Tony hawks pro skater series and gta vice city mostly

Do the Guitar Hero games count? Because those

lol… genuinely, DOOM. I grew up with just the radio and a mom who made weird and arbitrary rules about music so my music exposure was terrible. I found a journal from when I was ten talking about how excited I was to listen to the “top ten soft rock hits” of the week with Delilah. Hearing DOOM and going omfg this ROCKS!! made me realize there was other music out there, big music, epic sounds, distortion, heavvvvvy sounds I love it all, I’m also a bass head as it turns out. DOOM opened the door and I’ve spent my adult life exploring all the different kinds of music I never got exposed to as a kid.

If you put the install disk for Warcraft 2 in a cd player, you had a kick ass orchestral soundtrack.

Fallout Soundtrack is the only reason I know who the ink spots are.

Both let me appreciate styles I had never given a chance.

I honestly think FF7 made get into classical music and contemporary composers.

Pick any game in the Final Fantasy series. For me it was the overworld in FF6 and the battle songs from VII and VIII. I Also really vibed with the Uncharted games, which used an orchestra of interesting folk instruments to create a really cool musical soundscape for adventure.

FF9, Vamo' alla Flamenco taught me I really like spanish guitar.

StarCraft’s iconic Terran soundtrack is the earliest game where the music really got me hooked into that 80’s synth rock/metal. Of course there’s also Mick Gordon’s Doom soundtracks, but that came in later and I was already listening to metal by that time.

Damn, I can't believe Halo CE hasn't been mentioned yet. That game was a musical awakening for the entire industry.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, Kingdom Hearts II, and GTA San Andreas all come to mind. Also a more recently Lethal League and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk

Everything from Supergiant is fantastic, worth a listen even if you don't play the games. Also, Burnout Revenge had such a good soundtrack. Completely shaped my preference for music in highschool.

Diablo/Diablo 2

Though this tune isn't quite part of their soundtrack (that I know of), it highly resembles their style on this otherwise hidden track...

Dawn Of Tears - Blood On Verona (Hidden track timestamp 11:43)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63WxrVmquJw&t=703s

Tony Hawks proskater.

Mass Effect 1's credit outro song led to a rabbit hole of me getting into electronic music over the next six months. It's not even super dancey but it was enough lol

Red Alert 2. I did not know what metal was up to then.

The Sims building music: A great example of music improving the experience without getting in the way but still making a big impact on all players. It opened the door for more instrumental music like Windham Hill records and similar.

I was in a hospital for a few days when I was 8-year-old. I was not allowed to leave my bed. But they had a kind of a moveable shelf with a TV and NES on it.

And therefore, to this day, I've got the Bubble Bobble music as an earworm. A kind of an awakening, right? 🙃

One Winged Angel, Sephiroth's theme from Final Fantasy 7 blew my mind! I did a report on it in high school I loved it so much!

Mick Gordon's music in Wolfenstien and Doom. In particular, his version of the Partisan, Blazco Kill the Nazis, and of course, The Only Thing They Fear is You. That was what allowed me to get into metal.

Ocarina of Time Need for Speed

hey. you asked.

Beat Saber custom charts were how I discovered Vylet Pony, who was my favorite artist throughout my teen years.

Morrowind for sure.

Hotline Miami.

Super Mario Bros 3.

That airship theme.

I still listen to the Riven soundtrack, 29 years later. It's so rich and atmospheric, and composed and performed by one of the game's co-designers Robyn Miller.

Everything about that game was beautiful. Still holds up today.

need for speed underground for obvious reasons

Stubbs the zombie got me into indie rock

I always liked electronic music but Machinarium made me consciously realize how much I liked ambient music and how much could be done with it.

Morrowind & Skyrim. Nothing really comes close to Jeremy Soule's music.

Chrono Cross!

Wondering if Project Mirai DX would also count....

Both the OST and gameplay Jetset Radio Future blew me away as a kid.

Cyberpunk Bomb Rush and it's OST was great experience recently too.

Jet Set Radio (+Future) soundtrack goes hard. Most of the tracks are still on my favorites playlists

Adding a few more to my list.

Spyro (PS1) - Stewart Copeland's genius cannot he understated, and subsuqently got me into his original band The Police (I'm seennddinngg out an S O S)

Final Fantasy VII and IX both sound tracks I go back to frequently

Kingdom Hearts definitely started my love for JPop

Lots of songs from Tony Hawk (the PS1 era)

Portal 2. Absolute banger of a soundtrack that I have listened to over and over, and I absolutely loved Exile Vilify by The National, which frustratingly is not on Spotify.

