Wednesday, July 6, 2016

Memorable Melodies: Map Music from Yoshi's Island


Song: Map Music (Not the actual name)
Game: Yoshi's Island
Composer: Koji Kondo

I have always, and will always have a place in my heart for Yoshi's Island. It's one of the few video games from my childhood that I have vivid memories of. Long before The Ocarina of Time doomed me to play video games for all of eternity I rented SNES games from the local Video King. On multiple occasions I picked up Yoshi's Island and tried to get Baby Mario home!

It controls like a dream, and has a distinct sense of style. We're here today to praise its music though. I love almost every song in Yoshi's Island, but its map theme sticks out to me the most. After every stage you're thrust back to the map screen so that you can pick a new stage. This wonderful music plays every time, so you hear it quite frequently. It never quite gets stale though, because it changes as you advance. Each new world adds a new layer to the song. 

If you listen from the beginning you can hear the central theme. Then the weird bongo beat makes its way into the song. Each following addition is subtle, but in the end you get what sounds like a full band playing the tune. It's a really cool effect that I think adds a lot to this otherwise simplistic song.

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