Good evening, everyone! I hope that everyone is excited for Episode 20 of “Into the Score!” It’s been a while coming, but for some crazy reason, this episode took me a long time to write, even though it’s 1/4 of the length of the last episode! In which case, it’s here and I hope that everyone is pumped!
In tonight’s episode, we engage the 1996 collaboration of Nintendo and Square for their SNES release of “Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars” with a terrific score by Yoko Shimomura! While the game has a ton of terrific original music, we largely study the quotation of the older musical themes in this new game… linking the old with the new!
This release is also correlated with the SM:RPG tribute album “Heavy Troopa is Ready to Launch” put on by GameMusic4All.com and it’s definitely worth checking out! For tonight’s arrangement portion, we hear from Jeremy Robson and his 3-piece medley for orchestra called “Three Mushroom Dances.”
Enjoy, it’s a good’er!
Kenley
Enjoy and always remember to leave comments!
Until next time!
PS: Information on Yoko Shimomura’s bio was taken from the wiki on her, found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoko_Shimomura
Wow, ITS made it to nobuooo.com… nice work, team! We made the site for user-generated VGM news! YES! Success, keep spreading the word, people!
Hey, shouldn’t you have cited Wikipedia as a source for your bio on Yoko Shimomura? Also, it’s “Mah-ri-o”, not “Marry-o”. Aside from that, great job and nice podcast.
Hey BriGuy92, thanks for the comment!
You’re right, I can’t believe I forgot to source the wiki… I’m usually really good for that. I took the info on her from the KH episode (8? 9?)… I’ll have to add that in there.
Thanks for the write and thanks for listening!
Kenley
I have just listened to your podcast. Hearing this made me appreciate more of the soundtrack to my favorite game of all time. You’re also right that the reason the soundtrack to SMRPG was awesome was the use of remixes in previous Mario games. This is also one of the reasons why Super Mario Galaxy was awesome. The moment I heard the music for Galaxy, I was pulled into it.
I also believe that Shimomura did another Mario game, Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga, and the soundtrack has some form of classical drama and rhythmic feel, just like Mario RPG.
Thanks for the music lesson. It has been over seven years since I have been in a music class.
P.S. The music from Mario 3 that you couldn’t figure out was from World 3.
Hey there, Ani!
Thanks for the note - it is TOTALLY World 3, you’re right! I’ll have to check out “Superstar Saga” and “Galaxy” some time, I’m still plowing through a lot of the classics to try and get some serious gaming in there.
I’m glad that you’re into the show and thanks so much for commenting!
Kenley
Yoko Shimomura actually did the scores for both Mario and Luigi games. I must say though, I liked Partners in Time better than Superstar Saga music-wise.
Wow, these last two shows and the one on Street Fighter to a degree have been so great. Basically I always wanted to write you something more substanial in terms of feedback, but just haven’t come around to, so this really needed to get out
One bit of opinion: in the first episodes, I found e.g. the harmonic analyses sometimes a bit hard to follow. Lately, you have become much more “patient” with your listeners, (”Locke” / “Forever Rachel”) and I like that. [If only it wasn't for Tina's obnoxious theme, why? why? :-]
Kenley, you beast! I can see why you’re so busy, especially with you being a guest hose the FXN podcast and all the work you must be doing. This was a really good podcast, but I only have one question, when will we do the MGS podcast?
Good Show! Makes me want to dig up my SNES just so I can go play this. Soo many good tunes in there.
Still using your vocals on the CrackBerry cast! Kenley..and listen to this tune somebody did up for us (you gotta listen right to the end). Pretty sweet if you’re into smartphones… listen at http://www.hitmeonmyblackburry.com (just redirects to crackberry post).
Have a great summer!
Kevin
Hey dudes, sorry for the late reply!
BriGuy - thanks for the note!
Onto - thanks for your comment, dude! In terms of harmonic analysis, some people want more, some want less… so there’s really no winning, hahaha! I think that there is a healthy balance, unless there are things that are worth noting (Locke’s theme moving through three different keys, for example)… it’s no fun if someone doesn’t get what we’re teaching
Kyle G. - you caught the FXN podcast? Right on! Good times! And hey… MGS… that’s not a bad idea
Kevin - Love what you’re doing! Keep up the podcasting, dude!