Awesome Music / Sixth Generation

This is the Awesome Music page for PS2, Xbox, GCN, Dreamcast, and GBA.

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• Despite being a clear example of why Licensed Games Suck, Eragon has damn nice music.
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix has some of the best soundtracks in the entire Harry Potter franchise, films included!
  • Dumbledore VS Voldemort goes down, especially the redone version of the classic soundtrack at 1:12.
  • Wand Combat starts off jolly, and then turns much darker and cooler at 0:45.
• The regular and final boss themes of Skies of Arcadia, which morph from conventional battle music to nightmarish dissonance to beautiful epic melodies depending how close you are to victory or defeat.
• So, so much from Beyond Good & Evil. It's made even more impressive when you consider the fact that every vocal effect in the music was made by the composer and his family doing different voices in a sound studio. Just listen to the whole soundtrack, but if you If you want to cut straight to the most epic...
  • "Dancing with Domz." Ominous Made Up Language Chanting yay!
  • "Fun and Mini-Games." Olé olé!
  • "Akuda House Propaganda." It doesn't matter if the words don't mean anything—the rhythm is awesome, and oh-so-catchy.
  • "Slaughterhouse Scramble"—a song so ridiculous, it must be heard to be believed.
  • "Above and Beyond" Not all the awesome ones were the ones with vocals. The first 40 seconds are "Holy crap! It works! IT WORKS!" with the rest illustrating that eerie calm that sinks in once the endorphin rush has passed.
  • "Sins of the Father".
• Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner final battle.
  • Anubis Space Battle. Plays during the player's first real battle against Anubis, this super-powered machine that's been smacking you around every time you've seen it for two games. Finally you have the chance for some payback, and, fittingly, the theme contains dark snippets of the theme song.
  • Leo Leo!, the music from the Boss Battle with Vic Viper, is the music that plays when you fight Leo Stenbuck, the protagonist of the first game, in his Vic Viper, which is of course patterned after the famous ship from Gradius. Naturally, then, this track's takes cues from both Gradius and the boss music of the first game.
  • And Air Fight. Even if it's mostly derived from Beyond the Bounds, which is awesome in its own right.
  • Also from Zone of the Enders, 'Kiss Me Sunlights'. (As an added bonus, here's the English version opening movie from the game itself.)
  • The second half of Ardjet from Zone of the Enders 2—it just gives you that extra feeling of heroic-ness as you're keeping the immobile Ardjet from falling into lava and carrying it to safety.
  • From Zone of the Enders 2: Descending Aumaan
  • And last but not least....ALOIVIA.
• Subverted in Killer7, where possibly the most uptempo and exciting piece of music in the entire game, "Rave On", is heard only during a brief interstitial scene in which a character climbs a flight of stairs — without facing any enemies or obstacles whatsoever. It could possibly be considered a sort of prelude theme to each level's upcoming Sub-Boss fight, but it's still funny to have a completely uneventful trip through a stairwell scored by blood-pumping ass-kicking techno. And it goes for four minutes twenty nine seconds, too!
• The soundtrack for Eternal Darkness was just as excellently creepy as the gameplay. Listen to The Chosen One, The Gift of Forever, and Black Rose. Other excellent songs include Gateway To Destiny, The Somme, and Snake Princess.
• Theme from Battery from Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory is quite unique.
• Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne has two. First, there's the transformation of this already great theme tune from the first game into this. Then there's the song "Late Goodbye" by Poets of the Fall, based on a poem by the game's writer, which plays over the closing credits as the country-inspired Solemn Ending Theme; it went on to become a chart-topping Breakaway Pop Hit in their native Finland, instantly making their careers.
• Dragon Ball games:
  • From Super Dragon Ball Z, there's this Kami's Lookout, a mystical and otherworldly-sounding tune that brings to mind the franchise's early days.
