In celebration of opening my TeePublic store and dropping some pixel themed t-shirts and hoodies, I wanted to write a little bit about some of my favorite 16-bit songs, as well as posting some glitched artwork of each game.

I grew up in the 16-bit era, so these games hold a lot of nostalgia for me, and transport me back to a more innocent time. But I think from this selection, a lot of the songs still hold up today.

Street Fighter II - Ryu’s theme 

So right out the bat I'm probably going to be making a controversial choice, but before you close the window in a fit of rage, please hear me out (I promise you this is not like last time when I said Pink Floyd were rubbish).

I know there is a large contingent of people that think Guile’s theme is the best SFII song. I think it’s an amazing piece of music. I think it's a better US national anthem than the God Save The King remix that’s currently used. It makes me want to surf golden eagles and turn Lego into a countable noun. I very nearly chose it. But seriously, choosing the best Street Fighter II song is almost as difficult as pulling off Zangief's special moves.

I would say that pound for pound, Street Fighter II may be the best game soundtrack ever made. Almost every track is iconic. You have three songs that are absolutely killer (Ryu, Ken, Guile), you have a bunch of other great songs that you'd happily listen to just for fun (the 4 bosses), and then the rest of the tunes do a great job of representing the characters and the stages. (And whatever Zangief's theme is - I swear I'm not picking on him, but doesn't it just seem like he belongs to a different game)

So after great pain and deliberation, I landed on Ryu's theme. Yes, it's probably the most mid choice I could make. But, it's also the song of a hero. Who never gives up even in the face of adversity. That’s what all the martial arts films of the 70s and 80s taught us. After all, this is a game about being the hero. Does Ryu have the most legit backstory for being in the competition? No that's probably Guile or Chun-li. But this is a Japanese game so the main guy with the coolest tune comes from Japan.

All the songs (with the exception of Sagat's theme) were composed by Yoko Shimomura. What’s impressive is that she was barely out of college when she composed one of the most iconic soundtracks of all time. I highly recommend watching some YouTube videos of her talking about the SFII soundtrack. She talks with a lot of affection for the songs and gives some entertaining anecdotes about the inspiration for some of the tracks.

Sonic & Knuckles / Sonic Mania - Flying Battery Zone

Another game series from which it's almost impossible to choose just one song. There are so many good songs in the 16-bit Sonic games, but at least that means that I don't think my choice is going to be controversial. As long as I don't do something crazy and choose Mystic Cave Zone from Sonic 2. 

The music from the original 2D Sonic games are a bunch of superbly composed songs that transcend genres.  Stick it in a metal song; brilliant. Make it into a low-fi jazz track; nice! The original music for Sonic was composed by Masato Nakamura, bassist from the J-pop band Dreams Come True, and he came up with the music for the first two games. Things get a little murkier from the third game onwards, and there’s even the rumour that Michael Jackson wrote some of the music for Sonic 3 (seemingly confirmed by Sonic creator, Yuji Naka a couple of years ago - although I’m not 100% convinced it wasn’t either a translation misunderstanding or him trolling.)

So what's my number one Sonic jam? (as in music, not the Sega Saturn game with the same name)

Starlight Zone from Sonic 1? With its jazzy piano melody, so good it was used in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics opening ceremony.

Aquatic Ruin Zone from Sonic 2? often overlooked but with a dramatic melody and classic Sonic sound effects.

Could it be any one of the final boss themes? Which for 20+ years I’ve always secretly hoped any time I went to see a metal band that they would do a cover of one of these songs.

All great contenders and worthy of the top spot in anyone's list. But for my list, I've decided to go for Flying Battery Zone from Sonic & Knuckles.

The original was composed by Tatsuyuki Maeda, Tomonori Sawada, Sachio Ogawa, Masayuki Nagao and Masanori Hikichi. But actually, it wasn't until Sonic Mania that I was able to appreciate how good this song is. It's got everything; it’s emotive, energetic, futuristic. The version for Sonic Mania was arranged by Tee Lopes, who did a fantastic job of updating the songs to make them sound more modern, with more layers and distinct horns or keys, while also still keeping intact what made them great in the first place.

Gunstar Heroes - Orange Theme

Gunstar Heroes was one of the most criminally overlooked games of the 16-bit era. Sure, looking back now 30 years later it does have something of a cult following, and it’s finally getting its dues, but it should have been a bigger mainstream hit at the time.

Developed by the former Contra team after leaving Konami to start Treasure, Gunstar Heroes is familiar run ‘n gun style game. And what I mean by that is that it’s like Contra. But a lot more eccentric.

It had a lot of innovative fun mechanics for this type of game at the time, you could combine guns to create hybrids. Combine the homing gun with the flame thrower and you now have a column of flames that you can guide around the screen. The bosses themselves are batshit insane (Papaya Dance, which is a giant asparagus that shoots balloons. Melon Bread - a giant face in the sky that can be killed almost instantly. And Curry and Rice, I have no idea what he’s supposed to be but he looks like he’s made of brown mashed potato) - all are lovingly made and stuffed full of character.

