Poll of the Day > Confirm or Deny, Donkey Kong Country 2 has the GOAT video game ost

(+) Yeah! (+)

I think it just might be the best video game soundtrack of all time

It's really really good. It's one of my favorites

It's certainly a god tier soundtrack, but it's no Xenoblade. At that tier, though, specific rankings don't really matter. It's all just good and well worth listening to depending on your moment-to-moment tastes.

I love the DKC2 soundtrack, its also probably my favorite game in the series, but CT is probably my favorite SNES soundtrack

adjl posted...

It's certainly a god tier soundtrack, but it's no Xenoblade. At that tier, though, specific rankings don't really matter. It's all just good and well worth listening to depending on your moment-to-moment tastes.

i just put 80 hours Xenoblade Chronicles 2 over the last couple months and holy shit its some of the best music Ive ever heard from a game. Having blue tooth headphones with the switch has been amazing

It's one of my all time faves for sure. I remember I would just sit and listen to bramble blast for a while.

Bur the goat is probably halo 2

It's probably my favorite SNES soundtrack along with Chrono Trigger. Overall I think FF7 Remake is still on top for me but DKC2 is definitely up there

FrozenBananas posted...

i just put 80 hours Xenoblade Chronicles 2 over the last couple months and holy s*** its some of the best music Ive ever heard from a game. Having blue tooth headphones with the switch has been amazing

And I'd rank 2's soundtrack behind 1's and 3's, though that's obviously pretty subjective. X is also fantastic, but has a very different vibe (it's all a different composer) and generally lower lows.

Halo 2 > Danky Kang 2: Diddy's Useless Side Quest

One of the few issues I had with the game is that I wish the overworld had more musical themes, like maybe one for each area. It got old hearing the same track almost everywhere. But the game has no shortage of ear candy everywhere else.

deny. it has like 2 top end songs in a giant sea of games with entirely top end soundtracks

Sonic R

I like the katamari ones

it's good but nowhere near the top

like, every single touhou game beats it, even the old ones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lmy6rcn_v3A

NemesisOgreKing posted...

Halo 2 > Danky Kang 2: Diddy's Useless Side Quest

https://youtu.be/U3fG4b6J8rM?si=2IiyAJhOrHP2HAhw

Nah. It's a good soundtrack, but it's not even the best in its own trilogy.

The best soundtrack would probably be one of:

Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy XIII
Halo 3: ODST
Kingdom Hearts II
Oblivion
Yu-Gi-Oh! The Duelists of the Roses

It's as beautiful as the gameplay.

DKC2 is among my top 3 video games of all time.

NieR Replicant and Automata is number 1 for me

Deny.

Ita good, until I heard the Katana Zero OST

It's a great soundtrack but I'd say the GOAT is either Etrian Odyssey V or Xenoblade 1.

adjl posted...

At that tier, though, specific rankings don't really matter. It's all just good and well worth listening to depending on your moment-to-moment tastes.

That's an excellent observation.

It was top tier for the era it was released. It doesn't really compare to some of the full blown orchestral Hollywood blockbuster quality soundtracks we've gotten in the past 20ish years though.

But there's definitely something to be said for making a memorable and catchy soundtrack with limited resources. Which is why I think a lot of the pre 2000s Zelda soundtracks are among the best game music ever written.

very very very good but maybe not quite the literal single best

meta question

When someone asks about the soundtrack of a game/movie/etc, do you consider only the topmost songs OR do you consider the entire package as a whole?

Lokarin posted...

When someone asks about the soundtrack of a game/movie/etc, do you consider only the topmost songs OR do you consider the entire package as a whole?

In my case, the latter.

Lokarin posted...

meta question

When someone asks about the soundtrack of a game/movie/etc, do you consider only the topmost songs OR do you consider the entire package as a whole?

Somewhere in the middle. Even the best soundtracks usually have quite a few tracks that are just kind of there, which is arguably necessary to make the best tracks stand out more and don't necessarily drag down the whole experience by existing. Just having one or two amazing tracks isn't enough to make a soundtrack great, though. There should be lots of high-quality music in there, otherwise it's just a couple of good songs and not a good soundtrack.

Lokarin posted...

meta question

When someone asks about the soundtrack of a game/movie/etc, do you consider only the topmost songs OR do you consider the entire package as a whole?

The latter. A few good songs does not a masterful soundtrack make; in order for the soundtrack itself to be considered good, most if not all of the songs have to be good as well.

Particularly for movies, I will also usually clarify if we're talking about the soundtrack as a standalone product or as it appears in the movie itself, as that sometimes makes a difference - for instance, the soundtrack to Star Wars Episode II is absolutely fantastic as a standalone work and one of the strongest soundtracks for Star Wars as a whole... but the sound editing of the movie itself is atrocious (as are most things related to Attack of the Clones) and really works hard to minimize the effects of a John Williams masterpiece.