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[Unresponsive Bee Victim]

I was playing Megaman 5 and I noticed that the music in old games used too be awesome. What were some of your favorites from that era?

Mine:
Stonemans level-Megaman 5
Any song form the Castlevania series
Hyrule Palace- Zeda: AoL

 

[Doom_Bringer]

Contra

 

[Kobun Heat]

Anticipation had some hot music.

 

[guess]

Metroid - Kraid's Hideout
Rad Racer
Ducktales

 

[The Faceless Master]

Wizards & Warriors
Castlevania 2
Megaman 3

 

[sprsk]

solstice
megaman 2
ninja gaiden
silver surfer

 

[Speevy]

Little Nemo the Dream Master, also my favorite NES game.

 

[OmniGamer]

Astynax
Metroid
Megaman 2&3
LoZ 1&2
Little Nemo
Ironsword:W&W2
Master Blaster
Castlevania III
SMB 1-3(Natch)
Ducktales(!)
Final Fantasy
Double Dragon

 

[talking head]

MARIO 2 and ZELDA 2

the most radical departures for both series' had the best music

 

[Bluemercury]

Kid Icarus and Metroid......

 

[Sp3eD]

Pretty much anything made by Capcom. They are the Midi masters.

 

[Baron Aloha]

Bubbleman stage from Megaman 2 = the best music on the NES imo.

 

[Unresponsive Bee Victim]

Pretty much anything made by Capcom. They are the Midi masters.

You sir are correct.

 

[MightyHedgehog]

Batman, Blaster Master, Castlevania (I, II, III), Super C, Kid Icarus, Metroid, Legend of Zelda (I, II), Super Mario Bros. 3, Shadowgate, Bionic Commando, Mega Man (1, 2, 3), Wizards & Warrriors (I, II), Battletoads, Tombs & Treasures.

 

[Kuramu]

Bubbleman stage from Megaman 2 = the best music on the NES imo.

I was going to mention this song. Also on my list:

Blaster Master: underwater level and ice level and warehouse-like level
METROID: Kraids Hideout
Kid Icarus: the second group of 3 vertical levels, and the fortresses
Guardian Legend: One of the tree worlds in the girl mode, not flying.
Zanac: too many to mention
SMB of course

 

[bionic77]

The music from every level and cutscene of Ninja Gaiden 1 and 2.

Honorable mentions for all of the Super Mario games, Megaman 2, Bionic Commando, Castlevania, Mike Tyson's Punchout, Final Fantasy, Little Nemo, etc.

Damn, why was music so much more memorable back then? I can hear the music for every one of those games as soon as I think of them. Is it because they repeated the music over and over again or was the music just better back then?

 

[bobble]

Bubble Bobble. Duh.

 

[jett]

Speaking of NES music...does anybody have a link the NSF collection .zip file which had nearly all the NES soundtracks neatly divided by country and publisher? I NEEDS THAT. Damn dying hard drives...

 

[Ninja Scooter]

Castlevania
Rygar
Mike Tyson's PunchOut
Super Mario Bros.

 

[olimario]

Super Mario Bros. 2
I win.

 

[Ronin]

Gravity Man in Mega Man 5
TMNT 1-3
Double Dragon I & II
Contra

 

[opkal]

While there's many songs I love from the NES days, I'm sure I hum the Super Mario Bros and Zelda themes daily without even thinking about what I'm doing. Kondo, you made some catchy tunes.

 

[Hournda]

Megaman freaking 2.

 

[BlueLegs]

Ducktales and Journey to Silius

 

[jett]

I guess I'll chip in with some of the most underrated NES soundtracks:

Silver Surfer
Street Fighter 2010: Final Fight
Journey To Silius
The Guardian Legend
Super C
Batman
Double Dragon III
Battletoads
Wizards & Warriors III

Then there's the Mega Mans, the Zeldas, the Marios, the Ninja Gaidens, etc...

 

[EdLuva]

Megaman Cutman stage
Super Mario Bros. 2 (especially during the cave/indoor/digging levels).
Bionic Commando

 

[RunWhiteBoyRun]

Legend of Zelda overworld theme is my all time fave..

But how can you discount Battletoads PAUSE music...?

 

[Daigoro]

Section mutherfucking Z

 

[captainbiotch]

the Sky Shark title song kicks ass.

 

[Ash Housewares]

Bubble Bobble
Metroid
Castlevania III

 

[Tempy]

Blaster Master
Castlevania series
Journey to Silius
Magician
Megaman series (especially Megaman 2)
Ninja Gaiden series
Solstice

 

[Rock_Man]

Mega Man

 

[bjork]

DuckTales' Moon level
Metroid's Kraid area
Guardian Legend: all

 

[Zerodoppler]

I agree with all of the above and would like to add:

Chip & Dale
Darkwin Duck
Choujin Sentai Jetman
Yume Penguin Monogatari
Blue Shadow
Gumshoe
Nintendo World Cup
Snake Rattle & Roll
Gremlins 2
Tecmo World Wrestling

 

[SantaC]

Nintendo World Cup
Castelvania
Castlevania II
Metroid
Goonies II
SMB3
Zelda
Mega man II
Mega man III
Ninja Gaiden III
Double Dragon II
Journey To Silius

and the worst music I heard in a NES game. Spy vs Spy.

 

[JackFrost2012]

Batman is fucking awesome and totally underrated. That shit has BASS, yo.

 

[Johnny Konami]

While the usual suspects are good, I thought I'd try to add some of my own:

Adv. of Bayou Billy
Deja Vu/Uninvited (Shadowgate was already mentioned - in any case Kemco did some of the most unique sounds on the nes)
Fester's Quest (I have a definite slant towards Sunsoft games)
Guardian Legend (Similar slant towards compile shooters )
Maniac Mansion (Love the main guy theme - dave I think?)
Super Spy Hunter/Battle Forumla (Sunsoft again)
Shatterhand/Solbrain
Willow
Wai Wai World 2 (Some awesome arrangements of Contra and other Konami classics)
Contra Force
Edit: Oh yeah, Super Spike V'ball - how could I forget?

Best companies were definitely Konami and Sunsoft - usually you could expect some
great music no matter how good or bad the game was.

Worst:
Mighty Final Fight (damn that level 1 song is grating)
Hydlide
Dr. Chaos

 

[BlackClouds]

don't forget about soltice, and ofcourse megaman 2 was pretty incredible. Rygar and Double Dragon were very distinctive also.

 

[Studs Ramrod]

Cannot forget: Ninja Gaiden I & II, Megaman 2 & 3, Double Dragon II, Rygar [especially on the floating castle], Goonies II, Castlevania I/II/II.

 

[SantaC]

they said that Journey To Silius utilizes the nes soundchip to its max.

 

[lordmrw]

Megaman 3 - Magnet man stage, Hard man stage, Gemini man stage
Megaman 2 - Flashman stage, Bubbleman Stage
Batman
Castlevania 3
Ducktales - especially the Amazon and the Moon
Crystalis
Magic of Scheherezade - I wish more people would play this game
Faxanadu