Hey all! Our Nintendo celebration continues this week with a look back at our absolute favorites pieces of Nintendo music. With literal decades-worth of music to choose from, picking exactly one track wasn’t exactly an easy decision to make. However, it wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be; all it took was thinking about which songs of theirs stood out most to me in the past. After that, the answer more or less became clear. My absolute favorite piece of Nintendo music is: “Rundas Battle” from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.

I’ve actually talked about this piece once before, all the way back in 2013. It was the second entry in our Resonance series, and the reason why we started it in the first place. The theme was already seven years old back in 2013 and is now a whopping thirteen years old today. That’s a long time for any piece of music to be hanging around in the ol’ noggin, but here it is nonetheless. And you know what? It’s still just as chilling and exciting as it always was.

Whe I originally wrote about this theme, I mentioned that there was a tragic undertone to it. See, Rundas had been established as a genuinely heroic character by the time his fight happens. He was the only one who showed any interest in actively cooperating with Samus in the defense of Norion, and he swooped out of nowhere to save Samus at the end of her falling fight with Ridley. Rundas was the paragon of the bounty hunters, and he’s the first one to succumb to the Phazon corruption. I think it’s rather sad, and the theme’s descending tones and choral elements seem to reflect that.

Beyond this, the theme keeps the fight feeling tense and exciting. Tragic as the situation may be, Rundas is absolutely a threat and must be treated accordingly. The theme emphasizes this with its grand sense of scale and the hard blasts of sound which punctuate its individual movements. Put it all together, and you get what I would consider to be a masterpiece. It’s a piece of music that manages to fit the dramatic situation these two characters are in, properly convey the intensity of the fight, and be downright catchy too. I don’t know if I can rightfully call the best piece of music associated with Nintendo, but it’s definitely earned its place as my absolute favorite!

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The Nintendo music leg of our celebration continues all through this week! Be sure to come back and see Cary and the Duck’s takes on this, and also to let us know what your favorite songs are too!

Lede image is official title art from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption