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A Boy and His Blob (NES)
I used my Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine mp3 for the purposes of this comparison since it contains "The Raiders March", which is the song in question here.
Intentional Reference: The first few notes of A Boy and His Blob's title theme sounds a lot like the opening notes of "The Raider's March". This is probably intentional homage. The title screen is drawn in a similar font style to the one used for the Indiana Jones movies title font. This is only the first of several games that will incorporate some facsimile of this song into its soundtrack.
ActRaiser (SNES)
Intentional Reference: The first part of the ActRaiser ending music is taken directly from the film/TV company 20th Century Fox's fanfare. It's too similar to be coincidence. This was probably done to make ActRaiser feel more "movie-like", hence "Act" being in the title.
Bad Dudes (NES/Arcade)
Intentional Reference: The ending music for Bad Dudes is "Hail to the Chief". Appropriate, since you meet the President of the United States of America in the ending (George Bush Sr. on the NES version, Ronald Reagan in the arcade version.)
Coincidence: Perhaps it's a really bizarre coincidence, but the level 1 music from Dracula X sounds very much like the level 2 music from Bad Dudes.
Banjo-Kazooie (N64)
Intentional Reference: The music in Gruntila's Lair in Banjo-Kazooie is quite clearly a derivation of the 1907 song "The Teddy Bears' Picnic" by John Walter Bratton. Considering the song is about teddy bears and Banjo is a bear, this is most likely not coincidence.
Battle of Olympus, The (NES)
Intentional Reference: The music in the Chambers of the Gods is Johann Sebastian Bach's "Toccata & Fugue in D Minor". This song is popular and gets used in a lot of games.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Video Game Adventure (NES)
Possible Reference: The music in the medieval world bears a strong resemblance to Simon & Garfunkel's 1966 song "Scarborough Fair/Canticle", which in turn was based on a traditional English ballad.
Intentional Reference: The modern world's music is Hughie Cannon's 1902 song, "Won't You Come Home, Bill Bailey?"
Bio Metal (SNES)
Intentional References: The music in the American version of Bio Metal was replaced with instrumental versions of 2 Unlimited songs. "Dark Clouds" became "Twilight Zone", "Desert Storm" became "Get Ready For This", and "Metal Insect Lair" became "Workaholic". I'm not sure about the other songs. I couldn't find any 2 Unlimited songs that matched up with them, but I'm not 100% familiar with their catalog.
Blast Corps (N64)
Possible Reference: The American folk song, "Cotton-Eyed Joe", was most likely the inspiration for the "Simian Acres" music in Blast Corps. Not a note-for-note exact sample, but definitely one too close not to count it.
Breath of Fire (SNES) & Legend of the Ghost Lion (NES)
Coincidence?: The celebration music in Breath of Fire bears a very uncanny resemblance to one of the town themes in the NES RPG, Legend of the Ghost Lion. The part in the Breath of Fire song I'm referring to starts at about 0:13, right after a single percussion beat. Very weird, but probably just coincidence.
Breath of Fire 2 (SNES)
Intentional Reference: Almost the entire second half of "Crazy Dance" is taken from "Sobre las Olas" (aka "Over the Waves") by Juventino Rosas. It makes sense because "Sobre las Olas" has become very commonly associated with circus trapeze acts, and "Crazy Dance" is the game's circus theme music.
Possible Reference: The music in the desert crypt of Breath of Fire 2 is very similar to Maurice Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia film score. Considering the desert settings of both items, this is probably not a coincidence.
Possible Reference: The music in the forest areas appears to have been modeled after Marius Constant's theme from The Twilight Zone.
Breath of Fire 3 (PS1)
Coincidence?: The music called "Angry Goddess" sounds an awful lot like Survivor's "Eye of the Tiger" from the 1982 movie, Rocky III.
Coincidence?: When I downloaded the PSF set for Breath of Fire 3 and listened to it, I immediately noticed the similarity of this song to the forest music in Chrono Trigger. (Apparently, so did the person who tagged the set, because there was a note mentioning it in the song's info tag.) Considering how similar the intros of both of these songs are, and the fact that both are used for forest scenes, it's hard to imagine that it's completely coincidence. I think the Breath of Fire 3 composers were more than a little inspired by Chrono Trigger here.
Coincidence?: The Game Over music sounds suspiciously like part of the 600 AD overworld theme in Chrono Trigger. I seriously think the BoF3 sound developers had Chrono Trigger on the brain when they composed this soundtrack.
California Games (NES)
Intentional Reference: The title theme of California Games borrows heavily from the 1955 Richard Berry song, "Louie Louie" (later recorded in 1963 by The Kingsmen, which is the most well-known version). Of course, "Louie Louie" is one of the easiest songs to play, thus making it easy to rip off.
Submission Credit: Kairobi King
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow (GBA) & Final Fantasy 8 (PS1)
Coincidence?: Is this coincidence or what? The first part of the Inner Quarters song from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow is nearly identical to "Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec" from Final Fantasy 8. Seriously, you can sing those lyrics right over the Aria of Sorrow song and it fits perfectly.
Chrono Trigger (SNES)
Coincidence?: The intro from Robo's theme in Chrono Trigger (the part after the drums) sounds like the intro from Rick Astley's 1987 pop song, "Never Gonna Give You Up".
Submission Credit: Sweetbee
City Connection (NES)
Intentional Reference: The main theme music sounds very close to Chuck Berry's 1958 rock 'n' roll classic hit, "Johnny B Goode".
Conker's Bad Fur Day (N64)
Intentional Reference: The music from the beginning and ending cutscenes of Conker's Bad Fur Day is Henry Purcell's "Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary". The reason for this is that the Conker scenes parody the 1971 Stanley Kubrick movie, A Clockwork Orange, which uses the same exact music (only a synthesizer version, whereas Conker uses orchestral).
Crash 'n the Boys Street Challenge (NES)
Intentional References: The opening story sequence music from Crash 'n the Boys Street Challenge uses two different classical pieces - the first movement of Spring from Antonio Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" and Ludwig van Beethoven's 5th Symphony.
Crystal Castles (Arcade)
Intentional Reference: Peter Tchaikovsky's famous ballet, "The Nutcracker Suite", has made its way into several different games. Crystal Castles uses part of the "March" for the level completion fanfare.
Defender 2 (NES) & Punch-Out!! (NES)
Intentional References: At least two tracks in the NES version of Defender 2 (aka Stargate) appear to have been directly ripped off of the NES Punch-Out!!. The stage clear music is so blatant, that it sounds to me like they ripped the track directly from Punch-Out!! and just added a "rumbling" sound to the background of it.
Disney's Aladdin (SNES)
Possible Reference: Though the music in the Genie's Lamp stage of the game is directly based on the song, "A Friend Like Me" from the movie, it seems as though the tune owes a lot to Irving Berlin's 1929 song, "Puttin' on the Ritz", later performed by Harry Richman in the 1930 movie of the same name. If you're familiar enough with the Aladdin song, it's almost impossible to not notice the similarity when listening to the "Ritz" midi.
Donkey Kong (Arcade)
Intentional References: The opening song is Walter Schumann's "Dragnet" theme, from the radio and TV shows of the same name.
Donkey Kong 64 (N64)
Intentional References: Johann Sebastian Bach's "Toccata in Fugue in D Minor" makes up the first part of the Creepy Castle Museum music, and the second part is Walter Schumann's "Dragnet" theme, from the radio and TV shows of the same name. The interesting thing about their use here is that they are intentionally referencing the original Donkey Kong Jr. and Donkey Kong arcade games that also used these songs.
Intentional Reference: Part of the music for the Mad Maze Maul segment comes from George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue".
Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
I used my Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine mp3 for the purposes of this comparison since it contains "The Raiders March", which is the song in question here.
Possible Reference: For the DKC song, pay close attention to the part from about 0:50 - 1:15. This is intentionally quoting the main theme in the jungle areas of the game, but slowed down to that pace, it sounds very much like "The Raiders March". Considering this is a mine cart level, and Temple of Doom is infamous for its mine cart scene, I'm very close to believing it's not coincidence.
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES)
Possible Reference: One particular sequence of notes that's used in several DKC2 songs can be traced back to Scott Joplin's "The Entertainer". Pay close attention to the part from 0:30 to 0:35 on "Snakey Chantey" and the part from 1:08 to 1:14 on "The Entertainer". Given the ragtime nature of the DKC2 song, it may be intentional.
