Best Music of the Year on Sega Systems: 1991 (MD & 16-bit era ARC)

Let me know if you want us to do GG as well.

Consider creativity, sound chip limitations and technical achievement, composition (melody or hook, progression, complexity), dynamics (range between quiet and loud, soft/diminuendo and hard/crescendo), pitch range, instrument and instrument envelope variety and quality, and so on. We're going by original release dates.

Try to say something about your favorite(s), it's more fun to read!

Regarding the links below, the list on my site is more complete (I've listened to every game I could find from each year) and multiplatform, but mainly based on sound design analysis which you can read more about on the main page about retro sound chips. If an OST isn't in the poll list, it's mosty likely still on that page and you can still vote for it (pick Other and mention it here), so don't worry.

Links:
https://minirevver.weebly.com/vgm-1991.html
https://minirevver.weebly.com/impressive-vgm-by-sound-chip.html

For some perspective, besteveralbums' top albums of the year:
https://www.besteveralbums.com/yearstats.php?y=1991

SMS Poll 1991:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/916382-sega-master-system/79086086

Lot of great choices here. I went with SoR.
I prefer the odd numbered stage themes over the even ones, aside from stage 8.

To me it's between Sonic, SOR and Devil's Crash. I chose SOR.

a great year though, Vapor Trail, Zero Wing, Langrisser all great

I went with Sonic. Music in general I think has consistently always been Sonics strongest aspect.

My top pick:

Zero Wing (Sega Mega Drive) - Composed by Masahiro Yuge, Tatsuya Uemura and Toshiaki Tomizawa. "Hit Man (Stage 8: Gerbarra)" is my favourite track. This game is infamous for the "All your base are belong to us" meme, but it has a kickass soundtrack in its own right. It sounds better than the arcade original, thanks to the Mega Drive sound chip being better than the OPL2 chip used in the arcade game. "Introduction (Part 1)" is the most famous track (thanks to the meme), but "Hit Man" is the most kickass track in the OST.

Runners-up:

Sonic the Hedgehog (Sega Mega Drive) - Composed by Masato Nakamura. "Green Hill Zone" is my favourite track. It builds on the melodic jazzy style of late '80s Sega arcade games, combined with Nakamura's own style from his days as member of J-pop band Dreams Come True, in addition to elements from new jack swing.

Streets of Rage (Sega Mega Drive) - Composed by Yuzo Koshiro. "The Last Soul" is my favourite track. The best EDM soundtrack up until this point, with an eclectic mixture of techno, house, electro-funk, hip hop and dub music. This soundtrack was a technical feat for how Koshiro was able to re-create the Roland TR-808 and TR-909 drum machines, along with the TB-303 bass synth, on the SMD's YM2612 chip, using a mixture of FM synth and PCM sampling.

(Text mostly copy-pasted from my posts at the 1991 Classic Gaming thread)

Sonic the Hedgehog. Starlight zone is my absolute favourite.

You gonna do an overall best of all time poll?have the best game from each year 1988-97.