Iconic...
Forgotten...
Timeless...
Innovative...
These are the soundtracks that helped shape and define what we hear in the video games that we play. I am Nitro, and this is the M Disk Playlist's Video Game Music Primer: 1996.
Pokemon Red/Green (Game Boy), composed by Junichi Matsuda
The legacy of the Pokemon franchise could be told in the average length of an entire primer episode. Since its release, it has become a worldwide cultural phoenomenon that to this day, shows no sign of losing its relevance in pop culture, and gaming history. This legendary franchise began in 1996 with the release of the Red and Green versions of Pokemon.
Before Junichi Matsuda helped bring the Pokemon games to life, he was primarily a composer for developer Game Freak, working on notable games like Mendel Palace, Yoshi, and Pulseman. Pokemon Red/Green would be his first game as a developer. He would also serve as the composer for this game, and all main entry Pokemon titles, as well as the popular mobile game, Pokemon Go. He didn't start directing Pokemon games until the start of generation 3, with Ruby and Sapphire for the Game Boy Advance. Who better to know how the Pokemon series should sound than the guy directing them to begin with?
Matsuda draws musical inspiration from modern classical composers like Gustav Holst, Igor Stravinsky, and Dmitri Shostakovich. His earliest inspirations were from electronic music groups like Yellow Magic Orchestra, Ultravox, and the Human League. In terms of how videogame music inspired him, he was inspired by Koji Kondo's technique of having the music speed up in the Mario games when the time limit was about to expire. He was inspired by the sense of urgency that moment brought to the gaming experience. Throughout his life, he would collect albums spanning every possible genre he could get his hands on. In other words, his music tastes and inspirations could be described as very eclectic.
Jose Otero spoke with Matsuda for an article for IGN about how the music in the Pokemon series evolved. Regarding the first game, his aim was to make the soundtrack as catchy as possible, while meeting the hardware limitations of the Game Boy hardware. One trick he did to keep players from feeling like they were hearing the same piece over and over was to change the background music each time a player moved from one section of the Kanto region to another. It was his way of keeping the soundtrack sounding fresh, on a game for hardware as limited as the Game Boy was.
Pokemon has been around for 22 years. Outside of Japan, Pokemon will be celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year. Matsuda has been quintessential in bringing to life the evolving experiences of playing a Pokemon game, while simultaneously enhancing the experience of playing a Pokemon game.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Super Nintendo), composed by Yoko Shimomura
Yoko Shimomura loved video game music. She could not see herself composing for any other format. Her dream genre was composing music for role playing games. Even working at Capcom, she had hoped for an opportunity to work on an RPG. She got the chance to make a tiny contribution to Capcom's Breath of Fire, before leaving Capcom to join Square. Her first compositon job for Square was Live a Live. But it wasn't until her second Square game where she would receive the most attention she had gotten for a score since the original Street Fighter II.
Role playing games were usually dramatic in their presentation. Not this one. It was still a Mario game first and foremost. So how fun the game felt dominated any of the dramatic moments in the game. The names of the pieces in the soundtrack were not meant to be taken seriously either. Many of the pieces names could be considered a bit too literal. With names like "Where am I going?" for the overworld map, "Sad song" for the heartbreaking moments, "The dungeon is full of monsters" for some of the dungeons in the game, and all the battle themese didn't share unique names. They all started with "Fight Against..." and ended with whatever the theme called for. Fight against Bowser, against monsters, against somewhat stronger monsters, against armored monsters, against Culex, against Smithy, and finally, against Smithy who likes to transform...all of which are the real names given to these pieces.
Most of the soundtrack contained original pieces from Shimomura herself. She also worked on arrangements of older Mario series pieces composed by Koji Kondo. You heard multiple different arrangements and/or callbacks to the original athletic theme from Super Mario Bros in multiple places, you heard the iconic invincibility theme whenever Mario found an invincibility star, the theme you hear when you're playing with the Geno figure contains callbacks to the Super Mario World athletic theme, you also got an arrangement of the original underground theme, and The fight against Bowser is an arrangement of the Bowser battle theme from Super Mario Bros. 3. The battle against Culex is in itself a reference to Squaresoft's popular Final Fantasy series. From the overworld sprite looking appearance when you first meet him, to the battle theme against him, which is an arrangement of Nobuo Uematsu's boss theme from Final Fantasy IV, the Final Fantasy victory theme playing when you beat him, and the Final Fantasy prelude playing when you say bye to him.
Music is also an integral sidequest in this game. In Melody Bay, you must help composer Toadofsky, a pun on the name Tchaikovsky, compose a symphony, or else he will be forced to write music for games starring a hedgehog (according to the Super Mario RPG Player's Guide, published by Nintendo Power). There are three movements that Mario must find throughout the game, with each movement rewarding Mario with a card that allows him access to more items and cheaper prices at Tadpole Pond's Juice Bar. Once all three movements have been discovered, you, the player, can compose the 4th movement any way you want. The 4th movement can be changed at anytime.
Super Maro RPG is a fun game, with a soundtrack that amplifies that fun. Shimomura has stated in interviews that she had fun working on the score for this game. Mario would eventually return to the RPG genre with the Paper Mario series, and the Mario & Luigi series. For each game in the Mario & Luigi series, Shimomura would return as the primary composer. With Shimomura at the helm, and Mario as the star attraction, the Role Playing Game genre got a fun and accessible face lift that provided one of the most memorable experiences in the final years of the 16-bit era.
Kirby Super Star (Super Nintendo), composed by Jun Ishikawa
Kirby Super Star was promoted as nearly a dozen games in one cartridge. A few of these games were fun little bonus games featuring Kirby, but most of the games in Kirby Super Star were bonafide Kirby experiences that you could play on your own, or with a friend. Each game evolved the gameplay of Kirby just a little bit. The first one, Spring Breeze, was a partial remake of Kirby's Dream Land. Dyna Blade added an overworld map, with branching paths leading to secret areas. Gourmet Race turned the Kirby experience into a one-on-one race with King Dedede. The Great Cave Offense put Kirby in an open-world Metroid-style game. Revenge of Meta Knight was a linear, but story driven experience with time limits in each area. Milky Way Wishes, the largest of the games, forces you to find copy abilities yourself, instead of simply inhaling enemies. Finally, The Arena, is a boss rush, forcing you to battle all of Kirby's major foes from the ENTIRE Super Star collection in a random order, always ending with the game's hardest enemy, Marx.
In addition to gameplay modifications, some subtle, some very obvious, each game offered a completely different musical experience. Stage themes across most of Super Star were unique, and helped differentiate each game. It wasn't until Milky Way Wishes where you heard most of the soundtrack in one place, perhaps due to Milky Way Wishes being somewhat of a compilation of everything Super Star put you through up to that point.
