Download (MP3)
Download (End card acoustic short: Kid Icarus Underworld)
Five years later and we’ve hit GaMetal #100! Even though several are remakes of old songs, and several more aren’t very good and from the early years, we’ve still made it to this point nonetheless.
I went through several different ideas and options for #100 and ultimately ended up with this one. I felt it’d be a bit unfair to do songs from just one game (or especially just one song from one game) so we went the multi-game route. It’s not the first time popular game songs have been turned into a metal medley, but the first time for me, aside from Blast From The Past, which was more of a celebration of GaMetal history than game music history.
My goal was to do all the game songs that you’d have to go out of your way NOT to recognize (or just be completely anti-Nintendo, since Nintendo songs make up 90% of the medley). I didn’t really stick to an exact chronological order since it was easier to make the medley flow musically this way. Let’s talk about each!
1. Pac-Man Intro Theme – Before the Super Mario Bros. Theme, there was the Pac Man Intro Theme jingle. It’s just one of those songs you’d have to live under a rock your whole life not to be familiar with.
2. Super Mario Bros. Ground Theme – Like the Pac-Man Intro Theme, you’d be an odd individual if you didn’t recognize the SMB theme. Even people who don’t play games at all should be able to know this theme when they hear it!
3. Excitebike – A bit of a stretch here, but chances are, if you grew up playing NES, you know the Excitebike title music.
4. Vampire Killer – Castlevania’s most popular song, it’s recieved the most official remixes of all the CV tunes.
5. Star Fox 64 Main Theme – Maybe also a stretch, but the ‘Do a barrel roll!’ quote from this game has become so popular, even Google knows about it. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, go Google search ‘Do a barrel roll’)
6. Super Mario 64 Main Theme – For those a little younger to have grown up playing NES, you probably grew up playing N64, and if you had an N64, I’m fairly sure you played Super Mario 64. Therefore, according to my calculations, you know this song.
7. Guile’s Theme – Ryu and Ken may get all the glory, but when it comes to Street Fighter songs, there’s only one theme that goes with everything: Guile’s Theme.
8. Pokemon Title Theme – I’m going to make a wild assumption and say that Pokemon is probably the most popular handheld-based series of all time, spanning through numerous generations, and starting with this very theme.
9. Donkey Kong Title Theme – There’s a pretty diehard Donkey Kong fanbase out there, and this alongside Kongo Jungle are the most popular DK songs.
10. Brinstar – If you’ve played any of the 2D Metroids, you know the Brinstar theme. There’s a couple of other easily recognizable Metroid themes, but I felt this one wins the argument.
11. Zelda Overworld – It’s Zelda. How can you not?
12. Tetris Type A – Another classic game song, even those not into shooters/platformers/rpgs/etc shoud know the Tetris Type A theme.
13. Mortal Kombat Movie Theme – When I was young, you either played Street Fighter or Mortal Kombat. I was an MK kid. Even though this theme has never actually appeared in an MK game, anyone who’s a fan of fighting games knows this song. MORTAL KOMBAT!!!
14. MK64 Rainbow Road – Mario Kart has become a pretty long running spinoff series, and of all the Rainbow Road themes, this one is the most popular. Even some later versions of Rainbow Road incorporate some aspects of the MK64 version. No, not you Mario Kart Super Circuit Rainbow Road. Go die somewhere.
15. Halo – You might think I’m either a Nintendo fanboy or I just hate non-Nintendo music, but that’s just not true! I just feel Nintendo has better quality music 🙂 but anyways, even I was into Halo back when it first came out, and to leave this out of an iconic themes medley just would’ve been insulting.
16. Smash Bros. Brawl Main Theme – This was kind of a tough choice, I wanted to represent the Smash Bros franchise and I was torn between this theme and one of the Melee themes. Ultimately, I just went with the one I straight up like more, the Brawl theme. This might make a lot of Melee fans upset (since most hate Brawl), but hey, you still recognize the theme!
17. Punch-Out! Jogging/Fighting – Probably also a stretch, the new Wii version and SSB4 have brought Punch-Out back to the surface a bit, and most people (especially those who grew up playing NES) should be able to recognize Punch-Out’s most popular 2 songs.
18. Green Hill Zone – Sonic games have been a laughing stock in recent years, but Sonic music still continues to be awesome. Like most others on this list, if you’ve played Sonic, you know the Green Hill Zone theme.
19. Dr. Wily’s Castle – Mega Man is another game that is definitely not lacking in the awesome music department, and no MM song is more popular than MM2’s Dr Wily’s Castle. Some even call it the best song ever!
20. Green Greens – A classic Gameboy theme that’s been in most Kirby games in some way or another.
21. Mute City – Might also be a stretch if you haven’t played Smash Bros. or obviously F-Zero, but what’s not to love about Captain Falcon? Mute City’s gotten about a million official remixes, so there’s no doubting it’s popularity.
22. Final Fantasy Prelude – The one Final Fantasy song that’s in every main Final Fantasy game.
23. Dragonborn – Yes, I played Skyrim for a little bit! This is the 3rd non-Nintendo song in GaMedley, and one of the best and most popular songs in today’s era of gaming.
There’s no doubt that I probably missed a few, but I feel these 23 songs cover a huge majority of gaming’s greatest music tracks. Thanks for giving me the inspiration to create 100 GaMetal songs, let’s go for 100 more!