  • Dragon Ball Z: Taiketsu is a genuinely terrible game, but it has an excellent soundtrack for a GBA title. For some examples, Namek's theme is a rock tune that captures the action-packed tone of the arc; Kami's Lookout has a delightful remix of Bruce Faulconer's "Gohan Fights Frieza"; Orange City's theme is similar to Namek's but with a more melancholy electronic tone; and Inside Buu gets a very sinister theme befitting one of the last Womb Levels you ever want to be in.
  • The Legacy of Goku II and Buu's Fury, being on the other end of the licensed game spectrum, also have decent soundtracks with both original tunes and remixes of the anime's soundtrack. From the former, there's this menacing lo-fi-sounding remix of Perfect Cell's theme, while the latter has an epic remix of Super Saiyan 3 Goku's theme that, while maybe not as powerful as the original, is a lot more energetic.
• Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee has mostly blah music. However, one track, used in the opening, gets to be on this page simply because it sums up the entire game: giant monsters fighting each other and causing massive destruction.
  • And from Godzilla Unleashed, Mecha King Ghidorah's theme. Just...even when used in an episode of The Angry Video Game Nerd, it still manages to be awesome!
  • Another good one from Unleashed is Moguera's theme. An epic guitar track could very well be used as the game's intro song if it had an intro.
• Moon Dwelling Demon and The Second Tower from Ar tonelico II: Melody of Metafalica.
  • God's Footprints is great as well.
  • Just about any of the hymns from the series in general qualify as Awesome Music.
  • Rustling Throb is also pretty great.
• TimeSplitters. Made by same guy who made the music to GoldenEye. Almost all levels in the games contains music like this.
  • There are so many that should be mentioned here, but from the second game you have the GoldenEye throwback Siberia, a wild west theme that gives Ennio Morricone a run for his money, a thick and heavy techno theme of Planet X. In multiplayer there many other goodies such as the haunting circus theme, the theme rom streets, which starts slow and then builds up, ufopia that is a mix of techno and 50's theremin driven sci-fi themes. But nothing beats this. While being a throwback to the old 8 bit themes, first it sounds fun, but then you will just fall in love with it!
  • A little piece from the third game called Scotland the Brave here. It just so happens to be THE BEST piece in the game. The only question is... how are Free Radical (or Crytek Nottingham, nowadays) going to top it? Also, the boss theme in the same level.
• Burnout 2: Point of Impact had some particularly awesome music, especially when you initiated a boost - most of the time the music is subdued and in the background, and then all the instruments get in your face (or rather, ears) as you suicidally flew down the highway on the wrong side of the road.
• Burnout 3: Takedown gave us "Orpheus", "Over the Counter Culture", "Everyone Alive", or "Independence Day", and "Lazy Generation".
• Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil has a relatively catchy soundtrack, but most of the mindblowingly awesome music occurs in the second half of the game, where the tone of the music becomes a good deal darker than the more light-hearted tones near the beginning of the game. Memorable tracks include Cursed Leorina, King of Sorrow, The Sorrow Revives, Hyuponia, and Mirage. Also, Stepping Wind/Wahoo Stomp.
• The Tower of Dawn from Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time. In fact, a significant portion of that game's OST could qualify.
• Warrior Within's soundtrack was radically different to its predecessor as it was more heavy metal focused, with Godsmack doing the music. It proved divisive, but you cannot deny it has some kick-ass tracks like Conflict at the Entrance.
• Star Ocean: Till the End of Time had some awesome battle music, but Reflected Moon, the theme of the Royal Palace of Aquaria, is awesome for a different reason: it could sooth a raging bull.
  • It's a shame that the two battles where you could hear Influence of Truth Appearance were so short.
• Kessen is unfortunately not a very well known game series, but the soundtrack of the entire series is Awesome Music for anyone who likes sweeping orchestral fanfares for battles mixed with muted character themes for cutscenes. Although it's quite hard to find the soundtrack on youtube, this is a medley of many of the first game's themes, and here is one of the battle themes from the same game.
