Have you ever heard an NES song and thought you remembered it being a bit longer? Well, it's entirely possible you're just hearing a different region's version! On today's countdown, we look at our Top 5 NES songs that have a bit more to them than some might realize.

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Transcript of the video: 

Hi there, and welcome back to Stone Age Countdown. I love NES music. I always have. But what I didn’t know when I was a kid was that a lot of the songs I heard were actually longer than I knew, or were themselves longer than what others were hearing in other parts of the world. But now, fortified with the knowledge the internet has granted me, I can share my findings in the form of a countdown. So here are my top 5 NES songs that are longer than you might think! 

#5 Mega Man 3 Wily Map

In most Mega Man games, when you get to Wily’s castle, it follows the same format. The castle shows up, you sit there and listen to a short song, then lightning flashes, a line is drawn to the next location, and then the stage begins. But Mega Man 3 is different! Instead of all that, the whole process is super streamlined, giving us this:

What I didn’t realize until recently was that there’s actually a whole song attached to this sequence that we never get to hear! And it goes a little something like this: 

Am I sad we didn't get to hear this in the game? Well, no, not really. While this is a super cool piece of music, I adore just how zippy Mega Man 3 is overall. Getting through the Wily Castle segments this much faster was a great thing that I wish newer games had stuck with too. 

#4 Metroid Escape

One of the most memorable NES game endings was the escape sequence from Metroid. Nothing like finally beating a super hard final boss only to then have a timer start ticking down while you have to make your way through some very tricky platforming! And the intensity is cranked up to a bajillion thanks to the music. Hirokazu Tanaka’s Metroid soundtrack is freaking legendary, but there’s a whole chunk of this song that Japanese players never got to hear. 

In the Famicom Disk System version, the song sounds like this: 

But in the NES game, instead of looping there, we got this: 

Yes, the instruments the FDS allowed were pretty cool, but when it comes to this escape tune, given how much time it takes to make it all the way to the top, this extra bit is more than welcome. It also makes the sequence sound a little more triumphant. Big win for us NES owners!  

#3 Super Mario Bros. 2 Character Select

We all know the story of Super Mario Bros. 2 and Doki Doki Panic, and if you don’t, there are some great youtube videos out there that will explain it for you, including one in this very channel that I will gladly shamelessly promote here! But the short version is, in Japan, this game was originally on the Famicom Disk System as Yume Kojo Doki Doki Panic, and it was reskinned into a Mario game for the US. But it wasn’t a simple reskin! In fact, a lot of the game was reworked significantly, including its soundtrack! Here’s what Disk System owners got for the character select screen in Doki Doki Panic. 

And here’s what we got in Super Mario Bros. 2. 

It’s quite silly really. This isn’t a song that players would typically need to spend much time on. The original version is more than enough song to cover the spread here. But they went ahead and added this whole extra segment and I absolutely love it! This is another one I’m super glad got to be extended for the US release. 

#2 Super Mario Bros. 2 overworld

Sticking with Super Mario Bros. 2, the overworld music got a whole other chunk added to it as well! Considering that this is easily one of the most iconic NES songs of all time, it’s crazy to think that this wasn’t the original version of the song. 

Here's what was in Doki Doki Panic

And here’s Super Mario Bros. 2

Talk about an important addition! This is such an improvement to an already fantastic song. The instrumentation was even better, which is unusual for FDS to NES conversions, but I stand by it here. Super Mario Bros. 2 kicks Doki Doki Panic’s butt. 

#1 Mike Tyson’s Punch Out!!

And now for something completely different. 

Punch-Out!! is without a doubt one of the most iconic NES games of all time. It doesn't exactly have an expansive soundtrack, but what’s there is permanently etched into the memories of countless gamers of a certain age. Some of the songs are actually a bit older than the NES game too, with a handful of jingles appearing in the original arcade Punch-Out!! games. But one song in particular is even older than that. The title screen music. You know this tune. 

Well ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, the Gillette Cavalcade of Sports. 

That’s right, the Punch-Out!! theme isn’t the Punch-Out!! theme at all! It’s an adaptation of the Look Sharp/Be Sharp March written by Mahlon Merrick, and used for the Gillette Cavalcade of sports, an NBC sports news and variety show that dates all the way back to 1946. This tune has actually shown up in a number of places, from marching bands to movies, but why Nintendo chose to use it instead of having someone create something original will always be a mystery to me. It’s also one of the most fascinating NES music trivia bits I’ve ever encountered. But wait, this song isn’t longer! Oh yes it is, the original has LYRICS! 

I don’t even know what else to say. It’s wonderful, and I’m so glad it exists. 

Well, there you have it. Those are my top 5 NES tunes that were longer than most might expect. I love these kinds of regional differences in older games. It’s such a fun part of the overall lore of retro games, and I’m so glad the internet exists to help people learn more about these old classics. Thanks for watching everyone. If you liked what you saw here today, please follow, comment, like, and subscribe, and let us know what you think of these songs. Were the originals better? Did I miss any other songs that were longer here in the US than their overseas counterparts? Let us know, and from all of us here at Stone Age Gamer, keep playing games.