I found this to be a nicely varied list.  (Still need to listen to a lot of the selections though.)  Feel free to listen or comment as you like.

http://www.gamesradar.com/f/23-amazing- … 5610828021

Funny that I "don't remember" the first two, considering I've written about both of them on Originalsoundversion.com in the past few months. Anyone who doesn't remember Atelier Iris' town theme needs to be shot. Same goes for anyone who forgot Secret of Mana had awesome music.

Among the items I actually HAD forgotten about, Gremlins II and Blast Corps make the top of the list. Classic music there, and I hadn't heard either of them in over a decade.

Ramza

Gremlins 2 was one I actually had never forgotten; I still give the NSF spin, as does a fittingly quirky cover album by XOC. Secret of Mana and Mystic Quest are also unforgettable to me, but I doubt I'm the only one there. The rest, I must admit, I'm not too familiar with; I was taken aback with how catchy Silver Surfer was, of all titles.

That would be me.

I got some sick pleasure out of reading their worst game music article because Kindgom Hearts kind of deserves it.

^

*waits for someone to defend Marvel vs Capcom 2*

I'm pretty sure the Atelier piece presented is the only song I've heard from it, so...
I don't agree with everything there, but seeing both Plok and Gremlins 2 be recognized makes me happy.
As far as Traverse Town being one of the worst songs ever, I can see why they say so, but it's on the short list of songs I really like from that one. KH2's soundtrack was MILES better overall.

Besides, if I were going to single out anything as having the worst music ever, I'd start with G-Darius. Any redeemable note was probably caused by the composer's cat splashing some ink on the sheet music.

Most choices are pretty good, but the list seems pretty mainstream to me. Shenmue, Shadow of the Beast, Atelier Iris, Ghouls n Ghosts, Jet Set Radio, Earthworm Jim, BioShock, and Secret of Mana are all really famous, most of them even outside the VGM community. I'd be more interested in what someone from STC would put together.

The other article is just stupid. I'm not the biggest fan of Kingdom Hearts and the Sega racing soundtracks, but I like them and found them all pretty creative. I wouldn't mind if the article wasn't presented as fact. My list would be very different.

I agree with Chris, a lot of the titles on this list I would not call "unsung and underrated" ESPECIALLY not Secret of Mana, which has loads of fans all over the place.

And I also agree with SonicPanda: PLOK and Gremlins 2 are excellent choices. PLOK should be on anyone's playlist, and Gremlins 2 is the only non-Capcom NES music I have on my iPod. Great stuff.

And as a final thought I leave you with: Jet Force Gemini, motherf*ckers.

That worst one HAS to be a joke. I mean, Outrun and Tetris?

I'd slap my own mother for them to remake that game.

I was going to rant about that dumb article as well, but I think they're not talking about the soundtracks in their entirety, just one individual track.

@Idolores: The mere thought of hearing JFG arranged for a full orchestra makes me all kinds of giddy!

That game never got enough love. I'ma go cap some tribals to let off some steam.

I have a hard time understanding the inclusion of Doom 64, since there was very little music. And it was hardly worth remembering. I was happy to see Blast Corps, though. That did have music. Back in 1997 I had two things that I no longer have and didn't have one thing that I have now. A cassette player in my car and a regular stereo system with a cassette player/recorder and an email address. The world was a different place, but I was listening to game music and playing it in my car, via tapes. And no one knew, since I didn't know about message boards nor was I aware of the communication potential using the internet. There was no one to tell, not a soul. As far as I knew, I was the only human in existence that made recordings of game music.

Yo, I used to as well. I'd wait for days my mom wasn't home, and then I'd crank my TV up and use my tape recorder to make tapes for myself. Megaman series, Double Dragon, Battletoads. This was back in the NES days. I wanted to do the same for Sonic 1 and 2 on the Genesis, but could never get my buddy to lend it to me for that purpose, and his mom was always home, so we could never get the volume up to my preferred level without getting yelled at.

I stopped doing it around the time the SNES hit it big, though I always wished for a Megaman X soundtrack something fierce.

I wonder why some people cotton on to VGM more than others? I know a guy who's been gaming just as long as I have, knows just as much about obscure titles and consoles as I do, and in general is into it as much as I am, but he couldn't give a flying f--- about the music like I do. I wonder why?

