Official(?) Nintendo Consoles Music Thread v2.0

Another music time period, another set of comments from me!

Feedback:

I've tried listening to some of Spla2n's soundtrack on YouTube, but much like the original, most of it hasn't clicked with me. However, I actually quite like Ebb and Flow. The lyrics still aren't really my thing, hence me not introducing it in Jay's thread, but I really like what it does from 0:45 onwards. So, cautiously optimistic I'll be able to find some bits of Spla2n music that Drunka doesn't chastise me for.

I saw a bunch of tracks from Xenoblade 2 pushed to my Switch news feed. All four featured tracks are worth a listen, but I'd like to highlight the battle theme in particular. Whilst it starts off far too busy for my tastes, it launches into a damn catchy tune. This is going to implant itself firmly in my head over the course of X2 I reckon!

Maybe I've not given that one enough of a chance then: definitely thought it sounded too busy when I listened to it. On the other hand, I really like Action Activation. It sounds like a boss theme, or a cut-scene theme, or something, but it's got a whole rainbow of moods that fit together really well. All the while with a general undercurrent of epic.

GNamer Music Week 152: Wii Music: Wii Muzak

Fair enough, Matthew Castle was clearly talking bollocks when he gave Wii Music 89 in NGamer Magazine ten years back. But Wii Music has it's charms, and I think it's a Wii game that's well worth having. One of my favourite things about it is the endearingly naff remixes of traditional songs and pop tunes from ages ago. No joke, I think the most recent stuff is older than all of us put together. It's such an unfashionable setlist, and it's recorded in such an unrefined way. But that's why I love it! Anyway, here's some of Wii Music's best.

5. Please Mr. Postman

The Carpenter's version of this is a proper anthem of our childhoods. Everybody fucking loves Please Mr. Postman, but this is a wee bit pants. It's quintessentially and lovably Wii Music though: "a wee bit pants".

4. Happy Birthday To You

Belter. Imagine singing Happy Birthday to someone, to this tune. 'HaaaPPYYY bbbIIIIIIRRRRTTTThhdAAAAAy TTTTTo Yyyyooooouuuuuuuuuuuuuu...!!!'

3. Do-Re-Mi

Doe-a-Deer-Mother of God.

2. Every Breath You Take

LOL. This was programmed by someone who's never heard Every Breath You Take Before. I couldn't have guessed that this was The Police.

1. Frère Jacques

An exceptional, first-rate, high-quality rendition of Frère Jacques here. It's so inexplicably melancholy, it makes me sad just thinking about. This needed to be in Breath of the Wild, to add atmosphere.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Doe-a-Deer-Mother of God.

Quality line

Quote :

2. Every Breath You Take

This reminds me of either a ringtone you'd buy through an ad at the back of an old magazine, or a shit karaoke version that leaves you wondering if they really have the rights to all these songs or if they just made their own vague backing tracks and downloaded the lyrics from google.

All of those covers conjured up memories of this beautiful piece I found on YouTube late one night:

That is superb & I now want one of those instruments.

Sonnez la matine, sonnez la matine... sorry. I've never experienced Wii Music before because it sounded like it wouldn't be my thing and this has done nothing to persuade me otherwise. That's not to say it wasn't a whole heap of fun, though - every single one sounded like it was a backing track on a synthesiser. Utterly bizarre, but educational.

Class week! I stumbled across this version of Happy Birthday which I think is even 'better'. Every Breath You Take is sublimely butchered, but I absolutely agree with Cappa's summary of Frère Jacques. It makes life seem a little bit less worth living.

Balladeer wrote:

I stumbled across this version of Happy Birthday which I think is even 'better'.

First one to use that in the birthday thread wins a prize!

One day I'll pick up Wii Music, and see if I can encourage a couple of musical friends/family members to collaborate, possibly tipsily, on the most face-melting deconstruction of Swan Lake. Different from Madness' version.

Oh, and the Otomatone is the worst crime against music that has ever occurred.

Zero thinks the music of EO's a bit of a non-entity.  I think it's pretty fine.  Who's correct?  There's only one way to find out: FIGHT throw it open to the forum for their views.


Kalari Woodsea



Of all the desert exploration themes, this is my favourite.  The opening one is pretty epic, but Kalari Woodsea has that edge of trepidation in an otherwise triumphant theme that highlights both danger, and adventure.  And when the strings kick in... masterful.


The Forgotten Forest



Not much to say about this one.  It's just a nice dungeon theme, and I really like the viol-alike instrument that plays towards the end of the loop.


Battle Theme 2



The standard battle theme is fine.  Nothing to write home about, it does the job.  But when you reach a certain point in the game, it becomes this.  You're much more powerful by then, and the music definitely makes you feel it!  TO ARMS!  Er, or bolas, bows, wands etc.


Oasis (Night)



To finish off, my favourite.  It's just a really sweet calming tune.  Granted, it has bells in, and y'all know I love the bells.  But I think it's lovely.  Up there with Verdanturf and Sootopolis from Pokémon in the Best Town Tunes stakes.

