Music to my Ears (Castle Levels!)

From Shantae: Half Genie Hero, the music for the final section of the game's desert level, Tassel Town. More on the pharaohs side of Jimbob's scale.

I thought you liked them ethnic instruments Jimbob? For me, it depends on the piece. It's as easy to write a warbly load of sitaresque nonsense that goes nowhere as it is to write a warbly load of orchestral and choral nonsense that goes nowhere for a boss. But you also get some brilliant pieces using the same instruments (see BotW).

Lightning Returns presumably suffers from DKCTF syndrome. The Dead Dunes piece is bloody magical, though, and Treasures Within sounds similar. (Fang's Theme, almost painful for me to listen to.)

That Shantae track, though?



Pirate's Curse had the odd good one too. And the odd not so good one.

DoPo: this definitely counts.

Apologies - life got in the way of jumping on the forum but I'm here to keep this ball rolling!

This one's inspired by ARMS.

What's the best main menu/title theme?



Let's start us off with the aforementioned ARMS track. Brimming with energy - it always get me pumped for throwing some long-range punches and laying the smackdown. Altogether now... OH OH OHHH OHHH, OHH OHH OHH OHHHH, OHHHH OHHHHHHHHH OHHHHHHH....



Metroid Prime and its sequels had bangers for menu themes. Full of sci-fi synths, foreboding chanting and angelic choirs. The first in the series is damn fine, and even got the Brawl remix treatment. Prime 2 is a bit creepier with Daft Punk turning up to mutter at Samus along to make a much broodier main menu theme. My personal favourite is Corruption. It has this air of finality to it that the others don't - rightly so, being the supposed end to the Prime trilogy. Of course, that's not the case anymore!



FFXV's main menu theme just makes me sad. I've spoken about this game's ending elsewhere on the forum, but this theme reminds of that ending. It's also fucking fantastic, mind.

Over to you lot!

Ooh, this is an interesting one! I'll have to have a little think. Good picks, Jay: looking forward to listening to some Metroidy goodness especially.

From my experience, most FF menu music sounds like this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8bvb1ULEG3M.

It sounds like nothing initially; cheap little music, ruddy Square Enix, etc. Then 41 seconds later, it kicks in. It surprises me how little was necessary to turn the tune from 'not much' to 'beautiful, hopeful and yearning'.

Yeah, I quite like it. I'm now at the stage where, when I start listening to it, I'm just waiting for that moment, with ever-increasing tension building to happy release.

JayMoyles wrote:

Metroid Prime and its sequels had bangers for menu themes. Full of sci-fi synths, foreboding chanting and angelic choirs. The first in the series is damn fine, and even got the Brawl remix treatment. Prime 2 is a bit creepier with Daft Punk turning up to mutter at Samus along to make a much broodier main menu theme. My personal favourite is Corruption. It has this air of finality to it that the others don't - rightly so, being the supposed end to the Prime trilogy. Of course, that's not the case anymore!

It seems like you always pick one I instantly think of so I end up stuck trying to think of others I can pick, even though Echoes is my favorite Prime game the title theme for the first is far and away the best for me.

Pokémon

The Pokémon title screen music is an all-time classic as far as I'm concerned. I love the various versions over the years, and the time it turns up in other themes or on the animé, but the original will always be the best.

Super Mario 64

This one is a chill masterpiece. I was reminded it existed when watching Casino Royale on TV gave mean overwhelming nostalgia for the Mario 64 DS/ New Super Mario Bros. card minigames with Luigi as dealer.

Dark Souls
Resident Evil 4
I've mentioned these two before. They both do a great job of being low key while also packed with menace and chill. Great stuff.

Twilight Princess

Is it just nostalgia for that fateful Winter when I fired up my Wii and enjoyed the most glorious new console experience possibly of all time? Or is this just an epic title theme that does a perfect job of building towards the hype without blowing its load?

JayMoyles wrote:

Let's start us off with the aforementioned ARMS track. Brimming with energy - it always get me pumped for throwing some long-range punches and laying the smackdown. Altogether now... OH OH OHHH OHHH, OHH OHH OHH OHHHH, OHHHH OHHHHHHHHH OHHHHHHH....

GOD YES.
Before it was even released, this all time banger was permanently lodged in my head. HYPE HYPE HYPE. Glad to see the other forumite out-and-out ARMS faithful do his bit.

Quote :

Metroid Prime and its sequels had bangers for menu themes. Full of sci-fi synths, foreboding chanting and angelic choirs. The first in the series is damn fine,

All three of the Primes have phenomenal music, not least of all their title and menu tracks. I still get Metroid Prime 2's title stuck in my head to this day. Creepy and glorious.

Quote :

FFXV's main menu theme just makes me sad.

S'alright, yeah.

I win this week

ZeroJones wrote:

From my experience, most FF menu music sounds like this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8bvb1ULEG3M.