Assuming that nostalgia is not a factor and emotion is, then there is an explanation. Not everyone responds emotionally to music. I read a book about music - Musicophilia, by Oliver Sacks. There are some people that can't listen to music at all, and others that can't get songs out of their heads - it literally ruins their lives.
Music is known to provoke an emotional response in many people. Apparently, your brain releases serotonin when you hear game music, but your friend's brain does not. So this presents a conundrum - does opinion exist? Since response to music is governed by automatic processes, it is more appropriate to say that certain music does not agree with you. Much like people say certain foods do not agree with them.

  If you decide that nostalgia is a factor, then the music is not what releases serotonin, but the memory of distant days.

Man, I TOTALLY recognize that feeling!
And in my immediate environment, I WAS the only one doing stuff like that, and indeed, it wasn't until I went on the Internet, or more specifically, Soundtrack Central, that I found out lots of other people used to do this as well.

I think Jet Force Gemini was the last game I recorded on tape.
Still took me several years before I could amass a half-way decent/complete set of mp3s too.

Not enough love for this game in the world.

Cool. I ordered that book some days ago. Does it offer many good biological explanation for music appreciation besides that? I have high hopes for that title.

As it isn't much accepted socially to listen to game music, I don't find it weird that only weirdos like us listen to it. Come on, we collect and listen to music only because it's from games. It's kinda sick! I was at a game store today, and asked if they had Shadow Hearts 2. The guy said they didn't have it - he even claimed that it wasn't released in Europe. I don't think that guy would've thought highly of me if I said that I wanted to buy the game because I've listened through the soundtrack many times and seriously think it's some of the best music ever.

Dang it, I should have said it. He acted like a fool anyway, insisted that it wasn't released here. Somehow, young men who work at game / electronic stores act like they know everything.

Not just clerks, but the people who shop there. I had some guy try to start a fight with me because I said I thought Megaman Legends was underrated. He was verbally aggressive and kept telling me that the gameplay "did not work". I think he wanted to punch me.

And bro, you get a wireless high five from me. Shadow Hearts series has some incredible beats!

If you literally asked him for "Shadow Hearts 2" that could explain something, cos it's called Shadow Hearts Covenant in the West. He might not have known that.

I imagine it must be really hard to write a list like this since it varies so much by perspective. I get the feeling that they're talking about game fans that exalt composers like Uematsu and Kondo but don't really know squat beyond that. They could've done a better job defining what perspective they're writing from because, yeah, around here stuff like Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy Mystic Quest seems very mainstream. Not that I'll ever complain about Kikuta and Sasai getting more attention, though. :) Nice to see them bringing to light some of the more obscure music from Sunsoft and Rare (Sunsoft has more games than Blaster Master, and Dave Wise did more than just Donkey Kong Country). Great call on Shadow of the Beast as well, and I bet most people haven't heard of Tim Follin at all.

Poo on them for picking F-Zero GX over F-Zero X, though.

That book (roughly 40 books ago) probably is not where I got the serotonin information - it's a great source of weird stories, but not so much for biological or neurological explanations (that's why I bought a neuroscience textbook). More than 5 years ago I had read that music can increase endorphin activity, and within the past year I read it can increase serotonin activity. It's simply my guess that if music does not favorably alter brain chemistry, then one will not like it. Which throws opinion out the window.

Those guys (it's never girls) always irritated me. If they weren't being super knowledgeable, then it was some horrible joke. This happened to me about 8 years ago. I walked into a Funcoland and wanted to buy the Elevator Action NES cartridge. The manager looked at me and said, so everyone could hear, "I'd like some elevator action!".

  Another time at Funcoland, I bought a PS2 on the release day for my neighbor, since he didn't have cash. The guy behind the counter wouldn't let me have it after I paid. He was trying to pretend it was his, and that I hadn't paid. I had to just grab it from the bastard.

Damn if the list doesn't start off with one of the best songs from the Atelier Iris series!  What a great town theme that was!

Based on what I heard from each in Brawl, it's a choice I agree with. Shotgun Kiss alone is an amazing piece of work, and the F-ZX stuff on display was cheesy enough to compel me to pull it from rotation.