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Topic: SNES and GENESIS soundtracks, which are your favorites?

Posts 1 to 20 of 24

MetaCrystal

As a music composer and producer, these two systems give me such a rush when I listen to them. Each with their own strengths creating very strong music. Some of my favorites have to Be Natsuki Battle Crisis, Macross: Scramble Valkrie, Thunder Force IV, Mega Man X, and Phantasy star IV. Give the soundtracks a good listen one day! What soundtracks do you have favorited?

The SNES and the Genesis have their strengths. They both do what they do so well. Nothing beats the echoed SNES sound or the Full-Sounding FM synthesis of the Genesis. Did you know that the N64 had built in audio effects, like delay too?

LukeDodge748

I absolutely love Castle of Illusion w/ Mickey Mouse. I need this soundtrack on vinyl.

LukeDodge748

MetaCrystal

Surprisingly when I tried the game I payed no attention to the soundtrack and was focused on how slow it felt. I absolutely will listen to that ost right now.

The SNES and the Genesis have their strengths. They both do what they do so well. Nothing beats the echoed SNES sound or the Full-Sounding FM synthesis of the Genesis. Did you know that the N64 had built in audio effects, like delay too?

MetaCrystal

Okay, even the game sounds Disney like. Somehow feeling an encouraging tone from it.

The SNES and the Genesis have their strengths. They both do what they do so well. Nothing beats the echoed SNES sound or the Full-Sounding FM synthesis of the Genesis. Did you know that the N64 had built in audio effects, like delay too?

sdelfin

Yeah, Macross Scrambled Valkyrie has some great music and is my favorite shooter on the SNES. I have an easier time coming up with good soundtracks for the Genesis simply due to having more familiarity. I do generally prefer FM synth as well. Phantasy Star 4 is excellent. I was just demonstrating Thunder Force 4 for a friend of mine on Saturday. I also showed him MUSHA which is one of my favorite sound tracks on the system. Dragon's Fury was by the same composer as well and is great. Elemental Master is a good one. Data East had a few strong ones, with Midnight Resistance and Captain America and the Avengers being shockingly good, and way better than the arcade in my opinion. Of course, there are the likes of Mega Turrican, Castlevania, all three Shinobi games, and Golden Axe 2 are among the best soundtracks on the system. And there are lots more good examples.

As said, I have an easier time remembering Genesis soundtracks I like, but I'll mention a few SNES games I like that are not the typical examples. Ninja Warriors Again has pretty good music, though stage seven's music was the standout to me. Pocky & Rocky is pretty good. Super Turrican as well. Demon's Crest has really good organ samples which suits the game very well.

sdelfin

MetaCrystal

The mega turrican soundtrack simply sounds stronger on the genesis. Although the SNES is known for being more melodic than the Genesis, there are some games that push the Rythmic guitars and rock on the SNES. EEK the cat, Natsuki battle crisis, the Mega Man X trilogy, X-men, biker mice from Mars and such. (Also, I'm new here, are we allowed to put links to soundtracks in here?)

The SNES and the Genesis have their strengths. They both do what they do so well. Nothing beats the echoed SNES sound or the Full-Sounding FM synthesis of the Genesis. Did you know that the N64 had built in audio effects, like delay too?

MetaCrystal

Another obscure japanese only snes game with excellent music is Metal Max 2 Returns. It uses a handful of samp,es from the same keyboard as the original Mega Man X.

The SNES and the Genesis have their strengths. They both do what they do so well. Nothing beats the echoed SNES sound or the Full-Sounding FM synthesis of the Genesis. Did you know that the N64 had built in audio effects, like delay too?

Andee

LukeDodge748 wrote:

I absolutely love Castle of Illusion w/ Mickey Mouse. I need this soundtrack on vinyl.

I'll see your Castle of Illusion and raise you a World of Illusion — playing that game for the first time I didn't know the Mega Drive was capable of producing something that rich and whimsical, like an actual Disney cartoon.

Some of my favourite soundtracks (although they correlate pretty well with my favourite games of the era):

  • Dynamite Headdy. The whole A/V design on that game was utterly bonkers and really felt like it pushed the Mega Drive to its limits
  • Flashback. Completely in the opposite way, a subtle, moody use of incidental music that would only come in at appropriate parts, where much of the game was played in relative silence — really added to the grungy, neo-noir atmosphere.
  • Streets of Rage 1&2 (not so much 3). I mean, it's Yuzo Koshiro at his absolute finest. The guy is a legend for a reason.

That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure I could probably think of dozens more...

Andee

MetaCrystal

@Andee I see your World of illusion and raise you CastleVania: Bloodlines.
Never have I seen a genesis game use instruments so close to what was common at the time without the use of DAC/A-DPCM samples. There's not a single bad song in that soundtrack. It carries that Baroque Classical sound with that moody power ballad feel so well. Judging on your favorite soundtracks, I'd recommend

-Super Metroid. My favorite example of what the SNES is best at. Moody and light on percussion but high in emotion and energy.

