11/14/2023 0 Comments Super mario rpg composer notes![]() ![]() ![]() And that’s not counting the dozens of other recorded instances where the game’s snappy sound effects have been sampled by rappers, producers, and experimental musicians including 21 Savage, Death Grips, and Flying Lotus, just to name a few.Īlthough Capcom’s side-scrollers may have delivered Shimomura her first huge success, it wasn’t until she joined Square in 1993 that Shimomura found her true home: JRPGs. A piece of Blanka’s theme appears three minutes into acid house DJ A Guy Called Gerald’s lo-fi jungle track “Cybergen.” Even Kanye West turned Street Fighter II’s classic “perfect” sign-off into his own personal signature. Chun-Li’s theme turns up as the leading sample for British grime heavyweight Dizzee Rascal’s “Street Fighter” instrumental. Filled with fist-pumping, zig-zagging themes representative of each characters’ home country-from Ken’s bleeding heart American hair metal to Chun-Li’s cascading Chinese scales to Blanka’s mutant Brazilian jungle funk -Street Fighter II was an international smash hit that brought Shimomura’s eccentric melodies across the world, leaving a particularly strong impression amongst Western producers raised on arcade games.Įxcerpts from the Street Fighter II soundtrack have popped up all over the place. Her first major breakthrough came in 1991 with Street Fighter II, which demonstrated Shimomura’s knack for writing complex, upbeat melodies that combine ornate arrangements with a sense of humor. Shimomura never originally intended to work in video games, however upon receiving her first job offer out of college from Capcom, she began to apply her classically trained chops toward compositions for three sound channels on the NES (including, ironically, the Disney-themed NES platformer Adventures in the Magic Kingdom, securing her credentials with the House of Mouse right from the jump). Hundreds of years from now, game music might be revered the way classical music is today.” Music is meant to touch people’s hearts, so if there is a piece of music that does just that, then I think it should be considered wonderful music that is neither above nor below anything else. “I think all music genres are created equal. “Personally, I don’t put classical music on a high pedestal myself,” she says. This classical sensibility has carried throughout her many projects, though Shimomura herself doesn’t have any reservations about crossing over from the classical world into soundtracking arcade games. Born in Hyōgo to a family that encouraged her to study piano since grade school, Shimomura was raised on Romantic composers like Chopin and Rachmaninoff, drawing particular influence from the more minimal piano works of Ravel and Debussy (one can even hear echoes of Erik Satie in her gentle Kingdom Hearts ballads). Kingdom Hearts 3 screenshot courtesy of Square EnixĪlthough Shimomura’s work itself has crossed countless musical boundaries, her background is about as traditional as it gets. “I still can’t believe it myself, but it’s a tremendous honor.” “I have heard directly from foreign artists who have listened to and been raised by my music,” she tells me with a sense of shock. ![]() She’s turned up in songs by mainstream R&B artists, been sampled on posthumous hip-hop releases, appeared on tracks from the British club circuit, and even received nods on left-field vaporwave releases. Shimomura’s soundtracks have traveled far and wide, serving as an inspiration (and often as literal sample material) for artists in both the upper echelons of popular culture as well as in the deep experimental underground. But from our conversation, I get the impression that she doesn’t quite realize the extent to which her work has impacted not only video games, but the larger world of music as a whole. “No matter what form it takes, I always want a song I create to move people’s hearts,” Shimomura tells me via email. And that’s to say nothing of her soundtracks for Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XV, which have taken her work into an entirely new stratosphere of popularity, combining her background in Romantic classical music with her affinity for concocting dreamy, heartfelt arrangements. Working with Square, her zany melodies served as the backbone for Super Mario RPG (as well as the ensuing Mario & Luigi series). Looking at her resume is like taking a tour through the evolution of the home console: Her early days at Capcom saw her forging the colorful, heart-pumping themes of Street Fighter II. Shimomura carries this unassuming attitude about her entire body of work, even as she’s earned a worldwide reputation for composing some of the most vibrant and celebrated scores in video game history. ![]()
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