Kirby Super Star introduced many things to the Kirby franchise, just as Kirby's Adventure did back in 1993. This game also helped influence another major franchise directed by Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai, the Super Smash Bros. franchise. The save point music heard during the Great Cave Offense can be heard during the All Star rest areas in Melee, and arranged in Brawl's version of the All Star mode. The Arena wouldn't become a series staple until Kirby's Return to Dream Land, where it has appeared in every installment of the Kirby series since (except Kirby and the Rainbow Curse).
Kirby Super Star was many things. It was a compilation, it was an innovation, and it was an invitation for friends to enjoy the Kirby experience together. Accompanying all that is a soundtrack that evolved with the game, rather than played it safe with recurring themes throughout.
Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64), composed by Koji Kondo
Super Mario 64 changed a lot of things in gaming. It changed the way we controlled a character, it changed the way we viewed the settings of the games we play, and it did what very few games could achieve at the time; produce a third-dimensional game that was genuinely fun to play, and would be enjoyed for a long time. The soundtrack itself wasn't a technical revolution compared to the previous three soundtracks highlighted. But the Nintendo 64 did give composers like Koji Kondo the opportunity to create pieces that sounded more realistic, and less computer-like than they did on any console released in previous generations.
Koji Kondo was the primary composer for many of Nintendo's first-party titles. His pieces in the Nintendo releases of Mario and Zelda were revolutionary, and considered far ahead of their time. He was an inspiration to many video game composers like David Wise, Nobuo Uematsu, and Yoko Shimomura. But the biggest hurdle for him was always hardware limitations. When the Nintendo 64 came along, he was finally able to make his pieces sound much more closer to what he had originally envisioned. And with the Nintendo 64, he was able to work solely on the music, and not worry about producing music AND sound effects.
The Nintendo 64 also presented the opportunity to make Kondo's soundtrack more dynamic, and varied than previous Nintendo games. Small examples include hearing a lullaby anytime you approach a sleeping pirahnna plant, and a haunting carnival organ when you enter the carousel room in Boo's haunted mansion. Larger examples of a dynamic soundtrack come from the water stages like Dire Dire Docks, and the underground stages, like Hazy Maze Cave. In the water stages, the music is soothing. But when you're not swimming around, percussion is immediately added to the piece, and then taken away once you go back in the water. In the underground stages, the music consistantly has upbeat percussion. But depending on where you were would determine the main melody. Certain areas will give you a haunting synthesized choir sound, while other, more common areas will give you an arrangement of the traditional underground theme first heard in Super Mario Bros.
With the upgraded hardware, and the extra focus on the music, Koji Kondo was able to compose a soundtrack that helped fit the mood of Super Mario 64. It was the first Mario title that allowed non-linear exploration of several 3D worlds. And of course, if you were going to spend a lot of times in these worlds (more than how long you would usually spend in previous Mario stages), you would need catchy, adventurous, and ambient music to enhance the exploration experience.
Pilotwings 64 (Nintendo 64), composed by Dan Hess
Pilotwings 64, like it's Super Nintendo predecessor, was partially developed to show off the power of the Nintendo 64. But unlike the first one, Pilotwings 64 was developed by Texas graphics design company, Paradigm Entertainment, under supervision of game director Makoto Wada, and producer Genyo Takeda. Paradigm Entertainment's experience with simulators and 3D graphics was something Nintendo needed, as they lacked the experience to produce 3D graphics at the time. Dan Hess was one of the designers of Paradigm Entertainment, who was the designer for their first simulator, Audioworks. He helped do sound design for other simulators, leading up to Paradigm Entertainment's very first commercial video game, which also ended up being Dan Hess' first project as a composer, a dream job Hess always had.
In an interview with Nintendo Life, Hess describes the development of a game soundtrack as "25% music composition, 25% sound development, 25% interfacing with team members and directors, and 25% software and system manipulation." Although the Nintendo 64 had more memory, it still wasn't enough to easily compose music. But Hess made it work, with his experience as a sound designer, and his experience as a keyboardist prior to joining Paradigm Entertainment. But as tough as composing on limited hardware was, it wasn't as tough as overcoming the culture and language barrier between Hess, and the Japanese Nintendo staff. The way Nintendo of Japan described music styles was different from how Hess would describe music styles. What ultimately helped was Wada's interest in demos Hess had produced for a prior simulator code named Magic Edge. One of the demo's he worked on ended up becoming the hang glider theme. Wada's pitch for Hess was to create pieces that were floaty and fluffy.
Hess' approach to the soundtrack ended up being taken from his own music genre influences. Soul, funk, rhythm and blues. When discussing the soundtrack with Paradigm founder Mike Engledenger, he found inspiration in composing the cannon ball theme, as well as the dynamic element to the piece by increasing the tempo significantly while being fired out of the cannon. One day, Hess had Mike listen to a bunch of grooves that were compared to the kind of music Barry White would perform. Hess would play what he described as chill, dreamy, kind of sexy grooves. These grooves combined together would wind up becoming the theme for Birdman, the hardest piece for Hess to compose.
Hess only composed one other game, F-1 World Grand Prix for the Nintendo 64. After this game, he grew frustrated with how he felt game composers treated game developers, and how the development of more powerful consoles made the skill of combining composer with sound design and integration unnecessary.
The soundtrack, with the exception of the Birdman theme, was criticized and compared negatively to lounge music. It has since become more of a cult classic among video game music enthusiasts. Although Hess' experience with video games were very minimal compared to other video game composers, his contribution to Pilotwings 64 is a memorable first impression of a soundtrack, brought together by overcoming differences in culture, the limitations of the Nintendo 64, and the determination to help Paradigm Entertainment enhance the experience of playing their very first console video game.
Nights into Dreams (Sega Saturn), composed by Tomoko Sasaki, Naofumi Hataya, and Fumie Kumatani
Sega needed an original game to help define and promote their new console. And if any game was gonna offer an experience that couldn't be replicated on the Nintendo 64, or the PlayStation, it would be this game. A game that controlled flight, with platformer style gameplay in dream-like worlds where nightmare-ish creatures infiltrate the dreams of the two protagonist children. Using the power of the jester Nights, they work together to eliminate the nightmares from potentially infecting the real world.
The music experience that went into this game could be considered top tier. The primary composer was Tomoko Sasaki, whose experience up until that point would be composing the scores of Genesis games World of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, and Ristar. We will come back to arguably her biggest contribution to the score momentarily. The second composer, Fumie Kumatani, got her start with this game. She did some arrangement work on a few of the pieces. Her actual compositions can be heard in the Elliot version of Dreaming Youngsters, Deep it Lies, and all variations of The Amazing Water. Speaking of the phrase "all variations..." the two composers were assisted by Naofumi Hataya, composer for the original Sonic CD soundtrack. And like Sonic CD, pieces of the soundtrack had multiple variations to it. In addition to arrangement work, Hataya composed all variations of Take the Snow Train, all variations of Under Construction, both variations of Nights and Reala, and the event piece, Score the Goal.
