Wise would then go on to compose music for the game's two sequels - Diddy's Kong Quest and Dixie Kong's Double Trouble, after which Rare as a company moved away from the SNES as a platform. Coincidentally, it was also the first project he collaborated on with other composers, as Robin Beanland and Eveline Fischer provided part of the score as well. However, it was following the release of Donkey Kong Country in 1994 that he began to gain much wider recognition and fame for his work. Among the more notable titles he worked on during this time are: Wizards & Warriors, Snake Rattle 'n' Roll, Battletoads, and Battletoads & Double Dragon.
For most of his early career at Rare, Wise was the sole composer creating music for the developer's games. Wise had programmed the demonstration music for a music computer, and when the Stampers discovered this they offered him a job on the spot. Wise's video game career began when he met Tim and Chris Stamper, the founders of Rare, while working at a music shop. After leaving Rare he has continued working as a freelancer, still often working together with people who once worked for Rare alongside him. He made his name working at Rare for over 20 years, where he composed music for some of the best games of each era, starting with the NES and going all the way through to the new millennium. The highest ranking non-japanese composer on this list is David Wise, the legendary composer behind some of the most iconic pieces of video game music created during the 80s and 90s. In fact, some of his very best works can be found in games that most people are probably not even aware of, and that perhaps more than anything shows not only his skill as a composer but also how much he values each game he works on. Throughout most of his career Mitsuda has split his time between high profile releases and various smaller titles, giving each the same amount of care and attention regardless of how significant in scope the project is. Just as an example, since 2009 he has been the sole composer for just four different games, with the most recent one being Valkyria Revolution in 2017. Curiously, Mitsuda rarely composes entire soundtracks by himself, often working together with other composers on his projects. Listing them all would take far too long, but here are just some of the highlights: Xenosaga Episode 1, Xenoblade Chronicles, the Inazuma Eleven series, Kid Icarus: Uprising, and Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Since leaving Square Mitsuda has kept busy, working on a number of high profile releases through the following two decades. Following its release he left Square to become a freelancer in 1998, although he did compose music for one more Square game after leaving the sequel to the first game he ever composed music for – Chrono Cross. 1 and most notably Xenogears, which would be his final project while still working for the developer. Over the next few years Mitsuda composed music for a number of Square games, including Front Mission: Gun Hazard, Tobal No. Regardless, the game and its score were huge successes, and it effectively launched Mitsuda's career. Wanting to prove himself on the project, Mitsuda eventually worked himself into hospital, leading to Nobuo Uematsu taking over the composition duties for the last few tracks. He was then assigned to the team working on Chrono Trigger as the game's sole composer. Frustrated by this, he told Square's then-president Hironobu Sakaguchi that if he wasn't allowed to actually compose music for the company's games he would quit. Mitsuda began his career in 1992, joining Squaresoft's sound team as a composer, although for the first few years he worked as a sound engineer on a number of titles. For Yasunori Mitsuda, on the other hand, it took less than three years and exactly one soundtrack to become almost universally recognized as one of the most talented composers working in the video game industry. If you missed any of the previous parts you can check them out here: 50–36, 35–21, 20–16, 15–11, 10–6.įor most video game composers it takes years to achieve any level of fame or recognition for their work, remaining largely nameless and unknown to the vast majority of those who play the games featuring their music. So, without any further ramblings on my part, let's get started with the top 5. However, the top 5 itself was actually very closely contested, with #5 and #4 being separated by just three points, for example. To convey how big the difference was between these five composers and everyone else during the voting, the top 5 got more points than the other 86 composers combined.
Over the last several weeks we've been counting down the top 50 best video game composers of all time, and now finally there are just five left to reveal. By Taneli Palola, posted on 16 January 2020 / 7,442 Views
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