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January 22, 2019 5:34 AM

MENU: An Homage to Game Title Themes [YouTube][Teaser Trailer] “The music we listen to as we play our favorite games is nice, but what about the music we hear when we aren’t playing? The Materia Collective community celebrates the music of the start screen with Menu: An Homage To Game Title Themes, a 52 track remix album featuring music from Final Fantasy, The Witcher, Mario Kart, Doki Doki Literature Club and more.” via: [Kotaku]

Here’s the track listing for Menu, complete with links to the songs on Bandcamp, where the entire album can be purchased digitally for $16 (or more). Menu can also be found on iTunes, Google Play and Spotify.

posted by Fizz (18 comments total)

As far as recent games go, the menu music for Elder Scrolls: Skyrim has been a favorite. It gets me pumped and I feel like a viking about to go on an adventure.

As far as old school menu music goes, Super Mario World gives me warm fuzzies.
posted by Fizz at 5:41 AM on January 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

My ringtone is still the setup music from SNES Sim City, since it pops a lot more than all the other extra chill tracks from that game.
posted by Space Coyote at 5:44 AM on January 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

Needs more Metroid (e.g. see the Minibosses version, though that gets into other music from the game too).
posted by tocts at 6:11 AM on January 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

Also needed: Cave Story (e.g. see the Kirby's Dream Band version).
posted by tocts at 6:13 AM on January 22, 2019

Am I the only one bothered that it's called "MENU" but they're mostly (all?) title tracks? Not the same thing!

Take Smash Ultimate. Title music? Eh. Menu music? MY JAM
posted by brett at 6:13 AM on January 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

The Sonic the Hedgehog menu music also brings back a ton of memories. Especially that opening SEGA!!
posted by Fizz at 6:40 AM on January 22, 2019

Linked from that Materia Collective site is Jazz Arrange Version: FFIV, which is amazing.

Thank you so much for posting this.
posted by gauche at 7:08 AM on January 22, 2019

The menu music from Furi by Danger is legit a slow build of awesome. Lots of hype dance beats.
posted by Fizz at 7:31 AM on January 22, 2019

This reminds me that I need to set up a new voicemail sound on my phone.
posted by neckro23 at 7:35 AM on January 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

Linked from that Materia Collective site is Jazz Arrange Version: FFIV, which is amazing.

Not a title track (but a titular track), I love this jazz interpretation of the theme from Chrono Trigger.
posted by grobstein at 12:25 PM on January 22, 2019

No Neuromancer? Booooooo.
posted by praemunire at 2:33 PM on January 22, 2019

No Neuromancer? Booooooo.

Seconded. Some things [truly] never change.

And add to that Circuit's Edge.

Seeing as The Sims 3 is in there, it's not excluding computer games... so what gives?

No Heart of China, no Rise of the Dragon, or Red Baron, several classic Sierra Dynamix titles.

No Wing Commander.

No Doom, a game that is literally the first thing that is ported to a hacked device, where it isn't playable but hey you can listen to the title music.

They list some Zeldas but not the original nor Wind Waker.

No Bard's Tale: Tales of the Unknown, Defender of the Crown, or Prince of Persia.

I haven't even gotten to the LucasArts games! Not even The Secret of Monkey Island and Full Throttle are on there.

Yeah, I'm going to go visit ocremix and feel old now.
posted by linux at 3:42 PM on January 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

Am I the only one bothered that it's called "MENU" but they're mostly (all?) title tracks? Not the same thing!

Yeah, but I just figured it's not really by/for people who collect soundtracks or can otherwise keep track of which tune was the Mario 64 file select screen and which was the title screen.
posted by straight at 3:43 PM on January 22, 2019

I'm torn between competing reactions of "ooh, this is really great" and "if it doesn't have the Metroid title theme then it is a garbage pile from hell and should be fired into the sun" and I feel like the latter is mostly a personal emotional issue and shouldn't come into consideration.
posted by cortex at 5:00 PM on January 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

How is the menu theme from Mafia II not included in this compilation? It's absolutely gorgeous.
posted by longdaysjourney at 7:40 PM on January 22, 2019

here's one
posted by grobstein at 12:20 AM on January 23, 2019

I haven't played a lot of games but I have some favorite soundtracks for sure, especially for adventure games.

I enjoyed the '20s style flapper music for Colonel's Bequest by Ken Allen.

And Betrayal at Krondor by Jan Paul Moorhead. I still listen to that whole soundtrack a lot when I'm working on something.

For something a little more recent than the above: I can still get goosebumps listening to the intro music in addition to the title theme/menu music from Civ IV by Christopher Tin ("Baba Yetu").

Not main titles, but when talking about game soundtracks I always want to mention two of my all-time favorite in-game pieces: "Erana's Peace" from Quest for Glory 1 (aka Hero's Quest) by Mark Seibert, and "Weeping Willow's Song" from King's Quest V by Mark Seibert and Ken Allen, with vocals by Debbie Seibert.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 2:09 AM on January 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

I see the very first track is the theme song for Katamari Damacy -- which is great! But I'm a little disappointed they overlooked the game's actual menu theme: Yuri Misumi's whimsical, burbling "Walking on a Star!", which blossoms from lovely acoustic guitar arpeggios and lush strings into a jaunty parade tune, with glitchy electronics singing and sighing all around it. "Katamari on the Rocks" is iconic, but this one doesn't get the love it deserves.
posted by Rhaomi at 1:21 PM on January 31, 2019 [1 favorite]