That Hip nailed the music for both the original Metroid and Kid Icarus, two "developing lone hero" platformers with a strong mix of optimistic and threatening vibes throughout despite being polar opposites in story theming and gameplay structure, shows his versatility in crafting music befitting energetic adventure even before he started creating the Japanese vocal themes for the Pokémon anime. Mad respect.
It's funny you covered this game because lately Kid Icarus has been on my mind. I love both the graphics and the music of Icarus. I just wish it was a little less tedious to play.
A remake for a game like this would be pretty nice, maybe one like Zero Mission. The game's 37 years old, and the series isn't completely dead thanks to Uprising, so I think it'd be fair for this game to get some work done to it.
I'd beaten the original Kid Icarus recently. A _little_ aggravating at first, but not too bad once you know how it works. Indeed, I find it maybe a bit too basic, even for a game that wouldn't really be able to be decently advanced with a sequel without a MAJOR shakeup, one finally made possible by the 3DS.
@@jonathanhargraves2241I'd rather have a prequel-one that lets you explore how things were in Angel Land prior to Pit's fight against Medusa. Why he was chosen as part of Palutena's guard, how he rose in their ranks, his relationship with the other gods, all their relationships with mortals etc.. The OG Kid Icarus game may be a bit plain, but it's fine enough to not need the remake treatment. And Zero Mission's a bad point of reference for a remake regardless; it's overly edgy and redundant and pissed on some lore from Super Metroid to boot. Even the music remixes miss the point of the original songs, being too constantly upbeat to retain the original emotional atmosphere, further proving Sakamoto was far too hands off with it compared to with the vastly superior Fusion by the same team and was only concerned with it as a vehicle for further interest in Metroid, assuming most newcomers wouldn't be able to adapt to how the original played and most veterans needed a ton of extra spice to give a remake the time of day regardless of sense. It's an official fanboy remake. Too many gamers and other geeks have a premature notion of quality in their rush for validation of their passions. Yeah, I said it.
7:27 realizing they reused this theme at the beginning of the second aurum brain song in uprising as the centurions save you makes that moment hit so much harder
me before starting the video: This is great, finally I can make some great chiptune. me after watching the video: yep, this completely flew over my head.
Just happened to be relistening to the Kid Icarus Uprising soundtrack over the past few days and then this popped up. I know you talked about Wrath of the Reset bomb in one video but I'd love to hear more about Uprising's music!
Having not really played Kid Icarus and only being passively aware of its music (mostly from Smash Bros) the modern orchestration of probably its most well known melody was giving me serious Metroid vibes. Had no clue it was the same composer. The repeated "da-da-da-dat" motif is what really made me notice, and then you start hearing other similarities in chord and note choice. Definite similarities to the OG Brinstar theme.
5:00 this tactic of having perfectly diatonic melodies and then adding in wild unexpected harmonies that throw those for a loop is SO common in John Williams' music, as well. I often see it as a defining factor of his pieces, though apparently Tanaka uses it just as often.
@@Sebb_MusicWilliams definitely got it from Korngold, whose operas even before he went to Hollywood could be jarring for simple, beautiful melodies harmonized as if the rest of the orchestra could be in one of three keys at any given moment. (Sidenote, "Heliane" sounds like a bubble bath for your brain, I wish more opera companies dared to play something truly big and crazy.) Supposedly he was following all the arguments about Tonality floating around Weimar-era Vienna and wanted to figure out how to use these to make melodies feel... different. New. Not just cerebral, but hyperromantic. Hollywood was made for him.
@@Sebb_Music Fun fact: when I was working in story for a now-defunct Animorphs cartoon (there have been like ten failed attempts), I tried to pitch my director on using the end of "Ich Ging Zu Ihm" for Jake and Cassie's love theme. They didn't go for it. I'm waiting for a movie to use the slancio. (Great word, it means the big gushing emotional melody of a song, literally the Slice.) "[Judge,] I did not love him. My body didn't burn with pleasure. But the condemned youth was beautiful like a falling star, and if I exposed myself to him it was so that his poor eyes might see love before they were closed forever. And I swear, may God not take me to heaven if I'm lying, it was not the joy of my blood that drove me to the boy, but I bore his sorrow with him and in grief I became his. There, now you can κוIl me."
