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The Definitive(ly debatable) Top-10 Best Original Songs in Adventure Games

A surprising number of adventures have original songs in them (at least 40 just among those I’ve played), and this week we’re ranking them! Be sure to click the title of each song to listen to it.

(Note that this is only about original songs created specifically for a game. Otherwise, the whole list would just be the Faust soundtrack. Also, this is only about songs, with proper lyrics, not just any piece of music.)

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10 - The Archaeologist Song (The Dagger of Amon Ra)

Written by Chris Braymen & Bruce Balfour, vocals by Susan Kehler

This little Betty Boop homage is a silly but memorable touch in Laura Bow’s second adventure. I’m not a huge fan of the game itself, but the song’s cool.

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9 - Happiness Is an Inside Job (Broken Sword 2)

Written by Barrington Pheloung & Don Black, vocals by Bob Sekar

It’s a bit of a tradition for the Broken Sword series to feature very catchy songs that have absolutely nothing to do with the game’s theme. BS3 had the rock song Love Us, and BS5 the unforgettable Jasmine. (Sorry for reminding you about Jasmine; it’ll now be stuck in your head for days.)

But for the list I decided to pick BS2’s Happiness Is an Inside Job, which is just as random and out-of-place as, well… as most of that game.

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8 - Tiers of Joy (Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded)

Written by Austin Wintory & Josh Mandel, vocals by Melora Hardin

There’s much about LSL Reloaded that’s best forgotten, but this jazzy, Kickstarter-themed song is too clever to ignore.

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7 - A Pirate I Was Meant to Be (The Curse of Monkey Island)

Written by Michael Z. Land, Jonathan Ackley & Larry Ahern, vocals by Dominic Armato, Greg A. Berger, Michael Sorich & Alan Young

This song just came out of nowhere, and is one of the funniest moments in a very funny game.

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6 - The Taking (Cognition)

Written by Robert Holmes & Raleigh Holmes, vocals by Raleigh Holmes

Robert Holmes and his daughter Raleigh teamed up to create songs for Gray Matter, Moebius, Dying for Daylight and Cognition. They’re all pretty good, but I think The Taking might be my favourite. It seems to perfectly capture the game’s mood.

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5 - The Neverhood Theme (The Neverhood)

Written and performed by Terry S. Taylor

Terry S. Taylor’s soundtrack for The Neverhood is brilliant and unforgettable. There are many songs from it that could have made this list, but I decided to be unoriginal and just go with the demented main theme.

If you can listen to this without screaming along “NEVERHOOD!!!” in falsetto, you must be dead inside.

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4 - Tex’s Lament (The Pandora Directive)

Written and performed by Richie Havens

This is a great song that can stand completely on its own. Its association with a fantastic game, and particularly with its memorable dark path, just makes it even better.

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3 - That’s Death (Discworld II)

Written and performed by Eric Idle

Those 6 words on the previous line should tell you everything you need to know about how brilliant this song is.

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2 - Still Alive (Portal)

Written by Jonathan Coulton, vocals by Ellen McLain

Jonathan Coulton’s unforgettable end-credit song is just the cherry on top of the delicious cake that was Portal. (But the cake is a lie, so what am I saying here exactly? Metaphors are tough.) It’s weird, fun, insanely catchy, and basically perfect.

I mean, what other song could have lyrics like “Now these points of data make a beautiful line, And we’re out of beta, We’re releasing on time” and not sound crazy?

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1 - World of Max (Sam & Max Save the World)

Written by Jared Emerson-Johnson & Dave Grossman, vocals by Jared Emerson-Johnson

Mania, Sloth, Irreverence, Excess
Gluttony, Revelry, Violence, and Selfishness
Flags of pure unfettered Id brashly unfurled…
It’s a Max Max Max Max Max Max world!

The first season of Telltale’s Sam & Max had lots of brilliant songs (Good for You Good for Me, Useful to Boot…), but none better than World of Max. So very, very smooth, terribly clever and effortlessly catchy, it is without doubt the best original song in an adventure game!

     

The Hall of Shame

And now the part you’ve all been waiting for: the worst original songs! Most songs in games are just forgettable tunes whose only crime is trying too hard to sound like something you’d find in a big Hollywood movie—but some are so bad that they deserve special mention. Here are the five worst offenders.

