Sturgeon’s Law: “90 percent of everything is crap.” Reductive, but not wholly wrong. The more games get released per year, the more I have to sift through all the trash to find the good stuff. Yes I’m complaining.
Every era has its own unique way to write boring music. If a composer isn’t very skilled or doesn’t have a clear vision of what they need or want to write, they are bound to just copy whatever is popular at the time. For now it’s “Generic 80s Action Movie Chiptune Metal,” a mix of a sort of half-remembered Metallica and George Michael. And I have to listen to all of it. I’m being forced to. They’re making me.
All this to say that I aim to be as impartial as humanly possible. I don’t mean to create lists of my favorite soundtracks from each year, but ones that I think achieve some quote-unquote “objective artistic accomplishment*.” In other words, there are some soundtracks which I love and think are good, and some I hate and think are bad - but also some I love and think are bad, and some I hate but think are good. 1987 is a year with a lot of soundtracks that do absolutely nothing for me, but is it objectively bad? Probably not. There may be times where I praise a piece of music you think is awful. This, 1987, should be one of those years. Let us all learn to say together, “this art was not made for me,” and nothing more.
(*If you’re one to snicker at the idea of art having anything “objective” to say, I’m sorry you can’t see art as anything other than entertainment to be judged on whether or not the artist is sufficiently subservient to your tastes.)
#10: Contra
Composer: Kazuki Muraoka
Platform: Arcades
Hyper-macho white guy or guys? Check.
Dressed vaguely martial but not properly dressed for combat? Check.
They have to single-handedly gun down hordes of bad guys in a forest or jungle? Check check.
Contra was by no means the first game like this, not after Ikari Warriors or Commando, but it’s probably the Ur-example. I guess Rambo really had a hold on people in the 80s. Maybe you had to be there to truly appreciate the genre. I don’t think this imagery has aged all that well in the 21st century. At least Contra had the good sense to make the bad guys space aliens and not barely disguised stand-ins for the Viet Cong for the thousandth time. (I am not excited about this game.)
At least it squeaks into the bottom of the list. The only thing keeping it from dropping off entirely is its iconic opening track, iconic enough you might recognize it even if you haven’t played the game. Unfortunately the rest of the soundtrack doesn’t quite live up to the opener, but who knows, this might be your jam.
#9: Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
Composer: Kenichi Matsubara
Platform: Console (NES)
Castlevania is an iconic series, I know, and this sequel is incredibly well-known, I also know. When I listen to the music, I know exactly why. Unfortunately my heart is not in it, and I don’t feel like pretending. It’s definitely top ten material for 1987, admittedly a lean year. There are loads of people who love this game, so nothing against you all. Just... I don’t get it. And I can’t come up with a great way to hype this soundtrack. Try it yourself and see if you like it. I certainly don’t.
I’m also a little bit mad that Kinuyo Yamashita - who composed the original game - didn’t get to do this one. Part of me (the part of me that is right about everything all the time) thinks she would have done better.
#8: Doki Doki Panic
Composer: Koji Kondo
Platform: Console (NES)
Chances are, if you know this soundtrack, you know it as “Super Mario Bros. 2.” Originally, though, Doki Doki Panic was its own thing. The plot and content was virtually the same, but it contained original characters and not the cast of the Mario universe. Why was it changed? The short version is that the original Super Mario Bros. 2, a totally different game, was deemed too hard by Nintendo of America. So it wasn’t ported over from Japan, and Doki Doki Panic was refitted with the Mario characters and packaged as the sequel over here.
It’s Koji Kondo again, so you can expect more of the same whimsical melodies and slightly asymmetrical structures. But if you’re used to the American soundtrack, you might notice some differences here. Of course there’s the obvious: no tracks that reprise a melody from the Mario universe. But even the tracks preserved in both versions are different in each - in Doki Doki panic they are shorter, without the B sections added for Super Mario Bros. 2. The music is also less refined. Not going to lie, I prefer the Super Mario Bros. 2 soundtrack. This one’s good enough to make #8 but Kondo definitely improved it on the re-release, which didn’t come out in 1987 so it can’t be on this entry. Those are the rules.
