While watching the recent Mega Man 2 Bombastica, Alex said that the soundtrack was great (absolutely true) but that the Metal Man theme was his favorite. Nonsense, I thought! The best song in Mega Man 2 (and my personal pick for best NES song of all time) is Wily 1 from that game. Besides that, Mega Man 3 has the all around best soundtrack, IMO. I don't play much Mega Man, but those soundtracks were great! It got me thinking about NES music and how many great pieces of music were made from those beeps and bloops. So my question is what is your favorite soundtrack from an NES game, and what is your favorite individual song?

It's got to be from the NES version of an NES game, too! No remakes, ports, arcade versions, etc!

Link To The Past, i think.

edit-- No! No, scratch that. In terms of pure nostalgia feels and breadth of quality, I'm going to say Ninja Gaiden II.

edit--- also it has come to my attention that LttP is not, in actual fact, a NES game.

Problem?

Always loved this tune.

There's so much good NES and SNES music -- but Metroid's soundtrack is my favorite -- the Kraid theme in particular is beautiful.

So hard to decide which one I like the most... Maybe Batman.

@mikaelboogart: A Link to the Past was on the SNES.

...oh. >__<

Batman

Megaman

Ducktales

Werewolf: The Last Warrior

Sorry for Grooveshark link

When it comes to consistent quality, I'd go with the soundtracks to Mega Man 2 and the original Ninja Gaiden.

Individual songs: Bloody Tears from Castlevania and when Scrooge McDuck is on the goddamn Moon in Ducktales.

Obvious choices I know. Dark horse entry: River City Ransom. Such a fun, rockin' soundtrack to grind money from barfing goons to.

It's was long ago scientifically proven that Megaman 2 has the best video game music ever written:

It's not just this song either, the entire soundtrack is amazing from beginning to end, not a stinker in the bunch.

If you need more proof, watch this one:

Woodman's stage starts around 10:40, which is awesome!

@pinner458: I'm sorry you feel that way. I was just asking to try to find really great ones that I've forgotten. Just wanted opinions from other to make sure I don't miss any great ones!

Thanks to everyone else for the great suggestions!

Maybe my favorite NES music, but there's so much great stuff out there like the obvious Marios/Zeldas/Mega Mans/Punchout etc.

Crystalis had a pretty awesome soundtrack

Tim Follin is probably better known for his other work but he had some NES gems on some not so great games.

I also have a soft spot for the Zelda II title theme.

And of course, the best Turtles game ever: The Manhattan Project.

Does the Famicom count? If so, then here you go.

I'ma pick and choose a handful here cause outside of Castlevania and Mega Man I can't think of many NES games where I love the whole soundtrack. Honestly would have a lot more to say about Game Boy music. (Sorry if you think this post is taking up too much scroll space)

Yeah it's simple as fuck but this is the song I most closely associate with my favorite of the 2D Mario games:

Think this one's super underrated as far as Mega Man tracks go:

Mega Man 2 or Batman.

I think a more interesting question might be what is your least favorite, because dang were there a lot of great tracks back then. It's really hard to gow rong with many NES games.

Kinda hard to top Mega Man II start to finish though.

Ah Heck Barkerville was pretty good too

Fuck the haters- you shouldn't have to answer to them. Some people can't help but to stupidly ignore the "Don't be a dick" mantra the site has stated repeatedly in the past. You have every right to ask. In fact, just last week I was loading up my iPod with NES music and, like you, was wondering what I missed besides the obvious choices. Here's another incredible soundtrack (and box art too):

I think Punch-Out's theme is my favorite. Second would be the Zelda dungeon theme.

As I said in your own stream chat, Barkerville and Double Dragon Stage 1 (though I much prefer the Neon version).

@corruptedevil: Haha! Yeah, I was even thinking about putting that one in as an honorable mention! I also really like the straight up title music from that!

@hunterob : Man, now I want to make a new topic about Game Boy music just to find out what you meant!

I also remembered how awesome the first level in Ghosts'n'Goblins is!

Probably the games which had the most memorable music for me personally would be Castlevania 1, 2, and 3. So amazing.

But for what I probably consider the best music on the NES, it's another song from Tim Follin, except it's the intro music to an actually good game, Solstice. The intro:

The first level it plays in is frikkin' hard, but I have to go with this, hands down:

It's not one of the Castlevania tracks I see mentioned a lot, but I absolutely love it.

It's also one of my favorite games.

Let me go off the beaten path a little bit.

The California Games NES menu music -

And WURM Journey to the Center of the Earth's boss music

So many...

Super Mario Bros 2 - Underworld Theme

Final Fantasy - Prelude

Sweet Home - Battle Theme (although the entire soundtrack is creepy and atmospheric)

Super Mario Bros. 3 - World Map 4 - Big Island

Faxanadu!

Cabal and Jackal come to mind.

All the good stuff has already been mentioned so I'll post this personal favourite of mine:

I can't hear the Chip & Dale's music without thinking of this early flash gem:

Almost posted that. Probably the best track from III. Definitely should have been used more throughout the series. Clockwork's worth mentioning too.

That songs really rad! Didn't think there were any great songs in the NES/Famicom Final Fantasy games with my limited experience w/ them but I was wrong!

Also uhh Zelda II has some great music though everybody already knows this song from Smash Bros probably

Oh, damn you. I was going to post the Solstice theme. It's one of my favorite pieces of NES music, and not one I expected anyone else to share.

Well, since my initial choice is taken, and I don't want to say Mega Man, Castlevania, or anything like that (which everyone already know have great soundtracks), here's one of my childhood favorites, Captain Skyhawk. It's got some great tunes.

@mithical: I love the Djinn music and Final Boss from FF3, too!

You guys, these are all awesome choices! I'm in 8-bit heaven right now! Thanks!

Still racking my brain to remember the few NES games I actually owned and came up with this. It'd almost be impossible to play nowadays since the levels swapped between shitty beat-em-up and shitty light gun levels. You'd need a working NES, cart, light zapper and a CRT television to play it on. Lot of effort for such a turd of a game.

Killer fun track, though.

Castlevania all the way. Especially the fantastic music in Simon's Quest. Of course the Zelda music or the Mega Man music are great too. There's just a lot of really good stuff on the NES.

Yes, yes it did. Crystalis deserves more love.

However, Wood Man's stage in Mega Man 2 is the best piece of work on the best video game soundtrack ever.

I think the forums ate my post. Trying again:

I can't name a favorite- there's so many good ones (most of which have been named here)- so I'll just leave this video here:

@bonorbitz: I'm not a hater, I just don't see the point in asking such an obvious question in this day and age. Google "Best NES Songs" and you'll get hundreds of results. Heck add Giant Bomb to the search and you'll find a couple of old threads with a similar title, post on there and revive the thread if you like. I've had threads shut down/merged for less than this.

@bog:

Oh come on everyone who's seen AGDQ must know of that song, along with people who remember the game.'

My favourite Tim Follin song is the Ghouls 'n Ghosts theme for the Amiga. Completely different song from the normal GnG theme, but also great.

Hands down, one of my all-time favourites.

Sounds a bit like the opening theme to an early 90s drama in which Mega Man and the Robot Masters work at a glitzy Los Angeles law firm.

Also my current ringtone.

Holy shit that was awesome