Donkey Kong Junior (Arcade)
Intentional Reference: The music in the opening demo as the Mario Bros. crank up Donkey Kong's cage is Johann Sebastian Bach's "Toccata & Fugue in D Minor". This might be the first known instance of this song being used in a video game.
Dr. Franken (GB)
Intentional Reference: Ludwig van Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata is the main theme, and plays through almost the entire game.
Submission Credit: Ragnorak-X
Dr. Mario (NES)
Intentional Reference: The "Fever" music in Dr. Mario is quite clearly based on The Beatles' 1968 song, "Lady Madonna". Composer Hirokazu Tanaka is a known Beatles fan.
Drakkhen (SNES) & Out Run (Genesis/Arcade)
Coincidence: Very similar openings on these two songs.
Dynamite Headdy (Genesis)
Intentional Reference: One of Dynamite Headdy's bosses uses the "March" from Peter Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite" as its background music.
Submission Credit: Deven711
Earthbound (NES)
Intentional Reference: One of the battle themes in this game is extremely similar to Chuck Berry's 1958 rock 'n' roll classic hit, "Johnny B Goode". This song would be used again in the SNES Earthbound.
Earthbound (SNES)
Intentional Reference: The music that occurs after waking up at an inn sounds exactly like a snippet from The Beatles' 1967 song, "Good Morning Good Morning". Considering the nature in which the song was used in the game, and the fact that composer Hirokazu Tanaka has "borrowed" music from The Beatles before, this is likely not coincidence.
Submission Credit: Greybob
Intentional Reference: The music in the stores is extremely similar (especially to the refrain) of The Beatle's 1967 song, "When I'm Sixty-Four". Counting this as intentional, considering "Hip" Tanaka's reputation for sampling Beatles songs.
Intentional Reference: You have to listen very carefully, but Francis Scott Key's "The Star Spangled Banner" (the National Anthem of the United States of America) can be heard mixed in with the background music of Jackie's Cafe.
Coincidence?: The "Giygas Stirs" and "Giygas' Intimidation" segments of the final boss battle sequence seem like they were directly based on the intro of Billy Thorpe's 1979 hit song, "Children of the Sun", right down to the breathing noises and the crackling electricity.
Intentional Reference: The Moonside music in Earthbound is almost a carbon copy of the intro from Ric Ocasek's "Keep On Laughin'". It's just played at a slower tempo.
Intentional Reference: The battle music for the New Age Retro Hippies and the Sharks' boss, Franky, is extremely similar to Chuck Berry's 1958 rock 'n' roll classic hit, "Johnny B Goode". Note that this song actually originated with the original NES Earthbound game (see above).
Intentional Reference: If you talk to the trumpet player in the town of Onett, he will play a short part of Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, 2nd Movement.
Earthworm Jim (Multi)
Intentional Reference: The intro of the level 2 music, "What the Heck?", is taken from Modest Mussorgsky's "Night on Bald Mountain".
Submission Credit: Yashiro Nanakase
Earthworm Jim 2 (Multi)
Intentional Reference: The music in the Puppy Love stage is Tarantella Napolitana, a traditional Italian folk song.
Submission Credit: Crawl
Intentional Reference: The music for the boss of the ISO 9000 level is the third movement of Ludwing van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata".
Submission Credit: ShadOtterdan
Intentional Reference: "Villi People", the intestinal tract level of Earthworm Jim 2 uses the first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" for its background music.
Submission Credit: Crawl
Fatal Fury 2 (Multi)
Intentional Reference: Wolfgang Krauser's theme is the third movement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Requiem".
Submission Credit: Yashiro Nanakase
Final Fantasy (NES)
Possible Reference: The music in the Marsh Cave (and some other areas) of Final Fantasy sounds remarkably similar to Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee". It might not be coincidence considering that series composer Nobuo Uematsu would go on to feature other classical songs in his soundtracks.
Final Fantasy 4 (SNES)
Intentional Reference: The music that the dancing girls dance to in Final Fantasy 4 is from Aram Khachaturian's "Sabre Dance".
