These songs pull me back in time then i was sitting in front of my parents 13'' TV with a NES controller in hand.

These are ones that stand out the most to me. I hope you enjoyed.

What are your favorites?

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some key omissions:

Mega Man 2: Flash Man

Mega Man 2: Dr. Wily Stage 1&2

Blaster Master: Area 1

Castlevania: Vampire Killer

Duck Tales: The Moon

Of course, there's so much great NES music you can't possibly list all the good ones in one top 10 list.

I agree with everything in this thread.

Actually, I find nearly ALL of the NES songs and jingles to be enormously catchy and memorable. Part of that might be because I grew up with them, but I think they just WERE generally more catchy and memorable than anything that came later. Stuff like Ice Climbers, Balloon Fight, Clu Clu Land... even the TITLE screen jingle for all of those games. I can still hum them. I'm hard-pressed to hum ANYTHING from the last two gens. Even the SNES stuff is often difficult to remember.

I think NES was really a case of limitations enhancing creativity. They could only have a certain amount of music, and they could only use a certain amount of instruments, so GODDAMN, they were going to make the most of them.

I really, really don't enjoy the trend towards ambient music. I generally prefer catchy stuff. That goes for every medium.

Unrelated, but the credits of Ridge Racer have an original rap song, done to Japanese techno music! And the lyrics are all about drifting and 3D, and shit. And it's pretty good!

Awesome list!

One more awesome tune that hasn't been mentioned yet:

great list. I forgot about rad racer and thought to myself was there an outrun port to nes
Super Mario Bros 2 (US) foot-tappin' main theme
Super Mario Bros Underwater theme
though for me the catchiest themes of all time wasn't from NES era... that would be Ryu's Theme, Ken's Theme and Guile's Theme

Well that was a fun way to spend the morning at work. I definitely agree with most choices here. I don't know what else I could add...

Batman NES?

Super sweet list!

How about Battle of Olympus?

Good list! Here are some of my faves:

Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse - Beginning

Journey to Silius - Space Colony Ruins

@Guillaume

Good one!!!

Hmmmm, where to begin?
Batman Stage 4
Wizards and Warriors intro theme
Snake Revenge Forest theme
Streetfighter 2010!!!
Karnov's theme
Startropics!!!
The Magic of Scheherazade

Shall I continue?

Just remembered this one :)
Section Z stage 1

Just listening to some great tunes here, nice selection from everyone!

I haven't actually played these two games, but NWR Radio Trivia podcast introduced me to:

Xexyz (Stage Theme 1)
Silver Surfer (Level Theme 2)

Just remembered: Rygar on the NES!

You guys posted some really good stuff!

shinriley said:

Batman Stage 4

Wow. This can't be the original NES instruments, can it? Wow.

I guess I never got to stage 4...

God damn, this thread is chock full of awesome nostalgia.

@shinriley
Hell, YEAH, Section Z!! So weird and catchy.

And Rare had such brilliant musicians. The Wizards and Warriors music might have copied some classical riffs, but it was SO GOOD.

I think Anand was onto something with the jingly nature of them being so catchy.

You know (maybe you do, maybe you don't), slot machines in casinos all make a similar noise designed to keep people in a happy state of mind. When you're happier, you spend more money. Its a fact.

Now, the bleeps and bloops of a slot machine aren't that far off from the same noises emitted by an NES game.
What is the note breakdown of the main Mario theme? Can't be far off of those darn slots..

@Mr_Mustache
I went to an arcade about a year ago, and the clatter literally made me physically ill. And I used to enjoy that arcade din so...

@roykoopa64

Man, that Silver Surfer music kicks ass.

Too bad most people who play the game never got to hear it.

@roykoopa64
@Guillaume

Hmm.. Silver Surfer is apparently a C+ in rarity, but I don't recall ever seeing it.
Heck, I might not of even known it existed.

One of two games (the other? Spot!) made by Arcadia for the NES!

@Guillaume

No, that's not the original music from the NES. That's an arranged version of the song from Batman.

This is the tune you'd hear if you were actually playing the game.

Still good, but not quite the same quality as the remixed YouTube version!

I like the old-style rock-n-roll theme from Snake Rattle 'n Roll

Anand said:

I think NES was really a case of limitations enhancing creativity. They could only have a certain amount of music, and they could only use a certain amount of instruments, so GODDAMN, they were going to make the most of them.

I sort of feel like I'd write better music if I didn't have to worry about trying to find different synths yada yada every time and could just have a limited palette and stick with it. I guess that is what a lot of chiptune music is though, and chiptune music kind of gets old fast to me.

Actually, probably the main reason chiptune music doesn't do it for me is that I'd rather just listen to awesome old NES music than sift through chiptune artists. I've never heard a chiptune artist who came close to matching the best NES music anyway.

Does most chiptune music try to sound like game music, though? Or is it just techno with the Game Boy sound chip.

AND ARE THEY ACTUALLY PLAYING ANYTHING IN CONCERTS??

The funniest NES sound is the drum that's basically just a short burst of noise. The best way to recreate it live would probably be tiny maracas, or something.

Anyway, I always hated trying out different sounds and effects and amps and speakers, and such. It takes so much tiiiime. That's why I like acoustic music. It's simple, pure, and you don't have to fuck around with anything. Well, with guitars, at least. Tuning things like pianos, sitars, tablas, and harmoniums is an absolute nightmare.

On the other hand, with digital stuff, you can always perform and then mess around with the sounds later.

Synthesizers, though, you can get really deep, like making your own waveforms and tweaking all of the properties, and shit. Too deep. But it's funny when you listen to, like, a techno album, and you can recognize the exact preset patch that they were using.