I love the music from After Burner II (I know I"m strange), I also like the rock intro on Sonic Adventure I. =Hugh
While you are talking about the fact that MJ did indeed helping making the music in the mentioned game. Then there are the old tune, like this one. Which I even enjoy the cover of. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVoVmbFEiqI And here is the cover from Overclocked Remix http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRdTsZTvHUs
Sonic Adventure 2 has some of the greatest music in the franchise, aside of Sonic CD Japan's. Sonic & Rouge's themes are my favorites. The rap in Knuckles' stages are obnoxious however, but the music in them are all pretty awesome. I hope there's an option to disable them in the 2012 version, like you would in Sonic R for all the haters out there. Here's some of my favorites, but there's so much music I love in the games I list here. NiGHTS Into Dreams - Under Construction (Complete Ver.) Sonic Adventure - Calm After the Storm Virtua Fighter - Original Akira Theme Sonic CD - Stardust Speedway "G" Future Mix [International] Daytona USA - Rolling Start Streets of Rage / Bare Knuckle - Attack the Barbarian Space Channel 5 - Introducing... Ulala!
Sega really had some great composers. Though the Sonic Series really shines. I really like the music on Sonic for the Master Systems jungle stage. With most of the 16 bit cross platform games e.g Mortal Kombat Series and Bubsy, I noticed that the Sounds and effects were so much better on SNES (better sound processers it had in it) but just shows how awesome the programmers at Sega were and knew everything that their console could do.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkHjQMc5oiQ I personally loved all of Streets of Rage 1s music especially the beach level. All so 80s!
Totally agree with you there, loved the music from Fighting Vipers too... Man the Japanese Rent-A-Hero theme on Fighters Megamix hahaha
SEGA games have always had great music, for the most part. I love the soundtracks for Phantasy Star II , IV, and yes, even III. Specifically in III, the world map music would change depending on how many people were in the party. When you start by yourself it sounds simple and somewhat depressing. As you gather additional party members, another instrument would be added to the song and by the fifth and final person the music sounded very elaborate and upbeat. The music would also change depending on whether or not you are losing or winning the battle. It was pretty cool considering the game was made back in 1990. I also liked both soundtracks for Sonic CD, but I think I preferred the US version more overall. The Japanese version is good too, but some of the songs sound were ruined (for me) by the goofy out of place vocals. The Japanese soundtrack sounded more like a lighthearted sonic game, but the US soundtrack sounded more serious and gave an entirely different atmosphere to the game, which I liked.
I think a lot of Sega's music, even stuff from the 90s, is inspired by 80s pop music. That's probably why it's so catchy.
Soundtrack from Super Shinobi by Yuzo Koshiro is amazing considering it was one of the early Md releases. I really like China Town Level http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tcb-TRebXE The ending music was awesome also.
