Wii (#15997)

[RBM95]

While I don't normally engage in speculative composer credits anymore without being backed by any game files or data, given how the Wii channels lack any in-software credits and how 99% of the Internet seems to think that the music for all channels was "all Totaka", there are some personal thoughts I want to cover...

(I'll keep the discussion for now on the channel music available on the Nintendo Music app)

As far as the Mii Channel and Wii Shop Channel is concerned, it's probably safe to assume that they solely handled by Kazumi Totaka, as the Touch Generations soundtrack credit him for their respective main themes, and, aside for those themes, those channels either only feature their "Launch Screen" jingles or different variations of the Mii Plaza.

In the case of Check Mii Out Channel, the Touch Generations soundtrack soundtrack credits him for "Posting Plaza", but the majority of the soundtrack seems to use instrumentation similar to the DSiWare title X-Scape (whose music was solely credited to Totaka), so it's more than likely that that channel in question was also mostly, if not only, composed by Totaka.

Now, for the remainder of the channels:

Basing on various developer interviews that were posted on Nintendo's website (for Photo Channel, Forecast Channel, News Channel) development of those three channels seemed to be mostly handled by Nintendo SPD Division's Software Development & Design Department (環境制作部), more specifically lead by Brain Age director Kouichi Kawamoto.

Most of the games developed by that department were actually handled by Nintendo SPD composers, more often than not with Kenji Yamamoto also listed as sound director (for example, English Training or Brain Age Express: Math), and looking those games up on the Canadian Copyright Database will, as a matter of fact, only display Yamamoto as the only sound related staff in the whole list, with no mention of the other composers.

I mention this point because, as already indicated on the page, Yamamoto does indeed appear mentioned on the CIPO pages for Photo Channel and Forecast Channel (News Channel lacks a CIPO page for some reason, but given it was mostly the same development team for Photo/Forecast it is extremely likely Yamamoto was involved there as well), but as seen with the English Training and Brain Age Express examples this does not indicate that Yamamoto was the sole sound staff.

Comparing some of the music of those three channels with some other contemporaneous SPD works, there are at least three composers that I could mostly identify:

-Minako Hamano for most (if not all) of the music for the Forecast Channel, maybe some for the News Channel, and maybe most menus for Photo Channel (similar tone to Brain Age 2 and other Brain Age soundtracks where she was involved).

-Daisuke Shiiba for, at least, "Slide Show: Fun", "Slide Show: Beautiful", "Doodle" and "Puzzle" on the Photo Channel (similar tone to the English Training titles and Tomodachi Collection, at least for his confirmed tracks)

-Toshiyuki Sudo for, at least "Slide Show: Scenic" (similar in tone to Magnetica / Actionloop and other of his DS era titles) and maybe "Slide Show: Bright" on the Photo Channel. Perhaps also partly for the News Channel ("Checking the News: Daytime" at least kinda sounds like his work to me...)

Also, for the Everybody Votes Channel (which also lacks a CIPO page), it's worth mentioning that Brawl's Smash Bros. Dojo website specifically listed it in the "Works" section for Sudo, so at least we do have official confirmation that he was involved there (I could very easily see him as solo composer for Everybody Vote Channels though, as all songs really retain his style). The interview on Nintendo's website seems to suggest it was developed by Nintendo SPD's Software Planning & Development Department (企画開発部), led by Tomodachi Collection director Ryutaro Takahashi, so at the very least it's extremely likely that SPD's sound team was involved there too.

With all of this being said, while it's possible that Yamamoto could also have been involved in any of the channel's soundtracks (as Nintendo sound directors sometimes participate on music despite only being credited as such), I personally didn't find anything that particularly sounded like him... (also, he may have been probably busy with Excite Truck at that time, which was a launch Wii title much like most of these channels).

Keep in mind all of my composer guesses I mentioned are merely speculation on my part.