SNES Game Music Reviews
For the polls and 1000+ rated and classed snes game tunes, visit the Main SNES music page.

Axelay	Pop'n Twinbee	Secret of Mana	Super Aleste	Kirby Super Star	F-Zero
Zelda 3	UN Squadron (Area 88)	Zombies	Super Mario Kart	Street Fighter II	Parodius 1/2/3
List of tunes specially selected for miscellaneous reasons

Level 1 or "Cumuluses" - and some ace music. The background scrolls past in a kind of unusual 'parallax waterfall'.

Axelay

Composer: Souji Taro

Tracks: 19

File: axelay-1.rar, axelay.exe

Publisher: Konami

The perfect shoot 'em up music and another classic from Konami. The tension-building scores grip you and just won't let go. My favourite tunes are (from best to worst): Level 5 (Burning), Level 1 (Unkai), Level 6 (Cosmos), Level 3 (Mother), Level 4 (Silence), Level 2 (Colony), but they're all very good really. It's hard to find music quite like this anywhere else with the same standard of melody.
The Axelay soundtrack is also on CD too - how I'd love to find this, but it's extremely rare...

For a review of this game, visit: ClassicGaming's SHMUPS page
Also, further (rare) graphics can be found at:
http://isweb16.infoseek.co.jp/play/lur/axelay/axlay.htm

Alternatively, see Skytopia's very own off-beat review of Axelay in CACG

The one and only "T-36 Towbar". All of Axelay's bosses are cool, and this is no exception. That laser it's firing is accompanied by the most awesome echoey laser-of-death sound...

The 3rd level hosts this jaw-dropping City in the Sky, or "Urbanite" as it's known. The SNES's 3D 'Mode 7' feature is utilised again on this level and it's got the weirdest tune (but very cool).

The last level. The difficulty really gets tough here - and the music's tense to show it. For anyone who's up for a challenge, can you beat the game on its hardest difficulty in one credit with lowest trigger setting?

Pop'n Twinbee

Composers: Kazuhiko Uehara, Masahiro "Ika Chan" Ikariko, Keroppy Inoue, Tomoya Tomita, Nobuyuki Akena, Masae Nakashima, Saiko Miki

Tracks: 27

Filename: popnt.rar, twinbee1.rar, pntb.exe

Publisher: Konami

Book your holiday now at our underwater utopia! Price includes full accommodation and free sea-food* Let our SmileyCloud(tm) entertain you by floating around all day.

*(free food must be caught yourself)

Going into cool Escher type territory with cities upon bridges.

What...? You mean to tell me you've never seen a walking pineapple in your life?

Truly mad boss and some quirky music.

Five tunes from Pop 'n Twinbee made it into 1st class alone! Not many other games can claim such an honour...
As soon as that intro tune kicks in ("00 options.spc", "Intro.spc" (Zophar) or "01 Opening" (SNESmusic.org)), you know you're going to be in for an aural treat...
Some of the most dreamy music ever - floating above those wonderfully colourful landscapes accompanied by some great melodies (I love the music when you're flying around that giant airship - level 4) makes Pop'n Twinbee truly special.
Fans of this game should also check out the platform spin-off: "Twinbee - Rainbow bell adventures". A different style of music perhaps, but a few of the tunes are very catchy.
You might also like to check out Parodius 1 or 2 - also by Konami - featuring some crazy remixes of popular tunes.

"Twinbee Yahho" is yet another 'sequel' to Pop'n Twinbee on the Sega Saturn (also containing Detana Twinbee). Yahho's graphics are possibly even better thanks to the Saturn's crisper resolution, though perhaps the music isn't quite up to the same standard as Pop'n Twinbee... (almost though!)
For everything else Twinbee related, visit the cool site: Twinbee Land

Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2)

Composer: Hiroki Kikuta + contribution from Kenji Ito Tracks: 51 Filename: (see table) Publisher Squaresoft

One of the best action RPGs for the SNES also hosts the largest collection of brilliantly atmospheric music. Practically every tune from this game has made it somewhere into the table, and it's not hard to see why. Interestingly, the sequel's tracks are no match for these...

Anyway, if you really want the best tunes from Secret of Mana, then look no further than the table below! Tunes are sorted by quality and names are given by the RAR and CD filenames for cross reference. Finally, I've also commented on each tune - see if you agree! Feel free to email me or visit the Skytopia Leisure Zone forum if you have any comments about the placings. Visit this site for more information and screenshots from Secret of Mana.

Top ten tunes from Secret of Mana (in order of quality - with best at top)
s_o_m.rar name	som.rar name	Original soundtrack CD, SNESmusic.org name (sd2.exe) and sd2.rar name	Comments

43 Empire	City of the Empire.spc	Track 02 Tell a Strange Tale (Into the Thick of it)	Possibly the best SOM tune (better known to me as gold city :)
07 forest.spc	Forest.spc	Track 06 The Boy Aims for Wild Fields.spc (Into the Thick of it)	One of the very best SOM tunes. Very atmospheric - particularly at 1:28...
14 story.spc	Sadness.spc	Track 17 Spirit of the Night	Sad and very atmospheric.
12 victory.spc	Victory.spc	Track 20 The Orphan of Storm (Calm Before the Storm)	Very erm..... 'victorious' tune. Yes I know - cheers. Melody constantly evolving.
02 theme.spc	Main Theme.spc	Track 01 Angels' Fear (Fear of the Heavens)	Excellent tune with subtle use of chords and intricate harmony.
13 theme 2.spc	Legend Theme.spc	Track 39 I Won't Forget	Similar to 'Sadness', this tune is almost as good (it also reminds me of when they cruelly kick you out of Potos village
61 Mana beast	Last Boss.spc	Track 41 Meridian Dance	Only heard once throughout the game (last boss). An upbeat tune with an unusual melody.
28 undine	Elements.spc	Track 23 Eternal Recurrence	Goes on and on... - but quite floaty =)
22 Pandora	Troubled Town.spc	Track 03 Rose and Ghost (Phantom and...a Rose...)	Always reminds me of when the well runs dry...
42 ice palace	Ice Castle.spc	Track 25 Eight Ringing Bells (A Bell is Tolling)	An atmosphere all of its own.

Super Aleste (Space Megaforce)

Composers: Takeuchi, Nagao, Katsumi Tanaka

Tracks: 17

Files: saleste.rar, sa.exe

Publisher: Toho

Level 1. Arghh, it looks like I'm trapped here. Unless, I shoot that orange barrier away. In which case I won't be. Trapped - that is. Oh by the way, that big orange thing glows, and no wonder either... It's actually storing 520 tera-joules of energy! True.	Possibly the best shooter to grace the SNES thanks to the brilliant design and vast array of weapons... and some very interesting music too. The style is quick, frantic and perfect for the game. There's actually a glitch with the usual RAR which stops it from working properly, so you can download the patched version at: http://www.snesmusic.org/spcsets Anyway, perhaps the best tracks are: Level 4 (sa-06.spc - Black Hole Anomalies) Level 1 (sa-03.spc - Amazonas) Level 5 (sa-07.spc - Rock Downfall) If you would like to read more about Super Aleste, hop over to C.A.C.G. page 45 for an off-beat review!	Level 4 and that cool music again. Unless you've actually played the game, it's impossible to realise how fun it is to shoot these icosahedron shaped emplacements.
When you've completed the game on all its difficulty modes in one credit and without using bombs, one starts to look for further challenges. Here you can see me trying to avoid the bullets on level 2. The thing is... I don't allow myself to fire at anything. This brings the difficulty up to the level of 'Radiant Silvergun' and beyond!	Am I being paranoid? Something tells me there's more going on here than just a laser-light display...	Level 5. The snow plough has come early this year, thanks to a tornado causing havoc in SpaceSector-Y34Z. By the way, the green curvy background looks even more impressive in motion - swaying in multiple layers of swirly parallax!

