Back in the day, the loading screen music on Runescape absolutely got me hyped to play. It was beautiful, atmospheric, and exciting.

The main screen music for the original Age of Empires games (the versions published from 1997–2005) was likewise excellent. AoE1’s was mysterious and ancient feeling, AoE2’s is grand and heroic, Age of Mythology takes “grand and heroic” and ups it to 11 with by far the most epic theme. AoE3 perfectly captures the vibes of a mixture of 18th century warfare and the sense of exploration of its game’s setting.

In all other ways, the new Definitive Editions are vastly superior games. But the music on their main menu screens no longer so perfectly captures the sense of the game, unfortunately.