Patel's Bollywood.
  • Wilderness Sabbatical.
  • Gideon Graves Theme.
• Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions has several AMAZING themes.
• Regarding Blue Dragon, if God Himself decided to compose a song to be blasted during the Apocalypse, He would be hard-pressed to create one more Armageddon-heralding than The Seal Is Broken.
• The absolutely beautiful main theme from the exceptionally beautiful game Valkyria Chronicles. Also Rosie at Isara's funeral, in both English and Japanese.
• The music for the first Gears of War was composed by Kevin Riepl, who also wrote most of the music for another game series of Epic Games. Said awesomeness is still intact, but instead of techno-rock asskicking tracks, we have orchestral asskicking ones.
  • "Attack of the Drones" from Gears of War.
  • "Armored Prayer" by Steve Jablonsky from Gears 2.
• Ah, No More Heroes...
  • To start off, there's "N.M.H.", the Leitmotif for Travis Touchdown and the game as a whole, and an absolute banger. It even receives some arrangements in the sequel, including the jazzy "Kill or Be Killed" and the thrash metal theme "NO MORE RIOT".
  • Let's just give you a sampler pack, since otherwise we'd be here all day. Here's one of the stage tracks, "Cashmere Cannonball"; Rank 3's theme, "Mach 13 Elephant Explosion"; Rank 7's theme, "Stop Hanging DJs"; and Rank 2's theme, "Pleather For Breakfast". We'll stop here or else we'll end up posting the OST.
  • "The virgin child makes her wish without feeling anything".
  • The theme of the True Final Boss, Henry, "We Are Finally Cowboys", deserves special mention.
  • The Rank 1 battle against Jeane, "Rocket Surgeon".
  • The theme from the arcade shooter sequence, "Pure White Giant Tiny Glastonbury".
  • The Sequel amps things up with some remixes from the Darkside album, and fresh, new tracks. Sample Phillistine, Subuta.2, and New Destroyman's theme Kill U 2wise Over.
  • While it may not be extraordinary, you're gonna have a pretty damn hard time getting Cloe Walsh's theme, Bondage Cake out your head.
  • Skelter Helter's theme, Sling Shot is pretty awesome.
  • Twilight's theme might just be the best boss theme in the game, minus the Jasper Batt themes listed below.
  • Reaper reaper...
  • The beautiful, downtempo Tooth Paste, which leads wonderfully up to Travis' Heel–Face Turn, or Convulsive Madness, the theme for Batt's second form, which makes the fight itself more tolerable. And the Beatles-esque Dose of Innocence is basically the perfect theme song for Yanderes everywhere.
  • The theme for Batt's first form Dynamite Rocket is just as good. And then there's Kill or Be Killed. There's something about making the NMH theme more funky, complete with sassy black engrish vocals, that's just AWESOME.
  • Heavenly Star will send your soul to heaven.
  • Shoegazer Watched the Stars is an absolute gem of inventive music. By combining an ethereal techno beat to heavy guitar riffs, the song makes the already surreal fight against Captain Vladimir all the more mystical.
• The whole damn soundtrack of Tom Clancy's Endwar. (Note that the latter links weren't featured in the soundtrack release. A fan combined the game's stinger tracks into consistent suites. That's dedication.)
• Elite Beat Agents + The Rolling Stones = Awesome incarnate. The way it's pulled off manages to simultaneously drive the point home for how ridiculously badass the Agents are, and why the Rolling Stones are considered to be among the best of the best in rock'n'roll music (or perhaps music in general).
  • This is our fight! Without a doubt! Time to ignite! We're not going down! (Without a Fight!)
  • Here's a Youtube playlist of every song but YMCA. (Grr, copyright!)
  • Ready steady, can't hold me back. Ready steady, give me good luck. Ready steady, never look back. Let's get started, Ready Steady GO!!
• It's difficult to pick one from the Guitar Hero series. Some choice selections from Guitar Hero II:
  • The build-up to "Freebird". Having finally confirmed five times that you want to play the song, a UFO appears to beam away most of the stage decoration, leaving just you, Stonehenge, and some awesome lighting. And then you get the epic intro to the actual song. Afterwards, your guitarist gets abducted by aliens and the message "LIVE AND LET ROCK" is written in the sky.
  • But the real highlight of a setlist dominated by painful shredding solos and divebombing fretboard run after divebombing fretboard run? The sheer, unadulterated fun of Freezepop's keytar spectacular "Less Talk More Rokk".
  • Guitar Battle vs. Lou is amazing as well.
  • Hell, this series brings us a (sorta) original awesome piece in the form of Guitar Hero 5's special version of "Bring the Noise," with Zakk Wylde on guitar.
• Plants vs. Zombies has a bunch of cool songs including Brainiac Maniac and Graze The Roof.
• And then you have Guitar Hero's sister-series, DJ Hero. Where to start?
  • Well, just for the sake of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band fans, let's start with Sabotage vs. Monkey Wrench.
  • You Can't Touch Ice Ice Baby (You Can't Touch This vs. Ice Ice Baby), We Will Robot Rock You (We Will Rock You vs. Robot Rock), plus other great combos are in store.
  • "Jukebox Hero vs. DJ Hero" - definitely the one song that should get players in the right mindset when they play the game.
