How Does Koji Kondo Make His Tunes Catchy?

Do you ever think about how videogame music is some of the most catchy out there? There are times when you can loop a game’s soundtrack over and over or constantly hear, say, an RPG battle theme and not tire of it.

Famed Nintendo composer, Koji Kondo, talks about he, personally, achieves this in a new Iwata Asks interview with three of Nintendo’s composers in celebration of the Super Mario All-Stars Collector’s Edition:

Iwata: Wow… I suppose lots of people all around the world are listening to the music in Mario games all the time. When you play a video game, you listen to the music the whole time, because it repeats. Usually, no matter how much you like a song, if you just keep listening to it over and over again, you get sick of it.

 

Yokota: Yeah.

 

Iwata: Why is it okay with video game music?

 

Kondo: It’s hard to put into words, but I try to make music that people can listen to over and over again without getting sick of. Then when I think I’m finished, I do this… (closing his eyes and leaning back in his chair) …and listen to it for hours on end. Sometimes I even dance to the rhythm.

 

[…]

 

Iwata: So when you can listen to it for hours, it’s done as far as you’re concerned.

 

Kondo: Right. And when I can’t do that, I know there must be something wrong with it.

Following this bit of talk is a very interesting segment on the idea of positive reinforcement, using music in a game to make the player keep wanting to move forward and make progress.

Kondo then goes on to comment on a bunch of different Mario tunes from over the years that are included on the soundtrack CD that comes with Super Mario All-Stars Collector’s Edition.

Image sourced from Nintendo’s Iwata Asks segment.