Game info: Wikipedia
Listening: compilation album (disc 2), emulated audio, YouTube (tracks 57~91)
Info
In 1998, Nintendo decided to remake the second game specifically for the SNES. In addition to arranging and extending the whole Disk System soundtrack, Kenji Yamamoto also added about 10-15 new tracks to the game so it’s a bit chunkier; I’m not sure that the SNES remake actually has any additional story content, so it seems that it was just done to help add some variety to the soundtrack.
Yamamoto’s arrangement style is pretty similar to the one Takeshi Abo took for the Switch remakes: updating the instrumentation and looping + adding on top of the track versus dramatically changing it or extending it with original material. However, he was more willing to get out there and add in a key change or otherwise depart more from the original composition, which is interesting to compare with the Switch soundtrack where Abo stuck more closely to the original. He also made the soundtrack quite a bit jazzier/funkier than the original, both in the writing as well as the instrumentation.
On a compositional level the new arrangements and new compositions don’t really add anything that interest me, but the instrumental programming of the soundtrack is pretty nice, as you might hope a late-era 1998 game would be. It’s not like every single track sounds like it belongs in a PlayStation game or something like that, but the quality of a lot of the instruments is on the better side for the system. But more importantly, a handful of tracks have some really great synth manipulation, making some very weird and threatening noises that I can’t remember ever hearing in an SNES game before. I mentioned in my post about Metroid Prime that Yamamoto had shown off some sound design chops back on the SNES in Super Metroid, and it’s nice finding another example of his skills here.
Recommended tracks:
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“Nintendo (Startup Display)” has a really cool echoing percussive sound at 0:02
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“Chapter Title” is an ominous and alien ringing
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“Abandoned School Building” takes the creepiest track from the original and gives it some piano tremolo that I think sounds nice
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“Reasoning” takes the main riff of the soundtrack and puts it into odd time, kind of reminds me of Phoenix Wright music like that
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“Approaching Footsteps” has some of the thickest bass sounds I’ve ever heard come out of an SNES
(track titles are translations from the music player in the Switch remake)
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