Masaru Tajima (#1720)

[CHz]

This page may have a photo of Masaru Tajima: http://www.kyoto30.com/utapro.html. The 田島賢 on this page works for a "game maker" and performed organ on some song this "Kyoto no 30-sai!" organization produced. Not really enough for confirmation.

Tajima may be one of my favorite Nintendo sound staffers ever. He's worked on some games with fantastic tunes: Galactic Pinball, Excite Truck, Excite Bots, Metroid Prime 3, F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, WarioWare: Touched!, etc. The trick is that all his best games are collaborative works, and I haven't been terribly impressed by his known solo works like Dr. Mario Online Rx and the Nintendo Puzzle Collection version of Panel de Pon, so maybe he's just been in the right place at the right time and I don't really like him after all! I like to remain optimistic though. Also "Toward the Colony" from Trajectile is pretty good.

[Blitz Lunar]

holysh. he is now one of mine as well.

just recently discovering the music for Reflect Missile (Trajectile.) i was listening to the soundtrack and relishing in how great it was, thinking "no way could this be by a western artist." so then i find the artist name, come here to look him up and see that not only is he a composer for Nintendo (figures) but i see all these other games mentioned as well, including FZMV and Galactic Pinball (double figures!) big fucking lightbulb lit up above my head. this guy's work is awesome. the stylistic consistency is now staring me in the face:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VjGrZZhVG0 / Reflect Missile "Toward the Colony"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmfmhxEf9W8 / F-Zero MV "Credits"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5_ab7dX7_s / Galactic Pinball "Moonman's Fandango"

he seems to like arpeggios and jazz voicings a lot, so naturally I am sold. Nintendo is full of surprises.

[CHz]

Hey, great to see you here. Makes me feel glad that I may not be crazy in thinking I like this guy!

Originally Posted by Blitz Lunar

just recently discovering the music for Reflect Missile (Trajectile.) i was listening to the soundtrack and relishing in how great it was

Isn't it killer? At times he shows off a great sense of doing a lot with sparse textures that reminds me a little bit of Totaka, who is a certified master at it. I've been trying to figure out for a long, long time whether or not I like him as much as I think I do, and for a while I was really doubting it, but that soundtrack renewed my faith completely. The discovery is pretty much what caused me to make this thread, actually.

I've mellowed in my dislike of Dr. Mario Online Rx since I made that post; at the time, I think I was unfairly comparing it to the genius of the original Dr. Mario. The new tunes aren't bad at all as their own thing. You can definitely hear similarities in the track "Sneeze" in particular, even though it's not as adventurous with chords as those other tunes.

[strugglepoo]

The Excitebots soundtrack is pretty awesome. Some tracks I think you'll like, blitz:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxvrE6VkX0U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3kShK-16hk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nXQHxPGHpA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUYekSh_H9U

[Blitz Lunar]

hmmm. wow. yes, indeed! will have to look into this once i get a computer again. this is really great stuff.

[Guitarist500]

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[RBM95]

Sorry for the bump, but where is exactly confirmed that Tajima worked on Reflect Missile / Trajectile? I couldn't find credits or any official info.

[CHz]

If you believe this NeoGAF poster, Tajima is credited with music and Kenji Yamamoto is the sound supervisor. I've never been able to find a video or transcription of the credits though, same as you.

[RBM95]

I had to tinker a bit but I could get the credits and yup, they are legit:



(sorry for the crappy quality btw)

[CHz]

Image is busted. Maybe try hosting on something like Imgur?

[RBM95]

Sorry, here you go:
http://i.imgur.com/RI4dH2L.jpg