Final Fantasy 5 (SNES)
Intentional Reference: One of the Piano Master skill songs is "Beautiful Dreamer" by Stephen Foster.
Intentional Reference: Another Piano Master skill song is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Turkish March", aka "Rondo Alla Turca".
Final Fantasy 6 (SNES)
Coincidence: This one is probably just coincidence, but Terra's theme bears a striking resemblance to one part of Dana's Theme from the movie, Ghostbusters, composed by Elmer Bernstein.
Intentional Reference: A particular sequence of notes in the beginning of the Phantom Train music in Final Fantasy 6 comes from Frederic Chopin's "Funeral March", aka the third movement of Piano Sonata No. 2. Considering the Phantom Train takes spirits from the world of the living to the world of the dead, this is not likely a coincidence.
Final Fantasy 7 (PS1)
Intentional Reference: Part of "Electric de Chocobo" from Final Fantasy 7 is taken from the 1962 song, "Wipeout" by The Surfaris.
Intentional Reference: Part of "Fiddle de Chocobo" from Final Fantasy 7 is taken from the 1848 song, "Oh! Susanna!" by Stephen Foster.
Final Fantasy 8 (PS1)
Coincidence?: The intro of "The Man With the Machine Gun" (Laguna's battle music) from Final Fantasy 8 sounds very similar to the 1969 Gershon Kingsley song, "Popcorn". Most likely just coincidence, but I often wondered why I wanted to eat popcorn every time I heard this song... until I figured it out.
Final Fantasy 9 (PS1)
Coincidence: This is a very strange one - there's this one song used often in the background music of The Real Ghostbusters cartoon show (composed by Haim Saban and Shuki Levy) that sounds amazingly similar to one particular part of the Final Fantasy 9 battle theme. Likely coincidence, but I couldn't help but notice it, considering how many hours I put into watching that cartoon.
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest (SNES)
Intentional Reference: The song played by the rock band in Fireburg starts with the same notes as Chuck Berry's "Johnny B Goode". It's not quite as close in nature to that song as the City Connection and Earthbound renditions, though. It's mostly only the intro that's similar.
Submission Credit: James FP
Game Boy Camera (GB)
Intentional References: Some of the music in the animation sections is based on real songs.
Submission Credit: Fenrir X
Ghostbusters 2 (NES)
The ending theme of Ghostbusters 2 is the Scottish folk song, "Auld Lang Syne".
The music in the Statue of Liberty stage is Jackie Wilson's 1967 hit song, "(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher".
NOTE: Both of these songs were featured in the Ghostbusters 2 movie, and normally I would not count music from a movie being used in a movie-based game. However, in this case neither of these songs were originally written for Ghostbusters or Ghostbusters 2, so I am counting them on that basis.
Gokujyou Parodius (SNES)
Intentional References: This game has a ton of referenced songs. I'm not entirely clear where they all appear in the game as I've never played it. I've only listened to the soundtrack.
Submission Credit: Fenrir X
Gyruss (NES/Arcade)
Intentional Reference: The main theme of Gyruss is Johann Sebastian Bach's "Toccata & Fugue in D Minor".
Hydlide (NES)
I used my Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine mp3 for the purposes of this comparison since it contains "The Raiders March", which is the song in question here.
Intentional Reference: Hydlide's score is a very shameless and blatant rip-off. The main overworld theme is almost a direct quote of the first part of "The Raiders March" and the ending song is just a slightly modified version of the second part.
Indiana Jones & the Infernal Machine (N64) & Donkey Kong Country 2 (SNES)
Coincidence?: This is a strange case if there ever was one. The first Donkey Kong Country game borrowed music from Indiana Jones. Now it appears an Indiana Jones game borrowed music back from Donkey Kong Country. The "Russian" part of the Infernal Machine title music sounds nearly identical to the DKC2 title theme. It's possible the two songs are both based on another song, but if such a song exists, I've yet to find it.
Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius (SNES)
Intentional References: Like all Parodius games, Jikkyou Oshaberi Parodius uses a lot of real-world songs for its background music. (For Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, the part that the game uses comes quite late in the song.)
Submission Credit: Fenrir X
Kartia (PS1) & Star Fox (SNES)
Coincidence?: These songs are almost identical. Very strange.