Sasaki also wrote the iconic vocal theme for the game, Dreams Dreams, a song that would ultimately define the entire series, and would appear in multiple variations throughout its history. In this game, there are two versions of Dreams Dreams. The adult version, and the child version. The only difference between the two are the vocalists. The adult version is what you would hear if you get the true ending, where you complete the game with a rank higher than a C. The adult version is performed by Dana Calitri and Curtis King Jr. Curtis King Jr is a famous background vocalist who has worked with artists like David Bowie, Duran Duran, and was a member of Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band. Dana Calitri was a backup vocalist for artists like Celine Dion, Marc Anthony, has composed for groups like *NSYNC, most notably being the composer for their holiday hit, Home for Christmas. She can even be heard in the Academy Award winning musical, Chicago.
The vocalists for the children's version were Cameron Earl Strother, who was 10 at the time, and Jasmine Allen, who was 8 at the time. Strother would continue to provide vocals for games like the English and Japanese versions of The World Ends With You for the Nintendo DS, which his sister-in-law also provided vocals for. He was also one of the vocalists for the PSP game LocoRoco. Allen was a voice actress for the second Shenmue game, as Fang Mei. She would also provide vocals for the sweet snow version of Dreams Dreams, which can be heard on the Nights sequel, Journey of Dreams, released nearly 10 years later on the Wii.
Sega also released a version of Nights into Dreams promoted in magazines called Christmas Nights into Dreams, which was basically a demo of the original game. But if played around Christmas time, it serves as an expansion to the original game. Tomoko Sasaki, and Naofumi Hataya contributed to this version of Nights. Kumatani did not. Sonic even had a cameo in the Christmas version, and to commemerate this, the Sonic CD piece, Final Fever, was brought back for the Christmas soundtrack. A version of Dreams Dreams, unique to the Christmas version, can be heard in the ending. This was an a cappella version performed by Marlon D. Saunders, featuring Issa Clemon and Gabriel Morris. His professional experience includes working with Bobby McFerin, and Dianne Reeves. He has also contributed to the soundtracks to Sega games Burning Rangers, and both Sonic Adventure games. No information on the other two vocalists could be found as of this production.
Nights into Dreams was about innocence, overcoming anxiety, and based on the lyrics to Dreams Dreams, adolescence. The gameplay was different than anything that was put on other consoles at the time, and the soundtrack combined atmosphere with dynamic pop. You also got the song Dreams Dreams, which would be arranged multiple times, and would continue to evolve from one generation to another, from the Saturn to the Wii. Truly one of the most dynamic and innovative soundtracks in the Sega library.
Sakura Wars (Sega Saturn), composed by Kohei Tanaka
Before working on Sakura Wars, which would be Tanaka's first video game score, he was a profilic composer for anime tv shows, ovas, and movies. Some of his most notible works include the original Dragon Ball, Patlabor, Gunbuster, Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Gundam 08 MS Team, and One Piece. He was also a prominant composer for the Super Sentai franchise, the franchise that would be translated overseas into the Power Rangers franchise.
Tanaka was also one of the first people to support director Shinichi Ito while developing the game. Producer Oji Hiroi, and Tanaka worked closely together to create a soundtrack that would educate the Japanese youth of music that was popular before the 90s, while simultaniously providing music that would be appropriate to the setting of the game, a fictional version of the Taisho period, which lasted from July 1912 to December 1926.
The development of the game's soundtrack also helped in the development of the game's story. When casting for the game, the actors were not only required to have some professional acting experience, but live music experience as well. It was unusual at the time for the characters to be cast before most of the game development had been completed. But it was necessary to help the music bring the game to life.
The opening theme, Geki! Teikoku Kageki-dan, was inspired by the opening theme for the 1949 film, Aoi sanmyaka. It was performed by Sakura's vocalist, Chisa Yokoyama. Yokoyama was originally cast as Iris, with Kumiko Nishihara as Sakura. But later in development, the roles were switched. Yokoyama has been acting since 1987 with her debut role as Ferris in the OVA Black Magic M-66. She has since gone on to define her career with roles like Yayoi in Robot Carnival, Haruko in Roujin Z, Lucrezia Noin in Gundam Wing, and most famously, Sasami in the Tenchi Muyo series. Recording this song was tough for Yokoyama, as it required different variations in tone, and the strength in vocals to match the mood of the song.
The ending theme, Blooming Madness, was also performed by Yokoyama, with backing vocals from the rest of the female cast. This was one of Tanaka's favorite pieces to compose, as well as one of the most emotional ones in terms of development. Emotional for both the cast, and the staff of the game.
Instead of the music enhancing the gameplay experience, the music ended up inspiring the development of the gameplay experience. The game itself, the development of the game, and the casting of the game were all considered unique for its time. With all these elements coming together, Sakura Wars, like Nights into Dreams, would become a unique gaming and musical experience for the Sega Saturn.
Lunar: Silver Star Story (Sega Saturn), composed by Noriyuki Iwadare
Victor Ireland, head translator and localizer of the game, describes the world of Lunar in one word; music. Music is the world of Lunar. And he's not wrong. Alex, the main protagonist, is an ocarina player. Luna, his childhood friend, is a singer. Luna uses the power of song to help support her allies. Her singing abilities are so powerful, it catches the attention of the main antagonist, Ghaleon. Ghaleon hopes to harness the power of Luna's singing to amplify his own power to rule the world. And it is Alex's ocarina that is used to help bring him and Luna back together, after Luna had fallen under Ghaleon's influence. From beginning to end,
music becomes very integral to the plot, and environment of Lunar.
Iwadare was only one of the composers for Lunar: The Silver Star, originally released on the Sega CD in 1992. He composed that game with Hiroshi Fujioka, and Isao Mizoguchi. For the enhanced remake, only Iwadare returned, and he composed an entirely new soundtrack to replace the score of The Silver Star. Iwadare composed the score to Silver Star Story as a way to express his own honest emotions. He composed the music before even knowing what the music would be used for in the game, with adjustments being made as the game was developed, with guidance from music director Isao Mizoguchi. Also new to the soundtrack were two vocal themes. First would be the opening theme, Tsubasa, performed by Luna's voice actress, Kyoko Hikami. Later in the game, you view a cut scene where Luna sings an intermediary song, akin to how songs were presented traditionally in musicals. This song was called Kaze no Noctune. This scene almost got cut from the game, but Mizoguchi fought to keep the scene in the midst of content from the game being scrapped for time, and/or memory.
