"Brinstar (Rock Stage)" from Metroid on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1986)
Composer: Hirokazu (Hip) Tanaka
Label: Scitron Discs / MegaHouse Corporation
Developer: Nintendo Research & Development 1 / Intelligent Systems
Well, today's musical choice has us landing on one of the standards in early video game music, the theme from "Brinstar" in Metroid.
One of the interesting things, for me at least, is that the official title on the soundtrack has it listed as "Rock Stage," which really isn't a surprise considering that most, if not all of Brinstar is made up of what appears to be 8-bit rocks. This is opposed to Norfair which is the fire stage. . .and bubbles too apparently.
As far as the soundtrack goes, I was actually surprised to find out that in 2004, an official soundtrack for the 16 minutes and 23 seconds of music Hirokazu Tanaka composed for Metroid, although there were orchestral soundtracks released in Japan back in '87. One would think that the Brinstar theme would have had a much larger impact on the world of video game music than it apparently has, or maybe I am just not looking hard enough? Although I do recall reading (somewhere? maybe?) that the Metroid series never saw the popularity in Japan that is has here in the States.
Well, for now, let us revel in Hirokazu Tanaka's wonderful composition that, while not Samus' theme (which is another song altogether from composers Minako Himano and Kenji Yamamoto), is a song that I have come to strongly identify with the Metroid series.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
No comments:
Post a Comment