Ranking the WORST video game Music of All Time

I like to always try to find positives when I listen to video game music because i think seeing the good in things is important. However, does that apply to everything? Let's find out...
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Chapters:
0:00 Intro
0:23 Mansion Basement - Resident Evil: DC
1:14 Nocturne - Sonic Chronicles
3:06 Locked - Ace Combat 3D
4:35 Cry of Giegue - Mother
5:20 Yoshi's Crafted World - Insert Coin
6:33 Crused Rotted Greatwood Tree - Dark Souls 3
8:29 Pizza Theme - Spider-Man 2
10:42 Title Theme - Crazy Bus

[@ooberallen]

@0:00 Intro @0:23 Mansion Basement - Resident Evil: DC @1:14 Nocturne - Sonic Chronicles @3:06 Locked - Ace Combat 3D @4:35 Cry of Giegue - Mother @5:20 Yoshi's Crafted World - Insert Coin @6:33 Crused Rotted Greatwood Tree - Dark Souls 3 @8:29 Pizza Theme - Spider-Man 2 @10:42 Title Theme - Crazy Bus

[@MarcoMeatball]

thank you for doing those!

[@ooberallen]

@@MarcoMeatball anytime!

[@kenrulei09]

The thing that makes sonic Chronicles so bad is it’s just a old sega megadrive older song that destroys it every way from sonic 3&knuckles 😂

[@MrGuidoxo]

*Resident Evil: DC - Dual Shock Ver. An easy mistake eveyone makes, the regular DC still has the good, original OST. The infamous arrangements are exclusive to the version with Dual Shock support.

[@ledgendweaver]

Yes, he finally listened to curse rooted greatwood. Also, have never heard it before, but I kinda liked the ace combat 3d song.

[@Sheevlord]

Fun fact: the guy who composed the basement fart theme pretended to be deaf for years. I'm not surprised that people actually believed him, given how that track sounds.

[@caseyogden7105]

WAIT HES NOT ACTUALLY DEAF??? NO WAY

[@Sheevlord]

@@caseyogden7105 Nope. And the way he blew his cover was hilarious. A journalist came over to his place to interview him. Then the doorbell rang, so he just went over to answer it. And it was a normal doorbell, the kind that only produces sound and no special visual indication (meaning that a deaf person wouldn't know it rang)

[@Yduno29]

More importantly, he had a ghostwriter, so he might not have actually written that theme either

[@kaistephens2694]

Mamoru Samuragochi was his name. He's also been credited for Onimusha Warlords.

[@iota-09]

irrelevant, more recently it was found that this was only on a certain version of the game, the most likely reason to why it sounds so goofy is that there was a coding mistake during the porting and the wrong soundfont was used for the song, where something more ghastly and tenuous was supposed to be used for the composition.

[@Mart1n192]

If I recall correctly the notes in the Crazybus title theme are actually RANDOMLY generated, there is no sense or meaning behind a single second of that "song"

[@chrisn676]

It's like the opposite of 4'33.

[@Saryuja26]

It is in fact different every time you open the game meaning the famous version on KZbin is just one guy's experience with it

[@0Fyrebrand0]

I've never heard of Crazybus, so when I heard that track I wondered if it was really trying to be music or if it was a troll or something. I think it only counts as "bad music" if the composer was actually trying to make something good, but failed.

[@michaelsrensen-lb7yw]

Crazy Bus on Drums kzbin.info/www/bejne/jXy0g4KLl6-ViMk

[@Painocus]

@@0Fyrebrand0 It was made pretty much just to test the sound driver, the whole "game" was just a tech-demo to test that and the creator's BASIC compiler.

[@yikes6758]

AHAHHAHA dude, when you said "worst vg music" i immediately thought "resident evil director's cut mansion basement", and imagine my face when it was the FIRST track

[@mihacimpric745]

It's weird, considering RE has some of the best tracks in gaming, like Save Room Theme, Goodbye Leon, Ada's Theme and Wreckage of the Mad Experiment.

[@requiem6465]

Saudade is great

[@Neo-Metal17]

I thought of Sonic Chronicles and that came right after

[@requiem6465]

@Neo-Metal17 the worst part of Sonic Chronicles OST is that almost all the songs are poorly made covers/remixes of iconic sonic songs.

[@Neo-Metal17]

@@requiem6465 I know, it's terrible

[@TotalHogwash]

The Spiderman pizza theme having a backstory is a plot twist I wasn't ready for, but is the exact sort of information I love to learn about.

[@zinogre6225]

Larry’s chocolate hat song

[@SolDizZo]

I've heard it in the wild but I definitely always remember the Spiderman 2 Pizza Delivery Mission first

[@sandy_shark]

@@zinogre6225One day while he was waiting for the trolley, he had a hat

[@gabrielsantosbastos5257]

I don't know how it's in this video

[@zinogre6225]

@@sandy_shark “My high silk hat”

[@MonkeSle]

playing crazy bus going 90 on the freeway is a surefire way to ensure heaven nor hell wants you

[@ronbaevsky4639]

Underrated

[@potatoofmemes]

Dont forget being in a bus too

[@SnekSplosive]

Marco just casually dropping the hardest cover of an Italian song from memory like it’s nothing is one of many reasons I love this man

[@MrTomahawker]

No Way its from memory. He's looking into one point entire time

[@SnekSplosive]

@@MrTomahawker you sure about that? At no point does the video cut or show him typing anything in to pull it up. Don’t forget he’s also a retired opera singer, just because you’re retired, doesn’t mean the memory is gone either, he may have performed that song hundreds of times for all we know.

