I was looking for game soundtracks from games I played before but hadn't already acquired yet, and one's become impossible to find: the Driven PS2/GameCube soundtrack. While I still have no luck on that front, it got me wondering:

What bad games have you played or do you know of that you like the soundtracks of? Going one step further, what are some good soundtracks from bad games that you actually own?

Right now Driven is the only such example I can talk about. It was an absolute disaster to play, with horrendous driving physics and AI that were far harder than they had the right to be, had an even thinner story than the confounding film it was created in the image of, possessed the completely unnecessary "Zone" mechanic which pushed out all but the most perfectionist of drivers in a game that couldn't profess to be a driving sim if it tried and yet with the exception of one or two songs it had a surprisingly good soundtrack, definitely shaped by BT's influence on the film soundtrack.

So how about everybody else? What stories do you have?

Final Fantasy XIV, Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness, Crysis, Kensei: Sacred Fist.

wtf dood how is ff xiv is surprisingly good music?? it n00buo uematsu of course is good!!

Ehh, is X IV Uematsu? I thought it wasn't.

I also don't think Crysis was a bad game (I never heard complaints) but then again I never played it.

Well actually tbh many of the Angry Video Game Nerd's most hated games have some of the best music.

So: Castlevania 2, Silver Surfer, Fester's Quest, Karate Kid etc

I also don't think Crysis was a bad game (I never heard complaints) but then again I never played it.

Well, it wasn't exactly bad. It was just really mediocre. The only reason nobody complained about it is because it looked so damn nice. But yeah the soundtrack was good. Inon Zur never disappoints :D

inon zur is jew lol

Your point?

Power Serve 3D Tennis has some good music. I have never played it but I don't think it was a huge hit.

I haven't played DOC:FFVII yet (though I hear it is pretty bad) but I've bought the soundtrack and I have to say, hands down, one of the BEST soundtracks I've heard. I was actually able to sit down, play "Chaotic End" for my piano teacher (who is a classic geek :P ) and she was like "Whoa, who wrote this? I've never heard this before." She went all about it...then I showed her the CD. :P
She's getting into game music, now. :)
Masashi Hamauzu is the man!

Also, I'd like to note that the FINAL FANTASY XIV Final boss theme ("Cruor Lupus" - lit. "Blood Wolf") is AWESOME!!! (Track 11 from the game rip) Don't believe it is the final boss theme? Compare it to "The Extreme", "FFIX The Last Battle" and other various FF lb themes. It just screams "Uematsu - Rock Final Boss". I can go on and on about it. :3 (though I do miss the lack of a proper usage of the choir...)

Official lyrics of "Cruor Lupus"
Written by Nobuo Uematsu

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu~
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu~
Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu~

...
...

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu~

:P

Is this "Cruor Lupis"? YouTube - Final Fantasy XIV OST ~ Track 11 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jJ8ykAJs_c) (I'm assuming not, since there is no choir.)

Besides what has already been mentioned, tons of stuff on the NES:

Nightmare on Elm Street
Pictionary
Gimmick
Alien 3
Batman: Return of the Joker
Robocop
Metal Gear

And some others that come to mind:

Plok
Waterworld

Is this "Cruor Lupis"? YouTube - Final Fantasy XIV OST ~ Track 11 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jJ8ykAJs_c) (I'm assuming not, since there is no choir.)

Apparently, the youtube user changed some of the track numbers. The original gamerip listed the song number as "11", but the youtube user listed it as "35".

YouTube - Final Fantasy XIV OST ~ Track 35 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jx_z1wI0RuM)

Here's what I'm talking about. :)
(1:30 is the choir ambience and 3:33 is where it really gets all "The Extreme"-ish. :P )

Great. Thanks a lot for posting the link. You're right; it is a really great song.

You can find that

impossible to find soundtrack from Driven for PS2/GC just here (http://www.emuparadise.org/music/ngc/Driven/430). Listening to it will require installing a Winamp / Foobar 2000 / XMplay plugin known as vgmstream (hcs64.com/files/vgmstream) but I hope that your desire to listen to it will overwhelm the fear of unknown (like a fear of an installation of a media player plugin as it seems to horrify most visitors of the VGM section).