In 1999, the game was released in the states for the Playstation as Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. Unlike the Japanese version, which completely omitted the original Silver Star soundtrack, the North American release subtly adds callbacks to the original soundtrack. When Alex dreams about Luna during the first part of the game, you can hear a small portion of Luna's vocal song from the Sega CD soundtrack. During the scene where Xenobia, Phacia, and Royce reveal themselves to the protagonist, the Vile Tribe theme from the Sega CD soundtrack can be heard. And when Althena's Fortress crashes into the lake at the end of the game, you hear the sad piano theme from the Sega CD soundtrack. These arrangements were all done in-house at Working Designs. Victor Ireland actually wanted to replace the new soundtrack composed for Silver Star Story with new arrangements of the Silver Star soundtrack, but couldn't due to the lack of space the game had allowed after the translation was complete. However, in the soundtrack that came with the North American release of the game, you can still hear new arrangements of select pieces from The Silver Star. And as a bonus, the soundtrack contains the English version of The Silver Star's opening theme, Fighting Through the Darkness.
The vocal themes in Silver Star Story were performed in English by Jennifer Stigile. She only acted as the singing voice for Luna. In addition to being Luna's singing voice, she was also cast in the role of major antagonist, Royce. Stigile, who currently goes by Jenny Magallanes, has been a vocalist for the North American releases of the Lunar series since the original Eternal Blue for the Sega CD. Including the Playstation Portable release of the game, Silver Star Harmony.
Lunar is a series that relies heavily on music to tell its story. Silver Star Story doesn't simply retell the story of The Silver Star through dialogue. It retells the story through its new soundtrack as well. And while it was intended for the Silver Star Story's score to replace The Silver Star, Victor Ireland wanted to bridge the gap between what was composed for The Silver Star, and what was composed for Silver Star Story Complete. With the subtle additions in the game's cutscenes, and with the soundtrack included with every release of the game. Silver Star Story Complete took the concept of music enhancing the gaming experience, and magnified it in a way where music, as Ireland states, became the world of Lunar.
PaRappa the Rapper (Playstation), composed by Masaya Matsuura
http://shmuplations.com/parappa/
Matsuura began his professional career as part of Japanese pop/rock group, Psy-S. Psy-S achieved success throughout the 80s and 90s until their break-up in 1996. After the break-up, Matsuura would end up achieving even more success as a game developer. In an interview with Japan's Playstation Magazine, translated by shmuplations, Matsuura reveals that he had always wanted to make a music game. When experimenting with different ways to approach a music game, he felt that the rap genre best matched what he had envisioned.
As a musician, he also wanted to make a game that didn't use MIDI technology, something that nearly every video game composer had to rely on at the time. For PaRappa the Rapper, he wanted the music to be built around samplers. Samplers are a type of synthesizer used commonly in rap music to create a real, authentic recording sample of music instruments, or recorded songs. Samplers were just part of what made rap music what it is. The other part was the freestyle, the unrestricted rhythm from the vocals layered onto the music, and the interactivity between performer and performance. Going back to the samples: Chop Chop Master Onion's rap uses drum riffs from the song "The Assembly Line" from The Commodores, and Instructor Mooselini's rap uses the same piano riff from the song Turtles Have Short Legs from Can.
The actual songs in the game were written by Ryo Watabe, who was the performer for characters Joe Chin, and arguably one of the most iconic characters of PaRappa the Rapper, other than Parappa himself, Chop Chop Master Onion. He also served as a temporary voice actor for the entire cast. For this game, Watabe was able to take the lyrics originally written in Japanese, and quickly come up with an English rap for the scenario on the spot. All of the recordings of these raps were done live. Some of the rough takes recorded during scenario meetings ended up in the actual game. Watabe credits this talent with his experiences as an English interpreter for CNN. He got involved in PaRappa the Rapper through a friend who he was helping produce an album with. He thought that as a Playstation game, it would be a flop. But it didn't matter to him because it was a game about rap. That concept alone convinced him to support it, regardless of how he thought the game would do. Watabe even came up with PaRappa's popular catchphrase, I Gotta Believe. It was originally intended to be the title of his first album. It was inspired by the motto of his high school's football team. The rest of the performers include Saundra Williams as Instructor Mooselini, Lenky Don as Prince Fleaswallow, Michele Burks as Cheap Cheap the Cooking Chicken, Richard Bush as MC King Kong Mushi, and Dred Foxx as PaRappa the Rapper himself.
PaRappa the Rapper was an innovation for the music game genre, an innovation for video games in general, and served as one of the games that helped bring more attention to the PlayStation, establishing it as legitimate competition to the Nintendo and Sega.
Mario Kart 64 (Nintendo 64), composed by Kenta Nagata
After Super Mario Kart innovated the racing game genre with it's kart racing mechanics and arcade-style accessability, it was time for the franchise to make the jump to the brand new Nintendo 64. One of the biggest improvements from Super Mario Kart to Mario Kart 64 was the number of different race tracks. Each of the four cups offered unique race tracks from one another. No one track had multiple variations to it. Because of this, the number of pieces composed for the game, especially the race tracks, went up significantly. Three pieces were shared across multiple race tracks though. The three raceways, and Wario Stadium shared the same piece. Moo Moo Farm and Yoshi Valley shared the same piece. And Frappe Snowland and Sherbet Land shared the same piece.
All these pieces were composed by a brand new composer, as Mario Kart 64 would be Kenta Nagata's first score. He would since be an important part of the Mario Kart series, leading up to his role as the sound director for Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Nagata believed that the score for Mario Kart 64 didn't just sound like music typical to any other racing game. He wanted to put more emphasis on the fact that this was a spin-off of the Mario franchise than the fact that this would be a successful racing game. And true to his vision, much of the soundtrack was as fun and vibrant as the Mario franchise. The approach to Mario Kart 64 was very eclectic. The vibrant tracks were supported by vibrant music, the cold tracks were supported by cold music, and the haunting tracks were supported by haunting music.
And then there's Rainbow Road. Rainbow Road is a Mario Kart tradition. It would serve as the final race of the final cup, and would often be the hardest track in the game. Soyo Oka set the standard for how the music in Rainbow Road should sound in Super Mario Kart. Not only did Nagata surpass that standard, but he also turned the Rainbow Road music into a recurring motif. The Rainbow Road's in Mario Kart Double Dash, and Mario Kart 7 each contain a partial arrangement of the Mario Kart 64 Rainbow Road theme. If you count Mario Kart 8's arrangement, the original motif for the Mario Kart 64 Rainbow Road can be heard four different times throughout the lifespan of the Mario Kart franchise. The Mario Kart 64 Rainbow Road theme also appears in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Paper Mario: Color Splash, and in the Japan-exclusive 64DD version of F-Zero X.
Mario Kart 64 elevated the fun already set by Super Mario Kart. Everything was improved. It's subjective as to which one of the game's was better than the other. But from a musical standpoint, Mario Kart 64 is one of the most influential in the franchise, all thanks to newcomer Kenta Nagata, who would continue to establish his reputation as a composer through the franchise he helped innovate.