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5 - Time Hollow (Time Hollow)

I’m honestly not sure whether this one belongs in the Top-10 or the Hall of Shame, but it definitely belongs somewhere. It sounds like the theme song for a kid TV show from the 90s; I don’t know if that makes it good or bad, but it’s certainly memorable.

4 - Mr. Death (The 11th Hour)

The 7th Guest had some nice songs (Skeletons in my Closet was fun), but its sequel didn’t. This song, which greets you every time you launch the game, is absolutely awful: grating music, dumb lyrics, obnoxious vocals… What were they thinking?

3 - Girl in the Tower (King’s Quest VI)

Oh, King’s Quest… Stop trying to make songs happen. You’re just embarrassing yourself.

KQ5’s horrid March of the Ants and KQ7’s mediocre Disney-inspired A Land Beyond Dreams were pretty awful—but neither of those tries as hard, and fails as bad, as KQ6’s soulless, formulaic Girl in the Tower, a song that single-handedly embodies all the worst parts of the 90s.

2 - Exile (Myst III: Exile)

Myst III composer Jack Wall created a song, cleverly entitled Exile, that combines the game’s main theme with cringeworthy love-song lyrics (“You’re in exile from me, Because it’s you that I can’t see” is not even the worst of it). The song was included on the official soundtrack, but never used in-game—probably because it’s so fucking awful. But now you can just click the link above and FIND YOUR WAAAAAAYYYYY to this masterpiece.

1 - The Guitar’s Serenade (Apollo Justice, Ace Attorney)

I’m not even sure what’s worse: The cheesy music? The sappy lyrics? The fact that you have to listen to it ninety billion times over the course of the game? Or this particular version, with its nauseatingly-sugary orchestration and glorious Engrish singing?

Everything about this song is the pinnacle of awfulness. I almost feel sorry for subjecting you to it. Almost.

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And that’s it for the list! Agree, disagree? What’s your personal Top-10? Tell us!

     

Great idea for a AGTOTW. I had forgotten about most of these. That BSII song was especially enjoyable.

Two others that come to mind are Kentucky Route Zero’s Too Late To Love You, which isn’t done justice by listening because you choose the lyrics, and Shattered Hope from The Sexy Brutale. KRZ has a lot of cool songs. Long Journey Home is another.

I also agree with diego about Skeleton’s in the Closet - hated it when I first heard it on the 7th Guest, but I quite like it now. It’s a lot better than that Larry Reloaded song.

That Cognition song though - not a fan. Although maybe that’s because, like you said, it perfectly captures the game’s mood. A game which I thought was pretty bad.

     

Another great theme   which along with the previous 2 has set the bar high for future contributors to AGTotW!   

I’ve only played half the games in that very eclectic Top-10 list & none of those (apart from part of Myst III) in The Hall of Shame so it’s difficult to agree/disagree with the suggestions as I think it’s more important that the song fits the mood & theme of a game rather than my personal taste as I don’t for the most part buy a game based on its musical content.

My top 10 of preferences though do include:
The Taking (Cognition)
Runaway 1
Too Late To Love You (Kentucky Route Zero)

& also this one from the closing credits of Resonance
I Will Be There

     

Still Alive and That’s Death are my favorites.

Still Alive is ridiculously catchy, also has some nice live performances:

- the crowd

Portal 2 credits song is also good but it was hard to be the follow-up

Sam and Max has tons of good stuff
Mariachi Song
The War Song

The Runaway song was ok at the time but not I don’t like it at all.

There’s also the David Bowie songs in Omikron but not really an adventure.

And Frog Song

     

Love this theme, very nice topic

I really like the opening song from Life is Strange:

Also Happiness is an Inside Job, Still Alive, and That’s Death which are already mentioned.

The Telltale Sam and Max series has probably the most number of songs I like.
My favorites are:

War
and
Just You and Me

     

SoccerDude28 - 29 May 2017 09:01 PM

I really like the opening song from Life is Strange:

The song I remember more from Life is Strange is Crosses:

     

The theme music from Gabriel Knight Sins of the Fathers (original).

Myst series especially Myst, Myst IV, Obduction by Robin Miller.

Fanfare for Starship Titanic.  I like to fire this game up once in a while just to hear it. 

All added a lot to the games.

(The mp3 versions cannot come close to matching the original DVD versions with stereo speakers, imo).