What ever happened to the great music of the old mario games ESPECIALLY Mario 64???…… Just wondering is this a trend or can anyone suggest some Nintendo game soundtracks they they would consider SUPERIOR to music from other consoles’ games? Please suggest away!… Wat are some OSTs that I must absolutely hear in your opinion?
(Note that I’m not bashing Nintendo here, just stating my opinion.)
*killed by Luigi fans*
I think, wait until fall to make that decision. A lot of games are coming out then on the Wii, and a good few of those games are highly anticipated. The way the music on those games is treated will tell. Right now, the Playstation has the best music, I’d say. But they get the most games. There are a LOT of Sony exclusives.
Yeah…I really hate Luigi’s Mansion in general. Shinobu Tanaka and Kazumi Totaka (who did some nice themes for Yoshi’s Story and Animal Crossing) did that one. Speaking of which, The Mario Kart Double Dash and most of the Super Mario Sunshine soundtrack were done by Shinobu, and those were mediocre at best, which really leads me to believe that Koji’s either busy with something else, isn’t interested in videogame scoring anymore, or…some other reason.
Now, Nintendo Music in general going downhill? Hell no.
Super Mario Sunshine
Zelda: WW and TP
Metroid Prime 1 and 2
Star Fox Adventures and Assault
Smash Bros. Melee
Paper Mario 1000-year Door
There are other examples, but who gives a damn. If you don’t like the way any of those sound, then the answer to your question is "Yes, Nintendo’s music has fallen."
While I liked the music in Luigi’s Mansion, I have to agree that Mario music as a whole isn’t a good as it used to be.
Will it ever be? Not in my books. I don’t know why, but the Overworld Theme in SMB 1 has always sounded best in its 8-bit form. Any remix of it I’ve heard from any game since then hasn’t surpassed it. New SMB did a good job with the music. Regardless, nothing tops the classic.
Yeah…I really hate Luigi’s Mansion in general. Shinobu Tanaka and Kazumi Totaka (who did some nice themes for Yoshi’s Story and Animal Crossing) did that one. Speaking of which, The Mario Kart Double Dash and most of the Super Mario Sunshine soundtrack were done by Shinobu, and those were mediocre at best, which really leads me to believe that Koji’s either busy with something else, isn’t interested in videogame scoring anymore, or…some other reason.
Yes i know, Koji is the one that gave us those CLASSIC tunes that, when heard, is instantly recognizable the world over.Where d fuk is he!?!? hehe
Here’s a list of the musicians making music for it.
THAT I can vouch for that. I didn’t spend months looking for that soundtrack, I loved the game and I also love the soundtrack. Though I do have to say the "Super Paper Mario" soundtrack is a lot better IMO.
Though of Nintendo Music going downhill, I don’t think it is. I mean, it’s Luigi’s Mansion, one of the games at Gamecube’s birth, and besides(like someone said) it’s Luigi. He’s always second rate, despite the fact that he thinks he’s first rate. XD
Remix?
What do you think?
That’s a very good point. I hadn’t thought of that until you mentioned it. Maybe an orchestra isn’t the way to go, but I think Nintendo could do what a bunch of other companies are doing in regards to their music (I don’t know if they are ready to have Monks chanting like in Halo an you imagine Monks chanting in a Mario game or Zelda game? What do you think they might chant?). 🙂 How many other game development companies are still using Midis for their music?
Since Nintendo is going with simpler is better in their game creations (or reiterations), I don’t know if they’ll ever update their game music.
In any case, we’ll just keep on downloading music from other non-Nintendo games until then and hope Nintendo can improve their music. What do you think?
Super Mario Sunshine
Zelda: WW and TP
Metroid Prime 1 and 2
Star Fox Adventures and Assault
Smash Bros. Melee
Paper Mario 1000-year Door
There are other examples, but who gives a damn. If you don’t like the way any of those sound, then the answer to your question is "Yes, Nintendo’s music has fallen."
Will it ever be? Not in my books. I don’t know why, but the Overworld Theme in SMB 1 has always sounded best in its 8-bit form. Any remix of it I’ve heard from any game since then hasn’t surpassed it. New SMB did a good job with the music. Regardless, nothing tops the classic.
I think you make a good point. Personally, I didn’t like Luigi’s Mansion or the soundtracks of any of the other games you listed (except for a few tracks from Twilight Princess). Hadn’t thought of this before. I don’t have a whole lot of new Nintendo music, like many of the other responders.
zak and wiki
metroid prime 3
no more heroes
super smash bros brawl
resident evil umbrella chronicles (decent game)
guitar hero 3
wii fit
wii ware and the possibility of seeing downloadable content in future games being done soon by namco so i think there is still some life in nintendo
but yeah I agree mario galaxy’s OST is amazing.
I think, perhaps up until last week, it’s been fair to say that Nintendo has tended to lag behind in the quality of sound reproduction side of things. Their decision to stick with MIDI based and MIDI-esque music has hurt them in this area. Although with scores like Twilight Princess that problem seems to have lessened a bit.
In terms of quality of composition, there might be some small drop-off in recent years if you take all Nintendo games together, but not much. And when they really nail it, they knock it out of the park.