Ken Griffey Jr. Presents: Major League Baseball (SNES)
Intentional Reference: The ending music was based on Joe Satriani's "Speed of Light". Nintendo may have somehow gotten permission to use it because it was also in the Super Mario Bros. movie.
Kid Dracula (GB)
Intentional Reference: The level 2 music is Claude Debussy's "Golliwogg's Cakewalk".
Kid Icarus (NES)
Coincidence: The fortress music of Kid Icarus bears a passing resemblance to Dick Dale's "Misirlous" from the 1994 movie, Pulp Fiction.
Submission Credit: Magical Yard Gnome
Killer7 (Multi)
Coincidence?: The map music in Killer7 sounds very similar to the non-vocal portion of the Talking Heads' 1983 rock song, "Burning Down the House", only without the percussion.
Legend of the Mystical Ninja, The (SNES)
Intentional Reference: The music in the mole-bopping mini-game is Perez Prado's "Mambo #5".
Legend of Zelda, The (NES)
Possible Reference: It sounds very much like the music in The Legend of Zelda borrowed heavily from Deep Purple's "April". The part at 2:00 in particular seems to have been transplanted directly into the game's dungeon theme.
Submission Credit: Sweetbee
Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past (SNES) & Shadowgate (NES)
Coincidence?: The first few notes of the ocarina song in A Link to the Past are almost identical to the first few notes of the flute song in Shadowgate. NOTE: The Shadowgate flute actually plays the first few notes of the theme from Deja Vu, but I decided to use Shadowgate for the sake of this comparison since both songs come from a wind instrument.
Lemmings (Multi)
Intentional References: Lemmings uses a lot of borrowed music.
NOTE: All of these songs are from the Playstation version, except "How Much is That Doggie in the Window?", which is from the PC Engine version, and "Forest Green", which is from the NES version. (The Playstation version was missing those two.)
Submission Credit: CodieKitty
Lemmings 2: The Tribes (Multi)
Note: While the main melody ends up being different, the rhythm and bassline is nearly-identical to "Johnny B Goode". Compare it to the rhythm and bassline of the Earthbound song, "New Age Retro Hippie Battle" above.
Note: The Lemmings 2 song is not identical to the Mission Impossible music, but it is undeniably similar. My guess is that they wanted the MI theme, but couldn't use it for copyright reasons, so they created a reasonable facsimile.
Intentional References: Lemmings 2 also uses a lot of borrowed music.
Submission Credit: CodieKitty
Little Ninja Brothers (NES)
Intentional Reference: The music in the training areas is the "Can-Can" by Jacques Offenbach.
Intentional Reference: After you beat the boss in the Water Lily Palace, the background music changes to "The Young Prince and Princess" from Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade". This one is spelled out in no uncertain terms as one of the fairyfolk in there explicitly tells you what it is - most likely as a nod to Culture Brain's other NES RPG, The Magic of Scheherazade.
Maniac Mansion (NES)
Intentional Reference: The broken record plays the first few notes of Peter Tchaikovsky's "Dance of the Four Little Swans" from "Swan Lake" before it skips.
Intentional Reference: When you play the Meteor Mess arcade game after fixing the wiring in the mansion's attic, you will hear 80's arcade game sound effects, and then the first five notes of the Super Mario Bros. theme.
Intentional Reference: Although it is not an exact duplicate, Dave's theme is an intentional homage to Thin Lizzy's 1976 hit rock song, "The Boys Are Back in Town". By reading Dave's CD Player in the game, Dave will explain that the music playing is called "The Boys Are Still Back" (a reference to "The Boys Are Back in Town") by the fictitious artist "Fat Patty" (a reference to "Thin Lizzy").
Mario Bros. (Arcade)
Intentional Reference: The opening theme is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's "Eine kleine Nachtmusik" aka "A Little Night Music".
Mega Man (NES)
Coincidence?: Elec Man's stage music is almost identical to the opening of Journey's 1983 power ballad, "Faithfully".
Coincidence?: The stage select music bears a striking resemblance to the opening of Bon Jovi's 1983 rock song, "Runaway".
