Official Nintendo Consoles Music Thread (Thanks for Listening!)

It's ace, I don't know what Balla's chatting.

That said, at this point I've completely lost my ability to differentiate between things I genuinely like and things I like ironically.

Drunkalilly wrote:

That said, at this point I've completely lost my ability to differentiate between things I genuinely like and things I like ironically.

Be careful with that; this is why there's a Captain Planet movie in the works.

There is!? That's gonna be awful, isn't it?

Drunkalilly wrote:

That said, at this point I've completely lost my ability to differentiate between things I genuinely like and things I like ironically.

Wait, so all those times you laughed at my jokes in the podcast...?

I laughed at your jokes on the podcast?

GNamer's One Hundredth Music Week

It's been about two years since I started doing this.  Naturally I needed to find a game with a great soundtrack for this week, which is hard given that I originally thought I'd be doing only fifty.  As such, I featured all my favourite soundtracks in the first fifty.  Super Mario Galaxy, Smash Bros. Brawl, Banjo-Kazooie, most of the Zeldas - all spent, to the extent that I needed to resort to Mario Kart Super Circuit for a big week.  And let me tell you, GBA games do not sound all that great nowadays.

Fortunately, my unspoken pleas were heard.  Not half a year ago, a game was released that, quite simply, has my third favourite soundtrack of all time, after SMG and B-K.  

Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

A 2D platformer should not have a soundtrack this good.  That's thoroughly unreasonable.  David Wise, though, didn't give a monkey's (ba-dum tish).  Instead, he gave us this utter beauty, and while it didn't quite outshine the efforts of Mahito Yokota or fellow Rare music guru Grant Kirkhope in my ears, he came closer than any 2D platformer's soundtrack has the right to do.  It's not flawless: the final boss "tune" is a bit duff, and why does every barrel rocket level need the same rather mediocre theme?  But not even SMG is flawless.  Without further ado, the hundredth set of Nintendo console tunes:

5. Irate Eight (Underwater)



I'm doing minimal remixes of old themes in this top five.  On the whole, I don't need to: the new themes are good enough.  But this one is superb.  Donkey Kong Land 2 was one of my very first games, and this remixes the Lockjaw water theme from right back then with Aquatic Ambience, another excellent watery piece.

4. Homecoming Hijinx (Snowmads' Theme)



Once you hit the last world, the soundtrack decides that it'd really like to be in Lord of the Rings.  Epic as anything.

3. Scorch 'N' Torch



Although it does have its epic moments before that.  The perfect piece to convey the urgency and danger of the burning savannah.  Youtube's favourite, and if it weren't for the bizarre "weeeeeehhhhh" sound effect at 1:33, it would be mine too.

2. Grassland Groove



If World 6 is out of LotR, this is lifted wholesale from The Lion King.  Listen to this one all the way through: the music has four different phases, ending with the most epic ending to a level's soundtrack in gaming.  (Don't listen to it after that: it goes a bit rubbish then.)

1. Windmill Hills



I love epic bombast more than anything, as you may have noticed from my overuse of the poor adjective in this post: but Windmill Hills isn't epic.  Not in the slightest.  What it is is really really bloody happy.  Along with Grassland Groove above, it seems custom-made to raise as many smiles on players' faces as possible: a very creditable aim.  David Wise, you bloody genius.


I haven't scratched the surface of this game.  I'd also briefly like to mention Punch Bowl (what I imagine a really good wrestling theme would sound like, only instead of a man with biceps like big cows, it's a hammer-wielding polar bear), Wing Ding (especially the almost ethereal second half), Deep Keep (because it takes a lot to make me, a thoroughly uncoordinated human being, want to dance), and many more... but let's leave it there.  My time is up.

---

No, it really is.  Starting from next week, everyone's favourite drunken GNamerian is going to be taking over.  I hope that he'll still let me have the odd go.  And so I leave you with this, a list of statistics containing the number of games from each console featured in music weeks (ignoring the Christmas week, grouping the Phoenix Wright week into one, the Pikmin week split into 3, and week 95 split into 2):

Stats.:

Cheers for two years of tunes Balla - very dedicated of you to keep this up for so long. I really ought to jumpstart something over in the non-Ninty music thread... maybe on Monday. Good luck to Drunkabuska!

Well done that Balla, 100 great weeks. I didn't always have much to say, but I always read and listened and enjoyed.



Working on my first week just now. I've listened to 15 out of 80-something tracks and already found seven I want to use. It's gonnatake me a while to narrow it down to ten...

This thread has been going that long? (counting it from the old place too)


Top work balla! I've enjoyed dipping in & out to listen to some music I love and other I had never heard before.

Well done, I don't pop in that often but always good stuff when I do.