[@foggy8298]

The “good” you extrapolated out of that sonic track was just because it was an incredibly poor arrangement of “big arms” from sonic 3 which is in fact good Almost all songs from sonic chronicles are lesser arrangements of previous sonic songs

[@ig_4220]

Lesser arrangements that also lost parts in file conversion to the DS format

[@Neo-Metal17]

Sonic Chronicles soundtrack is just an entire failure compared to the OSTs of every other game.

[@shadowthehedgehog181]

​@ig_4220 Given that the GBA games and the Rush series had phenomenal music despite the GBA and DS limitations, there's NO excuse why Sonic Chronicles couldn't do the same

[@genyakozlov1316]

​@@Neo-Metal17Battle themes are awesome. Don't drag the entire ost

[@yupdatsmeboiii]

​@@ig_4220 It's because they're literally midi files and unfinished due to development problems

[@blivveries]

2:58 Oh, it's really funny that you'd make this comment specifically about Nocturne... Fun fact: one of the audio channels on that song doesn't loop at the same time as the rest, meaning one of the instruments will _slowly begin playing further and further out of sync_ the longer you listen to it...

[@April480p]

Even music won't escape Sonic developers' bugs, i can't 😭

[@AREAlhero]

@@April480p This game was made by Bioware (yes, THAT Bioware) and not Sega. In fact, it's theorized this game's "composer" likely a number of songs from this game from MIDI files hosted on popular Sonic fan forums at the time

[@orangejuice3235]

They had to remove like all the existing music in the game close to release because of supposed "legal issues" (probably the Penders lawsuit, to be fair,) leading them to scramble and put anything they could together before the game released. This is why they literally imported fan-made MIDIs. The soundfont they had was unfinished because of the time constraints too. Nocturne apparently has composition that straight up doesn't play because the soundfont is missing a handful of percussion instruments.

[@JinxedPixie88]

Shoot, that'd be a brilliant idea for a horror game.

[@JGuy97]

@@AREAlheroIs that why it’s clearly a Big Arm “remix”?

[@Schwazoom]

Is Cry of Giegue even a song? I thought the entire point of that thing is that the music cuts out and that droning sound starts playing for that part of the fight to be unsettling. More of a repeating sound effect that cuts the music out than actual music.

[@simonefiumicini]

Doesn't it play also during the entire zoo exploration? I might remember wrong

[@Schwazoom]

@@simonefiumicini It's been long enough. I don't remember, you might be rihgt.

[@caseyogden7105]

i would count it as a song in the way that ost and sound effects are seperated in nes games but i think it shouldnt count to be on this list as the whole point of the song to me was to be alien and hate it and to get under your skin. which usually means people thinks it sounds weird and hate it lol

[@Oscar97o]

@@caseyogden7105 Well, you could make a song that's alien but still good, see the Metroid soundtrack.

[@Schwazoom]

@@Oscar97oYeah but I'm not convinced that it counts as a song rather than background noise

[@Azrael178]

I adore how you started with the whole "i dont believe in bad music" speach and then imidietly within seconds of turning on the mansion basement theme your face just went blank and you had that "oh crap i might be eating my words in a minute" look

[@Mr.Kennedy-kn1kl]

I'm convinced the one dude who recommended Locked - Ace Combat 3D doesn't actually think it's bad and just wanted to share their taste in music.

[@sludgepls]

Yeah he snuck that in lol there's just no way

[@weebcraft6829]

Or just really hates rap

[@ShenDoodles]

It's only bad because it's compressed to shit. It would be a banger otherwise.

[@TomokoxKuroki]

@@ShenDoodles the compression makes it better imo

[@sludgepls]

@@TomokoxKuroki all of this.

[@XxIWINSTUFFxX]

Fun fact about the crazy bus theme it is partly randomly generated it just selects from a bunch of random notes and plays them in the game and it comes out sounding like it does

[@0Fyrebrand0]

Kind of seems like it's definitionally not even music, in that case.

[@XxIWINSTUFFxX]

@@0Fyrebrand0 it indeed is not

[@Mrinsecure]

I can absolutely guarantee that the RE Basement theme is a bad song, because it's meant to be scary and basically everyone bursts out laughing the moment they hear it for the first time. And the only worse than laughing during something that's supposed to be scary is being frightened at something that's supposed to be funny.

[@Cri_Jackal]

Cry of Giegue really shouldn't be counted at all here. It's being presented without any of its context. First off, the video used is only 15 minutes long because it's a fan made "extended version". Secondly, this tune is a short unsettling loop meant to unnerve you during the final boss fight, Giegue (better known as Giygas). It plays in the tight caves of the overworld map leading to him and during the fight, it's horror movie tension. It gets broken up by a short theme for him appearing once you enter his boss room, and then plays for the fight itself. Giegue himself is an alien, a malevolent force who has been sent by his race to wipe out humanity, but he was raised by humans during his childhood, and you defeat him by having your characters _sing the lullaby his adoptive mother sang for him._ Every time you choose the sing option, the "Cry of Giegue" ambience cuts out as a bit of the lullaby figuratively and literally cuts through the tension, weakening his resolve to fight. The lullably in question: Eight Melodies, which I believe you may have listened to a version of before. (You collect the 8 pieces of the song over the course of the game.) I recommend just watching a video of the final boss to understand the composer's actual intentions. (And also listen to the original NES Eight Melodies in full while you're out it.) Judged based on what it's _meant_ to do, it's actually excellent, it's entire purpose is to contrast the pleasent joy encapsulated by Eight Melodies.

[@HorseyWorsey]

least verbose Mother fan

[@Martian_1336]

blah blah blah blah blah

[@luigiss]

thank you for sharing the data that makes it sound so much better in context

[@BloomBlanche]

It's actually a pet peeve of mine when these simple, context-heavy tracks make it on one of those lists because they're *really* not meant to be listened to "for fun" like boss music or character themes. They're meant to set the atmosphere.

[@Cri_Jackal]

@@BloomBlanche I'm wondering who even requested this in the first place? Did they not even play the damn game???

[@themasterdou]

Putting Funiculì, Funiculà on this list was a major offence to our Italian brothers and sisters lol

[@AJCherenkov]

It is a truly dreadful rendition though, to be fair

[@AzureAware]

I'd call this rendition so bad it's good. It's both the jankiest yet most charming version I've heard.

[@celastice8032]

Stop Italians from getting offended again. They had enough from Americano and Hawaiian Pizza :/

[@andreainghilterra]

​@@celastice8032 you feel me, brother.

[@Pepp3777]

I loved the song as a kid

[@ShadowSausage]

No way spider man Pizza theme is bad music, same as DS3 boss

[@AegisKHAOS]

I thought they should both be zero on the scale. :)

[@jajasking9652]

Pizza theme is good for sure, DS3 theme is bad without context, but i think it works really well with the boss, as cursed greatwood is a giant, nasty and infected tree with a lot of ballsacks that looks like pus, and then the second phase ( which he should have listened to ) gets even nastier, as a hand poops out off the tree and there's even more ballsacks and more ballsack pus attacks, the song is screaming to you: kill this nightmare fuel thing as soon as posible, this abomination should not be a living creature

[@SpaceLobster21]

yeah exactly, idk why those got put on here. Same with Locked, like i guess I can see how someone might not enjoy listening to these but they are certainly not bad especially not comparable to crazy bus theme XD

[@Subpar1O1]

Curse Rotted Greatwood's theme is good though. It serves it's purpose in the fight since it genuinely gives the monster crawling towards you so much more presence. Pizza Theme is just goofy and jaunty

[@ryatt9365]

Those and the Yoshi song least sound like music, not really comparable to the rest that are just random sounds thrown together. And the pizza theme kinda hits, the audio quality is just ass cause the game was made a generation ago.

[@user-Robin151]

It’s hard to define what makes music “bad”. Is it when the music is: -lazy -low quality -disharmonious -painful to listen -distasteful -forgettable -a culmination of all of them Everyone will definitely have their own perspective on what makes it good or bad. And some songs where people say they love it, others will hear and say it’s awful. Course, there are some songs (like we listen to hear) we majority will say it’s just “bad”. I would classify bad music as being that which you can look at and when asked “how can I improve on this?” it’s hard to get good criticism due to how much would need to be improved

[@Painocus]

I know people who say music can't be good if it's disharmonious or painful to listen to and they're all cowards.

[@XMAlek]

Forgettable isn't always a bad thing per se. Lots of "environmental / ambiance" music are forgettable but add a lot to games.

[@Tim_593]

@@Painocus Depends on their definition. Doing dissonance right is one of the hardest challenges in music, but it can be done. These song go far beyond dissonance though, which is where it becomes bad.

[@Scadu_Orhyn]

It’s pretty much impossible to tell if music is “bad”. As, the main way to tell if something is bad is to understand whether or not there was little effort put into it. But, even what goes on behind-the-scenes has a 99% chance of not being displayed to the public audience, so it’s difficult to know if people put effort into the music. I also use “effort” as an example as the main measuring stick to understand if the music is good or bad, because music is one of the few things in life that is almost entirely SUBJECTIVE. Music I HATE might be music you LOVE. That is very rare in any other forms of entertainment. Like, for some people, they may not like very distasteful or unpleasant music…but for me, under certain circumstances, I really appreciate the commitment to such a “terrible” sound to give more emotional weight to what is being visually portrayed

[@XMAlek]

@@Scadu_Orhyn hate / love is subjective but you can define Bad music by non subjective things kinda easily : lack of harmony, lack of rythmn, bad mix, bad recording quality

[@FlappySeal]

Pretty sure that song from Mother just drove away any mice within a ten mile radius of me

[@RetroIsWatching]

Every theme of giegue/giygas just makes you wonder what the heck youre listening to in different ways. I’d recommend that you listen to some of giygas’s themes, *but i suggest you dont look up how giygas actually looks like*

[@nahuelkid]

Funny thing about the last one. Its not actually a composition, its a bunch of """""notes"""" being randomly sorted and played by the game.

[@phyrexian_dude4645]

That last song made RE basement song sound like a master piece.

[@BetaDude40]

It's like that because the guy who made the ROM was trying to make some kind of tech demo. He wasn't a musician and didn't care, so he just wrote a simple program that literally plays random notes through your soundcard and somehow thought that was sufficient

[@Sheevlord]

There's a playlist on youtube simply called "Bad Video Game Music", and it has some really, erm, exceptional music tracks.

[@bababooey5402]

It also apparently had Unexpectancy Part 2 from Pizza Tower in it, which immediately disqualifies it from discussion in my eyes. Is said song overshadowed by Part 1 and 3 surrounding it? Maybe, and especially in 3's case. But *bad?* Hell nah.

[@notamobilesprout4175]

“I’m in the house like carpet”

[@bardoon8792]

​@@notamobilesprout4175and if theres too many hits on my blunt i wont spark it

[@abaddon1503]

Buying Goods at Palmira isn’t bad at all, it’s very experimental and only considered bad because games don’t like to experiment. The video game equivalent to Sweepstakes by Gorillaz. I stand by this.

[@Iamverykarpy]

@@bababooey5402i get that its not a song that a lot of people would find appealing (personally i love it) but objectively there is nothing wrong with it so putting it as a bad video game song is pretty stupid i agree

[@reklov6638]

Crazybus started from the bottom, and then started digging (fire emoji)

[@ablobontheinternet7737]

*🔥

[@akechijubeimitsuhide]

How dare you put Soul of Cinder in the thumbnail. HERESY! XD

[@WeakerWeakest]

I know right, I was getting ready to grab my pitchfork and torch

[@leomelton5364]

I think he was just using the album cover

[@ShikiRyougi05]

That's the cover of the game lil bruh

[@akechijubeimitsuhide]

@@ShikiRyougi05 Sis, and I'm old enough to be your mother.

[@gamingartbeasts]

​@@akechijubeimitsuhide I get what you were trying to say, but you don't know how old that person is.

[@Ronin11111111]

IIRC the problem with RE irectors cut was that it uses the wrong MIDI font or something along those lines. Basically, instead of playing the song on the intended instruments, it's performed by a whoopie cushion.

[@anakrad.3966]

It is possible that changing the trumpet lead melody to the piano may improve the song.

[@harrylane4]

Iirc this is also the case in sonic chronicles, due to a bug

[@Ronin11111111]

@@harrylane4 Wasn't there something else with it too? Something about having to scrap the soundtrack at the last minute?

[@Johnwicklover1994]

@@Ronin11111111i think that was the sonic game. With RE, the guy faked being deaf and payed someone to ghostwrite all the stuff. apparently the basement theme for the director’s cut may or may not be one he wrote

[@nicholaswhite7056]

​@@Ronin11111111sonic retro says there was a bunch of legal issues so they had to rip out the orchestrated one they had and replace it with the midi hell nonsense we got

[@peepopopo7140]

"Cry of Giegue" may be the main, underlying track, but in game, it's supposed to be intercut with the "8 melodies" as you make your characters sing to Giegue. It would kind of defeat the purpose of defeating the boss with music if he had an actual battle theme.

[@LelloDalamiq]

So the funny thing about the RE Analog Directors Cut Basement theme is, apparently if you put it through a choir instead of a trumpet it sounds spot-on. You can imagine the guy who pretended to be deaf just thinking to himself 'yeah this isn't going to go well but I can't say shit or they'll know' and just let it happen.

[@sharzinlalebazri5673]

Nocturne from Sonic Chronicles is an EXTREMELY awful remix of the song "Big Arms" from Sonic 3 & Knuckles, which was an actual banger. And if you want to hear the ultimate version of the song, just listen to the remix in Sonic Generations 3DS (yes, the best version of a classic song is stuck in the handheld version of a game for a boss fight that ends almost as soon as it starts).

[@bababooey5402]

That specific track has some pretty fucken badass additions to it midway through, but by the time you beat the boss it might not even reach the middle. I think it's an issue of the song being too long for a single-phase fight, though - compare this to Death Egg Robot in Xbox/PS3 Generations and it sounds like it SHOULD have a second phase, but it just doesn't.

[@JADorsey93]

9:20 the confusion in your voice when you say Rodney Dangerfield really got me

[@Numb00]

Rodney Dangerfield jumpscare

[@l0sts0ul89]

​@@Numb00 "Oh no DANGERFIELD"

[@moderndayentertainer.9516]

Come on, man. Don't do Mother like that. I don't think that was meant to be "music". Their ACTUAL music is great.

[@alexisgold]

Dungeon Man theme would like to chat

[@puppable]

​@@alexisgold • This music is one of my greatest accomplishments …Brick Road

[@Homodemon]

The basement theme is one of those accidentally uplifting songs in a way that the worse it gets, the happier you get and by the end you even forget you had crippling debt or that your wife left you or that the uncertainty of mortality keeps you up at night...

