Memorable Melodies: Main Theme from Luigi's Mansion

Song: Main Theme

Game: Luigi's Mansion

Composer: Kazumi Totaka

Last night I stayed up way too late playing Tricky Towers online multiplayer with a few of my friends. It's a cool Tetris-like game where you use Tetris blocks, but need to think about physics in order to build a tower. There are very few musical tracks in the game, so eventually I started to whistle along, or so I thought. Much to my surprise the song from Tricky Towers never came out, and instead I ended up whistling the main theme of Luigi's Mansion. 

I first played Luigi's Mansion right around when it came out. One of my best friend's at the time was given a Gamecube by his parents to celebrate some major life event I can't recall. Sadly he ended up with no games, so we had to go and rent some. We ended up getting Luigi's Mansion and we tried to complete it in a single night. As an added challenge bonus he didn't have a memory card either, so we had to leave the game running the whole time. When it was time for me to go we hadn't completed it, so I still have never seen the end of Luigi's Mansion.

Having only really played the game once I don't know why I remember the music from it so vividly. Perhaps it's because I always liked how Luigi would hum along to the music as he went around the mansion trying to nab ghosts. 

Note: I feel like I've put songs up called Main Theme a lot on this feature. I don't know why these songs don't get real names. It's kind of lame.

Memorable Melodies: Animal Crossing Theme from Animal Crossing

Song: Animal Crossing Theme

Game: Animal Crossing

Composer: Kazumi Totaka

Note: I looked all over to see if this song had an actual name. I could find no conclusive evidence, other than the name Animal Crossing theme listed on an OST of the original game. That's what I'm going with here.

Today it was super hot out. It finally feels like Summer. For most people Summer comes with fond memories of playing outside with friends. Sure I have those memories, but I was a weird kid and spent a lot of time inside playing Animal Crossing. The game initially released in the U.S. on the Gamecube in April of 2,001. Even though the content of the original game is quite thin I found myself playing it well into the summer months.

I can't properly articulate why I fell in love with Animal Crossing. On a family vacation my parents were nice enough to pick me up an issue of Nintendo Power to read on the long car ride. Within the magazines pages I read all about Animal Crossing and was fascinated. I am a huge fan of video games that try to emulate real life, and real life activities. The fact that the game ran in real time blew my 11 year old mind open. I mean come on, the Animals would continue to do stuff even when the game wasn't on. That's so cool!

Before the games release I had spent a great deal of time thinking about how I would get my animal friends to like me and plan out exactly how I would decorate my dope house. See, because that's all Animal Crossing really is. You walk around, water flowers, pick fruit, do basic fetch quests, collect things, and decorate a house. If there's a new Animal Crossing release you can bet that I'm going to get in on it. With each new iteration Nintendo adds many new features that add to the depth and keep players coming back for more. 

When I think back to the original Animal Crossing I can't fathom how I put hundreds of hours into it. I did though. I ran around all summer catching bugs and fishing in my towns lake! That's why I'll never forget this song. In fact, I think I'm going to boot this up and see how all the denizens of my town are doing...