Ranking the WORST video game Music of All Time (Again)

[@MarcoMeatball]

This is the track for jet set radio: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mpTTZpqGm5ygnqssi=WnvYT8MaqdQEN1w3 watch this at the same time in another window if you like. It got claimed so I swapped it out. Sad.

[@hundvd_7]

Oooooooh, that makes a lot more sense now But also, your timestamp for Guardian Dragon should be 18:25, etc. as everything at the end is shifted now

[@BetaDude40]

I was wondering like "Damn I guess he *REALLY* hates bossa nova music"

[@birdflox1337]

Sorry... But this song still slaps if you appreciate some good roughness...

[@MarcoMeatball]

@@birdflox1337 I like roughness but not this kind

[@RogueBeatsARG]

ohh i was like Marco destroyed a bossa banger

[@braydenlanter95]

I genuinely love burning men's soul because it's like a normal jazz song got plunged into the depths of hell for 40 seconds only to be pulled back up just to continue its day like nothing happened

[@firestormingfox4169]

Sounds like jazz to me

[@gayflower900]

it sounds like a jazz band was playing on the street, then a coke addict walked by and started freestyling outta nowhere and they just rolled with it

[@clovercurator7997]

​@@gayflower900seriously he is fighting for his fucking life on that track. It's like he's actively trying to avoid being on beat

[@velocity1852]

That’s such a hilarious way to describe it

[@NIX-FLIX]

@@gayflower900 That is the best description of the song i've ever heard

[@Kirgo_Furuey]

"Check it out, I'm in the house like carpet" a lovely improv jazz was ruined the moment that the voice from beyond spoke those words.

[@LavaCreeperPeople]

my playlist of bad vgm, lmao kzbin.info/aero/PLury7K8i_nkmHkV5pegiZqBZ1qf9iI8td

[@atalantafugiens0426]

12:38

[@TarosTheVoid]

Same energy as "Let's Green Egg and Ham it"

[@danganronper6278]

honestly there's bad video game music that are bad on purpose, to get a sense of disconfort. I want bad music that is bad because it's BORING, I want the most uncreative generic fantasy field song

[@MarcoMeatball]

that is also what i want.

[@zirkap7279]

​@MarcoMeatball the thing is by definition people just don't remember those.

[@HedonisticActor]

The one that comes to mind is the entire soundtrack of Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric.

[@Game_InSky]

​@@MarcoMeatball The dungeon theme from The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass. It plays for every dungeon in the game and you'll be listening to hours of it on every playthrough. I'm willing to bet that people's dislike for Phantom Hourglass stems in a large part simply because of that.

[@KawaiiKing64]

Disney Fantasia on the Sega Genesis has a soundtrack FULL of horrid tunes, as Coney had found out with Prehistoric Jungle XD

[@SpoookiePie]

I feel like a couple of the tracks in these videos are just people confusing "I don't want to listen to this in my car or on a walk" or "this track requires the context in which it exists" with being objectively bad.

[@XCC23]

Yes. As an example from film, the Jaws theme is kind of unpleasant, I would not put it on while driving or while chilling out at home but... it would be *insulting* to say it's bad.

[@Mrinsecure]

I do find it funny how many people can't tell the difference between "a song that's unpleasant to listen to, on purpose" and "a song that's badly written/composed/performed." If a song makes your uncomfortable, and it's intended to make you uncomfortable, then it succeeded in its goal. See also: 90% of all music in the Silent Hill games.

[@MischieviousJirachi]

Right

[@yurifairy2969]

We need a third round with ACTUALLY bad video game music. We should be ranking Call of Duty soundtracks.

[@frostsoul4199]

@@yurifairy2969 eh CoD has had a history of great music. just look at MW2 which was composed mostly by Hans Zimmer. or Black Ops 1 and 2 which have some very iconic songs in them. Such as Savimbi's Pride, Adrenaline, and Rooftops. and let's not forget to mention the zombies soundtrack, both the Easter egg songs and the regular soundtrack.

[@Sebastian_Rabbit]

​​​​@@yurifairy2969 at worst cod songs are generic war songs, but at best you have really good stuff like MW2 (2009), World at War and Black ops 1 and 2 ost.

[@2ksnakenoodles]

@@frostsoul4199 COD4 had an awesome soundtrack too! All Ghillied up, Charlie Don't Surf, Mile High Club!

[@gribblegrape6496]

The second he said “Spider-Man funhouse” I got giggler flashbacks. (Also I can’t believe he actually found it except-able lmao)

[@curkinho]

I was literally typing "damn, people really do hate jazz" during the persona theme, until the lyrics started 💀

[@kkammei]

I cackled at the first bar and cried when it just nonchalantly returns to the trumpets.

[@mystrenula3911]

The funny thing is Trinity Soul is an anime and Burning Men's Souls is only played for a couple seconds at a time as a transition piece between scenes so the lyrics literally never play only the beginning piano and maybe the horns

[@riemaennchen]

I immediatelly went "Is that the carpet song?" And yes it was.^^

[@curkinho]

@@mystrenula3911 i see, then as an OST is fine, the full track is the problem (but it kinda has some kind of charm ngl)

[@ForsakenFalcon11]

man thought he was spitting bars, when he wasn't even spitting notes

[@thelightningking8772]

The funny thing about Burning Man’s Soul to me is that I’m pretty sure the entire vocal section is a sample. So someone heard that, made a really good jazz beat for it, and just said “this is good. Put it in the anime”

[@nikolachiara9285]

People really need to differentiate between worst songs ever, and songs they don't like

[@FiveBagsOfNasu]

Or good songs that appeared in crappy games like Cheetahman for instance.

[@TheEvo86]

@@FiveBagsOfNasu i think 90% of us knew it from cat mario/syobon action and that game is a game of the century

[@aquaman52]

And songs that are meant to set the stage rather than be a jam you put on the stereo

[@FourthDerivative]

Bad music is when dissonance

[@FiveBagsOfNasu]

@@FourthDerivative Nope, dissonance used correctly creates tension, correctly meaning in the right context. Silent Hill 1-3 have plenty of tracks doing that.

