Great video games of today have really put an effort into making a transcendent, memorable soundscape to play along to. One of the first games whose music jumped the fuck out at me was Metroid Prime/Metroid Prime 2: Echos. It's pretty much a consensus these were two of the top games to ever come out on the Gamecube in the the early 2000's. The first Metroid Prime is at the top of many "Greatest Games On The Gamecube" lists. The geniuses behind the amazing compositions are Kenji Yamamoto with help from Kouichi Kyuma.
Metroid Prime was the first time we played with the intergalactic bounty hunter, Samus Aran, from a first person point of view. Metroid games were side-scrollers before. This presented an opportunity to create some incredibly intricate atmospheres and unbelievable music to go along with it. Terrains ranged from rainforest, desert, volcano, deep space, military base, and snowy levels.
Pendranan Drifts - Metroid Prime
The first song, "Phendrana Drifts" was a snow level populated by various ice creatures, and that level annoyed the shit out of me but I could always marginally enjoy myself listening to the the piano-laced BGM.
Torvus Bog - Metroid Prime 2 Echoes
The Second song "Torvus Bog" is wooonderfully dark and spacey. It has a slightly trip hop rhythm with lighter drums. It portrays the mysterious sensation of being on an alien planet but the lead spacey sounds feel slightly comforting. It kinda feels like a hip hop beat after you listen to it a bit.
Luminoth Theme- Metroid Prime 2 Echoes
A transcendent, choral spectacle that was triggered by Samus restoring power to the Luminoth Energy Controllers, basically bringing the souls of an ancient, murdered race the Luminoths back to life. Pounding war drums elevate the track to an even higher level.
Tallon Overworld (Theme 2) - Metroid Prime
"Tallon Overworld" is another dark, but solid and driving downtempo beat with these little uplifting choral effects in the background.
Subterranean Theme - Metroid Prime 2 Echoes
The Subterranean Them occurs in the game where you get the Gravity Suit, a purple suit that allows you to maneuver without hindrance in the water. It's my personal favorite suit in terms of its appearance. The purple just looks tight as fuck. It's a slower faced, explorative piece that really captures the underwater theme. Nintendo is always on point at capturing underwater levels
Menu Theme - Metroid Prime 2 Echoes
I think the menu music from the second one is just sick. On the second go around of playing this game, I often found myself not starting the game up right away just because I wanted to enjoy the shifting beats and moods of the menu music.
Brinstar Depths - Super Smash Bros. Melee
This one isn't from a Metroid Prime game but from the classic fighting game Super Smash Bros. Melee. It takes place on a crumbly, space world with yellow lava below the stage you fight on, and if you touch it you get burnt and sent back upward to the direction of the stage. In terms of its sonics, I just love the incorporation of weird, bubbly sounds, and the swaying rhythm it conveys. My love of the Metroid Prime games inspired me to pick up Samus as a charcter in Smash 4 and try and get good with her, even though she's considered "low tier" and not that viable by the community. All that means is that if you get good enough with her, people won't know how to fight against her because they aren't familiar with the matchup!
These tracks were taken from the first two Metroid games, and one from Super Smash Bros. Melee. I sadly didn't play the third one, Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, and I didn't want to include songs that I personally didn't have memories from. If anyone out there played the third one and there's a song you feel needs to be mentioned please share in the comments! I would absolutely love to hear more Metroid music!