The ‘90s video game hardware scene had some of the biggest evolutions of the tech ever seen in the industry, going from blip-blop sounds to CD-quality audio. Despite the limitations of the era, some of the best soundtracks in video game history were born in the ‘90s, many of which modern games still struggle to match.
The games listed on this consist solely of games that don’t use licensed soundtracks, so no Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater titles. These are the games with fully homegrown audio tracks that were developed by composers, not licensing out punk rock songs or nu-metal tracks and slapping them on a disc. These composers might not have had much to work with, but they squeezed incredible tracks out of those hunks of plastic.
10 Final Fantasy VII Has One of the Best Soundtracks in the Series
One-Winged Angel Helped Cement a Soundtrack
One major reason why Squaresoft (now Square Enix) made the jump from Nintendo consoles to the original PlayStation was due to the benefits that a compact disc provided. Memory was the biggest concern, but audio was also a big benefit. The developers of Final Fantasy VII made the most of this, creating one of the best RPGs of the ’90s, with Nobuo Uematsu composing some of his greatest tracks ever made.
There are many tracks from Final Fantasy VII that can be considered the best, but “One-Winged Angel” is the standout track, with its Latin chanting and epic intro. Indeed, the entire final run of bosses has a killer’s row of amazing songs, bringing the close to one of the PS1’s best JRPGs in style. Outside of “One-Winged Angel”, tracks like “Anxious Heart” and “J-E-N-O-V-A” stand out as greats.
Final Fantasy 7
- Released
- January 31, 1997
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Blood, Fantasy Violence, Language, Mild Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
9 Silent Hill Is the Perfect Soundtrack for a Horror Game
Akira Yamaoka Proved Not All Soundscapes Need to Be Joyful
Not all soundtracks need to be fun to be memorable. Akira Yamaoka was tasked with creating the soundscape of the original incarnation of Silent Hill, and he merged hellish industrial themes that wouldn’t be amiss on a Nine Inch Nails album, with soothing and haunting melodies that wouldn’t be out of place in Twin Peaks.
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Possibly the best song in the Silent Hill soundtrack is “Not Tomorrow,” the track that plays when Lisa Garland turns into a monster. It helps that it plays during one of the saddest and most memorable cutscenes in the game, with Harry watching in horror as the town finally consumes Lisa, while he’s unable to save her, and is forced to flee.
Silent Hill
- Released
- January 31, 1999
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Animated Blood and Gore, Animated Violence
- Developer(s)
- Konami
- Publisher(s)
- Konami
- Engine
- Unreal Engine
- Franchise
- Silent Hill
8 F-Zero Brought Amazing Music to the SNES
F-Zero Even Received Its Own Jazz Album
The only racing game on this list and a title that was made to show off the tech of the SNES, with the futuristic vehicles existing pretty much to show off the Mode 7 visuals. Despite its origins, F-Zero still had an amazing soundtrack, with a handful of tracks that stand among Nintendo’s best, even when competing with the Super Smash Bros. Ultimate soundtrack.
Tracks like “Big Blue” and “Mute City” are timeless, perfectly capturing that exciting racing feel as the vehicles fly off the starting line. It’s just a shame that there are no modern F-Zero games that can feature enhanced and remade versions of those classic tracks.
7 The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time Was a Leap Forward
Link’s First 3D Adventure Brought Old Tunes to Life
There was a massive technical jump between The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time. While the N64 might not have had the stellar audio quality of the PS1, Nintendo composer Koji Kondo still managed to produce some of the best soundtracks of the era with the cartridge-based system.
Koji Kondo’s two greatest soundtracks in the ’90s were on the N64, the first on this list being Ocarina of Time. It’s hard to pinpoint the best tracks, but “Title Theme,” “Hyrule Field,” and “Gerudo Valley” are all top-tier, and that’s without even mentioning the iconic melodies Link plays on his Ocarina.
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
- Released
- November 21, 1998
- ESRB
- E10+ for Everyone 10+: Animated Blood, Fantasy Violence, Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
6 Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Improved On a Classic
It’s One of the Best Soundtracks for a Sega Game
The original Sonic the Hedgehog had some phenomenal tracks, but it wasn’t until the second game that the series truly started producing classics. Masato Nakamura returned as the composer for the second Sonic game, where he concocted some truly fantastic songs.
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The game kicks off with the unforgettable “Emerald Hill Zone” and follows it with the amazing “Chemical Plant Zone.” The rest of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 features great tracks if the player can reach them, like “Casino Night Zone” and “Oil Ocean Zone.” It’s just a shame that the Death Egg Zone music is tied to one of the most frustrating end boss runs in gaming history.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2
Systems
- Released
- November 21, 1992
- ESRB
- E for Everyone
- Developer(s)
- Sega
- Publisher(s)
- Sega
5 Street Fighter 2 Has Tons of Variety
Guile’s Theme Had to Be Born Somewhere
Street Fighter 2’s format of traveling the world to visit the homelands of each of its individual characters gave the composer Yoko Shimomura plenty of scope to create a wide variety of tracks, doing her best to emulate the different sounds of each region. Some of her best work was with Capcom, with fighting game songs that have resonated with fans over the years.
It’s hard to nail down which exactly is the best Street Fighter 2 track. While “Guile’s Stage” has become the most famous due to meme culture, tracks like “Vega’s Stage” and “Ryu’s Stage” are also absolute bangers that keep reappearing in later entries.
Street Fighter 2
Systems
- Released
- March 7, 1991
- ESRB
- m
- Developer(s)
- Capcom
- Publisher(s)
- Capcom
- Engine
- Kart Fighter Engine
4 Pokémon Gold & Silver Crammed a Lot Into One Cartridge
The Tunes That Pushed the Game Boy to Its Limits
All of the bugs and annoying QoL issues aside, the developers of Pokémon Red & Blue should be commended for cramming an entire region and 151 Pokémon into a tiny Game Boy cartridge. They also managed to create memorable tunes using the primitive hardware, some of which are still used in the modern games. The Pokémon franchise includes some of the best music in a Nintendo game, but things really took off when Gen 2 arrived.
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Pokémon Gold & Silver managed to improve things even further, not only featuring songs from the Gen 1 games, but adding new tracks that quickly became classics, like “National Park” and New Bark Town’s theme, which still make people nostalgic to this day. The Nintendo DS remakes did a great job bringing those tracks back to life, but something was lost in the process, as the OST really needs to be heard blaring out of a Game Boy Color.
Pokemon Gold and Silver
- Released
- October 15, 2000
- ESRB
- Everyone // Mild Cartoon Violence, Simulated Gambling
- Developer(s)
- Game Freak
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Engine
- unreal engine
- Multiplayer
- Local Multiplayer
3 Doom Has the Perfect Soundtrack
It’s Hard to Imagine Doom With Different Music
The original Doom quickly became infamous for its violence and bloodshed, especially when it first launched, but it wasn’t given nearly enough credit for its soundtrack. Everyone was so focused on getting Doom running smoothly on their PC that many of its players overlooked the amazing songs.
Doom‘s soundtrack was heavily inspired by tracks from metal bands of the time, especially Alice in Chains and Metallica, so it loses some points for originality. That caveat aside, songs like “At Doom’s Gate” and “Demons on the Prey” build a steady feeling of dread as the player descends deeper into the bowels of Hell, facing increasingly vicious foes with every step.
DOOM
Systems
- Released
- May 13, 2016
- ESRB
- M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language
- Developer(s)
- id Software
- Publisher(s)
- Bethesda Softworks
2 Super Mario 64 Has Unforgettable Music
The First 3D Mario Was Full of Bangers
The second Koji Kondo game on this list and the debut game on the N64, Super Mario 64 has an incredible OST that stands out as one of the best in the franchise. Even though the game was a major trailblazer for 3D visuals, the soundtrack is what has endured the most.
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Super Mario 64 has a killer’s row of tracks, with “Dire Dire Docks,” “Inside the Castle Walls,” and the “Main Theme” (the track that plays on Bob-Omb Battlefield) being instantly hummable to anyone who played it back in the day. While the original Super Mario Bros. on the NES may have cemented the tunes in fans’ minds, it was Super Mario 64 that delivered the best incarnations of them.
Super Mario 64
- Released
- September 26, 1996
- ESRB
- E for Everyone
- Developer(s)
- Nintendo
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Engine
- Nintendo 64 SDK
1 Chrono Trigger Has Timeless Music
It’s the Best Soundtrack On the SNES
Squaresoft was firing on all cylinders in the ‘90s, producing incredible soundtracks on hardware. Most of these amazing OSTs were solely crafted by Nobuo Uematsu, but he was only a contributor to Chrono Trigger’s soundtrack, whose main composer was Yasunori Mitsuda.
Chrono Trigger was the work of some of the best creative minds in the industry at the time, and the soundtrack reflects that. Tracks like “Wind Scene,” “Frog’s Theme,” “Robo’s Theme,” “The Trial,” and “Battle with Magus” stand out as top-tier compositions on the SNES. While Final Fantasy might be considered Square Enix’s premier franchise for music, even the greats can’t quite compete with Chrono Trigger.
Chrono Trigger
- Released
- March 11, 1995
- ESRB
- T for Teen: Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood
- Developer(s)
- Square Enix
- Publisher(s)
- Square Enix