And to make this post being not completely off topic I`ll name some bad games with good music too:
1) Infernal - a mediocre and sometimes even boring and frustrating game but it`s soundtrack that made me walk to the end and even have some fun playing!
2) Devil may cry2 - fans agree to it being the worst of the series but music represents the best DMC soundtrack yet.
3) Instinct - the game is so low-key that heavy riffs usually start playing when combat is already over but fight tracks themselves are awesome!
4) You are empty - an another example of game`s music being far more atmospheric than the game itself.

Well, there`re quite some games meeting such requirements but I think this should be enough.

Oh! Now that I've seen this thread's taken off...time forme to keep it alive.

Iridion 2 for the GBA strikes me as a bad game with good music. I consider it a major step backwards from trying to perfect Iridon 3D, but Shin'en seems to have a thing for filling their space games with good music.

Maybe not all "surprisingly" good musically...

Target: Renegade (NES)
Treasure Master (NES)
Journey to Silius (NES)
Secret of Mana (SNES)
Arcana (SNES)
Lord of the Rings (SNES)
Superman (Genesis)
Final Fantasy Tactics (PS1)
Blue Stinger (DreamCast)... no wait, this is a good game.


Hardly "bad" games but the music far outdoes the rest of it.

Hmmm. Yeah, I think that's what I ought to mean by this thread at the end of the day.

The game doesn't have to be a DISASTER, per se, but the music at least makes you forget how mediocre the rest of the experience is.

Must admit though, the bad games are the most charming. Who can forget the neat little ditty that Cheetahmen came with on the otherwise-unfit-for-human-consumption Action 52?

I almost put 'Vagrant Story' but that's only because it has the BEST GAME SOUNDTRACK EVER and the actual game is only marginally good.

But there is nothing "surprisingly good" when it comes to Sakimoto. More like "guaranteed good".

You did NOT just put Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy Tactics on a list of bad games!!! D: Tactics I could maybe understand...but Secret of Mana!? It's one of the best games of all time! :(

Wow, people disliking Vagrant Story, and Tactics? That's new to me! Vagrant Story is my favourite game. I imported the score about a decade ago, and I'm very glad I did. It's got a fantastic soundtrack, which caps off an amazing game. I generally enjoy anything Hitoshi Sakimoto works on.

But Tsugunai is a very average JRPG, with a surprisingly enjoyable soundtrack. When I initially booted it up, I thought 'Hm. This title track sounds very Yasunori Mitsuda', I googled the game, and turns out he wrote the score. The game's very forgettable, but the music is a nice surprise.

Secret of Mana!? It's one of the best games of all time! :(

I found 'Secret' to be difficult to enjoy. It does some unique things like multiplayer for a RPG, real-time combat, and unforced non-random battles. But it does a lot of annoying things like...

- Charging weapon attacks takes too long (especially holding for more than 3 bars).

- Your partners can steal your hits, making you waste a charged attack (this happens CONSTANTLY).

- Enemies are immune for a small window of time after getting hit. If you attack them during this time, you miss.

- Hit detection seems off. Every attack feels like a miss, even if it's a deathblow.

- Backgrounds (though nicely detailed for its time) are confusing. It's hard to tell what is ground and what is wall sometimes. Doors can blend in too well (refer to the airship).

- Non-player characters with their dumb A.I. getting stuck on the scenery, forcing me to switch to them just to get them to catch up.

- The frantic real-time battles are abruptly halted by "menu scrolling". Changing weapons, casting spells, etc.
(NOTE: I didn't get to experience multiplayer with another human, but I am imagining a scenario where I'm holding down the button for a strong attack while my partner stops the action to fiddle through the ring menus).

- Ring menus. They're actual slower than they need to be. I recognize "text" faster than a carousel of icons.

- Weapon/Magic leveling. It is just optional grinding. No real depth to its purpose. Level 4 is good enough to finish.

- No "next level" stats on the weapon select menu. I have to switch to a different part of the menu just to see how many more EXP points are needed for each weapon, making things even slower.

- Powerful magic spells are far to easy to abuse. I defeated nearly every boss by repeatedly casting the same spell.

- Not having the option to use an item found in a treasure chest if already maxed out with that item.
Example: Finding a healing chocolate that my party could use but I can't take it because I already have the maximum 4. I would rather use one, then take the new one. But No! Game doesn't allow that. No option but to let it go to waste.

- In-game text is difficult to follow along. I never know exactly who's speaking, and oftentimes more than one character is talking in the same panel. Made the story harder to follow along.

- Story is generic plodding jaRP fair with no real dramatic or emotional impact. If there was supposed to be any, the presentation didn't make it noticeable.

