Understanding the Music of Donkey Kong Country

[Music] this is a song composed by david wise for donkey kong country 2. nice isn't it there is a particular video that you might have come across on youtube that uses this song i won't give you a direct link to it because i believe it is meant to find you people use this video's comment section as a place to freely express how they're feeling about their current circumstances their regrets their anxieties and their fears stemming from the past present and future are all documented in the comments section of a video that features sticker bush symphony it offers a dose of perspective from people across all walks of life and reminds us that we're never alone in our struggles and although we are all different people experiencing different challenges in our daily lives we are all unified through our experiences with a song from donkey kong country 2. childhood nostalgia its association with memories we've made or simply the presence of its soothing melodies are just a sampling of the reasons people congregate here what matters most is the song's ability to bring people together during their darkest hours when david wise composed this track in 1995 i doubt he could have ever imagined that all these years later people would be opening up to each other and sharing deeply personal stories all thanks to a shared love for the music of donkey kong country donkey kong country is a brilliant series fondly remembered for its tight platforming brutal yet rewarding design astounding technical achievements and engrossing atmosphere but the soundtrack primarily composed by david wise and evelyn novakovich had agency over a lot of the game's memorability their works have been adapted and remixed several times across nintendo's history and people who have never even played donkey kong country before have been able to fall in love with them the soundtracks are much larger and grander than the games they appeared in at the same time they are unquestionably crucial to those games they mirror rare's technical achievements in their instrumentation they enrich the atmosphere through detailed soundscapes and they carry the pacing of levels through dynamic and varied compositional techniques i'm liam triforce and in this video i'll be discussing the history evolution implementation impact and legacy of these soundtracks in an effort to understand the music of donkey kong country this video is sponsored by skillshare an online learning community for creative people of all skill levels whether you're looking to learn something new or deep in an existing passion for a field you care about skillshare's got you covered it is curated specifically for learning and although the classes offered are in depth most of them are under 60 minutes total and broken up into short lessons to maintain flexibility in anyone's schedule as a small sampling of what skillshare has to offer here's a class that interested me as i was writing this video songwriting and composing melodies from lauren bookter it delves into the heart of writing melodies for any scene or emotion from the perspective of an experienced composer while being accessible for beginners all of this comes at an affordable price less than ten dollars a month with an annual subscription so if i've piqued your interest the first 1000 people to use the link in my description will get a free trial of skillshare and premium membership so you can explore your creativity thanks skillshare [Music] it's interesting to consider how little rare had to go off of when building donkey kong country the character of donkey kong became a pop culture icon because of his initial arcade appearance being successful nintendo approached rare with the idea of modernizing him after a decade of dormancy but aside from kidnapping pauline and sitting on steel girders what else is there to derive from his original outings thankfully when rare demonstrated their pre-rendered 3d graphics running on super nintendo they were given full creative control over what would eventually become donkey kong country a modernized take on the character of donkey kong inspired by rare's fondness for platformers of the 80s the game's technical prowess blew people away when it came out in 94 and although david wise had worked at rare for a while at that point creating a soundtrack that would live up to what rare founders tim and chris stamper and their team were accomplishing would prove to be a difficult task the age of the super nintendo gave rise to more vivid atmospheres being created through graphics and sound more memory could be allocated in each department and the super nintendo could make use of much clearer audio samples than the sega genesis super metroid released the same year as donkey kong country and it features some of the most enveloping levels i've experienced in a video game from that era if you've seen my video on the metroid prime trilogy you'll know that i'm a huge fan of the dread and mystery of lower brinstar it sounds sinister as it fades in but its main melody and supplementary piano aim to keep you intrigued this is just one example kenji yamamoto composed a soundtrack that completed super metroid a soundtrack that complemented everything about it the challenge is reflected in its ominous instrumentation and the exploration is reflected in its sense of melody and all of this was made possible thanks to the super nintendo's enhanced sample playback heavy drums industrial clangs and whirs flutes and whistles the atmosphere of metroid could be conveyed in full through music but super metroid already had things set in stone for its soundtrack despite how