#7: Double Dragon
Composer: Kazunaka Yamane
Platform: Arcades
I don’t have much to say about Double Dragon. For some reason, every time I look this game up, watch it, or listen to the OST, everything just goes in one ear and right back out the other. Sorry. I have listened to this soundtrack probably ten times and I still can’t tell you anything about it. But it’s a big enough deal to hit #7. Congrats, Double Dragon. You did good.
#6: Zelda II: Adventure of Link
Composer: Akito Nakatsuka
Platform: Console (NES)
It’s fascinating how on this system (the NES) with such limited audio capabilities, composers found ways to make their works sound aurally unique. It’s not just about writing original melodies - sometimes one composer manipulated the waveforms themselves in ways no other composer did, despite how few options were on the system.
Yes, the NES was stuck with the five limited channels, but there were some effects that could be placed on them. One of those effects was vibrato, including how wide and fast the vibrato was and how long to delay before the vibrato began. Akita Nakatsuka apparently decided to just turn all the knobs way up for the whole soundtrack. Almost every note in every tune has a wide and fast vibrato that makes everything sound unnaturally warbled. Whatever you think about that choice, it’s certainly original.
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link is considered the black sheep of the series because of its gameplay, but I’ll put forward that the music is similarly unlike the rest of the series. Except for a brief reprise of part of the first game’s main theme, there is nothing to tie this soundtrack to any other Zelda game. And the next entry in the series would set a different tone so completely that there would be no going back to this bizarre soundtrack. But Zelda II’s music still shows up from time to time elsewhere, such as its Temple Theme getting reused in Super Smash Bros. Melee.
#5: Street Fighter
Composer: Yoshihiro Sakaguchi
Platform: Arcades
Unfortunately, a lot of early FM synthesis sounds like much of this list. While the soundfont is more advanced than the simple waveforms, everything sounds rather unpleasant out of context. But where Contra and Double Dragon really only give you one unpleasant style over and over, Street Fighter dares to try something unique with its soundtrack. I’m willing to give it points for the attempt, even though it hasn’t aged well, and I’ll say it probably would be more fun if the composer had access to better audio tech.
It’s already impressive enough that the arcade version of Street Fighter has an original and unique tune for each character. What elevates it to the #5 spot is that Sakaguchi writes each theme in a different style. It’s not all 80s action movie music! And, even more impressive, despite the music emulating the sounds of multiple different cultures around the world, it never stoops to low-effort stereotypes. (Well, the audio doesn’t at least. I am unfamiliar with this game and can’t vouch for the character design.)
Alas, this is probably the last time an arcade game is going to do well on these lists, when they appear at all. Yes, arcades dominated the industry up until this point, and would continue to be wildly popular well into the 90s. But as far as the audio is concerned, they kind of peaked with Out Run. Consoles and PCs are rapidly catching up, and though they may not have the most advanced hardware, the sheer scope of console and PC games means the biggest and best soundtracks are moving away from the arcades and into the home.
#4: Dragon Quest II
Composer: Koichi Sugiyama
Platform: Console (NES)
Oh look it’s Dragon Quest again. I wonder if this series will be on the list with every new installment. (Spoilers, it will, at least for a few more years.)
The first game was revolutionary in a lot of ways, so the sequel, which is more of the same, might come across as a let-down, at least in the sound department. The gameplay is actually a big step up from the previous entry in the series. I’d say a lot of my disinterest in the soundtrack is a fault of my own high expectations. However, I must begrudgingly report and that it is in fact good writing and I liked it. It’s Dragon Quest I, but with a bit more polish.
Notably, Sugiyama starts leaning more heavily into the stylistic writing the series would become known for. He loves to juxtapose complex, almost baroque voice leading with folksy and childlike tunes, and then hit you with the early 20th-century atonal counterpoint just to keep you on your toes. Listen to how he scores the town theme and compare it to the underground track.