  • "Groundhog (Beat Juggle)" is one of the more popular tracks in the lineup. This is either because it's an awesome mix of an awesome track, or because it repeatedly taunts the player in a British accent. "This is no time to kotch!"
    "So, you wanna be a DJ?"
  • "As I'm starin' thought the Red Mist/Red Mist".
  • WOLFGANG'S FIFTH.
  • "Bring the Noise" is back again; these two mixes in DJ Hero simply jack the awesomeness up.
  • Fix Up Look Sharp vs Genesis is one too, especially in the game's intro video.
  • "Just Dance" by Lady Gaga vs. "Ghosts N Stuff" by deadmau5. Listen and be amazed.
  • Let's just say Activision's ad agency knew what they were doing when they put this one in the commercials.
• Rock Band:
  • The game deserves mention for making Boston's already-awesome "Foreplay/Long Time" even more awesome. First, after the instrumental Foreplay section finishes and the band goes quiet, the stage goes dark, then lights up the members of your band, one by one, before the band comes in again. Then, at the end, rather than the fade-out from the original song, you get to experience the true awesomeness of the full ending, capped off with a 23-second-long Big Rock Ending that finishes one of the most epic songs in the game.
  • "Green Grass and High Tides" is one of the most epic songs in the game. What better way to end a game than play a song even longer and almost nearly as awesome as "Freebird". It's an epic 9.52 minute struggle and if you're on meddium or higher there's some pyrotechnics.
  • On the AC-DC LIVE Track Pack, "For Those About To Rock (We Salute You)" is an epic ending to a setlist. It really captures the feeling of a live concert, and after the final notes past the Big Rock Ending, the game screams "WE SALUTE YOU!!!". It's just like a mini-CMOA. Or "Let There Be Rock". It's 10 minutes of punishing notes, topped with the longest Big Rock Ending ever.
  • Anvil's "Metal On Metal" isn't a particularly hard song, it's true. But from the opening chord, it becomes one of the most fun songs to play, simply because it's so darn catchy that everyone gets into it.
  • Remember The Ultimate Showdown, it just got an upgrade.
• Eternal Sonata:
  • Taking into account how many musical references were through the game, it would be a sacrilege if Motoi Sakuraba couldn't produce a jewel like that song.
  • "Scrap and Build Ourselves", the final boss music. The piece is a remix of Chopin's Revolutionary Etude. Listen to it in high quality here.
• BioShock:
  • All those creepy strings all over the place? The mournful/disturbing main theme is brilliant, Cohen's piano scherzo is magnificent, but for sheer bombastic awesome, you can't beat "Welcome to Rapture". Some people on Youtube seem to like this soundtrack, also. Then there's all that wonderful Soundtrack Dissonance...
  • BioShock's soundtrack consists of many old 1940's/50's songs, including "If I Didn't Care" by the Inkspots and "How Much Is That Doggy In The Window", mostly playing in the background on scratchy records as you crawl about in the darkness being attacked by psychotic mutants. The Soundtrack Dissonance escalates further when Sander Cohen unleashes a horde of splicers on you while Tchaikovsky's "Waltz of the Flowers" plays in the background.
• Crackdown. The "Main theme" that pops up here and there in the Crackdown 2 demo is a standout. In particular, the version that plays when you detonate a Sunburst beacon is just epic, if a bit on the short side.
• MadWorld:
  • The game is exceptional for having original tracks produced for the game by licensed artists (with the backing tracks made by the developer's composer. More here), the combination of which leads to some of the best hip-hop tunes in a videogame. You gotta "Get It Up"! There are lots of people who deeply hate Hip-Hop and yet can't stop themselves to hum the songs. Yes, they're that good.
  • While most final boss themes go for Ominous Pipe Organs, equally Ominous Latin Chanting, and general epic scale (with varying levels of success), MadWorld has ''Look Pimpin!'', a smooth, upbeat boast song sung from the boss's perspective. Once the boss Turns Red (and yet... stays black) it switches to So Cold. Still awesome.
  • RIDE!! is a very upbeat and cheery for a rap song, and the chorus is so damn catchy that you will find yourself going "Can we go riiide?".
• Mirror's Edge not only takes place in a timeframe and makes use of visuals similar to Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, it also features an equally amazing soundtrack that transports similar moods, while still being distinctly unique. Try the main theme (by Lisa Miskovsky). If you don't get chills, you're a robot! View it here: Still Alive.
• A lot of the soundtrack of Super Monkey Ball Banana Blitz qualifies.
  • Fans generally agree that the Ultra Heaven stage music is the crown jewel of the game.
  • Smooth Sherbert, Cobalt Caverns, and Pirates Ocean are also standout tracks. The former is by Hideki Naganuma, mentioned above for his Jet Set Radio and Sonic Rush soundtracks. And it shows.
• Dodonpachi Daifukkatsu:
  • The boss themes:
    • One interesting thing to note that usually final boss or final forms of a boss in Bullet Hell shooters usually have dramatic choral music. It's completely inverted in this game.
    • The boss themes for the Hibachi's second and third forms in Dodonpachi Daioujou. The third form's music is remixed in Daifukkatsu as well.
