VGC Top Ten: Worst Instances of Videogame Music - News
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 28 March 2010 / 50,254 Views
Here at VGChartz, we have had many top ten lists over the past year or so, and one of the more entertaining ones happened to be the one about the best videogame soundtracks. I decided to delve into the nether-regions of evil to do the flip side of that good music coin, the Omega to its Alpha. I’m sure we have all heard some bad videogame songs in our time, but what I hope to show you guys are the ten worst ones that I could come up with in no particular order. Feel free to discuss your own hated videogame music in the comments section so that we will all feel ear-violated.
Warioware – Ashley Song
I’m not sure why, but this song always makes me want to yank my ears off whenever I play the DS version of Warioware. The song isn’t bad the first time you hear it, but after repetitious plays, you begin to question your very worth of being.
Silent Hill 2 – dog ending
Even though this is a funny secret ending to a horror game, I can’t help feeling as if a mortal man can only handle a few minutes of the song at a time.
DK Rap
I know I may be inciting a flamewar for this much beloved Nintendo song, but the DK Rap is one of those songs that could make Stephen Hawking look “gangsta” by comparison. Lame lyrics like these signify the end of rap music more blatantly than any over-saturation by MTV.
Cruisin’ USA
The Cruisin’ USA soundtrack sounds like the kind of mess you might hear at a seedy bar at 1 A.M. right before the last call on drinks. Some loudmouth drunk man decides to jump onto the stage to belt out a few lines of his favorite John Fogerty song. Instead this comes out of his gullet.
Night Trap
I’m not sure which is worse: the bad lip synching, the bad fashion, or the bad song. I’ll let your ears decide.
Marvel vs. Capcom 2 character select
If you are like me, you listen to this song wondering if at any time whatsoever another verse might come up. Maybe just one small variation on the tried and true one line of amazing songwriting prowess will surface. Instead we get infinite “i wanna take you for a ride!!!!”, “i wanna take you for a ride!!!!”, “i wanna take you for a ride!!!!”.
Please kill me….
"Birthday Cake" from Jet Set Radio Future
Cibo Matto generally doesn’t bother me, in fact the songs they worked on for the Gorillaz project was awesome. For whatever reason the song "Birthday Cake" from Jet Set Radio Future is the exact opposite of awesome. The shrill voice makes my ears bleed, and the lyrics do nothing to help it.
Yoshi’s Story theme
Yoshi’s Story is a kids game, so I shouldn’t be too harsh on the music. You don’t see me tearing up music by the Australian kids band “The Wiggles” after all. But as a Nintendo fan, I just had to play the game, and had my ears assaulted with a wall of childish crap-tacular sound.
They Call Me Sonic
You know I had to put a Sonic song on here. Surprisingly I did not post one of those bad pop-punk disasters from the 3D games, but one much much worse. I like techno music despite the repetitiveness of the whole affair, but listening to the following song from a promo CD that Sega sent out made me confused. It’s basically like someone read the title of the game into a computer and it spit out the most generic song it could.
After further research, I figured out why, this band basically makes the same song each time it produces music!!
Hunt for red October NES
People give Space Invaders crap for having bland music, but listen to this gem from Hunt for red October for the NES. I tried not to put too many NES games on here due to the limited capability of the sound chip, but c’mon this music is terrible.
Well there you have it, the most mind numbing, earsplitting songs in videogame history. It doesn’t end there though, post some other great ones in the comments box, so we can suffer more than we already have!
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+1000 on M vs. C 2. Every time I play that game, I turn the music all the way down to avoid tearing my ears off. Whoever in Capcom corporate approved that music needs to be fired.
I Love Yosh's Story Theme!!!
OOOhhh!! Eh Uh Eh OOOhhhh!!!
XD
Ah I loved Yoshi's Story theme. I can see how it can become annoying though.
That Cruisin' USA song must be a menu song, because I played the heck out of that game and I never listened to that song long enough to figure out it just kept repeating the second part.
Awesome Night Trap
The Sonic tunes on here are terrible. But that's because I dislike hardcore or in this case happy hardcore. It's not techno.
I liked Yoshis Story theme tune lol. As for Hunt for Red October it would make a great Drum & Bass sample....
Ashley's Song and Birthday Cake are both awesome songs and not annoying at all.
WTF? I love the Yoshi Story Theme :[.
Also hearing Cruis'n USA gives me so much Nostalgia haha.
Read article
First song: Ashley's Song
You shut your whore mouth.
