Video Game History Month AND Top Ten Tuesday - Top 10 Best 16-Bit Video Game Songs (For Me Of Course)

 Written By: Tyler

I haven't done a Top Ten Tuesday in a while, but I decided that since it's Video Game History Month, I'll do a Top 10 Best 16-Bit Video Game Songs. This is a collection of tunes -- mostly for the SNES -- that I can still listen to today and enjoy them as much as I did back then. These are top of their class-type songs.


10: Ogre Battle - Thunder (Revolt)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDAMxLKY2EY 

This song almost didn't make the list, but then I listened to it again. It's not a song that I listen to a lot, but when I hear it a lot of great Ogre Battle memories come flooding back to me. This is the song that often plays as you lay siege to everything, and it's such a great song for a war... watching your troops proceed and attack. Ogre Battle was special, and this song -- along with the battle theme -- help make it that way.


9:  General Chaos - General Chaos Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tO63dZic1l8

There's a lot of war going on in my list. This song pumps me up for battle.


8: The Lost Vikings Theme (SNES)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAd9x5fTSVo 

I'm not entirely sure why they picked a song like this to be the theme music for a game about Vikings, but dammit it worked because I get excited every time I hear it. It's cool, and when you pair it with the images of the Lost Vikings posing, you have quite a team. The whole soundtrack is great, but this really sets the tone.


7: Secret of Evermore - Dog Maze
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSQszBHMHHc

Secret of Evermore is a bit of an underrated game I think, and Dog Maze is one of the best SNES tracks of all time. The beginning especially is extremely haunting and it conjures up sad images in my head. After all this time, honestly, I can't even remember where the song is actually from but despite that the music fits the title. Dog Maze, indeed.


6: Final Fantasy 2/4 - Sorrow In Loss
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfT4X-Sr6Bc

I could make an entire list of great Final Fantasy tracks. Hell, I could probably make a Top Ten of just Final Fantasy 4 tracks, but since I said I'd only pick one song from each game, I'm choosing to represent Final Fantasy 4 with one of the most depressing video game songs I've ever heard. It perfectly captures the mood and adds a lot to any scene it's in.


5: Super Metroid Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vYsVk23oxA

When you're flying through space as a bounty hunter, seeing things that a normal person could only dream of, you need a fitting song to represent the simultaneous badassdom and isolation. Cue the Super Metroid theme. It plays at the beginning when Samus is recapping what's been going on in her boring life, and as a kid it creeped me out. Now it just makes me go "hell yeah!"


4: Chrono Trigger - The Day The World Revived
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwi9cjQkteA 

There's a lot of good music in Chrono Trigger -- hell, despite placing this particular song at number 4 as opposed to 1, it's actually one of the best soundtracks of all time -- but I'm a miserable young man and sad, pretty music is what gets me. I considered the Magus theme because of how kick-ass it is for a theme of someone, but I went with this song that manages to install hope but be incredibly tragic at the same time.


3: Final fantasy 3/6 - Atma Weapon Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH40gYZhwWI

Atma gets its own battle theme, and it's awesome. It's such an intense song, and manages to make Atma feel like the biggest boss battle ever. 


2: Lufia & The Fortress of Doom - Fortress of Doom (Last Duel)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzBsFGh6zoc

I won't say a lot about the scene, but this plays at the beginning and this song will always benefit from the marriage of it with that scene. But even by itself, it's still one of the best "dungeon" songs of all-time. I hear it and I can't help but feel hyped to explore the fortress.


1: Secret of Mana - Opening Theme
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6YAiLHXw_c

You don't have to wait long until you hear one of the best video game tracks ever. Turn on Secret of Mana, and just let it do its thing for a while. This gorgeous tune will play that will sweep you away to another world, and if you're like me, you will be in awe of how pretty and emotional it is -- and at this point you haven't even done anything yet! I can't quit this song.