    • Daifukkatsu Black Label takes the final boss themes and makes them... different. Taisabachi (aka "The Supreme Weapon of Extreme Hellish Annihilation: Golden Disaster") gets Desperado, while Hibachi gets the utterly chaotic Mercilessness.
    • And then Hibachi's music from Daioujou got turned up to eleven in Ketsui (whose soundtrack was composed by the same guy) as Evacaneer DOOM's music: No Remorse.
  • How about the stage tracks?
    • DFK ver. 1.5 opens up with 2008 AD, Tokyo.
    • From Daifukkatsu Black Label, Flotage, the music for Stage 3. Here's a slightly different version for if you unlock the Superboss.
    • Jake Kaufman, known for his video game remixes as well as some soundtracks like that of Contra 4, worked on the soundtrack for Daifukkatsu Black Label's Arrange mode (aka Ketsupachi). You know you're in for awesomeness when you start the game with this remix of Ketsui's stage 1 music.
• The theme song to Time Hollow is one of the few redeeming songs in a mediocre soundtrack, but really powerful.
• Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure:
  • Banson's Aria. Lyrics in a DS game are rare (especially this one, in which all of the characters speak Simlish), and this song not only fits the boss well, but it just sounds really good on the DS' speakers. Helps that the guy can sing, too, even if it is all nonsense.
  • Go, Go, Goldren Robo Q! too. Two words: TEA TIME.
  • Cole himself has a rather awesome version of this with Heavy Metal, the final boss theme.
• Mark Griskey's soundtrack for The Force Unleashed is especially great because it incorporates a balanced mix of original elements, such as General Kota's Theme and homages to John Williams' themes from the movies, which pop up to great effect in songs like "PROXY and the Skyhook". There's also the awe-inspiring menu theme.
• Disaster: Day of Crisis' main theme is indeed pretty awesome, complete with Ominous Latin Chanting and such.
• Star Ocean: The Last Hope has a fairly awesome soundtrack, but the battle music in the final dungeon is especially good for getting the blood pumping.
• The NXE intro theme is pretty frakkin' awesome, even if it is really short.
• Universe At War: Earth Assault. Another Klepacki production, it features such gems as Damage King, Mechanical Brain, Bass Case, Roots, Display of Power, and the GOD of Awesome Music, Divine Intervention.
• Advent Rising had "Bounty Hunter" a.k.a. "Koroem", the most epic Space Opera theme ever complete with Ominous Latin Chanting (grab the MP3 from the official site), and "Stolen Transport" (weird name, but your life will NOT be complete without listening to it at least once). Even Gamespot, which gave it a 6.3, said that the musical score was one of the greatest ever put into a video game.
• Team Fortress 2:
  • The fan made video Ignis Solus is amusing by itself, but the music makes it really work. The high quality MP3 version of that tune is even better if you can buy/find it.
  • The Art of War, from "Meet the Soldier", is the Ruleof Three applied to Awesome.
  • The main theme is catchy, too.
  • And with Meet the Spy we have been introduced to Right Behind You, an absolutely chilling piece of music which perfectly underscores the Spy's mysterious and sinister nature.
  • And with a recent update, the action packed, 60's bank-robbery film-esque song, "Intruder Alert" definitely fits into this trope.
  • "More Gun" seems to continue the trend of the soundtrack topping itself with each addition.
  • Feak Rocket Jump Electro.
• You think the repetitive "music" for Space Invaders can't be awesome in any sense? Space Invaders Get Even took it and made it epic for the Stage 1 theme, "The Battle Begins". Here's a gameplay video with the song in action, since the soundtrack itself isn't uploaded to YouTube yet.
  • Try the Space Invaders Extreme Stage 1 music, Invade You. Also the Stage 5-B music, "Executor".
  • From Extreme 2, the music in normal 5-D, a high-energy J-core song. What makes that over the top is the sound effects for the stage, some of them voiced by a typical J-pop shrill: "Ret's Pray" for the spawn sound, for example. Extreme Stage 5-C in the same game goes the extra mile and changes the firing sounds to girly kiai.
• Death Smiles has a few good ones too.
• The Conduit has an awesome menu theme.
• Overlord II has a pretty neat soundtrack, with the Main Title song being an epically villainous Leitmotif accompanied by the Minion's singing. The soundtrack gets particularly great when the Overlord is about to engage in a big battle with Overlord Combat 2 or in a destructive Moment of Awesome with Overlord Wrath.
• Muramasa: The Demon Blade has a beautiful soundtrack. Take, for example, this track, or the Battle Theme of The Road to Heaven
• Banjo Kazooie: Nuts 'N Bolts features an awesome soundtrack. Take all the music from the previous Banjo-Kazooie titles, along with other Rare franchises, throw it together and orchestrate the whole thing, and you've got a game that's virtually orgasmic with sheer nostalgia and beautiful arrangement skill. Listen to the main theme.
• The soundtrack to the Uncharted series on the PS3 is done by Greg Edmonson, known for his work on Firefly.
  • The standout piece is "Nate's Theme," which plays in the main menu screens for both the original and the sequel (referred to in the latter as "Nate's Theme 2.0"). Oddly enough, there is an actual "Uncharted Theme" on the soundtracks, but it's not as cool.
  • Badlands really makes you feel the majesty and expanse of the desert.
  • Reunion is quite a moving piece that plays during Shaefer's death.