How about any of the songs from the 2.B.A Master Pokemon CD?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fOsdy1ZsXUs&feature=PlayList&p=E7C2ECBB61322578&index=2
They are actually kind of decent, but really bad at the same time. (I owned this CD btw lol)
@http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDwivbWwnt
that 1942 song is about as good as if i tried to play itunes out of my computer's system speaker. you know the one that beeps at you when you fry your CPU?
MVC2 is awsome, it drives my gf crazy though lol
That DKrap song is better then 90% of all rap songs out there :-)
I also like the MvC2 character select screen music. It isn't as if you listen to it for a long time anyway.
Also the remix with Twelib Kweli was dope.
i loved the 2 sonic happy hardcore mixes....they r amazing...the other songs deserve 2 b on this list.....the sonic ones dont :) but i love happy hardcore!
Your comment about both of the Sonic songs being the same song or the "Band" making the same song each time, shows that you are not a fan of techno as you say. As you would realized that they are not even close, but I digress on that point.
The following is opinion.
I have to say, the DK RAP is terrible. The Hunt for Red October music is very fitting for the game. Yoshi's music is crap as well as the DOG ending for Silent hill 2.
I personally enjoy both sonic tracks. They are great nostalgia from the early day of Happy Hardcore music.
The rest, well they are take it or leave it. I have no great feelings one way or the other.
I like Marvel vs Capcom 2 character select screen music though I didn't think it suited the game.
sonic spinball 1st stage music why isnt that on list, it was very very bad.
lol @ cruisin usa
I always rock the tennis racket whenever I want get down and party!
Every single song on that list was awesome! Especially the DK Rap!
ok Birthday cake and Yoshi's theme are not bad songs!
I liked the Hunt for Red October music. I think it is perfect for a cold war submarine NES Atari or Game Boy game.
The USSR anthem, which is the melody playing in the intro sequence, is in my opinion one of the best anthems ever. It was nice to hear a NES version of it.
anyone unlucky enough to remember Smurf on Atari 2600?
That music was enough to make you cry....
What about every single song in crackdown?
How is JSRF on this list? IMO, JSRF had one of the best soundtracks ever in a game. Even to this day, I still listen to the songs on my iPod. And Sega's music?.......their games have the best soundtracks to them ever, (PSO ep 1&2, Sonic R, NiGHTS, JSRF, etc...)
The Yoshi's Story music brings back so many good memories for me. I loved that game. I like the DK Rap too. Cruisin' USA had bad music, but nothing compared to Cruisin' World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnBt5x4ZeW4
P.S. That 1942 song is SUPER annoying!
You've been spared of truly bad music my friend.
Go play SpiderMan for Master System. Or Magical Vacation for GBA. Or fucking Madworld.
It's kind of funny because 1943 has good music.
The Ashley song is a little annoying, but you should try the SSBB version, it's really good.
Here is the worst NES music, and some of the worst in any game, 1942:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDwivbWwnt8&feature=PlayList&p=33EDD19A5FA33704&index=0
wtf sonics music is legendary, whoever made this needs a swift kick
I LOVE:
-Ashley's theme
-Yoshi Story' theme
-Birthday Cake -- I am crazy about the whole soundtrack of that game! I listen to it monthly at least!
I like :
-DK Rap
-The Sonic songs
So I only dislike/hate the rest. This Top 10 is therefore so-so for me at least..!
I must be a freak but I LOVE most of those songs!!
Comment peut-on mettre dans ce chef d'oeuvre qu'est DK rap dans cette liste ?
@ Joel
"I wanna take you for a ride!"
repeat
You're welcome, by the way.
Anyway, I think Iceman's stage (the raft) from Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 is far worse, I mean... wth is she singing about?...
Damn Marvel VS Capcom 2,That song is forever engraved into my head..can someone post the lyrics?LMAO
I liked almost all of those. What the hell is wrong with you?!?
Wow, I'm surprised this one wasn't on the list.
Grandia III- Baccla
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI-jgfxZj6I&feature=related
Ashley song is not as horrible as the others and the sonic songs aren't actually that bad if you dig happy hardcore music, which I don't at all!
I liked the Yoshi's Story melody >:[
Birthday cake is a really crappy remix of a really awesome cibo mato song.
You forgot to say one thing for Night Trap: the terrible acting. That made my eyes bleed before my ears started to.
The melody to Yoshi's Story is not bad (some of the in-game remixes show that) but the Yoshi noises make it terrible.
ROFL at the sonic's music, and MVC2 was hilarious..
The list lost all credibility when it didn't include Deadly Premonition, cue the greatest cutscene in the world ever.
Well, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance has terrible songs too...
I'm guessing whoever made this list didn't play atari games... some of them were horrible loops of the same 2 beats.
I actually dig Birthday Cake... but THFRO is indeed terrible :-D
Dude the DK rap is awesome >.>
This list fails miserably for the simple fact that Ahsley's Song is every kind of awesome!
DK Rap is awesome. I would put Street Fighter IV intro with this type of backstreet boys song.
I can't believe you guys including the DK Rap Song???
I have that song on my ipod, and IMO it's one of the best rap tunes ever made ranking up there with some of Eminems best.
The lyrics are dope, the flow is flawless and the beat is wicked. How can you guys seriously put that song on a list of worst???
Had it been a mainstream release I guarantee it would have been a Top 10 Hit and people would remember it as one of the best SONGS (forget rap only) of the 90's.
I love MvC2 :D
DK Rap ftw!
Haha while they're all bad, some of them I can't help to like - like the dog ending and Birthday Cake.
DK Rap and They Call Me Sonic, I can actually stand to listen to those. I use to have Sonic on my WinAmp back in the day when I used Kazaam and Limewire.
I could never really stand that song in JSRF. It does get a little better as the song goes on though.
Cruis'N World N64 was probably worse...ugh terrible.
I agree with all of these. I would add the music from bubsy 3D too.
Why is there non of the crappy-PES song's? Those are really bad.
try hearing them all at the same time...
Yeah, I love a lot of these songs, especially MvsC 2, Yoshi's Story and Birthday Cake. That's a different mix of Birthday Cake though; it's not the actual OST version.
More weird awesomeness:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4Fmk3dUYu8
LoL the dog ending was genious, reminds me of excel saga credits.
The Yoshis Story song is awesome. It reminds me of Loco Roco.
Ha Sonic, reminds of the Sonic music CD's you could buy in the 90's.
http://images.google.be/images?hl=nl&client=opera&rls=nl&resnum=0&q=Sonic+dance+power&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=wC2vS5XfJs2h4QaShrW1Dw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CCMQsAQwAw
It was full with those kind of songs =p.
They must of run out of time or funding, so they just put random tunes together and said "well, it's not like ppl buy the game for the music".
I don't mind the Night Trap song or the vid. "Birthday Cake" is pretty funny, and the 2 Sonic songs don't sound any worse than the stuff that gets played at clubs (then again I can't stand the genre : P). "Hunt For Red October" and "Cruisin USA" are abominations though.
i seriously rush through the MvC2 menu just for that damn song to stop, its the worst in this list IMO.
Ashley's Song? DK Rap? I can think of instances of earsplitting music in games and these wouldn't even make the cut. This sounds more like "it's weird and I HATE IT!" than being any type of terrible music. Except for that Red October game. That's bad and creepy.
I loved Birthday Cake I it was the theme song for my base my friend hated it though and he'd try to choke me every time it came on.
downloads dog ending song and yoshi's intro onto zune
marvel vs capcom 2....ahahaah my favorite
I stopped taking this list seriously the moment he listed "Ashley's Song".
DK rap was awesome!
What Loaded said. Still like the list though.
OH MAN!!! I remember that annoying song from Jet Set Radio. God! At first, I thought she always said "SHUT UP AND LET ME IN!!!"
MY FUCKING EARS!!!! AHAGGHAHAGH!!!!
I love Ashley's Song, the DK Rap, and Cibo Matto. Everything about Night Trap is perfect. She was doing bad lip synching on purpose, as a joke at the party.
I'm not even going to listen to the Sonic song though. I've had enough of those to last me a lifetime.
Ahh, Yoshi's Story... probably my biggest disappointment of the N64 era (aside from the atrocious ports of Cruis'n USA and Mortal Kombat Trilogy that we were subjected to at launch)... and that music will never leave my brain unless I blow it out... WITH A BULLET!!!
Where's Street Fighter IV intro?
WOOT! DK Rap is so hot!
Most of the music you seem to hate, I love. Ashley's Song, DK Rap, and the 3D Sonic songs are all amazing.
Yeah, I consider the music to be the best feature of some of the 3D SOnic games.
Cruisin' 64. Oh god.
I loved Birthday Cake, though. If you think that's shrill, you should try some Chinese folk songs. After a semester of that, I can tell you this pales in comparison.
Oh, and insulting DK rap is a declaration of war.
Yes rthat Sonuic song made by whoever is horrible.
Also what do you mean bad punk rock music from the 3D games? Most people I know love the rock music.
