Maybe a bit too much FF for a top ten. Though I admit that Nobuo Uematsu is one of the best video game music composers ever.

There was so much good music in games back in the Mega Drive SNES days too.

FFIX had some of the best music I ever heard. I think FF lost it's magic when Nobuo Uemasu stopped composing for them.

My top ten are:

Shadow of the Colossus (All of them)
Persona 3 (Burn my Dread and Heartful Cry)
Persona 4 (Backside of the TV and I will face myself)
Final Fantasy 8
Final Fantasy X
Growlanser 1
Silent Hill 2
Twisted Metal 2
Valkyrie Profile Lenneth
Final Fantasy 6

Shoji Meguro is a musical Genius.

FFXII Clash on the Big Bridge
FFX People of the North Pole.
FFX Wandering Flame
FFX Auron's Theme
FFX Fight with Seymour
FFVIII Man with a Machine Gun
FFVIII Maybe I'm a Lion
FFVIII Eyes on Me Piano Version
FFVII Lifestream Theme
FFVII Cosmo Canyon Theme
FFVII Sandy Badlands
FFVII Wutai Theme
FFVII Jenova Theme
FFVI Shadow's Theme
FFVI Dancing Mad
FFV Clash on the Giant Bridge
FFIV Baron's Theme
FFIV Red Wings Theme
FFIV Within the Giant

Those are my fave FF themes. And here now is an epic OCRemix cover of Baron's Theme.

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Imagine that in FFIV and you'd see why no one messes with Baron.

I think my favorite might be the best is yet to come, from the mgs 1.

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Mmm, I have quite a few pieces I always love to hear:

Ocean Theme - Windwaker: THAT is how you make stupidly open expanses of water exciting

"Snake Eater" - MGS3 : ...does anyone else start singing this in other games when it feels like a ladder is taking too long to climb? I can't be the only one.

"Weak Executioner [Litchi vs. Arakne]" - Blazblue: That little hint of sadness in this intense song sums up the two characters' tragic conflict perfectly.

"Gluttony Fang [Hazama]" - Blazblue : speaking of summing up characters, when the chorus hits, it's hard not to picture Hazama laughing his ass off. And mercilessly kicking mine. (could fill this whole thing with Blazblue. Moving on...)

"Flying to your Heart" - Gitarooman : not much to say about this one. Magic guitars. Giant enemy crabs. General awesomeness.

"Sacred Worlds" - Sacred 2 : Why the hell did Blind f***ing Guardian have to partner up with such a mediocre dungeon crawler? Speaking of which, where the hell is your rock band dlc?! Don't you want all of my money?!

"Cornered" - Phoenix Wright : The original game's version, of course. Despite the title, this is actually a triumphant tune, usually accompanying an "A-HA!" moment that'll turn the case on its head.

And, file this one under "guilty pleasure"...
"Open Your Heart" - Sonic Adventure : shut up.

there's SOOOO many more and so little time...

Awesome article! With all this push for visuals we forget about music.

My list:

Nathan Drake 2.0 theme
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Zelda Skyward Sword theme
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Smash bros Brawl theme
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Mass Effect 2 Suicide Mission
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Final Fantasy 13 battle theme
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Prototype 2 theme
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Love the halo theme makes me happy everytime I hear it!

Super metroid:begin theme
Xenoblade:boss theme(One who gets in our way)
Ducktales:moon stage
Megaman 3:Snakeman stage
Godofwar:Main theme
Uncharted:Main theme
Rayman origins:Murray of the deep
Dragon Quest VIII:Rememberances
Metal gear solid 3/4:Snake eater
FF7:So many
Chrono trigger:All of them there is like no bad music in that game
Lufia 2:Final boss theme
Persona 3:Velvet room
Secret of mana:Main theme
FF6:Tera's theme
TMNT turtles in time:Sewer theme
Illusion of time/gaia:Final boss theme and in the earthen womb.

There is so much really good video game music out there you cant make a top 10 really.

Early Final Fantasy on SNES (with that sound.) are among my favorites.

The original FF soundtrack is around my favorites even tough most squaresoft/squareenix games have great music.

Same can be said about many popular series of games like call of duty and here´s why http://www.youtube.com/watc...

videogames have great soundtracks in general and that´s the kinda stuff that makes me a proud gamer.

Nobuo Uematsu > all

Super Mario World - Overworld

Deus Ex - UNATCO

Moneky Island 2- Main Theme

Shadow Of Colossus - ALL

MGS - Main Theme

Oblivion - Watchman's Ease

Chrono trigger - ALL

Halo - Main theme, Perilous Journey

Halo 2 - Peril

And lots of others i cant remember

No Chrono Trigger. YOU FAIL GOOD DAY SIR.

Someday the dream will end from FFX, for some reason this theme stuck with me since I first played the game in 2003, but then again FFX was a masterpiece in all aspects.

No Megaman? No Chrono Cross/Trigger? No Nier? No Castlevania? It's an ok list, but I would certainly replace some of those FF themes with some of the above. But then again, theres nothing quite as subjective as music opinions. I still think there needs to be more variety there, though.

The Song of Healing from Majora's Mask is the top for me. Beautiful, dark, twisted, artistic, and incredibly emotional all at once.

Outset Island - The Wind Waker. It's so tentative and 'cute' and its unassuming elegance belies the fact that it is a superb piece of classical music. One of the most graceful songs/instrumentations that I have ever, videogame or otherwise. Also bearing in mind that you are leaving your grandmother to go on a quest, it will potentially, and unexpectedly, make you want to cry at the very START of an adventure.

For its mysterious beauty, Inside the Crashed Space Pirate Frigate on Metroid Prime is worth a shot:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
But it does go on a bit when you just listen to the audio- best when you're playing it in the haunted confines of that spaceship, most things (as usual in Metroid Prime) utterly dead.

Aquatic Ambience stood out a lot in the 16 bit days:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...
It's an ideal theme tune for the Metroid Prime level actually.

and I love the music from Super Mario World. Dire Dire Docks from Mario 64 is well known too - as is some Banjo Kazooie music.

To raise the spirits a bit more, how about Jet Set Radio Future?

Aisle 10:
http://www.youtube.com/watc...

and Teknopathetic, the ideal song for Reggie 'I'm about taking names 'Fils-Aime:

http://www.youtube.com/watc...

Tell me again how the multiplatform strategy was supposed to fix everything. Look at your results and compare them to Nintendo, which keeps thriving with exclusives. Your loyal fans are gone. And let’s not forget the pile of IPs you purchased only to let them rot.

The worst thing is this is down from last years numbers/expectations which was down from the previous years numbers/expectations. You think about how long “down” has been a consistent part of the communication and you realize those subscriptions are what’s holding that boat together. The price cut of gamespass is still a price raise in a string of price raises. They are trying to use players to offset the missing revenue. Now call of duty is out of gamespass, which is literally WHY they bought the company. To draw people to the subscription. They realized they missed a boatload of money and that wasn’t sustainable. Now you pay for it like you would have if they never bought the company… so why buy the company? Mind you those billions still need to be paid back. Yeah it gives you a chance to say we make the biggest FPS… but the internal conversations must be brutal at high level on topics that really matter. Like revenue. Profitability. And ROI for the shopping spree.

Is this like the 10th quarter in a row they're down 33% on hardware how is that even mathematically possible. You would think their mediocrity would Plateau