bucky
Offline
philly

A large, collaborative effort over at the minibosses forums resulted in a "Top 100" (115) list:

http://bestnestracks.captaintortilla.com/results/

What's neat about this list is that it's not based solely on the opinions of a few dudes. Lots of people voted on a huge number of openly-nominated tracks (over 17 hundred). No game or song was too obscure for nomination... if someone liked it, it got voted on. During the voting round, listeners were forced to listen to roughly half of a track before being able to vote, and the songs were voted on before revealing what game they were from.

Voted top lists often wind up being popularity contests, because popular titles will dominate due to the shared recognition and appreciation they'll always have over lesser-known stuff. But the open nomination and forced-listening aspect helped to ensure that the list isn't wholly compromised of nostalgia. Yes, there's going to be lots of Mega Man and Castlevania, but hopefully chiptune and retro vgm enthusiasts who like to dig beneath the surface will be pleased with some of the results. smile

5 tracks are being revealed a day. NSFs are embedded into the site with FlashNSF, and are linked for download.

Last edited by bucky (Nov 1, 2011 11:04 pm)

ui
Offline
Venezuela

W O A H...

enso
Offline
Philly/NY

hell yeeeeeeeah

bryface
Offline
vancouver, canada

i agree with a lot of the results that were posted so far.  this list also has a few that i've never heard before which is awesome.

and we're only at what, #95?  whoo!

some games i hope to see more tracks from in this list:
- ninja gaiden 2
- any of the YS games
- any contra game
- kirby's adventure
- mr. gimmick

danimal cannon
Offline
buffalo, NY

I helped contribute to this slightly, and I assure you that this was done in the most honest and comprehensive way possible over the course of MONTHS, actually more than a YEAR.  It was done with blind listening of EVERY track possible (literally thousands) with 1-10 voting that was pretty standardized.

an-cat-max
Offline
astral cat

big_smile yay!

an0va
Offline

epic, thanks bucky will def follow this!

bryface
Offline
vancouver, canada

looks like all the tracks have now been revealed.

having seen and listened to all the results, i would say i'm mostly satisfied with them (from a scale of 1 to 10, i'd give it an 8).

Pros:
- definitely thankful for the FlashNSF embeds making tracks easily accessible.
- i'm glad that proper dues were given to tim follin and other eurostyle nes composers in light of the expected roflstomping by japanese composers.
- their attitude towards expansion chips was fair and balanced in my opinion.
- the reviewers did a pretty awesome job of analyzing each result and justifying on a musical and songwriting level why each track deserved to be listed.  i'm also glad that norrin_radd did a lot of the reviewing and analysis, i don't know many others who would be better suited to handle the task.

Cons:
- i was hoping more of the songs would be based on technical/songwriting prowess though, and less on pure nostalgia factor.  not something that could necessarily be controlled i guess, but i was looking forward to discovering more unsung heroes in the great wide sea of NES tracks.
- i'm actually rather disappointed that no tracks from Kirby's Adventure were listed.  i submit butter building, orange ocean, boss battle and final boss battle for consideration - that game is such a showcase of intricate and nuanced songwriting and it kills me that it didn't get any love, IT FEELS LIKE I'M TAKING CRAZY PILLS HERE

anyway, this was a massive effort and i totally appreciate all the work that went into this by all the voters and reviewers.  good job!

HPizzle
Offline
Neo Jersey

this is great! Although with any list like this there are some great songs that unfortunately get left out and too many that are voted on just cuz they are from popular series that everyone knows.

Last edited by HPizzle (Nov 23, 2011 3:22 am)

Heosphoros
Offline

Great list! However, like anyone else, I have some opinions that deter from your list and it lacks allot of other games/companies. Good job, though!