What's a song that reminds you of a video game that isn't video game music?

For me it is the theme to the Dario Argento classic Phenomena by Goblin. The music just screams Castlevania to me. Also if you've not seen Phenomena I highly recommend it. It's a great gateway movie into the weird wonderful world of Italian horror/giallos added bonus it stars a young Jennifer Connelly as a teen who has the ability to psychically control insects. Did I mention the movie also contains Donald Pleasance of Halloween fame and a scalpel wielding chimpanzee that IRL bit off part of one of Jennifer Connelly's fingers?

Like the entire It Follows soundtrack?

Test Department's High Resolution Retina screams mid 90s racing game to me, something like Destruction Derby or Ridge Racer.

This isn't quite what the OP meant, but it's tangentially related. In Schwarzenegger's End of Days, there's this haunting soprano cry, and I swear, every time I hear it, I think it belonged to one of the Xenosaga games. I don't have any basis for that or even know if it's the same, but it sure does remind me of that game.

@sparky_buzzsaw: Any chance the Xenosaga song you're reminded of is the Song of Nephilim? Because there was a period of time where I would swear multiple movies sampled that song. (I distinctly remember it in the trailers for The Omen remake.) This was after those games came out though, while it looks like End of Days came out before, so it would be kind of impossible for that movie to take anything from the game, but I did always wonder if there was an earlier origin to that song that they all drew inspiration from.

I listened to a lot of Def Leppard when I played Monkey Island on the Sega-CD. This song in particular reminds me of the game:

Don't judge me.

@zeik: Yeah, that's the one! I have no idea the order in which they came, but that's it.

This is probably pretty bizarre but...

Anytime I hear any John Mellencamp music I immediately think of Syphon Filter. I remember playing through Syphon Filter when it first came out and for some reason VH1 (when it still was a music channel) had a Behind the Music episode with John Mellencamp on. My parents had it on in the other room.

Love Will Tear Us Apart, Elegia and Maniac are forever linked to Metal Gear Solid V for me now.

Orbital's Belfast and Halcyon on and on for World of Warcraft Tauren starting area.

The Offspring's Ixnay on the hombre album for Final Fantasy Tactics.

DJ Shadow's Endtroducing and most games on the original Xbox. I put two albums on my Xbox hard drive, Endtroducing, being one, which got played over almost every game that would let me so it's now completely linked to that system in my brain. The other CD was Hot Rocks by the Stones and I only used that in the background to a Rally game on that system. So now it's hard for me to play any rally game without the Stones popping up in my head.

Are you ready to fight this Dark Souls boss? Or Castlevania boss? Because Dream Theater is.

The influential electronic song 'Popcorn' has a melody that always reminds me of classics like Tetris or Pacman, despite predating them by quite a while. A real earworm with a lot of movement to it, those are key constituents of any fast-paced puzzle game's soundtrack.

I remember playing the demo of the first Tony Hawk's Pro Skater for hours on end with a couple of friends switching off while listening to the Americana album by The Offspring. Any time I hear any of those songs I think of that first Tony Hawk game. Any time I hear KMFDM I also think of Unreal Tournament as I listened to a lot of them while playing that online.

It doesn't happen so often anymore, but sometimes Taking Back Sunday or The Used or whatever else I was listening to in college would come on and I would instantly see my Tauren Shaman running across The Barrens. Far too much of my college time was WoW on mute with music blaring.

I listened to a lot of Idlewild whilst playing Smash Court Tennis on the SNES. It's stuck there.

Thought of another one today while driving into work with my iPod on random (yes I still plug my iPod Classic into my car).

"Thank You" by Alanis Morisette immediately makes me think of Colony Wars on PS1. I think maybe the video released on MTV the same day I bought Colony Wars? That's my only guess.

"It's a Fire" always makes me think of the Final Fantasy VIII soundtrack for some reason.

Anything from Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory (an album/band I don't listen to anymore, but I work in restaurants so I hear it ripping out of kitchens a fair amount) will instantly make me think of Time Crisis 2 because once I had that game's PS2 version essentially memorized, I would just listen to Hybrid Theory on repeat while playing through that game over and over in my basement.

Tenacious D's City Hall for the first Halo. Buddy of mine and I played that album while playing co-op and now they are forever linked. Specifically the last warthog section.

I got Final Fantasy 6 (then 3) for SNES and The Cranberries "No Need to Argue" CD for Christmas the same year, and the two are basically forever woven together for me in my brain.

Do you guys think the first minute or so sounds like PS1-PS2 era Final Fantasy town music?

JAY-Z : Big Pimpin

The beat has always reminded me of crying baby mario.

50 cent - Get Rich or Die Tryin'. Was my soundtrack to Jet Set Radio Future.

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

Everything Gorgoroth puts out reminds me of Castlevania and translates perfectly to 8-bit

This specific part of Rebel Yell:

Gives me some Epic Pinball vibes:

Every album by lightning bolt is the best album to listen to while playing F-Zero GX ~[^]_[^]~

Sounds weird but I associate Nu Metal with Pokemon Red, particularly Around the Fur by Deftones. I remember finally catching a damn Chancey in the Safari Zone while "Dai the Flu" plays.

Matadora by Sofi Tukker makes me think of Obra Dinn.

Energia by them makes me think of Hotline Miami.

Only a little bit of the chorus but it always reminds me of this classic tune on Sonic 1 on the master system. Skip Janets tune to 1m 25secs to hear that bit.