Koji Kondo - Yoshi's Island (1995)

 

Composer: Koji Kondo
Console: SNES, GBA
Game Release Date: 1995-08-XX
Bootleg Release Date: 2020-11-16
Runtime: 52:16, 26 Tracks

Here's one that readily available. The only difference between this one and my version is length. This will also be the most popular game I have covered up to this point. Without further ado I present to you all, Yoshi's Island. 

This game doesn't really need an introduction. Most people have at least heard of it. I'll just skip the introductions and go straight to my thoughts on the game. I've never played the SNES version. When I was younger, I had this on the GBA and played it. I avoided playing it for long lengths of time and this was one of the only games on the GBA that scared me. 

Whenever you get hit you lose baby Mario he starts crying and, depending on how many stars you got determined how many seconds you had to save him. I don't know why but the game over screen if it hit 0 traumatized me. It really scared me for some reason. I remember shutting off the device because I would rather lose progress than see the game over screen. Nowadays it doesn't bother me. That said, because of my massive fear of losing in that game I put lots of effort into trying hard to not get hit, collecting stars and avoiding every enemy. I got quite good at it too. I know I beat the game at some point, but it wasn't until after getting over that 'fear'. Now that I think about it, I think that game may be the only one that the game over screen bothered me. Even horror games like all the October posts didn't bother me as much as that. (Then again, I was also much older when I played Hellnight, Dementium, etc). 

If you're looking for a cute platformer with a lot of variety then give this a try. I have been meaning to do a re-run of the game at some point, but it hasn't happened yet. 

The soundtrack was composed by Koji Kondo. Kondo is one of the most important people on the Nintendo Sound Team, scoring famous games like SMB3, Super Mario 64, Star Fox 64 (in collaboration), LoZ: Ocarina of Time and more. Even in 2020 he's still going hard at Nintendo and recently helped created the soundtrack for the smash hit, Super Mario Odyssey. I would list what game he is most known for but there are so many iconic games he scored it would be a source of debate. 
The music is inspired by lullabies, but, as RYM says also inspired by lounge, jazz pop and lounge. It has a very distinct sound to it. This album is a good reason a VGM tag should exist. 

The main difference between the SnowBlue version and the other versions is that I extended the tracks. I enjoy this soundtrack, but the official version's tracks are way too short. I like my game tracks to at least be 2-3 minutes long. Most of these tracks are 1-2 minutes. When you experience them in the game they appear for much longer lengths. It's the same issue I had with the Pokémon RSE soundtrack. These tracks are just one loop. I've just extended it to 2 loops. For super short tracks like Kamek's Theme I have just left as is. There's no reason that song would loop in the main game anyways. It would get annoying. The original soundtrack is 26 tracks long and has a runtime of 36:31. My version has the same number of tracks but a runtime of 52:13. Much better. 

2020-12-09 Update: Nintendo has been pretty gung-ho on soundtracks lately. I don't know what's got them so riled up but as a precaution I have disabled the link. 

Stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICb3JQlnih8
SnowBlue Version: aHR0cHM6Ly9tZWdhLm56L2ZpbGUvdlU0d2lJUUIjX3FhMXRQUWEyY3VSMmdneXJfTGNPWVpuTkNVVUI1OXo5ZVlKc0RDVkhQTQ==
p@ss: gameover