My Favorite Video Game Music of 2025

by majormitch

2025 saw a lot of wonderful video games released, and a lot of them had wonderful music: we truly are at the point where video games just sound really freaking good. It’s one of my favorite parts of the medium, and every year I like to highlight my favorite soundtracks among games I played. That’s exactly what I’m doing here. Here are some great video game soundtracks that I enjoyed a whole lot from 2025.

The usual disclaimers: I only considered soundtracks from games I’ve played, I picked a single representative (not necessarily favorite) song from each soundtrack as an example, and these games are ordered by their original US release date; not by preference.

Finally, here are some 2025 games I want to play but haven’t yet, and likely have great music: Promise Mascot Agency, Once Upon a Katamari, Lumines Arise, Sektori, Unbeatable, any number of RPG remakes.

Ender Magnolia: Bloom in the Mist

Composer(s): Mili, Yamato Kasai, and Cassie Wei
Featured Track: Dignity

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Ender Magnolia, like its predecessor, often straddles the line between chill and haunting themes, but it fits for its world. It created the right mood during exploration, and the boss themes go appropriately hard too. It has a vibe all its own, which I appreciate a whole lot.

Citizen Sleeper 2: Starward Vector

Composer(s): Amos Roddy
Featured Track: Imagined Futures

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Citizen Sleeper 2 has an appropriately introspective score for this highly introspective game. I can’t imagine it sounding any other way, and the game’s many moments hit much harder than they would without this excellent soundtrack.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Composer(s): Lorien Testard
Featured Track: For Those Who Come After

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With how good Clair Obscur’s soundtrack is, it’s hard to believe this is Lorien Testard’s first full video game soundtrack. He channels all the hallmarks of classic JRPGs, with themes that range from goofy to serious at just the right times, yet there’s also nothing quite like this soundtrack. It has a French flair that we don’t often hear, of course, but it also feels incredibly cinematic while still having clear, identifiable melodies. That’s a fine line that video games often struggle with, but Clair Obscur makes it look easy. The game’s pivotal moments in particular are scored with incredible, gut-punching music.

Mario Kart World

Composer(s): Atsuko Asahi, Maasa Miyoshi, Takuhiro Honda, and Yutaro Takakuwa
Featured Track: Ground BGM (Ska Version) (Super Mario World)

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Mario Kart World has probably my favorite soundtrack of the year; how did it not get nominated at the Game Awards again? There are hundreds of songs here, not just excellent new songs, but also songs pulled and rearranged from dozens of previous Mario Kart and other Mario games. It of course pulls from strong source material, but the way it rearranges those classics in a new style that fits perfectly within World’s “open road” vibe is something special. I will never get tired of driving around this world only to hear a ska version of Super Mario World’s standard course music, or a jazz version of the Mario Paint flyswatter game music, or a twangy guitar version of Bomb-Omb Battlefield. This is a huge collection of some of the best video game music ever written, updated with modern orchestration for a modern game, in an impressively cohesive style. It’s great.

Donkey Kong Bananza

Composer(s): Naoto Kubo
Featured Track: Lagoon Layer

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Is Donkey Kong Bananza Nintendo’s first true musical? It stars a singer whose music plays a pivotal role in the story, and all of her songs are excellent. But the regular level themes are just as good, feeling appropriately “Donkey Kong” while also fitting in with Bananza’s borderline Disney vibe. This soundtrack hits a lot of different notes, and hits them all extremely well. Especially the zebra notes.

Shinobi: Art of Vengeance

Composer(s): Tee Lopes
Featured Track: Festival of a Thousand Lights

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Shinobi has a great action score that harkens back to the classics from the 80s and 90s, but with modern sensibilities. It also does a great job at sounding both like a rocking 80s action score and appropriate for the Japan setting of the game. Tee Lopes is at the top of his game here.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Composer(s): Christopher Larkin
Featured Track: Lost Lace

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The First Hollow Knight had an incredible soundtrack, and so too does its sequel. Christopher Larkin pulls out all the stops here, and especially excels at scoring the climatic and cinematic moments of Silksong. They hit harder than they should, thanks in large part to the music. The rest of the soundtrack is as fantastic as ever, with intense boss themes and eerie exploration themes enhancing every moment. I really like the use of strings in this soundtrack, and the variety of sounds and emotions they can produce is impressive.

Hades II

Composer(s): Darren Korb and Austin Wintory
Featured Track: Mother of All Storms

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I’ve said it before and will continue to say it: Darren Korb don’t miss. Austin Wintory doesn’t really miss either, and they team up for some incredible work here. A lot of it is great in the same ways every Supergiant Games’ music is great, but I really appreciate the moments where it branches outside of the Supergiant comfort zone. This mainly happens in the “up” route, which features more sweeping orchestral arrangements, fitting for the broader battle the gods are fighting on Mount Olympus (likely Wintory’s hand showing here). Greek myth traditionally sounds like a lot of battle drums and horns in my head, all of it is executed with aplomb, and meshes together super well. Oh, and the musical callbacks to the original Hades? Sublime.

Battle Suit Aces

Composer(s): Carlos Eiene and Andrew Dunn
Featured Track: Battle Suit Aces

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I never got into mecha anime, but I imagine they sound a lot like Battle Suit Aces. It has a lot of spunk, with sweeping medleys right up front, and energetic battle themes as you go along. It’s even corny in the right ways, just like the “Battle Suit Aces” TV-style voiceover that kicks off each scenario. It’s also great to see Carlos Eiene (aka insaneintherain on YouTube) get top billing on a game soundtrack. Dude’s been making great music for some time.

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

Composer(s): Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano
Featured Track: Fury Green

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Metroid Prime 4 ranks fairly low on the list of best Metroid soundtracks, yet compared to video games at large, it still has some very good songs that captures the Metroid Prime vibe dutifully. From the opening title screen, the combination of mystical choral chants and sci-fi synths meld as well as we've come to expect from the series. And the first major area, Fury Green, has an excellent theme that is pure Prime goodness. Unfortunately some of the other areas have fairly dull music, but there are just enough great songs here to earn it a place on this list.