Had a discussion with my buddy today about the best song/best soundtrack on the snes. I'm interested to hear what people here have to say, cause the snes has some quality tracks.
I think DKC2 has the most consistently great soundtrack. Fav track would be Forest Interlude
https://youtu.be/xPCM12Wd7Q4
Favorite Snes Track
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strangenova
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Re: Favorite Snes Track
I might be able to narrow it down to a top 10 OSTs.
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Re: Favorite Snes Track
Good grief, that would be a tough decision to make.
Actually, I could make a really strong argument for Chrono Trigger. It's got some of my absolute favorite music of all time.
Actually, I could make a really strong argument for Chrono Trigger. It's got some of my absolute favorite music of all time.
Re: Favorite Snes Track
Sorry I can't. I could whittle it down to 10, maybe even 5 and feel terrible about it, but not 1. 
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strangenova
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Re: Favorite Snes Track
Okay if it makes it easier let's do a top 5 then.
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BoneSnapDeez
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Re: Favorite Snes Track
Secret of Mana is the final boss for me. While not perfect, stuff like the Dwarves village theme kind of sucks and whatnot, when it's good... it's supremely atmospheric topped off with how gorgeous and colorful the game is, I feel like I'm jumping into a children's book. The music is very ethereal and beautiful, nothing else quite like it. The music in Seiken Densetsu 3 is top tier as well and even has like 10 some boss themes which was unique for its time, but the slight sound font change doesn't quite measure up to Secret of Mana for me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmZLHUcn9oc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaWz3AL8mWw
I find it to be very criminal that Hiroki Kikuta didn't go on to do much else and kind of peaked right away with the two SNES Mana games.
Donkey Kong Country is probably on the list. Again, very ethereal and surreal music especially for a platformer. The first is probably my favorite, but the whole trilogy is full of winners. Nothing quite like these OST's.
From there it's probably just an onsalught of JRPG's. Chrono Trigger is magic since it's Mitsuda meets Uematsu. For Final Fantasy I'd actually easily say I like 4's OST the best. While 6 has some iconic tunes, I can recall so much more of 4's music and love how piano driven it is, topped off with its cool early gen SNES sound. It has my favorite boss theme in the entire franchise and maybe my favorite final dungeon theme in the history of JRPG's. It's such a powerful soundtrack and Uematsu's first masterpiece of many to come. The entire OST sounds like a constant uphill battle with the light on the other side, it's probably one of the most triumphant OST's ever composed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3ZXe-f3f7U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Q7OXR6bhk
Secret of Mana and FF6 have the best SNES bass guitars.
Feels a bit easier to knock down the Genesis favorites... there's a lot of goodies, but for me Thunder Force IV and Shinobi 3 are on different planes of existence.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmZLHUcn9oc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaWz3AL8mWw
I find it to be very criminal that Hiroki Kikuta didn't go on to do much else and kind of peaked right away with the two SNES Mana games.
Donkey Kong Country is probably on the list. Again, very ethereal and surreal music especially for a platformer. The first is probably my favorite, but the whole trilogy is full of winners. Nothing quite like these OST's.
From there it's probably just an onsalught of JRPG's. Chrono Trigger is magic since it's Mitsuda meets Uematsu. For Final Fantasy I'd actually easily say I like 4's OST the best. While 6 has some iconic tunes, I can recall so much more of 4's music and love how piano driven it is, topped off with its cool early gen SNES sound. It has my favorite boss theme in the entire franchise and maybe my favorite final dungeon theme in the history of JRPG's. It's such a powerful soundtrack and Uematsu's first masterpiece of many to come. The entire OST sounds like a constant uphill battle with the light on the other side, it's probably one of the most triumphant OST's ever composed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3ZXe-f3f7U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Q7OXR6bhk
Secret of Mana and FF6 have the best SNES bass guitars.
Feels a bit easier to knock down the Genesis favorites... there's a lot of goodies, but for me Thunder Force IV and Shinobi 3 are on different planes of existence.
Re: Favorite Snes Track
Top 5 is still really, really tough, but if I had to take a stab at it...
Final Fantasy VI - There is just so much beautiful, iconic music in this game that it's hard to justify leaving it off any list.
Lufia II - One of my measures of soundtrack awesomeness is does it either make me emotional or want to rock out? Turns out Lufia II does both.
Super Metroid - Perhaps one of the most atmospheric soundtracks ever. Amazing stuff.
This last spot is really tough, but I'm going with...
Treasure of the Rudras - I played through this a few years back, and it had me humming a multitude of tunes from it. Some kicking battle tracks, and some really great overworld themes, too. (I almost put Terranigma here, because some of those overworld tracks are just... man.)
And of course, the aforementioned Chrono Trigger.
Some of the best stuff from Treasure of the Rudras...
Sword of the Valiant
Between Two Worlds
Between Two Worlds (Night) (Dig that bass!)
Crime of the Heart
Take the Gold and Run!
Take the Gold and Run! (Night) (And more bass!)