Mega Man X3 (SNES)
Intentional Reference: The Neon Tiger stage music has a riff in it that is copied verbatim from the 1987 Guns N' Roses song, "My Michelle". Considering that Mega Man X5 would later contain characters named after members of the Guns N' Roses band, this most likely happened because someone at Capcom is a fan.
Submission Credit: MJB817
Metroid (NES) & Ys (Multi)
Coincidence?: When you pick up an important item in Metroid, the fanfare music sounds remarkably similar to the fanfare music for picking up an important item in Ys.
Might and Magic (NES)
Intentional Reference: The title music is Johann Pachelbel's "Canon in D Major".
Nadia: Secret of Blue Water (NES)
Intentional References: Several of the game's tracks are taken from real songs.
Submission Credit: Terry Trojan
Ninja Gaiden (NES)
Possible Reference: The music in the Hall of Demons closely resembles Marius Constant's theme from The Twilight Zone.
Possible Reference: The opening theme of Ninja Gaiden, during the part where Ryu reads the letter from his father, bears a strong resemblance to Deep Purple's "April". You can practically hum the Ninja Gaiden theme over "April's" beginning, and it fits perfectly.
Paladin's Quest (SNES)
Possible Reference: The temple music in Paladin's Quest sounds similar to "Veris leta facies", the third movement of "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff.
Parodius Da! (Multi)
Intentional References: The Parodius games use so much classical music, I'm not going to bother explaining all of them. The sound files speak for themselves in these cases.
Submission Credit: Fenrir X
Pitfall! (Atari 2600)
Intentional Reference: The music when you lose a life/get a game over in Pitfall! is Walter Schumann's "Dragnet" theme from the radio and TV shows.
Plok! (SNES)
Intentional Reference: When Plok gets the boxing glove power-up, the background music changes to a song that includes part of "Gonna Fly Now" by Bill Conti, aka, "The Rocky Theme".
Submission Credit: Pero the Cat
Pocky & Rocky (SNES)
Intentional Reference: The first few notes of the first boss theme in Pocky & Rocky were unmistakably taken from the first few notes of Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, Movement 4.
Punch-Out!! (NES)
Intentional References: The opening/ending theme of Punch-Out!! was taken from "The Gillette Look Sharp March", which was often used for The Gillette Cavalcade of Sports, a radio and television program that included boxing matches. The various character themes are almost all based on "real" songs that are associated with their country origins.
Puss n Boots: Pero's Great Adventure (NES)
Coincidence: Part of the Space Wars theme from Puss n Boots sounds remarkably like the title theme of the Final Fantasy Legend games.
Pyramid (NES)
Intentional Reference: The main theme music is "The Streets of Cairo" by Sol Bloom (made popular later by James Thornton when he produced his own version of it).
Raiders of the Lost Ark (Atari 2600)
Intentional Reference: The music played by the flute is "The Streets of Cairo" by Sol Bloom & James Thornton.
Resident Evil (PS1)
Intentional Reference: You play Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" on a piano to solve a puzzle.
Submission Credit: Crawl
Rhapsody: A Musical Adventure (PS1) & Dragon Warrior 2 (NES)
Coincidence?: One of the main themes of Rhapsody, which is used in several different songs, is extremely similar to the ending theme, "My Road, My Journey", from Dragon Warrior 2. I'm having a difficult time swallowing this as coincidence considering how popular the Dragon Quest series is in Japan, and the fact that the DW2 song has remained popular through concert arrangements.
Rock n Roll Racing (SNES)
Intentional References: Most of the music in Rock n Roll Racing was based on real songs, several of which have a "driving" theme.
Secret of the Stars (SNES)
Intentional Reference: Jacques Offenbach's "Can-Can" is one of the songs in Secret of the Stars, although I can't tell you where it occurs because I've never played it all the way to the end.
Shadow Man (N64)
Intentional Reference: Ludwig van Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" is the music for the train station area.
Silver Surfer (NES)
Coincidence?: The intro of Silver Surfer's stage 1 theme is incredibly similar to Thin Lizzy's 1976 rock song, "Massacre". This mp3 file compares the two intros only.
Snake Rattle n Roll (NES)
Intentional Reference: The title music is a derivation of the 1954 rock and roll song, "Shake, Rattle and Roll", written by Jesse Stone and made famous by Bill Haley & His Comets. With the game's name being what it is, I don't think this one can be denied.
Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis)
Possible Reference: The music in the Marble Zone area sounds very similar to Bob Crewe's 1967 hit, "Music to Watch Girls By" (also recorded by Billy Vaughan, Chet Atkins, Al Hirt, and Andy Williams).
Submission Credit: Andy Thorley
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis)
Possible Reference: This is a comparison mp3 created by Sweetbee. The first part is the intro to Prince's 1988 song, "Glam Slam", and the intro of the Chemical Plant Zone music of Sonic the Hedgehog 2. There is a remarkable similarity in the intros of both songs.
Submission credit: Sweetbee
Soul Blazer (SNES)
Possible Reference: The Master's Shrine music in Soul Blazer is similar to Johann Sebastian Bach's "Toccata & Fugue in D Minor", although they are not exactly the same. I may have passed on this one, except that I see search strings like, "soul blazer toccata and fugue" or "soul blazer bach song" in my site tracker a lot, so they must be close enough that people are getting them confused.
Spy Hunter (NES)
Intentional Reference: The main theme music is "The Peter Gunn Theme" by Henry Mancini, written for the 1958 TV show of the same name.
Squeeze Box (Atari 2600)
Intentional Reference: The game over music is the Volga Boatmen's Song.
Star Fox (SNES)
Intentional Reference: The music in the bonus area, "Out of This Dimension" is Johann Strauss's "Voices of Spring".
Intentional Reference: Part of the slot machine boss's music is "When the Saints Go Marching In".
StarTropics (NES)
Intentional Reference: The music played while Captain Bell's ship sinks is "My Country Tis of Thee" or "God Save the Queen" (both have the same melody).
Submission Credit: Ruudos
Street Fighter 2 (Multi)
Possible Reference: Ken's theme from Street Fighter 2 appears to borrow heavily from Cheap Trick's 1986 rock song, "Mighty Wings", from the movie Top Gun.
Super Hunchback (GB)
Intentional Reference: The title theme is Irving Berlin's 1929 song, "Puttin' on the Ritz", later performed by Harry Richman in the 1930 movie of the same name.
Submission Credit: Andrew Rae
Super Mario Land (GB)
Intentional Reference: Jacques Offenbach's "Can-Can" is the invincibilty music (after Mario collects a star and is invincible for a few seconds).
Super Metroid (SNES)
Possible Reference: The mini boss music for the Spore Spawn fight sounds very similar to Marius Constant's theme from The Twilight Zone.
Submission Credit: Andy Thorley
Super Ninja Boy (SNES)
Intentional Reference: The second overworld theme in Super Ninja Boy is the American patriotic song, "Columbia, Gem of the Ocean". A rather unusual choice for a game that takes place in "Chinaland".
Super Off-Road (SNES)
Intentional Reference: The set up music is the Toyota theme song that originated in their 1980's ad campaigns. Toyota trucks are used in the game, so this is hardly coincidence.
Super Pinball: Behind the Mask (SNES)
Intentional Reference: The music on the Wizard pinball table is based on the 1990 Enigma song, "Sadness". As if the similarity in the two songs isn't enough, the word "Enigma" is written on the pinball table.
Superman (NES)
Intentional Reference: The music in the Daily Planet building is a song by George James Webb that was later converted into the hymn, "Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus" by George Duffield Jr.
Submission Credit: Mike Waters
Intentional Reference: Another song the game uses is Francis Scott Key's "The Star Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the United States of America.
Terranigma (SNES) & Earthbound (SNES)
Coincidence?: The Hometown music in Terranigma sounds eerily similar to the end credits theme, "Smiles and Tears", of Earthbound.
Tetris (Multi)
Intentional Reference: Music A in the Game Boy version of Tetris is the Russian folk song, "Korobeiniki", aka "The Peddlers".
Submission Credit: Andy Thorley
Intentional Reference: Music C in the Game Boy version of Tetris is Johan Sebastian Bach's "French Minuet No. 3 in B Minor".
Intentional Reference: The Game Boy version of Tetris contains a bunch of little jingles based on "Trepak" from Peter Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker". (They're all similar, so I only used the longest one.)
