Music from video games – be it songs “inspired by” games, soundtracks, chip tunes, remixes, or something else entirely – is a big part of the Destructoid community. Music Monday is a weekly look at some of these tunes.
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Like many others here on Destructoid, I was a huge fan of Earthbound on the SNES. I'll admit, a big part of it was the all-out marketing blitz that came from my monthly issues of Nintendo Power. Who could resist the siren call of scratch-and-sniff stickers? I loved everything about the game, including the oversized box the game was shipped in. The graphics were unique (albeit simple for the time), and the style, setting, story and dialog were all a departure from the popular JRPGs that filled the shelves. Earthbound was definitely the game that gave me the RPG “bug” back in the day, and remains my favorite one.

And then there's the music.

Earthbound had a phenomenal soundtrack, composed by Hirokazu Tanaka (of Metroid fame) and Keiichi Suzuki. Rather than the “epic” music of most RPGs (which is usually based in their more medieval setting), Earthbound's soundtrack is guitar-driven and rock and jazz influenced. The music is terribly evocative, from the relaxed and breezy tunes of Summers to the urban, techno-sounding Fourside. The original soundtrack is available online at both jpophelp.com and otaku.com. If you want to NOT download the soundtrack as .wma files, you can NOT go to Earthbound HQ.

As CaffeinePowered pointed out in his article Point & Counter Point 3: Earthbound, you can find 18 remixed tracks from the game at Overclocked Remix. If you want some great electronica and just incredibly well-done remixed music, check out some of these tracks. There are some great, eccentric and experimental songs on here, and I'd recommend Rings of Saturn Valley and Bus for starters.

What's that? 18 songs isn't nearly enough for you? You want literally hours of aural pleasure and literally dozens of different songs? Well then you, my hypothetical friend, should check out Bound Together – An Earthbound Remix Project. As the site boasts, there are 48 songs, making up nearly 3 hours of music. While some of these are repeats from Overclocked, there is still more than enough to sate your appetite. Looking for a rap about Ness? You got it. A song done by Destructoid's own Dale North? No problem. Ska, long after it died in the summer of '98? Track 41. For any Earthbound-aholic, you owe it to yourself to check this out.

[I have had this piece planned for a little while, but realize that some people have posted about the Earthbound music in their own C-Blogs. It was not my intent to seem to 'crib' from anyone else's blogs, and will link to your posts if you let me know. Thanks!]

[Oh, and image from etoasty.com]