Well, I guess this is what you call ‘emberassing’. I missed two days of 31/31, but don’t worry. It was to make sure that the 31st day has the most entertaining content I’ve ever written. Now, with that foreshadowing out of the way, back to the topic at hand.
Considering that almost half of the Top 10 list I wrote were about music, it’s fairly obvious that I really love video game music. However, I’ve been ignoring one of the best parts of any soundtrack. The character themes. From the Imperial March to Superman, some of the best and most iconic songs in soundtracks are character themes. Now, for this song to count, it has to be the song that represents the character. It has to either play on a characters stage, whenever the character does something noteworthy, or be officially regarded as the character’s theme by the creator for the song to qualify.
With that out of the way, get the headphones I always tell you to put on and crank the volume up once again, these are the Top 10 Character Themes in gaming.
10-Vampire Killer (Castlevania)
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Vampire Killer was the first song heard in Castlevania, and seems to only play when Simon Belmont is present. It’s a foreboding song that sets the tone of the game well. It’s fun, but you will not overcome it easily. I can’t think of a more spot-on way to describe Castlevania.
9-Theme of Samus Aran, Galactic Warrior (Super Metroid)
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Samus is one of the most heroic characters in video game history. She’s a complete badass, and she knows it. This song celebrates that. This is just the type of orchestrated fanfare that you’d expect to play for a true hero, and if any video game character deserves that title, it’s Samus Aran.
8-Right Behind You (Team Fortress 2)
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When playing TF2, the Spy is an enemy to be feared. This song would like to remind you of that fact. Right Behind You sounds like it came right out of The Thing or Halloween, and has the perfect title for the theme of the Spy. One Spy can create havoc and fear within the enemy team, and the song can do just the same.
7-Star Wolf (Star Fox Assault)
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Star Wolf is an enemy that the Star Fox series wants you remember, and no song in the entire franchise is more memorable than this. Star Wolf are Star Fox’s mortal enemies, always ready to blow each other away and have a good time doing it. Every time this song starts playing in the game, you know that you’re going to be in for a fun ride.
6-Guile’s Theme (Street Fighter 2)
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Guile’s theme is perhaps one of the most triumphant songs I’ve ever heard. Don’t believe me? Just look up Guile’s Theme Goes with Everything on youtube, and let the videos prove it for themselves. If there’s ever one video game song that should play during any moment of success, it should be this one.
5-Theme of Taskmaster (Marvel vs Capcom 3)
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Taskmaster’s theme sounds like it should play during the biggest clash of titans ever. You get the sense that it’s a battle song, but a battle between two great, yet equally matched opponents. More fighting game themes need to be like this.
4-Rainbow Dash’s Theme (Fighting is Magic)
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While Fighting is Magic got hit with a Cease and Desist, you can still hear it’s soundtrack online. Out of all the amazing songs, I have to say the best song is the theme of the best pony. Rainbow Dash’s Theme is a fantastic remix of her verse in “At the Gala” from the show, to the point where whenever I hear the original song, I think of this. And that’s amazing.
3-One Winged Angel (Final Fantasy VII)
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I know One Winged Angel. You know One Winged Angel. There’s not a single gamer out there who’s never heard this song before. When people think of character themes, they think of Sephiroth and One Winged Angel. If the song is just as iconic as the character, then I’d call that a success.
2-Dragonborn (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim)
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In Skyrim, Dovahkiin is always Tamriel’s greatest warrior. And nothing fits a great warrior more than an orchestrated epic like this. This song takes the intensity of Taskmaster’s theme, the triumph of Guile’s theme, and wraps it all up by being almost as iconic as One Winged Angel. It’s a perfect song for a near-perfect game.
1-Ezio’s Family (Assassin’s Creed II)
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I know I’ve said it back in Top 10 Atmospheric Tracks, but I stand by what I said there. Ezio’s Family is a musical masterpiece that is both sad, yet hopeful. It defines both the Ezio trilogy and Ezio’s character, making it what I consider to be one of the greatest songs in gaming history.
This was a really tight list, and no all themes made it on here. So, if there were any you wanted to see that didn’t make the cut, I’d love to know in the comments. Thanks for reading, and I’ll be back on schedule tomorrow.