Down your Jaeger Bombs, boys and girls, its time for the first
Drunkalilly's Music Week!
Week 101: Drunka's Favourite Game Week!

Alright, listen up you lot. Balla's out, Drunka's in and things are gonna change around here.
Well, actually, they're not going to change very much. Less accurate music knowledge, more gushing hyperbolic praise. Less witty puns, more lewd and outrageous comments.

For the most part, I'll try to maintain Balla's rule of not going over games that have already featured but this is my first week, the passing of the torch, so I'm starting with my all time favourite game. Also, this is a game that I felt needed more attention than Mr. Deer gave it. 5 songs? Even when I deliberately skipped Balla's choices (Gusty Garden would definitely have made my list) I had trouble narrowing it down to ten!

Anyway, I'm the boss now so what are you gonna do? Here's my top ten songs from Super Mario Galaxy.

10: Star Festival

The first song we hear in actual gameplay, this song has a huge ammount of nostalgia for me. I can remember the day Super Mario Galaxy came out really, really well. I was still in secondary school so I had to pick the game at lunch and wait until half past three to crack it on. It was also the day of the Wells Carnival. That might not mean anything to anyone but Mas, but the World's greatest illuminated carnival is the social event of the year for a kid around here, so I knew I had to squeeze maximum Miyamoto Mario magic into about three hours.
So that opening, with this music and Mario running with his arms outstretched like a child playing airplane, was perfect. Pure fun, like the game to follow, with just a hint of the magic to come and a festival atmosphere that fit my feelings perfectly. A really nice precursor to a phenomenal experience.

9: Gateway Galaxy

That magic I was talking about earlier? This is where that started. Walking around planets, staring out into the starry sky, feeling the magnitude of the adventure that was about to begin. Beautiful. The music captured that feeling just so; not the bombast the game is remembered for just yet, but a sense of wonder and possibility that again really helped get me excited for the game to come.

8: Honeyhive Galaxy

And now for something completely different.
Sunny beats mixed with a jazzy little number that makes me imagine this is what Mario's soundtrack would be like if it was a cool, 70s American cop show. He has the moustache and the lanky partner, he gets the girl, he slides his car around corners... Mario could totally be a funky detective who doesn't play by the rules. This makes me imagine him telling Toadsworth where he can stick the department's rules then strolling out to his Chevrolet with a nod to the ladies.

7: Enter the Galaxy

Every single track in this game's soundtrack is just right for the job it needs to do. This song had to get me psyched before blasting off to a mission and boy did it deliver. Mario's flying into space, touching down and boom! We're off. Top, top stuff.

6: The Toad Brigade

Here he is, fresh off his playable debut in SM3DW and getting ready to jump into his first standalone game; my boy Captain Toad! His role in SMG might have been pretty minor, but with his pure adventuring theme tune, he lodged himself in your mind. What a guy; Nintendo's Nathan Drake, only likeable.

5: Overture

Every Mario game has its big exciting theme tune and Galaxy was no exception. As memorable as ever, a little spacey, a blast of bombast at the start... as amazing as the game it defines, you hear this and know you're in for a treat. The fact that something this great doesn't take my number one spot speaks volumes about this game's soundtrack.

4: Rosalina's Observatory

The Observatory hub is a big reason why I prefer the original Galaxy to its sequel and the 3D games, and a big part of its appeal is this music. Great music to whistle along to, it gets the perfect mixture of warm homeliness and magical otherworldliness. It reminds me of Hogwarts, and slowly adding to it as the Observatory lights up made the collection of power stars feel more meaningful than any game before or since.

3: Rosalina's Story Book

The feels, man!
Galaxy 2, 3D Land and 3D World show that a 3D Mario platformer is phenomenal even without a story to speak of, but the sense of world and meaning which Galaxy gave to the adventure pushed it that extra bit further. And anyone who tells you Mario doesn't do story hasn't walked into that little room, seen Mario's face light up and the Lumas crowd around their mother and heard this cute-as-a-button little tale that pulls right on those heart strings.

2: Final Battle with Bowser

Aw, that Rosalina-and-Luma stuff is cute isn't it? Now here's some totally epic fight music. This tune is so kick-ass, it's getting me riled up just listening to it. The final battles in the two Galaxy games are both mind-blowing and the music in both cases is grander and more exciting than anything in Star Wars, the Matrix, Zelda, Superman . . . anything where titans clash for the fate of the galaxy. This is Mario at his best.

1: Waltz of the Boos

Okay, so this isn't as epic and tension-laden as the Bowser battle. It doesn't have the bombast of the Overture. It's not as jolly and fun as most of the level musics. But it is slow, sad, memorable and absolutely perfect for Mario's mysterious, cowardly ghost foes. I regret doing this list now; I'm going to have this in my head for days.

