Metroid's score was the brainchild of Hirokazu Tanaka, a veteran composer at Nintendo who cut his teeth on Donkey Kong and Balloon Fight. Metroid was composed in direct response to the standard fluffy pop soundtracks of the time. Tanaka-san instead created a score that was largely amelodic, tense, and discordant, treating the music and sound effects together as a living creature, rather than as separate entities. It was clearly a soundtrack like no other by a man who would be known in the credits simply as "Hip Tanaka" - and he is certainly worthy of the name. Indeed, the "Title" theme and "Brinstar" have since become two of the Metroidseries' most representative tunes, and are true icons of game music.

Hip Tanaka's score made music essential to the atmosphere of Metroid. Players understand from the very first notes of the "Title" theme that the world of Metroid is a cold, forbidding place, and Samus is the sole ray of hope. When the bold march of the relatively comforting "Brinstar" stage sinks into the bubbly and syncopated quagmire of "Norfair", we are just a stone's throw from the twisting, maddening abyss of Ridley's Hideout and the drooping, eerie catacombs of Kraid's Lair. Meanwhile, the solitary tones of the "Item Room" theme ooze mystery from the enormous bird statues sealed within. And who can forget the venomous bubbling of "Tourian", the grueling intensity of the boss theme, "Zebetite", and the hair-raising "Escape" theme? With Metroid, Hirokazu Tanaka helped game music hit its stride as evoking the mood and atmosphere of a level rather than simply providing happy background music for players to enjoy, so while it doesn't necessarily sound great on CD, it makes the game perfect.

The final key to Metroid's score was the relative absence of melody and harmony from the very beginning until the "Ending", when all four of the NES's sound channels come together in joyful and triumphant celebration, each instrument engaged in its own melody, a masterpiece of game composition. This transition from darkness to light has been at the heart of the philosophy behind every Metroid soundtrack, and that contrast with the dark intensity of each game's final moments makes the ending even more brilliant. This version was recorded here using NEZplug v0.9.8+3+21.00 to cleanly and accurately emulate the sound of the original hardware. Scroll below for the Famicom Disk System version of the soundtrack.

This is the original version of the Metroid soundtrack, for the Famicom Disk System. Considering the FDS had a superior sound processor to the NES, the original version sounds much cleaner, with better instruments from the FDS's wave table, and sound channel, which allowed composers to use sequenced music rather than analog. These can be clearly heard in "Title BGM", "Samus Appearance Jingle", "Item Obtainment Jingle", and "Ending". Note the NES version used arpeggios to emulate the bells and trumpet found in the FDS version. Another major change is the original version of the "Escape" theme is 1/3 shorter, creating a far more intense sequence. This version of the theme has been reused in Metroid Prime 2 and Metroid: Zero Mission, and may be considered the "official" version of the theme. Finally, the SFX for the FDS version were more graphic, particularly Samus's audible (and manly) "UGH!"s that play when she gets hit. Some of these can be heard in the "Game Play" track. The other tracks sound identical. Although we may have become attached to how the NES version sounds, these differences clearly illustrate how much Western audiences were missing out.

Note the Game Sound Museum gives us official Japanese names for the tracks, which differ slightly from those more familiar names we picked for the NES soundtrack. This soundtrack was reprinted in Famicom 20th Anniversary Original Soundtracks Vol. 2, and partially in Nintendo Dream Vol. 118. A previous, terrible recording of the soundtrack was included in the Super Metroid "Sound in Action" album below.

In Japan during the late 80s and early 90s, the Sharp X68000 was an incredibly popular computer, particularly for gaming. Classics such as Akumajo Dracula (Castlevania), Cho Ren Sha, and dozens of other action and shooting games were created for this system. Although Metroid was never ported (officially or otherwise), fans recreated the soundtrack for the system. Most of the score was arranged by RSY, who does a decent job of matching the instruments with those of the Famicom Disk System. The bell tone is especially nice, though overall, the soundtrack is clearly inferior, with RSY's Ending Theme sounding far too metallic. However, some tracks like "Kraid" and "Tourian" are pretty good. However, the arrangement of the "Ending" theme by Osamu Ikeda is absolutely amazing, with arcade-style metallic swooshes, a lively drum track, and ethereal bells. If you listen to any track from this album, make sure this is it! It sounds like an arcade soundtrack by Zuntata. The recordings were made using the X68000 MDX Decorder v1.14.

Super Metroid "Sound in Action" is both one of the most famous and crappiest Metroid soundtracks available. Sure, it has five totally awesome arrangements, but the rest of the soundtrack is poorly arranged and recorded, and nowhere is this more evident than the Metroid soundtrack section, which was horribly butchered. The game was recorded using a Famicom's audio out jack at poor quality, and a good half of the tracks contain sound effects. I can't fathom why they decided to record it this way, but it gave the original score a bad name for over a decade. Note: This is playlist only contains the Metroid tracks and one arrangement. Please go to the Super Metroid album page if you'd like to hear the entire album.