So on to the music. There are a lot of good tracks in this game, especially for the boss fights (Legend of the Gunstars, Military on the Max Power, Bravoo Man, Theme of Seven Force) but the standout has to be Orange. I’ve christened him Chibi Haggar, because he looks like a tiny version of Final Fight's Haggar, but dressed in military garb and with a mohawk. The song is every bit as exciting as you would imagine fighting a roided up macho man swinging around on a helicopter propeller would be.

Streets of Rage 2 - Go Straight

Streets of Rage 2 has a shout at being the coolest game of all time. It has a kid on rollerblades as a main character for crying out loud. To 9-year old me that was the coolest thing ever (sadly the cool factor had worn off by the time Road Rash ripoff  Skitchin' came around in 95).

It goes without saying that the coolest game needs the coolest soundtrack. Enter Yuzo Koshiro. Koshiro is one of the most revered video game composers around, spanning multiple console generations, and working on iconic games like Ys, Shinobi, and Shenmue.

The soundtrack is so good that Koshiro’s name appears on the title screen of the game. And there's a reason that this soundtrack often tops the list of best Genesis/Mega Drive soundtracks. Inspired by Detroit Techno and Acid House, Koshiro made a soundtrack so good that he was actually invited to clubs to DJ with the soundtrack.

I really love this soundtrack because it reminds me of being a kid. I was too young to go to raves. But I knew this was the kind of music that cool people listened to. Cool People who hang around the streets filling it with rage.

It really captures an era that no longer exists, but was really influential on music that is still being made today.

As an aside, I debated about whether to include a Streets of Rage 3 tune in here but I really think that the music from SoR3 deserves its own article, as it’s one of the first mainstream games to use Glitch music for its soundtrack.

Secret of Mana - Ceremony 

There were a lot of iconic songs in this game that made it difficult to just settle for one (Into the Thick of It, Distant Thunder).

Hiroki Kikuta composed a unique soundtrack that went from whimsical and light-hearted one moment, to sad and solemn the next. One of his most daring sound choices can be found in something as simple as the start-up screen; using a whale noise instead of the more standard ping or coin drop.

Ceremony is the song that plays in the Pandora ruins and is associated with Thanatos’ cult. This music is heavily inspired by Gamelan, a type of Indonesian traditional music played by the people of Java, Sunda and Bali, which uses a lot of metal percussion instruments. It reminds me a lot of the soundtrack to Akira by Geinoh Yamashirogumi, which also drew a lot of influence from Gamelan (and possibly inspired this track).

This song helps build a lot of atmosphere at the mystery of the ruins, but also plants seeds that there may be something more sinister going on under the surface.

The track was also remixed heavily for the final battle against Thanatos for the song called The Oracle. If you listen carefully, you can hear bits of Ceremony, but this version is a lot more frantic and hyperactive (and also sounds like a mash-up of chiptune and industrial in some places).

Star Fox - Corneria

"Emergency, emergency! Emergency, emergency! Incoming enemy fighters, prepare for launch!"

Everything about the intro to the first level gets you so pumped for the game. The sirens getting progressively faster as your Arwing scrambles to launch, ribidirib ribidirib; the banter between your teammates creating what can only be described as Watership Down meets Top Gun. In space.

And the music.

Composed by Hajime Hirasawa, one of his only video game credits before he left to found his own music distribution company, Corneria is an epic track that helps to build the excitement for the rest of the game.

There are lots of really good remixes of this song out there, so try and check out some of them if you can, especially some of the synthwave versions.

Oh, and don’t confuse this song with the Star Fox 64 version of Corneria, which is a completely different song (and not quite as iconic imo).

F-Zero - Big Blue

F-Zero was one of the first games to be released on the SNES. Racing games from its predecessor, the NES, were distinctly grounded in reality. You had Excitebike, Super Off Road and R.C. Pro-Am. These were all racing games where you raced for sport. R.C. Pro-Am, as good as it was, had you racing as radio-controlled cars. It didn’t quite have the ambition that Nintendo were looking for with the launch of the Super Nintendo. The Super Nintendo was the future, and needed a statement of intent. Enter F-Zero and its futuristic, high speed racing in the 26th century complete with green skinned turtle man aliens. A far cry from radio-controlled cars.

Liked Star Fox’s Corneria, this is a soundtrack that has a kind of 80s feel to it, although a little bit more rock sounding than synthwave. The soundtrack was composed by Yumiko Kanki and Naoto Ishida, although according to the Nintendo Fandom website, it was Ishida that came up with Big Blue (and Kanki came up with pretty much every other track).

This was another one that it was too difficult to make a decision on. Both Big Blue and Mute City are the standout tracks here. But there’s something about Big Blue that is just so exciting and sums up exactly what racing around at 1000mph would feel like.

Donkey Kong Country- DK Island Swing

A lot of the songs on this list are songs that I would listen to as standalone songs, and are very much in the genres of music that I would listen to anyway. I don't mind saying that swing jazz is not a genre that is on heavy rotation on my playlist. That's no offense to swing jazz, it's just I grew up more of a goth and it’s scientifically impossible to feel sad while wearing sequins and dancing the Charleston.

Nevertheless, this iconic song from the first level of DKC made my list just for the absolute joy it brings me every time I hear it.

Perhaps inspired by the music of the Jungle Book (1967), in which the city of Apes ruled over by King Louie, was voiced by swing jazz musician Louis Prima.

The soundtrack was written by a David Wise, Eveline Fischer, and Robin Beanland. What’s interesting about this soundtrack is that none of the other songs really sound like this one. But this is the one that became iconic and arguably shaped the music for future DK games.

Actraiser - Fillmore

This SNES game might be relatively lesser-known compared to some of the other entries, which is a shame because it's one of my favourite games from the era. Actraiser was a Metroidvania type game that had a Sim City style God mode where you could bask in your followers unwavering worship and smite the non-believers. What’s not to like?

In keeping with the themes of the game, It has developed a bit of a cult following over the years as it's cemented its status as one of the great SNES games in retro-gaming circles.

It’s quite impressive that this was the 4th SNES game to be released (in Japan) as the graphics have aged well and are probably much better than some other games released around the same time.

So, onto the music. This is the second song on the list from Yuzo Koshiro. But rather the mean streets of Detroit (ahem, I mean Wood Oak City), this time he's soundtracking the gothic, ancient greek fable stylings of Actraiser.

According to Koshiro, the soundtrack was influenced by Star Wars (as can be heard inside The Pyramid, which is very reminiscent of Star Wars: A New Hope’s Jawa Sandcrawler)

Fillmore is first level and you're greeted to an epic sounding organ as your character descends from the heavens. It's as prog as it gets; More Castlevania than Castlevania. From there it gets very heroic which fits with the action orientated gameplay.

Toejam and Earl - Toejam Jammin’

Toejam and Earl is an eccentric, roguelike platformer(?) with a unique sense of humour and very 90s hiphop and funk inspired art style.

The music is also very funk inspired. Composed by Jon Baker, the music was inspired by Herbie Hancock, which lent it a very unique sound unlike any others on 16bit consoles.

Toejam and Earl was one of the first Genesis games I remember playing. There used to be a guy who would drive around my housing estate with a bunch of games in the back of his Ford Fiesta that you could rent for a week. I remember being out at mate’s house one weekend when the guy came around, so my mum chose a game for me instead. After I came home, I was so upset after looking at the screenshots on the box because I probably wanted something like James Pond II: Robocod or Rolo to the Rescue, but after playing it I ended up asking my parents to buy me the full game.

It’s a shame Toejam and Earl never became big icons of Sega like Sonic did, but they have a special place in the hearts of 90s kids around the world (and Funkotron)

Honourable mentions

Jetstrike - Drop the Bomb

I've included this in the honourable mentions for two reasons.

1. The version I had was on the Amiga CD32, which is technically a 32-bit console. This game did come out on the regular Amiga, but I'm pretty sure the music was added for the 32-bit version.

2. Looking back now, the songs are probably a bit shit. But for 14-year-old me, I love nothing more than singing “drop the bomb” without really thinking what I was singing about. The soundtrack is heavily influenced by the Top Gun soundtrack, and while people may turn their noses up at that, I happened to have a lot of fun crashing my plane while listening to wish.com Take my Breath Away by Berlin.

Undertale - Megalovania 

Alright, so this one definitely doesn't count as a 16-bit game. But it is hugely inspired by 8-bit and 16-bit games, and its soundtrack is no exception. And this is a soundtrack that can lay claim to being arguably the best soundtrack ever made. The fact that this whole game was made pretty much by one person is mind-blowing. 

People get pretty passionate about Undertale and I’m sure there will be people grumbling about me choosing its most popular song. For those that are unaware, there are a number of different routes you can take when playing Undertale that will give you different endings and a different last boss. I actually preferred Hopes and Dreams for a long time, which is the soundtrack to another one of the last boss fights, as I thought it was a much more emotionally impactful song for a last boss. That's until I experienced hearing Megalovania in its proper context. 

There are probably people still out there that haven’t played Undertale, so I don't want to spoil things, but the whole lead up to this boss fight and the boss fight itself are one of the most special moments I've experienced in gaming. You've already been the hero and beat Asgard. You've already helped all your friends with their hopes and dreams. For this route, you have all the weight of your past lives weighing on you as you face the consequences of your actions. There are not of gaming experiences like this one, so the battle needed something special like Megalovania.

That about wraps things up for this month’s post.

Did I make any egregious omissions?

Are you apoplectic with rage ready to haduken my face in over which Streetfighter II track I chose?

Should I have Ultima cast on me for missing out a Final Fantasy 6 song?

Be sure to let me know!

And don’t forget to check out my TeePublic store!