I really like the main menu themes for Final Fantasy. They usually put a good spin on the original's theme. I can't remember if FFXV has its own version... I don't think they did actually, considering Uematsu has had nothing to do with the series for a while now.

The_Jaster wrote:

[
It seems like you always pick one I instantly think of so I end up stuck trying to think of others I can pick, even though Echoes is my favorite Prime game the title theme for the first is far and away the best for me.

Sorry! I guess that shows you've got good taste in tracks, Jas.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Pokémon

The Pokémon title screen music is an all-time classic as far as I'm concerned. I love the various versions over the years, and the time it turns up in other themes or on the animé, but the original will always be the best.

Thumbs up to this. I think that, much like Final Fantasy, the later games in the Pokémon series build off this, right?

Drunkalilly wrote:

Super Mario 64

This one is a chill masterpiece. I was reminded it existed when watching Casino Royale on TV gave mean overwhelming nostalgia for the Mario 64 DS/ New Super Mario Bros. card minigames with Luigi as dealer.

Nice pick. Chilled and tranquil.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Dark Souls
Resident Evil 4
I've mentioned these two before. They both do a great job of being low key while also packed with menace and chill. Great stuff.

I'm slapping myself for not remembering that Dark Souls track. Easily one of my favourite title themes ever.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Twilight Princess

Is it just nostalgia for that fateful Winter when I fired up my Wii and enjoyed the most glorious new console experience possibly of all time? Or is this just an epic title theme that does a perfect job of building towards the hype without blowing its load?

I was waiting for Zelda to turn up! Whilst Twilight Princess wouldn't have been my pick, I still really like it - that wolf howl into Midna's theme!

I'd have gone for Wind Waker, natch.

masofdas wrote:

I win this week

That's a banger, but I associate that more with the last level of Halo 3 than as a title theme.

I thought about including the Halo music but it's reworked all over the place: in the games, title scenes, cutscenes, films and cartoons - that nailing it down to the menus didn't seem fair. An all time banger though, and no mistake. I always enjoyed vids like this in a kitchen, this in a church and this in a stairwell. I understand that instinct to start singing as soon as you notice the room you're in has reverb!

I think of it as the menu theme / the theme song of Halo as it was the very first thing I heard when starting Halo in 2002 then anything else.

Bit naughty, I've missed out comments on the ones I "don't get"

JayMoyles wrote:

Metroid Prime and its sequels had bangers for menu themes. Full of sci-fi synths, foreboding chanting and angelic choirs. The first in the series is damn fine, and even got the Brawl remix treatment. Prime 2 is a bit creepier with Daft Punk turning up to mutter at Samus along to make a much broodier main menu theme. My personal favourite is Corruption. It has this air of finality to it that the others don't - rightly so, being the supposed end to the Prime trilogy. Of course, that's not the case anymore!

Metroid Prime was the first thing I thought of! Yeah. I'm not a Prime fan, but I did love the music on starting it up.

JayMoyles wrote:

FFXV's main menu theme just makes me sad. I've spoken about this game's ending elsewhere on the forum, but this theme reminds of that ending. It's also fucking fantastic, mind.

Oh... From my limited knowledge, XV really does behave differently from the other FF games...

ZeroJones wrote:

From my experience, most FF menu music sounds like this: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8bvb1ULEG3M

Like this! This is definitely an FF theme. Although why the harp is going round a roundabout I dunno!

Drunkalilly wrote:

Pokémon
The Pokémon title screen music is an all-time classic as far as I'm concerned. I love the various versions over the years, and the time it turns up in other themes or on the animé, but the original will always be the best.

Very true! I remember this coming from my sister's GBA.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Super Mario 64This one is a chill masterpiece. I was reminded it existed when watching Casino Royale on TV gave mean overwhelming nostalgia for the Mario 64 DS/ New Super Mario Bros. card minigames with Luigi as dealer.

Oh, I didn't think about "menu after title screen" music - good call! I remember hearing this at my aunt's house, and not knowing that gaming was going to change forever.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Dark Souls

This is alright this. As I played DSIII most recently, it felt like the theme music on the third game was "trying too hard". Also it sounds like they're singing "wiener" a lot.

Drunkalilly wrote:

Resident Evil 4

Oh, does this count? It's in the game itself! Well, see below

Drunkalilly wrote:

Twilight Princess

Once again I can think of nothing else than "I agree".

masofdas wrote:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuSu6q7fuq4I win this week

Drunkalilly wrote:

I understand that instinct to start singing as soon as you notice the room you're in has reverb!

You're only allowed to do this if you sing the Temple of Time theme first.


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Sad and Spoopy
Firstly, the menu inside a title screen thought leads me to Starfox 64 / Lylat Wars - a bit too epic this *sobs*

If Drunka's allowed the RE4 save screen, then I pick the save room music from RE1. The Gamecube / HD version is the one I prefer, but the original version is more David Wise-esque.