[@ChaosBlitzBeta]

An interesting tidbit about Birthday Cake is that it's sung by the original singer for Noodle from the Gorlilaz.

[@TimHawk.]

we're in the house like carpet with this one

[@Bthakilla4rilla]

I was wondering why you said that

[@gaminggoof1542]

Sucks hard since the rest of the song is good

[@UltimateGamerCC]

man, they really got some random rapper off the street to do that. XD

[@eremesguile9036]

@@UltimateGamerCC Even better, "The vocals for the song were lifted from the track Swiny House on the sample album Climax 9 - RAPsody (Vocals II) (0000), by German sample CD company Masterbits."

[@MutedAndReported3032]

England is our city

[@SinApex]

I ADORE Drakengard's soundtrack. Drakengard's music is essentially classical music samples clipped together to make these discordant, horrifying pieces, the soundtrack is supremely unsettling. The game is dark, its themes are dark, it's bleak, a lot of the game's endings are completely hopeless and there is no ending that is truly a good ending, just ones that are less bad. The music is absolutely perfect for a game like that. I would love to see you take a look at some more of Drakengard's music overall. A lot of the music in the first game at least is like that, very repetitive and chaotic, but the discord in it evokes a powerful feeling of dread and panic.

[@goumenes]

Man, I was shocked when he mentioned Drakengard. I definitely wasn't expecting it.

[@Aisubun]

As someone who actively hates Drakengard, absolutely. It fits the tone of that game so well to just have these weird uncomfortable clusterfuck songs. My favorite is definitely the ending e song which is like 50% because I'm a NieR fan but still

[@samsaravalentine8365]

The Cheetahmen theme is by far the only good thing the game had to offer, im surprised it even got nominated.

[@Vovich24]

Wasn't that track used in Boshy? I certainly heard it somewhere, kinda like meme song

[@samsaravalentine8365]

@@Vovich24 Whats Boshy?

[@Vovich24]

@@samsaravalentine8365 its ultrahard platformer indie game. Full name is I Wanna Be The Boshy.

[@maxxoft]

@@Vovich24 yeah I noticed it too and instantly remembered Boshy

[@HarrenTonderen]

@@Vovich24 it was also used in Cat Mario/Meme Mario, you might've heard about it because many KZbinrs covered it

[@qwertyqeys]

On the topic of drakengard, that game's soundtrack is definitely intended to be repetitive. Yoko Taro went into directing that game with the idea that it's absurd for video game characters to kill so many people and come out the other end to anything other than a horrible end, and in general the weird tonal dissonance of games hyping you up for things like big kill combos and things like that, so the gameplay is repetitive killing to reach a tragic end and then being told to go back in and keep killing with the implied promise of a better ending, which results in an even more tragic ending than the one before. I mention all this because repetition is core to the game itself, so the soundtrack is made up of classical pieces cut up and looped erratically as if to sound like a record skipping. Some songs even play enough of a track that you'd think it'll sound normal at first, only to start looping in the middle of a sample, almost to intentionally bring your attention to how wrong it sounds. It's basically psychological trauma in game form

[@technicolor965]

Also, they had zero budget when making this game, so I assume they found the cheapest classical music tracks they could find and smashed them together until something vaguely resembling music came out 😂

[@nuclearbirds]

I feel like the submissions for this series come in a few flavors: -Songs meant to be childlike/whimsical/anything with wooden whistles (Yoshi’s Woolly World, Dedede, etc) -Songs that are dissonant that are meant to be creepy or morose -Songs that are good, but too repetitive (character select screen, the march song “on the ground” from near the end of the video -actual bangers that have no reason being here Like, over the span of two videos, I’ve heard very little “bad” music

[@MarcoMeatball]

last video was certainly "worse" with some genuinely poorly produced and created tracks. these were mid.

[@АлексейБ-о3б]

@@MarcoMeatball the entire OST of Drakengard 1 is fantastic actually. It is soooo worthy to be reviewed by you. It IS repetitive, but on purpose obviously. BTW almost every track of Drakengard 1 is a mash-up from samples of various classical orchestrated music (Mussorgsky, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Rimsky Korsakov etc.) All and all it is such a mad, schizophrenic, brutal experience, I felt in love with it

[@kiiturii]

well it's hard to find actual bad music in video games, because you know, they try to make it good. And just finding some 1 dev game that no one plays wouldn't be any fun either

[@HorseyWorsey]

Honestly he needs to keep making these vids because I get certified bangers to add to my playlist XD

[@UltimateGamerCC]

@@MarcoMeatball Resident Evil's Basement remix was indeed a bunch of farts. lol

[@jankbunky4279]

I think for the marvel vs capcom character select loop, they really expected players to only spend like 10 seconds in the character select screen. Maybe psychologically a short loop will even make people want to get past the character select screen asap, speeding up how fast people go to the actual action.

[@TreeckoDX64]

And arcades had limited time to choose characters, so the music wouldn't play so much by default

[@OuterWildin]

Fun fact about the Kirby song CROWNED. It’s actually the theme (obviously remixed) for the final boss of Kirby’s Return to Dreamland. The final boss eventually becomes reformed and makes theme parks for the different characters, including Dedede. Dedede’s Drum Dash is a deceptively hard rhythm game where you have to keep to the beat constantly. So a theme as fast paced as CROWNED makes for a VERY challenging final level. CROWNED is actually widely considered to be one of the best Kirby final boss themes. Though the first phase theme, Under My Control, is just as good too

[@BiyikFrostDiaz]

We really need to get him to listen to more Kirby music

[@LTDLetsPlays]

@@BiyikFrostDiaz we really need to get hım lısten to Sectonıa boss theme ıts very underrated ı am not talkıng about phase 2 ı am talkıng about phase 1 Sullied Grace/Dirty and Beauty

[@Neo-Metal17]

I like Under My Control better

[@cattooma]

aLSO THE SAME GAME HAS A REMIX WHICH IS MUCH BETTER THAN THIS ONE

[@jclkaytwo]

too bad there isn't any song called under my control...

