MIDI Week Singles: "Stage 2 - Town" - Sword Master (NES)

"Stage 2 - Town" from Sword Master on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1990)

Composer: Shotaro Sasaki

Album: No Official Album Release

Developer: Athena

Sword Master is a game that Dr. Potts and I pined over after the spread that Vol. 23 of Nintendo Power gave it back in April of 1991.  It was a game that looked like a combination of Castlevania and The Legend of Zelda: The Adventure of Link.  The game was eventually released in North America in January 1992, but neither of us could locate it either at any of our local rental stores, or video game retailers.  It wasn't until sometime around 2005 when Dr. Potts had purchased a Dreamcast for the sole purpose of playing emulated NES games that I was finally able to play this one game that I so longed to even see in person.  

I made it to the second stage, but only barely.  And after that I didn't make it much further; and after watching a bit of game play, I can see why.  Also, why equip your player with a shield if that shield is useless?  At least Link's shield in The Adventure of Link had some use in the early stages of the game.

That second stage, was the setting for this music.  Now, when I think of a Town theme, something along the lines of "Kakariko Village" from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, or even "The Silence of the Daylight," which is the village theme from Castlevania II: Simon's Quest.  What immediately strikes me about the town theme from Sword Master is that everything in this town is not alright.  It is almost as if you can hear how the theme might have gone if the town had not been corrupted by the evil wizard and his summoned demon (because early '90s video game plots are awesome).  I like the idea of a theme being perverted by the corrupting evil, and to me, this song is the result of that corruption.

~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian

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