I definitely "get" the in-town Oasis one.





I'm having trouble thinking of how to pad this post out!

Here's a bloody excellent Breath of the Wild cover medley.

Balladeer wrote:

Battle Theme 2

This was a good'n but none of the others particularly grabbed me, I'm afraid.

As one of the only two people who commented on them, Jimmers, I'm grateful to you, padding or no padding.

Drunka, I'm guessing that's for the same reason as always - but cheers for giving them the time of day, nonetheless. That was my least favourite of the four/five. Tastes...

To be fair, I didn't give them a very long listen. I'll try letting them play out, see if they get more interesting. Maybe this is a case of you being more like myself, and liking the music because of the gameplay it went along with?

Ah - I actually think the battle theme starts off well, then loses its way a bit, so that's probably why. Can't deny that may have had an effect, but at the same time, tunes like Kalari and the town at night grabbed me from the first few bars. (And the gameplay in EO isn't mind-bending, it's the charm - of which the music is part - that I most liked about it. I am loving that word today...)

I'm afraid to report that none of those tunes changed my mind on the game's music. However, the Forgotten Forest tune had more subtlety to it than I originally thought. So that's good.

Okay friends.

Here it is.

Put on your wellies. Unfold the tent. Crack open the ciders.

Drunka's Music Festival 2017: Marioapaluigilooza



Super Mario Odyssey is out in one week, and all of you are gonna be playing it while I'm probably gonna be stepping away from the internet slightly.
Before that, though, let us engage in a big celebratory Mario Music Marathon.
Last year, I anticipated the release of Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon with Drunka's Music Festival 2016: Pokémonathonatronamonatron! This year, we're doing Mario.

The schedule is as follows:

Friday 20th Pre-NES

Spoiler:

Saturday 21st NES

Spoiler:

Sunday 22nd SNES/ Game Boy

Spoiler:

Monday 23rd N64/ Game Boy Colour

Spoiler:

Tuesday 24th Gamecube/ Game Boy Advance

Spoiler:

Wednesday 25th Wii/ DS

Spoiler:

Thursday 26th Wii U/ 3DS

Spoiler:

Friday 27th Launch day!

So just like with the Pokémon week, every day I'll post my top five tracks from the various games included in that generation, I'll add in some bonus non-game or comedy bits and bobs, and we'll all celebrate the fabulous music of Koji Kondo and pals! I hope lots of you join in, or at the very least listen along and have a good bop of the head.

I did wonder whether something like this would be happening! But then there was no Drunka for a while and I wasn't sure... I'm probably going to be taking over the last day as I blitz everybody with Mario & Luigi Update musics, there are some grand tunes made even better in that game. But I'll have something to contribute every day, I'm sure... bar the first.

Balladeer wrote:

there was no Drunka for a while and I wasn't sure...

Regular 50-to-70-hour weeks and a Windows 10 update that bricks your laptop can have that effect, unfortunately.

I'm looking forward to this. BUT. Where's the CD-i day?

Drunka's Music Festival 2017: Marioapaluigilooza
Day one: The pre-NES years



Everybody here knows how important Super Mario Bros was and what it meant for the medium we all know and love today, but it didn't emerge miraculously from nowhere like Anakin Skywalker. The seminal side scroller has a storied lineage in both directions, and Nintendo's work between their 1800s origins as Hanafuda card makers and their subsequent conquering of the home gaming market shouldn't be overlooked.

Donkey Kong on Various machines

So, and this will be a bit of a theme today sorry, this isn't necessarily good music but just an interesting thing to check out. Donkey Kong was ported by third parties to loads of Nontendo machines and it is kinda weird to see.

25 Metres Donkey Kong, Arcade

This is the progenitor of all those catchy level music themes in Mario games over the years. There's not a huge amount to it, but that upbeat sound that will come to define the portly Italian American's career is already there. As the game's were ported to NES they gained slightly more involved and memorable soundtracks, supposedly keyed by Miyamoto himself.

Title Screen Mario Bros., Arcade - Yukio Kaneoka

A jaunty little introductory theme. It inexplicably becomes a clubland classic in Super Smash Bros Brawl.

75 Metres Donkey Kong, Arcade

What interests me in this one is that the spring sound effects are just a part of the backing tracks. It makes sense now that I think about it, the sound effect is constant and the game couldn't have multiple sound tracks. Make u think

Opening Donkey Kong Junior, Arcade

An appropriately dark and brooding theme for Mario's one appearance as a villain. Orchestral, gothic and exquisite.
Here it is being played on an organ.


Greatest non-game song of the era: This advert for Mario Brothers on Atari.

That Mario Bros. intro. genuinely still holds up today!  Which is something of a surprise.  And that seems to be the general theme: intros. still okay (even if in some cases that's Bach being a genius-of-his-time rather than anything else), background music all but non-existent. Of historical interest only.

Bring on tomorrow? :shrink:

The Donkey Kong on various formats video was fascinating, if a little challenging to the ears. Looking forward to further history being unfolded in the very near future.