[@SuperMarioSwagger]

Dungeon man wrote his own theme song and he's no mysician, i can excuse that

[@DuneManta]

I'm not convinced the submissions for this series know what bad music is. Most of these entries aren't that bad.

[@amandamakin1542]

I thought that, too. In fact, Action 52's BEST song was picked (Good Songs in Bad Games), & that same game has some of the worst video game songs in history: Crazy Shuffle & Sharks are just annoying & hilarious sounds, Hambo's Adventures, Atmos Quake & Critical Bypass will make eardrums bleed, Laser League is literally a drone & Lollipops Level 3 is a broken mess.

[@genericname2747]

I'm still salty someone submitted Giygas' theme. ITS SUPPOSED BE BE LOUD AND UNPLEASANT BECAUSE ITS NOT THE MAIN SONG, IT INTERUPTS THE SONG

[@curtsuplex6855]

Yeah the submissions were pretty random. Why upload an acceptable, rather-mid Dark Souls 2 track?

[@silverhand9965]

I'm guessing people were blinded by how they feel about the games themselves. Bubsy 3D is a dogshit game so someone felt like the music was worse than it really is (it's just eh) Dark Souls 2 ancient dragon is a great example too. Completely mid music but the boss is trash, so the music was unreasonably hated by whoever submitted it

[@hoyhoy852]

Yeah this only convinced me only stupid people submitted these

[@TheSnisel]

12:40 the face you make as soon as you hear the rapping is GOLD

[@DissedRedEngie]

yeah, the entire existence of Cruelty Squad is to present how disgusting a world ran by corporations would be. Everything bad you can say about it is just window dressing for what the game represents. People die so much, that they're revived in flesh automatons, because death is not good enough of an excuse to miss an amazon warehouse workday. You kill a politician for introducing a single percent income tax to rich people. You kill the people you work for as a joke. The "upgrades" you buy can and do make your game actively worse. The only way you can reach happiness is by killing death, life and malice. Also one of the textures is just Elon Musk. It's also another game in the series of "what is going on in Finland, and why are their games been extra peek lately".

[@anusaukko6792]

Finnish people are the happiest in the world because they channel all of their dark urges and feelings into creating psychotic videogames (Cruelty Squad, Lakeview Cabin, Funger, Noita etc)

[@chaoswraith]

yeah, whoever suggested a song from curelty squad either doesnt know anything about the game, or sneakily/ironically put it there for macro to elucidate on it

[@StormierNik]

@@chaoswraith if they were gonna suggest something why would they NOT suggest Bog business at least? It's hilarious for what its used for, but it would have suited this list far better

[@moronicalmeister]

​@@StormierNikwas gonna say that. Controlled depopulation is the most 'normal' song in the soundtrack. I can only assume somebody suggested the wrong track by accident 😂

[@polocatfan]

Really weird suggestion. The songs are perfect for the game.

[@SuperMonaLisaBros]

You should check out The Town With No Name's soundtrack, mostly the saloon theme. It invokes the perfect sensation of waking up at 4:00 AM in a house in Indiana during the Winter with a dysfunctional heater.

[@sulphuric_glue4468]

Crazy how Cruelty Squad was on here but not Bog Business... sewerbros did we lose

[@mateusv.6331]

the slurpcore was not meant to be

[@tumbleweed8]

That just means it is canonically peak

[@Ashurman666]

Can Bog Business even be classified as music though?

[@waffel_eisen]

this is a grave insult to us blacksuppositoried and debased splurtchain enjoyers, its so over CEOver

[@DissedRedEngie]

​@@Ashurman666 yes

[@Grievous-nx3iu]

I love your editor defending Birthday Cake. It's a divisive song between jsrf fans and Cibo Matto does make some weird shit

[@ArizonanSummer]

Holy shit, Cibo Matto did the soundtrack?

[@Grievous-nx3iu]

@@ArizonanSummer nah they only did birthday cake unfortunately

[@misplaymishaps5202]

That burning men's souls one had some of the goofiest lyrics I've ever heard. Pretty sure I heard "He's not a cover he's a quilt"

[@nuclearbirds]

Nah those bars go hard

[@BetaDude40]

Man thought he was Lotus Juice when in reality he sounds more like Hotdog Water

[@RangeCMYK]

​@@BetaDude40That's just Flower Liquid.

[@elishamaye3376]

You did😅 I love it though.

[@gaminggoof1542]

Vanilla Ice has better lyrics than that

[@raphicoco]

The reason why people put DS2 songs in it is because a large chunk of the community lobotomizes themselves to believe that EVERYTHING about this game is the worst that has ever been.

[@jankbunky4279]

I don't like a lot of the level and enemy design mechanically, but the music and visuals are not bad at all

[@gaminggoof1542]

Sounds accurate. I actually liked that dragon song.

[@miguelMickSummer]

It's like the weakest OST in the trilogy, and its still pretty good

[@Kloerb]

I actually think that DS2's OST has both the strongest and the weakest songs of the trilogy. Many are very generic, partly because Sakuraba had to compose without finished concepts to actually know what he was composing, but many others are exceptional. Majulah is the obvious one, the song that plays when visiting Vendrik's tomb is spine-chilling, Fume Knight is an accurate musical depiction of fighting inside a forge. And many others are just eery and creepy in a way that capture the game's strongest moments perfectly. It's a flawed game with a flawed soundtrack, but the moments that work are really good.

[@gaminggoof1542]

@@Kloerb TBF I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bad DS song

[@IoFoxdale]

MvC2 gets a pass for all the incredible mash ups and re-mixes that use "I wanna take you for a ride," as a sound bite.

[@Bane_Amesta]

It is a shame that it was just one bite and not an entire song 😢

[@MaganSSB]

God bless the 8-bit Big Band for making an entire 4 minute version of it

[@luthien945]

Is that a character pick bgm? Why it last that long? The time for character pick should be less than 60s, I think.

