Tokyo Olympic Games opening features suite of game music
Final Fantasy! Monster Hunter! Sonic.
A year late and under a cloud of controversy, the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games has officially kicked off to a soundtrack of familiar video game music.
The Olympics' traditional Parade of Nations saw athletes from all competing countries enter the Tokyo Olympic Stadium to the sounds of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts and Sonic the Hedgehog.
Music from Monster Hunter, Soulcalibur, Chrono Trigger and Dragon Quest was also played. Even the recently-rebranded PES got a look-in.
Here's a few clips people have spotted:
There was no music from Nintendo, however - even though Mario himself appeared in the closing ceremony of the previous Olympic games, teasing Tokyo taking up the baton.
According to Nikkei, the full listing of the tracks used during the ceremony contains 19 themes from Japanese games, if you want to try and rewatch and pick them out:
- Dragon Quest - "Introduction: Lotto Theme"
- Final Fantasy - "Victory Fanfare"
- Tales of Series - "Sley's Theme - Guru"
- Monster Hunter - "Proof of Hero"
- Kingdom Hearts - "Olympus Coliseum"
- Chrono Trigger - "Frog Theme"
- Ace Combat - "First Flight"
- Tales of Series - "Royal Capital - Dignified"
- Monster Hunter - "Wind of Departure"
- Chrono Trigger - "Robo's Theme"
- Sonic the Hedgehog "Star Light Zone"
- Winning Eleven (Pro Evolution Soccer) "eFootball walk-on theme"
- Final Fantasy - "Main Theme"
- Phantasy Star Universe - "Guardians"
- Kingdom Hearts - "Hero's Fanfare"
- Gradius (Nemesis) - "01 ACT 1-1"
- NieR - "Initiator"
- Saga Series - "Makai Ginyu Poetry-Saga Series Medley 2016"
- Soulcaliber - "The Brave New Stage of History"
If you're looking for something to fill a few minutes of your time (or a few hours, probably), Google has launched a brilliant Japanese-themed Olympics RPG on its homepage today.