The NSM Guess-That-Melody Quiz!

[mikey]

hmmmm
maybe I'll take a turn?
when's the next opening?

[Dekkadeci]

hmmmm
maybe I'll take a turn?
when's the next opening?

Looks like the next opening, according to the schedule here, is Saturday, May 27 to Monday, May 29. If you want to host, you should PM LeviR.star.

[Latios212]

Hey Insig, when are you gonna post the results? Mine's ready to go but I don't want to wait too late to cut down on people's time for the next round.

[Latios212]

Hmm, it's getting relatively late in the day. Hope you don't mind, Insig. Here's the next one.

May 8th quiz

As usual, PM (or Skype) me guesses and I'll freely validate them.

[ThatHiddenCharacter]

Aaaaaaaand... I only know three. As usual. Well, here's another round without me making guesses.

[Latios212]

Hey, guessing doesn't hurt. You don't know what everyone else has right now.

[mastersuperfan]

Why the heck is this so hard I only know 2 of them

[ThatHiddenCharacter]

Hey, guessing doesn't hurt. You don't know what everyone else has right now.

I know that at least half of the songs are probably Pokémon and that everyone knows the Pokémon songs except for me. Only Pokémon songs I know: Lavender Town (Original), Battle Themes from First Gen and Diamond. That's it.

EDIT: If msf can't get more than me, then I might actually have a chance.

[Latios212]

I know that at least half of the songs are probably Pokémon

There is literally no evidence to support this. What even.

[ThatHiddenCharacter]

There is literally no evidence to support this. What even.

It seems to keep happening in most of the quizzes.

[InsigTurtle]

What I've usually done, was to do equal proportions of Pokémon, Kirby, Mario, and Zelda, with some occasional extra tidbits thrown in, since those are the Elite 4 of Nintendo franchises. After all, this *is* NinSheetMusic, so it can't be unreasonable to include Nintendo melodies, right?

That being said, it is rather difficult to create a quiz where a majority of people can guess the majority of answers without it feeling "too easy". What makes it even harder, is that most people probably haven't played all the games represented in the quizzes, so even if you only pick easy ones from popular games, there's almost always going to be someone who cannot recognize a melody. That doesn't mean they're bad, it just means the quiz creators and players have had different video game experiences. And that's always gonna happen. So I always try to pick relatively popular games, in the hopes of making sure that everyone can at least guess one.

Anyway, here's the answers for the iQuiz 2: Electric Boogaloo

#1

Cave Theme/Underground Theme - Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island

[close]

#2

Route 10 - Pokémon Black/White

[close]

#3

Infinite Power - Kirby's Return to Dream Land

[close]

#4

Kaepora Gaebora - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

[close]

#5

Team Rocket Hideout - Pokémon Red/Blue

[close]

#6

The Galaxy Reactor - Super Mario Galaxy

[close]

#7

Midna's Lament - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

[close]

#8

Second Dark Matter Battle - Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon

[close]

#9

Marx's Theme - Kirby Super Star

[close]

#10

Sammer's Kingdom - Super Paper Mario

[close]

#11

Zero-Two (0²) Battle Theme - Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards

[close]

#12

Final Hours - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

[close]

Stats

#1- 6/8
#2 - 4/8
#3 - 4/8
#4 - 2/8
#5 - 4/8
#6 - 7/8
#7 - 5/8
#8 - 2/8
#9 - 8/8
#10 - 3/8
#11 - 4/8
#12 - 1/8

Average guessed: 6.25/12

[close]

Honestly, I was expecting a higher average, but I suppose that's all fine and dandy. This time, I attempted to use melodies that evoked specific sentiments in those who've played those games.
But let's first go through some of the responses I got:

There's gameplay and story spoilers here!

Something about traumatic memories, right? Either a hard/broken level or boss fight, or an emotional story moment.

And Sammer's Kingdom because, well... because of that King Sammer

#1: I can only assume "Poochy Ain't Stupid" has something to do with its inclusion.
#2: It's a good piece on its own, but having not played Black or White, I have no idea what emotional connection it might have. Research says it's right before Victory Road so is that important?
#4: T R I G G E R E D
#5: Twitch Plays Pokémon, anyone?
#6: Epic as fuck, chill as fuck, what's not to like.
#7: Oh god, this music just perfectly complements the rain coming down right now--enemy theme
#9: I've never played the game and his villain status was spoiled long ago, so nothing to add here. ...except that this one is probably super obvious.
#11: "Kirby games are just for little kids"
#12: GOD DAMN THIS FREAKING PIECE IT'S THE ABSOLUTE EPITOME OF HOPELESS SORROW AND YOU'RE GONNA MAKE ME CRY AND I HAVEN'T EVEN PLAYED THE GAME

My guess for the sentiment invoked by each melody is frustration. Frustration that the boss betrayed our player characters, frustration that we haven't beaten the boss for the eight zillionth time in a row, frustration that we still haven't finished the game six months after we bought it...

