Koji Kondo: The Man Who Composed Your Childhood

This week, we look at Koji Kondo, his life, influences, and the music he's made.
Like it? Hate it? Have a suggestion for future episodes? Let me know in the comments!

Intro music by me. Other music includes:

All others are from their repective games and composed by Koji Kondo
"Overworld" from Super Mario Bros
"Underworld" from Super Mario Bros
"Overworld" from The Legend of Zelda
"Intro" from The Legend of Zelda
"Goron City" from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
"Snow Mountain" from Super Mario 64
Time Running Out from Super Mario Bros, Star Power from Super Mario Bros 3
"Deku Tree" from Ocarina of Time
"Hyrule Field" from Ocarina of Time
"Temple" from Zelda II (Kondo actually didn't do Zelda II, I messed up there)
"Kakariko Village" from A Link to the Past
"Athletic Theme" from Super Mario World

[Phobos_Anomaly]

Kondo-san is a fucking legend. He composed the soundtrack of my childhood. I am forever grateful to him, he defined my life as a young video-gamer :-)

[mario]

Koji Kondo was still a prominent composer in Super Mario Sunshine, released in 2002.  He wrote the main themes like Delfino Plaza, Bianco Hills, Ricco Harbor, Gelato Beach, and the Staff Roll (all variations of the same tune), and he even arranged the original Mario theme in the a-cappella style.

He wrote the main theme to New Super Mario Bros. on the DS (which was reused in NSMB Wii and NSMB 2) and he wrote a few tracks in the Galaxy games (Good Egg Galaxy, Comet Observatory, Starship Mario, Bowser Jr.'s Fort, and Yoshi Star Galaxy), and he wrote the Seaside and Athletic themes to the new game, Super Mario 3D World.

On the Zelda side, he really was more of an advisor, as his role was INCREDIBLY small in Wind Waker, he wrote only one track in Twilight Princess, one track in Spirit Tracks (the ending theme), and one track in Skyward Sword.

You sort of used screenshots of them, but didn't really state how he wrote a lot of main themes to Star Fox 64 (like the main one that's very famous), and he wrote all the Yoshi's Island music.

[ClassicTVManX]

Before he worked for Nintendo, Kondo-san used to play in a Deep Purple cover band -- hence that group's influence on The Legend of Zelda's music.

[WideMouth]

God bless Koji.









Actually, a fragment of The Legend of Zelda main theme is used in the Hyrule Field theme in Ocarina of Time.

[EllieMcEla]

Hi, The main Zelda theme does actually appear in Ocarina of time, albeit in only a few bars in Hyrule Field.

[Tremuoso]

Stumbled upon this vid...watched for about 10 seconds, saw the list of other videos you've done, subscribed.

[Fozmaloud]

Please keep making these videos, I'm really enjoying them.

[digdugpacman]

I'm doing a project for school for the Rock and roll hall of fame where you nomate someone and explain why he should be inducted I chose Koji kondo :)

[Thenbhuntr]

It would be awesome to see a composer spotlight for Naoki Kodaka, the lead composer for Sunsoft in the 80's and early 90's

[lokuzt]

We need a composer spotlight for Michiru Yamane! (and for Yuki Kajiura, despite her work is not featured prominently in video games...)

[knasigboll]

The organ solo in the final boss music of Yoshi's Island always made me think of ELP

[legofanguyvid]

does anyuone have a video of what the first draft of zeldas music would be? 1:14 

[phoeny]

well SMW has the smb over world in the special world theme, there are bits of the main Zelda theme in hyrule field theme.

[brittanyrodiger]

you should talk about Dragon Quest Composer Koichi Sugiyama 

[sweavenger]

He didn't compose Super Mario RPG, so not every mario game