Intentional Reference: Music A from the NES version of Tetris is "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" from Peter Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker".
Intentional Reference: Both the Game Boy and NES versions of Tetris use "Les Toreadors" from "Carmen" by Georges Bizet. (NES version used here because it sounds better.)
Tin Star (SNES)
Intentional Reference: The music in the bonus games seems to have been directly based on "The Yellow Rose of Texas".
Intentional Reference: The music in the opening title theme of Tin Star heavily borrows from Ennio Morricone's A Fistful of Dollars soundtrack, especially the part near 2:10 in the video.
Tiny Toon Adventures: Babs' Big Break (GB)
Intentional Reference: One of the songs in this game is Edvard Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King".
Tiny Toon Adventures 2: Montana's Movie Madness (GB)
Intentional Reference: The music for when the bosses are almost defeated is Jacques Offenbach's "Can-Can" from "Orpheus in the Underworld".
Submission Credit: Deven711
Tyrants (Genesis)
Intentional Reference: The music that plays during battle is "Mars, the Bringer of War" from "The Planets" by Gustav Holst
Submission Credit: Andy Thorley
Ultima 6: The False Prophet (SNES)
Intentional Reference: The music in Lord British's castle is Thomas Arne's "Rule, Britannia!"
Ultima 7: The Black Gate (SNES)
Intentional Reference: Once again, the music in Lord British's castle is Thomas Arne's "Rule, Britannia!"
Violinist of Hamelin (SNES)
Intentional References: Many songs in this game are based on classical music, especially "The Nutcracker".
Wild 9 (PS1)
Intentional Reference: The game over music is the 1779 Christian hymn, "Amazing Grace" by John Newton.
Submission Credit: CodieKitty
Wild Arms (PS1)
Intentional Reference: The music in the opening sequence borrows heavily from Ennio Morricone's A Fistful of Dollars soundtrack.
Intentional Reference: "Lone Bird in the Shire" is a near-carbon copy of "The Ecstasy of Gold" from The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, composed by Ennio Morricone.
Zero Wing (Genesis)
Intentional Reference: The ending song called "Dancing Raisins" is Jacques Offenbach's "Can-Can" from "Orpheus in the Underworld".
Submission Credit: Andy Thorley
Submission Guidelines & FAQ
Part 1: Guidelines for Qualification, Game Songs vs. Real Songs
Part 2: Guidelines for Qualification, Game Songs vs. Game Songs
Part 3: Guidelines for Submission
Part 3: Submission FAQ
Why do you use midis of "real" songs?
A: For copyright reasons. Even with classical music I prefer midis, because even though the music itself is not copyrighted, the performances usually are.
Why can't the game song have lyrics?
A: I am aware of many modern games (Grand Theft Auto, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Tony Hawk, etc.) using actual songs from recording artists. I do not want to open that can of worms. For copyright reasons, I cannot put those tracks on the site for comparison. Also, this article is called "Game Music Similarities". If you're taking the actual song and transplanting it in the game, then it's well beyond the definition of a "similarity", IMO.
Why can't the game composer be the same person who wrote the "real" song?
A: I know that some popular recording artists, such as Trent Reznor and Danny Elfman, have done soundtracks for video games. If anything they've done for those games resembles any of their other works, I feel that shouldn't really count. It's for the same reason I won't count two game songs if they were done by the same composer.
Why do you only want one version of a game song? I can provide you with every version there is!
A: I don't feel it's necessary. It would overload my page and it would be too time-consuming to keep up with, especially since games are constantly being remade. If, for example, I tried to document every song from every version of Lemmings, I'd have over 20 versions of each song posted.
I submitted something and it didn't get posted. Why?
If your submission is rejected, you will probably receive an email explaining which of these four possible scenarios is the reason why.
I submitted something and I didn't get credit for it. Why?
1. Can-Can from Orpheus in the Underworld by Jacques Offenbach Total Games: 7 2. Johnny B Goode by Chuck Berry Total Games: 5 3. Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven Total Games: 4 TIED WITH Toccata & Fugue in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach Total Games: 4 (Note: I didn't count Soul Blazer for Toccata & Fugue even though it was mentioned because it's not an exact duplicate.) RUNNERS-UP, ALL 3 GAMES EACH:
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