Catchiest video game song?
I thought of this post entirely because I have the Pokémon Center theme from Pokémon HeartGold SoulSilver stuck in my head, and it has wriggled in over and over for months despite me hearing and actively playing other music.
The entire sountrack from the original Toejam & Earl on Genesis, shit rewired my child brain in funky new ways
Red Alert - Hell March https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HUWUtTZvK4
My suggestion was Red Alert too, but from 3. I will never know the words, but the tune lives in my heart.
Tetris
One? Ill narrow it down to three,
These are all outstanding songs, but Lost Woods is the only one I'd describe as "catchy"
The entire soundtrack of Chrono Trigger, but Schala's Theme is my absolute favorite. 30 years later, and i *still" let it play out in it's entirety the first timer it plays in Zeal.
It's gotta be from Final Fantasy, hard to choose just one when you got: Suteki da Ne, real Emotions, Eyes on Me, Sen no Kotoba, Otherworld, One Winged Angel, etc... there's a reason why I love Theatrhythm. But if I had to it will probably be Melodies of Life.
Actually, I change my mind, this is the catchiest video game song.
Mega Man 2, Wily Stage 1: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=aTbfpkByIM8&pp=ygUdbWVnYSBtYW4gMiB3aWx5IHN0YWdlIDEgbXVzaWM%3D
Heck. Half the Mega Man 2 sound track is probably in the top ten.
I still credit the Wood Man stage music for providing me focus and making it through a downpour on an unfamiliar highway with construction.
Vempair Survaivors from Vampire Survivors
Turrican2 and GODS .... Amiga :)
Borderlands 1 and 2 title songs
Short change hero lives rent free in my head
Neon White OST
...there's one clear victor and it's not even close...
Forgot about this one! You are correct
bfg division? maybe the katamari theme song.
i play a lot of shmups and their songs are often stuck in my head, most recently some stuff from raycrisis. fire emblem warriors songs get stuck in my head as well.
you might like !shmups@lemmus.org if you are not already subbed to it
been there for a hot minute! solid little group.
I've got 3 that I randomly hum in my head every now and then.
Great picks, Castlevania and Mega Man are my top 2 fave soundtrack franchises.
Megaman 2 Wily stage 1
Turtle Woods from Crash Bandicoot 2 has never left me ever since I first played it on the PS1.
Hell March from Red Alert
My time has come. As someone who almost exclusively listens to instrumental soundtrack from movies and games, including from games I have never played, these are the ones that most often get stuck in my head (in no particular order). A plus "+" indicates a song that got stuck in my head regularly before I ever played the game, while an asterisk "" indicates a song that still gets stuck in my head, despite being from a game I have never played at all.
But finally, the song that I credit with making me obsessed with instrumental soundtrack, because I fell asleep with it playing on repeat for a whole night at the age of 5, and then lost the game cartridge, so I forgot what it was from, and which I would get stuck in my head roughly once a month throughout my entire childhood until I finally found the song THIRTEEN YEARS LATER:
Ω) Town Theme - Final Fantasy II
Iunno how this wasn't mentioned, but Payday 2 has a lot of catchy / going-hard songs.
Gonna leave 3:
Naaaaa na-na-na-na-na-naaaa na na, na na na-na naaaaaaaa!
Also Unbreakable Determination from Ninja Gaiden 1.
All versions of moon over the castle from the gran tursimo series, the version from GT4 goes hard.
Lost woods.
Honestly anything from OoT, but Lost Woods, Kakariko Villiage, and Gerudo Valley in particular are ingrained into my gray matter.
NA NANANA NANAANANA NA KATAMARI DAMACY
Man the soundtrack alone could get me to play Katamari games. I got a birthday gift card recently and was deciding what game to get, when one of the OSTs came up on YT Music and I listened to it for like a week straight. Immediately got We ❤️ Katamari + DLC on 80% sale.
Could scream that shit in my car honestly.
I recently obtained a unicorn of a CRT and have been replaying this
Tetris Theme A.
My brain defaults to this if I feel the need to fill silence with sound.
There are better pieces of music in this thread, but this one is the strongest earworm.
This is one of the songs I hum to myself to get rid of more annoying earworms
This was a triumph...
I'm making a note here, huge success....
my hot take is that even though portal is a masterpiece this song is so cringe because i associate it with unfunny "the narwhal bacons at midnight" type redditors
I feel like the association of Portal with that era and that type of person, even though I think most of them probably became different people with age, even though I was practically one of them, makes the song a little harder to enjoy. I am aware of Ellen McLain's (GLaDOS voice actress) opera creds and think that's super cool though.
Sorry to the composer, it is not your fault. Similarly, I think maybe the same thing happened with Undertale. I think I played before the fandom got a bad reputation, so it and its songs are not quite tainted in my mind, in fact I'm a big fan of the game's use of leitmotifs (am I using the word right?) and really enjoy its music, but if I came in after I saw the fandom, I might like the work less through no fault of the composer.
You need to get out more.
The song is a masterpiece on its own.
Here a little late with some certified bangers in no particular order:
Monty on the Run - Main theme (Commodore 64)
Sonic CD [JP] - Quartz Quadrant (Present)
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Wandering Ghosts
Looked for someone to mention Mega Man. You picked a good one, but I’ll add the opening intro theme for Mega Man 2 for my catchy pick.
for me it’s perhaps Metro Exodus end scene.
I'm locking my answer in on the old Minecraft music. Literally EVERYONE knows it.
Does the Wii shop music count as a video game song?
Hang On main theme tune is excellent. The soundtrack to Hang-On and Super Hang-On are both top tier.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHfvmJtB2gs&pp=ygUSaGFuZyBvbiBtYWluIHRoZW1l
Doom E1M1 on my soundblaster and my Roland MT-32, all pumped through my surround sound system in my concrete dorm room in late 1992 and I won’t hear otherwise.
E1M1 is great, top tier music.
The level clear screen music, E2M8, E1M8, and E1/2M9 tracks are all other top tier track contending for the throne.
Doom II introduced a few more bangers too, but I'm not as able to call the level codes to mind off the top of my head.
Literally anything from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
I can't pick just one, honestly. Aside from the Tetris theme and World 1-1 from the original Super Mario Bros., I consider these to be not only catchy but also iconic:
DuckTales (NES) - Moon Theme. The covers are also awesome.
Easy answer for me, chemical plant zone from Sonic the hedgehog 2
The main theme of Papers, Please: https://youtu.be/DbBB1j5qAFs
OG Super Mario NES, World 1-1
Those first 6 notes of 1-2 tho...
What kind of overalls does Mario wear?
Denim denim denim🎵
For some reason the SMB2 theme song is stuck in my head all the time. Something about the jazziness of it.
Minecraft by C418 lives rent free in my head. Sometimes i'll start humming it to myself and not even realize
Tim Follin:
Solstice
Silver Surfer
Time Trax
Pictionary
Hell yeah, Tim Follin is a god.
"Tim, would you mind making the music for our Ghouls and Ghosts Commodore port?"
"No problem, here's 9 full length tracks spanning 22 minutes including a 4 minute long title screen song. I hope that's enough. I hope I got the screams right..."
How has no one mentioned the tetris theme? Dum dada dum dada dum dada dum dada dum di da da da
Back when groceries were cheaper, I would hum that while putting items on the belt to get scanned.
Opening theme of Civ VI. It‘s Songno di Volare nade by Christopher Tin.
Baba Yetu is also great
This guy studies the old magicks
It's an old one, but the Outrun soundtrack was proper catchy.
Splash Wave, Passing Breeze, or Magical Sound Shower?
I can never pick one, so here's a few:
Hell March! The Red Alert 2 version is the best one to me, maybe because it was the first I heard or because it just feels punchier.
The second one isn't bad, but I like the more trash metal style and less overwhelming bass in the first.
Which I guess is why Iove Andrew Hulshult's remake of E1M1
megalovania is one of the badasses in my book
We All Lift Together from Warframe goes fucking hard.
The Stupendium made an Outer Worlds song called The Fine Print that also goes hard af for either setting imo.
Some other bangers are the entire Silent Hill 3 sound track (You're Not Here and I Need Love are my personal favorites) and My Dark Disquiet by Poets of the Fall from Control.
MOON - Hydrogen From Hotline Miami. I'm noticably better at the game when this one is on.
I'm just gonna leave this gem here.
A lot from Undertale. Personal favourite is Spider Dance.
Other than this, The Trumpet 4 is catchy as heck.
Mine Windbag Mine is also incredibly catchy as heck, Darren Korb is super talented.
Suicide run, Mass Effect 2.
The entire soundtrack from FTL is fantastic and catchy and full of ear worms.
The Driftveil City Theme from Pokemon B&W pops up in my mind quite frequently, I'd say its up there in the list for catchiest Pokemon tunes. Honorable mention for Cave Story's Main Theme (the wii version is clearly superior from all others and I will not accept any other opinions on the matter)
Not what you asked for, but my music taste was shaped massively by Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series
The festival song or cascade theme, both from mario odyssey.
I also really like celeste's soundtrack
Iwatodai Dorm from Persona 3 Reload was the most recent one that really got stuck in my head, but it happens a lot for me. It’s not always video game music, but probably is a majority of the time.