Old Schoolers- First Soundtrack that Made You Say "Wow"

I would certainly classify myself as a hardcore gamer--growing up, I never really had much money, but what money I did get my hands on (including lunch money) almost always went towards fueling my inner-nerd--it started with my Atari 2600 at age 5.  From there, I have owned the NES, Genesis, TurboGrafix 16, Gameboy, SNES, Sega CD, Sega 32X, Sega Saturn (the reason behind my first job at age 15), PS, N64, PS2, Gamecube, Xbox, and most recently the Xbox 360. 

Along the way, I've heard many-o-soundtrack.  Certainly the 16-bit area was sort of a coming-out-party for game soundtracks:  Final Fantasy II (IV), Ys, Contra 3, Super Castlevania IV, TMNT:  Turtles in Time, Streets of Rage, Actraiser, and the like. 

However, I think the first soundtrack which absolutely dropped my jaw has to be Ecco the Dolphin on Sega CD.  Super Castlevania IV is a close second, but certainly Ecco wins out of pure sound quality--that is, its likeness to "real", movie-quallity sound.

How about you?

Sonic the Hedgehog (1, 2, 3 S&K)

FFII

FFIII

CT

CC

Doom

Tie Fighter

Goldeneye

Perfect Dark

Halo

Act Raiser

Megaman (most of em)

Zelda

Super Mario 1

Too many.

Hard to get amazing soundtrakcs working with only MIDI.MTBare

Hard to get amazing soundtracks working with only MIDI.MTBare

Actually, I thnk MIDIs inherent limitations is what makes a great soundtrack like Super Castlevania IV and Streets of Rage so special.  Somehow, the artists found a way to make really fantastic music out of various "bleeps" and "blips".

Super Mario Bros.
Then, Super Mario World.
Then, Super Metroid.

And until recently, I have not been wowed... but Shadow of the Colossus changed al that. Roar of the Earth is the best game soundtrack in the history of gaming.
foxhound_fox

Never played Colossus...I'll have to go check it out now.  Thanks.

OoTjvonrader

Really?  Gosh, I actually remember that music getting on my nerves, LOL!  Oh well, to each his own.

That Sonic had the dopest soundtrack. The star stage was the best.shungokustasu

Super Mario Bros/ Mario 3

The Legend of Zelda/ Zelda 2/ Zelda: A Link to the past

Megaman/Megamen 2/ Megaman 3/Megaman X

Street Fighter 2

Onimusha definitely was the first.

Later games included Guilty Gear X2, Otogi and Castlevania:  Lament of Innocence.  Oh and God of War. :P

God of War was excellent.  I'm tempted to finally go buy that game just so I can listen to it!  I love the quasi-arabian quallity of soundtracks for Roman / Greek-themed movies and games.

DementedDragon

Super Mario Bros/ Mario 3

The Legend of Zelda/ Zelda 2/ Zelda: A Link to the past

Megaman/Megamen 2/ Megaman 3/Megaman X

Street Fighter 2

Kev_Unreal

And F-Zero

Megaman 2zh666

Personally my favourite that still sticks in my mind even today is FFVIII. Followed closely by OoT. I know their not that old but they seem to be the ones for me at least that had the greatest initial impact._shadow99

Pilot wingsgoblaa

Chronologically, the first game soundtrack I really *loved* was Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past.

I don't recall any NES games really capturing me with their music.

Pilot wingsgoblaa

The best one that I can remember that blew my mind was:
M.U.S.H.A. - a top down mech shooter for the Sega Genesis. That game had some serious out of this world soundtracks.
M8ingSeezun

And F-Zero

Kev_Unreal