Kirby Super Star (Kirby DX)

Composer: (possibly) Jun Ishikawa

Tracks: 65

Files: kirbyss.rar, kss.exe

Publisher: Halcon / Hal Laboratory

You'll find Kirby tunes littered in every class from the table, but here's the review. Prepare for some of the catchiest tunes you've ever heard... Combining simplicity with intricacy - at first they might sound a bit shallow, but just give them a few

All-time Top Kirby music
kirbyss.rar (Kirby Super Star) *=kirby3.rar (Kirby's Dreamland 3) ^ = kdc.rar (Kirby's Dream Course) Note: SNESmusic.org's Kirby Super Star's version (kss.exe) contains names identical to those of Zophar's Domain. Music listed in order of quality with best top	Also known as: (SNESmusic.org name given where appropriate (only applicable for Kirby's Dreamland 3). Otherwise, the kirbydx.rar equivalent is given for Kirby SS.rar)
Level 2-1&2-4&2-6&4-3.spc *	SMusic name: 12 - Ripple Field 1
06 Float Islands.spc	Level Music 5.spc
19 Dynablade Area 4.spc	Level Music 4.spc
14 Dynablade Theme.spc	DynaBlade Intro Song.spc
65 Kirby Super Star Ending.spc	Milky Way Wishes Ending Part 2.spc
03 Time to learn.spc	Guide Room.spc
41 Kirby Arrives on the Scene.spc	Revenge of the MetaKnight Music 1.spc
16 Dynablade Area 1.spc	Level Music 3.spc
53 Flying Into Nova.spc	Milky Way Wishes Nova Shootout.spc
2 Player Course Music 2.spc ^	[not applicable]
Level 3-2 & 4-4.spc *	SMusic name: 17 - Sand Canyon 2
43 Taking Over The Halberd.spc	Revenge of the MetaKnight Music 2.spc
47 Revenge of MetaKnight Ending.spc	Revenge of the MetaKnight Ending.spc
12 Spring Breeze Ending.spc	Spring Breeze Ending Song.spc
05 Green Greens.spc	Level Music 1.spc
Ending.spc*	SMusic name: 36 - Casting
Level 2-3 & 3-4 & 5-1.spc *	SMusic name: 13 - Ripple Field 2
42 Grape Garden.spc	-
Level 5-6.spc *	SMusic name: 34 - Iceberg
Hyper Zone 2.spc *	SMusic name: 38 - Hyper Zone 2
Level 1-4 & 2-2.spc *	SMusic name: 10 - Grass Land 4
Good Ending.spc*	SMusic name: 42 - Credits
Level 2-5 & 3-3 & 5-5.spc*	SMusic name: 14 - Ripple Field 3
Level 3-6 & 5-3.spc*	SMusic name: 18 - Sand Canyon 3
Level 3-1 & 3-5.spc*	SMusic name: 16 - Sand Canyon 1

listens and you'll be hooked.

Your favourites are bound to be found in this table to the right.
Originally, I was only going to list the best tunes from 'Kirby Super Star', but due to popular demand (yeah right ;), the table now takes into account tunes from 3 different Kirby games. No doubt, most of the places are taken by Kirby Super Star - simply because this has the highest amount of quality tunes. Interestingly though, the all-time best Kirby tune comes from not KSS, but Kirby's Dreamland 3...

If there are any Kirby tunes that you think are missing, then check out the main table on the previous page for a complete breakdown.
If there's any tune you particularly disagree with, why not visit the Leisure Zone Forum. Likewise, if you think the placings are accurate, visit the forum (or email me) for that reason too =)

Out of all the tunes, "Level 3-2 & 4-4.spc" is probably the most recognisable tune, since remixes of the tune can be found in Kirby Super Star (as "27 Gourmet Race Stage 1, 3.spc") and the N64 version of Kirby. These aren't quite as good as the original Kirby 3 version though.

Another tune - "06 Float Islands.spc" (from Kirby Super Star) is similar

Kirby finds himself in 1st place by default, since the other competitors couldn't be bothered to turn up.

to the "Course Music 2.spc" from Kirby's Dream Course. You'll find though the "Float Islands" to be the superior version.
Special mention must go to the "53 Flying Into Nova.spc" tune - weird, atmospheric and quite Starwing-esque...

The most stupid tune has to be "34 Begin Treasure Hunting.spc" if you want to check that out. Don't say you haven't been warned though.
Finally, there's a Kirby tune not listed in the above table. This tune is from a fourth Kirby game called 'Kirby's Avalanche'. Unfortunately, because of a timing bug in the SNES players, the tunes from this game can't be heard properly, but from what I've heard, ....... seems like another cool Kirby tune!

For more of everything kirby, visit the excellent site http://www.classicgaming.com/kirby

And you thought trying to find a parking space in London was bad. Apparently, it's like this for over 40 square miles! By the way, it's meant to be a city far below, except the parallax level moves at the same speed as the main road - doh!