[@Tibli13]

Okay, but if we’re talking bad music, you NEED to hear Burning Man’s Soul from Persona Trinity Soul. While it’s technically from an anime of a game series, it should not be overlooked. The first part is…. ‘Good’ (?) but when that part hits, good lord.

[@literalcringe9789]

Is the song in your house, like carpet?

[@SuperHexer123]

I was almost worried that Crazy Bus wouldn't show up, I would've been flabbergasted if NO ONE mentioned that hell spawn of a "song" and it was my first thought of "objectively bad video game music" lol.

[@genyakozlov1316]

Objectively bad music doesn't exist, and it's especially isn't the wonderful randomly generated cacophony of Crazy Bus

[@cordyceps182]

​@@genyakozlov1316Nah, I'd agree that Crazy Bus's "music" is objectively bad. Painful to listen to, isn't catchy, and I'm fairly certain the only "message" it's trying to convey is "The creator wants you to feel miserable".

[@polocatfan]

I get a bit annoyed when people end up saying certain songs are "bad" when they're intended to sound bad because of the story. The best example I can think of is a song from one of the danganronpa games that was played over loudspeakers for 48 hours in universe to try to get the characters to snap and kill someone. Yes it's a bad song, but it's intentionally bad and is really well composed for the situation it's in. Good video though, you did a good job with it.

[@majimasmajimemes1156]

Whoever thinks the Curse-Rotted Greatwood theme is bad has a pathetically narrow view of music.

[@chrisn676]

I'm pretty sure I'm one of the people who suggested Crazy Bus, and so the whole time I'm just sitting there going, "Is he gonna do it? Is he gonna do it?" And you save the best for last!!! ...I mean, for certain definitions of "best". 😂 As a musician, I apologize to your eardrums, but as an audience member, I thank you for sharing your reaction, because the way your eyes bugged out is everything we could have asked for and more. ❤

[@SquirrelKing103]

9:50 Where I come from we call that song "Cheesy on my peenie and some sauce-a on my balls"

[@scrungo7610]

Vinyot fan sighted

[@LomanLawson]

yooo 8:12 Whirling in Rags background music. amazing. need more of that.

[@DeathByPoke]

I'm surprised the sonic song was not the sonic spinball options screen.

[@LePeppino]

Spinball has some actual bangers, ngl. Toxic Caves is a classic

[@genyakozlov1316]

​@@LePeppinoSo does Chronicles. Just listen to the intro music.

[@robertlupa8273]

@@genyakozlov1316 Or some of the boss themes. Or argueably Metropolis.

[@FaultyParadox]

cry of giegue - mother is a song? There should be a list of video games songs that are just one or two noises on repeat so we can put them in "noises for video games" as opposed to a "a song for a video game". I think there's kind of clear discernment between the two.

[@MysticDragonMusic]

10:44 IS THAT HOW ALL THE SORTING ALGORITHMS GET THERE SOUNDS?????

[@Dxpress_]

If you're looking for a serious answer: Nope, that's just how a basic square wave sounds when played by a computer. 🤓

[@andybandy4662]

bogo sort lol

[@Cellsius]

As far as I konw, the Sonic Chronicles OST is so broken in general, not only this track, because tragically the original OST of the game was lost or erased, I don't remember, and that happened very close to the publishing date of the game, so they had to create a complete OST for the game in just a few days. They tried to make remixes of well known themes and they did it with the faster tool they could, which are far from being the best, as we can hear, sadly. The game was launched with that music, but wasn't the one intended in first place. That's what I heard as far as I know about that. Doesn't make the music better or more listeneable, but it provides a little bit more of context about why is so bad in first place. Sadly, we aren't going to hear the original OST ever, and being a game by Bioware, I think it could have been something very good, but sometimes things are just an unfair chain of events, not what we want to be.

[@-kauazin-]

Now I kidda want you to analyze more songs from the Sonic's franchise. Also, great video!!

[@ChrisLuigiTails]

I wish!

[@edmundmondo1682]

8:30 How dare them suggest this historic song as the worst video game music?? Shame on them!

[@NaughtyPigMario]

Yeah like wtf they must be dumb as shit

[@Sheevlord]

I'm not sure Crazy Bus even qualifies as a game. It was a tech demo at best, and the whole "gameplay" was driving the bus across the screen and honking the horn. There is no goal, no win or loss conditions. Nothing. And the title music sounds like a sequence of random notes. I doubt it was really composed at all.

[@bababooey5402]

A lot of people are insisting that the music IS actually just randomly generated, which is even more aggregious than just sounding like it is.

[@IOSALive]

MarcoMeatball, Your videos always make me happy, so I subscribed!

[@barkingwookiee318]

Can we get a review of the song that passively played during this video, I would love to see marco review the whirling rags song from disco elysium.

[@captainbones-is3tx]

This video is captain bones approved

[@blarghinatelazer9394]

Marco, your fondness for the first Ace Combat track intrigues me. Have you ever, by chance, listened to Death Grips?

[@Negasilver]

Apparently the problem with the Sonic Chronicles music was that something happened and they lost all the music files very close to their deadline, so they had to slap that together very quickly.

