Because of a MIDI Week Singles I did a while back about a song that lasted about 10 seconds, I bring to you a Game Scores (sadly we haven't posted one since October of 2014). And those of you with some musical knowledge will know that the logo has spoiled over 50% of what I am going to cover here today.
Excitebike, which came out on the Nintendo Entertainment System back in 1984 has a measly six tracks, all of which are under 10 seconds in length. Seriously. Go back and play the game (NES, Virtual Console, 3DS), or just listen to the video below. That's it for music. There are sound effects during the actual race, but that amounts to the "Brbrbrbrbrbrbrbrb" of the engine (higher pitched if you're using the boost), the "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh" of the crowd, the "bldop" when you ride over a jump/ramp, the "rdhrdhrdhrdh" while riding through a dirt patch, the "ringringringring" when your engine overheats, and the "blblblblblblblb" of the bike crashing.
So why showcase a game from 31 years ago that has less than a minutes worth of music!? Well, if you are at all familiar with Excitebike, you already know that those eight seconds of title music (re-used as the 2nd, 3rd and disqualifying music with subtle variations) is a damn fine bit of music writing.
So today I give you the entirety of the music to Excitebike composed by famed early Nintendo composer Akito Nakatsuka. The tracks played are as follows:
0:00 - 0:09.8 ~ Title
0:09.8 - 0:18 ~ Select Track
0:18 - 0:26.66 ~ First Place
0:26.66 - 0:35.72 ~ Second Place
0:35.72 - 0:44.51 ~ Third Place
0:44.51 - 0:53.65 ~ Disqualified
You get the idea. There are three songs, with one song modified two additional times, but ever so slightly that you may not even catch it if you're not paying attention or just overjoyed that you eked out a third place victory and not 13th; I don't think I've ever scored 4th place, just 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and some other double digit number with 3 in it.
While writing this short article, I was unable to locate any interviews that Akito Nakatsuka did regarding either Excitebike or other early compositions for Nintendo, so I am unable to elaborate as to his choices for the music presented here.
The only negative thing I can say about this music, is that I don't feel it as music that is associated with a motorbike race. It works perfectly as an arcade intro as the music does for so many early video games, but when listened to by itself, I don't conjure the image of multiple racers riding over dirt ramps and through mud pits trying to knock over the person behind them all while carefully monitoring your heat gauge.
But hey, it's still damn catchy all by itself.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Maple Nut Crunch
So today I give you the entirety of the music to Excitebike composed by famed early Nintendo composer Akito Nakatsuka. The tracks played are as follows:
0:00 - 0:09.8 ~ Title
0:09.8 - 0:18 ~ Select Track
0:18 - 0:26.66 ~ First Place
0:26.66 - 0:35.72 ~ Second Place
0:35.72 - 0:44.51 ~ Third Place
0:44.51 - 0:53.65 ~ Disqualified
You get the idea. There are three songs, with one song modified two additional times, but ever so slightly that you may not even catch it if you're not paying attention or just overjoyed that you eked out a third place victory and not 13th; I don't think I've ever scored 4th place, just 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and some other double digit number with 3 in it.
While writing this short article, I was unable to locate any interviews that Akito Nakatsuka did regarding either Excitebike or other early compositions for Nintendo, so I am unable to elaborate as to his choices for the music presented here.
The only negative thing I can say about this music, is that I don't feel it as music that is associated with a motorbike race. It works perfectly as an arcade intro as the music does for so many early video games, but when listened to by itself, I don't conjure the image of multiple racers riding over dirt ramps and through mud pits trying to knock over the person behind them all while carefully monitoring your heat gauge.
But hey, it's still damn catchy all by itself.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Maple Nut Crunch
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