• WET has what could easily be called an Awesome Soundtrack. The developers really outdid themselves looking for, and in some cases, composing music for this game. There is not a single song that does not fit the places they use it. You really owe it to yourself to check this game out if for nothing other than the music. Including: "She's lost control..", "Switchblade kiss comes close", and "Insane". These are only a few songs of the WET soundtrack.
• The Bayonetta soundtrack is just epic, high energy jazz.
  • There's also this theme. What about a cover of a pretty famous song? Or Bayonetta's own theme? Then there's the opening playable sequence. Hell, just listen to the entire soundtrack!
  • The final boss theme is extremely epic and perfectly fits [[God who you are battling]].
• Each Psychopath from Dead Rising has their own theme song - and in general each one is more than badass enough to be worthy of being themes of pure awesomes. It's be easier to list which pieces aren't Awesome Music, but perhaps instead we'll just direct you to Carlito's, Isabela's, Paul's, Sean's, Cliff's, and if it's your cup of tea the Convicts' themes for now. The ending theme, Justified by Drea, is also pretty awesome. The sequel's got some cool themes too, for an Expy of Larry, Antoine's theme is fairly good.
• Not only is [PROTOTYPE] amazing in bed, the music is great too.
  • A Dream of Armageddon is amazingly epic and totally fits the game theme.
  • Alex's Theme is a haunting and beautiful orchestral piece.
  • And Men Like Gods is also amazingly haunting, and will make the player's hair to stand on end despite playing an amazing two-legged engine of destruction.
• The Wii's built-in apps:
  • The Weather Channel's evening and night theme is a wonder for dissolving stress, it actually becomes an addiction. The world map at night also has a sort of quiet ambiance about it, fitting for looking down to the Earth from space.
  • The Photo Channel's slideshows have some very nice tracks:
    • "Fun" is very catchy and upbeat.
    • Want something epic? Try "Bright"! It sounds like something out of Super Smash Bros..
• Raiden IV, in addition to awesome original tunes like A Stormy Front and Advantageous Development, features arranged versions of several tunes from previous games, such as Flap Towards the Hope (Raiden II Stage 7) Tragedy Flame (Raiden II Stage 2), Repeated Tragedy (Raiden II Stage 1), All or Nothing (Raiden II Stage 3), and Go to Blazes! {Raiden I boss} .
• The better portion of the Knights in the Nightmare soundtrack by Shigeki Hayashi is quite awesome as well. There's Clash with the Imperial Princess Arlie, Clash with the Dark King Zolgonark, Clash with the Black Knight Ganzer, and Clash with Cursed Pische.
• The Last Remnant gives us "Reversal!" If that doesn't get you in the mood for pulling off a moment of awesome, nothing does.
• It's easy to say "The entire soundtrack to LocoRoco" and leave it at that, but that's not really fair. Despite having no real lyrics to speak of, it's hard not to sing along with these songs:
  • "Bu bu poruche", the Yellow Locos' theme, will just cheer you right up.
  • "Panguraratta", the Red Locos' theme, brings some swingin' island flavor.
  • "Bucho Mio", Green Locos' theme, has a snappy, almost J-pop-y flavor to it.
  • "Zappudo Geron", the Black Locos' theme, is ridiculously infectious. And funky fresh!
  • And proving that the villains always get the best song, ladies and gentlemen, "Kuttetekaruna." Now that's what a villain song should sound like!
  • To add further proof, "Merure Merure" is the song that plays in the last level of both games and it's usually associated with Bon Mucho, the Big Bad. The fact that it is genuinely unsettling and it's the only song that the Locorocos seem to be afraid to sing makes for a really kickass Womb Level!
  • And of course there's a very catchy theme song of "Loco Roco - Midnight Carnival".
• From Fatal Frame 4 comes Noise and ZERO no Chouritsu (Just Call My Name).
• Being a Retraux Rhythm Game, the BIT.TRIP series naturally has to have fittingly awesome music. The first level theme for Beat, "Transition", is quite catchy. Additionally, each game in the series so far features menu and credits music from guest chiptune artists. "The Information Chase" by Bit Shifter, in particular, is very fitting for a credits sequence, especially that of the aforementioned BIT.TRIP Beat. Also, here is a PERFECT run of one of the easier levels.
• Alan Wake:
  • "Children of the Elder God" by the Old Gods of Asgard, Fake Band persona of Poets of the Fall. It plays during the single most awesome moment in the game. The entire set piece is incredible. Just listen to it! Your partner even comments on how awesome everything was after it's done.
  • "The Poet and the Muse" is an equally amazing song that plays at the end of Episode 4 where everything starts to come together, and the song's lyrics explain the backstory and what Alan must do next.
  • "Balance Slays The Demon" from American Nightmare is amazing.
• "Nanashi no Theme" from Nanashi no Game. You're never going to hear a more melancholy and, after experiencing the moments it's linked to, terrifying chip tune in your life. The increasingly warped version that plays as you progress is even worse.
• The Taiko no Tatsujin series, being a drumming game with cute graphics, actually had some great music. Who knows a song about a pair of talking drumsticks could be this awesome.
• Those badass or suicidal enough to try Contra 4 on Hard mode get treated to a rockin' remix of the origina l Contra's Stage 1 music on the first stage. Harbor is another cool track from this.]]