limited the nes's sound capabilities were the original game was still able to establish an atmosphere of dread with its existing melodies donkey kong was coming back from a decade-long hiatus with little to no source material for david wise to draw from how could he demonstrate rare's willingness to reinvent the wheel through music with but a single melody to go off of [Music] that's how reinvent the identity of donkey kong and demonstrate how groundbreaking and cutting edge of this new take on the character and franchise would be by giving that 10 second tune a genre-bending spin rare was able to start from scratch with donkey kong and give him his own world but an upfront aggressively catchy reinvention of the main theme is only the beginning it mirrors the marketing campaign the game had leading up to its release as well as the confidence the team had in this leap forward but it isn't reflective of what the core of donkey kong country truly is aside from an added second melody backing the song with a sense of adventure and fun music like this barely scratches the surface of the soundtrack as a whole to prepare for this project david wise had been working as a freelancer at rare since the mid to late 80s when he was discovered by rare he was working in a music shop demonstrating a yamaha cx-5 computer it had a built-in voice fm synthesizer and he programmed his own music for it with nothing but selling these computers on his mind imagine his surprise when the stamper brothers offer him a job at rare for the demos he created on that same computer while freelancing at rare he learned a lot about composing for the nes with its technological restrictions he found himself impressed by what that era's most famous composers were able to accomplish and in retrospect there were quite a few legendary examples cinematic flair and ninja gaiden whimsy and zelda fear and metroid melodic understanding and pacing in mega man [Music] this helped him refine his work a great deal as rare entered the 1990s with games like battletoads this also enabled him to work around restrictions as he familiarized himself with the nes limited number of sound channels and poor sampling capabilities i am a huge proprietor of the restrictions breed creativity philosophy no matter the medium this is something that i stand by not having a direct way to create something can inspire entirely new and unexpected solutions and in turn breathe uniqueness and identity into the end product it's not about the tools you're given it's about how you make use of them these crucial years of experience as a musician in programming music and thinking outside of the box when faced with limitations and an establishing thematic purpose they'd eventually lead david wise to creating jungle themed demos for the super nintendo eight audio channels and higher quality samplings allowed for seemingly infinite possibilities and david wise applied what he learned in creating these demos which would be seamlessly stitched together as dk island swing essentially it was the song that earned him a permanent position at rare our intro is nothing more than a repeated jungle drum riff accompanied by the sounds of the wild animals in the environment but as it proceeds it gradually becomes something more the percussion gradually picks up bass line forms and ambient chords begin to push the player forward subtly then the tempo picks up more and more and more and i'm sure you all know the [Music] rest [Music] this series of bouncy and vibrant eighth notes lifted from the golden era of swing defined donkey kong as a character while simultaneously mirroring the game's pacing if you've played this game before you'll know that this first level is a bit of a playground for players of all skill levels you could be figuring out the controls and platforming physics for the first time and taking your time to explore or you could be speeding through the level rolling and bouncing along the conveniently placed kremlings no matter how you decide to play through this first level the song dictates the pacing and foreshadows the frenetic platforming of donkey kong country and speaking of foreshadowing as the song descends into its third act it imbues an atmosphere of adventure and mysteriousness [Music] intentionally unwilling to match the pace the player might be traveling at it gives them a small glimpse into the broad spectrum of ambience and emotion the game goes on to tackle each environment reflected and every mood amplified overall dk island swing has so many moving parts and it ties the three key components of the soundtrack together evoking the environment managing pacing and inspiring emotion the very next level further demonstrates all three of these things through a minimalistic approach cave dweller concert plays here in a dark uncertain and occasionally claustrophobic cavern the song uses nothing more than a marimba drums synths and reverberant drops of water to embody the methodical approach you need in solving this level it's unfamiliar and disquieting but there are two elements that push it toward a feeling of adventurousness once more a callback to dk island swing [Applause] and this moment here [Music] [Applause] the beauty of this game's soundtrack is evident even in something this simplistic it subverts the player's expectations as it maintains dynamism in spite of the restrictions of the super nintendo the mood of each level continues to be established voices of the temple downplays its percussion while maintaining a steady tempo as you press onward and it complements an eerie low tone haphazard melodic construction through atmospherically appropriate instrumentation