This is literally the exact video I needed today. Just this morning I was sitting in my chair pondering, "What makes Kid Icarus music Kid icarus music" and then you answer my question in the first two minutes. Thanks!
If only I had this video 2 years ago! I was trying to arrange for a whole college orchestra, and I had to do a lot of it by ear. It was a fantastic achievement for me, but this would've helped. I really appreciate this video because Underworld is what really made me appreciate video game music as an art form and a powerful tool for conveying heartwarming yet bittersweet emotions. It also helped me with my own mental health and gave me reasons to be thankful I'm alive and keep going.
Thank you so much for this, I think this is my favorite vg soundtrack of all time... which is saying a lot! I've always thought it was criminally underrated, so thanks for shining a light on it. Looking forward to getting the transcriptions!
I really love the soundtrack to this game! I would suggest listening to the Famicom Disk System version as well because the extra sound channel gives a lot more power to the bass parts. Same thing with Metroid and the Legend of Zelda too, the FDS really added a lot to those game's title themes!
Agreed! It's a shame the first two levels ended up just so brutally difficult that few get to experience any of the game beyond them. I wonder whether the game would have been more popular or if there were other, more significant factors.
@@CalebWillden it's got some rough design choices for sure, but it's still one of the only NES games I actually like. Not to mention the other two games which I enjoy even more. I'd LOVE to see the series get the support from Nintendo it deserves, whether that's in the classic or uprising style (but preferably one like uprising)
Great video! This opened my eyes to how heroic music can be written in the non-traditional sense. Elements here seem to be out of the ordinary and yet it still makes sense! Thanks for sharing!
Kid Icarus music is top-tier. Dare I say, it’s BETTER than Metroid music in some instances? 👀 Yes. Yes I do. I love Motoi Sakuraba’s writing in Kid Icarus Uprising. Aurum Island is easily my favorite piece in the game.
Not sure it's been mentioned here, but the Kid Icarus underworld music has some _very strong_ similarities to the music that plays in the NES/FDS Metroid during the post-Mother Brain escape sequence. To me it honestly sounds like Tanaka developed the Kid Icarus underworld music based on the Metroid escape sequence music!
The beginning of the credits theme reminds me of Beethoven's Ode to Joy from his 9th. (Do, do, mi, do, re, mi, fa-mi, do...) To me Kid Icarus bears resemblance to Metroid. A lot of games released in that era would, both graphically and musically. Every time I play Kid Icarus the graphics remind me of Kraid's Lair. While the music resemble Kraid's Lair, I do find that a lot of the music in these games uses 6/8 or triplets/compound meter. Chord/melody wise, Metroid and Kid Icarus are different, already in the first level, in both games, the music uses compound meter as their driving source. You might say Brinstar is Metroid's main musical theme, as the Underworld Theme is Kid Icarus'. Similar, yet different. I'm not sure how many people have actually sat down to listen to the escape theme from Metroid in its entirety? The music is, again in triplets. It begins in minor, but turns major in the middle, and it is in this piece that I think, the resemblance between the music in Metroid and Kid Icarus is the most uncanny. Caution: listen to the American NES version; I believe the major part is omitted in the Japanese disk version. Anyway, great analysis. Have you done an analysis on Metroid's music? It would be cool to see you do a video doing a comparison of the music in Metroid and Kid Icarus. Or, maybe do an even greater project where you compare music in different games released in that era, compare their similarities etc... Thanks for this great video!
Why are current western composers so allergic to this kind of highly melodic, uplifting music? It seems like Melody is gone in the west since the late 90s - and only still exists in Japan. (I get that this is a game from the 80s but you still get a ton of music like this coming from Japan)
It would be interesting to see you make videos about Undertale and Omori OSTs. I know it's not really "8bit" (you seem to focus on retro games), but it's still MIDI music composition.
I just need someone to validate my theory the theme song was inspired by Abaddon's Bolero in the same way the Zelda melody was intended to be Ravel's Bolero.
No matter how many 8-bit Music Theory videos I watch, I never seem to pick up enough knowledge to follow the analyses. I really want to appreciate the breakdown of some of my favourite music, but the vast majority completely goes over my head and it ends up as a bunch of jargon for me. Is there a way to make it just a little less technical to help people follow what's going on better?
