Koji Kondo & Kenneth Young greatest composers for platformers ever?

T0minator

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Alot of people may think Kenneth Young who?

But he needs alot more recognition, he's responsible for so many amazing soundtracks from games like LittleBigPlanet and Astro Bot.

Kenneth Young:





Koji Kondo:



+ Soooo many more.

What other platformers have great soundtracks?
 
Alot of people may think Kenneth Young who?

This is exactly what I thought, yes.

If I had to pick a second composer to list alongside Kondo, it would probably be David Wise. Not exactly a deep cut, but he earned his reputation.

Kondo is untouchable though. I don't think any composer in gaming period has produced half as many legendary tracks as him, and if you're talking about platformers specifically, it's no contest.
 
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Alot of people may think Kenneth Young who?

But he needs alot more recognition, he's responsible for so many amazing soundtracks from games like LittleBigPlanet and Astro Bot.

Kenneth Young:





Koji Kondo:



+ Soooo many more.

What other platformers have great soundtracks?

Brother, there's about a hundred composers I'd put between Koji Kondo and Kenneth Young. They just aren't on the same level.
 
Can you name another composer that's done multiple great songs?
There are a lot of video game composers who have done multiple great songs.

For platformers specifically: David Wise, Grant Kirkhope, Jake Kaufman, Soichi Terada, Tomoya Ohtani, Stewart Copeland, Richard Jacques, Jun Senoue, Pascal Michael Stiefel... and many more.
 
Can you name another composer that's done multiple great songs?

I never said they're on the same level. Both are stand outs in gaming music though

Uematsu with Square. Kiyota with Monolith. Yamane with the Castlevania series. Plus many many more.

But Kondo is the GOAT.
 
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Even 10 posts without either of the Follin brothers is too many.

Here's a whole playlist of Tim:


Same for Yuzo Koshiro:

In recent years I've come to like and appreciate SOR1's music more than 2's.
Edit: no time to find platformer specific tracks for them both but Tim did Plok
 
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Can you name another composer that's done multiple great songs?

I never said they're on the same level. Both are stand outs in gaming music though
Man the whole point of your thread is to put him on the same level as Koji, but if making music for video games is a sport Koji is playing the Super Bowl while Kenneth is in the parking lot scalping tickts.
 
I can't speak for Kenneth Young but even if I like Kondo's tune, I tend to think he's a bit overrated, he's average in my opinion.
 
David Wise is up there for sure when it comes to consistently good platform composers.
Problem is that some of the best platform series have multiple composers so it's hard to pin one down.

As far as platform soundtracks of note by various composers:
Mega Man 2, Mega Man 3, Mega Man X
Ninja Gaiden Trilogy
DuckTales and other Capcom platformers of the time
Batman: The Video Game
Journey to Silius
Castlevania... Pretty much all of the 2D ones
Klonoa Door to Phantomile
Sonic 2 (done by great composer and pop artist)
Sonic 3
Michael Jackson GIF by Database數據


To name a few...
 
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The music in LBP and Astrobot is amazing, one of the biggest standouts of both games.

It amazes me that someone could argue this, but again, wild pikmins are capable of that and then some.
 
Outside of all of the classics that will get posted here...one of my favorite hidden gems of a soundtrack is Gremlins 2 on the NES. Sunsoft always had banger tunes on their games but this one really hits for me. Stage 1 and 2 below:



 
Gareth Coker earned a spot for me as well with his work for the Ori games. Listening to those games soundtracks is pure bliss


 
Man the whole point of your thread is to put him on the same level as Koji, but if making music for video games is a sport Koji is playing the Super Bowl while Kenneth is in the parking lot scalping tickts.

It's kinda disgusting how much you're disregarding Kenneth Young's work. Have you played LittleBigPlanet or Astro Bot?

The soundtracks for both of those games are top tier and standouts for the platformer genre. I suggest you look him up and listen to their soundtracks. He's extremely good. Koji is awesome, nobody is really arguing that, but Kenneth Young has done amazing work as well for the genre.

I'm speaking specifically music for platformers. Those types of games tend to have fun catchy music. Not many composer's get the recognition they deserve in that genre
 
Not strictly a game composer, but Joe Hisaishi composed both Ni No Kuni games and scored most if not all Studio Ghibli movies. He gets my nod....
 
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Do SotN & Hollow Knight count as platformers? (I think they do), they compose tapestries of music weaving into the gameplay.


Christopher Larkin


Michiru Yamane
 
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