Best Ever In-game Music

[JP]

I'm not sure if I'd call it the best ever but Aoife N? Fhearraigh singing The Best is Yet To Come at the end of Metal Gear Solid was a bit special for me!

I was lucky enough to get the MGS 1 boxed set with the t-shirt, soundtrack, etc at launch so I still have it to listen to occassionally.

[ezee ryder]

Ahh I love this, brings back great memories of playing MGS1 on the good old PlayStation.

[tom-nook]

There are so many it's hard to think of a favourite. Off the top of my head a few are:

- Lumines (superb mix of 'in the zone' tunes)
- Vib Ribbon (short but ever so sweet)
- Katamari (wacky and perfectly compliment the game)

[dogen]

I'm not sure if I'd call it the best ever but Aoife Ní Fhearraigh singing The Best is Yet To Come at the end of Metal Gear Solid was a bit special for me!

Probably the best videogame credit roll to date.

[EvilBoris]

The music at the end of MGS3's was pretty good too, the whole ending made me want to cry

[Welrain]

my favourite is Jet Set Radio. Brilliant and catchy. I would love an up date on the Wii.

Orchestral wise I'd have to go for Mass Effect - sci synth action at its best and Mario Galaxy - beautiful renditions of classic tunes.

[ezee ryder]

Love this

[SuperBeatBoy]

The original Metal Gear Solid. It was probably the first game that made me realise that music was really important to a game, i can't remember anything before it that affected me themeattically(?) including FFVII or VIII. MGS as a whole proved that games could equal Movies in Storytelling and the music/voices is what added it. As the song title suggests on the end title The Best is Yet to Come! Wonderful Track.

EDIT: Doh John Parry beat me to it. I really should learn to look one page back...

[suicidepirate]

Rez.

/end thread.

[JP]

EDIT: Doh John Parry beat me to it. I really should learn to look one page back...

Woohoo, I win!

I've listened to it again and although there are loads of really good pieces of music all I can do is go for that song if I'm being honest.

I was just trying to remember what it was like hearing that song for the first time. I remember sitting there and it just seemed so emotional at the time, when I finished playing the game for the first time I remember quite clearly thinking that I'd never played anything like that before. For me it was in different league to anything else and I probably just sat in wonder while that music played and just went through all the things that I'd done in that game which just had not been done in any other game.

I really could mention loads of different games but as good as things like Rez, Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1), Vib Ribbon, Super Mario '64 and loads of others this just sort of worked for me and tied in perfectly for the moment it was playing.

[Eight Rooks]

Even though I think Kojima's a terrible, terrible writer and that his games are on the whole markedly over-rated I still can't help tearing up at the classic MGS theme.

Never played #1, but The Best Is Yet To Come is a good song, yes. Snake Eater and Can't Say Goodbye To Yesterday, not so much. I thought #3 couldn't possibly have a worse vocal number than #2... good God, if only I'd known in advance.

[dogen]

It's funny. The first time I heard can't say goodbye to yesterday was at the start of a MGS2 trailer. It opened with that song as purely vocals, no piano/jazz, then lead to snake jumping off the George Washington bridge and Harry's score kicks in etc etc. Anyway, I really liked it as pure vocals, pure acapella. It was really good. But I can't listen to it as a full song with music. I dunno, it just bores me to tears.

[Eight Rooks]

I seriously think it's godawful all round. Horrible vocal, terrible, pretentious lyrics, trite elevator muzak arrangements without a hint of swing or genuine passion from start to finish. Honest. You want something that should have been over the credits for that game, go listen to Norihiko Hibino's solo album Akashi (he did all the music for MGS2 that Harry Gregson-Williams didn't do) - a little too much Japlish, but something like Against This World or Reborn would have been a far better choice if it simply had to be smooth jazz.

[JP]

It's a fairly traditional format Gaelic song with fairly traditional Gaelic lyrics. The lyrics aren't don't pretend to be anything other than what they are.

While it's not something I'd generally listen to normally I find it works well in the format of the game. I quite like some of Rika Muranaka's other compositions in the original Silent Hill and Castlevania: SoTN.

I think the main Silent Hill theme was another song that worked really well for me in-game. This isn't the same composer though.

[Eight Rooks]

Hmmm? I hate Can't Say Goodbye To Yesterday (ghastly Japanese elevator smooth jazz) and Snake Eater (demented fourth-rate Bond theme knock-off). I like The Best Is Yet To Come (traditional Gaelic) a fair bit. Sorry, I thought it'd be obvious I was replying to dogen's post.

And I call Yesterday pretentious given MGS2 is - indeed, for the most part the franchise is one colossal edifice of hysterically badly written pretension as far as I'm concerned, for all they're brilliant games. MGS2's supposedly about learning from and building on the past (to put it very simply), so I'd say the lyrics were obviously chosen intentionally... thematically the game's a ghastly mess and doesn't convey anything meaningful or thought-provoking, so, pretentious.

No argument over Akira Yamaoka, though . I'd say his quality's fallen off a little in recent years, but he's still a great composer (his solo album's pretty good, too, though I'm not so keen on his own vocals <_< ).