Action games with the best music and soundtrack do more than fill silence between fights: they turn a clean dodge, a desperate comeback, or a ridiculous boss finish into a memory that sticks. In a ranked selection by DualShockers, games from Shift Up, Tango Gameworks, PlatinumGames, Square Enix, and more earn their place by making the score part of the action.
This is not a consensus ranking or a review; it is a guided tour through the confirmed selections and musical details in DualShockers’ list. Still, the through-line is clear: the strongest action-game scores do not merely accompany combat. They tell you how a fight should feel before your hands have even finished the first combo.
10. Stellar Blade — Shift Up’s boss-fight playlist
Shift Up’s Stellar Blade makes a strong case for music as the secret weapon of a stylish action game. The selection points to the soundtrack’s boss themes, including music for Tachy, Belial, Democrawler, and Raven, as well as the changing arrangements used across its worlds.
The Great Desert music gets a particular nod, and that makes sense as an action-game ideal: a location theme needs enough personality to carry exploration, yet enough flexibility to survive repeated visits. A good combat system can get players through a second playthrough; a great score gives those repeat runs their own mood.
9. Hi-Fi Rush — every punch lands on the beat
Tango Gameworks built Hi-Fi Rush around rhythmic combat, so its music cannot sit politely in the background. Chai’s attacks, the moving scenery, and the pace of each level all feed into the same musical pulse as he battles through Vandelay’s corporate departments.
The official score contains more than 60 original tracks, with music from Shuichi Kobori, Masatoshi Yanagi, REO, The Glass Pyramids, and others. DualShockers also highlights its mix of original work and licensed tracks, with The Black Keys’ “Lonely Boy” setting the rebellious tone right from the opening.
8. Asura’s Wrath — rage, tragedy, and anime-scale choirs
CyberConnect2’s Asura’s Wrath does not believe in small emotions, and its score follows suit. Orchestral arrangements, vocals, and huge choral moments give its vengeance story the full volume it demands.
“The Man Who Is Called Asura” gives its furious hero a tragic musical identity, while the Augus battle shows how the game turns soundtrack into spectacle. That combination matters because Asura’s Wrath lives on escalation: every impossible encounter needs music that can somehow make the next impossible thing feel bigger.
7. Final Fantasy VII Remake — Midgar rebuilt in sound
Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake had the unenviable job of revisiting some of the most cherished music in RPG history without turning Midgar into a museum. Its answer was a recomposed score built from Nobuo Uematsu’s original work alongside new arrangements by Masashi Hamauzu and other composers.
The key achievement is movement. Music shifts between arrangements as fights change, so the battle score reacts to the scene rather than arriving as a fixed loop. Familiar pieces such as Tifa’s and Aerith’s themes, “On Our Way,” and the end-credits song “Hollow” give the remake emotional continuity while letting its version of Cloud’s journey stand on its own.
6. Bayonetta — jazz swagger for an angel-smashing show
PlatinumGames’ original Bayonetta remains a masterclass in turning excess into style. Its mixture of jazz and orchestral music makes every angelic monster feel less like a conventional boss and more like the next act in a very strange, very expensive stage production.
Its take on “Fly Me to the Moon” remains the signature move: playful, groovy, and perfectly suited to Bayonetta’s theatrical confidence. The score understands the character completely. It never asks you to take the spectacle solemnly, but it always asks you to enjoy the show.
5. NieR: Automata — the sound of a beautiful world falling apart
PlatinumGames and Square Enix’s NieR: Automata earns its place through atmosphere as much as impact. Keiichi Okabe and the MONACA team give its locations their own musical identity, while Emi Evans’ vocals bring an ache that lands as hard as the game’s pivotal story turns.
“City Ruins” captures the loneliness of its abandoned world through multiple renditions, while “Amusement Park” pairs haunting vocals with an almost whimsical melody. Then there is “Weight of the World,” a song that gains new force as the game moves through its endings toward the true finale. That is what a truly great soundtrack does: it changes as the player’s understanding changes.
4. DOOM Eternal — metal engineered for momentum
id Software’s DOOM Eternal makes speed and aggression feel musical. Its score, primarily composed by Mick Gordon, wraps the Doom Slayer’s brutal push through demon hordes in industrial-metal riffs that match the game’s refusal to let the player settle down.
“The Only Thing They Fear Is You” is the obvious calling card, and for good reason. It translates the Slayer’s unstoppable forward motion into sound. The result is not merely heavy music pasted over a shooter; it is a rhythm track for aggression, nudging players to keep moving, keep firing, and never give the arena room to breathe.
3. Kingdom Hearts II — Yoko Shimomura’s emotional shorthand
Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts II couples faster-paced action with a score that understands the series’ strange, sincere emotional core. Yoko Shimomura’s music gives each world a different sentiment, whether the game wants a quiet pause, a burst of adventure, or a final confrontation that feels like the end of everything.
“Roxas” carries the character’s bittersweet story, while “Lazy Afternoons” makes Twilight Town feel warm and reflective. At the other end of the emotional scale, “Darkness of the Unknown” and “Rage Awakened” turn clashes with Xemnas, Organization XIII, and optional superbosses into proper events. This is soundtrack work that gives a game’s most melodramatic moments permission to be huge.
2. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance — boss themes with something to say
PlatinumGames and Konami’s Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance understands that a memorable rival needs a memorable anthem. Each major boss gets a musical persona, turning a blade duel into a collision between characters rather than just another test of timing and parries.
“Rules of Nature” detonates during the opening clash with Metal Gear RAY, while “The Only Thing I Know for Real” channels Jetstream Sam’s confidence. Mistral gets the elegant, unsettling “A Stranger I Remain,” and Monsoon’s philosophical chaos comes through in “The Stains of Time.” The songs have endured because they do not simply celebrate the fights; they explain why each opponent thinks they are right.
The best action-game music gives the controller a pulse
The common thread across these selections is not genre. One game runs on metal, another on jazz, another on a choir that sounds like the sky is cracking open. What connects them is intent: every score reinforces a specific kind of play, whether that means keeping time with Chai, pushing through a DOOM Eternal arena, or realizing a NieR: Automata melody now means something entirely different.
That is the real standard for action games with the best music and soundtrack. A great track can be brilliant on a playlist, sure—but the unforgettable ones make you want to pick up the controller and play the moment again.
Which action-game soundtrack still makes you want to replay its best fight the instant the first track kicks in?
