This is not a thread to recommend video game music nor to list dozens of game themes that sound metal, I want to know what 8/16 bit era video game theme is, for you, the greatest metal-sounding video game song ever.



That's my personal choice, great song.

EDIT - I ballsed up and didn't read the OP properly. I'm going to opt for Ken's theme from Street Fighter II (SNES version is what I'm most familiar with)

I was struggling to decide between the Cave Theme or the Boss Theme from the Power Rangers SNES game, so I decided: Why not both?

That game's soundtrack was ridiculously good. I really love that tune, but usually defer to Castlevania II's version, as it's the one I'm most familiar with and the IV version doesn't have the theme as much "in your face" as the II version.

Oddly enough many years ago I took that cool beginning organ line as inspiration for a doom metal song I wrote synth and guitar for. My band is currently working on making it a full fledged song.

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I think the opening scenes for Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden II sound fairly metallic for 8-bit tunes, suited for maybe epic heavy/power metal. Some really, really good shit.

Since it seems like OP wants us to refrain from posting lists, I'll just post the one from the first installment of the series:

Chrono Trigger - Tyran Castle. The whole OST is brilliant but this one captures a doomy occult sort of vibe while sounding heavy.



Also, honourable mention goes to the Batman (NES) soundtrack. Not only very advanced for its time but packed with fast tempos and lead harmonies.

Let's get a bit more obscure but a very metal one; Area 9 from Blazing Lazers (Turbografx-16)

Also surprisingly metal:

Devil's Crush - Main Table Theme (Turbografx-16)


Fire Field from F-Zero (SNES). This is probably the most metallic of the original game's music.

The double-bass here:

I skimmed that and...I don't hear it? The drums sound more like drumrolls than bass drums (I don't know the right word).


Super Mario World's Bowser theme. I actually remembered this one in post after my last post. It was in Super Mario Kart in a somewhat altered form but it doesn't have as much oomph to it.

Kickass tune, still the gold standard for video game metal imo

A lot of the 80s action game soundtracks are intended to sound metal, so there's a wealth to pick from. My favourite is the 'Jungle' theme from the original Metal Gear (what's in a name). My brother and I were crazy about this game and we finally did a metal cover of it a couple years back. Turned out we weren't the first ones to have that idea. There are quite a few covers of various Metal Gear installments. Here's mine. Here's the original:

Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest

https://youtu.be/SUGDp39srk0

Not sure if this is exactly what OP was looking for, but it's an infamous track for Norwegian Black Metal fans.

I'd say that belongs, solely because of DB's Sorgens Kammer

I'm not sure which Amiga this was on though. The 500 was a 16 bit computer, but the 1200 was 32 bit so it may or may not fit based on the model it was for. Cool song though.

Nemesis the Warlock

https://youtu.be/kdzfOXkZrY0

I can't believe nobody mentioned Doom:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSsfjHCFosw

Doom is early 32-bit, on the same wavelength as Final Fantasy VII, in that its music is basically CD-quality MIDI. Not quite the same as 8/16-bit.

Yeah, 16 bit usually refers to tracker music, does it not? Doom is full on MIDI.

I heard Megaman games have sweep arpeggios. Is that true?

I think the Megaman series is the definitive answer to this thread. So many examples.



That's an interesting question to answer because it's not a definite yes. Using fast arpeggios is a natural thing to do in tracker music and it's not because of guitar music. It's just a relatively simple yet ear-catching way to lay out a chord progression in a tracker.

But because Megaman music uses so many ways to tell us "this is actually metal" and not just 8-bit beeps, I think fast arpeggios are likely to be interpreted as guitars, and the main way to play the kinds of arpeggios we hear in tracker music is to use sweep picking.

Or to look at it another way, we can definitely hear how the composer was imitating metal music, therefore we can assume that the fast arpeggio sweeps are imitating the ones in metal done by sweep picking.

tl;dr Almost definitely yes but can they really be called sweeping (in the guitar technique sense) if they aren't played on a guitar using the sweep picking technique?

Has anybody here played Turrican?! I still remember great 8bit music

https://playingwithsuperpower.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/turrican-3.png

This sounds real good.

I didn't know what to expect after hearing you did a "metal" version of this song I've heard a billion times, but it worked perfectly.