• Rhythm Tengoku for GBA has Remix 6, which is a medley of all 25 songs. Its DS sequel follows its lead with its own megamix of its set of songs, Remix 10. You can thank Tsunku for these songs.
  • The DS version also features Remix 7, which is an extension of one of the songs in Big Rock Finish, and Remix 9, two of just many catchy remixes in the game.
    • Gameplay-wise, there's Remix 8, which is already a great, energetic, fast-paced song... and then, at the end, it starts speeding up to an epic finish.
  • If individual songs are allowed here: Polyrhythm, Doctor Bacteria, Stealthy Rat, Air Batter, Rhythm Epilation, and Night Walk from Tengoku.
    • From Rhythm Heaven: Built to Scale, Rhythm Rally, Fillbots, and Blue Birds.
    • The song for the Karate Man mini-game, Struck by the Rain, is amazing. But the original Japanese version of the song is an eargasm.
  • From the Wii version, we have Air Badmitton. Ba-bam bam bah!
  • Remix 10. This one even has snippets of lyrics!
• .hack//Infection brings us Skeith: The Terror of Death. Such an awesome song that most of the other Phases had remixed versions of it for their own themes.
  • And the amazingly beautiful Cathedral.
    • Aura's Theme is just breathtaking. It stays just as good when changed up a bit to Macha Appears.
    • GU's version is, if anything, even more beautiful: Hope of Dawn.
  • For the final battle against Cubia, we have this song. Rather unorthodox for such an epic encounter, in that it is very slow-paced and haunting, yet manages to be awesome in its own way, and very fitting for the battle.
• .hack//G.U. could be said to have a whole Soundtrack of Awesome, but to give an example and not just cheat you all, enjoy some of the finer moments. Preparing to fight a giant monster? In need of a theme that demands attention without being loud? Care to share the joy of unleashing your superpowered evil side? Or just want to sound like the final boss you feel you should be? Fear not. Chikayo Fukuda has you covered. This is of course a small sample of what's, on the whole, a very good soundtrack.
• Napple Tale: Arsia in Daydream features a soundtrack by Yoko Kanno, and said soundtrack gets more exposure than the game. Wild Wind and Folly Fall are probably the 2 numbers with the most visibility, but unsurprisingly it's golden from beginning to end. Notable mentions to Cecil's Garden, October Child, Rain Waltz, Dreams in a Pie, Rabbit Bed, and Ball Jar.
• From Chaos Legion:
  • Try Now I See, A Way To Nowhere, and Feel No Fear.
  • The Chaos Legion OST has no song on it that isn't awesome. Welcome To The Darkness is perhaps the highlight.
  • Especially the fight against the villains music:
    • Massive Strokes starts slow, but once it kicks in you know you are in deep trouble.
    • The main antagonist even gets double the treatment with Bloody Truth and Be Killed Again.
  • The intro of Solemn Voice was enough to give goosebumps.
• A lot of the Drakengard and Drakengard 2 soundtracks deserves an honorable mention.
  • Despite being composed of repetitive music that grinds your sanity into dust, "Growing Wings" from Drakengard and "Symphonic Poem - Forbidden Prelude" from Drakengard 2 are must listens. "Growing Wings" shows up again in Drakengard 2 as the final boss theme.
  • "Vein of Grief" and "Furious Earth".
• Asterix & Obelix Kick Buttix/XXL is a rather obscure game, but the soundtrack kicks buttix!
• Dynasty Warriors - forget the Anachronism Stew aspects of using techno and wall-to-wall guitars to score battles set in ancient China. The soundtrack rocks.
  • Special mention should go to the truly epic feel of "Men of Intelligence" (He Fei castle, Wu side, third installment) and the adrenaline of "Flame and Rapidity" (Chi Bi in the sixth installment). Plus, whenever the tide of battle turns in your favor and the "winning" music kicks in, especially in DW3, it feels ridiculously awesome.