F-Zero

Composer: Naoto Ishida

Tracks: 15

filename: fzero.rar, fzero.exe

Publisher: Nintendo

The attack of the flying green pancakes

Race at high speeds around futuristic courses! Nintendo produced this classic - the first game to utilise the Mode 7 feature. This allowed the Super Nintendo to render flat 3D land-scapes at high speed.

There are some good tunes, which beat the N64s FZero-X's heavy metal music in fact.
In particular, 'Ending', 'Mute City' and 'Silence' .... are good, but the best is no doubt the music from: 'Port town'
Why is 'Port Town' the best? Well, starting with an atmospheric spooky intro, the tune then develops into a subtle "what's coming next" chord sequence. This resolves with a variety of 'orange' chords.
The very end could be better, but at least it joins neatly back to the spooky intro again.

Legend of Zelda 3: A link to the past

Composer: Koji Kondo

Tracks: 34

File: zelda3.rar, loz3.exe

Publisher: Nintendo

Although the scores are arguably not as good as Secret of Mana's, this music has a charm all of its own. It also has that crazy 'guessing game house' music. Great target practise, and I always got the targets of course ;P
The best tunes are as follows: '02 - opening demo', '04 - overworld', '11 - select screen', '12 - dark world', '13 - dark mountain forest', '22 - princess zelda's rescue' and maybe the best: 'hyrule castle', ... oh and the creepy 'sanctuary dungeon' and 'dark world dungeon' musics are cool too O.o

U.N. Squadron (Area 88)

Composers: Bull, Mari, Ike-Bomb

Tracks: 13

Filenames: unsquad.rar, a88.exe

Publisher:Daipro, Capcom

Typically Capcom, this conversion from the arcade offers some very listenable melodies. Anyone who's a fan of this music should also track down 'Carrier Airwing' - the sequel to UN Squadron which appeared in the arcades. An excellent game too.

A lot of them are good, but here are some of the best tunes from UN Squadron:
'Credits', 'Enemy Airforce', 'Front line base', 'Ground Carrier',
and maybe the best; 'The Minks'.

Micro$oft announces a midnight launch of the new version of Windows. Enthusiasts can be seen here eager with anticipation.

Zombies Ate My Neighbours

Composer: Joe McDermott (possibly George Sanger?)

Tracks: 13

Filename: zamn.rar, zamn.exe

Publisher: Konami / Lucasarts

Battle giant spiders, ants and flying saucers in this monstrous top-down adventure!

Comical tunes with some inventive orchestration - these tunes really suit the game and are fun to listen to in their own right. Perhaps the '5th background music' (or 'Pyramid of Fear' if you're using SNESmusic.org's file names) tune is the most interesting melodically. But who can resist the 'boss level' music ("Boss Battle").... or the 'Background Music #6' ("Mars Needs Cheerleaders"), '5th background music' ("No Assembly Required"), 'Background Music #2' ("Zombie Panic") tunes? O.o

Always greedy to increase his income, the sinister CloudMan takes yet more cash from the unwitting racers.

Super Mario Kart

Composers: Taro Bando and Soyo Oka

Tracks: 41

File: smk.rar, smk.exe

Publisher: Nintendo

One of the most playable racers out there! The difficulty was tuned to perfection and the courses were very well designed with a great variety of pickups and 'weapons' too. Using the Mode 7 technique which F-zero employed, Mario Kart also added a slight inertia to the control - giving a different feel over F-Zero.
The N64 version was a disappointment which didn't quite capture the flavour of SNES Mario Kart, but look out for the excellent Gameboy Advance version ( 'Mario Kart Advance' ) !
A consistent chirpy collection of tunes with no truly outstanding ones apart from maybe the brilliant 'Rainbow Road'. All the melodies are very intelligent, but they all need a little more layered orchestration, and then these tunes would be really great. Anyway, certainly worth a listen!

Street Fighter 2

Composers:
Yoshihiro Sakaguchi, Yoko Shimomura, Tetsuya Nishimura, Isao Abe

Tracks: 33

File: sf2.rar, sf2.exe

Publisher: Capcom

Another consistent collection of tunes from Capcom. Different to the arcade (better and worse in different ways) and better than the remixed CD that appeared on NMS (Nintendo Magazine System) some years back. In particular, the 'Guile' stage music and a couple of the boss tunes are excellent...
Even the 'player select' tune brings back a flood of nostalgia.

