This month we chose racing games. Now I know that some racing games used licensed music, but here are a couple with composers for the soundtracks of their games.
Nick: Mario Kart 64 - Kenta Nagata
Best known for his work in the overall Mario Kart franchise, Kenta Nagata got his start with the Nintendo Entertainment Analysis & Development department with a pair of Nintendo 64 titles: 1080° Snowboarding and Mario Kart 64. I was personally quite late to the SNES party, having gotten a SEGA Genesis well before the SNES came out, and didn’t play the original Mario Kart on that platform. My first exposure to the series was Mario Kart 64 (which along with Madden and Golden Eye were some of the most popular ‘party games’ my college buddies and I played on a regular basis. Mario Kart 64 was a fantastic blend of battle and racing games, complimented by accessible but deep gameplay, whimsical visuals and highly enjoyable sound effects and music.
Kenta Nagata found his talents put to use on a variety of well-known Nintendo titles such as Mario Kart 7 and 8, Super Mario 64, Phantom Hourglass and New Super Mario Bros. 2 in various capacities. But it is his first work, Mario Kart 64 where he was the Music Composer, I want to reflect on here. The music so often complimented the unique tracks, from the whimsey of Choco Mountain, to the deep and menacing sounds of Koopa Castle and the procession-heavy Donkey Jungle Park.
Of course, the most memorable for me is the longest, most visually impressive track Rainbow Road, which at just over five minutes in length is also the longest song on the track. This track felt like the ultimate one in the game, and something about this particular song has remained burned into my memory decades later.
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Richard: Cruis’n USA - Vince Pontarelli
Now I’ll be the first to admit that racing games aren’t usually my forte. Sure I’ll find some of them fun, but more often than not they don’t really catch my interest the same as other genres do. Well, Cruis’n USA is one of the few exceptions to that, and the soundtrack is one of the main reasons why.
Back in the day, one of the first games I got for my N64 was Cruis’n USA. Before I knew whether or not I liked racing games, before I even had my own money, Cruis’n USA was probably the 2nd or 3rd game I ever owned on the N64, and boy did I play the hell out of it.
I’ve never been all that great at racing games. Consistently average, but that’s about it. I remember the good old days where I would have friends over for sleepovers and we would wake in the early morning, scamper downstairs to my basement where the TV was, and play Cruis’n USA at five in the morning, much to my parents’ chagrin. I fondly recall us skipping through the tracks while driving, some notable tracks being “House Special”, “Deadwood Drive”, and “Bluegrass Boogie”.
To this day I’m still not a big racing game fan, but Cruis’n USA still holds a special place in my heart, and on my shelf, for a beloved childhood game, and Vince Pontarelli did a solid job of helping to make that happen. Pontarelli has also worked on some pretty big titles, such as NFL Blitz, Mortal Kombat titles, NBA Ballers, and WWE games. If you’ve got a chance to try out this retro classic, I’d actually suggest giving it a go. It’s from a time when there were no gimmicks, just straight driving!
