Fans recently banded together to help Mother 3 composer Shogo Sakai gain over 1K subscribers after discovering the musician's YouTube channel online and seeing that it could use a bit more attention towards it.
Sakai is an experienced musician who in the past has worked for the likes of Data East and Hal Laboratory. In addition to Mother 3, he is credited as a composer and arranger on Super Smash Bros. Melee, various Kirby games, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl.
His YouTube channel was set up all the way back in 2015, but he's only started uploading properly to it since going freelance in 2023, with the musician sharing some video tips on different 8-bit composition techniques.
The videos are unfortunately only in Japanese for now, but that's understandable when you consider that it is currently only a one-man operation, and paying for a full-time translator can often be expensive.
Nevertheless, Necrosoft Games director and the former senior editor of Gamasutra Brandon Sheffield called attention to the channel yesterday on Twitter in an attempt to get more people to follow it.
In a message to his followers, Sheffield encouraged fans to support the channel and show their appreciation for Sakai, who was only on under 400 subs at the time:
"So apparently @Shogo_Sakai, composer of Mother 3, Super Smash Bros, and various Kirby games has a YouTube channel with under 400 subs where he describes 8 bit music composition techniques among other things. You all know what to do!"
Following this, Sakai was then inundated with a bunch of new followers and has now climbed to close to 2000 subscribers on the popular video-sharing website. In response, he personally thanked Sheffield on Twitter for his help promoting the channel, writing:
"Brandon Sheffield! Thanks to you, the number of YouTube subscribers is climbing! appreciate! I'm new to video production. I would be happy if you could give me your opinion if there is anything that should be improved."
If you're a musician interested in Shogo Sakai's videos or just want to show your appreciation for his music across various classic games, we recommend subscribing to his channel here.
[source youtube.com, via twitter.com]
Comments 2
Nice to see the Internet as a whole doing something pretty dang cool for once. Couldn't have happened to a more deserving gentleman, either (he apparently composed Kirby Squeak Squad's soundtrack, and that alone gives him my eternal respect).
This seemed underwhelming, based on the headline: okay, the collective power of the internet was able to find Shogo Sakai a few hundred new subscribers. So?
But no, it was more than that, and in a day!
I'll have to check these videos out. Sakai isn't talked about often, but he's done some epic compositions and arrangements, with Smash Bros. Melee setting the tone not just for early-2000s Hal, but arguably for the GameCube itself.
And much of Kirby Air Ride's music is up there as well!
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