• Tekken 6:
  • Gargoyle's Perch, the song that likely drove Jin to evil.
  • Who doesn't want to hear some YODELING in Meadow Hill??
• DJ Max Portable series:
  • DJ MAX Portable 2 has Your Own Miracle, the opening theme and Optional Boss.
  • Son of Sun, the That One Boss of DJ MAX Technika and Black Square 's Superboss.
  • Ready Now from DJMAX Portable Black Square, a eurodance song with some moderate Intercourse with You overtones.
  • DJMAX Portable 3 brings us "Hanz Up!" by Mr. Funky, used as an Image Song of sorts for Portable 3.
• Castle Crashers:
  • The main theme is real sweet.
  • As is the battle with the main villain's Dragon. A heavy metal tune, combined with something you've been waiting for since he first summoned any enemies at all.
    • Castle Crashers main theme full version released.
    • The man responsible for the main theme seems to have a habit of crafting jaw-to-desk music; note the battle music from the flash game Sonny at the very least.
  • Let's add Colony to that. Holy...
  • Dark Skies is a downright awesome piece from beginning to end.
  • Archetype, the theme that plays when the players have to duel one another, is amazing.
  • Jumper, the BGM for the Forest Entrance stage, is one of the catchiest and cheeriest songs on the planet.
  • Space Pirates, the BGM for the Thieves' Forest stage, is an intense techno song that perfectly captures the suspense of being stalked by an absolutely massive Troll.
• DBZ Burst Limit's main theme: "Kiseki no Honō yo Moeagare!" or "Fire it up!" is JAM Project-tacular in of itself, but play it when you have Bardock fighting Goku? Yes, thanks, that will do nicely.
• The first Mercenaries game had some great dramatic music, but the sequel? The extremely catchy tune "Oh No you Didn't!"
• Yosumin! Live has a downloadable story(-ish) mode. For the most part, it makes use of the same happy-sugar music as you progress. Then you reach the final "boss" level... and are greeted by a blast of hard rock with the "villain" rapping on about his awesomeness and geometry in an oddly high voice. IT ALL WORKS. Mindblowing stuff.
• Half-Minute Hero, known in Japan as Yuusha 30, has a soundtrack that's maybe 30% orchestral themes, while the rest has a progressive rock/heavy metal style that fits the game's tongue-in-cheek motif quite nicely. Definite highlights include the title theme, "Scatter the Enemy!", "Desperate Strike", "The End of the Agony", "The Demon Lord's March", and "The Princess Running Through the Grasslands".
• Dynasty Warriors: Gundam 2:
  • Vertical Upshift is like the official soundtrack for "You are kicking ass!".
  • All For One, which also serves as the Theme Music Power-Up for certain boss fights, instantly makes your fight a hundred times more epic.
  • Dead End, Musha Gundam's befittingly awesome theme.
  • Knight Gundam's Theme is pretty damn good.
• Speaking of Gundam games, Gundam Extreme Vs not only has lots of incredible music from the various series, but also the EXTREME Gundam's three themes: Divine Act -The Extreme-, Divine Act -The Extreme- Revised, and The End of Authority.
• Killzone 2, with such pure win as Helghan Forever, and the music that plays during the intro (with extra ham). The theme song for Killzone 3 is also quite great in a different sense than the KZ 2 one. It conveys both the desperation of the main characters, their will to keep fighting aswell, as sounding somewhat prophetic towards what awaits the people of Helghan in the end.
• Lair may not be the best game, or even good to some, but composer John Debney made sure the music was at the highest quality. Just take a look at the first prologue here.
• Patapon, despite having minimalistic and incredibly catchy music, has some great melodies played during fever more like Gorl's theme or One of the boss themes.
• Arc Rise Fantasia has an excellent soundtrack. Two especially noteworhty pieces are the boss theme "Unexpected Fight" and "Now is the Time of Conclusion" (which may or may not be a boss theme).
• Dark Void. Middling game, Bear McCreary soundtrack.
• Split/Second (2010)'s Elite Race theme. It's a piece that gets you pumped to race the best of the best, especially when the main riff kicks in.
• The music of debut trailer for Shadows of the Damned is pure awesome. Not surprising coming from Akira Yamaoka.
• The underrated PS3 gem Folk Lore is filled with great pieces such as "The Fairy Waltz", "Where the Soul Goes" and the ending theme "Nephilim" to name a few.
• Enslaved: Odyssey to the West deserves recognition for Nitin Sawhney's fantastic works of art. Notably: Cloud Surfing, The Hero's Journey, Rhino Chase, and Monkey Sunset.
• Warriors Orochi boasts a whole slew of great tracks, most borrowed from previous Dynasty/Samurai Warriors games, but the high-energy anthem Alliance 1 takes the cake.
• Warriors Orochi 3 introduces a highly anticipated newcomer by breaking out a wicked, high-energy remix of the original music from Ninja Gaiden's Act 4-2.
• Even though it's not advisable to pursue Lu Bu, his arrival is always a good time to ROCK THE &#*! OUT!!
