Best game music of 2017

With an outstanding year for games, it's only natural for a bunch of awesome soundtracks to follow suite.  I've sorted 65 of the best tracks in roughly chronological order from games I played over past year into the playlist above.  Extra thoughts at the break bellow.


The first thing I noticed after reviewing my top picks for the year was Nintendo's absolute dominant showing.  From the return of squid-punk in Splatoon 2 to the spacious tinkling ivory in Breath of the Wild, there was a whole lot to love from a lot of their returning franchises.  They even managed to slip in one more weird boss theme in their last DLC for Zelda.

Nier: Automata has so many haunting and memorable melodies that it was tough to narrow down which were my favorite.  Then which level of "dynamic intensity" was present.  Then how well the 8-bit version managed to play.  Seriously, there are a ton of slight variations that may not be immediately noticeable, but manage to play wonderfully as subtle transitions or mood settings.

Divinity Original Sin 2 came out of absolute nowhere for me.  The last game had one or two memorable tunes with a lot of silly and bouncy themes in between.  The sequel manages to ramp up an unexpected amount of majesty and adventure that it goes so far as to make sorting inventories feel epic.

Cuphead's Jazz stylings played an important and key component in completing it's Fleischer-era vibe.  The big surprise is how it managed to transcend just video game soundtracks and land itself at #9 on the Billboard charts for Jazz this year.  Neat stuff!

Finally, I've got to give it out to Destiny 2 for building on previous themes and motifs, while managing to take time to relax and be reflective.  Tracks like "Journey" and "The Farm" make you feel the dramatic downfall and back-in-the-saddle plot beats that your Guardian participates in within the first few hours of the game.