Hello, and welcome to the second installment in a series of articles observing all things related to the musical past. If you have a suggestion for something you want to see covered in this series, feel free to drop it here.

Video games were always a fun part of my childhood. I remember when I got my first console (the original Nintendo NES) for Christmas sometime in the early 90s, and it was easily one of my favorite presents that I ever received. My family was by no small exaggeration poor, so even as a six year old I knew to temper my expectations when it came to what Santa could fit inside of his bag. Needless to say, the fact that I actually got one blew my mind at the time. Some of my favorite games were Super Mario (1-3), Donkey Kong, and Crystalis (think pre-Zelda for a quick reference to the overall gameplay).

At that age I didn’t think about the music behind the games; it was sort of just there. Now, that classic 8-bit sound is the fastest portal that I can find back to my childhood. It’s a funny feeling listening to songs I have not heard in 25+ years and still knowing them like the back of my hand. Because of the hundreds of hours I spent playing these games, they’re ingrained in my mind, and the music is like a key that unlocks doors to memories I didn’t even know I was still holding onto. It’s no secret that music and memories go hand-in-hand. Almost like one’s sense of smell, these jaunty little tunes are capable of unexpectedly transporting me to a specific place in time — and usually, one that was much simpler. One might say it’s a link to the past.

But all joking aside (five fingers wide), I know that I’m not alone when I say that video game soundtracks were a vital part of my musical upbringing. As I graduated from  Nintendo to Super Nintendo to Nintendo 64, new memories were made while the music crept into my subconscious — where it remains to this day. By the mid-90s, I got my hands on the SNES (Super Nintendo), which is honestly my favorite video game console of all time despite its lack of 3D graphics (which would finally arrive with the Nintendo 64). SNES had so many amazing games, but my favorites would have to be The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy’s Kong Quest. The sheer amount of time I spent playing these games means that I have both soundtracks memorized, but I was always drawn to the darker, more sinister sounding stuff. For example, in Zelda there was a point in the game you could reach where you were in “the dark world”, which was in essence a twisted version of the sacred realm where the primary antagonist, Ganon, reigned supreme. Even though I have not played Zelda (much less at this specific juncture of the game) in decades, I still remember the spine-tingling effect and adrenaline rush that the dark world score used to give me. For both those who are familiar and unfamiliar, here’s what badassery sounded like to me in the 90s (bonus points if you listen to the full 10 hours…you won’t):

As I mentioned, Diddy’s Kong Quest was also a huge one for me, even if it wasn’t a super popular game. Every single level that you played had unique and interesting music; I most fondly recall the song for “Hot Head Hop“, where you had to use a combination of crocodile heads and hot air balloons (propelled by the heat from lava) to navigate to the end of the level. The aura of the song is so peaceful, and honestly pretty damn gorgeous for an SNES score. Then there was “Flight of the Zinger“, which essentially required you to navigate through the inside of a beehive — and the accompanying track is a brilliant melding of breathtaking ambience and urgent percussion/piano. My personal favorite, though, was once again the most sinister of them all: the soundtrack to The Lost World. The “Lost World” was an alternate dimension / hidden world that you could only enter by paying off Klubba with Kremcoins, and the music in this world had something of an industrial rock vibe that my nine year old ass was totally not ready for. Check out the menacing tune below:

Needless to say, NES and SNES introduced me to all kinds of genres of music before I even knew what they were. When Nintendo 64 dropped, I became addicted to Mario Kart 64, GoldenEye 007, Smash Bros., Paper Mario, Star Fox, Super Mario 64, and The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. Anyone who’s ever played Super Mario 64 will recall the soundtrack to being inside the castle, where you’d spend countless hours jumping into paintings to acquire missing stars, and I personally still have nightmares about the merry-go-round music from the haunted house. Of course, my best musical memories tied to the N64 are also from its very best game — The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time. Everything about this game and its soundtrack was perfect. N64 gamers will definitely remember playing Epona’s Song, but the score itself was untouchable. It’s with this game that you could truly hear the evolution in video game soundtracks from earlier consoles, with the tracks sounding more like epic film scores:

By the time I was a teenager, I largely pivoted to sports games on PC. Most of these soundtracks employed mainstream rock and pop-punk back then, especially the Madden series and NHL games.  Madden NFL 2003 had Andrew W.K., Good Charlotte, Bon Jovi, OK Go, and Seether. Even the Quarashi song was great. For my money, however, NHL 2004 is still the best sports video game soundtrack of all time because it introduced me to Deftones, Brand New, Alien Ant Farm, The Ataris, and Less Than Jake. I was a sophomore in high school when the game was released, so I credit it with the formation of my musical taste as a young adult who worshiped alt-rock and pop-punk. If any of this sounds like it could be your thing, then I highly recommend jamming the soundtrack below in its entirety:

Unfortunately, as time wore on and I went to college, the impact of video game soundtracks largely waned. I’m not sure if it was because I became more outgoing and cultured — thus seeking out and locating more music on my own — or if the actual quality of video game soundtracks began to decline. I know this was at least the case with sports video games. But as a whole, I’m sure that this sensation was largely a combination of me aging and my exposure to a limited scope of video game consoles in the first place. I’m hardly the authority on video games let alone their soundtracks, so you’ll have to let me know in the comments below what your personal experiences were across various consoles (any lifelong Playstation gamers out there?) as well as other genres/types of games (I’ve heard wonderful things about the Final Fantasy soundtracks). This is but a brief glance in the rearview mirror at one specific road through gaming that I just happened to travel. I’d love to hear about yours.