Nobuo Uematsu's masterwork: forty-seven pieces ranging from the solemn opera sequence "Aria di Mezzo Carattere" to the chaos of "Dancing Mad," each character with a distinct leitmotif.
2
Chrono Trigger (1995, SNES)
Yasunori Mitsuda and Nobuo Uematsu's collaboration produced sixty-four pieces spanning geological time — each era has its own sonic identity, from prehistoric drums to a ruined future's ambient decay.
3
Streets of Rage 2 (1992, Genesis)
Yuzo Koshiro's FM synthesis score fused house, techno, and industrial music with a sophistication that genuinely competed with contemporary dance music rather than merely imitating it.
4
Donkey Kong Country 2 (1995, SNES)
David Wise's "Stickerbrush Symphony" and the rest of the DKC2 score used layered sampled instruments to create game music of unusual atmospheric depth and melancholy.
5
Super Metroid (1994, SNES)
Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano's score established the ambient, isolating soundscape of Zebes — long before ambient game audio became standard, Super Metroid used silence and dread as compositional tools.
6
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (1997, PlayStation)
Michiru Yamane's baroque-meets-hard-rock score perfectly matched the game's Gothic visual aesthetic, with orchestral arrangements and electric guitar existing in the same musical world.
7
Mega Man 2 (1988, NES)
Takashi Tateishi's compositions — particularly the Wily Stage 1 theme — extracted extraordinary melodic and emotional range from the Famicom's three-voice synthesis.
8
Earthbound (1994, SNES)
Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka's score is arguably the strangest major-platform game soundtrack ever made: found-sound collage, psychedelic drone, and '50s Americana sharing space with suburban comedy.
9
Ys I & II (1987–1988, PC-88)
Yuzo Koshiro and Mieko Ishikawa's PC-88 soundtracks redefined what action RPG music could be — melodically sophisticated, harmonically rich, and propulsive in a way that motivated rather than merely accompanied play.
10
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992, Genesis)
Masato Nakamura's Chemical Plant Zone, Casino Night Zone, and Mystic Cave Zone compositions are among the most recognisable FM synthesis pieces in gaming, perfectly matching the game's kinetic momentum.