and a foreboding flute all of this to symbolize how unpredictable this level can be [Music] in a more direct approach to building tension this is northern hemispheres a low note undercuts the song as it gradually ramps up in intensity with chaotic piano chords following suit it perfectly accompanies the snowstorms the slippery slopes tricky platforming and tense barrel cannoning amidst limited visibility that you'll be doing throughout these levels [Music] if the design of these levels didn't already create tension the music reinforces it with the piano and sense reflecting the chilly landscape all the same on the flip side as a reward for making it through these levels you'll enter an icy crystalline cave although claustrophobic at times there are less pits to fall in and less cannons to keep track of the challenge comes from memorization and patience with its tight corridors and slippery ropes and surfaces the pace of this level fluctuates throughout and to strike a balance between patience and quick reflexes amongst these beautiful crystal walls we get ice cave chant it has an incredibly strong sense of melody as it delivers an uplifting reprieve from the grueling platforming of the previous levels but it also breaks up its main melody with more considerate and vulnerable pauses as if to remind the player to be careful in spite of the sensory overload and the instrumentation here impeccably suits gliding along ice and observing the glistening crystals with happy-go-lucky xylophones and strings overall donkey kong country has a phenomenal sense of melody unified through david and evelyn's creative collaboration [Music] [Music] these songs are all given identity through pacing and instrumentation fear factory in particular serves as a techno prelude to the final battle with king k rool while calling back to the original jungle setting to symbolize the kong's encroaching on that portly pirate and much like dk island swing the song features so many moving parts to keep it engaging at this point you're barreling through the level and conquering the toughest challenges nothing can stand between you and victory now well except for him there's not really much i can say about gangplank galleon that hasn't already been echoed a million times but i gotta say it's really nice to hear scottish pirate metal on the super nintendo without many compromises really i could mention the sustained notes that create atmosphere during such a tense final boss or how punchy the guitar riffs sound but instead i'm just gonna let you listen to it enjoy [Music] [Music] now even with all of this praise i've heaped on the music of donkey kong country thus far let us not forget that david had a primary focus going into this project to create music that would stack up to the stamper brothers technical achievements to do this he took the aspects we discussed thus far and experimented a lot and the results speak for themselves let's start with a weird one misty menace it makes use of haunting industrial words clicks and chugs to make your trip through the darkest minds one you'll never forget as you rush to each stoplight and take care not to fall into pits the music takes a unique stance and refrains from establishing pacing it knows how fast you need to be moving and therefore it doesn't need to push you forward it aims to discomfort you waiting patiently just as the rock rocks sit in the darkness until you make an unfortunate mistake those metal clangs and chimes paired with the uncertainty of the synth honestly make it one of the most terrifying songs i've ever heard in a super nintendo game [Music] as demonstrated here ambient noises and instruments evocative of the environments can serve as crucial building blocks for a song in donkey kong country even if the resulting song barely features a discernable melody but what happens when you take these building blocks and you give them to david wise and ask him to write a melody with them [Music] this is life in the mines a series of synth crawls are paired with percussion focused on eliciting the sounds you'd hear in a mine hyping up the main pan-flute melody which is awe-inspiring and just when you think the song can't get any better you get those powerful drums to accompany an already beautiful melody [Music] this level takes the super nintendo's sampling capabilities and pushes them to their absolute limits all eight audio channels being used in unison to create something larger than life a masterclass in composing for the system although its laid back tempo is suited to the mind levels that encourage you to move at your own pace i feel that it is best utilized in this level right here this level already moves at a set pace but despite this you still have to think on the fly you have to constantly be planning out your next move in order to fuel the platform keeping you alive but because the level is consistently moving at the same pace this song works wonders this is on top of being perfectly evocative of the minds and having wondrous melodies that inspire joy and daringness it's genius and one of my favorite songs on the soundtrack my other favorite song is a little hard to top it took david wise five weeks to create and it's arguably one of the greatest video game songs ever written this is a water level in donkey kong country primarily focused on timing and positioning along the x and y axes these levels strip away everything the game has taught you about platforming and ask you to clumsily navigate through a series of narrow tunnels and deadly obstacles on guard can make things more fun and the levels are relatively well designed but they still stick out like a sore