Wacky
Hey I added Earthbound again - two songs there: the first one on that link is (once again) a deliberately stunted remix of a theme from the original game; the second one a sample-heavy weird thing. In both regards, the game was ahead of its time. Look, I like it, alright?!

Banjo-Kazooie - I deliberately linked to a video rather than just the audio, for clues as to why this is such a fond memory.

Day of the Tentacle - It's Danny Elfman-alike time. This game is going to be WACKY




Epic
The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past. The "attract mode" part of this is one of the few things I regularly play on the keyboard.

Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion or Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim - which is better? A lot of people on the internet loved singing along with the latter...

Fallout 4 - You get the idea




Actually this is the best opening theme of all time




And a dishonourable mention to Microprose Grand Prix - who couldn't afford the license fee for The Chain.

Jimbob wrote:

Sad and Spoopy

Both great pieces. Love all the Starfox music, and this isn't an exception.
The other save music is a great piece, and no mistake. I've never completed any of the Resis before 4, I really do need to go back and play them again.

Quote :

Banjo-Kazooie - I deliberately linked to a video rather than just the audio, for clues as to why this is such a fond memory.

This was discussed on the most recent Sound of Play, and you're right. The video really brings the music to live. It was a great showcase for the N64 back in the day.
I listened to this and Scruff was on the bed next to me. It's the only one of these tracks he reacted to so that must say something to its quality.

Quote :

The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the Past.

It's the twinkly opening that does it for me. After that, all very SNES.

Quote :

Elder Scrolls IV - Oblivion or Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim - which is better? A lot of people on the internet loved singing along with the latter...

I enjoyed the Skyrim theme until I realised what it was.

A mention of Somnus and no mention of Xenoblade's "Main Theme" by the same composer by anybody?  I are disappoint.

But not nearly as disappointed as Final Fantasy XV barely even using Somnus.  Seriously they have Shimomura create this piece of musical perfection and heartbreak and they barely even use it or the motif?  The theme would have been perfect in several scenes where I'm up to, and yet they either play nothing or something far weaker during them.  Almost as insane as when Xenoblade barely used Unfinished Battle and instead kept spamming "Confrontation with the Enemy" to the point the theme lost all its impact.  


Anyhow we all know this is unarguably the best title theme of all time.  No need to thank me for yet again winning!

Athrun has reminded me of this

Athrun888 wrote:

Xenoblade's "Main Theme" by the same composer by anybody?

This is nice. Bit sad though. I want to be inspired to go on an adventure with triumphantness really (I haven't started XC yet). But it's still a good'n, and still makes me want to get it played.

Athrun888 wrote:

this piece of musical perfection and heartbreak

This is nice as welOh. Lyrics.

Athrun888 wrote:

Anyhow we all know this is unarguably the best title theme of all time.  No need to thank me for yet again winning!

Aha - well played sir

Now now there's nothing wrong with a piece of music that uses vocals correctly, like Somnus. Beautiful haunting latin backed by an intoxicating melody that slowly builds to a crescendo in the final verse over two and a half glorious minutes.

Athrun888 wrote:

Now now there's nothing wrong with a piece of music that uses vocals correctly

Odyssey, ya see
Odyssey, ya see
Odyssey, ya see

BotW, natch.

Nah, you've picked some grand ones there gents.  ARMS, SM64, SF64, TP, FF (basically all of them), Metroid Prime, Pirates of the Caribbean...  I've not got time to do my usual enormous thing, so here's just a couple:

• XCX's haunting-to-epic MonoX;
  
• Pokémon Stadium 2's inordinately cheery menu theme;
  
• Wind Waker's title theme THAT IS KIND OF ALSO THE CREDITS, BE AWARE IF YOU LISTEN FOR TOO LONG;
  
• Finally, this thing.  Band!  Brass!  Guitar!  Best Mario Kart.

There you go, a break from the crushingly huge Balla contributions.  Enjoy it while it lasts!

A lot of great shouts in here.

Mas' Crazy Taxi mention was more underwhelming than I remember, but that's because it's kinda lifeless without the ignition sound effects going through the menus.

Metroid Prime is an absolute corker. Super Mario 64 reminds me when I spent an evening listening to remixes of the music, such as this gem.

Xenoblade Chronicles is amazing, it reminds me of Studio Ghibli films.

This is probably the one I've heard the most over the years, and it's cheesy as hell.

As far as a game that's more memorable for its theme than the actual gameplay, Billy Hatcher remains a firm favourite.

Also, one I adored growing up was DIG-DIG-DIGGITY-DIG-DIGGITY-DOG.

BUT, nothing comes close to the greatest.

gjones wrote:

Also, one I adored growing up was DIG-DIG-DIGGITY-DIG-DIGGITY-DOG.

BREAK IT! What a classic!

Iconic.

Another excuse to post this bad boy.