Nintedo Composers Discussion
 

Just recently I begin to love and appreciate more works from Nintendo Composers. Nintendo has several main composers which consists of Koji Kondo, Kazumi Totaka, Kenta Nagata, Hajime Wakai, and Asuka Ohta. I'm sure you have been familiar with these names already. They are the composers that cross my mind when talking about nintendo music.

Kondo is well known for composing the Mario Bros themes and Legend of Zelda music. My favorite of his discography is Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Kazumi Totaka is well known for composing the smooth theme of Animal Crossing. Kenta Nagata is known for his contribution on Legend of Zelda, the Wind Waker, his 138 Dragon Roost Island. for Hajime Wakai and Asuka Ohta, I dont have much things to say except they have done very good music in New Super Mario Bros DS.

Perhaps this is my prejudice, but I feel that Nintendo is quite strict when releasing album for their composers. While Kondo's compositions have been released numerously in the past (mario series, zelda), none of other composers have their own single albums released. I'm really looking forward for the future release of Animal Crossing though!

What do you say about these composers? Hope this could lead into good discussion. List arranged alphabetically.

-Akito Nakamura
-Asuka Ohta (The New Super Mario Bros DS)
-Dan Miyakawa (Kirby Superstar)
-Einosuke Nagao (Kirby Ghost Trap)
-Hajime Hirasawa (star Fox)
-Hajime Wakai (The New Super Mario Bros DS, Pikmin)
-Hirokazu Ando (Kirby Series)
-Hirokozu Tanaka (Balloon Fight, Mario Paint)
-Hironobu Yahata, (Mario Party 7)
-Ichiro Shimakura (Mario Party 3, and 4. Mario Party 7 sound producer)
-Jun Ishikawa (Kirby Series)
-Kazumi Totaka (Animal Crossing (K.K Music), Mario Paint)
-Keiichi Suzuki
-Ken Kojima (Red Alarm)
-Kenji Yamamoto (Metroid Prime)
-Kenta Nagata, (Animal Crossing, Hours musics)
-Koji Kondo (Mario Bros, Legend of Zelda Series)
-Kozue Ishikawa (Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening)
-Mariko Nanba (Yoshi Topsy Turvy)
-Masaru Setsumaru, (Yoshi Topsy Turvy)
-Masaru Tajima (Sawaru made in Mario)
-Masami Yone (Kirby Tilt n' Tumble)
-Minako Hamano (Link's Awakening)
-Mitsuhiko Takano (Legend of Zelda: the Minish Cap)
-Ryoji Yoshitomi (Mario Paint)
-Ryoue Takagi (Kirby's Block Ball's)
-Shinobu Tanaka (Animal Crossing, Mario Kart Double Dash!!)
-Shinya Ohtouge, (Mario Party 7)
-Sukezo Ouyama (Kirby's Block Ball's)
-Soyo Oka (Super Mario Kart)
-Taro Bando (F-ZERO X Expansion Kit)
-Takuya Maekawa (Kirby Tilt n' Tumble)
-Tatsuyuki Maeda, (Yoshi Topsy Turvy)
-Toru Minegishi (Animal Crossing)
-Yuji Tsujiyoko (Fire Emblem)
-Yuichi Ozaki (Kirby Tilt n' Tumble)
-Yumiko Kanki (F-ZERO)



*Motoi Sakuraba (Mario Tennis)
*Yoko Shimomura (Mario RPG)
*Yasunori Mitsuda (Mario Party 1, partly Mario Party 2 as well)

Jun Ishikawa and Hirokazu Ando are where it's at. :)

One thing I'm not sure about... is it Kazumi Totaka or Todaka? In the credits for games like Wave Race 64 and Yoshi's Story, I see is spelled Todaka, but everywhere else I see Totaka. Why is this?

@dhsu
I familiar with Ando (Kirby?), but Ishikawa? Which game he was working on?

@darkcomet
Probably because Totaka （おたか）might be mistaken for "Todaka"　（とだか）
the た (ta) and　だ　(da) might be mistranslated in that game. But I'm sure his name written in kanji, such mistranslation actually supposed not to happen.

Ishikawa is the main dude behind the Kirby series' music, along with Ando.

Oh thanks for noticing that. Here are several composers which are yet to be discussed:
-Einosuke Nagao
-Dan Miyakawa
-Toru Minegishi
-Akito Nakamura
-Kozue Ishikawa
-Minako Hamano
-Shinobu Tanaka
-Hirokozu Tanaka
-Ryoji Yoshitomi
-Tatsuyuki Maeda,
-Masaru Setsumaru,
-Mariko Nanba

They are found mostly in gamerips. I salute to people who could identify their names in the game.

I just noticed Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka was missing from this topic. That is a crime against humanity.

He works on Balloon Fight, Kid Icarus, Dr. Mario, Metroid, and many others are among the most famous in Nintendo History. I mean, this is a fact. Isn't he the 2nd most popular Nintendo composer ever?

He's called Kazumi Totaka. The confusion happens simply because the characters that make up his family name can be read both as Totaka and Todaka.

