Koji Kondo, Nintendo’s in-house composer one of the most renowned names in the video game composers industry, is to be inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame, the Academy has announced.
Kondo will be honoured during the 27th Annual D.I.C.E. Awards ceremony, which takes place on 15th February. The composer of many games in the Mario and Zelda series, Kondo joins the likes of Shigeru Miyamoto, Hironobu Sakaguchi, Hideo Kojima, Todd Howard, and Sid Meier, among many other industry titans, in the Hall of Fame.
In a statement given to the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences website, Kondo says “I am deeply thankful for being selected by D.I.C.E. for this important award. It is a true honor to be recognized in this way, and I am extremely humbled,”.
Kondo is the first video game composer to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. He thanks “the many people surrounding me” and promises to “continue my efforts in the music and sound aspects of development to hopefully make everyone’s game experience even more enjoyable in the years to come.” The president of the AIAS, Meggan Scavio, calls Kondo’s music “timeless and impactful”
Kojo Kondo has worked with Nintendo since 1984, being the very first employee to be wholly dedicated to musical composition, and the third employee hired to help create music and sound effects. His first work appears in the arcade version of Punch-Out!!. Kondo is not classically trained in music at all but showed a love of instruments from a young age. Of course, we all know him for his incredible music from the Mario and Zelda series; without Kondo, we would never have gotten World 1-1 from Super Mario Bros. or The Legend of Zelda‘s main theme.
This, of course, only scratches the surface of Kondo’s influence and even his work in the industry, and the composer still works with Nintendo and composes music for both series’ today. If you needed more reminding of just how important Kondo’s work is, the Super Mario Bros. main theme became the first piece of video game music ever to be added to the NPR registry in the Library of Congress.