thumb as a departure from the principles the game teaches you as you progress even the mine cart levels despite being a departure from the freeform platforming the rest of the game provides still focuses on platforming under a new lens a more challenging lens an intuitive and creative lens now the reason i'm telling you about this is because the water levels while fun for some and unmanageable for others needed an extra punch to make them worth playing through and david wise single-handedly packed that punch it all began with an idea david wanted to create a waveform sequence on the super nintendo even if it was only capable of playing back samples okay so just sample the chords to emulate a waveform sequence right well his objective was to bypass that very restriction the super nintendo is incapable of playing back sounds that technically have no end as is the nature of a cyclical waveform while most samples on the super nintendo are actually tiny single cycle waveforms designed to fit on the system's measly 64 kilobytes of ram the complexity of a waveform sequence typical of a synth piece simply wouldn't be feasible through traditional composing methods especially with pieces that change and evolve in such dynamic ways however a waveform generated by a synthesizer can be read in binary and in this case dave was using a korg wave station that binary code can be transcribed into hexadecimal which the super nintendo can read this allowed for such complex songs to actually become a reality on the system but it would take a lot of work it took david wise about a month to complete this song he transcribed each waveform into hexadecimal one by one without the luxury of real-time editing and for a sequence as complex as the one he had envisioned i can't even imagine how many lines of binary that he had to transcribe but this was all being done in order to match what the stamper brothers and their team had accomplished and the result is aquatic ambience right out of the gate this song doesn't sound like it could be coming from the super nintendo this song much like this level comes completely out of left field and therefore heightens its emotional impact its compound and reverberant wave station melody is crystal clear echoing through your ears and seemingly bouncing off of the walls of this underwater cavern a powerful series of synths crawl upward in the background resulting in a euphoric aura unlike anything else in the game it sets you up for something far more than i think the developers ever intended you to experience and then the percussion and those pulsing waves of underwater exploration pick up that metal clang reminiscent of a submarine traversing the depths of the ocean further reinforces the mood and atmosphere evoked here and finally a reflective and soothing melody carries us through to the end barring everything that david wise attempted in order to live up to everything else donkey kong country had to offer this song is an incredible piece on its own but when you factor in what it took to create this piece the context in which it plays and how it outshines the level it appears in you begin to realize how amazing video game music truly is this song perfectly captures the three philosophies of the music in donkey kong country the environment isn't just evoked in the song it has been brought to life solely through sound your effortless aquatic drifting is accompanied by chords gliding between each other these sweeping melancholic synth bars envelop the player and no matter how difficult these levels may get they're a cloud of comfort to fall back on in every aspect aquatic ambience is the embodiment of tranquility amidst danger and uncertainty and that is how david wise created a song that transcended its medium of origin to this day people used this song to reflect to reminisce and to escape from reality and it wouldn't be the last time the music of donkey kong country would elicit this reaction the music of donkey kong country 2 doesn't pull any punches throughout your journey it goes from foreshadowing a swashbuckling adventure into accompanying the experimentation and level design through unique instrumentation built through the sounds evocative of the environments the soundtrack is diverse and for many reasons unforgettable we begin exactly where the original game left off on king k rool's ship amidst the waves crashing and the ship creaking and as you gather your bearings throughout this first level a melody begins to form it adapts gangplank galleon into a jovial and triumphant piece setting the stage for your adventure from here things zero in on reflecting a perilous quest for treasure as you barrel through pirate ships scale tall jibs and navigate underwater cargo mazes each of these songs have incredible melodic understanding and established dkc2's focus on adventure whether it be for lockjaw saga's constant aura of danger [Music] or jib jig's encouraging push for exploration and fun [Music] things feel just as treacherous as they do exciting just as the designers gave it their all with dkc2 david wise and his team unquestionably stepped up their game too and from here the focus on creating infectiously catchy melodies expanding on the environments through sound and maintaining player immersion gives the soundtrack unprecedented breadth there are so many great songs in this game every single level seems to be accompanied by yet another masterpiece to me this was a challenge that the composer set out to conquer from the very beginning donkey kong country 2 is constantly introducing new ideas and mechanics and it never dwells on an idea for too long there seems to always be a new