The legacy of the Pokemon franchise could be told in the average length of an entire primer episode. Since its release, it has become a worldwide cultural phoenomenon that to this day, shows no sign of losing its relevance in pop culture, and gaming history. This legendary franchise began in 1996 with the release of the Red and Green versions of Pokemon.
Before Junichi Matsuda helped bring the Pokemon games to life, he was primarily a composer for developer Game Freak, working on notable games like Mendel Palace, Yoshi, and Pulseman. Pokemon Red/Green would be his first game as a developer. He would also serve as the composer for this game, and all main entry Pokemon titles, as well as the popular mobile game, Pokemon Go. He didn't start directing Pokemon games until the start of generation 3, with Ruby and Sapphire for the Game Boy Advance. Who better to know how the Pokemon series should sound than the guy directing them to begin with?
Matsuda draws musical inspiration from modern classical composers like Gustav Holst, Igor Stravinsky, and Dmitri Shostakovich. His earliest inspirations were from electronic music groups like Yellow Magic Orchestra, Ultravox, and the Human League. In terms of how videogame music inspired him, he was inspired by Koji Kondo's technique of having the music speed up in the Mario games when the time limit was about to expire. He was inspired by the sense of urgency that moment brought to the gaming experience. Throughout his life, he would collect albums spanning every possible genre he could get his hands on. In other words, his music tastes and inspirations could be described as very eclectic.
Jose Otero spoke with Matsuda for an article for IGN about how the music in the Pokemon series evolved. Regarding the first game, his aim was to make the soundtrack as catchy as possible, while meeting the hardware limitations of the Game Boy hardware. One trick he did to keep players from feeling like they were hearing the same piece over and over was to change the background music each time a player moved from one section of the Kanto region to another. It was his way of keeping the soundtrack sounding fresh, on a game for hardware as limited as the Game Boy was.
Pokemon has been around for 22 years. Outside of Japan, Pokemon will be celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year. Matsuda has been quintessential in bringing to life the evolving experiences of playing a Pokemon game, while simultaneously enhancing the experience of playing a Pokemon game.
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars (Super Nintendo), composed by Yoko Shimomura
Yoko Shimomura loved video game music. She could not see herself composing for any other format. Her dream genre was composing music for role playing games. Even working at Capcom, she had hoped for an opportunity to work on an RPG. She got the chance to make a tiny contribution to Capcom's Breath of Fire, before leaving Capcom to join Square. Her first compositon job for Square was Live a Live. But it wasn't until her second Square game where she would receive the most attention she had gotten for a score since the original Street Fighter II.
Role playing games were usually dramatic in their presentation. Not this one. It was still a Mario game first and foremost. So how fun the game felt dominated any of the dramatic moments in the game. The names of the pieces in the soundtrack were not meant to be taken seriously either. Many of the pieces names could be considered a bit too literal. With names like "Where am I going?" for the overworld map, "Sad song" for the heartbreaking moments, "The dungeon is full of monsters" for some of the dungeons in the game, and all the battle themese didn't share unique names. They all started with "Fight Against..." and ended with whatever the theme called for. Fight against Bowser, against monsters, against somewhat stronger monsters, against armored monsters, against Culex, against Smithy, and finally, against Smithy who likes to transform...all of which are the real names given to these pieces.
Most of the soundtrack contained original pieces from Shimomura herself. She also worked on arrangements of older Mario series pieces composed by Koji Kondo. You heard multiple different arrangements and/or callbacks to the original athletic theme from Super Mario Bros in multiple places, you heard the iconic invincibility theme whenever Mario found an invincibility star, the theme you hear when you're playing with the Geno figure contains callbacks to the Super Mario World athletic theme, you also got an arrangement of the original underground theme, and The fight against Bowser is an arrangement of the Bowser battle theme from Super Mario Bros. 3. The battle against Culex is in itself a reference to Squaresoft's popular Final Fantasy series. From the overworld sprite looking appearance when you first meet him, to the battle theme against him, which is an arrangement of Nobuo Uematsu's boss theme from Final Fantasy IV, the Final Fantasy victory theme playing when you beat him, and the Final Fantasy prelude playing when you say bye to him.
Music is also an integral sidequest in this game. In Melody Bay, you must help composer Toadofsky, a pun on the name Tchaikovsky, compose a symphony, or else he will be forced to write music for games starring a hedgehog (according to the Super Mario RPG Player's Guide, published by Nintendo Power). There are three movements that Mario must find throughout the game, with each movement rewarding Mario with a card that allows him access to more items and cheaper prices at Tadpole Pond's Juice Bar. Once all three movements have been discovered, you, the player, can compose the 4th movement any way you want. The 4th movement can be changed at anytime.
Super Maro RPG is a fun game, with a soundtrack that amplifies that fun. Shimomura has stated in interviews that she had fun working on the score for this game. Mario would eventually return to the RPG genre with the Paper Mario series, and the Mario & Luigi series. For each game in the Mario & Luigi series, Shimomura would return as the primary composer. With Shimomura at the helm, and Mario as the star attraction, the Role Playing Game genre got a fun and accessible face lift that provided one of the most memorable experiences in the final years of the 16-bit era.
Kirby Super Star (Super Nintendo), composed by Jun Ishikawa
Kirby Super Star was promoted as nearly a dozen games in one cartridge. A few of these games were fun little bonus games featuring Kirby, but most of the games in Kirby Super Star were bonafide Kirby experiences that you could play on your own, or with a friend. Each game evolved the gameplay of Kirby just a little bit. The first one, Spring Breeze, was a partial remake of Kirby's Dream Land. Dyna Blade added an overworld map, with branching paths leading to secret areas. Gourmet Race turned the Kirby experience into a one-on-one race with King Dedede. The Great Cave Offense put Kirby in an open-world Metroid-style game. Revenge of Meta Knight was a linear, but story driven experience with time limits in each area. Milky Way Wishes, the largest of the games, forces you to find copy abilities yourself, instead of simply inhaling enemies. Finally, The Arena, is a boss rush, forcing you to battle all of Kirby's major foes from the ENTIRE Super Star collection in a random order, always ending with the game's hardest enemy, Marx.
In addition to gameplay modifications, some subtle, some very obvious, each game offered a completely different musical experience. Stage themes across most of Super Star were unique, and helped differentiate each game. It wasn't until Milky Way Wishes where you heard most of the soundtrack in one place, perhaps due to Milky Way Wishes being somewhat of a compilation of everything Super Star put you through up to that point.
