When it comes to video games, one of my favorite things about them would have to be the grand musical pieces that come out of them. Whether it’s applied directly (and flawlessly) to a certain mood, or they’re just plain catchy as something to hum as you’re walking around the place. Within these pieces, melodies speak louder than lyrics. There are few words, if any, that describe the perfect moment when music from these pieces applies to something in a person’s life. Well, without further ado, I present my top eight Nintendo music choices.
#8: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Koji Kondo, Wii)
This game had fantastic, well-orchestrated pieces, that often fit the mood of what was actively happening quite well. My only bone to pick with this is simply that, almost every piece within the game was either a remix of the piece introduced within that game, Midna’s Theme, or a remix of a theme from previous Legend of Zelda games. I suppose a person shouldn’t mess with success, but they could have at least thrown in a few new pieces for various areas. Overall, this is eight on my list due to the fact that, the music within the game is great, there just weren’t many instances of new, independent pieces.
#7: Super Mario World (Koji Kondo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System)
Super Mario World’s music was rather simple, and thus quite catchy. So catchy, as a matter of fact, that many fans have memorized the pieces within the game, without any effort put to that cause. It was rather groundbreaking for such instruments to be used at the time of its release. And yet somehow, this game followed the pattern of Super Mario Bros. 3, where it used extremely short (twelve seconds or less, most often) loops that took hours of listening to, to get old. Wonderful for a basic platforming game to have such catchy music, I say.
#6: Kirby’s Epic Yarn (Tomoya Tomita, Jun Ishikawa, Hirokazu Ando, Wii)
This game’s music is quite interesting, to be blunt. A few of the pieces in this game are orchestrated using string ensembles and a variety of percussion, while most others are purely piano pieces. Past this, each and every piece fits a simple, cutesy mood, whether it’s to ramp up hype for starting out on a brand new journey, or to help keep you chugging along (no pun intended for the train levels). The music in this game is fantastic for those following the bubbly mood that more than half of the Kirby fans put themselves in when playing.
#5: Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (Jun Ishikawa/Hirokazu Ando, Nintendo 64)
Another Kirby game, right after the last? Well, they’re pretty close to each other in terms of rank. Kirby 64 did what few other Kirby games have managed with most of their pieces; bend most gamers’ moods with most of their pieces. Whether it’s the beginning level fanfare, the Shiver World winter wonderland-style music, or the adventurous trek that’s made through the factory piece, Kirby 64 had a lot of good pieces, perfect for inspiring the right mood within the player.
#4: Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles (Kumi Tanioka, Gamecube)
The orchestrated pieces throughout this game were wonderful, as well as fairly plentiful. In this multi-player hidden treasure of a game, Kumi Tanioka composed great background music using ancient instruments, that left the game’s playerbase able to listen for periods of time past a half-hour without getting annoyed by any repetition. I like this game’s music quite a lot.
#3: Super Mario Galaxy 2 (Mahito Yokota, Ryo Nagamatsu, Koji Kondo, Wii)
Much like the previous entry on the list, this game had a grand orchestra to play its music, live for recording. The quality in the sound is, well, the only word for it is majestic. In my opinion, Mario Galaxy 2 had much greater music than Galaxy 1, so Galaxy 1 is not on this list. Altogether, whether you were ground-pounding Japanese-style puzzle blocks in a cloudy galaxy, or revolving around and across magma-coated planets to the epic piece played in the Melty Monster Galaxy, the music fits the area you’re in quite well, which alone is a perfectly fine trait for background music.
#2: The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker (Koji Kondo, Gamecube)
The source of the music behind this game may not have been actual orchestration, but Koji Kondo did a fantastic job with most of the themes in this game. Almost all of them suited a bold mood, an example being the adventurous fanfare played while the player was sailing across the in-game world, dodging sharks and such, that made up the ocean theme. All-over, I rather much like the soundtrack behind this game, though the pieces aren’t plentiful.
#1: Mother 3 (Shogo Sakai, Gameboy Advance)
While the quality of sound and instruments limited to the Gameboy Advance, Shogo Sakai still managed to do a wonderful job writing the 250 pieces that are included within Mother 3. For those that don’t know, Mother 3 is the sequel to Mother 2, also known as Earthbound to North America, but was only officially released in Japan. Introduction aside, Mother 3’s pieces largely range from catchy battle music, to emotional, deep themes. These were often thrown into remixes, almost as often as Midna’s Theme was for Twilight Princess, but not quite as often. Considering the number of serious, emotional pieces compared to pieces that could almost be considered silly, said music is in rather good proportion to the game’s plot.
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