• NieR's OST is made of awesome. Regardless of whether you like the game, the soundtrack is up there with the best, to the point that the creators were frustrated at the music being more popular than the game. It has a lot of vocal work, including both choral and beautiful, haunting solos by vocalist Emi Evans. All of these are in made-up languages based on current ones except for the theme song, Ashes of Dreams. The entire soundtrack deserves to be on this page, but to list a few highlights:
  • Ashes of Dreams / New. Grandma, and Songs of the Ancients / Fate.
  • Shadowlord is AMAZING.
  • Hills of Radiant Wind.
  • Escape is beautiful and full of energy, being one of many versions that are considered to be Kainé's themes, like Salvation and another simply called Kaine/Duet Version.
  • The soundtrack was so well received that they released more, with remixes and new versions of beloved songs, such as an 8-bit version of several songs that are very popular and a gorgeous a capella of the song The Wretched Automatons
• Drakengard 3 is scored by the same people responsible for NieR, and the game's soundtrack is a feast for the ears, with memorable pieces like the main theme Black Song, This Silence is Mine (used in the TGS trailer), and Fallen God, featuring Emi Evans once again.
• The music of Batman: Arkham Asylum is very low key; however, it fits the mood of the game perfectly and... well, just take a listen here!
• The boss battle music for "The Mailman" Karl Malone, Shaq Diesel, and Dr. J on EA's NBA Jam are really awesome to listen.
• Super Meat Boy has some.
  • Carmeaty Burana, the Final Boss theme, in particular.
  • Battle of Lil' Slugger.
  • Dr. Fetus's Castle.
• F.E.A.R.'s soundtrack, while terrifying, is also quite epic.
• Fable:
  • You cannot deny that the theme music is the best thing to happen to mankind.
  • Or perhaps Fable II's main theme.
  • Then there's Fable III.
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories with Phil Collins singing a classic.
• For a game about killing opponents in the most brutal and imaginative ways possible, with characters that swear like sailors and don't even take the own story they're in seriously, Bulletstorm has an excellent main theme.
• Resident Evil 5:
  • The game had an unusually awesome song from nowhere in this. It comes at one of the most epic parts of the game as well, sealed inside of an exploding engine room on your way to stop a stealth bomber from taking off.
  • For a series that is typically very reserved in the grandeur of its music, some of the final boss music decides to kick the epic up through the roof, using tracks done by a full orchestra, no less. First up is Winds of Madness which is during the battle with Wesker before his evil plane of doom takes off. It starts off subdued and ambient, like most songs from the game. Then out of nowhere the orchestra kicks in and doesn't let up on the intensity until the end. And then almost right after, we get Deep Ambition, the music of the final battle. In a volcano. It is also suitably epic (if not a bit reminiscent of the Jaws Theme at certain points).
• The best part of Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles was the music. The game retold RE 2 and Code Veronica, two games with a good deal of epic music in their own right. Not only were many of those tracks reproduced for this game, but many of them done so with full orchestra. Of particular note are any iteration of the Theme of G, and both of the Alexia battle themes.
• Crysis 2 has quite a lot of awesome tracks, but two that really stand out are the unnamed menu theme and Burning Night. Chills.
• Alone in the Dark (2008), despite being notoriously buggy with controls up the arse, has downright outstanding music composed by Olivier Deriviere, who has also composed for Obscure II.
• Street Fighter IV/ Super Street Fighter IV gives you some of the character themes and remixes:
  • Guile's theme was already godly, but this game kicks it up a notch or 20.
  • El Fuerte's theme is just so asskicking, it makes you want the fight to go on forever.
• Elebits has one of the most underrated soundtracks of this generation (and in general too). A lot of the songs are relaxing yet catchy.
  • For example: Me and My Little War almost sounds like a relaxing version of J-E-N-O-V-A from Final Fantasy VII.
  • The Search.
  • Even the Title Screen is pretty catchy.
• An indendant game on X Box Live called I Made A Game With Zombies In It features this as the main theme. It plays during the entire play through of the game, and the game ends when the theme reaches its epic conclusion. Many players consider just the song itself worth the experience to play it, never mind that visual effects.
• The Sky Crawlers. Here is an excerpt.
• The end credits theme of Transformers: War for Cybertron. It also has a longer version.
• The trailer for Deus Ex: Human Revolution brings us "Icarus".
• XCOM: Enemy Unknown score, composed by Michael McCann (who also composed for DEHR), has a number of memorable tracks. Chief among them is the incredibly epic "Deployment", which plays before every mission while you select your soldiers and their gear. New players often report being stuck at that screen a disproportionate amount of time before their very first mission—and not because they have trouble picking units.
• Ready Aurora, the menu theme of H.A.W.X..
• The Drawn to Life series' vocal songs. Though there are only three of them. The End Light of My Life and Real Life do sound quite awesome and have quite an effect on the emotional moments that they play during in the games.
• Say what you will about Full Auto 2: Battlelines, but the music is damned awesome irregardless of opinion of the game in question, with some of the best themes such as Messij Lost, Burning World, Warlord, and Diesel and Destruction.
• Pretty much the entire soundtrack from Xenoblade Chronicles 1 is excellent, with a broad mix on genres and several different composers, it's music perfectly suiting the epic scale of the game. Just some of the best include You Will Know Our Names, One Who Gets in Our Way, Mechanical Rhythm, Tragic Decision, and The God-Slaying Sword, which are all battle themes at various parts of the game; Engage the Enemy, which makes a perfect accompaniment to some of the more tragic cut-scenes; and Guar Plains, which plays on the expansive Bionis' Leg. To say nothing of Satorl, the Shimmering Marsh, which is half the reason nobody goes through the Satorl Marsh during the day if they can help it.
