Sports games with awesome original soundtracks

[Apollo Chungus]

A few months ago, I became somewhat obsessed with watching Jeremy Parish's videos on games for various Nintendo systems, and something I noticed was how often otherwise innocuous sports games would be blessed with unexpectedly great original soundtracks. I wasn't entirely unfamiliar to the idea, having jammed pretty regularly to the music from Neo Turf Masters (particularly its ace Japan course theme), but finding out that the likes of Side Pocket on the Game Boy, as well as the Mega Drive version more famously, or HAL's Hole in One Golf were filled with so many goddamn bops has been one of my favourite things in recent memory.

So now it's got me wondering what other sports games are out there that have really good original soundtracks. I'm not particularly into playing sports games, so I'd like to hear from anyone with more experience on the subject. Any recommendations will be very much appreciated!

[mainpatr]

Nintendo Ice Hockey is really good!
Mega Man's Soccer
Captain Tsubasa games
Anything in the Mario sports series.

[ommadawnyawn2]

Thoroughbred Breeder II (SNES)
Biker Mice From Mars (SNES)
Super Off Road (SNES)
Zenkoku Koukou Soccer Senshuken '96 (SNES)
​Foreman For Real (SNES)
F1 ROC II: Race of Champions/Exhaust Heat II (SNES)
Rock 'n Roll Racing (SNES)
Super Tennis/Super Tennis World Circuit (SNES)
​Classic Road II (SNES)
​F1 ROC: Race of Champions/Exhaust Heat (SNES)
International Superstar Soccer (SNES)
​Top Gear (SNES)
Winter Gold (SNES)

There's a few for SNES. You can find many more on my retro vgm tribute page (it focuses more on sound design though). Yeah going through whole libraries taught me not to dismiss the sports games, the OSTs can be great.

[magic89]

-Ken Griffey Jr.'s Winning Run (SNES)
-Winter Olympics (SNES)
-F-1 Sensation (NES)
-Track & Field 2 (NES)
-Any Nekketsu sport title (Famicon)

[spanky]

WCW Vs. nWo: World Tour for the N64 doesn't have any licensed music like you might expect from a game of that era but the original puro-inspired OST is really great.

[Snake]

I'm amazed with Gameboy Side Pocket.  Very cool and upbeat.  I've always loved SNES Side Pocket for its jazz lounge feel.





Virtua Racing has a lot of cool jingles. Unfortunately, they are just that. 20-30 second sound clips, if that.  


 
Captain Tsubasa II: Super Striker has always been a favorite.  Tecmo's version of anime cut scenes, similar to Ninja Gaiden, added drama and flare. Captain Tsubasa 1 mostly was a 8-bit version of the main theme from the original anime, but Captain Tsubasa 2 has loads of original BGMs.


Speaking of Tecmo, Keiji Yamagishi didn't just compose Captain Tsubasa 2 and Ninja Gaiden, but also for Tecmo Bowl.




Prince of Tennis 2 on PS2 capture the series mood quite brilliantly.

[tokenflipguy]

[Bumpyroad]

      

[ReyVGM]

I try to spread the word around about Tecmo World Cup Soccer, composed by Keiji Yamagishi of Ninja Gaiden fame. The music actually sounds like literal Mega Man music and it's awesome. It's the Mega Man soundtrack we never had.

[ZenithianHero]

I enjoy the soundtrack of Super Swing Golf Season 2. I'm sure the rest of the Pangya series is good too.

[spanky]

Jan 17, 2020 14:57:21 GMT -5 ReyVGM said:

I try to spread the word around about Tecmo World Cup Soccer, composed by Keiji Yamagishi of Ninja Gaiden fame. The music actually sounds like literal Mega Man music and it's awesome. It's the Mega Man soundtrack we never had.

Wow, these have really good music! I actually own this game but I never played it for more than a few minutes because I found it completely baffling!

[ReyVGM]

Yeah, the soundtrack is really good.

[dsparil]

HyperBlade has a pretty great soundtrack! Since it was Redbook, I'd listen to it all the time. Done by Jeehun Hwang who also worked on a few other sci-fi soundtracks for Activision in the mid/late 90s (MW2 series, Dark Reign, Heavy Gear, Battlezone) before moving onto TV and movies. Soundtrack is probably better than the actual game.

[Cola Powered Gamer]

Tommi Makinen Rally for the PS1! Amazing soundtrack, I still listen to it from time to time!

[Bumpyroad]

Jan 23, 2020 16:30:58 GMT 2 Cola Powered Gamer said:


Tommi Makinen Rally for the PS1! Amazing soundtrack, I still listen to it from time to time!

Miami Sunset from Network Q RAC Rally Championship is pretty great indeed(maybe that's why it's been recycled for this sequel:)), but i can't quite hear the rest sadly.