2:46 >Shows melody >Doesn't play it (or perhaps in the background, but that one is hard to hear) 3:27 G/Ab flashbang I feel like your sound levels in this video are weird, the chord are loud, the background is hard to hear. I could barely hear the sentimental singer at 4:18 at all, and she only appeared for like two notes? Was this intentional?
Between this and Zelda, it feels like Nintendo's composers had the full orchestra versions in mind from the beginning and worked backwards. And what a contrast that was with what other studios were doing with that sound chip. _Castlevania_ music, for example, is just Awesome Video Game Music that doesn't really evoke the setting or tone of the game it's from.
Wait, the baroque inspired music of Castlevania doesn't evoke the action of hunting monsters in the night? How so? It has Bach written all over it and Bach's toccata is traditionally associated with vampires and ancient lore in pop culture!
That Hip nailed the music for both the original Metroid and Kid Icarus, two "developing lone hero" platformers with a strong mix of optimistic and threatening vibes throughout despite being polar opposites in story theming and gameplay structure, shows his versatility in crafting music befitting energetic adventure even before he started creating the Japanese vocal themes for the Pokémon anime. Mad respect.
He's such a clever composer, and his Pokémon songs are amazing! I really respect his work a lot.
It's funny you covered this game because lately Kid Icarus has been on my mind. I love both the graphics and the music of Icarus. I just wish it was a little less tedious to play.
A remake for a game like this would be pretty nice, maybe one like Zero Mission. The game's 37 years old, and the series isn't completely dead thanks to Uprising, so I think it'd be fair for this game to get some work done to it.
I'd beaten the original Kid Icarus recently. A _little_ aggravating at first, but not too bad once you know how it works. Indeed, I find it maybe a bit too basic, even for a game that wouldn't really be able to be decently advanced with a sequel without a MAJOR shakeup, one finally made possible by the 3DS.
@@jonathanhargraves2241I'd rather have a prequel-one that lets you explore how things were in Angel Land prior to Pit's fight against Medusa. Why he was chosen as part of Palutena's guard, how he rose in their ranks, his relationship with the other gods, all their relationships with mortals etc.. The OG Kid Icarus game may be a bit plain, but it's fine enough to not need the remake treatment.
And Zero Mission's a bad point of reference for a remake regardless; it's overly edgy and redundant and pissed on some lore from Super Metroid to boot. Even the music remixes miss the point of the original songs, being too constantly upbeat to retain the original emotional atmosphere, further proving Sakamoto was far too hands off with it compared to with the vastly superior Fusion by the same team and was only concerned with it as a vehicle for further interest in Metroid, assuming most newcomers wouldn't be able to adapt to how the original played and most veterans needed a ton of extra spice to give a remake the time of day regardless of sense. It's an official fanboy remake. Too many gamers and other geeks have a premature notion of quality in their rush for validation of their passions. Yeah, I said it.
@@CarbonRollerCaco
Me too bro
7:27 realizing they reused this theme at the beginning of the second aurum brain song in uprising as the centurions save you makes that moment hit so much harder
727 WYSI
Yes, also in the game's staff roll!
Such a great moment!
me before starting the video: This is great, finally I can make some great chiptune.
me after watching the video: yep, this completely flew over my head.
Just happened to be relistening to the Kid Icarus Uprising soundtrack over the past few days and then this popped up. I know you talked about Wrath of the Reset bomb in one video but I'd love to hear more about Uprising's music!
imo - the best soundtrack on the 3DS!
4:52 This better not be the only video you ever bring up Dragon Quest. Although, you don't want to risk summoning Sugiyama's ghost.
Having not really played Kid Icarus and only being passively aware of its music (mostly from Smash Bros) the modern orchestration of probably its most well known melody was giving me serious Metroid vibes. Had no clue it was the same composer. The repeated "da-da-da-dat" motif is what really made me notice, and then you start hearing other similarities in chord and note choice. Definite similarities to the OG Brinstar theme.
5:00 this tactic of having perfectly diatonic melodies and then adding in wild unexpected harmonies that throw those for a loop is SO common in John Williams' music, as well. I often see it as a defining factor of his pieces, though apparently Tanaka uses it just as often.
I also had to think of star wars in particular with those pedal tone sections
@@Sebb_MusicWilliams definitely got it from Korngold, whose operas even before he went to Hollywood could be jarring for simple, beautiful melodies harmonized as if the rest of the orchestra could be in one of three keys at any given moment. (Sidenote, "Heliane" sounds like a bubble bath for your brain, I wish more opera companies dared to play something truly big and crazy.) Supposedly he was following all the arguments about Tonality floating around Weimar-era Vienna and wanted to figure out how to use these to make melodies feel... different. New. Not just cerebral, but hyperromantic. Hollywood was made for him.