Quite a few for me:

• OneShot: The melancholic music blends with the atmosphere of the game and its really good.
• OxenFree: On its own, it's good. But when playing the game, it really helps sell the ambience. Also, first soundtrack I've ever listened to that had encoded messages in it.
• Celeste: Really helps represent Madeline's emotions and mental state.
• A Hat in Time: Some of the orchestras in the soundtrack are really good, almost rivaling Nintendo. Some of them are a vibe too.

SuperTux

Myst and Riven. Became homework music for a long time

Kingdom Hearts for sure. Has inspired my love of pop and j-pop to a large degree.

Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.

Might be cheating cause music was one of the core features. I do remember downloading the tracks for each flute melody to use as ringtones.

Also, Byrne's battle theme and the final boss theme go so fucking hard.

There are actually many but this is the first one that came to my mind:

SUTEKI DA NE (Final Fantasy X)

Edit for additions:

• On the Beach of Dreams - Another World (Chrono Cross)
• Tsuisou no Despair (Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hou)

Undertale and Celeste for me for sure

Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX, which led me to Pennywise, Dropkick Murphys, and Social Distortion.

Symphony of the night of course, bust before that also games like streets of rage (1,2) and thunder force 4.

Not an awakening per se but Splinter Cell Chaos Theory introduced me to Amon Tobin and the world of weird, experimental electronic music.

Burnout Revenge!

Dave Mirra's Freestyle BMX

To go a bit newer, I really enjoyed both Death Stranding soundtracks, especially 2. I went on a few months journey of listening to more theatrical/movie OSTs while gaming.

Skate and Destroy, Tony Hawks Pro Skater, GTA 3/Vice City/SA.

Also numerous PSX games are the reason I still listen to that old school drum & bass.

Later, Guitar Hero games.

Although I still have Journey To Silius's OST burned into my head, there have been plenty of very influential games, in no particular order -

Super Mario RPG

Chrono Trigger

FFVII

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater

Jet Set Radio (and Future)

Grand Theft Auto (Vice City and San Andreas, I only listened to talk radio in 3)

Stepmania

These days, I feel a little calcified but it's always nice when I turn on a game and see artists I know.

Three, very early on in my life:

1. Deus Ex (2000). Synthy classical/techno blend that’s hard to beat thanks largely to Alexander Brandon.

2. Road Rash 95. Loaded with grunge hits from Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, Nirvana and more. The bassy chip racing tracks were also awesome.

3. Monsters, Inc.: Scream Team. This one might be slightly cheating since I also watched the movie on loop but jazz/ska is just too damn fun to ignore.

Need for Speed Underground 2!! All songs were awesome, my favorites were the Riders on the Storm with Snoop and Nobody by Skindred

Megaman 2 aka Rockman 2, baby! So good.

So many

Half life.

Thief 1/2

Wing Commander 3

I may have a sweet spot for industrial music.

Test Drive 5 and Hades. Two musical awakenings about 25 years apart.

Both have fantastic sound tracks, but also wildly different.

ducktales, maniac mansion, and shadowgate on the nes

oh and secret of mana (but especially secret of mana ~ banished)

I don't know about an awakening, but Wuthering Waves has some really really good music. Not sure if it's the emotional aspect of the story that makes the impact of the song greater, but I've never found myself downloading game music before like I do now.

They seem to put a lot of effort into music. I'm not about to argue that this is the greatest song ever, but they made this for a freaking side quest that's off the beaten path and you're never directed towards it, no one tells you to go do this so it's something many many people just don't even experience and yet they made this:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xsUKWv1KFWs

Better song, one of my favorites:

https://youtu.be/iLiXuLD2IVA

This one had people crying, but I think it's a case of just needing to know the story for it to mean anything:

https://youtu.be/p4tTkC9uRvU

I never would have listened to this kind of music even 2 years ago lol

The Chris Huelsbeck soundtracks on the C64. Turricane, Giana Sisters, etc. They were a real game changer in a dimension you kids can't even imagine.

The 3D zelda games.

That was the point where I prefered soundtracks over singing. I still have the Twilight Princess trailer mp3 I cut almost 20 years ago on my running playlist.

That and the score for Battle for Wesnoth. Classic freeware, peak 2006.

Guitar hero literally got me into real guitar so probably that one

Donkey Kong FFVI (or IV if you're Japanese)

Star Control 2

Need for Speed 2.

Toy Story 2: Buzz Lightyear to the Rescue! and Final Fantasy VII.

Then later on you obviously have all of the Guitar Heros and Rock Bands (I'm so excited for Stage Tour)

I've always been into video game music, but as far as awakenings go I would say Lunar Silver Star Story on PS1 because it was the first time I heard original video game music with lyrics. Before that, it was all chiptunes and instrumental stuff, at least that I had seen. That was good. I did play King's Quest 5 long before and it technically also has an original song with lyrics... But it's not something I'd listen to outside of the game.

Some of the Kirby games? I love Dusk Dunes from Epic Yarn.