[@SSlash]

​@@luthien945sometimes you don't know who you wanna pick, sometimes you're waiting for your friend, when playing online there's also waiting for opponents, sure it doesn't need to be a 3 minute piece or something but repeating the same phrase forever is kinda crazy lol

[@gaminggoof1542]

I HATE repetition. Tekken 2 and 3 have GREAT select character songs, so why is MVC2 so shit? One fucking line over and over.

[@ashleymessedup]

The character selection screen literally just needs a section without the lyrics and a B section and it's gold

[@j0doe1]

That random unprovoked "turtle" thrown in to the lyrics was the cherry on top. Never cook again, whoever wrote these lyrics. Lmao

[@emile_jeanne]

Crazy how the entire lyrics can be described as "bro really thought he was cooking with this"

[@scottwagner2566]

Nah let him cook. We get more laughs when he does.

[@nightg4mer810]

Fun fact: the rap isnt even from persona. Its a sample from a german studio specialising in makin samples for other uses.

[@Conorator]

@@nightg4mer810 The Japanese composer (Taku Iwasaki) just wanted some rap and got a sample, but didn't realize how horrible the English lyrics were. Didn't matter for the most part though, since the game was mainly made for Japanese audiences.

[@kurokamikage_official]

@@Conorator wait, Taku Iwasaki made that?! I knew this man was godlike but holy smokes

[@quonplus]

Drakengard’s OST is actually incredibly interesting and an experience in itself solely because it samples small parts of orchestral classical pieces such as Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Petrouchka to create it’s chaotic, heavily dissonant atmosphere which really completes the game’s grim and twisted story. It’s especially gratifying when the ear starts to find a melody to the chaotic patterns in many of the songs that play during combat. I recommend giving it a listen, maybe you’ll even recognize some samples!

[@trobitman]

I feel like Dedede's CROWNED is here because the original C-R-O-W-N-E-D is that much better.

[@manupm9161]

Yeah, it's also a theme not meant to be listened to alone, it's a fast theme made silly to not distract you much in the gameplay

[@BiyikFrostDiaz]

Considering it was on a spinoff game, I would not find it surprising it was composed the way it was

[@xDidddle]

@@BiyikFrostDiaz there are some goated spinoff tracks tho. this one is probably the worst offender

[@orangeman3505]

@@xDidddle nah

[@barghest3681]

A running theme with these has been the people submitting them hearing horror music that’s intentionally rough to listen to and thinking it’s bad

[@MarcoMeatball]

Mhm it’s true so much so that that’s what the next of this series is. Ranking scariest music LOL

[@barghest3681]

@@MarcoMeatball omg I’d KILL to have that list, I love horror music!

[@chrisn676]

I think the lesson to take away from this series is that we gamers are just SPOILED for music if this is what we think is "bad".

[@MarcoMeatball]

i agree lol

[@gaminggoof1542]

Not necessarily. Some of this is definitely shit.

[@chrisn676]

@@gaminggoof1542 Oh, yes, some of it, but a lot less than most would think. I mean, at this point we start having to ask a simple question: what makes music "bad"? Is it just that the song sounds unpleasant? Because this ignores the situations where the music SHOULD sound unpleasant because that is the mood the composer is trying to set. The song from Kirby, for instance: it's meant to be jangling and disjointed in childlike fashion, and succeeds. It is intentionally unpleasant. Meanwhile the Persona song is more aesthetically pleasing but does NOT succeed at setting the tone it attempts for because of the quality ("quality") of the lyrics and vocal performance; it is unintentionally unpleasant. I think it is the much poorer song, even though everything besides the vocals are consonant with what is stereotypically perceived as "good" music. And then there's the nonsense with the Cheetahmen song being submitted merely because it's ADJACENT to bad video games. And so I guess I should amend my original statement. I think the lesson to take away from this series is that most gamers aren't particularly music literate. =)

[@keybladesrus]

@@chrisn676 I'm not music literate, but even I heard a couple of these and thought, "This isn't pleasant, but it seems like it's made to fulfill a specific purpose and succeeds at it." Being unpleasant does not mean it's "bad" when something is as context dependent as soundtracks.

[@blahblahgdp]

Maybe calling this a bad songs hot take would make more sense, at least 3 of the songs here sre iconic and great

[@FoxNamedLuke]

A few things to note. 1. There are two versions of Action 52. One on the NES and one on the Genesis. The Genesis Cheetahman theme (while still not exactly bad) is way more annoying in my opinion 2. The Dungeon Man's theme is totally a joke track. You literally find a sign that says "this song is one of my greatest accomplishments" in the place where it plays. 3. Drakengard's whole theme is madness and helplessness. The soundtrack being grating and repetative is exactly the point.

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

Mega Drive*

[@FoxNamedLuke]

@@SproutyPottedPlant Potayto potahto. Mega Drive and Genesis are the same thing. In most of the world it was called Mega Drive, but they couldn't use that name in North America due to copyright. I just use Genesis because I find it to be a more graceful name.

[@Chedmond]

I'd argue that Earthbound also has some of the BEST music the SNES has produced. Dungeon Man's weird-ass theme is technically supposed to be bad, because he himself wrote it. This is a man who wants to literally become a dungeon for people to traverse through, and the bad song fits his quirky, weird character. As I recall, he has a 'traveling theme' as well.

[@mistertagomago7974]

Agree.

[@Crinbo]

Yeah Earthbound's music is incredible.

[@BeWare_I_Live]

100% its bad for someone out of context.

[@juliusbelmont350]

If i'm not mistaken, the developers had to downgrade the graphics to fit all the music on the cartridge.

[@skyguy1236]

@@BeWare_I_Live yeah in context its hilarious

[@hagelgevaret5174]

Idk how long the levels are in that spiderman game, but that Funhouse song would definitely become intolerable after 10+ minutes

[@FlinchFox]

Dollar Store Lotus Juice was trying his best.

[@sanfransiscon]

Flower Water

[@pampamtamtam4001]

I think we need to re-evaluate who compiles these lists lol. I really enjoyed the video!

[@davezombie9056]

Context for Dungeon Man from Earthbound: He's a dungeon enthusiast who made a bad dungeon with a bad dungeon theme Also you really should react to the entire Drakengard 1 ost, it's insane, on purpose

[@leglupino]

"This music is one of my greatest accomplishments"

[@Moister356]

Drakengard makes me feel insane

[@SuperLlama42]

The OST is clearly playing in Caim's head at all times.

