Inside The Score - The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Mini-Game

A game within a game

Because the very important quest thrust upon Link by the guardian spirit known as the Great Deku Tree can wait while our young hero partakes in some frivolous fun throughout Hyrule—this might be also how he finances the campaign—which is a tried and true tradition dating back to the original The Legend of Zelda in which these games were all about luck (skill based mini-games began in A Link to the Past). In the 3D Hyrule we get an assortment of carnival games and challenges that will test all kinds of skills, from shooting to diving to capturing chickens. They serve as a temporary gameplay change of pace and in the past they could have been video games on their own but here they are immersed within another story as optional side jobs—okay, maybe the Zora one is mandatory. They are a staple of RPG inspired games.

Once again, like in the shop theme, historicity does not matter as the pretensions of an European medieval village go away in favor of modern carnival and fair sensibilities. Gameplay considerations and communicating immediately to the player the environment they are in are the priority. Curiously, the shopkeepers have their games tailored to the weapons carried by the Hero of Time.

Here we have the shooting gallery mini-game cue which is for general mini-games, and the timed mini-game cue as representatives of the types of gameplay expected, each tailored to follow the environment and, in the case of the timed mini-games, the action and the passing of time; one is a location cue with likely diegetic music the other is a momentary cue whose music only exists for the player.

Other frivolous activities like fishing reuse tracks that fit such as the pleasant Kakariko Village for walking around the lake and, funnily, the battle cue whenever you capture and are struggling with a fish.

Musical Analysis: Shooting Gallery

Structure: Section 0 / Section 1 / Section 2

Time Signature: 4/4

Tempo: 200

Melodic and Harmonic Profiles: C Ionian/Major

Why would our modern carnival music play in the middle of a renassaince fair? Who cares, it’s more important to let players know that they can win prizes here and have fun. Carnival, circus, clowns, all used to travel together as entertainers, and circus music is unmistakable. The oom-pah rhythms and the characteristic timbre of the mechanical calliope or carousel organs. You can hear here the calliope in action:

Here the Hylian orchestra tries to mimic the timbres you would expect from a calliope

Who thought about using this instrument for carnivals? As with many things, functional considerations supersede conceptual reasons. The calliope needs steam to properly work and carnival calliopes were usually installed in steam-drive carousels; they were also sufficiently loud to be heard above the sound of the attractions and the visitors.

With the calliope there is no way to vary tone or loudness. Musically, the only expression possible are pitch, rhythm, and duration of the notes. Kondo, not having access to the calliope in his sample libraries, does exactly that; using the more traditional instruments in a way that feels completely mechanical; all the instruments on this cue play each note at the same volume—same velocity in MIDI terms— and without any fancy articulations, creating that mechanized feel.

Section 0 is just a fade in, implying the music has been playing continuously and is diegetic, meaning that as Link gets close to the counter he hears the music more clearly. For Section 1 the piece only uses the I to V in the harmony, C and G. Section 2s usually go to the fourth chord so here it goes to F. This Section could also be called the winning prize section since it has that classic snare roll for suspense and the cymbal crash that plays when the winner is announced; since the shooting gallery is western themed there is a resemblance to the classic American track Oh! Susanna. The remaining chords are once again C and G. The melody is simple and plays a repetitive phrase transported to fit each underlying chord and then a coda. It truly makes you feel as if you are in a fairground and no matter where you find them, all shops of this kind are connected via music, letting you know what you got into right the moment when you opened the door.

Musical Analysis: Timed Mini-Game

Structure: Section 0 / Section 1 / Section 2

Time Signature: 4/4

Tempo: 185

Melodic and Harmonic Profiles: C Ionian/Major, C Chromatic (Section 0); C Mixolydian (Section 1); Eb Ionian/Major; Eb Mixolydian, C Ionian/Major (Section 2)

This one does have an intro that lets you know the game has started and time is running out. This is a track singled out by Koji Kondo himself as one of his favorites, the other being the funny trespassing the castle guards theme—instead of the epic or beautiful tracks, he seems to enjoy the most the ones that capture the action in the game and are plain fun. He even plays this live from time to time:

https://youtu.be/3CXker01ll4?t=7153

The whole concert is worth a watch since it may be the most complete Zelda concert

The piece was probably originally composed for the Cucco challenge inside Lon Lon Ranch because it tries to mimic the sounds of the chickens; It became the standard tune for timed mini games in the series, heard in other games rearranged.

There is a circense element to the cue as well—like a tightrope walker mid performance— but the catch this time is that Kondo does not try to emulate the calliope like on the Mini-Game Shop theme; here he uses the standard orchestral instruments, giving the piece a layer of quirkiness; it closely resembles that gallop dance style, where the key is having fast tempos:

Mini-game music. And composers thought they were making some kind of war march but clowns ended up using these tunes for their presentations

Harmonically, the piece is more adventurous than the standard mini-game location, using a Mixolydian profile that is noticed right away by the change of the tonic C going to Bb. As time progresses the piece is transposed to higher chords and abruptly comes back to the original profile by returning to the dominant G. The progression would be:

Section 0

Section 1

C – Bb – G – Bb – G

Section 2

Eb – F – Ab – Bb

Ab – Bb – Db – Eb –

All major chords. Higher pitched instruments are added to the repetition pf phrases to create that sense of urgency.

The glockenspiel fulfills the role of a sound effect, sounding in a similar way to when Link grabs rupees, the currency of Hyrule.

The music manages to sound pressing but also light hearted thanks to the quirky harmony and soft instrumentation. It is after all not a matter of life or death wether you fail here, just pure fun. In contrast, our next cue is as serious as you can get.