My Favorite Video Game Music: Introduction

I'm going to be posting my favorite pieces of video game music, one by one, on here until I'm through. I put together a top 50 list, actually, and will count it down from #50 with a YouTube link and a little mini-essay on each one.

This is NOT some kind of faux-authoritative list on which video game music you should like. It's what music I like, and you will see that I have odd tastes. (I'll have fun elaborating on those tastes as I go.) Also, if your favorite game is completely omitted from the list, you're in good company with millions of other people. This is because the list draws only from games I played, and I only played a small number of games. I grew up in a house where money was pretty tight, and I got two new games a year: one in May for my birthday, and one on Christmas day. That pattern never varied for 12 years, ages 6 to 18. All of my gaming experience was on the NES (15%), SNES (75%) and N64 (10%). I hardly ever touched a Genesis or a PlayStation. And my experience ends in about 1999.

The entire list, then, is pulled from a handful of games. Almost all the music on it, actually, comes from the great SNES RPG's, because those were my favorite games. There are a few exceptions.

Every song on the list comes from one of the following games:

Castlevania
Chrono Trigger
EarthBound
Final Fantasy IV, V, VI and VII
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Lufia II
Mario Kart 64
Super Mario Bros. 3
Super Mario RPG
Super Mario 64
Tecmo Super Bowl

And that's it.