[@griggy5686]

Glad we got Crazy bus on this one, makes me wonder how he’d react to the Cruelty Squad soundtrack

[@AegisKHAOS]

Not gonna lie, this is probably the quickest I have ever been to watching your vid. It's like a rare treat to see if your ears might suffer as opposed to the usual stuff we see you react to. 👍 That said, no, I won't be asking you to do one of those ever again. Can't guarantee the rest of your viewers, though.😁

[@HampsterMD]

Fun fact about the Crazy Bus theme - the game was meant to be a basic tech demo so there was never any music composed for it. However, they thought that people would assume the game broken if there was no main menu music. To resolve this problem, they basically ran a randomized sorting algorithm to produce the main menu music. Basically one of the first examples of AI produced material in a game I guess? :P

[@AkaiAzul]

Are these even necessarily bad? With context, were they not intentionally "bad" and therefor, well, "goodly bad?" I feel like this may be a musical version of the Tidus / Yuna laugh where they may be intentionally bad, but out of context are terrible, but in context, that's the _point_ .

[@BetaDude40]

Well I mean that kinda gets subjective, and is the age-old debate of "is a piece of media bad if it's supposed to be bad?" I think it's a matter of execution. The Sonic Unleashed E-rank theme is bad but good because it really nails that comedic aspect. It is possible to make something that sucks and is good, but yeah it's not easy to answer. I think it's just like reviewing any media and saying "best/worst X" is always gonna be way to subjective

[@Tonbizzle]

Songs intentionally bad, like the Desert Bus song, can't (or shouldn't) be considered 'bad', in my opinion. Same with 'music' that's just ambience, like the Cry of Giegue from Mother. It's when something within the song is so out of whack that it becomes trash, like the Ace Combat rap, the production is so BAD, making it a bad song, but if it was cleaned up it's actually really cool and it's a shame that it was done dirty. Really, there's alot of music in games that are just kind of noise, but within context of their respective games they fit and do what they should do, which is add emotion to the scenario. The Spider-Man 2 pizza theme plays during pizza deliveries. It's a silly sequence for a superhero to be delivering pizzas and it fits the absurdness of the situation.

[@Painocus]

@@BetaDude40 Centering the issue around "bad on purpose" is an oversimplification I think. What does it mean for the purpose of a song to be "being bad"? The "song" from Mother is meant to be a dissonant grating alien screech contrasting how the game's usual musical background sound. That's it's purpose and it does that, but is that "being bad on purpose"? The randomly generated "song" from CrazyBus exists only as a test for the sound system, it's not really intended to be music, and it works for the thing it is intended to test, is that "being bad on purpose"?

[@pacowallochenkenrick]

He should review some of the songs from that one coney video about this topic. Wild woody, that Spider-Man game, there was a lot of stinkers on that tournament

[@TheHipOneMusic]

I don't think whether crazy bus is good or bad changes with context LMAO

[@longsocks7798]

Would absolutely love to see another of these!! Would absolutely suggest the Shadow World De De Mouse Remix from P4 Dancing

[@hann8103]

Hope this becomes a series!! Really fun to find and differentiate from "bad" music and music designed to be annoying on purpose etc

[@marthpikazulx6516]

@1:14 I was listening to it for a bit, and the longer I listened to it, this is a horribly bit crushed version of Big Arms from Sonic 3 and Knuckles!

[@TornaitSuperBird]

Not even bit crushed. Completely different instruments.

[@tite93]

That face at 4:50 lmao

[@sixmonthgaze135]

10:53 that is a sorting algorithm

[@cutterfly7181]

0:36 and with that we learn your villain laugh 😂

[@HiHelloHi]

10:44 this sounds like a sorting algorithm video for a randomized sort

[@Iago.Carvalho]

first time sonic appears in channel (with I subscripted) expectation: reality:

[@XxguaxinimxX.]

I think he has listened something from sonic unleashed in a livestream or something, but I'm not sure 😅

[@LePeppino]

@@XxguaxinimxX. Oh, if you happen to know when this was, I'd love the reaction or Marco could link it here if he has it

[@Neo-Metal17]

I would also love to know

[@Noxshade]

There was some kind of rights kerfufle with the music of Sonic Chronicles that forced them to start over with the music right before it was pushed out the door early so a huge chunk of the music is either low quality midi versions of old Sonic songs or obviously unfinished stuff.

[@darienb1127]

Funny thing about Nocturne, that supposed to be a remix of Big Arm from Sonic 3. It sounds like Big Arm if you tried to play it through a fax machine at the bottom of a swimming pool.

[@MadamMersive]

Don’t know if anyone else has said this, but Nocturne (@ 1:14) is based on the final boss theme of sonic 3 (and knuckles? It gets confusing), though it’s incredibly distorted and feels so much worse with the knowledge that it’s based on that genuinely good piece of music

[@mstop4]

There is a video on KZbin where someone tested out the theory that the hilariously bad Mansion Basement theme is simply the result of the wrong instrument being played. They rearranged the music by simply replacing the trombones with synth pads, and the result sounded way more fitting for a Resident Evil game.