  • Also memorable is Lu Bu's theme, which often comprises part of the main series' leitmotif and serves as a warning to run when you hear it. There's been several variations over the various years and games, of varying levels of intensity. In lieu of having to pick just one version of the theme to name as most awesome, here is the entire collection of them, all nicely put together into one arrangement for your enjoyment.
• Samurai Warriors, from the same makers of the aforementioned Dynasty Warriors, gives us a rocking Theme Music Powerup for Tadakatsu Honda and Keiji Maeda, respectively.
• Contra: Shattered Soldier. The soundtrack was produced by Akira Yamaoka of Silent Hill and Sota Fujimori of DanceDanceRevolution fame. Winners include "Battle Train", "Super Power Robot Yokozuna Jr.", "Maximum Speed", "The Crawler Tank", "Submarine Power Plant", "Jinmen-gyo", "Islands", "Relic of Morai", and "Critical Moment of Contra".
• Jet Set Radio Future. Listening to songs like Funky Dealer, Teknopathetic and more importantly The Concept Of Love, all while running around on rocket-propelled Rollerblades spraying graffiti on anything that moves makes for some brilliant moments.
  • Aisle Ten.
  • The original game wasn't exactly a slouch in the music department either...
  • The soundtracks to both games are so good, the series got its own page.
• Also from SEGA, Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg. Sample Tumbling Xylophone, Bossa Nova of Briny Air, A Jack-in-the-Box!, and especially Volcanic Orchestra; all of which reappeared in Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing alongside the Final Boss theme.
  • All 3 Blizzard Castle songs— Sound of Fanfare, Pinball-like Echo, and Lullaby of Snow Mountain.
  • The rather ambient Legendary Egg isn't too shabby, either.
• Gauntlet: Dark Legacy. A lot of tracks are quite good, but the absolute peak is the Sky Realm, all four stages - Spire, Docks, Shipyard, and Mothership.
• Psychonauts:
  • Both Black Velvetopia themes are pretty sweet.
  • Despite its Scrappy Level status, the music for the Meat Circus is pretty popular.
• You Were There from ICO, and "Castle in the Mist".
• Go (Into) The Distance from the Xbox remake of Ninja Gaiden.
• Chou and Koe, from Fatal Frame II and Fatal Frame III, respectively.
• Jak and Daxter has some great music. Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo fame composed most of the soundtrack to the first three games.
  • The final boss fight in Jak II: Renegade.
  • The final battle in Jak 3: Wastelander was accompanied by probably the most epic music in the series. The music to the ending credits is a great reward after finishing it. From the same game, the Stadium ruins theme or the extremely haunting Haven City theme. The latter really reminds you of the hopeless situation the place is in.
• Turok: Evolution features some very good music including Lost temple, Sacrifice and Airborne. Makes one wish the entire game was as good as the soundtrack.
• Gitaroo Man features a wide range of guitar songs, all of which are amazing:
  • The laid-back "Boogie for an Afternoon" for the tutorial stage.
  • The face-melting "Twisted Reality" for the Warm-Up Boss, Panpeus. "OVERDRIVE, ALIVE!"
  • The catchy synth J-pop "Flying To Your Heart" for the fight against Flying-O.
  • The funky "Bee'Jam Blues" for the fight against Mojo King B. "Everybody, there's a new king in town!"
  • The fast-paced and trippy "VOID", which plays during the main character's attempt to escape an angry robot shark named Ben-K.
  • The mellow reggae-rap "Nuff Respect featuring "ＮＡＨＫＩ"" for the fight against the aforementioned robot shark, which now has turntables for nipples.
  • The soothing "Legendary Theme", for the Breather Level.
  • The sinister mariachi "Born to Be Bone", for the fight against Sanbone Trio.
  • The even more face-melting "Tainted Lovers", for the fight against David Bow—ahem, Gregorio III.
  • "Overpass" for the first half of the fight against the main character's love interest, which is soon replaced by a remix of "The Legendary Theme".
• Medal of Honor:
  • European Assault's Dogs of War A gorgeous, evocative song that manages to capture the time period of World War II.