Parodius 1/2/3

Composer: unknown

Tracks: Various

File: Various

Publisher: Konami

Parodius 2: Mad! Truly mad - I tell you!

Derived from the words 'Gradius' and 'Parody', Parodius certainly lives up to its name - being as bizarre as they come. The music is equally bizarre, sporting colourful remixes of some well-known themes.
There are 3 games in the series on the SNES, and perhaps the 2nd Parodius is the strongest in terms of music, but I surely can't go without listing the best tunes from all three; so here they are - the most crazy, coolest, catchy Parodius tunes!

File names are taken from Zophar's Domain:
Parodius 1 (parod1.rar)
PAROD07.SPC, PAROD09.SPC (flight of the bumble bee!), PAROD10.SPC, PAROD13.SPC, PAROD14.SPC, PAROD32.SPC

Parodius 2 (parod.rar)
It was hard to pick, but these are probably the cream of Parodius 2 music. It might be worth listening to the lot if you like this bunch...
Bonus_stage_boss.spc (rondo Alla Turca!), Bonus_stage.spc, Endingb.spc, Last_Stage.spc fast and cool, Special_Stage_boss.spc (revenge of the flight of the bumble bee!), Stage1.spc, Stage2.spc, Stage3_boss.spc, Stage3.spc, Stage4_boss.spc, Stage4.spc, Theme_of_Goemon.spc (nice Japanese sounding piece), Theme_of_Michael.spc, Theme_of_Takosuke.spc (Nice but better on Saturn), Theme_of_Twinbee.spc, Theme_of_Upa.spc, Theme_of_Pentaro.spc (again, better on Saturn version), Stage1_boss.spc
Parodius 3 (parodiu3.rar)
This is the weakest of the Parodius series, with the same kind of style, but not quite as catchy. It has its moments though...
17 Mike Theme.spc, 24 Level 2.spc, 26 Level 3.spc, 28 Level 3 Boss Part 2.spc (this tune is much better in Saturn 'Twinbee Yahho'!), 35 Level 6 Boss Part 2.spc, 37 Level 6 Boss Part 4.spc (taken straight from Twinbee! - if not quite as good...), 43 Level 7 Boss Part 3.spc (yet another remix of /that/ tune)

As a point of interest, the Saturn version of Parodius ("Parodius - Fantastic Journey") has some cool original music and some excellent remixes too!

Miscellaneous SNES tunes

Finally comes the section where the tunes are listed for miscellaneous reasons.
You'll find a list of the most cute, catchy, short, mad, zany, mysterious, melodic