[@DayE114]

The music and sounds in EB were amazingly crafted, the limits that were pushed are insane. I’m having fun picturing someone’s first encounter with its music being this video hahaha, hopefully they see the humor in it rather than being turned away from the soundtrack

[@zxr9291]

He turned himself into a dungeon, funniest shit I've ever seen

[@Matt_MR]

Bro who the hell is sending those tracks most of them aren't even bad, also, PERSONA TRINITY SOUL ISN'T EVEN A VIDEO GAME.

[@racungotlost6428]

Check it out I'm in the house like carpet

[@enzolumare5680]

Gonna start using this when I get hone

[@thecarpman5]

With that pfp this is a threat

[@Aledroxx]

@@thecarpman5 It is.

[@HmongHeroo]

TURTLE

[@Gpop119]

On a hill

[@jankbunky4279]

Birthday Cake's lyrics and its vocal performance are pure art though. It's just purposefully weird, noisy and punky. But that's what makes it so damn fun.

[@DarthSpiderMario]

Sometimes I think people conflate “bad game” with “bad music”. Action 52 and Bubsy are awful games, but those songs weren’t bad at all. Bad games can have good music, Sonic 06 has one of my favorite OSTs of all time. Also Drakengard has some much… harsher tracks in it, that one wasn’t too bad

[@dysn3961]

For real, like I hated playing 06 as a kid but I really did like a lot of the music

[@michaelpopowich5095]

​@@dysn3961same and mephiles whisper is one of the most hauntingly ominous songs I've ever heard while all 5 ending themes (yes I count his world as an ending theme since it only fully plays in the credits of all 4 episodes) are all different beasts the Akon remix of sweet sweet sweet (or sweet dream in English) is a great remix even though I prefer the beautiful original crush 40's cover of All Hail Shadow from Shadow the hedgehog is one badass theme dreams of an absolution is an amazingly well written song (not to mention it was remade as acapella in a new version and Elise's theme my destiny is hauntingly beautiful for such a terrible character and his world is just amazing and they only made it better as orchestral rock for the final boss theme so yeah great soundtrack not so great game

[@schawangus]

“I’m in the house like carpet.” I fucking cackled. Someone in the comments of the track on KZbin said “He ends the rhyme like he got kicked out of the booth halfway through.” and yeah… that sounds pretty accurate. I wouldn’t doubt if that’s what actually happened 😂

[@BellaK423]

Drakengards OST is a godlike OST in Context. out of context it’s repetitive, disturbing and mentally draining. But in context. That’s the point. Also from what I know all of the themes are famous classical pieces remixed into something unrecognisable, I find that so interesting. Also the composer just vanished after making the ost. It’s his masterpiece I guess, so interesting.

[@XCC23]

Yeah, the sound of Drakengard is intentionally "competent orchestra falling down the stairs while still trying to play". It's *dissonant* - not bad. It's just trying to hurt you.

[@gabriskillo]

as a drakengard fan who listen to the full ost on the train I can absolutely agree,

[@Moister356]

15 hours of torture

[@PatrickGann]

Are you referring to Nobuyoshi Sano? He didn't really disappear. He composed for a few more projects over the next 2 years and was plenty active as an arranged for the following decade.

[@justinhurowitz70]

Drakengard’s music sets such an amazingly apocalyptic tone. There isn’t any honor or nobility in Caim’s battle against the empire, it’s just a maddening descent into pointless death and violence

[@gaxsunruskia7839]

May I suggest renaming this series to "The Strangest Video Game Music"? And then featuring the track "Virgo" from Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere? Edit: Just wanted to clarify why I love this piece so much: Ace Combat 3 has a lot of cyberpunk themes about the nature of consciousness and how that interacts with technology, as well as some themes about the encroachment of AI in these spaces. This track is kind of perfect for these themes as it always sounds like the track is about to have an identifiable melody but then at the last minute, seems to actively change its mind. As if it's music that is actively antagonistic to your listening to it which is incredibly unique.

[@that1blindkid146]

I got confused at birthday cake I guess it got copyrighted? To JSRF Fans it is definitely the most divisive track in a stellar soundtrack.

[@MarcoMeatball]

Yup. Pinned comment.

[@MaluSilva-yx8nl]

for a moment I was really confused thinking that was really the song until I found your comment 😂

[@dffagundo]

I love JSRF to death and that's one of my least favourite tracks, it gets annoying so fast and you can't really change it on Story Mode 😅

[@mothmanafterdark5924]

I was like "this just souds like a shop theme?" Then he mentioned lyrics and im like ????

[@ComicCrossing]

When I saw in the comments that the vocalist is Noodles from the Gorillaz I liked it twice as much

[@TaliZVasTyria]

Someone really hate the composer of that cheetah song for no reason to leave a footnote like that

[@thecruzer5856]

Cruelty Squad Ost is not bad, that just fits in the game lol that just how dystopian,weird,psychedelics,unnerving and uncomfortable the whole game is

[@iota-09]

Yeah quite a few of these are dependant on context, and if a song purpose is to make your skin crawl, i'm not sure you can say it's bad, quite the opposite

[@MarcoMeatball]

@@iota-09although the basis of the series is looking at how its structured and composed. It’s really obvious to tell when something is composed badly or sounds bad on purpose.

[@k96man]

The mo of cruelty squad can be summed up as: putting a lot of effort into looking like there wasn't any effort put in

[@ulrikahaggard9923]

Well the developer who made all the music of the game (and everything else in the game) says the music is poopoo caca he makes in less than 30 minutes

[@polocatfan]

@@MarcoMeatball oh. thought you WEREN'T one of those people. I genuinely thought you didn't analyze things in a vacuum... I will not be returning. Really sucks because your first video was a banger and didn't do any of that...? What changed?

[@laser90]

Dungeon Man theme is trash on purpose. The Dungeon Man himself states that he wrote it to play in his entire dungeon (well, he IS the dungeon... It's complicated). If you take a look at his personality and appearance, you'll understand that this theme fits him.

