Games

Best Video Game Song Tournament, 1990-1995: Nominations

All songs originating from games released between January 1st 1990 and December 31st 1995 are eligible. This will roughly cover the 16-bit era, including many games released on SNES, Genesis/Mega Drive, Game Boy, MS DOS, and other assorted consoles of the era. However, please note that we are strictly following years here, not console. There are plenty of stragglers from the NES that will be eligible here, some latecomers on the 16-bit consoles that must wait until next time, and even some early songs from the PS1 and Sega Saturn.

Full Rules:

  1. If you aren’t sure your song counts, nominate it! There’s bound to be grey area so don’t be afraid to push the boundaries.
  2. The song should originate from a video game. Covers and other alternate versions of pre-existing songs are acceptable if they substantially alter the original work (e.g. BioShock Infinite’s barbershop cover of “God Only Knows”)
  3. If there is a difference between regions of release for a game, all release dates are considered valid. For instance, if a game came out in Japan during one tournament’s time frame and North America during another’s, its songs would be valid in both tournaments. HOWEVER: you can’t nominate a song that’s been nominated during a previous tournament. Games can double-dip, but songs can’t.
  4. Remixes/new versions of previous songs are allowed so long as they are substantively different from the original version. There’s no explicit criteria here, so use your best judgment.

We’re also using a special nomination process! Do NOT nominate in the comments!

Instead, submit your nominations through this handy form: https://forms.gle/VjNWCJZN7GZjHq516

You can also see a list of all nominated songs here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-5R6WXfzBjN82Krflna1HTtAX72uypBWicBLGu8TFZ8/edit?usp=sharing

To cut down on duplicate nominations, please check to see if your song’s been nominated before submitting. You can sort the list by game name if you want, which should make things easier (the form is read-only, so don’t worry about messing anything up!)

Nominations will be open until Friday, January 10th at 10:00 PM Pacific Time