  • Listen to the music that plays in Arnhem and try not to cry. This is the official theme music of pure tragedy, folks.
  • The Arnhem music in Frontline always leads to some emotional moments, especially towards the end of the level when you realise most of your squad of chirpy Cockney paratroopers has been wiped out. But the music that plays during the mansion and train missions is perfect for getting you in that Nazi-shooting mood.
• The OST for Odin Sphere, made by Basiscape, who really good at this sort of thing. The theme song for the game is absolutely beautiful, but there's also tracks like the Titania themes (both the normal and battle themes,) the valkyrie theme, the book end boss theme and A Fate Accepted, which can be added in for instant Tear Jerker.
• Wild ARMs 3 has more awesome tunes, particularly "FATE Breaker" and "Flying in the Mists of the Storm", though there are several dozen tracks that would easily fit this category. The ending theme, Wings, has cemented its place as the best ending song of any game, ever (only the one used in the US, though; the Japanese version is nowhere near as powerful, and the version in the US game is not available on any soundtrack; it has to be ripped from the game OST.) Then there's Blood, Tears, and the Dried-Up Wasteland.
• Wild ARMs 4:
  • "Gun Blaze" is an incredible normal battle theme that captures the Wild Western spirit of the games. Then there's the game's main theme, "I Look Into the Sky Because You Are There"; and another epic battle theme that actually remixes the first game's intro, "To the Edge of the Wilderness, ver. Detonator".
  • Buried City is an interesting song that slowly builds up and adds new instruments as it goes on.
• Wild ARMs 5:
  • "On the Day The Shovel Was Named Invincible" (aka Dean's theme), possibly the catchiest, most toe-tapping tune of any game, ever. Also, the battle theme, "When the Heart Ignites", is one of the best "normal" battle tunes anywhere.
  • Also, Justice To Believe. Nothing like kicking the final boss' ass to the tune of a Hot-Blooded Nana Mizuki sung Theme Music Power-Up.
  • "Terrible Monster Attacking Crew!", possibly the most badass "normal boss battle" theme in the series.
    • At The Frozen Depths of Heart is a pretty great battle tune.
• Musashi: Samurai Legend is also full of great tracks. But among the best are Rockstar as well as Secrets of the Deep. Also Aeolic Guardian.
• This little gem from the Pump It Up collection. It makes you want to dance.
  • Also, Love is a Danger Zone 2, full version.
  • And Loner by TTMA, one of the few eurobeat songs in the Pump It Up series.
  • Lazenca Save Us!
• Shenmue. Sedge Tree is the orchestrated version of the Main Theme.
  • Memories of Distant Days from the first game.
  • Guilin Forest from the second game.
• The main theme of No One Lives Forever.
• The main theme from Fable is really damned epic. Mostly because it was composed by Danny Elfman.
• Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 2: The main menu theme, commonly referred to as "Kain Refused The Sacrifice". Reminiscent of "Ozar Midrashim" while also having several snippets of Ariel's dialogue from the previous game.
• While most of the music of Metal Wolf Chaos is pretty good, "Metal Fighter" is just out-and-out awesome.
• House of the Dead III with its final boss theme. A very epic song for a rail shooter arcade game.
  • The Magician's leitmotif in the House of the Dead series.
    • Here it is, along with its "intro" in the second game. Why it has to be cut down to 10 seconds, nobody knows.
    • The techno-style remix used for his reappearance as, once again, the Final Boss in House of the Dead 4 Special.
    • Courtesy of Richard Jacques (known for composing Sonic music), Graveyard Gig, which combines Theme Of The Magician and the 2nd stage theme from the original HOTD in an awesome mix.
  • The first-stage song from the first game.
  • Also Mother, The Emperor, and The World.
  • Restoration Of Terror and Hope With Doubt, two music tracks so awesome, Sega reused them for Sonic and SEGA All-Stars Racing.
