Mizutani ALWAYS pays off. An extremely intricate song that rewards focused listening with lots of great details and unexpected turns of phrase, as well as patience if your listening is highly tuned toward hooks. The real buttercream doesn't splooge out until about 40 seconds, but there's all kinds of intrigue in every other corner of this song. Thus is the Mizutani way.







Manic! Possibly among the most manic songs on the entire system. Where do I begin? I guess most obviously, the drums: that is a thrash drum beat, in an NES game, and one of the very few I can recall, sprinkled with some of the most high energy drum fills and rhythmic ad-libs the NES has ever seen. Every section ends with a unique drum fill/transition. And they are amazing! Continuing with the manic pace of this song, there is the triangle wave. This thing is absolutely out of hand. Go ahead and solo the triangle wave for this song in the NSF and just listen to how much is going on. It's unbelievable! Lastly, this song features some of the most impressive square wave production techniques on the system (I know, how many times will I say that?!) But it's true! One of the best songs the NES has to offer, right here.







The polyrhythmic bassline! Maezawa-sama seemed to be angry about something when composing this one, though that can be said of much of his Contra work. Clever nods to the stage 1 music from Contra provide appropriate fanservice. This tune is a great display of Maezawa's mastery of rhythm and strange, aggressive transitions.







Like many others on the list, this song rewards patience and focused listening. That might sound ridiculous when you're talking about a loop of music that is just over a minute long, but it's easy to start wanting instant payoffs when you listen to a lot of NES music. The opening riff here consists of generic, bone-headed power chording, but quickly escalates into a nice exercise of the uniquely NES take on "epic metal" tropes popularized in series like Mega Man, Contra, and Castlevania. Noise channel drum fills are a welcome detail, as are the messily arpeggiated chords near the end of the loop. Nice work, Data East!







Texturally, one of the most simplistic pieces on this list, exhibiting hardly anything in the way of technical/programming wizardry. However, melodically and compositionally, I think it's one of the most memorable and intricate pieces of short music I've heard in my life, and certainly one of my favorites for the NES. What I love about great simple melodies is that they seem very deliberate. The notes that aren't played contribute as much as the ones that are. In a mere 47 seconds, this piece takes a handful of exciting and propulsive turns overshadowing any other content in the game in terms of complexity and imagination.







Even an "average" Mizutani tune has more creativity and energy in every phrase than any piece of music most musicians will ever create. It's true that I love hyperbole, but I pretty much mean it here. A relatively average (but slaying) entry from the master. Just his use of delay alone gives every track a sense of refinement that keeps his compositions from being boxed in with the vast ocean of generic NES "metal."







TOP MAN! More of that fantastic Mega Man 3 chorus! This is not a super flashy track, like some of the other Mega Man 3 songs. But this song is very well written. I think that is actually its strongest feature. The rhythmic break downs from section to section provide very classy transitions, and the actual chordal progressions from one part to the next is nothing short of masterful.







I consider this to be a bit of a "hidden gem" in the world of Contra music. The melodic content isn't particularly catchy, but I imagine that this song would slay as a straight cover by a rockin' live band. Cool time signature experimentation in the grand Contra tradition.







There seems to be an entire sub-world of video game music cover bands somehow referencing or even entirely devoted to the world of Mega Man; I believe that the same could be true of Journey to Silius if it contained more songs and, beyond that, spurred an ensuing vast series of titles containing music as simultaneously emotional and apocalyptic as the utterly unique compositions in this too-short game. As it stands, there is only one Journey to Silius and that makes it all the more magical. This song tugs the eyes of my heart toward the sky with a single fist raised, and it's probably the least affecting of the major tunes in the game.







This track is the essence of a bunch of bad dudes rolling in and beating your ass with increasing ferocity until they run out of energy and slowly wipe the sweat and blood from their brows. I have no idea when or where this plays in the game and what's happening on screen, and it doesn't matter. That's one of the coolest things about the best classic VGM; this music was clearly crafted with great deliberation and stands on its own as art, almost completely outside the specific context of "video games."