Honestly I think a lot of this is nostalgia - I grew up with the c64, never had a NES. I enjoy chiptunes but none of the NES stuff really does much for me. I think you have to have had this stuff embedded into your brain by repeated play. I've listened to NES music and haven't had an urge to listen to it enough to learn and hum it, but I could totally hum the eerie opening theme to Parallax, the driving pseudo-Jarre of The Last V8, the electro-rock of Oxxonian, and more.
I'm not entirely sure it's all nostalgia; the c64's sound chip was a bit more flexible than the NES's, and there was a real culture of musicians on the c64, so I may have just gotten used to a higher level of musicianship as a base.
I'm not entirely sure it's all nostalgia; the c64's sound chip was a bit more flexible than the NES's, and there was a real culture of musicians on the c64, so I may have just gotten used to a higher level of musicianship as a base.