Koji Kondo’s favorite Zelda overworld theme is from Ocarina of Time
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, General Nintendo, News | 5 Comments
Koji Kondo has been making Zelda music ever since the series’ first entry. As such, you might be curious as to which game takes the top spot as Kondo’s favorite overworld theme.
That honor goes to Zelda: Ocarina of Time. In an interview with Polygon, Kondo spoke about how he “broke it into 8-bar sections and there was some random phrasing that was implemented so that the melody would be changed up.” He hoped to create a track that players wouldn’t get “tired of listening to”.
Below are Kondo’s full words:
“That’s a tough question. Looking back, I think the version that we used in Ocarina of Time. …this is the overworld theme that we’re talking about here.”
“For Ocarina, we wanted something that didn’t play so often that players got tired of listening to it. So I broke it into 8-bar sections and there was some random phrasing that was implemented so that the melody would be changed up. Again, these are 8-bar sections that I created to all work together, but when combined, they change, and there’s some random stuff going on there. I really like the way that worked out.”
Majora’s Mask 3D music has been cleaned up but is the same, Kondo supervising Zelda Wii U theme
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Wii U | 8 Comments
Another new Koji Kondo interview has popped up online, this time coming from GameSpot.
Kondo was asked about a number of topics. He answered some general questions as well as ones that were a bit game-specific. Naturally, Zelda was one of the franchises GameSpot brought up.
When asked if The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D will feature music that is mostly the same as the original, Kondo responded:
Actually, with Majora, we thought it was really important to protect the feeling of the game because the music was tied so well to the original gameplay. We’ve done some clean up on the audio quality, but the music itself we haven’t changed.
We did some rebalancing, of course, to make it sound good on the Nintendo 3DS. Before you were hearing it out of you TV speakers, and we just needed to do some rebalancing for that now that it’s on a handheld.
Nintendo Minute – chatting with Koji Kondo
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 1 Comment
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Koji Kondo on the difficulty making Super Mario Bros. 3’s theme, why the title screen didn’t have music
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In a recent interview with USgamer, Koji Kondo was asked about what soundtrack/piece of music gave him the most difficulty. Kondo pointed to one game: Super Mario Bros. 3.
As he explained:
The most challenging [piece] was the main theme for Super Mario Bros. 3. The [original] Super Mario theme itself was almost a little too empowering. That indelible impression it left in the user’s mind with how it matched up with what Mario was doing on the screen—that was a big mountain to climb when we started working on the music to Super Mario 3. I remember creating lots of different music in different styles, trying to come up with something that would match that game and be different enough from the original Super Mario theme. It was tough. It took me a long time to come up with something I thought would work, and it was really me and Mr. Miyamoto and Mr. Tezuka—the three of us—right up until the very last stages of development, listening to all of these different music pieces that I created, before we finally settled on what we ended up using.
Any time you’re working off of existing music, and you’re revamping it for the next title, that’s just always a tough gig. And that’s true for every title, starting from the first [one]. It’s tough for me, of course, but maybe even more so for the people on my staff, who are working on different arrangements of music they didn’t even compose. They’re working on music that I composed, and now they’re having to go back and do some rearranging to match [music from] current games. So if it’s tough for me, I think it’s even tougher for them.
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Koji Kondo shares music trivia about various Nintendo games
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, News | 4 Comments
IGN just published another interview with Koji Kondo, the man behind much of the famous music in Nintendo’s games. You can find the full discussion here, though we’ve pulled out a few excerpts below.
What you’ll find after the break is music trivia about various Nintendo games. Kondo shared tidbits about games like Super Mario Bros., Super Mario 3D World, and more. You’ll also find some comments about why he wanted the Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D development team to stay faithful to the sound from the original game.
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Koji Kondo talks music in Mario Maker – “robust sound editing functions”, but no music creation
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 16 Comments
IGN has published a short interview with Koji Kondo, who is heavily involved with the music-side of Mario Maker. Check out his comments below.
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The Game Awards 2014 – Imagine Dragons and Zelda with Koji Kondo
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Videos | 0 comments
Photos: Koji Kondo’s trip to Las Vegas for The Game Awards
Posted on 9 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in General Nintendo, Images | 0 comments
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Super Mario 3D World composers – Koji Kondo worked on a couple of songs, no remixed music from Super Mario World, more
Posted on 10 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Wii U | 0 comments
Destructoid recently had the chance to speak with the Super Mario 3D World composers – specifically Mahito Yokota and Koji Kondo. You can check out their responses after the break. Also be sure to check out Destructoid’s full article here.
