For me definitely The world ends with you. It completely shaped my modern taste in funk, pop, rap and hip hop. That and Jet set radio.
FFX back in the PS2 day’s was when I discovered I really love heavy metal.
Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask were pretty foundational for me. I think the fact that playing an instrument was a central game mechanic was a big part of that.
Others that come to mind would be gens 1-3 of Pokémon. Pretty much every track in all of these games are iconic.
Megaman 2 aka Rockman 2, baby! So good.
The 3D zelda games.
That was the point where I prefered soundtracks over singing. I still have the Twilight Princess trailer mp3 I cut almost 20 years ago on my running playlist.
That and the score for Battle for Wesnoth. Classic freeware, peak 2006.
Yeeesss. Wesnoth was PEAK
Tony hawks pro skater series and gta vice city mostly
Ah, I used to just drive around like a normal driver listening to the radio stations in GTA vice City. Damn they were so good
The stations were just MP3 files on the game disc. I burned them to an audio CD and had them in my car.
Tony Hawk Undergound 1 and 2 for me, someone made a Spotify playlist for their soundtracks and I use it on at least a weekly basis
Libertycityhardcore!
Libertycityhardcore!
Libertycityhardcore!
Fuck!
You!
Symphony of the night of course, bust before that also games like streets of rage (1,2) and thunder force 4.
Underrated game: A Hat in Time.
Journey Escape one of the og music in a video game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journey_Escape
Journey Escape for the Atari 2600 plays “Don’t Stop Believin’” on the title screen and during the ending sequence when you successfully complete the game. I was 4… lol.
Do the Guitar Hero games count? Because those
The Chris Huelsbeck soundtracks on the C64. Turricane, Giana Sisters, etc. They were a real game changer in a dimension you kids can’t even imagine.
I think it was one of the Sim City games… I’m not sure if Sim City 2000 or Sim City DS which really woke me up to certain music genres.
Anyway, yeah, The World Ends With You was truly something with its soundtrack. Was such a cool surprise when I first played it on the NDS.
I always liked electronic music but Machinarium made me consciously realize how much I liked ambient music and how much could be done with it.
And now the sequel has been announced!!
Whaaaaa? I searched the tubes and it’s true. Amaaaazing!https://boingboing.net/2026/10/09/classic-puzzle-game-machinarium-is-getting-a-surprise-sequel.html
Pick any game in the Final Fantasy series. For me it was the overworld in FF6 and the battle songs from VII and VIII. I Also really vibed with the Uncharted games, which used an orchestra of interesting folk instruments to create a really cool musical soundscape for adventure.
Gotta pick my first, FFX. To Zanarkand is still one of the best ways to open a game.
As a kid I would play this asia grinder MMO flyff. Not a good game, but the OST is great, especially the music that would play during login.
Kid me would hear this a lot because I kept forgetting my password…
FF9, Vamo’ alla Flamenco taught me I really like spanish guitar.
Queen Brahne was not impressed.
100 nobles were impressed
That and Gerudo Valley from Ocarina of Time.
lol… genuinely, DOOM. I grew up with just the radio and a mom who made weird and arbitrary rules about music so my music exposure was terrible. I found a journal from when I was ten talking about how excited I was to listen to the “top ten soft rock hits” of the week with Delilah. Hearing DOOM and going omfg this ROCKS!! made me realize there was other music out there, big music, epic sounds, distortion, heavvvvvy sounds I love it all, I’m also a bass head as it turns out. DOOM opened the door and I’ve spent my adult life exploring all the different kinds of music I never got exposed to as a kid.
