The video links in the table are to YouTube pages.
| Super Mario Bros. | 1985 | Underworld | Kōji Kondō | A weird little loop that sounds like a plumber plunging. It is tricky to play on an instrument. |
| Metroid | 1986 | Brinstar | Hirokazu Tanaka | An inspiring loop for the Brinstar region of a hostile planet. |
| Dragon Power Dragon Ball: Shenron no Nazo | 1986 | Boss Music | unknown | This goofy spinoff from a popular manga series has simple graphics, simple dialogue, a dorky plot, and music with a pentatonic feel. |
| Castlevania II | 1987 | Monster Dance | Kenichi Matsubara, Satoe Terashima, Kouji Murata | A lively and sinister accompaniment to an endless series of monster attacks. |
| Mega Man II | 1988 | Flash Man | Takashi Tateishi (Ogeretsu Kun) | Mega Man II was wildly successful, in part because of the music. The background loop for Flash Man is one of its snappiest tracks. |
| Mother (Earthbound Zero) | 1989 | Battle Theme 3 | Hirokazu Tanaka or Keiichi Suzuki | A lively loop inspired by Chuck Berry riffs, used when fighting crazed hippies or trucks out of control. I do not know which of the composers wrote it. |
| Magicant | Hirokazu Tanaka | A charmingly strange background loop for the fairy-tale realm of Magicant, with a unique echo loop at the end. | ||
| Crystalis | 1990 | Introduction | Yoko Osaka | The introduction was remarkably artistic for the NES, and the music was doubly so. |
| Field | Yoko Osaka | This bouncy tune first appears in the open area outside the town of Leaf. | ||
| Solstice | 1990 | Title Theme | Tim Follin | Two minutes and 45 seconds of complex folk music in the Irish style. |
| StarTropics | 1990 | Overworld | Yoshio Hirai | Cheerful tropical-sounding music. |
| MUSHA | 1990 | Stage 1 (Fullmetal Fighter) | Toshiaki Sakoda | Overwhelmingly complex, like the gameplay in this vertical scroller. | Seiken Densetsu (Final Fantasy Adventure) | 1991 | Chocobo Ride | Kenji Itō | The music for this long RPG was enjoyable, and its adaptation of FF3J's Chocobo music stands out. | Final Fantasy IV (Final Fantasy II) | 1991 | World of Summoned Monsters | Nobuo Uematsu | A touchingly sad loop from one of the most captivating Final Fantasy games. |
| Kid Chameleon | 1992 | Cave Area | Mark Miller | The score for Kid Chameleon rocked, and especially this! |
| Shining Force | 1992 | Koutekishu (Boss Battle) | Masahiko Yoshimura | An intense, fugue-like working of two other themes from this popular game. |
| Landstalker | 1992 | Premonition of Trouble | Motoaki Takenouchi | A quintessential dungeon theme, oozing with danger and rhythm breaks. |
| Mysterious Island | Motoaki Takenouchi | Background music for the final dungeon, King Nole's Palace. | ||
| Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Sonic and Tails) | 1992 | Aquatic Ruin Zone | Masato Nakamura | The music for Sonic 2 was a big hit with players.
