Recency bias is definitely at play. Ten years from now, the order will be different. Also, 2017 was a great year for movies! Here they are in descending order:

If you want to comment on the strengths or shortcomings of this list, or tag me in your own list so I can give you proper respect, hit me on my socials.

I posted them here and on Twitter every Tuesday and Thursday using the hashtag #KongsTdayTunes.

Honorable Mentions

One of the things I didn’t anticipate about this project was how hard it would be not to mention certain songs or soundtracks that I love. I deliberately leaned heavily towards the nostalgic impact of specific memorable grooves and riffs and hooks, to the detriment of “holistic” soundtracks that are consistently excellent without any one song standing out and “atmospheric” soundtracks that perfectly complement and enhance their games without digging into the forefront of my brain.

So it feels criminal not to mention a game like Fez, with a lovely soundtrack by Disasterpeace that permeates (and helps to fully realize) the whole world of the game.

I’d be similarly remiss if I didn’t mention Chipzel. Pretty much every one of her tracks is utterly entrancing, and it’s ironically only because her compositions are so effective in helping me get lost in the games in which they appear that I couldn’t include them on this list.

The same is true of someone like Motoi Sakuraba, who composed the music for the Dark Souls series. I love those games, and it’s a testament to how immersive the music is—how faithful the composition is to the understated, subtle, atmospheric essence of the series—that I only hear the music while I’m playing.

I love these tunes, these games, and these composers, and it was a weakness of my own list design that they got left out.

This has been a fun journey! Thanks for sticking around and sharing some of your favourite tunes with me as well!

I’ll post them here and on Twitter every Tuesday and Thursday using the hashtag #KongsTdayTunes.

#1

This is title/intro music at its finest. Opens with crying Mana Beast(s) to set the tone, and then a beautiful splash of piano melody to establish atmosphere, gradually swelling up to the lush, organic totality that permeates the whole game, from the sprite-work of the game’s many environment, all the way to the box art.

Track: “Fear of the Heavens” (YouTube Link)
Game: Secret of Mana (SNES, 1993)
Composer: Hiroki Kikuta

I’ll post them here and on Twitter every Tuesday and Thursday using the hashtag #KongsTdayTunes.

#2

Epic tune from an epic game. I remember flipping to the Dark World for the first time and realizing that this was going to be an amazing experience. My dog sings this song to herself when she’s on her evening patrols.

Track: “Dark World Theme” (YouTube Link)
Game: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES, 1991)
Composer: Koji Kondo

I’ll post them here and on Twitter every Tuesday and Thursday using the hashtag #KongsTdayTunes.

#3

This song is so damn cute.

Track: “Yearnings of the Wind ” (YouTube Link)
Game: Chrono Trigger (SNES, 1995)
Composer: Yasunori Mitsuda

I’ll post them here and on Twitter every Tuesday and Thursday using the hashtag #KongsTdayTunes.

#4

Maybe this section of Final Fantasy VI‘s lengthy ending sequence stands out to me because I like Shadow. The smooth transition between these two characters’ themes and the way they blend together perfectly is only finally revealed in immediate juxtaposition in the ending. The beauty is that these have been the characters’ themes throughout the game, but you don’t get to hear them together until now. Shadow’s theme is normally quiet, spare, and measured in pace, so rearranging it as a swelling string crescendo gives it a real emotional gut-punch. I hope Interceptor’s going to be OK.

Track: “End Theme (Relm & Shadow) ” (YouTube Link)
Game: Final Fantasy VI (SNES, 1994)
Composer: Nobuo Uematsu

I’ll post them here and on Twitter every Tuesday and Thursday using the hashtag #KongsTdayTunes.

#5

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is a sweet game that’s meant to be nostalgic in and of itself, with its fairy-tale settings and themes of childhood and coming to grips with harsh realities. That nostalgia is only compounded for me by the fact that it came out in Canada near my birthday, the same week we adopted tiny puppy Berlin. I remember spending sunny winter mornings playing through this game with her curled up in my lap (probably why she still thinks she’s a lap dog now) and humming along with this tune. What a good dog.

On Tuesday we celebrated the final battle theme in this list. While “World Map” isn’t the final overworld theme, it is the last song to be released later than the mid-1990s. We’ll get back to the retro stuff next week.

Track: “World Map ” (YouTube Link)
Game: Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (PS3, 2011)
Composer: Joe Hisaishi

I’ll post them here and on Twitter every Tuesday and Thursday using the hashtag #KongsTdayTunes.

#6

Warsong is back with the final fight music in the Kong’s Tday Tunes list! Everything in the Top 5 is overworld/map themes or intro/ending themes. Does that mean this is my favourite battle theme? Pretty much.

There’s a lot of nuance and context involved because there are a lot of different kinds of battles, but this song captures the pure energy of Warsong‘s long tactical battles. Listening to it on its own like this doesn’t even capture the whole effect—when it’s interrupted for the jarring enemy phase music while the monsters make their moves, it just sounds so much more glorious when “Friendly Fight” kicks in again.

Track: “Friendly Fight ” (YouTube Link)
Game: Warsong (Genesis, 1991)
Composer: Noriyuki Iwadare

I’ll post them here and on Twitter every Tuesday and Thursday using the hashtag #KongsTdayTunes.

#7

VVVVVV hinted at the next game featured here: Final Fantasy V, Nobuo Uematsu’s penultimate game on the list (what will the Final one be?).

“Clash on the Big Bridge” might be the pinnacle of RPG battle music—so much so that they turned Gilgamesh into a recurring character just so they could keep using it. It’s got a wicked double-kick intro that builds into the main horn & bass section followed by a more traditional Final Fantasy battle melody. It almost sounds like it’s inspired by Rush. Epic tune.

Track: “Clash on the Big Bridge” (YouTube Link)
Game: Final Fantasy V (SFC, 1992)
Composer: Nobuo Uematsu

I’ll post them here and on Twitter every Tuesday and Thursday using the hashtag #KongsTdayTunes.

#8

VVVVVV is a mind-blowing precision-platformer adventure game in its own right, but the soundtrack on its own is just as much a work of art as the whole game. Every track is as upbeat and invigorating as this one, and it’s important in a game where you’re going to die more than a few times. You get in the groove and and you keep trying, head bobbing along as you get spiked over and over again.

Track: “Potential for Anything” (YouTube Link)
Game: VVVVVV (PC, 2010)
Composer: Magnus Pålsson