Outer Wilds takes the cake for me.

Morrowind, hands down

Skyrim, by a longshot. That theme never failed to get me cranked to get my Nordic adventuring on.

Kingdom Hearts main menu theme. It's absolutely a nostalgia hit for me. That game was one of my "get-away" games while in a rough situation. Hearing that music always makes me feel a little safer, like I'm just one step away from a completely different life.

Civ 4: Baba Yetu

I’ll go with Mass Effect, the music in the first 3 games is incredible. Especially in the first game I think. This particular piece is called Vigil.

Here’s the not hour long version haha.

Skyrim for sure, nothing gets you more prepared to start a new adventure than that.

Honorable mention to the Last of Us after you've completed the game and are just sitting there, staring at the screen and wondering what to do next.

Unreal Tournament 2004:

https://youtu.be/uTFfxtb7q4M

Probably Metroid Prime. Both the Title Theme and the Menu Theme are fantastic.

Xenoblade games also have brilliant title themes. Here's the one for the first game.

Now, for some spice, let's branch into a type of game I think most people here won't have played - Visual Novels often have great title themes.

• Muv-Luv Alternative's "Crash" is pure hype
• Both Steins;Gate's "Gate of Steiner" and Steins;Gate 0's "Messenger" are great themes too.
• I also love VA-11 HALL-A's "Hopes and Dreams".

Mass Effect

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3GXVXYl3_8c

Elden Ring's main theme is literally the only video game song I have in my normal music rotation.

But only because Lunar Silver Star Story's Wings isn't on Spotify.

Payday 2 really sets the mood with it's music

Deus Ex

The Legend of Zelda

Yeah, there are newer versions, but I deliberately found the original.

• Red Alert 2
• Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

Metroid Prime. I only played it for the first time this year when the remaster came out and the music blew me away.

Skyrim and RuneScape 2 (pre-audio update) are both pretty damn iconic

At my wedding we had the DJ play Skyrim and Witcher 3 music during dinner and it worked way better than it had any business working

Hollow Knight

Rocket Jump Waltz -- TF2

One of the best fighting games

One Must Fall 2097

A little bit of nostalgia always helps too

Definitely the original main menu music for Dragon's Dogma.

I remember booting it up on the PS3 back in the day and was like "Wha-?" but after playing the game so many times it's definitely become a favorite. Both for how out of place it is but also how perfect it fits after all the context of the game.

Sad they replaced it for the Dark Arisen version but luckily there is a mod for PC that restores it in all its glory. :P

Cadence of Hyrule, for sure. So damn good.

https://youtu.be/SnpaNEj4aCU?si=GrBpxcq1EN96Nv9D

Not main menu but the golden eye pause menu music on the n64 was a banger 🔥

The correct answer is Civilization V Gods and Kings.

Bloodborne

Duke Nukem 3D Gets me pumped to this day.

Metal Gear Solid

Arcanum's main theme gets my vote.

It's weird. It's terrible as music - just random strings with almost no recognizable tune outside of the first few seconds - but it sets a mood better than any other. It's distilled melancholy in music form.

Super Mario Bros. 2

Super Metroid.

Spooky AF

Dark Souls 3

Even years later, having completed the game many times, that opening song still gives me the chills! So haunting, so beautiful!

Skyrim has to be on the list for the pure joy of it

Witcher 3, phenomenal music.

Morrowind

Final Fantasy XII

Max Payne. It sets the tone of the game at once.

Syndicate (2011)

Syndicate was a really niche entry into the Cyberpunk genre that flopped commercially but had some interesting ideas about corp-ocracy and the way businesses of the future would wage warfare against each other like nations used to.

That main menu music has echoed in my brain for years. Deus Ex: Human Revolution would have been first but Syndicate is less well known and I figured someone already mentioned DE:HR at some point here.

Ori and the Blind Forest has a great track throughout, but the menu is definitely a highlight.

Papers please

The BF1942 theme/title music is the most epic to me.

Gotta be Into Free which was the original main title music from Dragon's Dogma.

It was removed for Dark Arisen for reasons I am unsure of, so it isn't even something you can experience without mods.

It is wildly different from the rest of the game's music but still connected in a way, and sets a very different vibe. Great game, great music.