In this weeks Top 10 we are sharing some of our favourite video game soundtracks. Be prepared for a trip down memory lane as we take you through the very best of rave, breakbeat, DnB, jungle, house, and techno from classic games such as Bomberman, Wipeout, Ridge Racer, and more. So, if you thought that good soundtracks only came from FIFA and GTA then think again. We guarantee you will be digging your old consoles out after this.

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1. Wipeout 3: Sasha – Icarus

Wipeout is a classic franchise for the Playstation which has 10 games under its umbrella. Conceived after a drunken conversation in a pub by the original developers, the soundtrack was decided to be a major feature in the game as opposed to music being in the background. With Wipeout 3, Psygnosis hired the one and only Sasha as music director of the game which is why the soundtrack is so good. With tracks from Chemical Brothers, Orbital, as well as Sasha’s own work this is one of the best sounding games ever.

2. Ape Escape: Soichi Terada – Dark Ruins

Intelligent monkeys, a young boy with a armoury of gadgets to catch them, and an incredible techno/liquid Dnb soundtrack sounds like a mismatch in anime heaven, but all of these things made Ape Escape one of the most fun games on the Playstation. The Soundtracks for almost the entire franchise of games have been produced by Japanese producer Soichi Terada. He was asked to write music for the game back in 1999 after the director of the game had heard his music. Soichi Terada has made a whole host of brilliant tracks inside and outside the Ape Escape – If you haven’t heard the 1992 classic ‘Do It Again’ we strongly suggest that you do – but the first games soundtrack for us unrivalled.

3. Bomberman Hero: Jun Chikuma – Redial

Bomberman is a well known gaming series that has sold over 10 million copies worldwide. That’s a lot of people who have paid to play the popular puzzle bomber, and the majority of that figure will have also heard the amazing music by Japanese producer Jun Chikuma who has wrote the soundtracks for most of the series titles. A composer, Arabic Nay player, and a part-time lecturer, its safe to say that Jun has a unique understand of music, which is easy to see in her amazing work on Bomberman Hero which she had filled with some of the most catchy Jungle and Dnb tracks we have heard.

4. Blade: Track 16

For you youngsters who might be reading this you should know that Marvel’s success in Hollywood didn’t start with the Avengers, in fact they had a whole host of successful movies before, and one of those was Blade. Anyone who has seen the movie will know how good the soundtrack is, the opening scene of the movie finds vampires going crazy in a warehouse rave to the sound of New Order – Confusion (Pump Panel Reconstruction Mix), and its safe to say the soundtrack is for the game is just as good.

The entire OST – produced by David Reynolds – is crazy full of dark drum & bass and techno tracks with skippy drums and haunting chord pads. It was really difficult to pick one.

5. Need for Speed: High Stakes: Rom Di Prisco – Quantum Singularity

Canadian producer Rom Di Prisco has spent his career making music for some of the greatest gaming, TV, and movie franchises of all time with his production credits on the likes of Need for Speed, SSX Tricky, Unreal Tournament 3, Saw 2, The Oprah Winfrey show and many others. However, his work on Need for Speed: High Stakes is some of his best, especially some of this ambient, breakbeat style rave track.

6. Ridge Racer 4: Hiroshi Okubo – Pearl Blue Soul

The successful Ridge Racer 4 was created by the legendary Bandai/Namco company who have also been responsible for many huge franchises such as Dark Souls, Pac Man, Soul Caliber, Tekken, and Ace Combat to name a few. The soundtrack for this game however is arguably the best on any game ever made with a unique blend of various different styles such as Jungle, Breakbeat, House, and UKG. Hiroshi Okubo – who has composed many soundtracks for the companies various titles – was a part of a team of people that contributed to this beautiful piece of work.

7. Streets of Rage 3: Motohiro Kawashima – Boss

Motohiro Kawasshima always had a love for electronic music being influence early in his life by the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto. After discovering techno in Tokyo and frequenting man of the clubs there he eventually got to share him music on games such as Streets of Rage 2, and 4. He usually makes tracks with his long time collaborator Yuzo Koshiro who made an ‘auto music composition system‘ to generate ideas for the game. This hard hitting techno soundtrack blends perfectly with the chaos that ensues in SOR2.

8. Wipeout: CoLD SToRAGE – Messij

Yet another entry from Wipeout because, well, why not? CoLD SToRAGE’s contributions to the Wipeout games are nothing to scoff at, but more interstinlgy he was responsible for the amazing music 2000, the PS1 music software – think of Ableton, but on Playstation – that UK producers in the millennium used to create some of the earliest grime tunes on including the incredible Pulse X by Youngstar. Half of So Solid Crew’s inaugural album was also made on the software. So, not only did CoLD SToRAGE make some of the greatest electronic video game music but changed the face of UK music forever. A british icon for sure.

9. Ghost in the Shell: Megatech Body – Blinding Waves

Ghost in the Shell – or G.I.T.S for short – gained international fame after the success of the highly acclaimed anime movie in 1995. Since then the franchise picked up more and more steam, so it was natural that a game would be produced. Although you dont get to play as the badass cybernetic protagonist, Major Kusinagi, you do get to play as section 7’s trusty Tachikoma robots. What could be better accompanying music for a fast paced mech shooter than a fast paced techno soundtrack?

This track in particular was produced by french producer Scan X, and it was recently re-released with other Scan X classics such as Process Cyan on Fcommunications earlier this year. You can check out the EP here. A must for any hardcore techno fans.

10. TOCA: Jonathan Colling – Untitled Track 2

The TOCA series was developed by British developers Codemasters and was inspired by the touring car form of racing. The fast paced racing game was a smash hit when it came out, but ultimately it was eclipsed by Gran Turismo. Despite that fact the it was still a great game, and the only thing more high octane than its vehicles was its incredible trance soundtrack. The OST was produced by Jonathan Colling who had also made soundtracks for the well know Colin Mcrae series. Not much is known about Colin other than the fact that he made some incredible music for these games, so where ever you are out there, we just want to say thank you!

You can check out our other Top 10’s here.

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