Lol. You bought Streets of Rage 3 for its in game music? Were you disappointed? I agree that the previous games had great soundtracks, but 3 was horrific.

In game music is crap, we need custom soundtracks for every game.

Ya know, I remember plenty of crappy 8/16-bit soundtracks. There will always be good and bad.

here some 4 to 16 bit video game music :

Only companys who really bear their fan base in mind, concentrate on making memorable custom soundtracks, although this is´n't always the case. The last great soundtrack I heard was definetly Mario Galaxy, but Rare(especially for donkey kong country and BK) also to me are one of the best companys at making great ass songs. I think that developers are drifting away from this aspect of gaming due to the "importance" of graphics. Back in the 16-bit day, the visuals just weren't there, so the music had to be catchy, and it really wasn't something secondary inside the game.

I wouldn't call the end at the N64/PSone era. Ocarina of time, Goldeneye, MGS and FF7 have some if not the most memorable tunes ever.