[@Siggney1]

might be a myth or something but i read somewhere that the resident evil mansion song sounds like that cause the guy coded the notes he wanted into the wrong synth preset and realized it far too late

[@mattowen1242]

I think I might have used a video you posted of a performance of Tu Lo Sai by Giuseppe Torrelli to practice for juries. I was an older returning student finishing my degree in music focusing on composition and was overheard sight-singing, and told I should go into voice, which meant two years of stage fright and then the pandemic happened. But I still sing every day and met a lot of people from around the world who are still close friends. If that was you, thanks for helping me realize I didn’t yet have the chops to sing opera.

[@mikayari185]

"Bad music" and "Ace Combat" are words that don't go well together I'm 100% sure Locked was more of a preference than it being theoretically bad.

[@BobzBlue]

It's fair if it's not actual music, but when it gets put on playlists anyway...

[@bennifer94]

Great video Marco! Loved the energy, I like that you always try to find a positive in some of these awful tracks. 🤣

[@Big_Man_Enjoyer]

A few suggestions from past experience: Urban Yeti: Sewer Theme Spider-Man the Animated Series (Genesis): Fun House The Terminator (NES): the sewers Street Fighter 1(the original crummy one yeah): Sagat’s theme Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer: Lyle and Lottie’s theme Wild Woody: Treasure Caves Double Dribble: National Anthem Final Fantasy X-2: Chocobo Theme Evergrace: Buying Goods at Palmira If you want amazing 8-16 bit tunes though (since there’s a misconception sometimes that “oh it’s just hardware limitations”) I highly recommend checking out Tim and Mike Follin’s work. Mike has recently passed away so it would be a great way to honor their contributions to game music (which are definitely vast)

[@mgsRyder]

Definitely should have more parts. Not only a unique concept for a video but also very fun! And I'm not so sure some of these people understood the assignment haha If a musical piece can invoke a feeling of being funny or scary or anything, its got something going for it. A truly bad piece is one that does absolutely nothing with an emotional response and also, has no real structure going. That is my own belief. Because if you don't take into account these two factual things, it becomes a subjective opinion rather than a factual one. There are entire genre of music that I dislike and would call "bad music" but others would disagree. However, with the examples I gave, I think we all can agree. I would be fascinated to learn the history of why some of these were made at all. So many stories untold in the world of music!

[@acefofficial]

Okay, I was going to say that there's no single track from an Ace Combat game that I thought was "bad" or "terrible." Then when you mentioned that it was Ace Combat Assault Horizon Legacy, my mind immediately recalled this particular track from my first playthrough. And uh, yeah, I did not dig it all that much.

[@SlyAceZeta]

Yeah, when he asked for bad tracks, I knew exactly which one to suggest 😅

[@TornaitSuperBird]

Nah, that track actually slaps.

[@Mystery_Meat]

This song was easily better than some of the music they made for the cyberpunk 2077 radio tracks. The first one that is, the second one he pulled up I liked way less.

[@DaNintendude]

This was a lot of fun and I'd definitely watch more! Loved the break to sing Funiculì, Funiculà for us! For the Yoshi's Crafted World song, I don't think it's that bad! I think grating music has its place! Lots of songs on bad VGM lists will include songs that have pretty great melodies but super grating instruments. With that being said, this song is super repetitive! So even if it's not bad on its own, it's definitely not a song I want to hear often. And Nocturne from Sonic Chronicles? Would you believe that it's actually a remix of a well-beloved Sonic theme? It's the final boss theme from Sonic 3. The first few times I heard it I couldn't even tell because it's such a horrific arrangement.

[@flzerocs]

Hey Marco any chance you may check Une vie à peindre, the vocalist is Victor Borba, the guy who sang bury the light.

[@unwoundsteak17]

the pizza theme being on this list is a bigger war crime than Belka trying to launch the V2

[@NotSeregnar]

I'm pretty sure that last song counts as a fugue, in that the composer must've been in a fugue state when making that. Also was that Sonic song based on the final boss music from Sonic 3?

[@smalllfox]

yeah the sonic song was. all the music that was intended for sonic chronicles was lost somehow and they had to slap something together in the few weeks they had until release, their easiest option would've just been recreating older sonic music, so that's what they tried to do. emphasis on tried.

[@natv6294]

New to your channel and binge watching your videos so far! lol thank you for creating all this content for us, may I share some more suggestions? Lilium - Elfen Lied (Anime) P.T Adamczyk - The Bloody Mistress (Gwent/ Witcher) The way is our purpose - Neal Acree (WoW) Memories of Mother - Eivor (God of war) Secunda - Jeremy Soule (honestly I can listen to his two full albums entirely when I paint) I did noticed that you only cover music from games, you don’t do reactions to movies as well? Hans Zimmer is absolutely a genius (Dune, Blue Planet..) or the council of Elrond from LoTR just transfer me to a different world. Appreciate your channel a lot, you talented and catch the meaning/expressions very fast. I feel the same emotions and soundtracks are the main genre I listen to so will def sub to this channel :)

[@banmancan1894]

Love seeing Marco's face after less than 30 seconds in saying he doesn't believe there is bad music hearing that RE DC mansion basement song 😂. Editor, you were masterful with the timing in the video.

[@Fez141]

0:26 Sounded like a cat walking on the keys during recording session.