Like the last time I’m linking a full Let’s Play for this game. I don’t expect you to watch the whole thing, but it’s nice to see how the entire experience fits together. Plus, I just like this LPer. I’ve been following him on YouTube for more than a decade now. These days I don’t watch a ton of Let’s Plays or things like that, but I always come back to HCBailly. This is a free plug for the guy’s YouTube channel.
#3: Mega Man
Composer: Manami Matsumae
Platform: Console (NES)
I’m surprised it’s taken seven years into the 80s to get a game about fighting robots set to chiptune hair metal.
Mega Man is another one of those iconic series that started on the NES, and it is by far the most prolific. Mega Man had 6 games for the system - and then there were multiple titles for Game Boy, Super NES, N64, and so on. It also went through multiple composers. For the NES, no two games had the exact same set of composers.
Lots of 80s games greatly favored the heavy metal style, but few soundtracks nailed it like the Mega Man games did. This particular entry is a bit short and unfortunately doesn’t have all that much music, but the music that does exist is excellent. It’s about as close to real heavy metal as the NES gets. I particularly love the Elec Man and Cut Man stage tracks, if you’re looking for recommendations. Too bad Matsumae didn’t do any of the other games - she was promoted to the arcade division at Capcom after this and only did some minor work for the sequel.
#2: Final Fantasy
Composer: Nobuo Uematsu
Platform: Console (NES)
I bet you were scrolling through this whole list waiting to see if I would put Final Fantasy in the number one spot, weren’t you? Well, #2 will have to do.
It’s hard, impossible even, to overstate how popular this franchise has become, especially to us in the West (white people). It’s also hard, impossible even, to overstate how important and amazing the soundtracks are, and how great a composer Nobuo Uematsu is. Meaning no disrespect to the Dragon Quest series! DQ came first, after all, and those soundtracks are also amazing, but Final Fantasy became the Ur-example of RPG music.
I’m not as sold on what Uematsu wrote for the NES, though. Final Fantasy is certainly great for its time, and miles better than just about everything else in 1987. Seriously, the gap between the final two entries and everything before on this list is wider than the Atlantic Ocean. But it’s clear the music Uematsu wants to make just isn’t possible with the NES’s sound chip. It yearns for an orchestra. The main theme is great, and the prelude works even though it’s begging to be played on a harp. I’m also partial to the village theme and the sailing song. This isn’t Uematsu’s first video game soundtrack, but it is his first RPG, and he makes it clear immediately he really, really knows how to write for an RPG.
#1: Ys I: Ancient Ys Vanished
Composer: Yuzo Koshiro, Mieko Ishikawa
Platform: PC (NEC-PC88)
I promise I didn’t intend to stick Final Fantasy at #2. I was fully prepared to crown Final Fantasy the winner of 1987 without listening to anything, but then I actually did my due diligence and... there’s this game called Ys (pronounced “Ys”). It was originally only released in Japan, for Japanese computers.
Forgive me for never having heard of it until I was doing my research for this series. Where the hell did this come from? Here’s a 50 minute soundtrack with full FM synthesis... on a PC! Remember that PCs through the 80s were far and away the worst for video game audio. Then Japan’s NEC-PC appeared out of nowhere, with graphical and audio capabilities much greater than the Commodore 64, Apple II, and Atari computers. This dominance would not last long (and would in fact not be noticed by anyone outside of Japan), so Ys slips in at the perfect time to crush the competition in 1987 and oust the literal Jesus of video game music, who slips to #2.
For the sheer audacity of this soundtrack, Ys lands on the top spot. But it’s not just the technological milestone that puts it here. The music is also really fun and brash! Since discovering the Ys series, I’ve noticed the soundtracks tend to be over-the-top, with a “subtlety is for cowards” aesthetic. Everything is cranked up to 11 all the time. Even so, there are some chill tracks like “Feena” and “Dreaming” which stand out as my favorites.
Every Vibeo Grame Audio post:
