Dragon’s Dogma snubbed again.
The United States Library of Congress inducted its first ever piece of game music (opens in new tab) into the National Recording Registry yesterday, forever marking it as one of a number of „audio treasures worthy of preservation for all time based on their cultural, historical or aesthetic importance in the nation’s recorded sound heritage“.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: „Obviously, they selected Dragon’s Dogma’s Into Free Dangan (opens in new tab) for preservation in this prestigious collection of cultural paragons.“ Well, that would make sense. Into Free Dangan—an English adaptation of the B’z song Samayoeru Aoi Dangan made for Dragon’s Dogma’s 2012 release—is a technical and artistic masterwork. But the Library of Congress went and chose Koji Kondo’s Super Mario Bros. theme instead.
„Few musicians have had their work become so internationally recognized for decades yet remain so relatively unknown as Koji Kondo,“ said the Library of Congress statement on the Super Mario theme’s inclusion, blissfully unaware of the staggering injustice it was inflicting on both gaming and human culture at large, noting that „His main, or ‚Ground Theme,‘ for the 1985 game is a jaunty, Latin-influenced melody that’s instantly recognizable around the world today“.
