Topic: Games with underappreciated soundtracks

considering hardware potential vs actual soundtracks composed, I'd say the GBA has some good music.
GBA gets a lot of slack for its poor sound delivery, and I belive rightfully so - the sound is all managed by the CPU IIRC, so developers had to decide how much of the CPU would be dedicated to sound, and obviously the answer was "as little as possible". This is especially noticeable on the 16-bit ports, which sound awful.
Some of the original stuff was good though: the first Phoenix Wright, for example. WarioWare Inc. and WarioLand 4 are very good, especially the songs (the compression makes them sound like they are coming out from a 70s radio).
Advance Wars is also quite good (and better than all the following AW) and so is Drill Dozer.
The first Iridion would have a good soundtrack technically, if it didn't remind me of that stupid song The Final Countdown.

VVVVVV

I really think Monster Hunter has a lot of great, orchestrated combat themes. Action-y stuff, both western and eastern influences.

For heavily Japanese-inspired music Okami and Muramasa's soundtracks are both great. Those games aren't just called beautiful for their visuals. Okami's soundtrack tends toward the inspirational while Muramasa's has a darker tone overall.

...Well seeing how Rhythm Heaven isn't that popular over here, I'm going with that series.

Pandora's Tower's soundtrack blew me away.

@ekreig Speaking of Mistwalker, I think Blue Dragon has a great soundtrack. The Mechat Song in particular is so catchy!

The Baten Kaitos thread reminded me of how lovely that game's music is. I also think the Tales series music largely goes under the radar (perhaps because of the high frequency of releases?) but some of it is really nice. Vesperia and Graces f both have particularly good soundtracks. I'll try and find the tracks that stood out for me.

I really like the soundtracks in the Professor Layton games. Miracle Mask is my favourite out of them since most of the music is rather happy and jolly, but the music can suddenly get very dark and serious when needed.

Also, 9 Hours 9 Persons 9 Doors. The music really helps to add tension and sets the mood very well for the game.

I just recently got the original Bayonetta on PS3 (since I don't own it on Wii U, but my cousin gave me his old PS3 and I could get Bayonetta for €10), and it's soundtrack is amazing! There are so many memorable and catchy tracks! After Burner (Climax Mix), Battle for the Umbra Throne, Fly Me To The Moon, Let's Hit The Climax!, Red & Black, Riders of the Light, and of course, Let's Dance Boys!
The rest of the music also fits the mood perfectly. To dramatic and loud to angelic singing, this soundtrack has it all. I absolutely love it and it ranks up there as one of my favourites.

Even if every person in the world owned a copy of the Tropical Freeze sountrack, it would still be underappreciated.

Think this might be a necro, but as long as we're using the dark arts I really like Nier's soundtrack. I don't think the soundtrack is under-appreciated as much as that game is as a whole, but damn—I've never even played the game and that soundtrack just struck me. It's even in my favorite youtube music playlist.

Wario Land 4 is already an underappreciated game in general, but geez, the soundtrack is atmospheric and amazing but it gets no love at all. Actually, all the Wario Land games have great soundtracks for different reasons, the only one I think may be a bit overrated is SML3. Not that that game had a bad soundtrack, though.

EDIT: LOL, what were the chances that WL4 would be mentioned in the post right above me?

Dunno if it's underappreciated, but Bomberman 64 has the chillest music ever:

Also, Donkey Kong Country 3 has one of the most underrated soundtracks of first party Nintendo games. Composed by the often uncredited Eveline Fischer (now Novakovic), DKC3's soundtrack is an atmospheric and slightly ambient experience. It is up there in my all-time faves and for good reason. It also saddens me how few people know that Novakovic did it, not Wise.

Regarding the GBA soundtrack (by Wise), I honestly find it a very mixed bag and to be a little bland compared to Novakovic's work. Then again, music is something mostly up to opinion/interpretation.

Thanks for the info. I love the soundtrack of DKC 3 and actually surprised me that it is not Wise's work since he is definitely in the credits of the game. I believe they worked both on the soundtrack but Fischer's contribution was much bigger than one would think. Do you know why the GBA got a new soundtrack?

EDIT: I had to look it up and found the credits and they are very specific about that: https://youtu.be/O-jUl72SuJA?t=552

Like pretty much everything else associated with the game, Pandora's Tower has a fantastic sound track.

Ufouria: The Saga has a pretty cool soundtrack, especially the underground/cave theme.

I think the Ace Attorney series is one that almost never gets the praise it deserves for its music. It's not Zelda, Final Fantasy or Elder Scrolls levels of brilliance but who doesn't absolutely love the cornered/objection themes in the games? Most main characters have great unique themes that suit them perfectly, most obvious of all being Godot.

Literally no one talks about the Simpsons Hit and Run soundtrack but I love it :/

I guess the soundtrack of Lufia I and II (SNES) is underappreciated. I didn't know that the DS got a kind of remake of the second game six years ago. Maybe that is because it was never released in Europe. I don't think, I would like this game as much as the original but the rearranged music tracks are so amazing:

Bomberman Tournament, but that game in general is quite underrated. It has some pretty catchy tunes, I love it.