[@akashmondal9794]

This series should be rename to the "Funniest" instead of Worst. Lot of the tracks just makes me laugh, these are hilarious.

[@mintytrash]

Oh yeah. Like burning men's souls is hilarious in how bad the lyrics are while paired with this amazing jazz

[@TheRealArtimusKnight]

The cheetah men theme Lowkey is a banger

[@banggugyangu]

Marvel vs Capcom 2 "Take you For a Ride" is an absolute banger that's 10 seconds long... 8Bit Big Band did an AMAZING fleshed out cover of it... Give it a listen.

[@ChoocoboYao]

Their rendition is absolutely amazing

[@arkainjalex12]

"Take you for a ride" is actually terrible and I'm glad someone actually submitted it for this worst songs list. It's just nostalgia that allows any of you miscreants to pretend it's good.

[@traumatizedgeworth]

@@arkainjalex12 i mean, i don't have nostalgia for it at all and i think it's a banger, but everything's subjective

[@McBehrer]

​@@arkainjalex12 nah, I never played the game, and it's great. It's just way too short

[@SylviaGrome]

The fact that burning man’s soul ends with the trumpets like nothing happened is hilarious. Also if you want to listen to CROWNED…just listen to the Deluxe version of the Deluxe exclusive remix…why would you choose KAZOOED over CROWNED?

[@guymcdude4601]

The persona fandom goes after burning mens soul because of the lyrics for sure. Like who the hell wrote this. Lotus juice would never

[@The_Pikaboi]

The lyrics are from a rap sample CD. Lotus Juice is on record saying the lyrics are awful that he denied a request to sing it

[@gaminggoof1542]

A shame cause otherwise it’s good. Damn good.

[@rattled6732]

Anything Cruelty squad related is basically a flash grenade for anyone that hasn’t been introduced to it yet

[@spugnoxngubcux9801]

Some of these I feel people misunderstood the assignment. Like they saw the phrase "worst video game music" and interpreted it as "music from the worst video games," instead of "worst music from video games."

[@Oybon200]

yeah, like drakengard's music was intentionally made BAD.

[@MaxSchmidGame]

@@Oybon200 drakengards music is amazing with the game's context in mind

[@Oybon200]

@@MaxSchmidGame yeah i know 🤑

[@TemporalZack]

I feel like that's why Bubsy 3D is there. I think it's pretty commonly agreed that the game is horrible, but from what I've heard, the music is honestly not that bad at all.

[@Infindox]

The issue with that is that half of the games listed arent even bad!

[@FriendlyDoctorGuy]

Honestly Birthday Cake felt like a vent art piece about being raised by immigrant parents. Like the exuberant support and the love, even hearing about their history is grating, even on the sonic level. Very punk-y in the approach, I guess? I end up listening to it every now and then, just because it scratches that "loud, abrasive noises" itch that I get from time to time. It definitely gives you a lot to think about.

[@xyz-boner]

Cool analysis but how do you get that from instruments???

[@76MaGus76]

Please never let this series end LOL

[@gaminggoof1542]

I definitely agree. I liked this video.

[@MrFutago87]

Just to be clear the Drakengard is meant to be like this. The whole soundtrack is disjointed, repetitive and atonal so it fully conveys the feeling of madness and violence going on in the game. It does exactly what it is supposed to.

[@auresc04]

It genuinely kinda pisses me off to see birthday cake in lists like this so much. It’s such a fucking banger, and it’s seriously my favorite licensed track in JSRF.

[@GeorgieBonsoir]

Burning Men's Souls... I fuckin' love it. The completely non-sensical lyrics that only barely hang on to a flow, it just sounds like they stuck some guy in a recording booth, told him to "do like... a gangster rap, or something" and he just went off with whatever the hell came to his mind. Then it's both set-up by and followed by the smoothest jazz piece to grace mankind, as if nothing odd happened. "He's more than a cover, he's a quilt." Like... what the fuck is that supposed to mean? I don't know but it bangs so hard I don't even care. "This shit's gonna feel like velvet... turtle. My style fits tighter than a girdle." My guy just said the word turtle so that the next line would rhyme with girdle. *He can't keep getting away with this*

[@theanimetomato980]

Burning men’s soul is so notorious that we got it on this list even tho it’s an anime

[@SuperLlama42]

>The Marvel vs Capcom 2 character select theme TELL ME WHO SUGGESTED THAT I JUST WANT TO TALK WITH THIS BASEBALL BAT >Cruelty Squad >The Cheetahmen theme >Drakengard >etc People just don't have good taste in music

[@stevenjones8575]

That Kirby song was only bad because they intentionally made the flute very sharp. Nintendo had a phase where, to be "cute," they purposely made instruments out of tune. A bunch of the Yoshi games did that, as well as K.K. Slider's whistling in Animal Crossing. Drives me crazy, because the songs are otherwise so nice.

[@emblemblade9245]

Can that definitely be pinned on Nintendo though, if each song was made by different composers?

[@Lunar_Atronach]

fucking hell that one synth in Launch Octopus, owwwwwwww.

[@Mnnvint]

That isn't a Nintendo thing, that's a Japan thing (for a certain time at least, maybe it's out of fashion now).

[@hexenvexen]

Drakengard OST is 100% intentionally like that, the whole game is a dark twisted parody of fantasy games/stories, especially Musou/Warriors games, and the soundtrack perfectly reflects that. The main character is supposed to be the heroic prince but is pretty much a bloodthirsty psychopath (a more realistic version of what a Musou protag who kills thousands would be like), the rest of the main characters are equally as deranged, and the story gets more and more insane as you go through it. The music basically takes samples of classical music and rearranges them to sound unnerving in order to give the atmosphere that "this should be a heroic fantasy story but something is very wrong". By the last few chapters, the music almost sounds like your PS2 is breaking down and glitching as the story increases its insanity, with some tracks beginning to randomly pause and stutter as apart of the music. I know Marco is already familiar with the Drakengard/NieR games but thought I'd leave the comment for people that aren't

[@NikoNC]

burning men's souls is truly one of the songs of all time

[@finn049]

“He not a cover, he a quilt” 🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥💯💯💯

[@PriffyViole]

A little context: Birthday Cake was DELIBERATELY meant to be obnoxious by the artists. It was also a commercially released song not written for JSRF, hence the copyright strike.

[@sodathejunker]

The fact there is a Kirby song in this video makes me want to throw hands

[@FectoForgoGaming]

Its more so a goofy remix, not bad per se, just not meant to be traditionally "good".

[@AndroidHarris]

It has such good composition. When i think of bad songs i lean in more on it being bad for its theming and lacking coordination. Kirby music and worst should never be in the same sentence. Kirby composers are awesome.

[@stewhv94]

Love this series!! I brought up this track after watching part 1, but the Sewer music from Urban Yeti absolutely needs to be covered. It is horrendous.

[@Tawleyn]

It took me until The CheetahMen Theme to realize that your scale is backward because that song was a damn banger and I thought you had committed some kind of atrocity by rating it so lowly lol

[@McBehrer]

really? You didn't realize when he rated ALL of them lower than the first song?

[@Tawleyn]

@@McBehrer Hey, people are entitled to their opinions. I thought his comments were a little misaligned with where he was putting them, but again, I figured that was just the way he was rating them lol

[@kman0201]

I’m sick and tired for people saying stylistic tracks are bad-Get us more Crazy Truck type stuff!

[@Slenderquil]

I'm pretty sure Trinity soul isn't even a game, people just add it because Persona. Earthbound has so much weird music that I never even realized how grating dungeon Man's theme is. He's literally a man transformed into a dungeon, and that plays inside said dungeon.

[@emile_jeanne]

The joke is that Dungeon Man supposedly wrote the song himself and since his dungeon sucks so does his music, it's all part of the same joke

[@Slenderquil]

@@emile_jeanne Ah, that makes Sense. I like that

[@kiiturii]

when I recommended it I didn't even know trinity soul was an anime lol, I just think burning mens soul is the funniest song I've ever heard and he should hear it too lmao

[@paniiziima]

@@emile_jeanne thats very similar to "really bad song" from everhood ost... dungeon master had to change the story midgame cuz of complaint and the song is supposed to be just thrown together in 5 seconds just like the new story.. tho its not that bad of a song imo

[@RetroIsWatching]

Nah, it doesnt have that much weird music. Except for the cliff that time forgot. And the place.. And the giygas themes…

[@BigLadStudios]

Who the fuck put the cheetahmen theme in here

[@Eggsi__]

WHO said the marvel vs capcom 2 character select sucks, imma fight them. it is just a really long loop though so thats fair TO also be fair, its a character selection screen, you'll be there for like 30 seconds at most honestly

[@senatuspopulusqueromanus2082]

Still, the loop drove me mad

[@gaminggoof1542]

You want an actual character select song that is awesome then try Tekken 2 and 3

[@IshikawaGoemon]

I think it sucks as well. Even if it's meant for a quick thirty seconds, that's thirty seconds of 'I wanna take you for a ride' followed by a tiny instrumental piece, then a repeat. As far as character select themes go, it's bottom of the barrel. Only reason it's popular is because it's attached to MvC 2.

[@epthopper]

@@IshikawaGoemonIt’s a banging 30s though

[@ayeshanicolesmithminaj8560]

Mvc3 did it more justice

[@Big_Man_Enjoyer]

I’m one of the peeps who suggested that Spider-Man song, my bad, I get that it has charm. Just not my cup of tea and I can’t imagine a whole level of it lol But I reiterate my other options, with explanations for each(copypasting from my original comment with more info added): Urban Yeti: Sewer Theme (strange meter with off-putting midi choices in an already weird bad game) The Terminator (NES): the sewers (maybe it would work if it was an area you only visited for a few seconds at a time, but this is just a single note played in repetition) Street Fighter 1: Sagat’s theme (again, just really grating midi choices, I’d imagine if it were played on real instruments it would sound better) Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer: Lyle and Lottie’s theme (bad on purpose, but very funny) Wild Woody: Treasure Caves (jerks you all over the place, but also goofy and worth a listen) Double Dribble: National Anthem (let’s get the one programmer to sing the national anthem, wcgw) Final Fantasy X-2: Chocobo Theme (again, it might just come down to a personal discomfort with dissonance, but whew, the trumpets) Evergrace: Buying Goods at Palmira (sounds like it was performed by bees, idk how else to explain it)

[@joshuabateman829]

Man, we just got such different tastes. That Spiderman Level music, Evergrace OST, FFX-2 are all great. I will say, though I'd agree on Sagat theme midi is... bad, and so is what happened with Double Dribble. Gonna check out the Wild Woody Track because we disagree so much on the other stuff.

[@Big_Man_Enjoyer]

@@joshuabateman829 admittedly most of my picks are either for the funny or the shock factor, I would pick a truly boring and uninspired song if I ever remembered any (which is part of why making a ranking of worst songs is hard, people pick things that surprised or upset them instead of stuff they forget about which should be highlighted as mediocre)

[@Mediocresinger]

I forgot about the X-2 chocobo theme, I am in full agreement.

[@anywhere_but_here]

shoutout to the editor for appreciating Cheetahmen. if anyone hasnt checked out the Boshy remix for that song youre missing out!

