Ok, how about this one? Top 5 favorite videogame scores? This is a tough one for me, and I have to narrow it down to franchises in a few cases, since I don't want half my list to be 8-bit Mega Man titles. But my top 5 personal fav's are probably:

- Mega Man II, III, IV
- Shining Force I & II
- Uncharted 2
- Metal Gear Solid 3 Snake Eater
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3

I know there's a lot of 8 and 16 bit stuff in there, but those melodies were really catchy and well-thought-out.

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-Bear

I'm too young to have experienced 8-bit's heyday, unfortunately, so these are more recent games. There may be a degree of bias for some of these, too, in that I played the games forever and a day and would have learned to like the scores eventually.

With that said:
Mass Effect (as mentioned in the favourite composers thread)
Uncharted 2 (likewise)
Evil Genius (the menu themes and background animations were utterly brilliant)
X3: Reunion (and the rest of this series; perfect atmospheric, spacey music)
StarCraft (still got a soft spot for this after all these years. Terran Theme #1, especially the riff that kicks in at about 0:30 there, is permanently etched into my brain.)

Honourable mentions to Operation Flashpoint and the Elder Scrolls games.

Mass Effect

No One Lives Forever

Fear

Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear

Tron 2.0

I stopped playing after the 16bit era, but bought myself a Wii, just for Mario Kart. I don't play any "modern" games, so I can't say much about their music. Except SOCOM 4 and DARK VOID, of course. Haven't played it, but I have the CDs. I won't include them in my list, because I don't know the games itself.

So my Top5 would be
- The Legend of Zelda - A Link to the past (SNES)
- Parodius (SNES)
- F-Zero (SNES)
- Jurassic Park (SNES)
- Duck Tales (GB/NES)

I owned a Genesis, but somehow I can't remember any really good music on one of my games. If I had to choose a Genesis title, it would be Sonic 3.

Here are my choices with links to samples enclosed, enjoy :

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty by Derek Duke/Neal Acree/Glenn Stafford/Russel Brower et al.

In Particular:

Firstborn,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwTNebjCLDo

The Hive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vWLJJonyyA

and The Prophecy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBmhLUcyHh8

Neverwinter Nights Series by Jeremy Soule, David Fraser, Neil Goldberg (everything by Jeremy Soule is good, but "without surprises", he's like the Hans Zimmer of video games)

Main Theme for 1st Game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gb133m_AEnY

Main Theme 2nd Game:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGT7IY91jIE

Mask of the Betrayer Theme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlDA4y7f22A

Arcanum: of Steamworks and Magic Obscura by Ben Houge

Demise of the Zephyr:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb9HB3Hb1b0

Tulla, the City of Mages (theme):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtoLe3sU1zU

Baldur's Gate series by Michael Hoening

Waukeen's Promenade:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcHnqodZoJM

The Saughin City:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWZcrU6RuK4&feature=related

Irenicus' Laboratory:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4fxoXBTALk

Duck Tales had a fantastic score! And there was a lot of great stuff on the Genesis. I already mentioned the two SHINING FORCE titles, all the SONIC games had great music. Toe Joe and Earl were fun too.

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-Bear

Not much of a Gamer, but enjoy great music, including certain game scores.

Medal of Honor (Michael Giacchino)
Assassins Creed II (Jesper Kyd)
SOCOM 4 (Bear McCreary)

I owned a Genesis (or "Mega Drive" as it was called in Europe), but only a few Games. Sonic 3, Aladdin, Mortal Kombat as well as Virtua Racing and Star Wars Arcade for 32X, so I don't know many Sega music. I loved Sonic, but I preferred the SNES and my Game Boy.

Maybe someday I'll buy an Xbox or Playstation, but not anytime soon. I'm just not that much of a gamer. But I'm quite interested in the 3DS. Star Fox 3D sounds awesome.

I'll have to do two lists, separating old-school game music from modern composition. That being said...

Old School:
- Sonic the Hedgehog (the whole franchise; everything Yuji Naka did was awesome)
- Toejam & Earl (such memorable funky beats that I still hum at work)
- Dark Wizard (for Sega CD, it had impressive themes)
- Streets of Rage (at least the first two)
- I always preferred SEGA, but I must recognize Nintendo and give props for having the three most well-known game themes ever - Zelda, Tetris, and the ubiquitous Super Mario Bros. All got quality!

I never played the Shining Force series back in the day, but now that I've got the big Genesis collection for the PS3, I will have to see how good the music is!

Modern games:
- The Elder Scrolls (Another full-franchise pick; from Morrowind to Oblivion to the pending Skyrim... I love that theme and its variations!)
- Homeworld (It won awards for many reasons, and the music was high among them.)
- Starcraft II (Blizzard games have good music.)
- Hitman (Jesper Kyd made you feel badass and cool as you stealthed your way to a bloodbath.)
- The Orange Box (And that's how I cheat and include the Half-Life 2 score, TeamFortress 2, and Portal, all in one fell swoop! It's all good stuff, properly accomplishing fun and appropriate game score.)

I didn't include Dark Void, though it is a favorite. It can be assumed by my membership in this forum that I favor the works of our host! I'm looking forward to hearing stuff from SOCOM 4...

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Timing is everything.

I tend to have problems with video game scores, in fact there are very few that I actually like.

Sonic the Hedgehog - The boatload of composers they had
I'm limiting this one to the main 8-bit and 16-bit games from the Franchise, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic 2, Sonic 3 and Sonic and Knuckles. I love how the music is instantly memorable. I remember the first time I played Sonic and Knuckles and I had the main theme from that stuck in my head for weeks afterwards. Unfortunately with the later 3D games I just never got on with the pop-rock style that the scores took on (Check out the remix of the Green Hill Zone theme from Sonic Generations in the "modern" level. They ruined it.)

Dead Space - Jason Graves (Both games)
I normally prefer more thematic scores with identifiable musical ideas. The scores for both Dead Space games lack these but they do an incredible job of setting the mood. The score functions more as ambient sound than a full score. But, in the second game Graves uses a string quartet specifically for our main character, almost using the instrumentation as a theme.

Assassin's Creed - Jesper Kyd (All 3 games so far, and presumably the new one too)
This one falls into the category of "more thematic scores" and while it's not so much character themes each main setting (The Holy Land and Italy) has had a unique variation on the overall sound of the games and each location within the game has its own melodic ideas.

Uncharted - Greg Edmonson (Both games so far and presumably the new one)
When I first started playing Uncharted I immediately fell in love with the music. I love the fusion of typical orchestral instruments and the ethnic soloists and percussion. And I was about 4 levels into the game when I suddenly sat up and realised who the composer was. I was like "This sounds like Firefly... wait... that's definitely Greg Edmonson". I love that it has recognisable melodies and that the music doesn't feel out of place.