legendary soundtracks for computer games

Basic theme from Super Mario Bros. (1985)

Ground Theme is the main musical theme of the game. Composer Kunyo Shimomoto wrote an 8-bit melody that has been used in all Super Mario Bros. series. Ground Theme became the longest and most memorable theme in the game. The retro sound and simple melody “stick” in your head, making you want to listen to it again and again.

The Super Mario Bros. theme has become part of pop culture, quoted in the media and adapted in various ways, from orchestral versions to remixes.

Hell March by Frank Klepacki for Command & Conquer: Red Alert (1996)

From the very first games, the creators of Command & Conquer created high-quality cinematic videos, invented crazy worlds, even crazier plots – all to the soundtrack of composer Frank Klepacki. He wrote the music for almost all Command & Conquer games, but the most famous was Hell March for Red Alert. Klepacki was inspired by industrial metal and World War II marches when creating it. There is no better soundtrack for the attack of fighting bears on robot samurai.

Music for Heroes of Might and Magic III by Paul Anthony Romero (1999)

The soundtrack of the strategy game Heroes of Might and Magic III has become a classic and is still popular among players. Composer Robert E. Kraft created musical themes that perfectly convey the atmosphere of the game’s fantasy world.

For all factions the composer came up with a melody, which was arranged by an orchestra, which gave the soundtrack a special epicness. The battles also got their own musical accompaniment.

Hush – Excited from Need for Speed: Most Wanted (2005)

The Need for Speed ​​series has been played millions of times for more than one song, with some of them achieving cult status. For example, Lil Jon & The East Side Boyz’s “Get Low” from the first game became a meme known as “Eron-don-don.”

Another legendary song is Fired Up by Detroit rapper Hush. It appeared in Need for Speed: Most Wanted. The song from the 2005 album Bulletproof played in the main menu and prepared the player for the harsh atmosphere of street racing and confrontations with the police. In the lyrics, Hush raps about how his “fists are like bulldozers” and that it’s better not to stand in his way because he’s a “walking nightmare.”

Yellowcard – Rough Landing, Holly from FlatOut 2 (2006)

Another racing series that became famous, among other things, for its soundtrack. Unlike Need for Speed ​​​​FlatOut did not offer the atmosphere of street racing, but derbies and off-road driving, where not every car reached the finish line. Drivers literally flew out of their cars and the game encouraged the destruction of everything and everyone. The music for such gameplay was chosen accordingly – popular rock bands of that time from Papa Roach to Fall Out Boy.

Some of the most memorable songs include “Rough Landing,” “Holly,” and “Breathing” by the pop-punk band Yellowcard. The former was released on the 2006 album Lights and Sounds and tells the story of a powerful love that destroys the life of its lyrical hero.

Oleg Kvasha – “Green-Eyed Taxi” (Global Deejays Remix) in GTA IV (2008)

GTA developers have always been very meticulous when creating each new game, trying to convey as much detail as possible that is typical of real cities. For example, when working on Vice City, the Rockstar team traveled from Edinburgh to Miami to take more photos. While walking through the city, the guys came across a car in one of the alleys with bullet holes in the windshield.

GTA IV is set in Liberty City, inspired by New York City in the 2000s. There is a radio station called Vladivostok FM, which plays Kino, Glukoza, Basta, Delfina, Ranetki, and Splin. There is also a remix of the song Green-Eyed Taxi by Global Deejays Remix.

In real life, the composition was broadcast in 2007, and Global Deejays took as a basis not the original by Mikhail Boyarsky, but the version with the voice of Igor Kvasha from his album “Dance Project Kvasha”. And this song fits perfectly into GTA IV, because the main character is a veteran of the Yugoslav wars who came to the United States for a new life – at first he worked part-time in a taxi company of the Russian mafia.

Peggy Lee – Johnny Guitar from Fallout: New Vegas (2010)

The song “Johnny Guitar” was written in 1954 by Peggy Lee and Victor Young for the western film of the same name. The music in it is similar to Spanish Dance No. 5: Andaluza by composer Enrique Granados. The film “Johnny Guitar” itself became a cult classic and its music has been covered many times.

In 2010, the song got a second wind with the release of Fallout: New Vegas – it was played on one of the radio stations there. The song became beloved by fans, first a symbol of the game and later – a meme:

Some memes about Johnny Guitar

The composition for a mid-20th century western fits the game perfectly, with elements of retrofuturism and early 21st century post-apocalypse.

Epilogue by Hans Zimmer for Crysis 2 (2011)

In 2010, composer Hans Zimmer, better known for his soundtracks for multimillion-dollar Hollywood blockbusters, was invited to work on the music for the shooter Crysis 2. The game, with one of the highest graphical quality of that time, telling the story of special forces in nano-suits fighting aliens on the streets of New York, needed an equally unusual sound.

Zimmer was imbued with the atmosphere of the game and put maximum epicness into his work. The instruments in Epilogue are chosen and sound so that you can practically feel the nanosuit on your skin and see alien ships when you look up at the sky.

Dragonborn from The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2016)

Dragonborn has become one of the most famous musical themes of the fifth part of the Elder Scrolls series. Composer Malcolm Sternson wrote the Dragonborn theme, which sounds at all the key moments of the game. The melody conveys the spirit of battle – the combination of choral parts and orchestra creates an atmosphere of heroism. Interestingly, in several versions of the soundtrack, the text is spoken in the language of dragons.

Music from Skyrim is performed by orchestras all over the world: in the summer of 2024, for example, a symphony concert was held at the House of Music in Moscow.