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.

Memorable Melodies: Kokiri Forest from The Legend of Zelda (Ocarina of Time)

Song: Kokiri Forest

Game: The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

Composer: Koji Kondo

This is a song that most people alive in the mid 90's have heard before. At this point I feel like the Ocarina of Time is so iconic that everyone on the planet has played it at least once. This is obviously hyperbole, but this video game has reached a level of reverence and cultural significance most other games can only dream of. It was revolutionary at the time and is still considered to be the best video game of all time by many. I don't want to have that discussion right now, but I do think that it's one of the most memorable video game experiences I've ever had.

I didn't get a Nintendo 64 until a year or so after Ocarina of Time came out. A few of my friends had the game and would often let me play it. Due to the fact that the game wasn't mine the save I used never lasted very long. This meant that I had to play through the opening of the game an insane amount of times. It's probably the video game I've played the beginning of most in my life. This means that the Kokiri Forest song is burned into my brain for life.

Link wakes up in his crazy forest hut and this quirky tune starts right up. It's fun and upbeat. The perfect way to start an adventure!

Memorable Melodies: Bob-omb Battlefield from Super Mario 64

Song: Bob-omb Battlefield

Game: Super Mario 64

Composer: Koji Kondo

This week I decided to continue the trend of putting up songs I like to whistle to. My last summer of high school and during my college breaks I would work at my uncle's convenience store. It sounds cool, but I mostly sorted cans of stale beer. I don't know if you know what stale beer smells like, but I can assure you that it's heinous! One of the songs that I took to whistling all the time while performing the gross task was Bob-omb Battlefield. 

There's something that tends to stick with me about songs that appear near the beginnings of games. For those of you who are unfamiliar Super Mario 64 sees Mario trying to rescue princess peach by jumping into the paintings of her castle to collect stars. The first world Mario jumps into is Bob-omb Battlefield, which is where this classic jam plays. It's very upbeat, which is totally at odds with the bob-ombs falling down all around Mario as he tried to traverse the mountain. Mario is like that though. Tons of awful stuff happens, but he's always down for it. He needs to rescue the princess, even if he has to beat up a bunch of bombs with faces.

I never owned my own copy of Super Mario 64, so I would always play at a friend's house. Most of the time I would have my file erased for some reason, so I would always start right back at Bob-omb Battlefield. Classic.

Now I can't stop whistling this song again. I did this to myself.