13 replies to this topic

[BillyHW]

Let's hear your nominees!

Best:

I'll start out by voting for Atari Lynx Klax!




As for worst, not sure. I'll have to think about that one.

[mbd30]

Worst: An obvious pick, but Atari 2600 "Pac-Man".

[jaybird3rd]

Totally arbitrary choices here, but these are the first that occur to me:

The Best: 2600 Yars' Revenge. The sound effects add a lot of atmosphere to the game. Instead of trying for a simplistic (and flat) little jingle, as many other 2600 games had done, it used what the 2600 could do with remarkable effectiveness.

The Worst: Donkey Kong for the 7800. 2600 Pac-Man is bearable (and iconic in its own way, given how many times its sounds have been reused in TV and movies). But, if you play 7800 Donkey Kong without turning the volume all the way down first, it will eventually drive you to gouge out your own eardrums with pencils to stop the pain. Both the "music" and the sound effects are offensively bad.

[Shannon]

mbd30, on Thu Jan 26, 2012 12:03 AM, said:

Worst: An obvious pick, but Atari 2600 "Pac-Man".

And what is worse is it's been used in many movies and television shows so it is forever ingrained in our brains! There's no escape!

/me runs and grabs some scissors.

[VicViper]

the music in 1942 on the NES will make your EARS BLEED.

[S1500]

Best: any Williams coin-op game. All trippy & professional sounding. They often used the same sounds across multiple games, since they were that good.

[high voltage]

Getting a bit samey. Sound FX?
What's next? You gonna ask your favourite power supply unit?

[BillyHW]

Hey, Sound FX is different from music.

[thegoldenband]

Best: Dungeons of Daggorath for the Color Computer. Just amazing, evocative, and terrifying...which is a crucial thing, since the game is heavily sound-driven.

Worst: The Intellivision "you're wrong!" buzz can get pretty obnoxious, and I'm sure there are any number of incredibly grating "alert" sounds, like the beeps in Zelda. But right now, the single worst example I can think of is the Sega 32X version of World Series Baseball. It just sounds like the crowd doesn't even want to be there; it's like playing baseball in a busy, indifferent convention hall.

[mbd30]

thegoldenband, on Thu Jan 26, 2012 1:43 PM, said:

and I'm sure there are any number of incredibly grating "alert" sounds, like the beeps in Zelda.

The "HEY! HEY! HEY!" in "Yoshi's Island".

[BillyHW]

Ooops, I nearly forgot about this one, but I think Cybermorph has to take the cake for worst Sound FX.

[high voltage]

Cybermorph worst? Not by a long shot, but Star Fox (SNES) perhaps, especially the voices....annoying.

Edited by high voltage, Thu Jan 26, 2012 3:33 PM.

[thegoldenband]

Huh, I don't mind the "ba-day-ba-daa-ba-buh-buh" Star Fox voices at all -- I much prefer them to the furry-pandering voice acting of the later installments.

Ooh, I just thought of another one: the Azrael sound effect in The Smurfs for Genesis. Incredibly grating and whiny.

And here's another one: the loud "Hey!" you get when crashing into another opponent in Motocross 32X. Given that the sound also means you've been stopped in your tracks, it's doubly annoying.

[Cynicaster]

S1500, on Thu Jan 26, 2012 7:47 AM, said:

Best: any Williams coin-op game. All trippy & professional sounding. They often used the same sounds across multiple games, since they were that good.

Yes! That Williams "insert coin" sound is so awesome, I want to make it a notification on my phone (and I typically HATE any noise emitted from cell phones).

Not sure if it counts as classic, but some of my favorite sound effects are in the Japanese arcade shoot-em-up DoDonPachi. Those explosions are wicked.

As for worst, anybody ever played the arcade game Nibbler? Gah, great game but IRRITATING sound.