Official(?) Nintendo Consoles Music Thread v2.0

I felt the same when people started talking about it on GRcade! What a belter. If nothing else it might be more replayable than BotW.

This post is specifically targeted at Drunka: it is not a Music Time Period (real or 'pretend'), and it is a climb-down regarding a game whose music he regards highly. 🐼

I'm talking about Splatoon (and to a lesser extent Spla2n).  In recent times, I've found myself listening to and enjoying more and more Splatoon-franchise music.  Sometimes it's because Smash has introduced me to it, sometimes I've found it on YouTube.  And I'm forced to admit that, sometimes, the Inkling voices work well.  Sorry Jimbob.

Here's some Splatunes I've been listening to lately:
- Ink Me Up.  Happy peppy pop of the sort than I'm ashamed to admit that I quite like.
- Tide Goes Out.  Not your standard Splatoon track, much more chilled than that.  This is, it must be said, a track I think would work better without the singing.  Still, BRB has nothing on this.
- Now for some Spla2n: Ebb and Flow.  Again, happy peppy pop.  Also: proof that Marina 'writes' the best songs.
- Finally, Calamari Inkantation (final boss spoilers and them).  If I remember correctly, this was Drunka's main play to get me into Splatoon's soundtrack way back, and the one that came closest to working.  Good track, and better than... er... the other version.

You win this round, Drunka. You win this round...

Balladeer wrote:

And I'm forced to admit that, sometimes, the Inkling voices work well.  Sorry Jimbob.

Never admit that, Balladeer, and don't accept that apology, Jimbob. The Inkling voices are just so fucking stupid. Absolute shite, of the highest order.

They're not as bad as whatever the buggeration they use for the melody in this, mind.

I don't want to block you, cos sometimes I enjoy reading the bollocks you chat, but I want you to know you're on my foes list, Cappa. And Jimbob. Balla . . . it's close, son.

The only Inkling tune I liked was that Rhythm Heaven remix you linked a while back, Balla. It's not for me at all.

Maybe I'm getting you and Jim confused actually. I think you might be the pickiest person about the actual sounds on the forum, Jay, what with your views on MIDI and all.

You cannot call anybody picky after your aversion to anything that sounded remotely chiptune for so many years.

I don't know what my opinions are any more, so... yes. Or no. Or sorry. Sorry? Dunno. If I ever get round to finishing a Unity project, I do sort-of want to write deliberately weird/annoying music. I'll try not to.

You definitely should, it'd be funny.

JayMoyles wrote:

You cannot call anybody picky after your aversion to anything that sounded remotely chiptune for so many years.

Au contraire, I'm a reformed picky person so I clearly have the most justification of anyone when it comes to slating you.

Right, time to get this out of my system.  We're tackling Yoshi's Crafted World today boysengirls, and we are not tackling it with any kindness.  This is possibly the worst soundtrack in any Nintendo game I've played (I didn't play Excite Truck but I heard bad things), and I'm going to prove it.  I'm going to prove it primarily by pitting it against Yoshi's Woolly World, but it's also bobbins on its own merits.



Main Theme



We start with the main theme.  Listen to the first phrase at least, but not too much, because you're going to hear it a lot.  I don't know whether that's why I no longer find the recorder as ear-gratingly out of tune as when I first heard it, but this version is actually alright.

Compare with the main theme from YWW, and... ew.  Oh that's horrendous.  That's bad recorder playing.  YCW is the clear winner here.  Just you wait, though...


Floppy March



Now this is painful.  A carnival march seemingly played on clown horns, ignoring the fact that clown horns sound terrible over any length of time.  Notice also that it's the exact same music.  (Good title though.)

Compare with Fluffy Snow, Here We Go!  There's no direct comparison in YWW, but this is what that game does when it wants to remix the main theme.  It makes it better!  


Dwelling Place of the Ninja



Reaching the ninja world, I thought we'd get something a bit cooler.  Something with a bit of mystique to it, and definitely some traditional Japanese instruments.  We got the last bit, but they paired it with a remix of the exact same thing, only slower and duller.  Wow.  Great.

Compare with Spooky Scraps!  Don't Get Spooked!  Again, no direct comparison, so I've dug up a similarly slow atmospheric piece from YWW.  It's also really chilling, and better than the YCW ghost house theme which I haven't listed here.


Now, I know what you're thinking.  'Balla, it can't all be remixes of the main theme.  Mario Sunshine wasn't all remixes of Delfino Plaza.'  Fair enough: it's not.  

What's It Gonna Be?!



BECAUSE THE WORLD ISN'T FAIR, THAT'S WHY.  Seriously, I have to mute the game every time I play the costume-winning game.  This could become the next 'Hi I'm Daisy'.  It's about as painful.

Compare with... I got nothing.  There's nothing that terrible in YWW.  Here's Yoshi and Cookies instead to take the pain away.  It's one of my favourites.


Having slagged off its music, I should say that I do like YCW otherwise.  I prefer it to YWW, honestly.  However, the composer or music team needs some serious retraining before they're let anywhere near another game.  The music is of a low quality that I wouldn't expect from Nintendo, and is sometimes genuinely painful to listen to.  Poor.

Fucking hell, you weren't kidding about them both getting as much mileage as possible out of the main theme and about the soundtrack being pretty shite all told. Christ.

Yeah, every single level theme is a remix of that main theme, and not great ones either!  

