Top 20 Title Screen Themes In Gaming

 

Been a while since I did a top list. The usual top list disclaimer applies: This is my personal take and it's off the top of my head. Plenty of great things are going to be missing, either because I never played them or just straight-up didn't think of them. Your mileage may vary. There's a special hell reserved for the people who post "No [X Y or Z]??" comments on every top list. However, if you have any suggestions, totally drop them in the comments. I'm grading off of a few criteria here: How good the track is, how well it fits / sets the tone for the game, and how memorable/iconic it is overall.

Top 15 RPG Overworld Themes of the 90's

Today I'm looking at some of the greatest overworld themes from 90's RPGs. That might seem like an oddly-specific kind of list; the fact is, some of the greatest video game music out there can be found on the world maps of 16- and 32-bit RPGs. Any music that plays on a world map or overworld qualifies. I'm limiting it to one entry per game, which makes for some tough decisions when it comes to the several games on the list with multiple great overworld tunes. I can't promise there won't be a ton of Final Fantasy featured here. It's a subjective list; your mileage may vary. If I left a particularly great overworld theme out, comment below and let me know.

The Top 11 Opening Menu Themes

Time for a very unorthodox list. These are what I consider the best opening menu themes in games - not necessarily title screen music, but some of these also play on the title screens of their respective games. Fighting game character selects don't count, nor do Mega Man type stage selects. All that counts are opening menu themes, and there are a surprising amount of good ones out there (mostly in RPGs). These are my 11 personal favorite menu themes, and your mileage may vary. Let's have at it.

A Smorgasbord of Videos

As some of you guys know I've been working on a fair amount of Youtube videos lately for a new channel, which is the reason for the lack of new posts. I'm taking a moment now to invite any and all readers here to check out my new channel. More Mega Man is on the way this week (probably), and in the meantime I've got a smorgasbord of videos now posted on Youtube. Here are the best of the lot.