Official Nintendo Consoles Music Thread (Thanks for Listening!)

Just a little clarification; I do intend to get back on the music weeks bandwagon soonish bit I've been burning the candle at both ends a bit lately. Between working ridiculous holiday season hours in a supermarket and partying my nights away, I've barely actually been playing videogame apart from pokemon, let alone writing about them on the good ship gnamer. When I shift this plague cold and return to some semblance of a routine, I'll be posting a bit more hopefully.

Don't sweat it, Drunka. Whenever you can. I'd offer to do another week meself, but I think I'm all out of games to do.

I didn't think anyone here on gnamer would complain about not receiving a weekly update of a free piece of entertainment about videogames 

I just felt like I hadn't posted much lately (or eaten a real meal, or been to the gym, or done much of anything. I hate being ill!) and wanted to reassure my adoring public that I still intend to GName.

I think a few forumites here would really like this from Sonic Lost World.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmVOEV29bIk

Ironically, the level that accompanies this song is absolutely maddening.

EDIT: Youse can have this too, cause it's a snow level for this time of year, and another really nice tune from Sonic Lost World.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKpAEDb1y3E

That first piece reminds me of the Monkey Ball soundtracks in a good way. The second, meanwhile, is pure Kirby-snow-level. Top stuff.

I've really got to hand it to the sound chaps behind SLW: they've done a stellar job. If the game had been a bit better reviewed; that would have convinced me to take the plunge.

The Windy Hills piece that either you or Stu posted earlier, Cappa, is another great one. Since it appeared in SSBU, I've taken quite a shine to it.

After much debating about whether to bother after finishing the new Pokemon games I've decided to throw together a top ten list.  Normally I wouldn't bother at this point, but hoenn's music has always struck the biggest note with me out of every pokemon generation, so I'll do it for the magnificent tumbleweeds pleasure!

Theme 10: Battle! Team Aqua/Magma https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asv1JuNEYf8

This one took a while to grow on me, but grow it did.  It's very possibly my favourite team grunt theme now.

Theme 09: Dewford Town  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu2jldfsT7U

Oh em gee you mean he hasn't just made a list of battle themes!?  This is easily one of my favourite town themes, it's everything a town theme should be, calm, relaxing, and uplifting.  

Theme 08: Route 120  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfmwoGsi5gk

Replace calm and relaxing with motivating and energetic and you've got my thoughts on this theme.

Theme 07: Battle! Frontier Brain  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gR2fo6vWqRI

It's too bad we don't get to face any frontier brains to this theme really.  It's your typical high quality pokemon battle theme, nothing more really needs to be said.

Theme 06: Battle! Team Aqua/Magma Leader  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zc2hTkedZXE

The team leader theme, or as I like to call it Return of the Trumptets!  These things really made the originals for me, so I was tickled pink when they returned in my favourite team leader theme of all time (does Colress count as a team leader?), it ain't hoenn without trumpets!  

Theme 05: Soaring Dreams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X94mqxw9jxc

The Eon Flute is one of my now favourite additions to the game, traveling the skies on a Lati@s back, the wind blowing through your face and hair, encountering new lands and flying higher than any person has flown before!  The theme pretty much captures that feeling perfectly.  

Theme 04: Dive https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZJxV7ifKoc

in some cases the changing of trumpets to different instruments has lessened a songs impact for me.  This is one of those times when the opposite happened.  

Theme 03: Soaring Dreams


What's better than soaring in the skies with your Lati@s?  Why, doing it at night of course!  True to its name the theme fits the atmosphere of soaring around Hoenn at night.

Theme 02: Battle!  Zinnia  


Mysterious, unknown, with a dash of the dangerous and crazy to it.  All reasons why I like Zinnia, and her battle theme.  As the sole new battle theme in the game it ends up feeling like a completely natural fit.  

Theme 01:  Battle!  Gym Leader


This spot was never going to go to any other theme, one of my all time favourite battle themes in the entire franchise and in fact gaming in general (which given the competition it faces says a lot about how much I like this theme), it absolutely nails everything.  The tempo is perfect, the tone is intense yet not overly melodramatic, and all up it just feels to me like the quintessential theme for bosses that want to test you and your skills.