Deep, sad and mysterious.
(Super) Earth Defense Force sedf.rar: edf.sp1 edf.exe: 05 (Midnight Intercept) Now the first part of this tune isn't anything too special, but wait 'til it reaches 44 seconds. Cool note ripples accompany four very unusually 'sad' (in a good way :P ) chords. It has a lovely 'drone' echo to it as well...	Hiouden: Maou Tachi Tono Chikai edf.exe: 01 (Wolfteam Flash) Short, but very mysterious tune with nice drone and rippling arpeggio. It sounds as though it could've come straight from Secret of Mana and also reminds me of the Zelda 3 mirror sound. Curiously, if you use the old ADPCM method in Super Jukebox, there's a weird 'springy' sound in it too.	Earthworm Jim 2 ewj2chz.rar, ewj2.exe: "See Jim Run. Run Jim Run" & "Villi People" Two Beethoven tunes are remixed onto the super nintendo - and with some interesting results. They have always been great tunes of course, but well... everyone's heard 'em quite a lot by now! Still, the SNES uses some mellow synths to good effect.
Ogre Battle ogrebatl.rar: 21-morning_star ogre.exe: 21 (Morning Star) There's something surprisingly nostalgic about this short snippet. Nice diminuendo towards the end. The closest I can think of is the intro music to 'Robocod' on the Amiga/Megadrive.	Plok plok.rar: Flee Pit.spc plok.exe: 19 (Flea Pit) Remember the Zelda 3 dungeon music (darkworld)? Well, the beginning of this soundtrack is a hauntingly extreme version of that - with some very deep bass o.O	Plok plok.rar: Rocket Launcher plok.exe: 06 (Rocket Launcher) As soon as this kicks in, it seems to use the whole spectrum of sound. Afterwards, are some unusually weird rich chords, but they're done well enough to earn this a place in the misc collection.
*NEW!* Sparkster spark.exe: 19 (Password) sparkstr.rar: Password.spc Super Mario World smw.exe: 15 (Sub Castle BGM) smwrld.rar: 17.spc Dragon Quest 3 dq3.exe: 08 (Field) Bahamut Lagoon bl.exe: 13 (Rebel Troops) blagoon.rar: 19.spc Ogre Battle: The March of the Black Queen Ogre.exe 15 (Krypton) ogrebatl.rar: 09-sand_storm.spc A five-some of 'classical' sounding tunes, but with all the advantages a computer can offer! Sounding as though it might come straight from Bach, the 'Sparkster' ditty has a nice 'progressive' feel to it. There's no denying Super Mario World's awesome castle music either... - a superbly crafted piece - especially later on. Next up is the march style of Dragon Quest 3. There's enough going on melodically to warrant this a place in 1st class. Also, the Bahamut Lagoon tune (Rebel Troops) has a very intricate, listenable melody and structure - and arguably the best out of the five... Finally, Ogre Battle's 'Krypton' tune has some very nice elements - and is only slightly worse instrumentally than the same music featured on the Super Famicom CD magazine.
*NEW!* Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2) Hiroki Kikuta + contribution from Kenji Ito sd2.exe s_o_m.rar 17 (Spirit of the Night) 14 story 39 (I Won't Forget) 13 theme 2 03 (Rose and Ghost) 22 pandora Three atmospherically sad tunes from Secret of Mana - the first of which made it into 1st class!	*NEW!* Pop 'n' Twinbee pntb.exe popnt.rar 09 (Deep Lava Cave) 18 Level 6 Styled differently to most of the music from Pop'n Twinbee, this tune has a deeper orchestral flavour. Listen out for its conclusion at 54 seconds - 1:12... wonderful.	Spider-Man and the X-Men spidxmen.rar: Gambit saxar.exe: 04 (Gambit) By Tim Follin, this very interesting number contains some of the most bizarre chords I have ever heard. In the first minute, it's almost dream-like in places (particularly 22-26 seconds, and 39-44 seconds), and it just goes to show what's possible in sound/music. It doesn't keep up the standard all the way through though...
*NEW!* Dark Half daha.exe: 20 (Field Battle (Falco)) Nothing special for the first 17 seconds, but the interesting part is from 18 to 36. It's got this wonderfully spooky sliding melody, with a bassline that creeps up the scale. In fact, it has a certain (Amiga) "Turrican 2" flavour about it (think 'Traps' or the T2 loading sequence music).	*NEW!* Greatest SNES classical remixes This section is dedicated to SNES covers of classical music - where the musician was simply too lazy to come up with any original music. Hehe, just kidding - actually, there's some great remixes here, and I've highlighted some of the best. Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu (ged.exe) Favourites: 03 (BGM 2), 07 (BGM 6), 09 (BGM 9) Earthworm Jim 2 (ewj2chz.rar or ewj2.exe) Favourites: 09 (See Jim Run. Run Jim Run), 04 (Villi People), 10 (Puppy Love) Earth Light (earl.exe) Favourites: 26 (Defeated), 25 (Ending), 20 (Galt Turn: Superior), 12 (Union Turn: Reinforcements), 10 (Union Turn: Inferior), 08 (Union Turn: Map 21 - 28) The Ren & Stimpy Show - Fire Dogs (firedogs.rar or fdogs.exe) Favourites: 08 (Ending), 05 (On the Job), 04 (Fire Station) Violinist of Hameln (voh.exe) Favourites: 12 (Dark Forest), 44 (The End)


