MIDI Week Singles: "Underwater Scene: - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES)

 

"Underwater Scene" from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the Nintendo Entertainment System (1989)
Composers: Jun Funahashi & Hidenori Maezawa
Album: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles NES - Vinyl Soundtrack
Label: Limited Run Games
Publisher: Nintendo of America & Ultra Software Corporation
Developer: Konami

Let me introduce you to a song that will induce PTSD in an entire generation of gamers.  And if you're worried about the final 20 seconds, don't worry, I didn't tack on the two-timer running-out cues, although I did briefly consider it.  I thought that just one stress-inducing track would be enough, so I leave you with "Underwater Scene."

But is it actually stress-inducing on its own?  Sure, the song conjures up flashbacks to swimming through tightly bound forests of electrified kelp, patiently waiting for electrified barriers to cycle off, and hunting for bombs to disarm, while a counter at the bottom of the screen counts down from 2:20.  The 3/4 (or 6/8?) time signature is classic of underwater music, which plays heavily against how anxious this level is, often waiting for the electrified gates to cycle through so you can swim past them, either waiting stationary at the bottom along the rocks, or flutter-tapping the A button to stay afloat in hopes of maintaing some semblance of momentum.  Only to have the barrier turn on right at the last millisecond, zapping away a full block of health.

Happy first week of the end of the first quarter of 2026.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian

And Laughing Planned the End

P.S.  In yet another instance of looking up when I last wrote about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, because I remember turning the MIDI Week Single into a months-long search for composer information, I was flabbergasted to realize that that was 13 years ago!  And, it wasn't even for a MIDI Week Single article, but for a Game Scores article.

P.P.S.  It's been nine years since our last Game Scores article.