Happy Monday, all! Let’s get to the prompt: favorite music for cities in games. Urban centers can be found across the world of games, from stock “city levels” in your Sonics to the leitmotifs for major hubs. And they take all kinds of shapes: grand fantastical citadels, bustling metropoles, futuristic dystopias, bustling villages, and so much more. For this prompt, don’t worry too hard about size or architectural accuracy. As long as it’s music that’s the theme of (or pretty well associated with) an in-game city or urban environment, it should be fine.
Some of my personal favorites:
- EarthBound, “Twoson”
- Elden Ring, “Leyndell, Royal Capital”
- Final Fantasy VII, “Main Theme of Final Fantasy VII“
- Hollow Knight, “City of Tears”
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, “Tarrey Town (Full)”
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, “Kakariko Village”
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, “Tour New York Minute”
- Mega Man X, “Opening Stage (Highway Stage)”
- NieR Automata, “Pascal’s Village”
- Ōkami, “Sei-an City (Commoners’ Quarters)”
- Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, “Rogueport, Town of Thieves”
- Pokémon Black 2 & White 2, “Virbank City”
- Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, “Folsense”
- Sonic Adventure 2, “Escape from the City”
- Sonic Mania, “Lights, Camera, Action! – Studiopolis Zone Act 1”
- Sonic Unleashed, “Shamar (Day)”
- Splatoon 3, “Anarchy Rainbow”
- Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting, “Balrog Stage”
- Super Mario Odyssey, “New Donk City: Daytime”
- Super Mario Sunshine, “Delfino Plaza”
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, “Mutants Over Broadway”
- WarioWare: Smooth Moves, “Tomorrow Hill”
- Xenoblade Chronicles 2, “Torigoth”
- Xenoblade Chronicles X, “NLA: Day”
If I’m being honest, I hadn’t intended this list to be so broad. I had in my mind people giving exciting answers, the likes of Jet Set Radio or Spider-Man. But I don’t really play most of those games, so I had to think outside the box once I had committed to the prompt. These aren’t “hard,” per se, but it does take work figuring them out (especially now that my games writing is now going to involve making more listicles; it wouldn’t be right for me to copy myself too often and too soon). So maybe next year I’ll do a prompt about hub levels, many of which are set in cities, and we can all reuse a couple of them for that. But that’s okay. Mostly, I’m excited to get an answer from someone about Street Fighter VI, which has promised so much Metro City mayhem.
Beyond that, how was your weekend when it came to gaming?