Games @lemmy.world

1y ago

Whats your favorite Main Menu music?

I'll start it off - Legend of Dragoon has my heart with this one

https://youtu.be/jFtxom0RGI0?si=3aU7Vn0k-pr-xMWJ

113 comments

Outer Wilds takes the cake for me.
- That game takes the soundtrack cake for any category it has an entry in

Morrowind, hands down
- I liked the music from Morrowind so much, I found the audio files in the game's install folder, burned them to a CD, and printed out my own cover art to make a soundtrack album. I was 11 years old; I probably still have it in a box somewhere, haha.
  
  The entire discography is on YouTube I remember ripping off there years ago.

Kingdom Hearts main menu theme. It's absolutely a nostalgia hit for me. That game was one of my "get-away" games while in a rough situation. Hearing that music always makes me feel a little safer, like I'm just one step away from a completely different life.
- Dearly Beloved and the variations on it are the best. I'm partial to the version for Kingdom Hearts 2 but they're all great

Skyrim, by a longshot. That theme never failed to get me cranked to get my Nordic adventuring on.
- HAH. HUAH. HAHH.
  HAH. HUAH. HAHH.
  OOOhhhh OHHHHH OUHHHHHH!!!! AUHHHHHHH!!!
  
  Saw this pop up in my replies before I noticed the context and was very confused... lol
  
  Really deep lyrics. A masterpiece of poetry.

Civ 4: Baba Yetu
- Such a fantastic song. Not at all surprising that it was the first piece of music from a video game to not only be nominated for but to win a Grammy.
  
  I like this video with it.
- For me it’s Civ 5’s theme, always gives me chills

Halo 3 is pretty good.
- Pretty much any halo has the best menu music to me (I haven't played 5 though).
  There's a lot of variety between them all too

I’ll go with Mass Effect, the music in the first 3 games is incredible. Especially in the first game I think. This particular piece is called Vigil.
Here’s the not hour long version haha.
- Dude, I only just played the games for the very first time earlier this year and I absolutely feel what you mean. It's the very first piece of music you hear when you start the game, is used throughout the trilogy in pivotal moments, and is the very last theme that plays in the third game. So awesome
  
  Oh yeah. Leitmotifs are very effective at tying a story together and really help add some punch to those emotional moments.
  I absolutely adore Mass Effect. It’s probably my favorite game ever. Top 3 at least.

Skyrim for sure, nothing gets you more prepared to start a new adventure than that.
Honorable mention to the Last of Us after you've completed the game and are just sitting there, staring at the screen and wondering what to do next.

Unreal Tournament 2004:
https://youtu.be/uTFfxtb7q4M
- It wasn't great. It was just good in sense of it's time. Some of those music still instantly wakes me up and turns into hunting machine
  
  I have the entire soundtrack in my music library, Hyperblast 2 Redeux is awesome.
  I also regularly play UT2004 online, DM-Deck17 is my favourite original map, amazing flow, it just goes hard.

Mass Effect
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3GXVXYl3_8c

Probably Metroid Prime. Both the Title Theme and the Menu Theme are fantastic.
Xenoblade games also have brilliant title themes. Here's the one for the first game.
Now, for some spice, let's branch into a type of game I think most people here won't have played - Visual Novels often have great title themes.
Muv-Luv Alternative's "Crash" is pure hype
Both Steins;Gate's "Gate of Steiner" and Steins;Gate 0's "Messenger" are great themes too.
I also love VA-11 HALL-A's "Hopes and Dreams".
- I cannot get over how good the Metroid Prime menu theme is. It's both chill vibes and an absolute banger at the same time.

Deus Ex
- Liquid cooled nighttime shades vibe juice for your ears.

The Legend of Zelda
Yeah, there are newer versions, but I deliberately found the original.

Payday 2 really sets the mood with it's music

Red Alert 2
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Skyrim and RuneScape 2 (pre-audio update) are both pretty damn iconic
At my wedding we had the DJ play Skyrim and Witcher 3 music during dinner and it worked way better than it had any business working
- Some the Witcher 3 combat music is actually wedding music I believe, so that checks out.

Hollow Knight

Elden Ring's main theme is literally the only video game song I have in my normal music rotation.
But only because Lunar Silver Star Story's Wings isn't on Spotify.
- I love the Lunar SSS intro, but I'm still partial to the OG Sega CD intro. It gets me pumped up to this day.
  https://youtu.be/YiLLN5U9w2U

Metroid Prime. I only played it for the first time this year when the remaster came out and the music blew me away.