Sega used Chemical Plantfor the trailer. |
| Hill Top Zone | J-funk! | |||
| Final Fantasy V | 1992 | Cursed Earth
(The Slow Land) | Nobuo Uematsu | Heavy! |
| Breath of Fire | 1993 | Tunlan
(Tuneland) | Team Alph Lyla | A lively brass band arrangement with flute obbligato, used for a town where people communicate in music instead of words. |
| Illusion of Gaia | 1993 | Tokens of the Past | Yasuhiro Kawasaki | A compelling, unearthly tune from a remarkable game score. |
| Seiken Densetsu 2 (Secret of Mana) | 1993 | Into the Thick of It | Hiroki Kikuta | After a modest beginning, Secret of Mana pivots into this brilliant loop that has hooked innumerable players on the game. It has been widely covered on YouTube. The link is to Smooth McGroove's voice arrangement. |
| A Bell Is Tolling | Hiroki Kikuta | Background music for the Ice Palace, lyrical and icy. | ||
| Shinobi III | 1993 | Japonesque | Hirofumi Murasaki, Morihiko Akiyama, Masayuki Nagao | This loop from an atmospheric suite displays virtuoso moves and driving force. |
| Link's Awakening | 1993 | Ballad of the Wind Fish | Kōji Kondō | Link's Awakening had an unusually coherent music suite. The Ballad has a free structure, like Queen Mary's song in Mother. The video link to the left is to the Ballad played at the Wind Fish's egg. |
| Phantasy Star IV | 1993 | Dungeon Music | Izuho Numata, Masaki Nakagaki | This is Tokuhiko Uwabo's dungeon music from the original Phantasy Star, reworked and reinvigorated. |
| Shadowrun | 1994 | Redmond Barrens | Sam Powell | Music from the year 2050. |
| Final Fantasy VI | 1994 | Tina's
Theme (Terra's Theme) | Nobuo Uematsu | Uematsu went all out for this RPG, even scoring an opera performance. The performance was unforgettable for all the wrong reasons. |
| Crusader of Centy | 1994 | Camellia Desert | Motokazu Shinoda | An eloquent loop, full of harmonic shifts, for a desert full of holes. |
| Ecco: The Tides of Time | 1994 | Tube of Medusa | Attila Dobos, András Magyari, Andy Armer | Ecco is a dolphin and the game takes place under water. The music was composed accordingly. This is the most energetic of the game's music loops. |
| EarthBound (Mother 2) | 1994 | Paula's Theme | Keiichi Suzuki, Hirokazu Tanaka | This music plays in Polestar, the nursery school run by Paula's mom. It is a new arrangement of the Youngtown Theme from Mother. |
| Transport Tycoon | 1994 | Road Hog | John Broomhall | Cool jazz! |
| Chrono Trigger | 1995 | Undersea Palace | Yasunori Mitsuda | An epic, foreboding loop in 6/8. |
| Battle Theme | Noriko Matsueda | An original and energetic piece of battle music. | ||
| Earthworm Jim 2 | 1995 | Anything But Tangerines | Tommy Tallarico | Earthworm Jim was the hero of some remarkably loony platform games. The music was loony too, especially this. |
| Light Crusader | 1995 | Beat Them! | Aki Hata | A stirring 5-beat loop by the composer for Rocket Knight Adventures. |
| Seiken Densetsu III (Trials of Mana) | 1995 | Forest (Powell) | Hiroki Kikuta | SD3 has so many brilliant music loops, it is worth playing for the music alone. This jazzy tune is used for the Rabite Forest and the Beast Kingdom. |
| Golden
Road (Swivel) | Hiroki Kikuta | An enthusiastic tune for setting out on a journey. | ||
| Terranigma | 1995 | Mountains | Miyoko Takaoka, Masanori Hikichi | Hauntingly evocative music from the last of a trio of unusual role-playing games published by Enix. |
| Kirby's Dream Land 2 | 1995 | Cloudy Park | Hirokazu Ando | The Kirby games had some striking music loops. This pretty one is for while Kirby is up in the clouds. |
| Panzer Dragoon II Zwei | 1996 | Forest of Taboo | Yayoi Wachi | This rail shooter for the Sega Saturn made good use of the Saturn's music capabilities. Forest of Taboo starts with an exhilarating, ominous 10/8 theme in a harmony that never resolves. |
| Final Fantasy VII | 1997 | Shinra Theme | Nobuo Uematsu | A theme well suited to the main villain—an immensely powerful corporation, eager to commit massacres and atrocities if there's money in it. |
| Aeris's Theme | Nobuo Uematsu | Joy and grief by a legend of video game music. | ||
| Suikoden II | 1998 | Boss Fight | Miki Higashino, Keiko Fukami | Someone had fun composing this! |
| Lufia: The Legend Returns | 2001 | Tower of Sorrow | Yasunori Shiono, Akiko Ishibashi, Tomoko Morita, Yukio Nakajima | This sparkling sequel to Lufia and Lufia 2 had a charming score.
Tower of Sorrowis one of its highlights. |
| Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney | 2001 | Cornered | Masakazu Sugimori | Phoenix Wright, Ace Attorney, tries to catch the witness in a lie. This music plays when he succeeds. |
| Turnabout Sisters | Masakazu Sugimori | This gentle, cheerful music is for Maya Fey (Mayoi Ayasato), the young spirit medium who accompanies Phoenix on cases. | ||
| Mother 3 | 2006 | Playing (Alec's House) | Shogo Sakai | Mother 3 is amazing, including the music. This is one of its prettiest and most relaxing loops. |
| P*'s Theme | Shogo Sakai | Twisted pomp for the secret villain of the game. | ||
| Strong One | Shogo Sakai | Fighting in Mother 3 you get bonus hits for syncing with the music. With music like this it's next to impossible. |