I thought that perhaps there was a place for this here, too, and, well, that there might be enough of one to warrant making a thread.
Some ideas to start with:
Ah, Landstalker. Played it quite a bit as a kid, IIRC, on the Genesis, and then again later in an emulator. There are a number of tracks from it that could potentially count, but since the video I found for that track appears to be a full OST, I thought I’d just include the one link.
If I remember correctly, I mostly played the GBA port of the game rather than the original SNES version, but on the other hand, I think someone else’s copy of the original SNES version may have been the second console game I ever played.
This one… I recall playing as a kid on the SNES, I think I recall beating it as a kid, but I know I also played it later on an emulator.
Aaand this one, admittedly, as far as I recall I only ever played the DS port of, so that came years later than the other three here for me. Still, no actual requirement that we have played the source games as children here, that I know of.
Sad to say I didn’t have any 8 Bit consoles growing up. My siblings and I were generously given my Uncle’s hand me down systems as he would upgrade. So we went from Commodore 64 to Amiga and I don’t really remember the music of those games. Then we were given his Sega Megadrive II (that’s what the genesis was called here).
Anyway first song of choice is kinda obvious and overdone so I shall provide a acapella version to shake it up a bit
And then the ending music for Sonic 2. It offers a great sense of accomplishment.
From Link to the Past, I would add the Dark World theme
From Chrono Trigger, I’d pick Corridors of Time, Frog’s Theme, and Secret of the Forest.
Moving on to Final Fantasy VI… there are too many to link
Mines of Narshe, Locke’s Theme, Terra’s Theme, Wild West (The Veldt), Shadow’s Theme, Celes’ Theme/The Opera, Techno de Chocobo… there are so many!
Green Hill Zone from Sonic the Hedgehog still gets stuck in my head to this day.
Hmmm… yeah, I can’t do this lol The 16-bit era was my favorite so there are far too many good tracks for me to list them all
16-bit is more difficult than 8-bit imo, because there was much more available to the composers. Having more open to them meant there was scope for the creation of a whole load of musical varieties - it’s verging on a move away from “gaming” music and just being soundtracks.
I think my faves are still relatively simple songs like this one:
