One of the true geniuses of the modern day. I truly feel Nintendo wouldn't be near the position they are in if they hadn't found him.

If you want an example of how impacting music can be to any medium, just look to this man.

There's a few others you might want to look into that arguably probably had a bigger impact than the ones you mentioned.  Such as Koichi Sugiyama, who wrote the music for Dragon Quest and kind of inspired future console RPG music following.  As well as someone like Hirokizu Tanaka, who is known for writing many of the early Arcade and Game Boy music for Nintendo (basically everything Koji Kondo and Miyamoto wasn't attached to) and GREATLY influenced music for future games to follow.

But of course, the ones you named are also really good and I'm sure everyone could provide a list of their favorites.

Music is seriously very important, and seems to be the most overlooked feature of gaming nowadays.

Any game considered a classic (90% of the time) has a memorable definitive theme associated with it.

Big props to Nintendo's main man. I don't think any other game composer will be quite as influential in the long run.

Makes sense. I've been humming one of the themes from Spirit Tracks off and on for the past few days (not the train theme, the one they play when you're in villages and stuff)

You know how the postman walks in this game, making train motions?

Sometimes when me and the wife are walking down the street, I have been doing that

It seems to me that this is the difference between Japanese and American composers/games: Japanese composers build from a base of "melody", whereas American composers have watched too many Michael Bay movies, and think music has to be "epic" (such a cringe-worthy word). Thus, my preference for the Japanese composers.

It is legimitate to say that video game music is equal to and often above 'normal' music.

Man, Kondo listens to Rachmaninoff! Awesome. Don't tell me the man doesn't know and write music of the highest caliber.

Oh, and Soriku shan't speak about "greatest" composers (not that there is such a thing) until he grows out of his J-pop/rock phase.

Koji Kondo is the Miyamoto of videogame music.

such a true gaming music legend... is he a god father of video game music? if so he should be.. i will go on my knees if i see him and say "where aint worthy, where aint worthy" just like waynes world lol

i still cant get over the fact that how did he come up with the original mario theme.. it was so revolutionary for the time and its still revolutionary as it was years ago..