Random: The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Opening Ceremony Showcased A Ton Of Game Music

Nintendo's absence got even more suspicious when Nintendo of America decided to randomly tweet this MINUTES after the opening ceremony ended.
https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1418587213084901378?s=19

The Final Fantasy medley is like Japan's honorary national anthem

Any moment they're presented with an opportunity to play it at a public event, they absolutely will

NiER music was a really nice surprise

i find odd theres no Nintendo music on Tokyo olympic nation parade, given Mario apeared on the anouncemt of the tokyo olympic, did Nintendo changed her plans?

Loved hearing all these tunes, was just awesome. Whilst I was a little disappointed there was no Nintendo music it kinda makes sense. I imagine a big reason they were initially so keen to be involved was due to a tie in with the opening of Nintendo Qorld as well as the 35th aniversary of Mario. I'm guessing Covid threw all those plans out and maybe it simply was no longer worth the effort. Shame tho.

there’s been so many Olympic scandals for Tokyo that I thought we would be collectively canceling it. But they played video game music so damn it our high social justice standards have to take a back seat.

When I heard Star Light I immediately thought Pokemon, I guess that was me expecting Nintendo to include something-- took me a second to realize it was Sonic, which is admittedly the closest thing to Nintendo in this playlist.

Starlight Zone, recognized that one right away. Genuinely, I was not expecting video game music to be used in an actual Olympics ceremony.

@sixrings sounds like the ree twitter media bubble - its impact on real life is thankfully very limited.

Damn it I haven't watched it yet, I had recorded it tho, man! Can't wait to watch tho.

Knowing Nintendo’s track record, I bet they refused permission for any of their stuff to appear. There’s no way the organisers wouldn’t have included at least the Mario theme otherwise.

Even Google logo has been a literal playable video game today. Japan has made a formative impact on many Fiction media, but video games stand out even among those.

Nintendo? Well, not long until we learn whether both parties were content with Mario's cameo back in Brasil or... are keeping something up the sleeve for the closing ceremony.

I had the ceremony on before I went to work and was really surprised to hear Dragon Quest when the athletes started coming out.

I expected Pokemon and Zelda theme. Maybe in closing ceremony

@TheFrenchiestFry I thought the Dragon Quest fanfare was their national anthem?

😱😱😱
Peoples are crowding around during this pandemic ?!

@sixrings I hope you're being sarcastic.

@sixrings

I'm assuming this is sarcasm too, right?

Spoiler Alert

Hearing Frog's Theme from Chrono Trigger gives me chills at the best of times, but in the Olympic ceremony, amazing. I would have liked some battle music too, maybe the boss tune from FF7 hehe

They turned Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo 2020 2021 Olympic Games into a reality!

The article omits the important fact that the original composer for the Olympics resigned because he used to bully people with disabilities.

The Video Game music was probably chosen as a quick replacement. That's also probably why Nintendo was not involved - because it was so last minute.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jul/19/tokyo-olympics-composer-keigo-oyamada-resigns-after-admitting-bullying-disabled-classmates

All the normies and oldies watching: "wtf is this nerd ****"

Weird about Nintendo, but doesn't Sony hold the publishing rights to most game soundtracks? Maybe they just went to Sony and grabbed a buffet contract.

The music for the actual show gave me some major BotW vibes, so even though it lacked Nintendo overall, the music felt very Zelda.

I had it on in the background and I was like wait.. is that Frog's theme from Chrono Trigger? I mean, shoulda went with Magus but still a good choice.

I'm pretty sure Square Enix paid A LOT to have their music there (or maybe not, who knows).

Anyway, it was pretty cool.

Video Game music is now part of the Olympic Games History. Awesome.

@Splodge I really wouldn't have thought they managed to whip up a suite of orchestral arrangements for these songs within 24 hours. The sacking of the director, while unfortunate, impacted the ceremony very little. It would've all been planned and rehearsed and really didn't need the main man for anything than to oversee it all went smoothly on the night - anyone could step in and do that.

Nintendo's omission I would put down to either not giving permission, or pulling out like Toyota did last minute because of fears of how involvement would damage their brand.

As soon as the orchestra started playing Dragon Quest I recognised it immediately. Really didn't expect them to feature a full soundtrack of video game music! I was disappointed video games didn't feature more like it did when Rio passed the games on to Tokyo 5 years ago. Here's hoping they have a prominent role in the closing ceremony, and perhaps Nintendo will get involved this time. This ceremony really needed some Zelda music

@Splodge Another possible reason is that Nintendo didn’t want to be associated with the Olympics anymore because of a lack of public support for hosting the games during the pandemic - a number of the major sponsors in Japan pulled out last minute, with Toyota cancelling their ads in Japan and companies like Panasonic not sending their CEOs to the opening ceremony despite being assigned VIP seats.

edit: Just saw that the prevous poster beat me to it.

@Baker1000

Looks like he resigned 4 days ago and immediately following that there was a big scramble to find replacement music so it is possible that's why the game music was chosen. But having said that, I may have jumped the gun here and you may well be right.

I have seen people I trust saying this was the replacement for his music - but they have no involvement with the Olympics so how could they know for sure.

This is really cool, I always love to see video game music get represented in the mainstream.

Hearing a suite of Gradius tracks was the highlight for me.

Never recognised any. Probably because most of these games I've never played.

Thank you Japan for proceeding with the Olympics in defiance of the ignorant doomsday mob. Barely 2000 cases a day and the Olympics should be canceled yet Britain has up to 50,000 a day yet it's full steam ahead with Wimbledon and Euro 2000. Work that one out! Even Eurovision was run successfully in May.

People need to understand these athletes prepare the whole year and it would be brutal and unfair to cancel at the last minute. Last year they were cancelled 3 months prior and in a world with no vaccination. There's a time we need to move on and have faith in the vaccines.

Thanks for sharing. Video game music is awesome!

@SmileMan64 in 2008 a swimming team used an FF8 track as part of their routine. Or was it 2004? I can't remember.

@BeefSanta Woo. Awesome. Thanks for sharing.