• And following up to the Arcana Heart series, the third game adds up with the Lust SIN-esque White Valkyria, probably the theme of the new heroine Weiss. The rest of the soundtrack are also kickass.
• Awesome Music abounds in Grand Theft Auto IV. Take the main game's theme, The Lost and Damned main theme and The Ballad of Gay Tony's main theme.
• Dead Space has a knack for remixing nursery rhymes into disturbing music. Examples are Twinkle Twinkle and Ring Around The Rosie.
• Saints Row: The Third:
  • You undertake a mission to seize a penthouse crib from the Syndicate. The Boss opts to do so by parachuting into the penthouse's pool and killing everything that moves... while "Power" by Kanye West plays in the background.
  • The Awesome is matched by the background music for the finale, wherein the Boss has to choose to either track down the Big Bad or stop the army, and "Holding Out for a Hero" by Bonnie Tyler starts playing.
  • Of course, with a game as crazy as Saints Row The Third, they had to make the opening perfectly encompass the true nature of being the boss of an international crime syndicate. And, oh GOD, did it ever.
  • There's also the song that plays during the mission "Air Steelport".
  • Music for skydiving through aeroplanes: The Mission Part 2.
• Serious Sam 3: BFE has a retooled version of the original "War" song which is just as epic if not better than the original. Doubles as a Most Wonderful Sound because it's generally cued by a War Sequence.
• Catherine. Classical music remixed by Shoji Meguro. Awesome. Really awesome. Awesome to the max.
• Fossil Fighters has King Dynal's battle theme. Easily the best track in the entire game.
• Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force has Gary's Theme and The Robot Trio's theme. The sequel, Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force: Herbert's Revenge has the song that plays when Club Penguin floods.
• Perfect Dark Zero has "Limelight" by Kepi And Kat for the Nightclub Stakeout mission.
• The Xbox Live Indie game The Deep Cave has an incredible 8-bit soundtrack by 'Fear Of Dark'.
• Michiru Yamane probably didn't expect to score a fighting game within her lifetime, but Skullgirls gave her the perfect opportunity to flex her musical muscles with a swanky jazz and swing infused soundtrack:
  • "Pedestrians Crossing" - the main menu music. It just gets better from there, including...
  • The "Medici Tower" backdrop, and its groovy bassline.
  • "New Meridian: Moonlit Melee", perfect for getting you in the mood for some fisticuffs.
  • "In Just a Moment's Time", which caps everything off during the closing credits.
• Ghost Recon: Future Soldier has "Nemesis", a orchestral piece with a Gothic twist which introduces the Bodarks and one of the game's most intense firefights.
• Let's give props to Angry Birds with their Summer Pignic theme.
• Max Payne 3's TEARS by HEALTH is a theme fitting for well, Max Payne 3, really.
• Anything Yousuke Yasui touches with his gift of god-like FM synth sound.
  • Mamoru-kun wa Norowarete Shimatta! (known as Mamorukun Curse in English) gives us "YO-KAI Disco" as well as "Karakuri Spirits". Other highlights include the boss theme "The Curse" and its remix "The Curse Again", the thrilling "Will Force", and the lighthearted "Tropical Pirates".
  • Eschatos doesn't stray far from Mamorukun, with tracks such as "Survive", "Point of No Return", "Stellar Light", "Extermination", and the most popular of them all: "Silver Lining".
  • His next soundtrack for Ginga Force isn't half-bad either, particularly the track "Gallant Gunshot".
  • His arrangement of "The Glacial Fortress" in the game Omega Five became the breakout track of the soundtrack.
  • The most obscure of them all: NEW Eitango Target 1900DS and Eijukugo Target 1000DS, two Japanese-only DS games made to teach proper English grammar. When you play the Astro Wars minigame, you get "this surprisingly amazing piece" considering it's in a game not meant to actually be a game.
• Bastion has a simply amazing soundtrack, done by Darren Korb as his first VGM project. Available on the Supergiant Games Store and Steam. Picking examples is really hard.
  • Build That Wall, the most beautiful threat you have ever heard.
  • Setting Sail, Coming Home the ending theme.
  • Mother, I'm here. Zulf singing his own funeral song (mother being Mother Nature in this case).
  • Spike in a Rail. Legitimizing the existence of the banjo.
• The original theme song for Dragon's Dogma was "Into Free -Dangan-" by B'z and was absolutely awesome. Unfortunately the style of the song (up-tempo modern rock) didn't fit with the medieval fantasy theme of the game at all, and so the stand alone expansion Dark Arisen replaced it with a much less awesome but more thematically appropriate tune.
• The opening cinematic of Sacred 2: Fallen Angel runs to the tune of Blind Guardian's epic power metal song "Sacred Worlds".
• Zettai Hero Project's Victory theme. ...(sniff)...
• Nepgear's Theme Ver. V from Hyperdimension Neptunia Victory kicks in whenever the CPUs use their EXE attacks. Nothing makes Neptune transforming into a jet to shoot missiles more awesome than this song.
