Final Fantasy has long been regarded as one of the biggest video game franchises ever. Regardless of how you feel about the individual games, the soundtracks for all of them are absolutely stellar. Between Final Fantasy VIII's Eyes on Me to Final Fantasy X's To Zanarkand, several songs have buried their way into our subconscious forever. However, the franchise's best soundtrack either belongs to Final Fantasy VII or Final Fantasy IX. Cloud and friends' adventures are the more well-known -- with Aerith's theme always being a tear-jerker -- but IX's OST might actually surpass it in terms of symphonic merit.

Final Fantasy's close cousin series Kingdom Hearts has one of the most amazing soundtracks ever composed. Not only does it incorporate several classic Disney films into its soundscape, but it also has created some of the most memorable original music in any video game franchise. Of special note are the opening and closing themes of each game, sung in both English and Japanese by Utada Hikaru.

The Legend of Zelda is just one of the most iconic gaming franchises ever, so, naturally, everyone knows its soundtrack. The main theme, established all the way back in the original game, has become almost audio shorthand for the spirit of adventure. Between them all, choosing the "best" is difficult. Ocarina of Time has the most iconic soundtrack, but Windwaker might have it beaten.

Pokemon remains one of the best selling gaming franchises for a very good reason. Even on the limited hardware of the Gameboy Color, however, Pokemon Gold and Silver's soundtrack stands out. Sure, it has been remixed on the DS in Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, but there's something truly nostalgic and beautiful about the original soundtrack. It captures a spirit of both adventure and childlike innocence that few games can really achieve.

Skyrim is one of the best selling western RPGs ever, so, naturally, people have spent several hundred hours listening to its various themes. Jeremy Soule's music lives rent-free in your head and has been doing so since the early 2010s. His music feels more like a complementary soundscape to every locale you visit, adding hints of foreboding, melancholy, and excitement whenever it starts up.

Silent Hill 2's soundtrack is one of the most bone-chilling things ever composed. Akira Yamaoka composed a soundtrack designed to inspire dread in its players. Half of the music is melodic, almost melancholy. The other half sounds like what happens if Hell's blender got shoved into your ear-drums, resulting in a staticky, anxiety-inducing cacophony of noise. And the two styles, somehow, blend perfectly together. It's hard to imagine Silent Hill 2 working as well without its OST -- or, for that matter, the countless Creepypasta channels on Youtube that used Silent Hill 2's soundtrack in their videos.

The Halo soundtrack immediately made its mark on video game fans. People who haven't played Halo know the Halo theme. However, the Halo theme is so iconic that it sometimes overshadows the rest of the franchise's music, which is of equally high quality. The music manages to capture the vastness of space and adventure, while also getting you gung-ho and ready to fight against legions of the Covenant and Flood.

Metal Gear Solid has always had great music, but the Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater's OST might be the best. The music is reminiscent of an old spy film, with its opening number Snake Eater sounding like an unused theme for a James Connery Bond film. The whole soundtrack manages to carry that spirit of spying and adventure all the way through, but not without bringing a lot of melancholy emotional rises, especially after the final battle with the Boss.

The most iconic gaming franchise of all time is Mario, but the best Mario OST might be Mario Galaxy. Sure, the original NES game introduced gamers to about a dozen songs that have lived rent-free in your brain since childhood. Sure, Luigi's Mansion is a "spooky" soundtrack that never fails to make us smile. But Mario Galaxy's more symphonic, grandiose OST is just the first that captures the grand magic of the Mario franchise.

Shadow of the Colossus is one of the most haunting and enigmatic adventure games ever created. So, naturally, its soundtrack reflects that. The music perfectly suits each stage of the game, transitioning from the isolated descents into the level design into some of the most epic boss battles ever created. It all perfectly transitions into this melancholic mystery as you finish off each Colossus, leaving you somewhat sad as you watch your kill drop dead under your feet.

Be honest: the moment you saw Doom's picture pop up, you started humming along to the music of that first level of the original game. Doom is the most heavy-metal game ever created. Its soundtrack captures the spirit of just raw adrenaline in the game. If you're going to descend into the pits of Hell as the baddest dude who ever lived, you'd want to be blowing holes through demons listening to high-adrenaline heavy metal, too. If possible, the 2016 game only amped up the metal OST. This is the ultimate bad-ass music.

Chrono Trigger might be the more beloved game, but Chrono Cross's soundtrack manages to surpass it. The 90s were a high-point for high-concept RPGs, and while Chrono Cross failed to surpass the expectations fans had following Chrono Trigger, it's still a very underrated game. Chrono Cross's soundtrack captures a sense of mystery that games can only hope to aspire to reach. It's a perfect soundtrack.

Okay, be honest: for as much as we joke on Sonic Adventure 2 -- and there's a lot to joke about -- the moment you saw this picture of Sonic and Shadow, you too started humming along to the Escape from the City song. Sonic Adventure and its sequel brought rock to the Sonic franchise, and while, yes, it has become memetic in a surreal sort of way in the years that followed, you have to admit that when you first played these games as kids that Live & Learn wasn't the coolest song you listened to. Now, it's aged like a fine wine left open for a bit too long: you'll make comments as it's being poured, but you're still gonna drink it all.

The original Tetris really only has one iconic song. However, that song has become so iconic that it has lived beyond the confines of its original game. It helps that this simple song looped endlessly while you played this incredibly simple but incredibly addicting game. Whether it lives rent-free in your brain because you heard it forever or because it's really that good...that's up for you to decide.

The final entry here is a cheat. What game has the best soundtrack? The game that uses EVERY game's soundtrack. We have returning champions from this list on here -- Mario, Zelda, Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, Pokemon -- as well as other iconic soundtracks from Earthbound, Kirby, F-Zero, Metroid, Banjo Kazooie, Bayonetta, Persona 5...so many games! Super Smash Bros Ultimate's OST feels like a Wow! That's What I Call Music compendium set. Everything you wanted to hear is in one place. Unlike Wow!, though, this is a soundtrack you won't feel slightly ashamed to own.