David Wise (often also credited as Dave Wise) is a British video game music composer. He is one of the in-house composers at Rare, and his music appears in most of the Rare-developed titles. He started his career at Rare in 1985 and was the company's sole musician up until 1994.
He is known for his atmospheric style of music, mixing natural environmental sounds and setting it to a tune.Undoubtedly his most famous work is the soundtrack for Donkey Kong Country series of games, widely considered to be some of the best soundtracks to ever appear on SNES.
Aside of the usual jolly "jungle" themes that fit to Donkey Kong's style in general, these games have a quite wide variety of different musical styles in different areas of the game. More recently, he's done the soundtrack for the Game Boy Advance port of Donkey Kong Country 3, and is working on a mystery Xbox 360 title.
Video game credits(Please note: Although very few games prior to 1993 had credits, it is a known fact that David Wise was the only musician at Rare from 1985 to 1994, which effectively covers all of their NES and early SNES titles.
Some very few games, such as Double Dare, did credit him.)1987 - Slalom (NES)1988 - R.C. Pro-Am (NES)1988 - Wheel of Fortune (NES)1988 - Jeopardy! (NES)1988 - Anticipation (NES)1989 - Marble Madness (NES)1989 - World Games (NES)1989 - WWF Wrestlemania (NES)1989 - Sesame Street 123 (NES)1989 - John Elway's Quaterback (NES)1989 - California Games (NES)1989 - Taboo (NES)1989 - Wizards & Warriors (NES)1989 - Sesame Street ABC (NES)1989 - Hollywood Squares (NES)1989 - Who Framed Roger Rabbit (NES)1989 - Jordan Vs.
Bird: One On One (NES)1989 - Cobra Triangle (NES)1989 - Ironsword: Wizards & Warriors II (NES)1989 - Wheel of Fortune Junior Edition (NES)1989 - Jeopardy! Junior Edition (NES)1989 - Silent Service(NES)1990 - Double Dare (NES)1990 - Wheel of Fortune Family Edition (NES)1990 - Jeopardy! 25th Anniversary Edition (NES)1990 - The Amazing Spider-Man (Game Boy)1990 - Captain Skyhawk (NES)1990 - Pin Bot (NES)1990 - Snake Rattle ‘N’ Roll (NES)1990 - Super Off Road (NES)1990 - Wizards & Warriors X: Fortress of Fear (Game Boy)1990 - NARC (NES)1990 - A Nightmare On Elm Street (NES)1990 - Super Glove Ball (NES)1990 - Cabal (NES)1990 - Time Lord (NES)1990 - Arch Rivals (NES)1990 - WWF Wrestlemania Challenge (NES)1990 - Solar Jetman: Hunt for the Golden Warpship (NES)1991 - Digger T.
Rock (NES)1991 - WWF Superstars (Game Boy)1991 - Battletoads (NES, Game Boy)1991 - Beetlejuice (NES)1991 - Super R.C. Pro-Am (Game Boy)1991 - High Speed (NES)1991 - Sneaky Snakes (Game Boy)1991 - Sesame Street ABC & 123 (NES)1991 - Pirates! (NES)1992 - Wizards & Warriors III (NES)1992 - Beetlejuice (Game Boy)1992 - Indy Heat (NES)1992 - R.
C. Pro-Am II (NES)1992 - Championship Pro-Am (Mega Drive)1993 - Battletoads (Mega Drive, Game Gear)1993 - Battletoads Double Dragon (NES, SNES, Mega Drive, Game Boy)1993 - Battletoads in Ragnarok's World (Game Boy)1993 - Battletoads in Battlemaniacs (SNES)1993 - X The Ball (Arcade)1993 - Snake Rattle‘N’ Roll (Mega Drive)1994 - Monster Max (Game Boy)1994 - Super Battletoads (Arcade)1994 - Donkey Kong Country, (SNES) (with Robin Beanland and Eveline Fischer)1995 - Donkey Kong Land, (Game Boy) (with Graeme Norgate)1995 - Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES)1996 - Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!, (SNES) (with Eveline Fischer) (Additional Music)1997 - Diddy Kong Racing (N64)2000 - Donkey Kong Country (GBC)2002 - Star Fox Adventures (GCN)2004 - It's Mr.
Pants (GBA) (Additional Sound FX)2005 - Donkey Kong Country 3 (GBA)2014 - Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze (Wii U) (at Retro Studios)TBA - "Project Ukulele" (Multi?) (With: Grant Kirkhope and Steve Burke - at Playtonic Games)