These were the best SNES music tracks.
Over the past few years, music in video games has come a long way. Even though technological advances have led to great music in games today, you can still find good music on older systems like the Super Nintendo (SNES), which only has 16-bit sound.
Even though the SNES had a 16-bit DSP and DAC, all of a game’s audio had to fit on 64k of RAM. This meant that games could only use a small amount and type of audio. Because of the SNES’s limited technology, its soundtracks are almost always simple and basic. This is something that the best SNES composers took advantage of to make powerful music. Even though the games are what people remember most about the SNES, many of its soundtracks are also worth remembering.
Chrono Trigger
Chrono Trigger’s music was made by Yasunori Mitsuda, who used to be a sound programmer, and Nobu Uematsu, who worked on Final Fantasy. Mitsuda focused on making music for the game that didn’t fit into any one genre but was instead music from an imaginary world. Mitsuda says that the music for Chrono Trigger took him four months to write. There were many problems during the writing process, but the worst was when Mitsuda’s hard drive crashed and he lost about forty tracks he was working on. Later, Mitsuda got ulcers, which led Uematsu to join him.
Due to its range, Chrono Trigger’s music has been used as a model for the music in many RPGs. Mitsuda used leitmotifs to make sure that the music in Chrono Trigger was consistent. Chrono Trigger’s soundtrack has a lot of bright, catchy songs, as well as some that are darker and more intense.
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
One of the first games for the SNES was “A Link to the Past.” As a composer who worked on Super Mario and Super Punch-Out!!, Koji Kondo is known for making catchy themes that can be enjoyed more than once. The sound in A Link to the Past is the same as it was in the first Zelda game. Several well-known Zelda songs come from this game, like Ganon’s theme and the theme for Hyrule Castle.
One of the best things about this soundtrack is how Kondo used brass instruments. Some of the music in the game is great for adventures, but others are so bad that they make you want to cry. Kondo also made the score in stereo, which was very new at the time. This made it possible to hear where sounds were coming from.
Earthbound
Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanak, who made the music for the first Mother game, as well as Hiroshi Kanazu and Toshiyuki Ueno, worked on Earthbound. The NES only has five channels of waveforms, but the SNES has eight. At the time, this meant that the composer could make a more complex soundtrack. For the game, more than 100 pieces of music were written, which is enough to fill eight megabits of the 24 megabit cartridge.
Smile by the Beach Boys had an effect on the soundtrack, and you can hear that in many of the songs that take place near the beach. Suzuki has also said that John Lennon’s music influenced him, and that the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band album was especially helpful in getting Suzuki to avoid too many instrumental parts. Earthbound was one of the first games to use “string-bending” or “vibrato” in its music. Pieces of classical and folk music, as well as pop, rock, salsa, reggae, and dub music, are also in the score.
ActRaiser
In 1988, Yuzo Koshiro started working as a freelance composer. He worked on many projects, such as the Shinobi and Streets of Rage series. A few years later, Koshiro wrote the music for the ActRaiser game. ActRaiser was one of the first games for the SNES, and it showed how good the system could be. Koshiro took samples of horns and strings and carefully changed their sizes to keep the original sound.
ActRaiser’s music is exciting and brave, like what you might hear in an action movie. John Williams, who worked on Star Wars and Indiana Jones, is a clear influence on Koshiro’s music. ActRaiser is a game that combines building a civilization with platforming. Its music is also a mix of different styles. The game has xylophone, brass, and organ pieces that sound like they came from Castlevania.
Secret Of Mana
Secret of Mana is the second game in the Seiken Densetsu series. Hiroki Kikuta’s first score was for this game, and it’s one of the best on the SNES. Kikuta wanted the soundtrack to be a mix of two different kinds of music. And it is said that he worked on the music for about 24 hours a day in his office. Kikuta made his own samples, so he knew how each piece would sound on the SNES. Kikuta was inspired by natural landscapes when he made the soundtrack.
The game’s soundtrack has both scary and happy music, as well as bird calls and waterfalls, which are used to make experimental music. The music takes parts from Claude Debussy, electronic music, and popular music, among other styles. Kikuta’s music brings the game world together and makes it seem like it’s alive and moving.
Star Fox
Hajime Hirasawa made the music for Star Fox, which is a mix of rock, jazz, and orchestral music, before he left Nintendo. Star Fox was a game that changed the way games were made. It was the first game to use Super FX chips and the first 3D shooter for Nintendo. The music in the game fits in perfectly with its outer space and shooter themes.
The music is sometimes funky, as well as catchy and interesting. All of the games in Star Fox seem to work together, which makes Slope Game feel more like a whole. Corneria is one of the most memorable songs in the game. It is made up of brass, percussion, and string instruments. Star Fox is still a lot of fun to play, and its music is still one of the best orchestral pieces for the SNES.
Super Mario World
Koji Kondo made a lot of memorable game music, and this piece was written a year before A Link to the Past. Several pieces of music in the game, like the “Overworld” piece, are now used to describe all Nintendo games.
The music in Super Mario World is one of the most famous Mario soundtracks ever. Kondo used a variety of instruments and used them one after the other in the title song for the game. The soundtrack also has pieces of music from previous Mario games, but they are put together in new ways to make them sound better. If Super Mario World had used a different soundtrack, it might not be as famous as it is today.