Board 8 > What's the biggest video game series with no particularly iconic music?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I was thinking about this while playing Resident Evil, that I can't think of any defining tune from the series other than a guy saying RESIDENT EVILLLL in the menu of every game.

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https://youtube.com/watch?v=8bOKfxpR774

Tracks like this are iconic to me, though it may just be the nostalgia. I get that it's not the same as having an "iconic" track like some other series though.

Youre telling me this music isnt iconic

https://youtu.be/Stds_gCnoBM
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Resident Evil should be secured enough for its save room themes alone, never mind tracks like Nemesis Final Metamorphosis, Winds of Madness, Alexia's themes, any end credit themes.

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There's a bunch of popular western games with music no one gives a crap about.

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Is there really any iconic Call of Duty music?
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Dunno why, but God of War came to mind first for some reason

Call of Duty was my first thought, but I would agree that Resident Evil doesn't have "iconic" music. I think the word is really reserved for a small percentage in any category, almost miniscule.

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Jakyl25 posted...

Is there really any iconic Call of Duty music?

If you count Zombies music, and maybe the Hans Zimmer theme in MW2.

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Pong has no iconic music
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I'd say Uncharted comes pretty close, but I guess the main menu music probably counts as iconic or memorable.

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Jakyl25 posted...

Is there really any iconic Call of Duty music?

The GUH-GUH GUH-GUH-GUH guitar stinger is pretty fucking iconic

LeonhartFour posted...

I'd say Uncharted comes pretty close, but I guess the main menu music probably counts as iconic or memorable.

Yeah come on thats all you need

I think Resident Evil is a good example though, even though I know several tracks.


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Snake5555555555 posted...

If you count Zombies music, and maybe the Hans Zimmer theme in MW2.

Your definition of iconic includes Superman and Beppo the Super-Monkey.

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God of War and Dark Souls came to mind, I haven't played all of those series though so maybe I'm off the mark there.


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God of War has some pretty iconic stuff.

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I was thinking Fallout, although do the radio stations count

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Assassins Creed. Theres some vaguely operatic music, but no real theme song.

Assassin's Creed has the Ezio's Family track which pretty much became the theme song for the franchise
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Uglyface2 posted...

Assassins Creed. Theres some vaguely operatic music, but no real theme song.

Ezio's Family son

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i was going to mention the save rooms as well @Snake5555555555 so thank you =P

Call of Duty was my first thought. Grand Theft Auto edges it out by 15 million in sales, though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_game_franchises

edit: I will add GTA has radio music, but there's nothing original.

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The San Andreas intro theme is probably the closest to something iconic for GTA.

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I've never heard the GTA intro before, and it hasn't been used in any of the hundreds of guessing games from the VGM crew. Doesn't sound especially memorable outside of context, either. As much as the video might have 42M views, I think my point still stands.

If you were wondering what has been used:


Call of Duty, in case anyone was wondering:


Apparently only NFUN knows CoD music.

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The Elder Scrolls was the first series to pop into mind

also Call of Duty and GTA

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FL81 posted...

The Elder Scrolls was the first series to pop into mind

dude what

Old GTA games had great original music

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Rayman?

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Madden?

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My first thought was Star Fox until I remembered Star Wolf's theme. CoD might be right.

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LeonhartFour posted...

I'd say Uncharted comes pretty close, but I guess the main menu music probably counts as iconic or memorable.

I thought Uncharted at first but yeah, main menu definitely saves it from that fate.

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Snake5555555555 posted...

The San Andreas intro theme is probably the closest to something iconic for GTA.

GTA IV's theme is on this level too.

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A lot of western games/series that qualify are carried by a single song, usually the title screen music. Skyrim, Uncharted, Halo, ect. If you expand the restrictions to 'two or more iconic songs' then they're donezo.

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Dragon Quest

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KamikazePotato posted...

A lot of western games/series that qualify are carried by a single song, usually the title screen music. Skyrim, Uncharted, Halo, ect. If you expand the restrictions to 'two or more iconic songs' then they're donezo.

Hey now, Warthog Run and One Final Effort are up there too as far as Halo iconic music goes.

tgs2 posted...

Hey now, Warthog Run and One Final Effort are up there too as far as Halo iconic music goes.

those are both variants of the main theme

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Does Warcraft have any iconic music, I am not aware of any

hmm maybe not warcraft 1-3, but world of warcraft definitely has famous memorable songs!

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Shonen_Bat posted...

God of War and Dark Souls came to mind, I haven't played all of those series though so maybe I'm off the mark there.

Was thinking Dark Souls too but it's a little weird. The hub area tracks and a few of the boss themes (thinking DS1 final boss and first boss themes) are very iconic to series fans but there's no "main theme" or anything.

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swordz9 posted...

Dunno why, but God of War came to mind first for some reason

Shonen_Bat posted...

God of War and Dark Souls came to mind, I haven't played all of those series though so maybe I'm off the mark there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0-xFqvJ-U8

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Counter Strike?

Though main menu music may be ingrained into millions.

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CoD was my first thought, but Snake's right the zombie songs are dope.

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Johnbobb posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0-xFqvJ-U8

I don't think this counts. Every game has songs where fans can say "yeah, I like this one", but that doesn't make it iconic.

Dark Souls is actually a good example of this. It has songs the fanbase greatly appreciates, but nothing truly iconic. The most memorable piece of audio from that series is the 'You Died' sound effect.

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What exactly is the meter stick for whether something is "iconic" or not, though? Are we only looking at cultural pervasiveness though memes and the mainstream?

Like I may very likely soil myself upon hearing Resident Evil save room music as the lights go down in a hyped up conference, so I was pretty baffled to see RE as the first series mentioned here!

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Resident Evil is definitely a series that fits this topic. I'm defining 'iconic' as having some amount of cultural pervasiveness and overall appreciation among the fanbase - specifically a piece of music being highlighted as a crowning achievement that's both high quality and representative of the game.

Also, this topic has reminded me of a subject that I've been mulling over for a while - for all the different ways that western game development has outstripped eastern game development, on average they still get demolished in the music category.

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I'm surprised nobody's said Angry Birds yet.

The Angry Birds theme was extremely hard to escape when it was popular.

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I always felt Resident Evil 5 had a really solid soundtrack actually.

I don't know if I can say for the rest of the franchise since even though I love RE4, I can't think of a song from it.

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This theme is iconic, imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSGPoLCY0xU

KamikazePotato posted...

Also, this topic has reminded me of a subject that I've been mulling over for a while - for all the different ways that western game development has outstripped eastern game development, on average they still get demolished in the music category.

This is maybe true for western AAA games. I think it's a difference in goals. Those are going for a "cinematic" feel and have filmlike atmospheric soundtracks and licensed music. If you dip into indie games you can find game-y bangers and skilled composers on the same level as JP games.

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