animal to steer a new vehicle to pilot a new direction to take a new challenge to face and because there are so many ideas being given time in the spotlight nothing gets stale this melange of wonderful design concepts made donkey kong country 2 one of the finest platformers around and the music lives up to this beautiful blend of creativity mining melancholy bases its percussion around the sounds of the mine even more so than life in the mines did and to its credit it carries a pretty groovy beat with it the level's vertical structure and hectic design give its ever-changing and inspiring synth melody's purpose as you ascend the minds [Music] speaking of melancholy i think someone just might have taken notice of how aquatic ambience transcends the level it appeared in because yet another thing dkc2 focuses on and totally nails is its pensive and insightful melodies even in areas where you'd least expect them pothead bop seems to simply be evocative of the calculated drifting you'll need to do in order to cross the magma below but the longer you take the more the song evolves undercutting challenge with sentimentality seems to be a recurring theme and i welcome it this level can bring about some extremely close calls and the anxiety doesn't fizzle out until you finally made it across knowing this the music doesn't confine itself to that feeling and instead aims to motivate the player when they need it most yeah remember that by the way it'll come up again soon bayou boogie relishes the quiet marshland environment as it is almost entirely made up of the sounds of the swamp it's worth mentioning that the sounds you hear in game of birds chirping or lava bubbling aren't being produced in real time they're baked into the songs themselves which in some cases actually make the compositions more immersive and dynamic no matter how you choose to listen to them personally i don't know if i could listen to bayou boogie without the chirps and croaks giving way to the melody fading in [Music] these swamp levels are mostly flat with the environments and core platforming being the main challenge it's no pushover but it's a great subversion of expectations when paired with the music and therapeutic when considered a break from the onslaught of inventive concepts another emotionally freeing track plays during the first level of k-rool's keep approaching a castle as daunting as this comes with it intimidating thoughts of how challenging the levels you'll have to clear will be but in comes this level as a sort of last hurrah to the calmness delivered through music in levels past even though this is one of evelyn novakovich's few confirmed compositions for dkc2 as i can't find concrete info on who composed what for this game she absolutely nailed it and it's probably my favorite song she's ever composed it's called in a snowbound land soft vocal chants accompany a series of whistles and chimes while the baseline carries you forward and you maintain consistency in your rush to keep the water frozen over the duality in this track encompasses the importance of balancing pacing with atmosphere in donkey kong country and in a level this beautiful and captivating it's hard to ignore how liberating it feels to go through this level it's a farewell to the state of repose felt in spite of the difficulty of donkey kong country 2 a balance not often struck in game design and yet donkey kong country seems to keep bowling [Music] strikes [Music] although when it comes to balancing elements of dkc2 i believe the pinnacle is reached in gloomy gulch these forest levels encapsulate everything that makes donkey kong country 2 a wonderful game enemies and disappearing ghost ropes dynamically alter pacing on the fly there are secrets in unexpected places testing your resourcefulness and skills in every corner the core platforming is deceptively tough but manageable and fun all the same the visuals are beautiful some of the best in the game with vivid colors and gorgeous sprite work as the sun shines through the trees and leaves fall to the ground it's an enveloping experience that isn't common on the super nintendo and remains poignant today but most important to us right now the music is pure ecstasy [Music] described by david wise as one of the biggest technical achievements in the music of donkey kong country forest interlude is nothing short of a masterpiece somehow translating the finesse of donkey kong country 2 entirely into sound beginning with an exquisite yet brief series of evolving synth crawls david wise demonstrates how acclimated he has grown with his arduous synth translation technique something that shouldn't be possible in the super nintendo is commonplace and overwhelmingly elegant we are immediately shrouded in a blanket of comfort no matter how the odds are stacked against us the percussion factors in the sounds of the forest with its drums giving it a fresh and authentic vibe while breathing organic pacing into the platforming the synth and pan flute accompaniment further make the song feel at home with the level and the melodies bring about harmony within the forest and more importantly the player forest interlude is a song for reflection enthrallment and conveyance and while it may be a culmination of everything the game stands for it isn't the song that i've been building up to the song that has received so much recognition so many remixes and a dedicated forum with millions of views for people to discuss their lives this song almost didn't make it into the final game it was composed for a water level that was ultimately scrapped but upon scoring the bramble levels david wise found that the song made for a