He's the composer of Balloon fight?! totally a crime I dont put it on the list. Balloon fight is the most memorable (and the hardest) game I ever play in the nes. I also love the theme of balloon flight very much.

Could Keiichi Suzuki be considered a "Nintendo" composer? I was never really clear that, especially since Hirokozu Tanaka appears to have contributed as well.

What about Yuji Tsujiyoko? From Fire Emblem?
Or Hajime Hirasawa? From the original StarFox?

And I believe Aya Fukuda did Mario Party 5, but the Mario Parties might technically be Hudson.

Also, I'd argue Shinobu Tanaka would be better known for Stunt Race FX (and maybe Luigi's Mansion).

Does this include Rare composers, as well?

(Wow, I edited this thing over and over...)

Personally I dont enjoy Fire emblem music too much, but I salute the composer, considering fire emblem contains around 200 music. I wonder how much time it takes to complete the scores.

Oh yeah, is mother series also considered as nintendo games?

Along with the namse that have already been mentioned, the cast of composers that comprised the Capcom Sound Team also should be included. The original Mega Man series had some amazing music. Composers such as BUNBUN, Mari and Yuko (forgive me for not knowing their real names) really brought the Blue Bomber to life with their music.

Tim Follin is another composer that needs to be mentioned. His music in games such as Silver Surfer, Treasure Master, Sky Shark, Solstice and many others were very good. It's a shame he's not composing anymore.

In the future I will just add the link to tracks done by those composers individually. Oh yeah, I miss the name for composer of Pikmin, Legend of Zelda Link's awakening, Oracle of Season & Ages, and minish cap. Anyone could recall the names?

Pikmin was done by Hajime Wakai. Mitsuhiko Takano did Minish Cap. Link's Awakening was composed by Minako Hamano, Kozuo Ishikawa and Kazumi Totaka. I'm not sure who did the Oracle games.

I've been trying to find that out too...currently it's only attributed to "Pure Sound Inc."

But Capcom isn't Nintendo. I believe this topic is for Nintendo-produced games.

Also, Mitsuda was the main composer for Mario Party 1, not 3. I believe he also did many songs in MP2 as well.

Ichiro Shimakura is the main composer for MP3 and MP4. Did he really work on MP7? It doesn't show at all :(

It seems like he only worked as Sound Producer on 7. Hironobu Yahata and Shinya Ohtouge are the credited composers.

ok, fixed. ;)

Just my opinion, but I think Koji Kondo and Kazumi Totaka style really similar to each other. Or is that happened because Nintendo's games policy which only release games for adult-friendly segment? I have listened Animal crossing, Legend of Zelda, and many other franchises, they all have general similarities of being simple and melodious, and most are fillers. It felt very different if we compare to other games such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Well, perhaps that what distinguish nintendo music from other game musics.

My favorite discography of Koji Kondo is obviously LoZ:OoT OST. I love all of the music. The Hyrule Symphony [ZMCX-102] is my most favorite of LoZ arrangement album.:)

Best 2 on the list, hands down.

My addition to the list: Ken Kojima. He's responsible for the soundtracks to a few Virtual Boy games developed by T&E Soft, most notably Red Alarm. Awesome, bizarre music that game has.

I don't think this text is quite large enough.

Jun Ishikawa and Hirokazu Ando are where it's at.

HAL sound staff for the fucking win. And not just the Kirby series; Arcana has an excellent soundtrack and Alcahest and Hyper Zone are pretty good too.

All Kirby games but two were worked on by Ishikawa or Ando (or both). Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble was done by Takuya Maekawa, Yuichi Ozaki, and Masami Yone, but that game's music is terrible so we can disregard it. Kirby's Block Ball's music was done by Sukezo Ouyama and Ryoue Takagi. Bloody fantastic job they did too; KBB has my favorite GB/GBC soundtrack in the Kirby series. Ouyama has no credits anywhere else, but Takagi has a rather eclectic group of other soundtracks worked on: Resident Evil Zero, Dragon Quest VIII (not Nintendo, clearly), and the GBA remake of FFIV.

Depends on how far we're extending the definition of "Nintendo composer." We seem to be counting second-party developers since the Kirby series is on the list, so Ape, Inc. and Mother 1/2 seem to fall under the umbrella.

HAL and Ape, along with Intelligent Systems, don't really fall under the 2nd party category as they're all in-house development teams.

Intelligent Systems is in-house, but HAL is still second-party unless Nintendo acquired them without informing me. They started off as an MSX developer, actually. Probably their best known MSX games are the first two games in the Eggerland series, whose most famous member is Adventures of Lolo for the NES.

I certainly can't disagree with this.

I'm not so sure. There weren't ever any credits given for Kirby's Pinball Land, so I don't really know if either of them were involved with that game. And Kirby & the Amazing Mirror's credits list Hironobu Inagaki and Atsuyoshi Isemura under Sound.

The rip I have for Kirby's Pinball Land is tagged as being composed by Jun Ishikawa, although now that you mention it, I don't recall ever coming across credits in KPL. The game just loops after you beat Board 4 if I remember correctly (if).

Hmm, that's the fault of the GSF set, which credits Ishikawa. Checking out the credits at MobyGames, you are indeed correct. Thanks. :)