Kirby Super Star introduced many things to the Kirby franchise, just as Kirby's Adventure did back in 1993. This game also helped influence another major franchise directed by Kirby creator Masahiro Sakurai, the Super Smash Bros. franchise. The save point music heard during the Great Cave Offense can be heard during the All Star rest areas in Melee, and arranged in Brawl's version of the All Star mode. The Arena wouldn't become a series staple until Kirby's Return to Dream Land, where it has appeared in every installment of the Kirby series since (except Kirby and the Rainbow Curse).
Kirby Super Star was many things. It was a compilation, it was an innovation, and it was an invitation for friends to enjoy the Kirby experience together. Accompanying all that is a soundtrack that evolved with the game, rather than played it safe with recurring themes throughout.
Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64), composed by Koji Kondo
Super Mario 64 changed a lot of things in gaming. It changed the way we controlled a character, it changed the way we viewed the settings of the games we play, and it did what very few games could achieve at the time; produce a third-dimensional game that was genuinely fun to play, and would be enjoyed for a long time. The soundtrack itself wasn't a technical revolution compared to the previous three soundtracks highlighted. But the Nintendo 64 did give composers like Koji Kondo the opportunity to create pieces that sounded more realistic, and less computer-like than they did on any console released in previous generations.
Koji Kondo was the primary composer for many of Nintendo's first-party titles. His pieces in the Nintendo releases of Mario and Zelda were revolutionary, and considered far ahead of their time. He was an inspiration to many video game composers like David Wise, Nobuo Uematsu, and Yoko Shimomura. But the biggest hurdle for him was always hardware limitations. When the Nintendo 64 came along, he was finally able to make his pieces sound much more closer to what he had originally envisioned. And with the Nintendo 64, he was able to work solely on the music, and not worry about producing music AND sound effects.
The Nintendo 64 also presented the opportunity to make Kondo's soundtrack more dynamic, and varied than previous Nintendo games. Small examples include hearing a lullaby anytime you approach a sleeping pirahnna plant, and a haunting carnival organ when you enter the carousel room in Boo's haunted mansion. Larger examples of a dynamic soundtrack come from the water stages like Dire Dire Docks, and the underground stages, like Hazy Maze Cave. In the water stages, the music is soothing. But when you're not swimming around, percussion is immediately added to the piece, and then taken away once you go back in the water. In the underground stages, the music consistantly has upbeat percussion. But depending on where you were would determine the main melody. Certain areas will give you a haunting synthesized choir sound, while other, more common areas will give you an arrangement of the traditional underground theme first heard in Super Mario Bros.
With the upgraded hardware, and the extra focus on the music, Koji Kondo was able to compose a soundtrack that helped fit the mood of Super Mario 64. It was the first Mario title that allowed non-linear exploration of several 3D worlds. And of course, if you were going to spend a lot of times in these worlds (more than how long you would usually spend in previous Mario stages), you would need catchy, adventurous, and ambient music to enhance the exploration experience.
Pilotwings 64 (Nintendo 64), composed by Dan Hess
Pilotwings 64, like it's Super Nintendo predecessor, was partially developed to show off the power of the Nintendo 64. But unlike the first one, Pilotwings 64 was developed by Texas graphics design company, Paradigm Entertainment, under supervision of game director Makoto Wada, and producer Genyo Takeda. Paradigm Entertainment's experience with simulators and 3D graphics was something Nintendo needed, as they lacked the experience to produce 3D graphics at the time. Dan Hess was one of the designers of Paradigm Entertainment, who was the designer for their first simulator, Audioworks. He helped do sound design for other simulators, leading up to Paradigm Entertainment's very first commercial video game, which also ended up being Dan Hess' first project as a composer, a dream job Hess always had.
In an interview with Nintendo Life, Hess describes the development of a game soundtrack as "25% music composition, 25% sound development, 25% interfacing with team members and directors, and 25% software and system manipulation." Although the Nintendo 64 had more memory, it still wasn't enough to easily compose music. But Hess made it work, with his experience as a sound designer, and his experience as a keyboardist prior to joining Paradigm Entertainment. But as tough as composing on limited hardware was, it wasn't as tough as overcoming the culture and language barrier between Hess, and the Japanese Nintendo staff. The way Nintendo of Japan described music styles was different from how Hess would describe music styles. What ultimately helped was Wada's interest in demos Hess had produced for a prior simulator code named Magic Edge. One of the demo's he worked on ended up becoming the hang glider theme. Wada's pitch for Hess was to create pieces that were floaty and fluffy.
Hess' approach to the soundtrack ended up being taken from his own music genre influences. Soul, funk, rhythm and blues. When discussing the soundtrack with Paradigm founder Mike Engledenger, he found inspiration in composing the cannon ball theme, as well as the dynamic element to the piece by increasing the tempo significantly while being fired out of the cannon. One day, Hess had Mike listen to a bunch of grooves that were compared to the kind of music Barry White would perform. Hess would play what he described as chill, dreamy, kind of sexy grooves. These grooves combined together would wind up becoming the theme for Birdman, the hardest piece for Hess to compose.
Hess only composed one other game, F-1 World Grand Prix for the Nintendo 64. After this game, he grew frustrated with how he felt game composers treated game developers, and how the development of more powerful consoles made the skill of combining composer with sound design and integration unnecessary.
The soundtrack, with the exception of the Birdman theme, was criticized and compared negatively to lounge music. It has since become more of a cult classic among video game music enthusiasts. Although Hess' experience with video games were very minimal compared to other video game composers, his contribution to Pilotwings 64 is a memorable first impression of a soundtrack, brought together by overcoming differences in culture, the limitations of the Nintendo 64, and the determination to help Paradigm Entertainment enhance the experience of playing their very first console video game.
Nights into Dreams (Sega Saturn), composed by Tomoko Sasaki, Naofumi Hataya, and Fumie Kumatani
Sega needed an original game to help define and promote their new console. And if any game was gonna offer an experience that couldn't be replicated on the Nintendo 64, or the PlayStation, it would be this game. A game that controlled flight, with platformer style gameplay in dream-like worlds where nightmare-ish creatures infiltrate the dreams of the two protagonist children. Using the power of the jester Nights, they work together to eliminate the nightmares from potentially infecting the real world.
The music experience that went into this game could be considered top tier. The primary composer was Tomoko Sasaki, whose experience up until that point would be composing the scores of Genesis games World of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, and Ristar. We will come back to arguably her biggest contribution to the score momentarily. The second composer, Fumie Kumatani, got her start with this game. She did some arrangement work on a few of the pieces. Her actual compositions can be heard in the Elliot version of Dreaming Youngsters, Deep it Lies, and all variations of The Amazing Water. Speaking of the phrase "all variations..." the two composers were assisted by Naofumi Hataya, composer for the original Sonic CD soundtrack. And like Sonic CD, pieces of the soundtrack had multiple variations to it. In addition to arrangement work, Hataya composed all variations of Take the Snow Train, all variations of Under Construction, both variations of Nights and Reala, and the event piece, Score the Goal.