poignant juxtaposition and it's stuck little did he know this decision to salvage a song from hitting the cutting room floor would ultimately leave a decades-long impact this is sticker bush symphony [Music] at this point if a donkey kong country song features a synth crawl in any capacity you should know you're in for something special the song is soaked in a tranquil aura thanks to its layered and expansive synth melodies and its primary melodies are harmonious and introspective threading the needle between jovial and wistful to create something beyond words [Applause] at first it accompanies a laid-back level focused on puzzle solving and navigation it seems to fit like a glove in that regard but when it returns to feature in some of the hardest levels of donkey kong country 2 it suddenly becomes exponentially more meaningful amidst the brutal and precise platforming in order to clear lethal tunnels of bramble the song remains a constant no matter how many times you die no matter how long it takes it will be there to back you up and that is what i love most about sticker bush symphony and yet i don't believe we have the full picture i've given you my thoughts on why these compositions work so well in the context of the games they appear in and while you could argue that listening to a song outside of its game of origin means that it has already transcended its medium i don't feel like that's enough why do people feel compelled to pour their hearts out when they hear these songs well in order to understand that we must first take a look at where donkey kong country went from here [Music] david wise took a back seat when donkey kong country 3 rolled around instead focusing on project dream and eventually diddy kong racing as such the game didn't have the same thematic through lines that i believe the first two games were able to maintain don't get me wrong i love evelyn's work but somehow i feel as though donkey kong country 3 demonstrated that the series needed to hit the back burner for a while while the game is still great in its own right certain design decisions seemed weird to me and this is even mirrored in the music sometimes of course there are a few great tracks here and there thanks to evelyn's progress as a composer shining through but i don't know if i feel it warrants too much discussion because i don't want to stray too far from the thesis for this video sorry donkey kong country 3 fans perhaps another day anyway back on track after lying dormant for nearly 15 years donkey kong country made its triumphant return on the wii although it features retro studios signature personality and ingenuity and level design its music is almost entirely composed of remixes and reorchestrations of songs from the first donkey kong country game its soundtrack banks on nostalgia rather than creating an identity for itself and while i was delighted to hear some of these songs with a full-blown orchestra like dk island swing simeon segway and the like they honestly felt a little disingenuous as barebones recreations ironically despite having the resources to sound bombastic and extraordinary they felt chained to the past in an effort to evoke nostalgia the sound of donkey kong country needed to mature it needed to take advantage of modern technology in ways beyond memory allocated to audio and cd quality compositions most importantly if a new donkey kong game were to lay out its own identity on the table the soundtrack should have its own identity to go along with it and retro studios knew this bam donkey kong country tropical freeze you hear those trumpets they symbolize the true return of this big hunk of bananas tropical freeze has some of the most stimulating and inventive levels i've ever seen in a platformer and its hot streak never seems to die down much like donkey kong country 2 new ideas come in droves and stay intriguing through to the end of the game and to accompany this david wise returned just the announcement of his return to donkey kong was enough to make the game worth waiting for and while it took me an embarrassingly long time to finally play through this game despite it sitting on my shelf for years i am so glad i did in my video on the music of half-life i discussed how video game composers inherently can dictate a game's design essentially making them a game designer in spirit well in tropical freeze there are instances in which his music is crucial to a level's design horntop hop has platforming dependent on timing with the music and grassland groove moves and evolves with the rhythm with the trees swaying and the giraffe heads vibing it is an absolute treat to blitz through these levels as a result but synchronization with level elements isn't the only thing david wise took advantage of level themes go through phases and use stems depending on the player's progress and location for example when you dive into the water in the very first level you'll hear a faint reprise of aquatic ambience before you'll hear both an acoustic and a soft synth take on the melody of the same level both a clever callback and an intelligent way to adapt the music of a level dynamically the breadth of the soundtrack's instrumentation astonished me too a harmonica to symbolize the easygoing countryside of windmill hills [Music] an electric guitar steel drum and even a saxophone as you blitz through the vine covered ipod commercial known as busted [Music] bayou some badass hard rock and big top a focus on african instruments in grassland groove a mixture of those instruments with a synthesizer and flute and twilight terror that simultaneously builds upon the primary melody of sticker bush symphony [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] this is what i'd call a matured soundtrack the revisitation of old songs comes with purpose the expansiveness of its instrumentation invites so many possibilities for building abstract and varied melodies and the music quite literally directs the pacing of levels levels shape and move depending on how david wise composes his music this was likely a dream project for him as not only was he able to revisit the series that he was able to shape but he was also able to experiment thoroughly free from the constraints of a super nintendo sound chip you could argue that the sound chip gave the original soundtracks their identity and that'd make sense to me but with the amount of passion that went into creating tropical frieza's music it's hard to ignore just what was accomplished here it is an immaculate wonder but when it comes to discussing the maturing of donkey kong country's music there is one song that we mustn't overlook the final world of tropical freeze has the kongs making their return to what appears to be their original home however due to the takeover of the snomads their island has been completely frozen over to convey the emotion attached to their home being in ruin david wise composed a little song known as seashore war [Music] the song is mournful and almost depressing but an atmosphere of hope persists it beckons to the player in spite of what you're looking at you know normally i'd feel a little weird getting emotional over a game about monkeys and bananas but david wise has been able to normalize that through his trials and tribulations developing the music of donkey kong country beforehand and through the surprises he was consistently able to deliver through the melancholy in his songs everything he had worked toward finally culminated in a heartfelt goodbye to the island he and the kongs once called home and with that this song single-handedly reframed my view on the music of donkey kong country so here i am again listening to sticker bush symphony for what feels like the 9 000th time every time i hear it i'd feel the need to speak but nothing would ever come out until now and i figure i may as well tell you all about something i've realized recently donkey kong country 2 has you going on an adventure across different landscapes for treasure and as you progress the soundtrack evolves that arrogant swashbuckling attitude you may have had as he blitzed through gangplank galleon vanishes as you face more daring and brutal challenges you're confronted by these gorgeous soundscapes as you attempt to conquer these challenges and just as you feel you're ready to take on the big k you're asked to do more than you've ever been capable of these songs will always be a safety net but they aren't going to solve your problems but do they help absolutely in that regard i view donkey kong country 2 as an analogy for growing up and dealing with our everyday problems as they come at us life is a we have good days we have bad days our nostalgic attachments to these emotional melodic breaks may seem like superficial coping mechanisms but hey if they soothe your anxieties as you attempted to clear a bramble level or navigate a maze of ice and snow surely they can soothe you as you prepare for a job interview or cope with another unnamed crisis just as people reflect in the comments section of that special video they once reflected on how they could improve after yet another death on bramble scramble it's not a far-fetched concept frankly however it takes strength to persevere thinking about and reflecting on what's going on in your life is one thing but hey you beat king k rool you unlocked the lost world and you grabbed every token and even if you didn't manage to do all that you accomplished something that not everyone has the strength to do you tried there are always a million reasons not to do something and it's way too easy to retreat into your own thoughts but taking that next step and applying everything you've learned and reflected on to the days ahead will make living life a hell of a lot easier it won't stop life from throwing you a bramble laced curveball but you've made it this far why give up now and if you need to hit a checkpoint every now and then that's fine david wise has contributed a substantial amount to the video game world through his profound impact on the donkey kong franchise his influence on young musicians and his ability to inadvertently assist millions of people with their day-to-day problems through his compositions his work has meant a lot to me and david all i can say on behalf of everyone that has ever had an emotional attachment to your work is thank you thank you so much for giving us the strength we need to persevere in the games you've worked on and in life i've been liam triforce thanks for watching do you

Channel: Liam Triforce

Views: 200,567

Keywords: donkey kong country, dkc2, dkc, donkey kong country 2, dkc 3, dkc tf, tropical freeze, returns, ost, music, aquatic ambience, stickerbrush symphony, stickerbush symphony, forest interlude, seashore war, david wise, eveline fischer, eveline novakovic, nintendo, rare, soundtrack, liam triforce

Id: 4Repd_I0FSg

Length: 45min 0sec (2700 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 11 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/IanMazgelis]

I love Liam's videos. I'll admit he sometimes can't quite nail down what he's saying, and he doesn't really get into the technical aspects of the music- which might be a good thing depending on your interest- but he seems like such a sweet guy that I just enjoy listening to him no matter what he's talking about.