-Mega Turrican. It's got that punch that only the Genesis can bring and oh boy does it bring it. Reminiscent of the hard rock and rock ballads of the Era, pure jams and grooves throughout the OST

-Battle Mania Daiginjou. This soundtrack sits at the same table as Thunder Force IV and MUSHA at lunchtime. Epic Guitars, head bangers, and cool melodies. Not necessarily chill but it's got that amazing instrumentation and a few chill songs like Sun Rise Purple.

-Samurai Shodown (the Genesis one). STRAIGHT FM, but still fairly good and those grooves are still groovy.

The SNES and the Genesis have their strengths. They both do what they do so well. Nothing beats the echoed SNES sound or the Full-Sounding FM synthesis of the Genesis. Did you know that the N64 had built in audio effects, like delay too?

Ganner

You SNES it has to be Super Metroid. Everything about it is just perfection by the composer. Hearing it now it's hard to believe the tunes were done with such old school tech.

For Genesis I'm going to go with Skitchin'. All the tunes are such a mix of great guitar and drum riffs of rock, hard rock, metal and even some funk with some great bass lines.

This fire is burning and it's out of control. It's not a problem you can stop it's Rock and Roll!!!

MetaCrystal

@Ganner
Super Metroid is an excellent example of the musical ability of the SNES, but the soundtrack I think pushes the limit is Earthbound. If you think you’ve heard all the music from that game just by browsing YouTube, you’re missing out. It’s got a special quality that only Earthbound can bring. There’s so many good songs other than the iconic few we hear on the web.

I’ve never heard of Skitchin’, I will have a listen and come back with my opinion.

The SNES and the Genesis have their strengths. They both do what they do so well. Nothing beats the echoed SNES sound or the Full-Sounding FM synthesis of the Genesis. Did you know that the N64 had built in audio effects, like delay too?

MetaCrystal

The Fatal Fury Games have very different yet intriguing soundtracks on both the Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo. It’s fun to listen to them back to back.

The SNES and the Genesis have their strengths. They both do what they do so well. Nothing beats the echoed SNES sound or the Full-Sounding FM synthesis of the Genesis. Did you know that the N64 had built in audio effects, like delay too?

AlexHarford

The SNES has two of my favourite soundtracks ever, Donkey Kong Country 2 and Secret of Mana. Great variation and quality throughout in both. All three DKC games had great soundtracks.

The Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island soundtracks are perfect for what they are - lots of fun but tense and haunting when needed.

Top Gear has a couple of my favourite melodies.

I loved the digitised versions of classic rock tracks like Highway Star in Rock n Roll Racing, and Unirally's soundtrack seemed to rock even harder.

Battletoads had some great tunes too, as did RPGs like Terranigma and Illusion of Time.

AnVold

I almost always prefer Sega MD soundtracks. I just love their electric style. My favorite is Dune II, Golden Axe and Sonic the Hedgehog series soundtracks.
On SNES I love soundtrack from Super Castlevania IV.

[Edited by AnVold]

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MetaCrystal

@AnVold Moody SNES soundtracks are really powerful. I don’t even need to mention the final fantasy games and their 17-minute Progressive rock classical epics that make up their final boss music. Often overlooked are Games like Clock Tower, small- but terrifying- games that make use of the SNES’ unique delay effect. Some very popular games that do are Donkey Kong Country and Earthbound, the latter of which is just downright unsettling at times. As overrated as earthbound is, it’s still worth and unbiased play through, and an unbiased listening session with the OST.

The SNES and the Genesis have their strengths. They both do what they do so well. Nothing beats the echoed SNES sound or the Full-Sounding FM synthesis of the Genesis. Did you know that the N64 had built in audio effects, like delay too?

MetaCrystal

@AlexHarford If you’re looking for digitised Rock, look no further. Monstania is an incredible game with a determined and driving prog-Rock soundtrack that uses samples from the same source as the Mega Man X games. Der Langrisser is a very similar case, but the final boss theme stands out the most. Brain Lord has some very heavy 80’s inspirations, and although the EQ is slightly off, songs like “Road to Toronto” still Slap. And there’s no forgetting Biker Mice on Mars.

The SNES and the Genesis have their strengths. They both do what they do so well. Nothing beats the echoed SNES sound or the Full-Sounding FM synthesis of the Genesis. Did you know that the N64 had built in audio effects, like delay too?

NinChocolate

A good chunk of Matt Furniss’ repertoire on Genesis is some great stuff to start with

NinChocolate

Servbot_EJ

There's a lot of great OSTs out there. Had to think about this for a while!

For the Sega Genesis, I really liked the music for Sonic 3 & Knuckles, Monster World 4, Streets of Rage 2, and Gleylancer.

On the SNES, I'm going with Super Mario RPG, F-Zero, Star Fox, and Donkey Kong Country 2.

Servbot_EJ

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