  • One Night in Bayou from OVERKILL, complete with lyrics that cross the line an even number of times.
  • The boss themes from Overkill: Jasper & Brutus, Nigel & Sebastian, Screamer & Crawler, and last but not least The Lobber.
• Choose a song from either Space Channel 5 game. Now THAT series has some awesome music!
• R-Type Final:Creature System, Mechanical System, Giant Warship, Dimension 26, Stage F-A, Accident And Oblivion(acid techno), Summer Night (a reprise of the title theme), Anti-Space, and the final boss theme (Halo style Gregorian chant intro) are Made of Win. To say nothing of Proud of You, the ending theme Award-Bait Song for the Japanese Version of the game.
• From Puyo Puyo Fever, we have Popoi's theme, another great final boss theme.
• Strange Klug's theme from Puyo Puyo Fever 2. Epic final soundtrack while battling the Big Bad...and that is simply amazing for a puzzle action game.
• Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven is not only a very underrated game. The soundtrack is great. Besides the fantastic period songs, the written soundtrack is equally top notch. Just listen to the amazing main theme.
• Yggdra Union. Yggdra Freaking Union. Also, have the arranged version of Yggdra Sortie!
• Pac-Man World 2 has probably the most epic-sounding mountain themes. Just listen to Ice River Run. The next two levels get more intense, with Avalanche Alley and Blade Mountain.
• La Pucelle gives us Legend of the Holy Maiden of Light, A Martyr's March, and Great Wilder, the latter of which shows up in a number of Nippon Ichi's later games.
• Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories:
  • Sinful Rose, an upbeat song about betrayal and violence. Pretty much a theme for the entire series.
  • Etna Rock, which plays during Etna's boss fight.
• From the My-Otome PS2 game, we have the awesome opening theme, Yousei Teikoku's "Valkyrja".
• Psyvariar 2 has some of the most incredible techno ever.
• Triggerheart Exelica's Updated Re-release Enhanced greet player with shiny Anime Theme Song, with GRAVITY ERROR as OP song.
  • The boss theme is brim with menace vibe.
  • Theme of 1st Stage, very fit for debut mission.
  • Theme of 4th Stage.
• The entirety of the Freedom Fighters (2003) soundtrack. One track (March Of The Empire) can make even Mardi Gras sinister.
• Steambot Chronicles has "In your Voice" and 4 other really great songs. But In your Voice stands out for its amazing beat and melody that simply makes you want to ♫Sing along with us...♫
• From Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance, the Elfsong is quite a beautiful song, It's Raining In Baldur's Gate. The final boss theme is a very epic song. Other good boss songs are The Orb Of Undeads Sess'sths Xantams Ciraxis' and Ilavarras. The sequel also has great music such as Alzagoras Randalla Brasshorn's, Zarad's, Karnacs, and The Basilisk's.
• Theme of Elvandia Story from... well, Elvandia Story.
• Much of the soundtrack of Jade Empire is amazing, particularly the haunted sound of Lost In The Wilds and the actiony Torment: The Way of the Closed Fist.
• SSX has TONS of this. For starters, here's Song for Dot and Slayboarder, the first game's theme.
• The first Way of the Samurai had a few noteworthy tracks, particularly Afterglow. The song manages to take a pan flute, piano, some strings and a guitar and utterly capture the feel of what it must have been like to be the last of a dying breed, fighting a losing battle against time and technology. Followed by Righteous Soul. This song makes even the good ending a heartbreaking and yet beautiful experience.
• Ōkami. Giving Kushinada A Ride.
  • Crimson Helm, Begone! At first, it starts out like the standard battle theme, but is actually fast paced, hectic, and completely awesome.
  • Battle of Orochi II.
  • Battle of Ninetails. Completely fitting for a battle with Ninetails.
  • The Sun Rises, so popular, important and moving that it got remixed for Amaterasu's Marvel vs. Capcom 3 theme.
  • Reset Thank You Version, a real Tear Jerker song that makes the scene it plays in even more of a Heartwarming Moment.
