11.
Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island – 55 points, 4 honorable mentions
Composer: Koji Kondo
Underground
Overworld (Touch Fuzzy, Get Dizzy)
Baby Bowser
Blasian Persuasion said:
My favorite soundtrack out of any Mario universe game. There are a lot of cheery, joyful tracks that go along with the game's bright childlike aesthetic such as "Flower Garden" and "Athletic", but you also have the incredibly chill track "Underground" which remains one of the best video game tracks ever, the iconic "Castle & Fortress" and the metal sounding final boss music in "Baby Bowser". This soundtrack also has the best rendition of "Starman Theme" in the series. Koji Kondo did an amazing job with this soundtrack and it may be his best work.
Eolz said:
I remembered this soundtrack being longer and more diverse than it actually is, but it is actually re-using some delicious tunes during the whole game. Expertly composed, this is once again an OST that helps making a game a classic forever. Nothing else could fit a Yoshi game better than this. Extremely joyful, it also has some themes reflecting some other emotions.
demidar said:
Yoshi's Island's soundtrack is as charming as its aesthetics. Striped with cheery tunes to accompany the colourful world and light-hearted atmosphere, the soundtrack is easily digestible. Because of how simple it is, I can replay it in my mind with ease, which is a big part of the reason why it's on this list. Doesn't mean it's necessarily great (it's teetering on the edge of great and very good), but in terms of formative soundtracks in a babby's gooey brain who has not played as many games in that generation that he would have liked, Yoshi's Island stuck around. The game's full of cool tracks, but Underground in particular sticks out like a sore thumb. This track for some reason makes me feel pretty down. Maybe it's because of its lethargic notes and wheezing accompaniment and those crystalline chimes being such a stark contrast from the rest of the game's. Not even the Castle themes brings me down nearly as much (though that's more foreboding than anything). Underground was probably made with that in mind, but its effects feel more intense than it was intended to me. I have distant admiration of that piece of music.
12.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars – 50 points, 4 honorable mentions
Composers: Yoko Shimomura (+ some arrangements of Nobuo Uematsu/Koji Kondo’s works)
Beware the Forest’s Mushrooms
Battle Against Culex
Super Pipe House
Blasian Persuasion said:
Out of all the SNES music I listen to I think I listen to Kirby Super Star's the most, but I believe this Squaresoft Nintendo RPG has the best soundtrack out of this generation. Yoko Shimomura manages to make Mario music that sounds like it was designed by Koji Kondo himself. There is a lot of range with this soundtrack, more than most. You have the nostalgic tracks with "Super Pipe House", "Long, Long Ago", and "Heart Beating a Little Faster", but you also have new compositions that become new classics... "Sunken Ship" stands out as being eerie and fittingly atmospheric. The soundtrack instills joy, tension, tranquility, and sadness. It's a wonderful soundtrack that stands the test of time.
Eolz said:
Like the game itself, it basically established a lot of conventions for the future Mario RPGs, yet also has a really unique feel. Some compositions you wouldn't expect in any game, and some other with a really distinct Square RPG music, it is actually quite diverse, and thus, really more interesting than most other big RPGs from this gen. Stands pretty well on its own, it used well the SNES sound chip.
demidar said:
Given that it is an RPG and it treads settings and situations that aren't in platformers, it's interesting to see how the composers would stretch established tones into unfamiliar territory, to great effect. Most of the great tracks are found in the town themes, but there are a couple of gems lying around. Booster's Tower for example, and the generic boss theme is played far enough from each other to not get boring (unlike the battle theme of which there's only one of). And of course the forest maze theme that everyone knows of.
13.
Castlevania: Rondo of Blood – 50 points, 2 honorable mentions
Composers: Konami Kukeiha Club (akiropito, Jigokuguruma Nakamura, Sanoppi, Metal Yuhki, Michiru Yamane), Satoe Terashima, Jun Funahashi
Bloodlines
Slash
Den
Nocturnowl said:
…Then we’ve got Rondo of Blood which got to leverage the enhanced quality offered by CDs on the PC Engine to just go and be rad with wailing guitars, brass and what not because DISC POWER!
As such this one in particular feels very different to the SNES SCIV, while I find that game to have a much more thematically fitting soundtrack there’s something about the sheer audacity of Rondo of Blood that just works, well except that Samba ending theme for Maria (well actually still a lot better than “I am the Wind” eh Symphony of the Night?).
Morrigan Stark said:
The precursor to the game with the greatest OST ever (Symphony of the Night), it's no surprise that its OST would be so good, even if Yamane-san wasn't involved.
