Which game would suffer most if you played it on mute? I'm not asking which game has the best soundtrack necessarily, but which one would be a far lesser experience without the sound and music?

I'd say that Super Mario Bros. just wouldn't be the same without the bleepy sounds and the clunky music.

What do you reckon?

I don't think Bit.Trip Beat would be the same for starters!

Any shmup.

Any Adventure with spoken dialogue and no subtitles.

I would just like to say, that the OST for Mariokart is Daftpunk-Discovery.

Wii Music, anyone?

For me it would be Mega Man. If I had to be more specific, either Mega Man 2, 9, or X. If I had to be even more specific, then Mega Man...

9. One of the reasons that game is so awesome is because I think it has the best soundtrack of every Mega Man. Don't get me wrong, both 2 and X are classics, but I just love 9.

Bit Trip Core would be even worse than Beat. Also, Guitar Hero would be even worse than it already is.

Final Fantasy VI or Chrono Trigger/Cross, games with gorgeous music deserves to be listened to at all times. :3

Rhythm Heaven would be even more brutal!

Amusingly enough, however, you can actually play and win at Guitar Hero with no sound, which only goes to show how little its gameplay has to do with music.

Metroid Prime Trilogy. I walk around those games, listening out for the noise that health and missile upgrades make. Once I hear it I know I'm close, then I can narrow it down. Yum!

Same goes for Lovikov Balls in No More Heroes. I hear that damn noise while I'm walking around the house, ffs!

And a Skulltula hunt would be ten times harder without sound.

I've known folk who play games without sound and it bugs the hell out of me. That's half the experience gone right there. A game's sound and music are very important to me, as it creates the atmosphere.

And Guitar Hero on mute wouldn't make any difference, it's not about music, it's about pressing stoopid coloured buttons in the order you are prompted to.

Guitar Hero would not be harder, no, but it'd be less enjoyable, which is what the topic was asking.

Sonic 2, and 3. You try playing those games without sound and it's empty. Hard to explain.

For current games, I'd have to give a big shout-out to de Blob. There's been many times I didn't play this game because I would have had to keep the volume low/on mute. It's just not the same without the sound.

that, Elite Beat Agents and any other music game for that matter would be very difficult to play

The obvious answer would be rhythm/music based games.

But dang...a skulltula hunt sans sound would be tough!

You know what I'd find difficult? Standing there with a plastic guitar, thinking I'm cooool. I watched the vid to that DJ one and it looks similarly laughable.

@Machu: the idea of a DJ Hero is laughable. I would also say certain rpgs would suffer because they have some good scores in them

NiGHTS into dreams... would suffer from lack of sound. Not because it hurts the gameplay but because the music is part of each world. Hard to describe. The music changes depending on how well you treat the A-life creatures in the game. It's part of the fun.

Dance Dance Revolution (and any other Bemani game, for that matter) is pretty brutal without sound (done it before for purposes of screwing around with my friends... yeah, it was hilariously bad, lol). Other than that... i dare say I wouldn't have enjoyed Super Mario Galaxy half as much without sound.

as for games that were noticeably improved by a lack of sound (not that you asked), I would have to put Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island on that list. the Baby Mario wailing really gets on my nerves sometimes. D: