PixlBit

*I've saved all my Blogs from 1up now, i'm not willing to lose all that work so till I decide to create something new (like that Pandora's Tower Non-review  I've been putting off ). So, just incase you missed it...I'm getting my game music Blogs out of the way*

Check out my Top Ten Gane Intro Music

You’ve Killed the last boss, the game is over and you feel like you’ve accomplished something so what better way to address you sense of triumphantness with the right music.

The end credits sequence aka Outro and Staff Roll has been a mainstay of visual media since the early developments of films and has made it’s way into games, giving credit to all who worked on your entertainment no matter how weird the name (and in most cases must otherwise you get sued). This can and has been the most boring part of watching any ending but Games and later films use it as a audio and visual reward/treat to all that stick through it but it also gives you a breather and a moment to reflect on what you have done.

So instead of the sequence we talk about the music, let’s get started…

 

P.S. I’ve got a bit of cheek talking about the end of games when I barely ever get to a games ending at all, so you can imagine how hard this is for me. Ha!

 

10. God Hand

I struggled putting this song on the list because of it’s utter goofiness but the more I think about it the more I think this song succeed, it along with the Dancing montage stops the end of the game from feeling boring. Apart from the music sounding like it’s from some 80s anime but the lyrics are so much fun, a song you want to sing along too. This game is notoriously hard even adverts didn’t shy away from this fact but getting to this ending just feels like a reward, “Pimp Hand” would have put this higher but goofiness is humour is all this song has.

 

9. Resident Evil 2 OST - Credit Line of Whole Staff ~ Ending Theme (2nd scenario)

Man what seemingly out of place song in a series about the Zombie apocalypse but gawd “DAT BASS!” this sounds freaking wicked. In one way it’s ironic because the series in the 90s did feel very 80 B Movie and it sounds a little appropriate here. Could you see escape from New York with this song? I can. What a satisfying way to end a game.

 

8. Anarchy Reigns – This is Madness

It’s rare enough to get House music in a game Hip-Hop, real Hip-Hop is much easier but this is here mainly because of the lyrics, The mix is good enough on it’s own but the deep lyrics brings it to life in one way this breaches the *Original music only*  rule because it uses samples but dammit Hip-Hop arts have been defending sampling as an original musical tool for years and so will I dammit! Luckily this particular song was for the game in the first place, that helps too.

Anyway, haven’t listened to good Hip-Hop in a game since MadWorld, so it’s here partly by virtue of being a different genre.

 

7. Tekken Tag Tournament

This is a surprisingly nice song for Tekken, the series always had good music but nothing as moving as this. I sound like something from the Ministry of Sound or something. Overall it’s well arranged and nice way to end a game, very soothing and modern. The strings feel like something I’d hear out of an amphitheatre and with out the beat it would still be nice but I don’t think it would stand out as much.

 

6. Sonic CD - Sonic Boom Outro

Technically I’m cheating with this entry but this is my list, so there! Anyway, I put this here because it’s a more ballad. Plus the guitar so solo at the end is choice plus the shift in tone and tempo etc. makes it sound different enough to compliment the intro and the end of the game.

 

5. Portal - Still Alive

Synthesized voice of the computer you killed singing to you, it’s not as back handed as the Portal 2 song which may be the reason I chose this one instead. It has covert menace hidden under the upbeat vocals and melody and to get to this point feels like you’ve been rewarded.

 

4. Guilty Gear XX - Boom Town Blues

Blues with a heavy metal twist. That first guitar solo blew my mind, I was always a Guilty Gear nut but XX had their best music (and later re-releases). It’s a very classic sounding Blues riff through and through and is a great way to end a game and like many on this list is very satisfying after you beat that cheap last boss.

 

3. Sonic Adventure 2 - Live and Learn

After a nice Piano song Crush 40  bursts into to credits like no ones business with one if not there best head banger. The lyrics are great the vocal awesome, the rest—you know it’s kind of funny the intro is a remixed version of this song but if the intro is supposed to get you pumped this songs get’s you super pumped and want to play the game again, I always sing this song and it remains my favourite Crush 40 songs.

 

2. Silent Hill 2 - Overdose Dilution

My word, what a tonal shift from the ending it’s linked to, this song plays after the best ending and it’s a stark contrast to the events that transpired beforehand. After that heart wrenching last testament by Mary and watching Laura and James walk into the fog of a cemetery and then you here a downbeat yet vibrant songs against the backdrop of a very dark looking James in silhouette. It seems nice enough and pretty standard but then it decides to go seriously Metal halfway through and it’s like “Whoa, where did this come from. Calm down”. I got dark rather steeply but it’s somehow fitting to the game rather that the ending but it does grab you attention and even at the end it still keeps hold of that intense sound of all the instruments melting within one another.

 

1. Final Fantasy VI

On a technical level it’s one of the more superior scores but it’s also the most powerful and creative (okay, IMO) not just for it’s time but even now, hell 1up did a whole article about it which is why I’ll just quote Mr. Market

“I'll admit, my choice could be considered a bit of a cheat. After all, what's a better Final Fantasy VI song than EVERY FINAL FANTASY VI SONG? (Don't answer that.) Regardless of how many tunes it incorporates in its massive 22-minute running time, though, Final Fantasy VI's "Ending Theme" still stands as the best composition I've been lucky enough to hear in my decades-long history of gaming -- and for reasons that go beyond the gimmick of successfully stringing so many amazing melodies together.”

 

Honourable mentions

• Legend of Mana
• Bastion – Set Sail, coming home
• Shadow the hedgehog - never turn back
• Persona 2 – Change Your Way (A British Black woman sings this, there’s even an interview!)
• FF7: Crisis Core -  the Price of Freedom
• The world Ends With You – Lullaby for You
• Sonic and Knuckles
• Kirby Super Star Ultra - Revenge of Meta Knight
• Painkiller (seriously, Polish Ozzy Osborne!)
• Sonic Adventure – E102 gamma(y) (Love that piano theme)
• Sonic Adventure 2 – Throw it All Away
• Plants vs Zombies – There’s a Zombie on Your Lawn
• Baytonetta – Fly me to the moon (with pole dance apparently)
• Portal 2
• FF7:Dirge of Cerberus (thanks paracelux)
• Metal gear solid – The Best is Yet to Come (Boy where we fooled with MGS2)
• Xenoblade – Beyond the Sky (how very literal)
• Skyward Sword
• Xenosaga
• Transformer: Fall of Cybertron
• Metal Gear Solid 3 – Way to Fall
• Sonic the Hedgehog
• Metroid
• L.A. Noire
• Y’s – The Morning Grow
• Hard Core: Uprising
• TLoZ: Majora’s Mask (it has Jazz and Saria’s Theme, it’s almost a crime this is here)
• Max Payne: The Fall of Max Payne – Late Goodbye (a very powerful and apt song,)
• Batman: Arkham City – Only You (the Joker singing, priceless)

 

Well there you go and thus ends My Top Ten Game Intro and Outros Music, so did you like my picks, what outros are your favourites (regardless of the rules)?

 

This is V saying “Congratulations, you’ve completed a great game”

  (100 games where looked at during these blogs )

Now Ladies and Gentlemen some Brentalfloss