Legendary Mario and Tetris composer "specifically" made Metroid's iconic ending tune to impress one older debugger on the Nintendo team

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Chip Tanaka celebrated the classic's 39th anniversary

Samus Aran Metroid
(Image credit: Nintendo)

Hirokazu 'Hip' Tanaka, sometimes known as Chip Tanaka thanks to his pioneering work on 8 and 16-bit chiptunes, has said that the original Metroid's ending theme came about due to one older member on the team in particular.

39 years ago, well before Silksongmania reached its peak, the first Metroid quietly birthed an entire subgenre. To celebrate the classic game's birthday, game composer Tanaka, who also worked on everything from Tetris and Mario to Earthbound and Pokemon, recalled a pretty sweet moment.

"I think people who have played the game understand, but even if you manage to rush through defeating Mother Brain, the escape sequence is surprisingly tough, lol," Tanaka continued. "The alarm is loud, it makes you feel overwhelmed, and you end up falling. For the sake of one debugger, the we kept switching to a bigger monitor and making the sounds louder and louder, creating such an amazing atmosphere. All of the staff was having so much fun debugging." (Good spot, Automaton.)

We'll next see Samus and probably hear some remixed versions of Tanaka's beats in Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, due sometime this year on the Switch 2. Or maybe it depends who you ask. The London Underground was adamant the shooter was "OUT NOW".

Here's some other upcoming Switch 2 games.

Kaan Serin
Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.

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