Eolz said:
The best rendition of Castlevenia most classic themes, and a soundtrack that like its game, is often forgotten in favor of its SNES cousin. Really nice melodies and instruments.
14.
Ys III: Wanderers From Ys – 47 points, 3 honorable mentions
Composer: Mieko Ishikawa
Note that this includes all eligible releases of Ys III in this generation
The Strongest Foe
Valestein Castle
The Boy’s Got Wings
SatelliteOfLove said:
Mieko Ishikawa's finest soundtrack. Powerful, complex, driving melodies that tempt one of your hands off the controller to throw up horns with alarming regularity. No matter what form you play it on, from the X68000's crisp clarion call tone, the PC-88's thudding sharpness, or the Oath remake's 90s EDM meets Power Metal Force, you are guarenteed two things: great tunes and a melted face.
Morrigan Stark said:
Ys has always been known for its kick-ass soundtracks and this one is no exception. A lot of those tracks were re-arranged in Oath of Felghana, but the originals are still pretty damn good, especially the PC Engine versions.
Zhao_Yun said:
Ys III probably features my favorite Nihon Falcom OST of all time and even though the new arrangements for The Oath in Felghana remake made it even better, the original Ys III soundtrack is still a masterpiece. It features some of my most beloved dungeon and boss battle themes such as Valestein Castle, A Searing Struggle and The Strongest Foe.
15.
Secret of Mana – 44 points, 5 honorable mentions
Composer: Hiroki Kikuta
Fear of the Heavens
Into the Thick of It
The Dark Star
Jucksalbe said:
From plenty of very sad and depressing tunes - which is in itself a great achievement what Kikuta managed to get out of the SNES sound chip here - to the rather cheerful ones that make you hum along.
SatelliteOfLove said:
I've spoke alot about people pushing soundchips to do things they weren't originally designed to be capable of, but Kikuta's breakout soundtrack SoM is probably the truest posterboy for this. Gotta love his "3D Sound" going on here; just texture all errwhrr, and just a little whalesong.
Siddiqui said:
Kikuta had made some music before but this was actually his first game OST. Kenji Ito - who did the previous Seiken Densetsu's soundtrack - was originally supposed to do this soundtrack as well. However, Square was making a ton of games and Ito was needed for SaGa. And so kind of like what would happen later with Mitsuda and Chrono Trigger sound effects designer Hiroki Kikuta was allowed in for this critical job and ended up making one of the best soundtracks of the generation out of nowhere.
16.
Mega Man X – 44 points, 4 honorable mentions
Composers: Capcom Sound Team Alph Lyla (Setsuo Yamamoto, Makoto Tomozawa, Yuki Iwai, Yuko Takehara)
Intro Stage
Spark Mandrill
Sigma Stage 1
MineralCraver420 said:
Often in discussions of retro video game music, the term "Mega Man X guitar" is brought up. The fact that this soundtrack is so defining for the SNES soundchip, and is so commonly aped even to this day, says a lot about its quality.
Jucksalbe said:
With this sequel to (or redesign of) the original Mega Man series came a severe change in style. The games lost a bit of their lightheartedness and eventually the series went the way of the Sonic franchise. Shame about that. But with it all came a change in musical style as well. The game's more serious, so the music had to become a bit more rock and maybe even metal to correspond. Now that introduction may have sounded a bit negative, but the result actually is a fantastic soundtrack.
Nocturnowl said:
One of the most consistently good soundtracks on the SNES, which is to say while dwarfed in number of tracks by other SNES big hitters it makes the most of what it’s got hitting out a catchy tune for each stage and even makes the password screen have a full minute plus long track. Mostly known for its distinct guitar sound which turns up a lot because Mega Man is back and X…TREME so we gotta really harness that nineties revolution.
Rutger said:
It's hard to think of a Mega Man game without some good music, I'll go with MMX here since it's the Mega Man game that stands out to me the most in this gen.
17.
Final Fantasy IV – 40 points, 6 honorable mentions
Composer: Nobuo Uematsu
The Red Wings
The Dreadful Fight
The Final Battle
Jucksalbe said:
Say what you want about this game, but at very least the soundtrack is excellent. Great main theme, great battle tracks (most importantly!) and some nice overworld themes.
Kirk said:
Going from the NES to this was world-changing. This turned Final Fantasy from an RPG into an epic. The music was a much bigger leap than the graphics.