[@gaminggoof1542]

The I Wanna Be The Boshy remix is geaat

[@Akira_1008]

If you do another of these, I definitely nominate sonic spinball's options menu

[@OodMarkikiki]

I kinda want to make him hear the Pumpkin Hill song from SA2, not because it's one of the worst, but because the lyrics have been written like an hour before recording 🤣 And this song won't get out of my head

[@Niklas.Kirchner]

Problem is Pumpkin Hill is atleast a 9 out of 10 on a best song o meter😂

[@RobinsMusic]

I was so confused about the birthday cake one lmao I thought wait this sounds really good until I found out it’s not the song

[@Insanemonk11]

I can almost appreciate how you know you have it really good with all the top tier music, you need to cut the richness with stuff that makes you cry inside

[@bomb4r719]

20:19 "This song is one of my greatest achievments" - Dungeon Man That song is supposed to suck, and it succeeds 100%. I think it's still fine to call this song bad. Unlike the songs that set out to make you feel uncomfortable, this one set out to actually just be bad. I think its achievment deserves to be recognized. By the way Earthbound is a really funny game, it's full of moments like that where the game uses its own structure to tell jokes and it's amazing. "Where most games go left, Earthbound goes up" - Dunkey

[@SuperSpaceCube]

I like how Mark said it was family friendly show, but the Earthbound song was so bad he's like "put it at 10, fuck it." LMFAO

[@Jubilant--]

6:55 Well, this iteration specifically goes nowehere. It's just that 8 second loop. But you're not tripping, you might be thinking of the MvC3 traditional remix that extends the loop for a second part.

[@quentindelvallet]

I think people are fast to claim a music is "the worst" when it's inside a great game that has many cool musics, when in reality it's often "okay" or just mid, but pale in comparison to the others

[@Solipsis31]

Whoever submitted the cheeta men song I thank you, i had no idea that cheeta men even existed, but thanks to your poor evaluation of what "bad video game music" is, i now know this absolute banger and have added it to the playlist

[@HHog]

There are a lot of good remixes around as well, plus I always enjoyed the rap version by Duane & Brand0.

[@jordanl7685]

Glad to see that Editor and I are on the same page with Birthday Cake lol

[@MEGID0LA0N]

technically persona trinity soul is an anime spinoff, but it's a spin off of a series that's partially known for having amazing music, so i have absolutely no idea how that track got approved

[@k96man]

10:33 it's like I'm listening to a KZbin poop

[@enzolumare5680]

More like this song is poop

[@gaminggoof1542]

You aren’t wrong

[@dragonqueen9452]

That's exactly what I thought I was like "This is a ytp in audio format"

[@JumpNShootSH]

I'm suggesting Break Shit from _El Paso, Elsewhere_ for just being terrible rap and _Catching Ghosts_ from Luigi's Mansion for being (while intentional) chaotic lol

[@manupm9161]

I agree with the editor, "Birthday Cake" its actually a nice chill tune

[@JohnathanJWells]

I was very confused. He kept mentioning lyrics too

[@enzolumare5680]

No it’s not but it’s funny. Cibo matto is definitely something

[@Treesarewoke]

​@@JohnathanJWellsThe song being played in the video isnt the actual song, it got removed for copyright

[@gaminggoof1542]

@@TreesarewokeAh, I was wondering about that too. So it sounds like elevator music because it was. But tbh not bad elevator music. That said why keep that portion in the video?

[@Treesarewoke]

@@gaminggoof1542 If he wanted to still have his opinion on the song in the video, think he should have just muted it instead of replacing it with something else, that just makes it more confusing

[@Cri_Jackal]

You NEED to listen to the ENTIRE Earthbound (aka Mother 2) soundtrack. It is one of the most INFLUENTIAL soundtracks Nintendo has ever put out, inspiring the formation of entire genres and music communities following its release, and being the core inspiration for Toby Fox's ENTIRE MUSICAL CAREER, with Undertale itself essentially being an _Earthbound fangame_ with how much it not only directly borrows from it, but actively directly references, with mechanics, names, narrative themes, AND the music.

[@cosmiclive4437]

The Dedede song sounds like a boss song with the "wrong" instrumentation to me. They had the band for the first world in the studio and made them record the end boss song.

[@BiyikFrostDiaz]

It is final boss theme It 's magolor soul theme from Kirby Return to dreamland and it has been remixed quite often

[@The_Pikaboi]

Yeah its a final boss theme. The OG is incredible

[@VitaEmerald324]

Between the Persona rap song, Birthday Cake, and Spider Man Fun House, I am guessing a lot of Coney fans got in on the action this time.

[@DarkInugami92]

The Rapper on that Persona track should never legally be allowed to rap again.

[@Blues2Dark]

If you call that crap rap 😂

[@ThatOneGingerFromSP]

Never cook again

[@RoseLostinValley]

Drakengard's ost is unironically fantastic, it really captures the insanity of the game's story. And imo, Chapter 2 - In the Sky, and *especially* Growing Wings are actually great tracks.

[@Kriseiri]

Growing Wings BANGS

[@Phoenix0F8]

Oh my god I'm so excited for Burning Man's Soul!!! edit: that muffled, overwhelmed "WTF" did not disappoint. I spent the entire instrumental build up just snickering because, unlike you, I knew what was coming.

[@Miatalustrium]

I had a feeling Drakengard would show up, and I fucking LOVE this soundtrack. The composer's job was to make music that was unsettling and chaotic. The director of the game has a habit of making the main character a raging murderer who's lack of morales leads the player themselves to question the futility of the game they're playing. It's super pretentious, I know, but Yoko Taro tries to create games as meta commentary of the game, development team, and player all at once. Drakengard's main character is, as usual, a murderer, but we're told the story from his perspective first, as a noble many fighting to save his sister from the veil empire. And everything about the game gives you the impression that something is extremely wrong, but it isn't until you beat it the first time that the unreliable narrator storyline unfolds and you learn that the party of people you've been fighting alongside are terrible, your main character kills for the sport and not for any grand cause, and the mission was doomed from the start and continuing to play to the very end is an exercise of principle of getting the game finished because that's what we've been conditioned to do. Also, the entire thing was recorded with a live orchestra playing bits and pieces of other famous compositions and then ripping that up and sampling them into the mess that you hear throughout the whole game. Some notable examples from that OST are... Chapter 12: On the Ground 2 Chapter 1: On the Ground Weapon Select Screen Chapter 5: In the Sky II Ending C (*ESPECIALLY* the breakdown around 1:55, Jesus christ is it tense.)

[@capitainsalt3347]

you need to be on that ceo grindset and listen to more cruelty squad ost, the music is an experience that you have one in a lifetime

[@davidmortimer9764]

The Gambino's Quest of OSTs, that's for sure.