That having been said…
Super Mario Galaxy
That’s all I have to say.
Here’s a list of the musicians making music for it.
http://www.smashbros.com/en_us/music/music01.html
The music’s great! I can’t wait until it comes out!
However, I did like the music in Metroid Prime 1 and 2 better than 3, and the old Zelda music better. The SSBB music looks to be shaping up well as well, so I would say it’s a mixed bag.
and its retro songs are great and some play out in cool clever ways.
odd exceptionsl ike smash bros melee are some the nicest and best game ost’s there is. nice live music at its best. the melee concert album was exceptionally beautiful. and more recently, i was completely delighted to hear when playing mario galaxy that all the music was live and orchestrated. makes a huge difference to a gaming experience in my view.
nah its all about koji kondo. although goldeneye, killer instinct, and donkey kong country had great music, there are also many nintendo franchises that did some nice stuff over the years. i like donkey kong jungle beats music, but mostly i didnt like as much gamecube music as i did n64.
goldeneye, fzero x, mario 64, ki gold, ocarina of time, and im sure im missing some, thhey all had great tracks.
but all i have to say (as anyone else has said numerous times) is GALAXY. some of the best music ive heard in years, and def the best mario music ever. but overall.. id have to say nintendos music although good has never been mindblowing to me, sega always did that i thought. 16 bit sonic, (the first adventure as well), streets of rage, virtua fighter (pre 4), phantasy star, panzer dragoon, shining force, shinobi, nights, jet set radio, and many others had amazing sdtrks. while sega made games still.. their soundtracks beat the pants off of sony and nintendos, but now that theyre third party, their music as matched their games in the quality department.
i’ve noticed this too. since the dreamcast / xbox days ive not heard anything stand out which i would normally take notice of. don’t supose they got the money to spend on audio as they used to.
f-zero is a good reminder. one of the best snes soundtracks ever. does deserve a revamp. megadeth’s n64 effort was great but 1 album isnt enough.
Edit: Wow, how could I forget F-Zero X. I’ll have to go out back and shoot myself for that one.
I’m quite interested in your theory, can you please explain to me this mindblowing concept of "fake" music, and what else constitutes to you as "real" music. Because quite simply, my whole life has been a sham if all real music consists of is turds and the pop genre.
More relevant to the topic, as production of enormous games hastens, it gives composers less time to mull over what they want the music to sound like, leading to less interesting melodies and larger teams of composers, leading to an unappealing mix of different styles. It might work if all composers had equal talent, but we know that’s impossible.
As a matter of fact, I can imagine music like that on the radio. Online radio, no problem. As for the standard airwaves, it is not impossible. In an effort to attract attention to themselves, classical radio stations are not unwilling to have movie soundtracks. It’s only a step further to have orchestrated video game themes… And a few steps further for the originals.
But I think what you’re really trying to say is that video game music "is not a genre commonly played on radio stations." Real music, pfft.
plus Nintendo has recently made a switch to using orchestrated pieces instead of synthesized music so give it a little time
After all, don’t some of our favorite tunes come from the days when the memory taken up by a game amounted to a tenth of an average MP3 file*?
(5MB probably isn’t average, I just made that up)
i do believe some songs could have really benefited from an orchestra though (cough cough, Final Fantasy VII, cough cough "Flowers Blooming in the Garden"), but i believe other songs sound good as digital vs. orchestra/authentic (original "The Man with the Machine Gun"). ha sorry to always refer to the series, but it’s the VGM i am most familiar with.
i may have strayed away from the point since this is about NINTENDO. but i was merely stating that some songs are good digital, and some songs could be good as authentic/orchestra.
Most of the good Nintendo tunes of the past were produced by the guys from Rareware, and they had moved to Microsoft about five years ago. That’s part of the reason why we’re not seeing quality compositions that often.
yes. Rareware had some really good compositions. it’s really a shame they sold their souls to Microsoft. speaking of Rareware, are they dead? it’s cool they gave the rights to use characters from their old games for Super Smash Bros. Brawl. and ceeing that Diddy made it into Brawl, i couldn’t be happier. DKC2 FTW!
I couldn’t agree more, the only pieces I really found myself enjoying were the ones of the temples and that’s because they were mostly ambiance. Some of the tunes were simply hideous, specially the one from Gerudo Desert, with that low-quality synthesized voice on the background that made me want to mute my TV every time I was around that area. >:O
I do believe Nintendo’s been delivering very poor music lately, problem is, as you say, they stick way too much to MIDI samples instead of fully orchestrated soundtracks, however, the overall quality of their music isn’t really that good IMO, they just can’t compete with other game companies such as Capcom or Square in that area, and they only have a few scattered OSTs, most of them available only to Nintendo Power subscribers and such.
Another soundtrack I’m looking out for is what the new Super Smash Bros. Brawl OST is going to end up like as a finished product. So far it’s sounding pretty damn good don’t you agree?
