Wednesday, February 15, 2017

MIDI Week Singles: "Underworld BGM" - Kid Icarus (NES)


"Underworld BGM" from Kid Icarus on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1986)
Album: No Official Soundtrack Release
Developer: Nintendo R&D1


This morning, I realized that we had not covered any of the music from Kid Icarus, and I can tell you it was not out of spite from being constantly turned into a fleeing eggplant with legs either.  Stupid Eggplant Wizard.

I decided on "Underworld BGM" partly because it is the first world music you hear after the intro music.  For me, when I hear the first notes at 0:03, I immediately recall playing this game at Delaños' house seeing as he owned the game although I would trade/borrow it from him from time to time.  Although, until I picked the game up on my 3DS, I don't think I often made it far enough to reach the Eggplant Wizard (who first appears in Stage 1-4), so maybe I am just recalling Delaños' frustration?

But let's talk about "Hip" Tanaka's musics for "Underworld BGM" in Kid Icarus.  When I thought about using this music, my first thought was, "Kid Icarus was Hirokazu Tanaka right?  It has that Metroid feel both in game and in music."  And although I don't think that I could tell you stylistically Hirokazu's sound differs from, say, Koji Kondo, but the tones just sound like they just belong to Mr. Tanaka.  Maybe it's that early NES, semi-arcade tone to the music?  I really don't have a developed idea on this part aside from, "Well, it sounds like something he'd write."

So this is "Underworld BGM" from the 1986 NES release of Kid Icarus.  The rest of the soundtrack (of which no official soundtrack was released, although there was a Metroid / Kid Icarus orchestral album that was released in 1987 in Japan).  If you have never played the game, I highly recommend it (even though I myself have never beaten the game; stupid Eggplant Wizard) either in its original NES format or the updated and 3Dified 3D Classics - Kid Icarus from the Nintendo eShop.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

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