• From the Japanse-only RPG Zwei: Final Battle -Demon Vesper- is unusual among Final Battle themes in that while it's not EPIC, it opts for a more catchy and somewhat lighthearted tone while still having the feeling that it really is the final battle.
• Towards a Far Away Sky from SkyGunner, one of the most peaceful yet awesome opening songs ever.
• BIONICLE: The Game gives us the Main Theme, "Le-Wahi Area 3" "Po-Wahi Mines", etc.
  • BIONICLE Heroes gives us the terrifying Rahkshi boss theme, the dreadfully intense titan boss theme, and about every Piraka boss theme is dang awesome as well.
• There was a little-known, very ambitious and, sadly, commercially unsuccessful PS2 game called Haven: Call of the King which boasted a "genre-defying" gameplay experience and a COMPLETELY FUCKING AMAZING soundtrack. Unfortunately, as Western games seldom get proper soundtrack releases, there is no CD soundtrack to be had for this game. However, just listen to the Level 1 music; the video comments include links to a download page for the rest of the soundtrack. The links are all "001, 002, 003" but seriously, just pick some. You're guaranteed to get something that sounds good.
• Toy Commander, another overlooked game for the Dreamcast, has a pretty fantastic soundtrack. One of the best songs is Feel.
• Arcana Heart has some good tunes, but it really reaches the awesome when you get into the second game, even if it's marred with disasters. For instance, here's a remix of Heart Aino's theme, now used for the school background, the theme of Petra Johanna Lagerkvist in her home, or the theme of new kid genius Catherine Kyohbashi or the final song when you fight BOTH the Avallone sisters. Be sure to check them out when you find the less-disastrous arcade versions too.
• Batman: Dark Tomorrow is no Arkham Asylum when it comes to gameplay, but the cutscenes are top-notch and the main title theme is EPIC.
• Danny Phantom: The Ultimate Enemy for Game Boy Advance is a very fun beat-em-up based on the special of the same name, and with an excellent soundtrack to boot.
• Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex has some pretty great music, like H2 Oh No, Compactor Reactor, Sea Shell Shenanigans, Fahrenheit Frenzy, Droid Void, Coral Canyons, Weathering Heights, Crate Balls Of Fire, Cortex Vortex and Solar Bowler.
• Zapper: One Wicked Cricket! has several, including the Western-style theme from the end of the seventh and its remix from a bonus level. There's also the theme from the Laser Maze level.
• The various district BGM from The Urbz are not bad to listen to, but the favourite among fans is the Neon East's main soundtrack: High NRG.
• Tenchu had a number of good songs amongst the various games, such as Kurenai no Hana from Tenchu Fatal Shadows with its passionate Spanish guitar underscore.
• Project Gotham Racing 2 has this quite cool techno music for its main menu.
• The otherwise forgettable Destruction Derby Arenas for the PS2 has "Regular John" by Queens of the Stone Age as its replay BGM. It was also used in trailers for the game.
• Tak and the Great Juju Challenge:
  • The final vehicular combat section has a seriously rocking theme. That driving rock track is an amped-up remix of the stage music from Ghastfall.
  • The Silver Stone Coast theme evokes a peaceful shore with its calm flutes and gentle percussion.
  • The boss remix of the Silver Stone Coast theme exchanges those instruments for pounding drums, low horns and electric guitars that changes the atmosphere from "peaceful" to "get ready to fight".
  • The Proving Grounds theme has fast drums and electric guitars that fit the vehicular combat aspect of the level very well.
• It's sad that the Game Boy Advance's add-on E-Reader was partially unnoticed, because the music of the main menu of it is frigging awesome!
• Think fishing games are the last place you'd ever hear exhilarating boss-battle caliber music? Sega Marine Fishing and Sega Bass Fishing would love to prove you wrong.
• Racing Gears Advance has a rockin' soundtrack that makes incredible use of the Game Boy Advance's soundchip. No surprise given that it was done by Tetrisphere and The New Tetris composer, Neil D. Voss.