And that about does it.  Honourable mentions go to Slateport City and the ending credits theme.  Dishonourable mention goes to the title screen theme.  Yes, that's right, a dishonourable mention.  You see it comes back to that point I mentioned with the gang leader themes about the trumpets and how they gave the region a distinct atmosphere.  From the first note the trumpet in the original games set the tone, and the removal of it has made the title theme feel like "generic Pokemon title screen theme 101" to me.  Hence the dishonourable mention, I get that they felt they had over used the trumpets in the originals and wanted to scale them back, but that particular change was, in my opinion, the wrong one to make.

And with that I'm essentially done with the games from a opinion perspective. Now to try and catch em all!

That would have something to do with the fact it was one of the few themes that was made worse than the previous version. In the originals it was one of the top themes, but now it's just on par with the rest of the dungeon themes.

I hit Mt. Pyre today, and I'm not sure whether I like what they've done or not.  Either way, it just relegates an amazing theme to a very good one.  I love Spanish guitar, me.  (posts Dark Pit's theme (or one of them) again)  

Better than what they've done to the desert theme, anyway.  They've Sky Garden-ed it.  Completely ruined.

One thing I did prefer in the refreshed version is the hideout music.  I actually noticed it this time.  I think I'll have to cover the ones I feel you've left out, after I finish the game.


Also, finally got around to listening to Mas' pieces.  Indies do haunting well, and my favourites were the Teslagrad and Swapper pieces.  David Wise as talented as ever, also.


And while I'm packing unrelated music things into the same post: SSB4 intro, a capella.

Yes. Hell. Yes. So jealous of his falsetto.

*opens link*

*immediately closes link*

GNamer's Music Week 124

Triumphant Return of Someone Famously Sexy Week

Yes, after a phenomenally well received debut, an individual who was universally loved despite being considered a bit risque, returned despite a long wait and some question of whether they ever would. I am, of course, talking about myself and GNamer's Official Nintendo Console Music Weeks!

So, I really wanted to do Metroid Prime for the next music week but that Wii in my bedroom just wasn't getting played. I'm probably going to leave the Prime games for now, until the Wii U release of the trilogy, but in the meantime I'll be doing smaller weeks like this and, since I was planning on playing through them in anticipation of Majora's and Zelda U anyway, the Zelda series might get a treatment not dissimilar to what Metroid was.



Moon River

So, Bayonetta 2. Sure, it was almost a literal rehash of the first game but that game was so perfect, and this game captured every element so well, that it didn't feel like a bad thing. It even managed to absolutely nail the recurring, Bayonetta'd-up version of a classic song,

I think I prefer Fly Me To The Moon - it just feels more like battle music to me, considering the original is a bit more up tempo than Moon River.

I do prefer FMTTM, and like much of the things that make Bayonetta the better game it was worked into the experience much more meaningfully, but Bayo had to have a similar song and I feel this one did the job admirably.

I'm a bit late, but I guess Jay's stolen the Sunday slot now anyway.

GNamer's Music Week 125

The Zeldathon Part 1

Wow NES Games Are Hard Week!


I'd been thinking for a while that I want to play through all the Zelda games from start to finish, and with Majora's Mask 3D dropping soon this seems like the right time to start, and to write about the music as I go!
I'd never finished the NES original before, and even this runthrough required constant abuse of the Virtual Console's save states. I'm glad I went through with it. Although it hasn't aged as gracefully as Mario's early efforts, the hallmarks of the series are all here and the ammount of exploration is far greater than in the later games. Plus, there's that all important music!

5: Death Mountain

Not a phenomenal track, but one of the rare moments you aren't hearing either the overworld or the dungeon theme and that's something to be applauded right there! Also, there aren't that many tracks in the game and I wanted to do five...
And here's a piano cover that sounds like it was ripped straight from a 1930s horror film. In a good way,

4: Dungeon Theme

Actually a really good, really tense piece of dungeon music. This would have come higher if it weren't the only underworld tune in the whole game! By the end I was sick of the simplistic loop. Sure, the overworld repeats as well but that's a fantastic track I could never tire of. This, I tired of pretty quick...
Smooth McGroove, natch,

3: End Credits

The opposite story to the above track; this isn't the best piece of end game music, but the years I've spent starting this game and giving up meant that when I finally finished the game it felt phenomenal!
Here it is on a guitar, apparently being played fingerstyle. "Fingerstyle" always meant something else to me

2: Title Screen

A classic piece of music, this was the first time the world heard stirrings of that incredible, pervasive Zelda theme. This would be higher up if the overworld song weren't the version everyone remembers.
Here's a marimba version I want played at my wedding.

