My week long celebration of the SNES’s 20th needs more than just three short posts, so I am going to supplement that with a pair of quick, but well considered, Top 20 lists.

This first one is a list of my 20 favorite pieces of music from SNES games. I have limited it to no more than 2 from any one game and no more than 3 from any one series to keep me from filling it with just Zelda and Chrono Trigger tracks. I am sure there are plenty of songs that I’m forgetting, and you can yell at me about them in the comments section, but here are the ones I didn’t forget:

 

20:  Stickerbrush Symphony – Donkey Kong Country 2.  I may not like the game that much, but the music is tits.

19:  Dedede’s Theme – Kirby Super Star.  I had to have Kirby on here, and Green Greens is too easy

18:  Fillmore – ActRaiser.  I haven’t played the game enough, but it sounds great.

17:  Dark World – Legend of Zelda:  A Link to the Past.  Why did I put this so low?  Because I forgot it until just before I was finished.

16: Brinstar (red soil) – Super Metriod.  Too goddamn great.  Perfectly moody.

15:  Big Blue – F-Zero.  Listen to it, I don’t need to add anything.

14: Storm Eagle – Mega Man X.  Mega Man always had great music, the SNES changed nothing about that.

13: Red Wings – Final Fantasy 2.  Take that Imperial March.

12: Leave Time for Love – Secret of Mana.  Secret of Mana is obligatory.  I like this one.

11: Memories of Green – Chrono Trigger.  You could replace this with any other song on the Chrono Trigger Soundtrack, save one.

10:  Buy Something Will Ya! – Earthbound.  Earthbound’s music is as idiosyncratic as the rest of the game.

9: Title Theme – Super Mario World.  I love it all, let’s just start with this one.

8: Lower Norfair – Super Metriod.  Even if the game wasn’t nearly perfect, this would make it worth playing.

7: Celes – Final Fantasy 3.  I recognize their cheesiness, but I love the opera scene and Celes suicide a lot.

6: Simon’s Theme – Super Castlevania 4.  There is no more perfect fit of game and music.

5:  Spark Mandrill – Mega Man X.  Best 16-bit butt rock? I think so.

4: Boy Meets Girl – Earthbound.  Simply perfect.

3: Hyrule Field – Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

2: Clash on the Big Bridge – Final Fantasy 5.

1: Frog’s Theme – Chrono Trigger.

Yeah, that’s it.  This list already turned into much more work than I expected.  Tomorrow I should have something more substantial.