Sonic 2 had some of the more classic sounding tracks that are synonymous with the franchise itself. The first Sonic has some good songs as well, but the music (and the game play itself) became more polished by the second installment and it definitely has more of the retro classic songs that I will always remember.

Interesting that OP mentioned Sonic CD though. That and Sonic Adventure 2, for me, has the most memorable of soundtracks because they ARE complete songs and given that the original soundtrack was written by a J-Pop artist, he likely had more full, complete songs in mind but due to the limitations of the time, he couldn't. Sonic Adventure has songs that fit in perfectly with the contemporary music of the time and made it paced well enough to make the levels feel like they really were an Adventure.

Sonic CD definitely has the most memorable soundtrack because of the atmosphere of the tracks. Rather than faster-paced songs that would fit in with the fast paced game play of normal Sonic games, Sonic CD's ambient smooth tracks force you to pay attention to the bigger picture, the level design, and the overall artistic direction and structure of the game. The quiet, sultry female voices lather the track with a hypnotic quality about them and as OP said, they are tracks that make you feel like you're going on a long road trip into unknown territory-much like Sonic CD itself.

No question about it. If I were a super villain I would come out to World War III by The Ruff Ryders. I don't even need the vocals, just put on the instrumental to the song and I'm all set to take over the world.

kage27 : Oh wow, I didn't even know you could customize the buttons (noob here). Thanks so much!

I've tried to play both Pokémon Stadium 1 and Donkey Kong 64 on both the 1964 and the Mupen64Plus emulators but for some reason I can't use the directional buttons to move around. I've also tried literally every other key on my keyboard to move around, but I only got as far as figuring out that the Shift button is A and that Ctrl is B. PLEASE HELP!