1: Overworld

Well, it wasn't going to be anything else, was it? What a piece of music this is, and it really is a gorgeous piece of music as well as being absolutely laden with nostalgic value. Captures the idea of being the swashbuckling hero, going adventuring in a fantasy world perfectly.
The Tokyo Philaharmonic Orchestra.

Ah, I didn't mean to step on any toes by posting the non-Ninty music week on Sunday! I'm just absolutely shite and adhering to a schedule. I'll shift it back to Wednesdays when it's next round.

As for Zelda, I adore its end credits theme. There's something really charming about it.

Don't worry man, I kid! I'm as bad at scheduling these things as you are; "vaguely once a week" is all I'm comfortable promising.

The trouble with most NES games' music, in my mind, is that they've just been completely superseded. There are approximately 3,978 versions of that (grand at the time) overworld theme that are better than the original bleepy-bloopyness. It's grand for the tech., granted, but doesn't stand up all that well in the modern day.

...With the exception of some of the Mega Man 2 stuff, oddly, which still seems to work just fine. Maybe because it hasn't been remixed into the ground?

I think there's a retro charm to most of these tracks though - you lose something taking that overworld theme and orchestrating it.

I don't think I get this "retro charm" thing as much as many. See our discussion on pixel graphics.

Well, to each their own I suppose. I just genuinely think some things are lost when you orchestrate older tracks - a fair few in ORAS, for example.

Oh, to be sure, some things can be lost. I'd say that's bad orchestration/instrumentation, though, rather than it being a bad idea in general. Sky Garden, from Super Circuit, is another one that went wrong in its updates.

Maybe in the case of some tracks, but it could genuinely be a case of the track being better suited to chiptune as opposed to orchestration. I know I'd hate to see tracks like this from Mother 3 potentially butchered by given a less "gamey" sound, because I think the GBA sound of the track is really important to its overall feel. That's just one example.

Different strokes, though - I've absolutely nothing against updating a track so long as it's done well, but I do enjoy the retro stylings of chiptune.

I'd love to hear that track played on a fiddle or something, actually: but as you say, "What'chu talkin' 'bout Jay?"

GNamer's Music Week 126

Zeldathon Part 2

Holy Shit Majora's is Out Really Soon Week!

So, my plan was to try and play through all the Zelda games this year, with Majora's Mask 3DS slotting neatly in there. Then I noticed that MM3D is out in like two weeks, so I really need to get on and play through the other games! Then I tried to play Adventure of Link. It's really good fun, and the later games owe as much as, if not more of, a debt to this game as to the original. However, its also super duper hard and, even more than the original, I don't see myself ever sitting and down and putting up with it all the way through. So I watched the rest of the game on youtube.

Nakatuma's music score is brilliant and really different, though, so I'm very happy to give this a music week!



5: Dungeon Theme

Whereas the music in the original Legend of Zelda felt like a grand, orchestral soundtrack squeezed onto an NES cart, this has a much gamier, very NES-appropriate soundtrack. This is no bad thing, unless you're Balladeer. If you like chiptunes, these are some great examples.
And, again just like Megaman, it translates perfectly to a metal cover. Unfortunately, the dude playing is a knob who makes crap videos.

4: Boss Battle

Of what, I played and saw, none of the bosses in this game are particularly big and clever. That said, they're incredibly tough and, thanks to the music, incredibly tense. A great, edge-of-your seat piece.
No Smooth McGroove this week, but here's an acapella theme.

3: Battle Area

People slag off this game for the way its battles and world map work, but I found it quite refreshing an dexciting and it does allow for Link to have a more interesting moveset than he did in his top-down debut. Most importantly, it allowed for enemy encounters to have an exciting bit of music before the N64's clever track-switching.
Here's a sick guitar cover.

2: Town Theme

Just a really nice, comforting piece of music that brings the towns to life and makes them feel like somewhere people might live. Reminds me a lot of a starting Pokemon town.
The cutest piece of music in the game, on the cutest instrument!

1: Overworld Theme

Yes, another overworld theme in the top spot. But once again this is a phenomenal and adventurous piece of music that deserves to be up there with Zelda's greats.
And here it is brought to life on piano.