Definitely the original main menu music for Dragon's Dogma.
I remember booting it up on the PS3 back in the day and was like "Wha-?" but after playing the game so many times it's definitely become a favorite. Both for how out of place it is but also how perfect it fits after all the context of the game.
Sad they replaced it for the Dark Arisen version but luckily there is a mod for PC that restores it in all its glory. :P
- Literally the first thing that came to kind. Any time I go to start anything im excited about my brain just starts up the piano.

Not main menu but the golden eye pause menu music on the n64 was a banger 🔥
- No joke about that shit bro
- Can't believe I had to scroll down so far for this

Rocket Jump Waltz -- TF2
- I've been using that as a ringtone ever since Orange Box came out

Cadence of Hyrule, for sure. So damn good.
https://youtu.be/SnpaNEj4aCU?si=GrBpxcq1EN96Nv9D

One of the best fighting games
One Must Fall 2097
A little bit of nostalgia always helps too
- Woah, wasn't expecting to see this answer here! OMF is my favorite one hands down.
  A close second would be the music for Jazz Jackrabbit.
- That one was so good.
  Haven't played this game in decades but instantly started hearing the song in my head when I saw your post.

The correct answer is Civilization V Gods and Kings.

Bloodborne

Morrowind
Final Fantasy XII

Duke Nukem 3D Gets me pumped to this day.
- The tune's but also the crisp crackly sound effects of the main menu navigation are inexorably tied up with it (in a good way)

Dark Souls 3
Even years later, having completed the game many times, that opening song still gives me the chills! So haunting, so beautiful!
Skyrim has to be on the list for the pure joy of it

Super Mario Bros. 2

Super Metroid.
Spooky AF

Arcanum's main theme gets my vote.
It's weird. It's terrible as music - just random strings with almost no recognizable tune outside of the first few seconds - but it sets a mood better than any other. It's distilled melancholy in music form.
- 💯 percent this piece of music makes me feel things

Witcher 3, phenomenal music.
- Lelelelelelelelelelelelele

Metal Gear Solid

Gotta be Into Free which was the original main title music from Dragon's Dogma.
It was removed for Dark Arisen for reasons I am unsure of, so it isn't even something you can experience without mods.
It is wildly different from the rest of the game's music but still connected in a way, and sets a very different vibe. Great game, great music.

Crusader: No Remorse / No Regret
https://youtu.be/wwG5BJtZBCU?si=aMMbMveu0s6KltoQ
So many great remixes of it too.

Dragon's Dogma.
THE WIND IS PUSHING MEEE

The whole collection of music from Stellaris and Cyberpunk are both excellent.

Papers please

Ori and the Blind Forest has a great track throughout, but the menu is definitely a highlight.

Syndicate (2011)
Syndicate was a really niche entry into the Cyberpunk genre that flopped commercially but had some interesting ideas about corp-ocracy and the way businesses of the future would wage warfare against each other like nations used to.
That main menu music has echoed in my brain for years. Deus Ex: Human Revolution would have been first but Syndicate is less well known and I figured someone already mentioned DE:HR at some point here.

Max Payne. It sets the tone of the game at once.

The BF1942 theme/title music is the most epic to me.

Uncharted 2 main theme for me... So short but so damn good.

Many good ones here already. Another memorable one for me is Metal Gear Solid 3.

Sayonara Wild Hearts, not surprising since the entire game is full of beautiful music
https://youtu.be/PULwDISWun8

Not main menu but the MGS V deployment music while you're picking out your gear really gets you amped for your next mission. (from 1:10)

The theme to the original Tomb Raider: https://youtu.be/fIWLT0QVPzw?feature=shared
I hope they keep this for the remaster, for the full nostalgia effect.

I use the F-Zero start screen tune as my alarm clock.

I don't remember if it was in the main menu/what the main menu was, but if you walked onto your balcony in the PC game version of Blade Runner, Vangelis' Blade Runner Blues would play, mixed in with the rain and the sounds of the city. I spent a lot of time just standing on that balcony and letting the music play.

The Elden Ring Main Menu theme has always impressed. It sets the stage very well.
If I think of main menu music only one other game cones to my mind and that's Doom Eternal. I'm not sure if it's necessarily a "good" main menu theme, but the whistling definitely stuck with me.