[@rhysofsneezingdragon1758]

I love how Marco perked up when he realized that Pizza Time was Funicula

[@CthulhuSeeker]

Fantastic list of songs to remix, thank you

[@TutiFruti-ky3bj]

1:00 what is the song that plays in the background? I remember hearing it a long time ago and it brought back many nice memories!

[@thecultofcaged]

Either animal crossing or mario sunshine Im leaning twords the former

[@TutiFruti-ky3bj]

@@thecultofcaged if i remember correctly it was related to professor layton. But i forget which soundtrack.

[@ironencepersonal9634]

I think the curse-rotted greatwood is apparently seen as "Bad" because it's not really supposed to sound "good", it feels more like it's supposed to unnerve you, it's not trying to get into the list of top 10 video game songs of all time

[@skateorpie]

True, like what did they expect to hear when walking into a giant area with a tree abomination with a rotting corpse inside is supposed to sound like lmao

[@plnkblue]

we gotta get burning men's soul on this list just for the hell of it

[@opalander]

Mansion Basement - The sounds of ducks trying to play a trumpet. Nocturne - Sounds like someone playing the triangle while having IBS. Locked - Sounds like someone's recording a rap album with a potato. Cry of Giegue - Someone tried to turn a sound effect into a track. Insert Coin - The music that plays when you enter a cheap carnival in the bad part of town. Cursed Rotted Greatwood Tree - The band didn't get a good night's rest last night and now they have to play music. Pizza Theme - The national anthem on caffeine.

[@Durstlover3447]

The Cry of Giegue was just a sound effect in the Mother game, I don’t know why it’s in here

[@dumbplumb46]

If you do another one of these please PLEASE, do yourself the favor of experiencing the “Fun House” theme from the Spiderman: the animated series game on the Genesis

[@BobzBlue]

I thought it was gonna be Yoshi's New Island opening.

[@TrueLadyEvilChan]

Thar one really has to be in a sequel video

[@BadyearOakarus]

the funny thng about the basement theme is that i saw a video of someone who just swapped a ton of the midi instruments out for more fitting ones and it's actually not that bad

[@justsortathere540]

Not only would I like you to do it again, you should definitely listen to the song for the Sega Genesis, SpiderMan the animated series: Fun House

[@bigal3436]

The telos cantina theme from KOTOR 2 used to drive me nuts. If you ever do another i feel like that should be on there

[@draydra]

Marco, I think you would unironically love the Evergrace/Forever Kingdom OST! Made by Kota Hoshino himself, who composed most of Armored core (which you seem to enjoy very much). "Buying goods at Palmira", in Evergrace for example, has been reacted to some people as "bad VG music", but it has CHARM.

[@lonelyshpee7873]

I love that track. Genuinely good song.

[@LuluLaska]

'Buying Goods at Palmira' is peak, idc what anyone says

[@AshesXOfXOblivion]

This was great lmao. If you ever do more, please do "Holy Orders?" Which is the character theme for a joke character in older guilty gear. Feel free to bleach your ears with the actual "Holy Orders" track after 😂

[@Seydaschu]

The real Holy Orders is god-tier, top 10 fighting game themes ever material (Writhe in Pain is #1 for classic Guilty Gear for me, it's gotta be the original Playstation 1 version!). Robo-Ky's original evil version (back when he was just Ky but green) is just super lazy distortion effects over the theme. Luckily this changed with re-releases. Some just gave him background industrial noises (arguably an improvement), but shoutouts to the Korean soundtrack for doing the "evil version of the protagonist's theme" correctly! Compare and contrast "Pillars of the Underworld" to "Vortex Infinitum"! (really shows off the "Luigification" of Robo-Ky)

[@fabianoyaga8610]

The Curse Rotted Greatwood theme is only "bad" because of context but I don't think just because a song doesn't work outside of those contexts means it's badd

[@kackers]

was surprised to not see any mention of the Sonic Spinball Options music, at least from what i've seen online it's pretty infamous for being straight up almost painful to listen to because of the Genesis synths

[@Iconic_Zoot]

My take away from this is that people don't actually know what bad music is. Music held back by it's sound quality/bit compression, or music that's contextual to match the style and tone of the game isn't bad music. Harsh or dissonant? Sure, but that's not at all the same thing as bad. I would argue bad or good music can't even really exist because that's using definitive terms for subjective feelings.

[@xraenon1664]

The Sonic Chronicles track is literally just a de-make of the classic Big Arms battle track. We had the Sonic Generations remix for absolute peak, so I suppose it makes sense we had to have some absolute trash to fill the other end of the scale.

[@kuro1653]

Hey Marco any chance you could take a look at the ENDER LILIES soundtrack?

[@FishyAshB]

Some context for Mother 1, it's the boss "theme" but it's essentially a creepy sound effect. To beat the boss you have to sing the eight melodies song, and each time you try to sing it the giyg will interrupt you. Each time you sing the lullaby you're able to sing it for a little longer until you are able to sing the whole song, which ends the fight. So yeah it sounds pretty awful on its own but in context it's actually pretty great, I didn't particularly love mother 1 but the moments leading to the final boss as well as the boss battle itself were fantastic