Early game composers like Koji Kondo ( Mario , Zelda ) and Nobuo Uematsu ( Final Fantasy ) had a very limited palette. They usually had three melody channels and one noise channel for drums. They couldn't rely on high-fidelity samples or lush strings. To make music that was memorable, they had to focus on the absolute core of composition: melody, rhythm, and counterpoint.
Remember the first time you heard the pause menu music and thought, "This actually kind of swings"? 👾 8 bit jazz band