Morrigan Stark said:
Uematsu in his prime, eclipsed only by FFVI. Having good battle themes and overworld themes is important to me in an RPG, and this one has some of the best tracks in this category. I also typically don't care for most generic peaceful town themes too much (I don't hate them, just find them a bit dull) but for some reason I always liked the melancholy-sounding town theme of FFIV. And in this one you hear a bunch of cool military beats done really well with the Red Wings/Baron themes. Just an amazingly consistent OST that needs a spot on this list.
18.
The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening – 39 points, 3 honorable mentions
Composers: Kazumi Totaka, Kozue Ishikawa, Minako Hamano
Koholint Island
Tal Tal Heights
Ballad of the Wind Fish
AniHawk said:
there's something about the fact that this is on the game boy, with all of its limitations, from the two (four... well, eight) buttons, to the green-tinted screen, that actually made this feel just right. the sparseness in the soundtrack, for being on such a primitive system, also contributed a lot to that dreamlike feeling.
Sneaky Gato said:
This was the first game I ever played and to this day I regularly replay it. The soundtrack was the first introduction to game music and I loved every bit of it. It had this adventurous sound that made me feel as if I really was going on an adventure.
19.
Terranigma – 39 points, 1 honorable mention
Composers: Masanori Hikichi, Miyoko Kobayashi
Crysta
The Underworld
A Hero’s Final Day
Earthpainting said:
This soundtrack is able to speak to me on an almost synesthetic level. It does a great job at capturing the grand scale of the game’s world, and what a tiny part you play in it. This plays wonderfully with its theme of the influence a single person can have on said world.
The game does not place a strong emphasis on character, and more on the world itself. The result is that most of the music represents places, rather than people or moments. Since the world is based on our real world, you can easily recognise the geographical music influences.
Jucksalbe said:
It's not all doom and gloom, of course. But I feel this is the strongest aspect of the OST and the parts where the music contributes the most to the overall feel of the game. A game's music most important job is to set the proper mood to a game or just a certain scene and I feel this is what Terranigma's soundtrack excels at.
woopWOOP said:
The pieces that go with the different revival scenes still send chills down my spine. The game also has some great music for its towns and dungeons. Great ending/credits music.
20.
Kirby Super Star – 36 points, 1 honorable mention
Composers: Jun Ishikawa, Dan Miyakawa
Green Greens
Gourmet Race
Marx’s Theme
Blasian Persuasion said:
Out of all the SNES music I listen to I think I listen to Kirby Super Star's the most, but I believe this Squaresoft Nintendo RPG has the best soundtrack out of this generation. Yoko Shimomura manages to make Mario music that sounds like it was designed by Koji Kondo himself. There is a lot of range with this soundtrack, more than most. You have the nostalgic tracks with "Super Pipe House", "Long, Long Ago", and "Heart Beating a Little Faster", but you also have new compositions that become new classics like my five favorites listed below. "Sunken Ship" stands out as being eerie and fittingly atmospheric. The soundtrack instills joy, tension, tranquility, and sadness. It's a wonderful soundtrack that stands the test of time.
demidar said:
Almost every single track seems composed solely to be catchy, and by god it works, though with so many catchy tracks only the cream of the crop catches on. I especially like how strong the beats are in almost every single track, for me who's likely incapable of appreciating musical nuance and prefers to be punched in the face (by sound waves). It's why I tend towards music with harsh and rapid oscillations in pitch (what I would personally call “crunchy”
. Following on that, most instances of held notes don't flow into each other, rather progressing in a staircase fashion contrary to what a lot of other composers were doing, or at least the ones I was exposed to. My favourite track of the though breaks that style, Meta Knight's Revenge. That track brought a sense of urgency nothing else does. It, as a whole, is more complicated than every other non-penultimate piece of music with more sections and a different tone with it.
Sneaky Gato said:
My introduction to the pink puff ball the bouncy music served to win me over immediately.
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Discography
Now that GAF has picked its winners, it's time to explore these composers' bodies of work! As you may have noticed, several of the winning soundtracks this year featured more than one composer. We decided to stick to highlighting one composer per winning soundtrack for the sake of brevity, so please know that we're not attempting to snub anyone that wasn’t included.
Yasunori Mitsuda
Nobuo Uematsu
David Wise
Michael Jackson
Yuzo Koshiro
Hirokazu Tanaka
Yoko Shimomura
Koji Kondo
Masato Nakamura
Mikio Saito
Falcom Sound Team jdk
Hiroki Kikuta
Yuki Iwai
Kazumi Totaka
Miyoko Kobayashi
Jun Ishikawa
