This post is a short and sweet Halloween treat!
Below are 11 of my top picks for video game music to play on Halloween. Enjoy!
Got a suggestion? Add it to the comments on this post!!
1. Rayman 2: The Great Escape – “The Tomb of Ancients”
2. Donkey Kong 64 – “Frantic Factory”
3. Donkey Kong 64 – “Creepy Castle”
4. The Legend of Zelda, Ocarina of Time – “Shadow Temple”
If the music itself doesn’t creep you out a bit, the horrible memories of confusing and lengthy puzzles in a poorly-designed dungeon are sure to terrify you to the very core.
5. Gruntilda’s Lair
I love the music from Banjo-Kazooie/Banjo-Tooie so much.
6. The Legend of Zelda, Twilight Princess – “Light and Darkness”
7. Super Metroid – Title Screen Theme
This one gave me the downright chills when I fired up my SNES, which is impressive to say because the SNES doesn’t exactly have a sound palette that lends itself to creeping the bejesus out of you. Despite this, my bejesus was thoroughly creeped and I would often find my younger self mesmerized by the title theme and that creepy/cute Metroid-in-a-bottle. Look at ’em. Just wiggling there, up to no good…
8. Kingdom Hearts 2.5 Remix – “This is Halloween”
Much love to my fellow Bostonians, the Shota Nakama and the Video Game Orchestra, who re-orchestrated and re-recorded the soundtrack for Kingdom Hearts 2 for the “2.5 Remix” installment. The game didn’t change too much, but the soundtrack was majorly elevated by the addition of a very fine, real orchestra and some thoughtful arrangements by Shota.
9. Final Fantasy VII – “Trail of Blood”
If my memory serves me correctly, the scene that went with this piece of music was the first time we really saw blood in a Final Fantasy game – and it was splattered all over the floors and walls of the Shinra building like a murder scene from Dexter.
10. Final Fantasy VII – “Who Are You?”
The short, piercing music that accompanies Cloud’s cryptic flashbacks and corrupted memories was also pretty creepy.
11. Final Fantasy VII – “Those Chosen by the Planet”
Yes, I have pieces of Final Fantasy VII music in here. Deal with it. I was trying to find this one but couldn’t remember the name and had to skip through the whole Final Fantasy VII soundtrack to track it down, forcing me to rediscover #9 and #10 on this list. The dissonance in the chords for this piece coupled with an ominous ostinato really drove it home for me on this one.
I’m putting in for FF6’s Phantom Forest and Phantom Train. One mysterious, one dreadful.