Topic: The quality of recent Nintendo game soundtracks

I started a Link between Worlds today and honestly expected "just" a decent remix of AlttPs Soundtrack (I didnt spoil myself too much by watching trailers)
But what i heard so far is absolutely brilliant. The overall quality of recent (and upcomming) soundtracks in Nintendo games is baffeling.
Be it Pokemon X/Y, the upcomming country violin and flute based soundtrack of Kirby 3DS, the orchestrated soundtrack of Mario 3D Word, its astounding how much effort they put into their music.
Nintendos tunes always were memorable albeit simple, mix that with their new found love of orchestrated pieces and the use of real instruments, ad youve got something spectacular in my opinion.
I hope that this trend also affects the development of the upcomming Smash Bros. It will be pretty hard to top Brawls soundtrack, but if the soundtrack recieves the same upgrade as, say, the graphics hints at the Marth comparison picture were in for a major treat

I agree on ALBW, really fantastic music with incredible quality to it.

I agree with everything you've said. Seems like Nintendo's music quality has gone up significantly in the last few years, with the most recent installments of all Nintendo franchises (like Pokemon, Mario & Luigi, Zelda, 3D Mario, Luigi's Mansion) having some of the best music in the entire series or perhaps even gaming as a whole.

Yeah, Nintendo music is always great! Although people didn't seem to like the game too much, the jazzy soundtrack from Paper Mario Sticker Star is one of my favorites ever!

yeah Sticker Star had one of the greatest soundtracks ever!

It's Nintendo, the music has been nothing short of spectacular since the very beginning.

Obviously, Nintendo is a god when it comes to music and games.

If I'm not mistaken, the composer for ALbW was fairly new to Nintendo

3DS speakers do not do ALBW justice. play the game in you car with car speakers, and you'll be in euphoria.

I think it may be a bit overstated to suggest that older game soundtracks are inferior. Personally, it will be hard for a game's soundtrack to overtake the soundtracks of Super Metroid and Metroid Prime. Also, the N64 Zelda dungeons have spectacular background music. I find this slightly avant-garde style highly atmospheric and transparently effective - plus, it is accomplished with such minimal resources!

@TheOneHacker: We've got fancy, high-quality speakers with the big subwoofer and everything hooked up to our computer... but I can plug my 3DS into it... maybe I'll play it through there when I get it!

i've already expressed how i feel about the game on its appropriate thread, but its soundtrack is beautiful. your fancy speakers are a good place to set up camp for playing. bring some sweet rolls with you when you get the game, you wont come back to the real world for a long time

Haha, alright! I'm definitely asking for this for Christmas! Just this thread alone is convincing me that I can't pass it up! ...even though nine 10/10 reviews should have been enough to convince me, lol. If even the music is so amazing, I'm going to have to get it.

I love games that have a recorded orchestra music. Mario Galaxy is still my favorite soundtrack. Are there any ads games with this much focus on music?

^What's an ads game?

If you mean 3DS, maybe A Link Between Worlds. I hear rumours that game's soundtrack is orchestrated.

How can a discussion on recent Nintendo soundtracks be had with no mention of Fire Emblem Awakening?

Ya. I meant 3DS. Can anyone confirm that the new zelda game is orchestrated, or is it just a detailed midi file?

I'd like to know this as well. Sounds like it could be either.

Nintendo is the only game company with good music. Th onl non-Ninty but good music games are the Mega Man games. It has always been that way.

The Gates To Infinity soundtrack is also really good. I came back to that game this week and I'm a bit surprised nobody mentioned it in this thread yet(though I'll admit, it's definetly not as catchy to me as the music in the other PMDs so far...).

I love Nintendo soundtracks. They have so much personality and atmosphere and they blend in beautifully with their games. Something I feel has been lacking in some games lately is music, but Ninty are just getting better with it all the time, in my opinion.

Not to say old game tracks were bad, or consistently worse, I mean- a good testament to that is OoT3D, I haven't played the original so don't kill me if I'm wrong but I hear that they didn't even change the music in that game? Wow.