- Santa Claus? What the smeg?


Too many flaws for a "Best Game of ALL Time".
Final Fantasy Adventure is a better 'Mana' game, in accordance to me.


'Vagrant Story' isn't a bad game at all, but the battle system is slow and breaks up the pace. If defense/dodging was in real-time (like in Parasite Eve) it would have been 56.45% better. Also the game is way too picky about weapon type/affinity vs. damage per enemy. Outside of that, it's a fine game and I still recommend it. But the music puts the rest to shame.

'Tactics' can suck it. That game is broken.

I really enjoyed the combat system in Vagrant Story. There were so many weapons, man. Holy shit. The weapons. I got way into it's combat system and had spreadsheets to keep track of my weapons. I love everything about that game. The aesthetic, the dialogue, music, characters, everything! It's wonderful, fantastic. My favourite game ever in the history of everything.

Tactics was delightfully complicated, and mean. It's like the game was out to alienate the player. I took satisfaction in making it my bitch, proving it wrong, and showing it that I can in fact, usurp the challenges it throws at me.

'Flower, Sun and Rain'.

Its a truly appalling game. Its just grotesquely and offensively awful, but the music (and story) are absolutely incredible.

'Vagrant Story' isn't a bad game at all, but the battle system is slow and breaks up the pace. If defense/dodging was in real-time (like in Parasite Eve) it would have been 56.45% better. Also the game is way too picky about weapon type/affinity vs. damage per enemy. Outside of that, it's a fine game and I still recommend it. But the music puts the rest to shame.

'Tactics' can suck it. That game is broken.


I really enjoyed the combat system in Vagrant Story. There were so many weapons, man. Holy shit. The weapons. I got way into it's combat system and had spreadsheets to keep track of my weapons. I love everything about that game. The aesthetic, the dialogue, music, characters, everything! It's wonderful, fantastic. My favourite game ever in the history of everything.

Tactics was delightfully complicated, and mean. It's like the game was out to alienate the player. I took satisfaction in making it my bitch, proving it wrong, and showing it that I can in fact, usurp the challenges it throws at me.

I love Tactics and Vagrant Story, and I agree that the music potentially put the rest to shame. The storyline of these 2 game is simply so awesome to me.

But personally I've never had any problem with the gameplay of tactics.

The Gameplay of Vagrant Story on the other side is a bit bizarre, but you can get used to it and enjoy that game a lot. It's the best Ivalice title hands down.

Pok�mon. Specifically, HeartGold and SoulSilver. I like the remixed music they use from the original Johto games but the story is dry and uninteresting. They reused the Frontier Brains from Platinum and I just thought Johto had a poor story to it.

The only notable one I can think of is Waterworld as a whole OST

but I can think of many games that are probably bad that I like at least one song from

Action 52. Well, at least the Cheetahmen music is good. The other stuff is shit.

Lair by John Debney. One of THE best orchestral scores for a video game.

Er... Drakengard 2 fuckin sucked (http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3411336) (gameplay was fun at points) but the OST is (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZIM7AG_J84) very (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktjOpTqeQdc) well (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7WEslOpcyo) done (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynN0t3Q_yhA).

I would say Superman 64 (hilariously enough, the composer seems to be the only one smart enough not to use his real name in the credits_, Pokemon (I'm sorry, but I just find the series to be really dull for the most part. Other than Pokemon Colosseum, they're all too easy for my tastes. Though I haven't tried XD.), Dragon Ball Z: The Legacy of Goku (the 1st one), Yu-Gi-Oh: Forbidden Memories (even though I find it strangely addicting), Breath of Fire II (maybe it's not necessarily bad persay, but I find it to be really dull and boring, and it's story ranges from dull to downright ridiculous, though that might've been simply due to the translation), Final Fantasy VIII (great music, and I actually liked most of the characters, but the fricken gameplay just puts me to sleep), Dragon Ball GT: Transformations (I haven't even played this one, but I saw a Youtube playthrough), Dragon Ball Z: Legend of the Super Saiyan (a lot of the ideas behind it are great, but it's just so repetitive, and there's some really blatant filler, almost all of it's length comes from grinding, etc.), and Frankenstein for the NES (you know, the one with the Ninja Gaiden-esque cutscenes, where you chase Frankenstein, who has kidnapped your girl)?

Lair By John Debney for sure. Also the Harry Potter Games by Jeremy Soule. Although Jeremy Soule composing good music is no surprise.