Comments on: Irregular meter in video games

By: Rain

Rain — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:52:59 +0000

Check out Kingdom Hearts, the track called Night of Fate. It’s in 5/4 I’m pretty sure.

By: Jesse

Jesse — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:12:39 +0000

Some more:
The Opening theme from the Monkey Island games has some strange meter changes… it switches between 4/4, 3/4 and 6/4 pretty randomly… it all flows really nicely under the melody, though.

Also, the triforce music at the end of Link to the Past has some interesting signature changes:
4/4 4/4 2/4 4/4 repeated, but the way the melody goes, it sounds waltz-like. there’s a long section of 3/4 later on.

Street Fighter II has a pretty awesome 11/8 groove on the Sagat stage.

It’s mostly in 4/4, but the Secret of Mana boss music has all sorts of crazy shit going on rhythmically.

By: Jasonsan

Jasonsan — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 09:43:07 +0000

Sophisticated post. Acutely drawing upon your interests and expertise generates a fun read. Thank you.

I am sure that I can find another game which utilizes an irregular meter. Will get back to you on that.

In the mean time, I hope you are writing up another post along this fashion. You could easily create an entire blog around video game music, grouped by specific musical themes.

By: Ron

Ron — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:22:36 +0000

My two cents: Level 1 theme from Contra III: The Alien Wars, consisting of a two-bar phrase with the first bar being 4/4 and the second bar being 7/8.

By: Paul

Paul — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 03:08:13 +0000

This is a great and interesting site. Good work.

By: Josh

Josh — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 00:11:58 +0000

I’ve always been drawn to strange rhythms both in classical pieces and in modern music. I love techno/electronic, but only when done in a strange time signature, playing with tempo, or with fun things done with triplets.

Now that you mention it, maybe my taste in music was shaped a little too much by the video games I played as a kid.

By: John

John — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 16:46:06 +0000

You should try 02’s theme on Kirby and the Crystal Shards

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud8XJBlnDc0

And the regular boss theme o.o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU2h5NyF68M

By: Joel

Joel — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:15:54 +0000

I’d also check out the “Ankor Wat” theme in Illusions of Gaia for SNES, and maybe other songs from that game – incredible score. Very cool that you went through and found these things – a joy to read and see the visualizations of these pieces I’ve known for years. (And NEVER noticed about the Mario Kart..wow.)

By: Shane

Shane — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 03:25:27 +0000

Hey, how about the Level 8/Alien’s Lair music from the NES version of Contra? There are a ton of odd meter changes. Begins with two measures of 6/4, changes to 11/8 for two measures, to 5/8 for another three — it doesn’t even stay with one particular metric feel. Very frenetic.

By: thom

thom — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 05:32:37 +0000

Wild! Some of these like Mario Kart I never really listened closely enough to even pick up on. Great find! As I browse your posts I’m loving this blog more and more, especially the Zelda/Koji Kondo analysis. Keep it up!