Yoshi's New Island (#8628)

[Enja Hamman]

The T's MUSIC website lists that they were only responsible for part of the music in Yoshi's New Island. Perhaps Kazumi Totaka contributed a bit of music as a foundation.

「ヨッシー New アイランド」のBGM制作（一部）／SE制作／データ実装を担当致しました。

[MIDIWIZI]

Oh absolutely. A lot of the main music uses Totaka's common equipment & common writing characteristics with tracks from Happy Home Designer, released just a couple of years later. My own guess is that Ishi did about half of the course themes, all castle/boss/boss cutscene music.

[RBM95]

For what it's worth, for Yoshi's Woolly World, while largely done by Tomoya Tomita, Totaka was credited with "Main Theme Music and Arrangement", so I wouldn't be too surprised if for New Island he at the very least contributed the main theme as well.

(not trying to be too judgmental, but while the soundtrack for this game has been heavily panned by many people over the years due to how annoying some instruments sound, I found the main theme and some of its variations to sound decent at least)

[zierts]

Don't know about Yoshi's Woolly World but Yoshi's New Island follows the "stage BGMs arranged from main theme" pattern that Kazumi Totaka used for Super Mario Land 2 and Yoshi's Story. Just like RBM95, I could easily imagine the main theme being composed by him. I for one like the piece. And the Bandit Valley gipsy arrangement is sublime. Rightfully showed up in Smash.

Although it is much shorter and not based on the the main theme, Cave from Yoshi's New Island reminds me of Totaka's Jungle Yoshi Fever from Yoshi's Story. If there are similar parallels such as MIDIWIZI mentioned, I'd like to hear them.

Needless to say Nintendo is too protective with the composition credits, like Konami was in the 80s and 90s. I get that the "composed by [company or sound unit name]" thing is done to strengthen the brand but I'm not sure it actually does.

[MIDIWIZI]

Originally Posted by zierts

Although it is much shorter and not based on the the main theme, Cave from Yoshi's New Island reminds me of Totaka's Jungle Yoshi Fever from Yoshi's Story. If there are similar parallels such as MIDIWIZI mentioned, I'd like to hear them.

Yeah spot on. Seems like most games where Totaka's credited in any sound lead adjacent role, he also has a hand in composition and sound effects. The clearest compositional parallels that stand out to me in New Island:
- Overworld Theme vs. Unused Song 3 (Mario Artist Talent Studio prototype)
- Jungle Theme chorus vs. Mii Channel chorus (& SML2 Roots Course)
- Bandit Valley vs. Yoshi's Tale

Touch & Go credits him as a Sound Director (music by Ohta/Minegishi), but his trademark secret song appears in the Desert theme.

As RBM mentioned, Woolly World credited him for "Main Theme Music and Arrangement", which at least confirms the main theme, but there are three other tracks that share the same specific naming convention in the files, all of which use the same central theme and none of which are confirmed to be by Tomita. So "Arrangement" in this case may be referring to those tracks - the equipment lines up too.

And with Yoshi's Island DS, while he was only credited as a supervisor, compelling evidence suggests he produced two tracks for the game which became the basis for the main theme (Track 1, Track 2), similar to YWW and YNI. Both tracks use their own banks with totally unique naming conventions, and share direct samples used in Wild World).

[zierts]

Originally Posted by MIDIWIZI

- Overworld Theme vs. Unused Song 3 (Mario Artist Talent Studio prototype)

You're right, you can really hear it with those.

Originally Posted by MIDIWIZI

- Jungle Theme chorus vs. Mii Channel chorus (& SML2 Roots Course)

Absolutely! Let me add this passage from Yoshis on the Beach, too.

Originally Posted by MIDIWIZI

And with Yoshi's Island DS, while he was only credited as a supervisor, compelling evidence suggests he produced two tracks for the game which became the basis for the main theme (Track 1, Track 2), similar to YWW and YNI. Both tracks use their own banks with totally unique naming conventions, and share direct samples used in Wild World).

Originally Posted by fusoxide

Oh wow, now that I think about it, "Flower Field" from Yoshi's Island DS is classic Totaka for sure. Not really too sure who did what for the rest, between Minobe and Chamy though.

Not sure how compelling an argument this makes...but wouldn't it make sense for the sound of the Yoshi series to be Totaka's baby ever since Yoshi's Story? Him composing most of the main themes, him voicing the character...

Originally Posted by fusoxide

Perhaps companies do this to attempt avoiding fans having favouritism towards individual composers?

Never thought about it that way but could very well be. The funny thing is there isn't any favouritism from the fans if the music is stylistically fitting and, well, good. Now that I think about it, it gives companies more leverage when discussing payment, too. If you don't credit composers, they cannot become icons like Nobuo Uematsu and Koji Kondo. Ergo, no "people love my music, it sells your games, I deserve a raise".

[fusoxide]

Oh wow, now that I think about it, "Flower Field" from Yoshi's Island DS is classic Totaka for sure. Not really too sure who did what for the rest, between Minobe and Chamy though.

Originally Posted by zierts

Needless to say Nintendo is too protective with the composition credits, like Konami was in the 80s and 90s. I get that the "composed by [company or sound unit name]" thing is done to strengthen the brand but I'm not sure it actually does.

Yeah, it annoys me too. Companies like Square Enix are better for giving composers recognition (except often putting original composers as the artist on arrangements made by others) and they haven't damaged their brand from doing so. Perhaps companies do this to attempt avoiding fans having favouritism towards individual composers? There are probably a number of reasons though, the biggest being they just don't care much.