Did you know that there was a time when Masahiro Sakurai didn't work for Nintendo? It's true! It happened once. Then they pulled him right back into the life. In that brief moment of Non-Nintendo clarity, Sakurai teamed up with Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his company Q? Entertainment (Not to be confused with the also awesome Q-Games) to create a handheld puzzle game, as was all the rage at the time. Mizuguchi is best known for his heavily music based games like Space Channel 5, Rez, and more specific to this discussion, Lumines. Lumines was a well regarded early game for the PSP. It was considered pretty hip with it's techno rave visuals, and techno rave music, all encapsulated in that fancy new PSP gadget that can also play movies on the go, and on tiny little discs. What a future.

Q? Wanted to give things a go on Nintendo's recently released handheld as well, but needed a different type of puzzle experience tailored to the novelties of the new Nintendo DS, (new as in recently released, not 'New' as in New Nintendo 3DS or some shit). Luckily this came at the very same time as Sakurai was leaving Nintendo, so Mizuguchi scooped him up to work on a quick little puzzle game. Sakurai doesn't go in for that though, instead pouring as much energy into a puzzle game that some people wouldn't even put into a 30+ hour RPG, or an all star fighting game. The story, the visuals, the introductory cutscene, all incredible. This was at a time when Nintendo needed every visual victory it could get when trying to position the ugly old original DS against that sleek PSP design and it's “PS2” level graphics.

As with the graphics in Meteos, the music was on another level from other early Nintendo DS games. The only other game that might compete on music quality at the time of Meteos’ release was the re-release of Super Mario 64 DS. That’s only because the SM64 music was already classic by that point. Meteos would use the puzzler sound effects to add notes to the music and turn a background track into a unique movement of music in every stage.

The Meteos soundtrack and sound effects were created by the collection of Brainstorm, Takayuki Nakamura, Kaori Takazoe, and Seiji Momoi. The lengths Sakurai and the rest of the development and music team went through to make this more than any common puzzle game is best on display during the end credits. As you play through your final mission, to casually travel back home, a relaxing piano melody holds things together as strings blossom into a large symphonic masterpiece. The game offers up intense music which is used along with tthe sound effects to add to the frenetic pace of gameplay. After a series of increasingly tough battles, this wonderful melody conveys every bit of triumph there is to saving the universe from it's darkest fate.

The music starts soothingly with an opening of soft piano notes, and builds upon that with strings that linger and fade. The theme sneakily begins to build up around the edges until the leads change and in come the drums. The calm after the battle builds toward a triumphant victory theme. It feels like the lengths of your entire adventure are finally sinking in now that you have your first moment of true rest since your adventure began. You didn't solve a few puzzles, you saved the whole entire mother fucking universe!

This track could come at the end of any great epic gameand make a satisfying end to any heroes’ journey. Just because the hero used dropping blocks instead of a sword or a gun, doesn’t make them any less a hero. Whoever is dropping all those Tetris blocks just above the edge of the screen? Legend.

Unfortunately, even though ending themes can be the most memorable moment of any quality soundtrack, in video games, I think ending themes can be the least well known. Considering that you have to beat the game to hear the ending theme locks out all but only true fans with true free time. Even if it's clearly a great theme, like this Meteos theme is, you won't get the full impact of the track until you hear it immediately after fighting through stage after stage and defeating the true face of evil / chaos / etc.

Ending themes for video games are as close to earning the right to hear music as you can get without any any assholes trying to gatekeep like a dragon hoarding gold.