steve kwan user experience designer

The brilliance of Nintendo music

(May 1st, 2005 - 2:00AM)

I've been on a Nintendo kick for the past while due to NES emulation, and it occurs to me how brilliant the composers of the original Nintendo musical scores must have been. Making music is hard enough, but imagine trying to come up with good, catchy tunes when all you have at your disposal are a few monotone beeps. That being said, the original composers for Mario Bros. and other classics still managed to create tunes that most people from my generation have burned into their memories.

So does anybody here not know how to find whistles in Super Mario Bros. 3? I think if I'm ever in a position to hire people, that will be an interview question I ask. No technical questions needed; simply something like, "Say you're playing Super Mario Bros. 3 and you want to warp levels. How would you go about doing that?" I think that would be an accurate way to gauge someone's personality.

I spoke to my roommate James about Super Mario Bros. 3, and he says there are more than three whistles in the game. I was under the assumption that there were only three. Maybe I'll look into this.

And what kind of useless item is the anchor, anyway? A lot of people probably don't know about the anchor item you can get in Super Mario Bros. 3, because it's nearly impossible to get by chance and it's more or less completely useless.

Anyway, it's 1:54AM and I'm writing on my blog about Super Mario Bros. 3. I think that says a lot about me, most of which is probably not flattering.

So I discovered that Elizabeth - a chick I might online a while ago - sent someone to my website to read my NIN review. This person wound up going to Richard's site and has been talking to him. Nice to know that stevekwan.com is a place to meet people. Maybe I should start charging.