As for why you chose them, I don't know for #1, but #7 is a pretty sad theme (which I'd imagine would be more emotional to you in the case of nostalgia). The bigger overarching theme, however, seems to be that most of the tracks you used are themes that play near the end of the game, either in one of the final areas of the game or against the final boss (#2, #3, #5, #6, #8, #9, #10). Some of these, like #2, #6, and #8, have that epic YOU'RE AT THE END, YOU CAN DO IT vibe to them, although #3, #5, #9, and #10 have a more dark or menacing feel to them, which I suppose makes for a memorable and heart-pounding experience (I find #3 and #10 pretty nostalgic myself). Not sure if that's what you're looking for, but it's the best guess I've got.

On 2017-05-06, at 8:23 PM, Latios212 wrote:
> I remember someone on NSM talking about how it was really nostalgic though
> I don't recall who it was or what exactly they said
On 2017-05-06, at 8:29 PM, Latios212 wrote:
> I dunno actually, I don't even remember Route 10 in the game, it's just a very nice piece of music
On 2017-05-06, at 8:40 PM, Latios212 wrote:
> yeah it's a great nostalgic track ^^
On 2017-05-06, at 8:44 PM, Latios212 wrote:
> I'm thinking maybe it has something to do with arrow tile madness
On 2017-05-06, at 8:52 PM, Latios212 wrote:
> by the time you get to that fight, you've already got loads of feels

On 2017-05-06, at 8:55 PM, Latios212 wrote:
> this is one of those exceptions, the instant I started that final boss battle
> I knew it was amazingly well executed
On 2017-05-06, at 9:42 PM, Latios212 wrote:
> communism
On 2017-05-06, at 9:51 PM, Latios212 wrote:
> is that just because king sammer
> lol yeah right before the world ends and stuff

[close]

So yes, in general, I tried to go with emotions such as anger, frustration, sadness, and nostalgia. Some of my thoughts:

There's more gameplay and story spoilers here!

For #1, I chose to go with the underground theme not only because of nostalgia, but because of this level (which a Youtube commenter aptly describes as a "very loooooooooooong piece of shit!"
#2 was mainly based off nostalgia. A good piece of music before the 6th gen. (Sorry, people who loved gen 6!)
I think Dekka described #3 better than I did, since I mainly chose it because of the pain in 100%ing it in hard mode
#4 -
Did you get all that?             
.   ►No
.      Yes
#5 also appears to be somewhat disliked because of its harmony, so I was hoping to mess with someone's delicate ears there. I failed.
#6 pops up in the last bit of Grandmaster Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy 2 as well, which was my main thought. A moment of silence for everyone killed by a hammer bro in the last stretch of the perfect run.
I think Dudeman said everything I was thinking for #7. Same with Lat for #8. I couldn't quite convey its *wham* in a simple one-voice transcription, though.
Dekka also pretty much said all I was thinking for #9. It's also considered to be a somewhat disturbing boss, apparently? But not as much as #11.
I'm sorry I had to be a dirty NSM memer for #10. For the record, I was also considering Good Egg Galaxy from SMG for similar reasons. However, #10 also comes with the added bonus of the entire world ending and everyone dying! Nice!
#12 is trivial and the proof is left as an exercise for the reader. Except for the fact only one person got it. It does get very difficult to guess when all the harmony and orchestration is stripped away. If you wait for a couple more minutes, then even more will be stripped away. Or rather, everything will be destroyed.

[close]

I won't bother putting this in spoilers, because it shouldn't be a surprise that Dudeman and mastersuperfan won, both with 9/12. Good job, both of ya! Hopefully y'all (sorta) enjoyed it! I promise I won't try to relieve bad memories next time!

[mastersuperfan]

ARE YOU KIDDING ME

I'D PLANNED KAEPORA GAEBORA FOR MY NEXT NEXT QUIZ BUT I DIDN'T LISTEN THAT FAR

[Maelstrom]

HOW DID I MISS FINAL HOURS?
AND I CALL MYSELF A MAJORA'S MASK FAN

[ThatHiddenCharacter]

WHY ARE WE ALL YELLING?!
I SHOULD'VE KNOW THE KIRBY ONES, BUT I ONLY RECOGNIZED MARX!

[Dudeman]

Rats, how could I have not gone out of my way to hear Sammer's Kingdom after all this time?

Oh well, congrats to you too, MSF!