They’re still around, just not doing much it seems. Rumored Banjo-Kazooie 3 and Perfect Dark 2, otherwise nothing concrete. Concerning the use of Diddy Kong, that’s actually a Nintendo character, and so is the entire Donkey Kong lineup. Rare merely developed those games for Nintendo, the IP never belonged to them however.
You’ll never see a Conker, or Banjo in Super Smash brothers as those are original Rare IP’s.
*killed by Luigi fans*
/QUOTE]
I think I might have been one of those fans XD… I love Luigi!!!! XD
Actually Microsoft wished to acquire them so Nintendo said "Name your price". Microsoft did, and Rare was given a deadline to finish all of their projects by. Rare had no hand in the switch, and later on found a loophole where they could still finish their pre-Microsoft GBA games since Microsoft doesn’t have a portable console.
I will concede that Super Mario Galaxy was particularly good, and a lot of random Nintendo songs have been extremely memorable (Super Mario Bros. Theme, Hyrule Theme, Kraid, etc.), but complete soundtracks for Nintendo tend not to live up to the quality of others. Interestingly, Smash Bros Melee’s remarkably memorable main theme was composed by Final Fantasy favorite Nobou Uematsu.
One interesting thing I learned recently was that two of my favorite N64 soundtracks, Bomberman 64 The Second Attack and Mario Party 1, were composed by Yasunori Mitsuda, not a standard Hudson employee or Koji Kondo respectively. Nintendo music is good, but it still can’t compare to a lot of the JRPG material.
i like some of it but most of the music to me is dry, the same, and not that great to me.
for example i like the rainbow road song as i have for the last past 4 mario karts, but its just not as great as it could be.
they threw in the good egg galaxy song which i like, but i wish they would have thought of something new instead of making it like galaxy.
even in brawl the same thing occured. it was an awesome soundtrack and all, probably one of the best, but i think they remixed the crap out of the main theme which dont get me wrong i loved it but they could have done so much more to make the music score better
however galaxy had one of THE BEST soundtracks ever cause almost ALL the music was new and fresh
If you’re counting all music for Nintendo published games then definitely not, they constantly hire talented composers like Shimomura, Sakuraba, Sakimoto, Mitsuda, and the like to compose for their games. Plus look at what they did with Brawl.
As to you, Maktown,
I myself suggest the music from the older games is more efficient- Nintendo is going nowhere but down with their music quality lately in my opinion… Something I sadly but honestly agree with you upon.
Unless you look for the right games to play, that is, will you find that this is all not really the case. The quality only sucks on SOME Luigi’s Masion.
Absolutely. Super Mario Galaxy is a terrific soundtrack along with Brawl (still can’t believe how many guest composers they came up with for the game!). And I think Twilight Princess is the BEST sounding Zelda game (which… I know… is saying a lot). The music in Metroid Prime 3 was good… not as incredible as Metroid Prime was but it was still good.
I’m very interested to hear how the first truly Wii Zelda will sound.
So, to answer the thread, no, I don’t think Nintendo music is going downhill.
But it is certainly true that the Nintendo music of today isn’t anywhere near as memorable as the stuff they were making in the 80’s and 90’s. I have lot of older game soundtracks on my computer, and only a few new ones. I don’t think their music is going downhill as fast as their games, but the decline is there and it’s only a matter of time.
Also, no, I don’t think most of the good Nintendo music had anything to do with Rare. But in the same vein, I can’t really consider much of Brawl’s music to be Nintendo’s music because a lot of it was done by outside composuers from other companies. And to be quite honest.. not all of Brawl’s much was that great, I really disliked some of the remixes.
If we wanna talk about the video game music industry at all, I’d say look at the larger picture. It isn’t just Nintendo. I have absolutely no real recollection of any of Final Fantasy music since FF7, and only because 7 itself had such a massive impact on me as a whole (even if I found the game to feel unfinished/unpolished and poorly translated, and feel that all the 2-D games before it were better.. musically as well as everything else). Except for the handful of vocal tracks from 8-10, I don’t remember any of the music from those games, and 12 was so unenjoyable as a whole that I still haven’t finished it, let alone am interested in their music. Of course, that might be because Nobuo Uematsu left, I’m not sure.
Megaman’s music has become less memorable, as well. Castlevania, while still good, is also lacking in memorable tracks. The same can be said of Sonic, which was always known for great music on the Genesis (and most of the Adventure games.. why did they have to give Knuckles Rap… WHY…).
So yeah, if I say Nintendo’s music is going downhill slowly, I’m also saying that EVERYONE’s music is becoming less memorable. But this is only part of the problem I feel within the game industry, because I also feel that games themselves are becoming less enjoyable. They feel like they’re focusing on the visual experience, more than the meat of the game and that includes the music.
Also, while I enjoy a good orchestral soundtrack for a game, and would love to hear such versions of some of my favourite games… I have to say that I still love the older style music that’s done using the methods used for SNES and so on.
Oh, almost forgot… I think music in general made today has gone downhill. So it isn’t just Nintendo or video game music specifically. There ARE plenty of decent games, music, and soundtracks, but it’s more like looking for needles in the hay-stack.
also please spread the word to your friends who aren’t into VGM!
https://gilvasunner.bandcamp.com/album/grand-dad-64