Sasaki also wrote the iconic vocal theme for the game, Dreams Dreams, a song that would ultimately define the entire series, and would appear in multiple variations throughout its history. In this game, there are two versions of Dreams Dreams. The adult version, and the child version. The only difference between the two are the vocalists. The adult version is what you would hear if you get the true ending, where you complete the game with a rank higher than a C. The adult version is performed by Dana Calitri and Curtis King Jr. Curtis King Jr is a famous background vocalist who has worked with artists like David Bowie, Duran Duran, and was a member of Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band. Dana Calitri was a backup vocalist for artists like Celine Dion, Marc Anthony, has composed for groups like *NSYNC, most notably being the composer for their holiday hit, Home for Christmas. She can even be heard in the Academy Award winning musical, Chicago.
The vocalists for the children's version were Cameron Earl Strother, who was 10 at the time, and Jasmine Allen, who was 8 at the time. Strother would continue to provide vocals for games like the English and Japanese versions of The World Ends With You for the Nintendo DS, which his sister-in-law also provided vocals for. He was also one of the vocalists for the PSP game LocoRoco. Allen was a voice actress for the second Shenmue game, as Fang Mei. She would also provide vocals for the sweet snow version of Dreams Dreams, which can be heard on the Nights sequel, Journey of Dreams, released nearly 10 years later on the Wii.
Sega also released a version of Nights into Dreams promoted in magazines called Christmas Nights into Dreams, which was basically a demo of the original game. But if played around Christmas time, it serves as an expansion to the original game. Tomoko Sasaki, and Naofumi Hataya contributed to this version of Nights. Kumatani did not. Sonic even had a cameo in the Christmas version, and to commemerate this, the Sonic CD piece, Final Fever, was brought back for the Christmas soundtrack. A version of Dreams Dreams, unique to the Christmas version, can be heard in the ending. This was an a cappella version performed by Marlon D. Saunders, featuring Issa Clemon and Gabriel Morris. His professional experience includes working with Bobby McFerin, and Dianne Reeves. He has also contributed to the soundtracks to Sega games Burning Rangers, and both Sonic Adventure games. No information on the other two vocalists could be found as of this production.
Nights into Dreams was about innocence, overcoming anxiety, and based on the lyrics to Dreams Dreams, adolescence. The gameplay was different than anything that was put on other consoles at the time, and the soundtrack combined atmosphere with dynamic pop. You also got the song Dreams Dreams, which would be arranged multiple times, and would continue to evolve from one generation to another, from the Saturn to the Wii. Truly one of the most dynamic and innovative soundtracks in the Sega library.
Sakura Wars (Sega Saturn), composed by Kohei Tanaka
Before working on Sakura Wars, which would be Tanaka's first video game score, he was a profilic composer for anime tv shows, ovas, and movies. Some of his most notible works include the original Dragon Ball, Patlabor, Gunbuster, Mobile Fighter G Gundam, Gundam 08 MS Team, and One Piece. He was also a prominant composer for the Super Sentai franchise, the franchise that would be translated overseas into the Power Rangers franchise.
Tanaka was also one of the first people to support director Shinichi Ito while developing the game. Producer Oji Hiroi, and Tanaka worked closely together to create a soundtrack that would educate the Japanese youth of music that was popular before the 90s, while simultaniously providing music that would be appropriate to the setting of the game, a fictional version of the Taisho period, which lasted from July 1912 to December 1926.
The development of the game's soundtrack also helped in the development of the game's story. When casting for the game, the actors were not only required to have some professional acting experience, but live music experience as well. It was unusual at the time for the characters to be cast before most of the game development had been completed. But it was necessary to help the music bring the game to life.
The opening theme, Geki! Teikoku Kageki-dan, was inspired by the opening theme for the 1949 film, Aoi sanmyaka. It was performed by Sakura's vocalist, Chisa Yokoyama. Yokoyama was originally cast as Iris, with Kumiko Nishihara as Sakura. But later in development, the roles were switched. Yokoyama has been acting since 1987 with her debut role as Ferris in the OVA Black Magic M-66. She has since gone on to define her career with roles like Yayoi in Robot Carnival, Haruko in Roujin Z, Lucrezia Noin in Gundam Wing, and most famously, Sasami in the Tenchi Muyo series. Recording this song was tough for Yokoyama, as it required different variations in tone, and the strength in vocals to match the mood of the song.
The ending theme, Blooming Madness, was also performed by Yokoyama, with backing vocals from the rest of the female cast. This was one of Tanaka's favorite pieces to compose, as well as one of the most emotional ones in terms of development. Emotional for both the cast, and the staff of the game.
Instead of the music enhancing the gameplay experience, the music ended up inspiring the development of the gameplay experience. The game itself, the development of the game, and the casting of the game were all considered unique for its time. With all these elements coming together, Sakura Wars, like Nights into Dreams, would become a unique gaming and musical experience for the Sega Saturn.
Lunar: Silver Star Story (Sega Saturn), composed by Noriyuki Iwadare
Victor Ireland, head translator and localizer of the game, describes the world of Lunar in one word; music. Music is the world of Lunar. And he's not wrong. Alex, the main protagonist, is an ocarina player. Luna, his childhood friend, is a singer. Luna uses the power of song to help support her allies. Her singing abilities are so powerful, it catches the attention of the main antagonist, Ghaleon. Ghaleon hopes to harness the power of Luna's singing to amplify his own power to rule the world. And it is Alex's ocarina that is used to help bring him and Luna back together, after Luna had fallen under Ghaleon's influence. From beginning to end,
music becomes very integral to the plot, and environment of Lunar.
Iwadare was only one of the composers for Lunar: The Silver Star, originally released on the Sega CD in 1992. He composed that game with Hiroshi Fujioka, and Isao Mizoguchi. For the enhanced remake, only Iwadare returned, and he composed an entirely new soundtrack to replace the score of The Silver Star. Iwadare composed the score to Silver Star Story as a way to express his own honest emotions. He composed the music before even knowing what the music would be used for in the game, with adjustments being made as the game was developed, with guidance from music director Isao Mizoguchi. Also new to the soundtrack were two vocal themes. First would be the opening theme, Tsubasa, performed by Luna's voice actress, Kyoko Hikami. Later in the game, you view a cut scene where Luna sings an intermediary song, akin to how songs were presented traditionally in musicals. This song was called Kaze no Noctune. This scene almost got cut from the game, but Mizoguchi fought to keep the scene in the midst of content from the game being scrapped for time, and/or memory.