@@liamannegarner8083 Wow yeah I can hear the influence with those chord changes. Didn't know about him!
@@Sebb_Music Fun fact: when I was working in story for a now-defunct Animorphs cartoon (there have been like ten failed attempts), I tried to pitch my director on using the end of "Ich Ging Zu Ihm" for Jake and Cassie's love theme. They didn't go for it. I'm waiting for a movie to use the slancio. (Great word, it means the big gushing emotional melody of a song, literally the Slice.)
"[Judge,] I did not love him. My body didn't burn with pleasure.
But the condemned youth was beautiful like a falling star, and if I exposed myself to him it was so that his poor eyes might see love before they were closed forever. And I swear, may God not take me to heaven if I'm lying, it was not the joy of my blood that drove me to the boy, but I bore his sorrow with him and in grief I became his. There, now you can κוIl me."
Don't act like the pun at 13:01 with a life heart on-screen wasn't intentional
This is literally the exact video I needed today. Just this morning I was sitting in my chair pondering, "What makes Kid Icarus music Kid icarus music" and then you answer my question in the first two minutes. Thanks!
what the hell, I had no idea the kid icarus soundtrack went this hard
Kid icarus uprising's ost is one of my favorites
Thanks yet again. I know next to nothing about music theory, but I love listening to your explanations.
9:28 saying no surprise while showing a song with the same radiohead's no surprises chords is genius
Pointing out it's got a similar melody (at least at one point) to the Dragon Quest overture had me rolling. It really does!
KID ICARUS FANDOM RAAAA 🦅🦅🦅🦅
If only I had this video 2 years ago! I was trying to arrange for a whole college orchestra, and I had to do a lot of it by ear. It was a fantastic achievement for me, but this would've helped.
I really appreciate this video because Underworld is what really made me appreciate video game music as an art form and a powerful tool for conveying heartwarming yet bittersweet emotions.
It also helped me with my own mental health and gave me reasons to be thankful I'm alive and keep going.
I wasn't expecting to hear "The Girl I Left Behind Me" while listening to this!
...I still want to know why the composer used that folk song in that track. There has to be a story there.
Thank you so much for this, I think this is my favorite vg soundtrack of all time... which is saying a lot! I've always thought it was criminally underrated, so thanks for shining a light on it. Looking forward to getting the transcriptions!
thanks a lot for covering this game, it's one of my favourites for nes!
it's always interesting watching your vids
Great video-icus!
I really love the soundtrack to this game! I would suggest listening to the Famicom Disk System version as well because the extra sound channel gives a lot more power to the bass parts. Same thing with Metroid and the Legend of Zelda too, the FDS really added a lot to those game's title themes!
Kid Icarus is one of the most underrated gems in existence
Agreed! It's a shame the first two levels ended up just so brutally difficult that few get to experience any of the game beyond them. I wonder whether the game would have been more popular or if there were other, more significant factors.
@@CalebWillden it's got some rough design choices for sure, but it's still one of the only NES games I actually like. Not to mention the other two games which I enjoy even more. I'd LOVE to see the series get the support from Nintendo it deserves, whether that's in the classic or uprising style (but preferably one like uprising)
That soundtrack might’ve been overlooked, but this amazing video will not be! ❤ 🔥
Great video! This opened my eyes to how heroic music can be written in the non-traditional sense. Elements here seem to be out of the ordinary and yet it still makes sense! Thanks for sharing!
Kid Icarus Uprising is one of my favorite Nintendo soundtracks
I didn't play this one back in the day, but I gained an appreciation for the soundtrack because of Arm Cannon's 2nd album, the 'Kiddik 'R' Us' track 😁
This reminds me a lot of the Brinstar theme from Metroid. Tanaka-san really carried his style.
I love kid Icarus so much omg
Hip Tanaka is my musical childhood.
Sadly, i cannot distinguish any of the low bass notes from each other
This is pushing the limits of 8bit and I’m here for it
This channel is amazing bro 😅
kid icarus content!!! fine ill replay uprising again...
