Mario and Zelda Composer Koji Kondo is Receiving Major Industry Award

gamerant.com:

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) has announced that legendary Nintendo composer Koji Kondo will be inducted into the 27th Annual D.I.C.E Awards Hall of Fame on February 15. Kondo rose to icon status with his music production for The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros. franchises and will receive a major honor for his beloved work.

Koji Kondo joined Nintendo in 1984 and was the first dedicated music composer for the company's video games. While he may be best known for his work on the Super Mario Bros. level themes and the title song for The Legend of Zelda, his first credit came with the original arcade cabinet version of Punch Out!!! Kondo continues to work on music for Nintendo to this day, and his induction into the D.I.C.E Awards Hall of Fame will see him join a number of familiar faces.

First revealed by the AIAS, Koji Kondo will be inducted into the 27th Annual D.I.C.E Awards during a live ceremony on Thursday, February 15. The D.I.C.E Awards are a yearly celebration that recognizes various achievements in the video game industry. Many consider the D.I.C.E Awards to be the video game equivalent of the film industry's Academy Awards, making an induction into the ceremony's Hall of Fame a distinguished honor. Koji Kondo will be joining the likes of Hideo Kojima, Todd Howard, and fellow Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto. The highly recognizable Super Mario Bros. Ground Theme was the first video game song to be added to the United States Library of Congress last year, highlighting the significance of Koji Kondo's work. This song and his other great creations contributed to his Hall of Fame induction, which many fans are considering an overdue payoff for his beloved work.

Koji Kondo's upcoming induction will mark the first ever inclusion of a video game music composer into the D.I.C.E Awards Hall of Fame. This follows a growing trend of rising recognition for video game music (VGM) in various circles. Just last year, the Grammy Awards created a