Games

Outer Wilds takes the cake for me.

Civ 4: Baba Yetu

Morrowind, hands down

Skyrim, by a longshot. That theme never failed to get me cranked to get my Nordic adventuring on.

Kingdom Hearts main menu theme. It's absolutely a nostalgia hit for me. That game was one of my "get-away" games while in a rough situation. Hearing that music always makes me feel a little safer, like I'm just one step away from a completely different life.

Skyrim for sure, nothing gets you more prepared to start a new adventure than that.

Honorable mention to the Last of Us after you've completed the game and are just sitting there, staring at the screen and wondering what to do next.

Mass Effect

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3GXVXYl3_8c

Probably Metroid Prime. Both the Title Theme and the Menu Theme are fantastic.

Xenoblade games also have brilliant title themes. Here's the one for the first game.

Now, for some spice, let's branch into a type of game I think most people here won't have played - Visual Novels often have great title themes.

• Muv-Luv Alternative's "Crash" is pure hype
• Both Steins;Gate's "Gate of Steiner" and Steins;Gate 0's "Messenger" are great themes too.
• I also love VA-11 HALL-A's "Hopes and Dreams".

• Red Alert 2
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Unreal Tournament 2004:

https://youtu.be/uTFfxtb7q4M

Cadence of Hyrule, for sure. So damn good.

https://youtu.be/SnpaNEj4aCU?si=GrBpxcq1EN96Nv9D

Skyrim and RuneScape 2 (pre-audio update) are both pretty damn iconic

At my wedding we had the DJ play Skyrim and Witcher 3 music during dinner and it worked way better than it had any business working

Hollow Knight

Elden Ring's main theme is literally the only video game song I have in my normal music rotation.

But only because Lunar Silver Star Story's Wings isn't on Spotify.

Payday 2 really sets the mood with it's music

One of the best fighting games

One Must Fall 2097

A little bit of nostalgia always helps too

Not main menu but the golden eye pause menu music on the n64 was a banger 🔥

The correct answer is Civilization V Gods and Kings.

The Legend of Zelda

Yeah, there are newer versions, but I deliberately found the original.

Definitely the original main menu music for Dragon's Dogma.

I remember booting it up on the PS3 back in the day and was like "Wha-?" but after playing the game so many times it's definitely become a favorite. Both for how out of place it is but also how perfect it fits after all the context of the game.

Sad they replaced it for the Dark Arisen version but luckily there is a mod for PC that restores it in all its glory. :P

Super Mario Bros. 2

Deus Ex

Duke Nukem 3D Gets me pumped to this day.

Dark Souls 3

Even years later, having completed the game many times, that opening song still gives me the chills! So haunting, so beautiful!

Skyrim has to be on the list for the pure joy of it

Morrowind

Final Fantasy XII

• Mirrors Edge
• Turrican 2
• EF2000
• Mass Effect Galaxy Map

Super Metroid.

Spooky AF

Arcanum's main theme gets my vote.

It's weird. It's terrible as music - just random strings with almost no recognizable tune outside of the first few seconds - but it sets a mood better than any other. It's distilled melancholy in music form.

Witcher 3, phenomenal music.

Dragon's Dogma.

THE WIND IS PUSHING MEEE

Papers please

Rocket Jump Waltz -- TF2

Ori and the Blind Forest has a great track throughout, but the menu is definitely a highlight.

The whole collection of music from Stellaris and Cyberpunk are both excellent.

Crusader: No Remorse / No Regret

https://youtu.be/wwG5BJtZBCU?si=aMMbMveu0s6KltoQ

So many great remixes of it too.

Metroid Prime. I only played it for the first time this year when the remaster came out and the music blew me away.

Syndicate (2011)

Syndicate was a really niche entry into the Cyberpunk genre that flopped commercially but had some interesting ideas about corp-ocracy and the way businesses of the future would wage warfare against each other like nations used to.

That main menu music has echoed in my brain for years. Deus Ex: Human Revolution would have been first but Syndicate is less well known and I figured someone already mentioned DE:HR at some point here.

Max Payne. It sets the tone of the game at once.

The BF1942 theme/title music is the most epic to me.

Gotta be Into Free which was the original main title music from Dragon's Dogma.

It was removed for Dark Arisen for reasons I am unsure of, so it isn't even something you can experience without mods.

It is wildly different from the rest of the game's music but still connected in a way, and sets a very different vibe. Great game, great music.

Crackdown. https://youtu.be/ay9q298vbUc?si=Z9Hghm3Qf7kkH8_9

The Ghost Recon theme has been stuck in my head off and on ever since it came out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwLIHqkqHcw

I didn't even play the game that much -- I think I beat it once, played the multiplayer a little, and moved on. But the music is catchy.

Depends on what mood I'm in.

Currently I'd like to chill, I'm pretty tired, maybe eat an edible if I had one.

So right now I'd have to say the Mass Effect 1 menu music: https://youtu.be/3GXVXYl3_8c?feature=shared

There used to be a mix I would fall asleep to several years ago. It was the engine humming mixed with the occasional beeping and status tones like a computer on the bridge, and the main menu music would play very softly every few minutes. Can't find it anymore, although there are several of those each individually in hour long mixes.

If I want to get pumped though, doom 3 is a good one:https://youtu.be/rs0cSUIKKew?feature=shared although for actual main menu looping music, I'm going to have to agree with GONADS125, battlefield 1942 never fails to get me up and moving. It's a very driving song.