• The Last of Us:
  • An ambient score courtesy of Gustavo Santaolalla. Highlights include its beautiful main theme and the haunting track that plays at the very end of the game, Home.
  • All Gone (No Escape) also stands out, especially since it plays while Joel's carrying Ellie to the elevator at the end of the hospital level. You're running to safety as fast as you can, holding your surrogate daughter in your arms, completely defenseless against the dozens of soldiers chasing after you, with only this beautiful cello piece playing in the background. Arguably the best example of this game's music making an emotional scene even more powerful than it already was. It's the same soundtrack that played when Sarah died in his arms.
  • The "Alert Mode" music that plays during shootouts is pure tension and pure awesome.
• Minecraft has "Wet Hands", which sometimes automatically plays when you're playing the game, and is very calming.
• If you are a fan of Techno then the Wii Ware game ThruSpace is a treat for you.
• Armored Hunter Gunhound EX, the PSP/PC Target Earth/Cybernator inspired mech shooter, is a game filled with badass, rocking music. Courtesy of composer Hyakutaro Tsukumo, of Technosoft/Thunder Force V fame:
  • Howling of Metal Hound (Stage 1) and the Refrain version (Stage 5-2).
  • No Mercy!! (Stage 3-1).
  • Big Pain (Stage 4).
  • The Atonement (Stage 5-1).
  • And it features yet another awesome iteration of Tsukumo's Justice Ray series of last boss themes: The Last Howling -The Justice Ray Part5-.
• The Bionic Commando (2009) game had some pretty awesome tracks, like the main theme, the bombastic military march that plays during the fight with Groeder, and haunting "Beyond Dark Skies" that plays over the final scene. Companion game for the 2009 version, Bionic Commando: Rearmed goes for straight remixes of the NES themes (arranged by Simon Viklund, who went to score PAYDAY: The Heist later) instead: main theme and "Power Plant".
• Being centered around a Punk Rock band, Charlie Murder can be expected to have some rocking tracks:
  • First off, the game's main theme, "Mnemonic Atomic" is easily the most memorable track. A couple of other songs by the fictional band like "When I Save The World" or the good ending song also deserve mention.
  • The bad ending song isn't half-bad either, being much more subdued and quiet to remind you of how you murdered your possessed best friend.
  • A few of the level tracks too, such as "Castlemania", "Valley of Flesh" and "Gun and Bass".
• Deadly Premonition has this awesome hard-rocking tune for one of the boss fights.
• The remixed version of Grabbag in Duke Nukem Forever.
• inFAMOUS 2's ending gives us Fade Away, by The Black Heart Procession. Starting off with a subdued piano tune, which gradually morphs into a Epic Riff forming the rest of the song, it flawlessly captures the atmosphere of the Heroic Ending. Its lyrics contribute a lot to that, detailing Cole's mindset just before his Heroic Sacrifice, with him wondering if anyone will remember him or appreciate what he did.
• The original Meteos for DS was given several awards and nominations for its soundtrack; both it, Online and Wars have many great themes to launch blocks to, though most tracks by themselves lose some points, as the music is best experienced through playing the game, since launching the blocks features musical stings that complement it. This being said, there are still plenty of songs in the game that are nice enough to listen to on their own:
  • Both iterations of "The Path You Travel".
  • "The End of the Universe", the credits theme from the DS version.
  • "Metallia", Gravitas' DS theme.
  • Meteo's DS theme.
  • Bavoom's BGM from Wars.
  • Yooj's BGM from Wars.
  • Hotted's BGM from Wars.
  • Darthvega's BGM.
• 428: Shibuya Scramble's soundtrack can go from goofy to downright eerie, all with some very nice tracks in between.
  • The Main Theme is suitably epic, being used in the opening sequence with an overhead shot of Shibuya and in the final chapter as a Last Episode Theme Reprise.
  • Setup plays on the character select screen whilst emitting an aura of mystery.
  • Eponymous theme Shinya Kanou is a foreboding piece for the detective of the same name, fitting his role in the story.
  • Achi Endou's theme, a rock theme which radiates with youth, plays when we are first introduced to the character.
  • Contemplation's synthetic ambience is chilling, used when the characters have to stop and think.
  • Pressure is a remixed, higher tempo rendition of Contemplation used in those intense situations.
  • Eggplant is the upbeat and very cheery leitmotif for comedic relief con-man Junichi Yanagishita, going along with his usual shenanigans.
  • Yum Cha soothes the soul with its relaxing jazzy undertones.
  • Kenji Osawa is a simple yet creepy ambient track for the psychological horror aspects of the game.
  • Implications brings out the emotions out of anyone.
  • Hope is another emotional track with an orchestral feel to it.
  • The World Doesn't Change So Easy, a single by Aya Kamiki created for the game, is a fitting romantic upbeat J-Pop track which plays during the credits.
• Outland, a Bullet Hell/Metroidvania hybrid, features many amazing tracks that brilliantly underscore the game's Meso-American aesthetic. "The Tower of Eternity", which plays late in the game's campaign, serves as the foundation on which game's boss battle themes are built. However, the motif established by "Tower of Eternity" rises to its fullest, grandest glory in "Eternity: The End of All Things", a fitting anthem for a hero bound to meet his destiny as mankind's savior.

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