It has been a long time since I plumbed the depths of YouTube for covers of video game tracks. Once upon a time, long before the pandemic began and my work situation got more tense, I used to spend part of every day building elaborate playlists of my favorite video game tracks by various artists across the internet. Back before I used Spotify, before I swapped to Tidal, I used YouTube. It’s not as viable on a free account anymore, thanks to all the advertisements, but I used to have playlists that would last entire work days, playlists of the same song covered by different artists, various covers from the same game, and even a few themed around entire franchises. These days, when I go to YouTube for music, I typically listen to one of a couple of collections of songs rather than my old playlists of songs. Partly because of the advertisements making it difficult to enjoy (even with an adblock), but also because it makes me sad. So many of those old videos have disappeared or unlisted their music. Partly because of Nintendo’s famously litigious nature, I’m sure, but the internet is such a different place now, in 2026, than it was back in 2017 and 2018 when I was started to slack off on this. Harder to make any kind of income as an artist, much more hostile, and less easy to get attention unless you play the specific games the platforms want you to. Which means, that out of all my favorite groups, only a small handful are left active at this point. To varying degrees of “active,” anyway.

First up, and the one that prompted this idea, is also my personal favorite. The guy doing it all goes by 130Grit Sound Studio. I supported him on patreon for a while, when I had the money to spare, but he’s been non-stop active this whole time. Last I remember he was working on his fourth collection of video game covers and is now on his eleventh, I think. Or maybe he just stopped numbering them that way? No idea. This guy, as far as I can tell, creates and sells audio clips. He’s the kind of guy who makes all kinds of music and puts it up for sale/licensing/however you do it, and has attracted a small following for his video game covers that has hopefully helped drive business his way. The reason I enjoy his channel and musical offerings the most is because he’ll not just cover the songs, but play them in a specific style. Like one of my favorites: the Surf Rock cover of Chrono Trigger’s main theme! Or the Bossa Nova cover of Super Mario 64’s Dire Dire Docks! Or my personal litmus test for good video game cover artists, the Rock cover of Chrono Trigger’s Frog’s Theme! And so, SO much more. Years of music to listen through and all of it consistently good.

My second favorite is only technically still active. They’re not posting as much on YouTube anymore, but they’re a live band trying to make a living, so that takes precedent. They’re called Super Mariachi Entertainment System (or Super MES for short) and they do Mariachi covers of video game tracks! Most of the early videos are the performers playing each song, cycling between recorded videos of each of them as a the song swaps focus to their instrument (or at least once to give the performer credit). They, too, have an absolutely killer cover of Frog’s Theme and it might honestly be my favorite version of the track I’ve ever heard. And I’ve heard a lot of them! Like I said, a cover of that song is my litmus test: if their version of the song makes me feel the same way the original track does, then they know their shit well enough for me to look through their catalogue. And while many of them made me feel the same way, none quite made me feel it as strongly until this one. This version captures the spirit of the track’s first appearance in Chrono Trigger perfectly, even if it is followed by a minute and a half of the main guy talking (and he’s just some guy, which is great, because he seems like a genuinely pretty good dude just trying to share mariachi music with the world and make a living doing it if he can).

My third favorite, Sad Cat Toys, are just about as active as 130Grit is, with new videos pretty frequently, but they don’t get top billing because they unforunately do not have a cover of Frog’s Theme. They do, however, have a great cover of Chrono Trigger’s Wind Scene (which I also REALLY love) that effects me as deeply as THAT original track does. Instead of searching for new performers or bands covering Frog’s Theme like I discovered every other video game music cover artist I followed on YouTube, I actually found them while trying to find a cover of another song I wanted to maybe use in a Dungeons and Dragon’s campaign: Earthbound’s Stay The Night. What kept me around and has landed them near the top of my favorites list (and they’d still be there even if all the others were still active) is the actual videos they put together. It’s just some guys who recorded videos of themselves playing different parts of the tracks, so when an instrument appears in only a part of a song, the guy is still sitting there, bopping along or doing something else while the video runs, and there’s tons of great personality in there.

Finally, and a name that doesn’t feature higher only because I actively followed this musician in all the intervening years and, as such, doesn’t REALLY fit the list but I wanted to include them anyway, is Skatune Network (aka JER). They, as you might guess from the name, mostly do Ska covers of various songs (they did a really fun month of Polka covers back in April, which was also pretty great). They also do a lot of non-video game covers under the Skatune Network name and have a really good collection under their own name (Jer) that’s also worth a listen. Also some of the most comfortable band t-shirts I’ve ever bought and as a t-shirt collector, you should know I have VERY STRONG OPINIONS about what makes a good t-shirt and let me tell you, no one is going it the way Jer is these days (all of which are currently sold out, it seems). Anyway, I found them because I was looking for a cover of the Mii Channel music for some goof or another and you watch this video without getting hooked! And then go watch the more recent rerecording to see how much they’ve grown as a performer. Also check out Kirby’s Gourmet Race and Luigi’s Mansion’s main theme. Lot of good tracks there and one heck of an internet performer (also it was just there birthday the other day, give them a follow)!