The primary focus of his talk was interactivity in game music. Kondo contrasted the unique interactive nature of video games with static forms of entertainment such as movies and television. He believes that embracing the interactivity of games in their sound composition is extremely important and effects the emotions of the players. His earliest and most overt attempt was the speeding up of the music in Super Mario Bros. as time nears expiration.

In Super Mario World, drums are added dynamically to the background music when riding Yoshi and disappear when the play stops riding the dinosaur. Kondo notes that he could have used a completely different track as he did with the Starman music, but having the music change with every mount and dismount would have been disruptive. He demonstrated this through video and then played a second video from Super Mario Sunshine where he used the same technique with Yoshi. This technique gives the players indication of a powered-up state without breaking the flow of the music.

During development of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Kondo feared that players might get bored with the same overworld music, so he added an element of randomization. He constructed twelve different phrases of music, which are played in a random order, but mesh seamlessly in such a way that while keeping things fresh, the player may not even be consciously aware of the change. Furthermore, this music also dynamically changes when Link enters and leaves battle, becoming more urgent, and the opposite effect results if the player stops moving for a time.

In Super Mario 64, Kondo used a similar idea of seamlessly changing music within the Dire, Dire Docks water level. In this stage, the melody starts off simply. When Mario dives underwater, strings are added to the track. Only after swimming through the water area and arriving on land at the other side of the stage, is the composition realized fully through the addition of percussion. Going backwards through the level removes the additional instrumentation. In Twilight Princess, Kondo again included location-based elements to the music. In the Castle Town, the music is quieter in alleys, while becoming louder in the populated central area. If Link nears the playing band, the band’s instrumentation is added to the music and was timed in such a way that becomes a seamless part of the background music.

Kondo also takes advantage of surround sound capabilities to add interactivity to a game’s sound and music. In Super Mario Sunshine, when chasing Shadow Mario, a different music track emanates from the location Shadow Mario’s current position relative to Mario. This track allows players to spatially locate their adversary in a three-dimensional environment. Likewise, this method was used when chasing the Skull Kid in Twilight Princess. In The Wind Waker, the ideas of dynamic music and dynamic surround were combined in the battle with Shadow Ganon. The spatial changes allow players to locate the enemy while the music increases pitch and intensity when engaging in back-and-forth volleys of an energy ball.