It's such a blow after YWW, which I think was done by the Kirby's Epic Yarn music people.  I heard that Yoshi's New Island was similar, with an overemphasis on kazoos; only, y'know, without the good game.  Was anybody foolish enough that they can confirm?

EDIT: Yep, definitely the case. Listen to that Yoshi and Cookies link above. Pure KEY there.

Balladeer wrote:

EDIT: Yep, definitely the case.  Listen to that Yoshi and Cookies link above.  Pure KEY there.

...Until the rogue recorder saunters in to murder the track.

Not entirely wrong, but it's noticeable that the recorder player manages to get the notes both clear and in tune. C/C the main theme...

It's funny, I was playing through Crafted World the other day, and it hit me out of the blue: this game has a really rubbish soundtrack. Good to see that I'm not the only one who thinks that!

EDIT: Think about how much they did with the one song on the Yoshi's Story OST, over twenty years ago!

Yoshi's Story OST - choice tunes:

Nope, we're all on the same page here! Even YWW's composer's been getting in on the action. I think it's the instrumentation over and above the repetition that really does my brain in. Also, it's almost all really slow-paced, unlike (say) Alpina Blue from your spoiler.

You know what's not really rubbish? (Tenuous segue ho.) This remix of a Wario World piece in the style of Undertale's Megalovania.

Somebody's finally loaded the Sushi Striker: the Way of Sushido soundtrack on YouTube, making them my favourite person in the world for all of five seconds after I discovered this.  Y'all know how much I love the main theme, but the rest of the music's pretty good too.  Short week this week:


Rival Battle



Your twerp rival actually has a pretty great battle theme.  I think I even heard a good old 'YOOOOOO' in there somewhere.


Tundra



Pretty excellent for a map theme in a puzzle game.  


Finally, I'm going to assume that most people won't play this game, so I'm just going to go ahead and put the final battle musics here:

Final Boss First Phase/Second Phase



Ironically, I don't know if by listening to these without context, you can get the shift in feeling when Phase 1 becomes Phase 2.  It's quite striking in-game.  What the heck, I'll post it anyway.


Tuna in next week for something which is hopefully a bit less niche...

That main theme is basically an anime opening and I love it for that.

...I forgot I owned this.

GET IT PLAYED. It's good. And yep, that's exactly the reason I love that tune!

BrawlBRSTM had a couple of its extended pieces shut down by Nintendo on YouTube, and decided to take all its Nintendo soundtracks down pre-emptively before Nintendo got heavy-handed. The result is that most of my videos from this thread that weren't already broken, now are.

This is your irregular reminder that, for all that Nintendo are slowly improving in their treatment of YouTube videos of their material, they're still awful in some ways.

Welp.

More video-games companies should follow suit from Capcom and chuck their soundtracks up on Spotify. Granted, it's all in Japanese which is a bummer for finding a specific track, but you can still at least link to some of your favourites directly once you find them.

I played Steamworld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech and I really liked it.  Nobody else here seems to have done, however.  I can understand the likes of Cappa and Jas avoiding it because it's a JRPG, but otherwise it's a very strong title and I'd recommend it to all y'all.

The fact that fewer people are going to play it, however, hopefully means they'll get a bit more out of these musics!


Alysidhian Fields (Main Theme)



Just the way I want to start my comedic robot-themed JRPGs: with a good healthy dose of tears, and nostalgia for something I don't remember.  This is beautiful, isn't it?  Or is it just beautiful to a string instrument player?  

Notable, too, is how the main motif is remixed into other pieces in the soundtrack without being tripe (take note Yoshi's Crafted World).  See: the intro theme (which is great in its own right).


Good Morning, Goosebucket



From the level themes, it's the early village theme that sticks in my head.  It's just a nice cheery town piece with elements of folk music in it and a hummable tune.  Simple and good.


Action Over Words (Penultimate Boss Battle)



The battle themes are arguably where SWQ's soundtrack really shines.  Even the first battle theme is gripping, and Cursed Battle summons up thoughts of a deranged merry-go-round that definitely sounds cursed.  That said, it's the penultimate battle that really gets my music senses pumped up.  Action over words!  Damn right.  That starting motif, into the fret slide, really kicks the epic into gear in quite an impressive manner for what is a reasonable small, unepic game.  It manages to be hummable too, something many JRPG big boss musics can fail on, going instead for generic wanky guitar and forgetting that this is a piece of music and should therefore ideally have a melody.


If you've read all the way down here, thank you!  Would you consider doing a Cadence of Hyrule music thingy for this thread?  I want to feature it; I don't think I'll ever finish it.

Balladeer wrote:

Notable, too, is how the main motif is remixed into other pieces in the soundtrack without being tripe (take note Yoshi's Crafted World).  See: the intro theme (which is great in its own right).

Toby Fox is particularly adept at this with both Undertale and Deltarune. The little callbacks he includes throughout his soundtracks are brilliant.

I think I preferred the battle tunes you posted - that penultimate battle theme was indeed a standout and very hummable indeed! The other tracks were fine, but ultimately felt a bit twee to me.

Balladeer wrote:

If you've read all the way down here, thank you!  Would you consider doing a Cadence of Hyrule music thingy for this thread?  I want to feature it; I don't think I'll ever finish it.

I suspect this was secretly directed towards myself.

Yeah, I can rise to the occasion for the next time.