Star Control 2, the beats where hot back then.

Chrono Trigger
Mega Man 3
Final Fantasy 4
Mega Man 2
Castlevainia 2

Everything else.

Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
Metroid Prime
Paper Mario
Super Mario 64

Total Annihilation - is perhaps the John Williams-ish arrangement of a great war soundtrack for any game. This is honestly a masterful sounding arrangement with an entire CD available. The orchestration is wonderful, and cutting edge for the time.

Baldur's Gate 2 - Each track usually has 3-5 slice points, of which the music can change based on the mood, setting or events that are taking place, creating a very new sort of musical purpose, one which evolves more than a strict score does. The orchestra is also, very wonderful and very film-like.

Chrono Cross - From the same composer as Chrono Trigger, this is one of the sharpest sounding soundtracks I can find, very clean cut, with much, much variety. There are so many songs and tracks I'm not even sure it all fits on one CD, I believe it's two.

Starcraft - The human themes are quite contemporary, old school, and very well composed, specifically the progressive effects. Starcraft is in my opinion a predecessor to a Halo-type soundtrack, one that uses now-common techniques for aliens and space war-fare. While Starcraft may not have been the first, the employment of an electric guitar on a mega-game does not go to Halo2, but Starcraft - correct me if I'm wrong. It's fun to listen to.

Donkey Kong Country 2 - Digital synthesis has never been so bouncy, moody and wonderful and appropriate. With each track supporting the distinct level, it's hard to find a platformer-type game that has so much variety in the quality of music. The underworld music is intense, ice music so cold, "bramble blast" incredibly well arranged.... all around an under-rated score, let alone under-rated game.

Rise of Nations - With so many nations, ages, and war experiences, the music changes based on what is happening even in an RTS, which can be rare to occur. The soloistic passages of a flute, the climatic industrial age war songs, the classical age percussion themes, a great variety of occurances.... your 'getting pummeled' theme as you lose your battles but still playing. All very pleasant, and with another full CD or more, a lot of variety to keep you going.

Castlevania 3 - Back when video game orchestras or synth-orchestras did not really exist on games, this is one of the best non-acoustical works I can remember. Every single level has its own track, which totals (something around) 20 levels, with boss songs, interlude songs, etc. Back in that day, on the NES, this was great music.

Halo 2 - Actually has a great soundtrack. The moving parts, the movie sequences, the upbeat percussion, all high quality productions, especially using synths so well - often times synths that are used are so blatantly poorly done (as if not to admit they tried), there is a wonderful blend of mediums occuring within the Halo 2 soundtrack. It's also very original, even if the styles used are not. It's 'smart' writing.

Heroes of Might and Magic 3 - If you have not heard this game, of the Windows 95 era, you must. The synths used are so amazing for the time it's hard to tell if the instruments are real or fake! Even I can not decide even today. The orchestration that occurs in the town themes are amazingly well done, and with 8-9 specific races and groups of races, the effect is wonderful. The ringing death bells of the Necropolis, the mysterious and moving music of the... swamp town?... the great 3-4 battle tracks.. This was one of the defining, standard-setting scores we're used to in a strategy game.





- I don't hate "the MIDI". It's often used still with music production crews/people, even if only as a means to transmit data nicely. Software synths work wonders for MIDI now, even the hardware is becoming less and less meaningful. Giant computers that, for instance Hans Zimmer still uses, have the power to turn basic MIDI files in to amazing sounding recordings, in terms of realism.

This example work was written in a notation program, saved as a MIDI file, then converted in a software synth program: http://www.cwu.edu/~lords/battledemo1Aclip.wma still use MIDI in some way.

Streets of Rage 2

Oh, and Jet Set Radio also had a pretty rad soundtrack.

1. Final Fantasy VI Listen to it every day

2. The Legend of Zelda Ocerina of Time genius

3. Starcraft very very good

4. Super Mario series don't rember wich one is best

5. Donkey Kong Country/Kirby

Chrono Trigger

halo 3

Anything Final Fantasy. Period.

Final Fantasy in general.

If I had to be more specific I'd say VII or X.