So there we go. I've got that out of my system. Look forward to many more Drunkalilly Music Weeks, and if you fancy doing a week yourself just pop me a PM. Let's see how long I can keep putting this sort of effort in every week!

To your comments about my weeks:

Top first second-and-a-bit week, Drunka!  SMG really does have the best soundtrack in gaming, doesn't it?  And neither of us even touched on Good Egg Galaxy, another general favourite.  Some typically Drunka comments too.  I must ask: including my ones, what are your top five?

This is so much better than when Balla used to do it. I can't believe we put up with him for nearly two years.

I'll go read Buska's post now.

We seem to have similar tastes in SMG music Drunka - the Ghostly Galaxy is my favourite too, and a real earworm as well.

On another note, I've made myself a video-game music playlist on YouTube, so I really ought to go back through the thread and flesh it out.   

Going back through the music thread in order to flesh out my YouTube VGM playlist, and I happened upon this comment in response to my posting of King Castle from Dragon Ball Advanced Adventure:

Balladeer wrote:

Nice!  (Once it gets going.)  I like to imagine it plays during the final battle in NGamer: the Game against Matthew.
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...and I completely missed the Matthew joke the first time. Delayed props, Balla.

I might have already posted this track in the thread already, but it takes me back to a Christmas morning many years back every time I listen.

If I'm honest, it's a bit too epic for Matthew. This is more like it.

Gnamer, the final fronteir.
These are the voyages of the pisshead Drunkalilly.
His ongoing mission; to explore old game soundtracks. To seek out new booze and new videogaming. To boldly go where no Balla has gone before!
Week 102: Samus Every Other Week!

So, the podcast Cane and Rinse, which you should all give a listen by the way, have in-depth chats about a different game every week. Sometimes, as with Metal Gear and Mario, they will do a series o on a particular gaming franchise, giving each game its own week, normally two or three weeks apart so it doesn't overpower everything else they want to cover. So I'm going to do a similar thing here, to further differentiate myself from He Who Must Not Be Named. So without further ado . . .

The GNamer Metroidathon Part One!


I'm going to give you the five best songs from the original NES game, which I've previously completed as Zero Mission and which I am now playing in its raw form. Obviously, just posting the NES music would be a bit lame, so for each piece I've chosen the chillest cover version I could find. Enjoy!


5: Escape

Setting up a Metroid tradition that continues through to the most recent game, after defeating Metroid's last boss, there's one final dash to escape the exploding planet and finally (ha! Yeah right) eradicate the metroids, with a thrilling bit of chase music.
And here it is on the "Harmony of a Hunter" album.

4: Ending

So, apparently your success in Metroid games determines how much Samus gets her kit off at the end? All seems a bit silly for my tastes, but whatever, the music's good.
In an amazing display of self restraint, I haven't used this lass in a zero suit playing violin for every song.

3: Kraid's Lair

One of the most memorable themes from the game, I recognised this from Smash Bros before I even started playing my first Metroid game.
And here's a lovely acoustic guitar version that makes it sound like The Last of Us.

2: Title Theme

This is a quality theme tune. I like the slowly, creepy, lonely, very Metroidy opening then it segues into a much more hummable song.
And here it is sounding just so eighties on a CD I hadn't heard of until I started Naming this G but which I now really want.

1: Brinstar

Everyone remembers Metroid for its haunting, lonely music but here is where it begins to approach Mario's do-do-doot da-do-do and Zelda's Do-doo, do dododo da doo. Top adventuring muzak.
Who else but your man Smooth McGroove?

*grumbles at inclusion of acapella*

Kraid's theme is my favourite from the original Metroid - perfectly encapsulates the Metroid feel to me. That acoustic cover was gorgeous!

Yeah, I just re listened to that one. It's so good.

I can definitely appreciate those remixes.  My favourites are the violin and the guitar, because I am a strings nerd.

I feel that we need another link to the Metroid Prime title theme, though, which is the best title theme remix without strings.  At least, before it goes off and becomes its own thing.

I'll get to Prime! Got Metroid 2, Super and Fusion to go first But next week, something entirely different.

I'm looking forward to Prime week! Been on Prime kick as of late.

Props to Balla for linking one of my favourite title themes ever.

It really is a gorgeous theme tune, so fair play to the Balls man. I remember really liking the theme from Echoes as well.

Going back a few posts, I got the same nostalgia rush as Jay from that Ordon Village music.

Ah, thought that had been glossed over! Yeah - play me any of the tracks from the first couple of hours of Twilight Princess or the Wii Sports theme and I'm back at Christmas 2006.