Short, sweet and catchy
Parodius 2 parod.rar: Last_Stage gp.exe: 29 (Taste my life) There's been a few variations on this exact theme throughout the parodius series. Though fairly short (it only lasts seven seconds before it loops), it's none-the-less very catchy...	Pop'n Twinbee popnt.rar: 00 options So cool! Yes, it's that piece again... it's amazing just how much it manages to cram into 15 seconds. For fun, try to hum/whistle along to the zany flute that plays along. It's trickier than you'd think...	Super Mario World smwrld.rar: 03 (beginning) smw.exe: Koopa Junior Castle Clear The perfect music to start off a game such as Mario World. Pity the rest of the music in the game didn't live up to my expectations... (apart from that amazing castle music of course).
(The) Legend of the Mystical Ninja mystninj.rar Diary Tetris Battle Gaiden tetrisbg.rar 5-Princess (TBG - Princess) Both of these have something in common. Yep, they're catchy, full of melody, and generally fun to listen to - which has earned them a worthy 2nd place in the main table.	Sailor Moon Super S (puzzle) smpuzz.rar: Balloon13.spc A short, simple, but catchy number. Rather Super Aleste-y actually. Unfortunately, Super Jukebox can't play this one too well, but maybe that will be fixed in the future sometime (via updated SPC set).	(Super) Bonk bonk.rar: CITY.SPC On first impressions, this is the kind of tune that appears too simple (and is going to stay that way), but after about 40 seconds, almost a miracle happens. It's worth checking out the 'CLOUD' and 'VOICE' tunes too (they didn't get 2nd class in the main table for nothing...)

The weird, crazy and zany

Final Fantasy 3e
ff3e.rar: s57, Wind
An ordinary storm soundtrack on the PC, this sounds like the weirdest 'vacuum hoover' I have ever heard when played on one of the Amiga SNES players. I knew it was too weird for the Vacuum version to be the 'real' one...

Tetris & Dr. Mario
tetdrm.rar: Dr. Mario in-game song #1
A bizarre tune indeed. Weird sound effects and 'yips' litter the tune from start to finish. The orchestration is a bit sparse, but there's some interesting melodical content if you dig deep enough ;)

Pop'n Twinbee
popnt.rar: 04 Level 1 Boss
This has to one of the most wacky pieces of music ever. If it's not running through whole-note scales, then you can bet it's pummelling that oh-so-strange orch hit or some other strange sound effect. And yet it still manages to sound catchy! Strange but cool tune...

NEW! Earthbound (Mother 2)
Earthbound has a few nice melodies (see main table) but is especially packed full of weird and atmospheric 'soundtracks'. Here are a few of the more 'interesting'...

mo2.exe ebspc.rar
072 (Creepy Company) Jackie's Cafe
079 (Nothingness...) Mu (Mu Training)
104 (The Final Assault) Robots (Robots)
109 (Prayer for Safety) Pray (Pray)
110 (Giygas is Wounded!) Giygas4 (Giygas 4)

111 (Giygas Disintegrates) GiygassDeath (Giygas's Death)
026 (Onett's Arcade) Arcade (Arcade)
047 (Threed's Hotel) Hotel3 (Hotel 3)
001a (The Evil Giygas Attacks! (part 1)) Intro1 (Intro 1)
086 (Dungeon Man's Challenge) DungeonMan (Dungeon Man)
----- PokeysHouseBuzz (Pokey's House w/ Buzz Buzz)

NEW! Super Bomberman 2
sbm2.exe superbm2.rar
13 (Battle 1) Battle Music 1
There's nothing else quite like it. This boss music is mad to the core, but like all the best music, it maintains a decent variety of sub-melodies to complement the hypnotic 'whole-note' scale sections. You gotta love the occasional interspersed squeak sounds too... ;-)

In fact, a lot of the Bomberman 2 tunes have this feel, so see the table for more of the best Bomberman music.

NEW!

Super Mario RPG
Yoko Shimomura
smrpg.exe smrpg.rar

219 (Fight against Kajidoh, Who Likes Transforming) 2-19 fight against smithy, who likes transforming

A tune like no other. Despite the relatively 'low' 3rd class placement, this tune emanates a uniquely surreal atmosphere. The fast paced nature of the tune is perfectly suited to an end of level boss - which is presumably what you'll get if you play the game.

NEW! Secret of Mana (Seiken Densetsu 2)
sd2.exe s_o_m.rar
32 (Ceremony) 31 (thanatos's castle)
37 (Oracle) (58 dark lich)

Note that these two tunes were originally in the "Crud Class" section, but despite the repetitive and 'grating' style of the tunes, I've put them into this weird section instead - as they could be said to have a scary atmosphere while playing.

