Let's finish this list off strong!

Even More Real Songs That Inspired Iconic Nintendo Music

Doom II 'Shawn's Got The Shotgun' — 'South of Heaven' by Slayer

Composer Bobby Prince drew a lot of inspiration from his favourite bands to create the DOOM soundtracks, from Alice in Chains to Metallica, and AC/DC to Pantera. Any metalhead will be able to identify a decent number of those inspirations in particular tracks, but we had to pick one, so we went with the Slayer-like 'Shawn's Got The Shotgun'. The developers tended to pick titles based on their own playtests, if you were wondering.

Ocarina of Time 'Gerudo Valley' — 'At Seventeen' by Janis Ian & 'Mido Arashi Theme' by Takashi Yamada

Although Gerudo Valley, arguably one of the best Zelda songs of all time, was mostly pulling from classical Spanish guitar melodies, it's hard not to see the resemblance to this melancholy Joplin-esque track, too, even if that chord progression is just a coincidence.

A more likely candidate is the theme for Mido Arashi, a character from Japanese dodgeball anime Honō no Tōkyūji: Dodge Danpei.

Super Mario World 'Overworld Theme' — 'Green Green' by The New Christy Minstrels

For various reasons, this niche American anti-war song made it big in Japan around the time of the Vietnam War, as detailed by this video essay. You can absolutely hear the notes from Super Mario World's Overworld theme in the chorus, but you probably didn't know that the song came from a tragic tale of a boy losing his father!

Ocarina of Time 'Saria's Song' — 'Jupiter' by Gustav Holst

Holst's Planets suite is iconic by itself, but a lot of people don't even know that's where the music they recognise comes from! In fact, you may recognise part of 'Jupiter' as the melody to the hymn 'I Vow to Thee, My Country', or as the theme for the English in Civilization V. But, of course, you can also hear jaunty sections that recall Saria's Song, and the Kokiri Village music, too. Does this mean Hyrule can be found on Jupiter?

Pokémon Red & Blue 'Route 1' — 'Light Cavalry Overture' by Franz Von Suppe

Junichi Masuda, unlike many people on this list, is heavily influenced by the older kinds of composition — Classical, Baroque, and Romantic music. His musical techniques are reminiscent of the styles of Bach, Stravinsky, Shostakovich, and Tchaikovsky, with counterpoint melodies that work well with the limited capabilities of the Game Boy's sounds.

Oh, go on then — here's another Pokémon inspiration...

Pokémon Red & Blue 'Prof. Oak's Theme' — 'Chinese Dance' from The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky

We're taking this one to mean that Professor Oak was practicing ballet just before the player came in to choose their starter Pokémon.

EarthBound 'Frank's Theme' — 'Johnny B. Goode' by Chuck Berry

The composers for EarthBound, Keiichi Suzuki and Hirokazu Tanaka, were heavily inspired by a number of American and British bands while making the jazzy soundtrack, including the Beach Boys, The Who, The Doors, Chuck Berry, Randy Newman, and even The Beatles. The two sampled a lot of songs in the soundtrack, which you can listen to here, but we're more interested in interpolation and references, of which there are many.

There's 'Battle Against A Weak Opponent', which is just 'Tequila' by The Champs, 'Tessie's Theme' sounds like The Beatles' 'Strawberry Fields Forever', the hotel theme is just 'El Bimbo' by Paul Mauriat, and the shop theme sounds like a slowed-down version of 'When I'm 64' by The Beatles combined with The Dallas Rag.

Our favourite, though, is Frank's Theme, which nails the Chuck Berry intro and the rockin' train-track beats to the point where you almost think you're listening to a '50s jukebox while drinking a malt shake.

It's incredible how many musical artists have inspired the world of video game music — but perhaps it's not entirely surprising, too! After all, we're all influenced by our favourite pieces of music, our favourite movies, our favourite painters... so it makes sense that composers are constantly referencing each other. And plus, it means we get to listen to a bunch of bops from the '70s and '80s. Thanks, Koji Kondo.

Have we missed any obvious or even obscure references to music in video game soundtracks? We'd love to hear your favourites in the comments below!