Battle for the Fields
The Spirit Chaser
Blazing Impact
Final Fantasy VI - There is just so much beautiful, iconic music in this game that it's hard to justify leaving it off any list.
Lufia II - One of my measures of soundtrack awesomeness is does it either make me emotional or want to rock out? Turns out Lufia II does both.
Super Metroid - Perhaps one of the most atmospheric soundtracks ever. Amazing stuff.
This last spot is really tough, but I'm going with...
Treasure of the Rudras - I played through this a few years back, and it had me humming a multitude of tunes from it. Some kicking battle tracks, and some really great overworld themes, too. (I almost put Terranigma here, because some of those overworld tracks are just... man.)
And of course, the aforementioned Chrono Trigger.
Some of the best stuff from Treasure of the Rudras...
Sword of the Valiant
Between Two Worlds
Between Two Worlds (Night) (Dig that bass!)
Crime of the Heart
Take the Gold and Run!
Take the Gold and Run! (Night) (And more bass!)
Battle for the Fields
The Spirit Chaser
Blazing Impact
Last edited by Sarge on Thu Apr 13, 2017 11:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Re: Favorite Snes Track
strangenova wrote:Had a discussion with my buddy today about the best song/best soundtrack on the snes. I'm interested to hear what people here have to say, cause the snes has some quality tracks.
I think DKC2 has the most consistently great soundtrack. Fav track would be Forest Interlude
https://youtu.be/xPCM12Wd7Q4
For DKC2, it's the best music for the worst levels - A challenger appears in:
Krook's March!
I have many others too so I also couldn't do just one.
Xeogred wrote:The obvious answer is that it's time for the Dreamcast 2.
Re: Favorite Snes Track
The only soundtrack I ever imported back in the 90s and could never get enough of has to take the #1 spot - Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2) as the audio quality, uniqueness, and variety was bar none the best and was just unbelievable it came out of the SNES to me at the time.
Beyond that some stuff with a score or two such as the town and music themes of ActRaiser really raised the bar earlier the total package wasn't mind blowing.
The other four I'd probably throw to...
Super Metroid again because of the ambience, variety, no better a score for an adventure/exploration game to really set the mood than that one.
Final Fantasy II(IV) that track may be early but each piece was so well crafted, really pushing some really solid samples. I still feel the musical accompaniment of it all suits every mood almost too well to really bring not only you into it, but an emotional response as the dialog of physical conflict unfolded before your eyes. (I know more would give it to FF3 but it was almost as excellent but some weaker stuff and perhaps a case of not more always being better but quality over quantity.)
Donkey Kong Country (1) as much as that game visually was a mind blower at the time that it was pulled off, the audio score deserves as much if not more praise. The types of samples and scores used in it at times were somewhat to just totally unique. Very rich audio, amazing sample quality used and the scores by that well known composer really just banged out a mood setting win.
Super Mario RPG and in all fairness it was just me needing to round this out while hosing quite a few others (read farther down.) This game has an incredible score setup between the two houses of Nintendo and Square that is just butter and magic across the board. One shouldn't be surprised given the late era of the game as well as it really squeaked out some sheer quality from the audio chip the day it rolled off the line.
The last one I'm conflicted on but put SMRPG there. One part of me wants to throw either Super Mario World, or Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past a bone as they're stunning and varied, but then you have stuff like Super Castlevania, Ogre Battle March of the Black Queen, Gradius III, and even ActRaiser which have some real rich stuff it's too hard for me to really pick one.
Beyond that some stuff with a score or two such as the town and music themes of ActRaiser really raised the bar earlier the total package wasn't mind blowing.
The other four I'd probably throw to...
Super Metroid again because of the ambience, variety, no better a score for an adventure/exploration game to really set the mood than that one.
Final Fantasy II(IV) that track may be early but each piece was so well crafted, really pushing some really solid samples. I still feel the musical accompaniment of it all suits every mood almost too well to really bring not only you into it, but an emotional response as the dialog of physical conflict unfolded before your eyes. (I know more would give it to FF3 but it was almost as excellent but some weaker stuff and perhaps a case of not more always being better but quality over quantity.)
Donkey Kong Country (1) as much as that game visually was a mind blower at the time that it was pulled off, the audio score deserves as much if not more praise. The types of samples and scores used in it at times were somewhat to just totally unique. Very rich audio, amazing sample quality used and the scores by that well known composer really just banged out a mood setting win.
Super Mario RPG and in all fairness it was just me needing to round this out while hosing quite a few others (read farther down.) This game has an incredible score setup between the two houses of Nintendo and Square that is just butter and magic across the board. One shouldn't be surprised given the late era of the game as well as it really squeaked out some sheer quality from the audio chip the day it rolled off the line.
The last one I'm conflicted on but put SMRPG there. One part of me wants to throw either Super Mario World, or Legend of Zelda a Link to the Past a bone as they're stunning and varied, but then you have stuff like Super Castlevania, Ogre Battle March of the Black Queen, Gradius III, and even ActRaiser which have some real rich stuff it's too hard for me to really pick one.