Ermmm.. so where do I begin. 'Ceremony' sounds like someone was given 5 random pitched bells - and forced to make a tune that kept repeating over and /over/ and... you get the idea. Very strange tune indeed. After a while though, it can start to grate - so I usually turned the music down in the game when this was playing.
However, I do appreciate the spooky atmosphere that this sort of style can generate - I guess it just could be done a lot better.
'Oracle' is in the same weird style, but for the boss. Ummmm... Certainly not your every day tune - that's for sure! =)


The duds...
Final Fantasy 4 ff4.rar, ff4.exe: 29 - The Airship OK, it's not amazingly bad (and in fact this tune made it into 4th class), but this airship tune from Final Fantasy IV is a perfect example of how seemingly good chords - can sound inappropriately random when strung together without much thought %)	(Super) Ghouls 'N Ghosts sgng.exe gng3.rar 04 (Haunted Graveyard) level1 (Level 1) This 'comical' music from level 1 was taken straight from the arcade, and it doesn't sound too bad;.... at least not until you compare it to Tim Follin's awesome Amiga/C64 versions (you'll soon prefer those instead!)	*NEW!* Super R-Type Charlie Y.K, Hiya, Hiroshi srt.exe r-type.rar 15 (R-Type Medley) R-TYPE.SP3 Once again, not astonishingly awful, but just try hearing the same tune from the C64 version of R-Type and I doubt you'll want to hear this again... Interestingly, the arcade music of R-Type doesn't match up to the C64 version either.	Push Over pushover.rar: 04 space - 23-33 Included to demonstrate how the perfectly good Amiga version of the same tune - could be wrecked - by having every last ounce of atmosphere completely squeezed out.
*NEW!* Chrono Trigger (Nobuo Uematsu) ct.exe ct.rar 3-02 (Tyran Castle) This tune's actually in 4th class - but no thanks to the dull section at 0:47 seconds. There's a surprisingly good interlude though at 1:43 (and especially 1:56). The magic can't last though; at 2:09, it's back to the grindstone :-/ Certainly an extreme case of both good and bad in a tune... In a way, the same bad/good scenario also happens to the 'Primitive mountain' tune.		*NEW!* Megaman 9 (Rockman & Forte) Kirikiri-Chan, Naoshi Mizuta, Akari Kaida rf.exe megaman9.rar 13 (Tenguman) Tenguman This also made into 4th class, so what's it doing in the "Crud Class" you may ask. Well, there's also something very wrong with it. Before I say what it is though, hear the tune for yourself and come back here. Go on - off you go... Finished? Think you know the answer? Well - if you've got any discernment in chords at all, you'll notice the single most awful thing about this song is the chord at... 14 seconds. Yes, the previous chord isn't perfect either, but this one truly wins the award for the most inappropriate chord ever used in any SNES tune. Ever.
'Psycho Dream' pd.rar: 07 'Mickey Mania' mm.exe: b-01 (Unused Stage Theme) mickeyman.rar: PANDP2~1 Possibly the worst two SNES tunes you will ever hear! I can't imagine chords getting more twisted than this... Mickey Mania's 'PANDP2~1.SPC' tune starts off seemingly OK for about 3 seconds, and then the most grating chord/melody comes in and wreaks havoc! This would explain why it was never actually used in the game (it says 'Unused'), so we'll let the composer off on this occasion ;-) Perhaps the less said about Psycho Dreams 7th tune though - the better...		*NEW!* 'Hiouden - Mamono Tachi Tono Chikai' hdn.exe: 50 (Emancipation) Hiouden certainly has some good tunes, but this isn't one of them :-) The rest isn't too bad, but I think it would be hard for even the most ardent jazz aficionado to appreciate the chord sequence lasting from to 45 to 1:06. I mean, technically it's ok-ish, but just so umm... 'unresolving' and atonal. The best thing I can think of is a normal tune constantly being transposed randomly up or down one or two semitones for every new chord change! If you want to hear a SNES jazz style piece with unusual chords done /well/, then try something like Axelay - 08 (Mother) instead.

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Reviews are copyright D. White 2002 onwards.
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