Kid Icarus music is top-tier. Dare I say, it’s BETTER than Metroid music in some instances? 👀
Yes. Yes I do. I love Motoi Sakuraba’s writing in Kid Icarus Uprising. Aurum Island is easily my favorite piece in the game.
Not sure it's been mentioned here, but the Kid Icarus underworld music has some _very strong_ similarities to the music that plays in the NES/FDS Metroid during the post-Mother Brain escape sequence. To me it honestly sounds like Tanaka developed the Kid Icarus underworld music based on the Metroid escape sequence music!
The beginning of the credits theme reminds me of Beethoven's Ode to Joy from his 9th. (Do, do, mi, do, re, mi, fa-mi, do...)
To me Kid Icarus bears resemblance to Metroid. A lot of games released in that era would, both graphically and musically. Every time I play Kid Icarus the graphics remind me of Kraid's Lair. While the music resemble Kraid's Lair, I do find that a lot of the music in these games uses 6/8 or triplets/compound meter.
Chord/melody wise, Metroid and Kid Icarus are different, already in the first level, in both games, the music uses compound meter as their driving source. You might say Brinstar is Metroid's main musical theme, as the Underworld Theme is Kid Icarus'. Similar, yet different.
I'm not sure how many people have actually sat down to listen to the escape theme from Metroid in its entirety? The music is, again in triplets. It begins in minor, but turns major in the middle, and it is in this piece that I think, the resemblance between the music in Metroid and Kid Icarus is the most uncanny. Caution: listen to the American NES version; I believe the major part is omitted in the Japanese disk version.
Anyway, great analysis. Have you done an analysis on Metroid's music? It would be cool to see you do a video doing a comparison of the music in Metroid and Kid Icarus. Or, maybe do an even greater project where you compare music in different games released in that era, compare their similarities etc...
Thanks for this great video!
This calls for a video about BATTLE OF OLYMPUS.
LET'S GO BABY 8-BIT MUSIC THEORY UPLOADED!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why are current western composers so allergic to this kind of highly melodic, uplifting music? It seems like Melody is gone in the west since the late 90s - and only still exists in Japan.
(I get that this is a game from the 80s but you still get a ton of music like this coming from Japan)
In video games specifically, or just in general?
It would be interesting to see you make videos about Undertale and Omori OSTs. I know it's not really "8bit" (you seem to focus on retro games), but it's still MIDI music composition.
good video
Good Stuff (I haven;t watched the video yet)
I just need someone to validate my theory the theme song was inspired by Abaddon's Bolero in the same way the Zelda melody was intended to be Ravel's Bolero.
No matter how many 8-bit Music Theory videos I watch, I never seem to pick up enough knowledge to follow the analyses. I really want to appreciate the breakdown of some of my favourite music, but the vast majority completely goes over my head and it ends up as a bunch of jargon for me. Is there a way to make it just a little less technical to help people follow what's going on better?
I dunno. The Kid Icarus theme always gave me Wagner vibes for some reason.
Ride of the… Centurions?
Yo Halo Reach or Outer Wilds? They have great music on those it would be AWESOME
Was that a Postmodern Jukebox easter egg?
The double-flatted 7 is not the major 6th.
😱
did you review guilty gear music before the 3rd ones?
bro there are so many triplets why dont you just transcribe it as 12/8
It's too fast for 12/8. If it were in triple meter it would be 6/8. And duplets in triple meter are rarer than triplets in duple.
mach' mal Donkey Kong Country 2
2:46 >Shows melody >Doesn't play it (or perhaps in the background, but that one is hard to hear)
3:27 G/Ab flashbang
I feel like your sound levels in this video are weird, the chord are loud, the background is hard to hear. I could barely hear the sentimental singer at 4:18 at all, and she only appeared for like two notes? Was this intentional?
Bet
Between this and Zelda, it feels like Nintendo's composers had the full orchestra versions in mind from the beginning and worked backwards. And what a contrast that was with what other studios were doing with that sound chip. _Castlevania_ music, for example, is just Awesome Video Game Music that doesn't really evoke the setting or tone of the game it's from.
Wait, the baroque inspired music of Castlevania doesn't evoke the action of hunting monsters in the night? How so? It has Bach written all over it and Bach's toccata is traditionally associated with vampires and ancient lore in pop culture!
Sorry to keep YOU waiting~ But now that I'm here, let's get this party started!