In 1999, the game was released in the states for the Playstation as Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete. Unlike the Japanese version, which completely omitted the original Silver Star soundtrack, the North American release subtly adds callbacks to the original soundtrack. When Alex dreams about Luna during the first part of the game, you can hear a small portion of Luna's vocal song from the Sega CD soundtrack. During the scene where Xenobia, Phacia, and Royce reveal themselves to the protagonist, the Vile Tribe theme from the Sega CD soundtrack can be heard. And when Althena's Fortress crashes into the lake at the end of the game, you hear the sad piano theme from the Sega CD soundtrack. These arrangements were all done in-house at Working Designs. Victor Ireland actually wanted to replace the new soundtrack composed for Silver Star Story with new arrangements of the Silver Star soundtrack, but couldn't due to the lack of space the game had allowed after the translation was complete. However, in the soundtrack that came with the North American release of the game, you can still hear new arrangements of select pieces from The Silver Star. And as a bonus, the soundtrack contains the English version of The Silver Star's opening theme, Fighting Through the Darkness.
The vocal themes in Silver Star Story were performed in English by Jennifer Stigile. She only acted as the singing voice for Luna. In addition to being Luna's singing voice, she was also cast in the role of major antagonist, Royce. Stigile, who currently goes by Jenny Magallanes, has been a vocalist for the North American releases of the Lunar series since the original Eternal Blue for the Sega CD. Including the Playstation Portable release of the game, Silver Star Harmony.
Lunar is a series that relies heavily on music to tell its story. Silver Star Story doesn't simply retell the story of The Silver Star through dialogue. It retells the story through its new soundtrack as well. And while it was intended for the Silver Star Story's score to replace The Silver Star, Victor Ireland wanted to bridge the gap between what was composed for The Silver Star, and what was composed for Silver Star Story Complete. With the subtle additions in the game's cutscenes, and with the soundtrack included with every release of the game. Silver Star Story Complete took the concept of music enhancing the gaming experience, and magnified it in a way where music, as Ireland states, became the world of Lunar.
PaRappa the Rapper (Playstation), composed by Masaya Matsuura
http://shmuplations.com/parappa/
Matsuura began his professional career as part of Japanese pop/rock group, Psy-S. Psy-S achieved success throughout the 80s and 90s until their break-up in 1996. After the break-up, Matsuura would end up achieving even more success as a game developer. In an interview with Japan's Playstation Magazine, translated by shmuplations, Matsuura reveals that he had always wanted to make a music game. When experimenting with different ways to approach a music game, he felt that the rap genre best matched what he had envisioned.
As a musician, he also wanted to make a game that didn't use MIDI technology, something that nearly every video game composer had to rely on at the time. For PaRappa the Rapper, he wanted the music to be built around samplers. Samplers are a type of synthesizer used commonly in rap music to create a real, authentic recording sample of music instruments, or recorded songs. Samplers were just part of what made rap music what it is. The other part was the freestyle, the unrestricted rhythm from the vocals layered onto the music, and the interactivity between performer and performance. Going back to the samples: Chop Chop Master Onion's rap uses drum riffs from the song "The Assembly Line" from The Commodores, and Instructor Mooselini's rap uses the same piano riff from the song Turtles Have Short Legs from Can.
The actual songs in the game were written by Ryo Watabe, who was the performer for characters Joe Chin, and arguably one of the most iconic characters of PaRappa the Rapper, other than Parappa himself, Chop Chop Master Onion. He also served as a temporary voice actor for the entire cast. For this game, Watabe was able to take the lyrics originally written in Japanese, and quickly come up with an English rap for the scenario on the spot. All of the recordings of these raps were done live. Some of the rough takes recorded during scenario meetings ended up in the actual game. Watabe credits this talent with his experiences as an English interpreter for CNN. He got involved in PaRappa the Rapper through a friend who he was helping produce an album with. He thought that as a Playstation game, it would be a flop. But it didn't matter to him because it was a game about rap. That concept alone convinced him to support it, regardless of how he thought the game would do. Watabe even came up with PaRappa's popular catchphrase, I Gotta Believe. It was originally intended to be the title of his first album. It was inspired by the motto of his high school's football team. The rest of the performers include Saundra Williams as Instructor Mooselini, Lenky Don as Prince Fleaswallow, Michele Burks as Cheap Cheap the Cooking Chicken, Richard Bush as MC King Kong Mushi, and Dred Foxx as PaRappa the Rapper himself.
PaRappa the Rapper was an innovation for the music game genre, an innovation for video games in general, and served as one of the games that helped bring more attention to the PlayStation, establishing it as legitimate competition to the Nintendo and Sega.
Mario Kart 64 (Nintendo 64), composed by Kenta Nagata
After Super Mario Kart innovated the racing game genre with it's kart racing mechanics and arcade-style accessability, it was time for the franchise to make the jump to the brand new Nintendo 64. One of the biggest improvements from Super Mario Kart to Mario Kart 64 was the number of different race tracks. Each of the four cups offered unique race tracks from one another. No one track had multiple variations to it. Because of this, the number of pieces composed for the game, especially the race tracks, went up significantly. Three pieces were shared across multiple race tracks though. The three raceways, and Wario Stadium shared the same piece. Moo Moo Farm and Yoshi Valley shared the same piece. And Frappe Snowland and Sherbet Land shared the same piece.
All these pieces were composed by a brand new composer, as Mario Kart 64 would be Kenta Nagata's first score. He would since be an important part of the Mario Kart series, leading up to his role as the sound director for Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Nagata believed that the score for Mario Kart 64 didn't just sound like music typical to any other racing game. He wanted to put more emphasis on the fact that this was a spin-off of the Mario franchise than the fact that this would be a successful racing game. And true to his vision, much of the soundtrack was as fun and vibrant as the Mario franchise. The approach to Mario Kart 64 was very eclectic. The vibrant tracks were supported by vibrant music, the cold tracks were supported by cold music, and the haunting tracks were supported by haunting music.
And then there's Rainbow Road. Rainbow Road is a Mario Kart tradition. It would serve as the final race of the final cup, and would often be the hardest track in the game. Soyo Oka set the standard for how the music in Rainbow Road should sound in Super Mario Kart. Not only did Nagata surpass that standard, but he also turned the Rainbow Road music into a recurring motif. The Rainbow Road's in Mario Kart Double Dash, and Mario Kart 7 each contain a partial arrangement of the Mario Kart 64 Rainbow Road theme. If you count Mario Kart 8's arrangement, the original motif for the Mario Kart 64 Rainbow Road can be heard four different times throughout the lifespan of the Mario Kart franchise. The Mario Kart 64 Rainbow Road theme also appears in New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Paper Mario: Color Splash, and in the Japan-exclusive 64DD version of F-Zero X.
Mario Kart 64 elevated the fun already set by Super Mario Kart. Everything was improved. It's subjective as to which one of the game's was better than the other. But from a musical standpoint, Mario Kart 64 is one of the most influential in the franchise, all thanks to newcomer Kenta Nagata, who would continue to establish his reputation as a composer through the franchise he helped innovate.
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