• For a middling GBA debut title, Iridion 3D has a bitchin' soundtrack. Engineered by Commodore Amiga Demoscene veteran Manfred Linzner and former Atari programmer Dan Kitchen, the game used the GAX Sound Engine to compress recordings, resulting in some awesome techno action.
  • Its Surprisingly Improved Sequel, Iridion II, is absolutely no slouch, giving the same high-quality techno vibe.
  • Manfred Linzner even put out arranged versions of Iridion songs on a standalone disc, for crisp, clear shmup-music pleasure.
• PlayStation 2 classic ATV Offroad Fury is perhaps just as remembered for its hard-rocking soundtrack as it is for its fast-paced gameplay:
  • The soundtrack is headlined by two of the biggest grunge bands of the 1990s, Alice in Chains with "Them Bones" and Soundgarden with "Spoonman".
  • Heavy-metal legends Anthrax give us "Crush", an oft-forgotten gem from their John Bush days.
  • As one of the biggest nu-metal acts of the new generation, Sevendust are an essential to any early-2000s video game soundtrack. "Denial" is a perfect song for the heat of the action.
  • Primus with the quirky and funky "Jerry Was a Race Car Driver" which will make you ready to pump the gas.
  • To balance out the rock, some electronic music makes it in. The British Apollo 440 have "Yo! Future", while American electronic duo Cirrus provide the soundtrack’s only instrumental with "Stop and Panic".
  • The game provided two original instrumentals, an upbeat menu theme and the bonus track "APM Paranoia". Both are great to listen to when you need a break from the singing.
  • Finally, the game helped promote four relatively unknown rock bands with two songs each.
    • Bender is on the soundtrack. No, not the robot one. This is a Creed-esque post-grunge band from Milwaukee, who contributed "Isolate" and "Superfly" to the soundtrack.
    • The game’s opening video features the song "Atlanta" by the virtually unknown Strawhorse, which you can also hear during gameplay. They also provide the equally awesome "Fishbowl".
    • Strung Out, unsung punk heroes of the 1990s, with "Mephisto" and "Scarecrow".
    • Cult nu-metal band Ultraspank round out the soundtrack with "Crumble" and "Click".
• ATV Offroad Fury 2 ups the ante with a more ecletic mix of genres, but like last time, rock music is still the dominant genre:
  • Nu-metal is still present, with genre titans Korn and System of a Down giving us "Here to Stay" and "Science", respectively. Midcard players include Alien Ant Farm. with "Courage", and Filter with the one-two punch of "American Cliche" and "So I Quit". Rounding out the nu-metal is "Don't Be Afraid" by Stereomud, "Nice To Meet You" by Head On, and "Thick Skin" by Systematic.
  • Garbage is on the soundtrack with "Parade", which is a good break from much of the hard rock.
  • Pop-punkers Riddlin' Kids are ready to "Pick Up The Pieces".
  • Deadsy have "The Key to Gramercy Park" and they're not afraid to use it.
  • Rap and rock come together for two songs, the legendary Cypress Hill giving us "Amplified" and unlikely Icelandic stars Quarashi with "Stick 'Em Up".
  • Logan 7's dance-rock hybrid "Boomshakalaka" is bound to put you on the dance floor.
  • Lostprophets give us a great song with their breakout hit "Shinobi vs. Dragon Ninja".
• Evergrace has a soundtrack best described as a collage of various folk styles. Despite its messiness, It is incredibly surreal and beautiful, sounding like nothing else at the time. "Sunbeams Streaming Through Leaves on the Hill" and "Edge of the World" are highlights.
• Rocket Power: Beach Bandits has "Ventilation Nation", a dark and foreboding heavy metal track with some badass guitar and drum work.
• Frogger Beyond has the "main theme" which is an incredibly catchy fusion of hip-hop and bluegrass that goes way harder then it has any right to.

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