fashionably late as usual
After a wait of about nine or ten months I finally got the Smash Brothers Brawl soundtrack. Or at least most of it, since I only kept the tracks I liked, but that still netted me some 177 songs which is ten hours worth of music. Oddly I'm not that psyched about finally owning it because I've been able to sample it on YouTube for months now so this music isn't a new experience to me. Now that it's all properly named and ready to be uploaded to my iPod I've kinda lost interest in it and gone back to other music that's fresher to me, like the Unlimited Saga OST I picked up just before Christmas (you seriously cannot find a good word about this game but the music is another matter) or this new remix album. Which isn't to say I'm not going to inflict my thoughts about it on whoever will listen.
My favourite song in the whole thing? 0² Battle. Yes, the very un-Kirby-like Kirby song with the screamchanting. I have no idea why. I haven't even played Kirby 64 but this one grabbed a hold of me from the moment I first heard it. It's powerful and dramatic and exciting all at once to me.
Easton Kingdom from Super Mario Land was represented but not by name (it was just 'underground theme' here). It's a fine remix but I can't help be a little disappointed how the least interesting BGM from the game was chosen and nothing else. A world with more Birabuto/Muda/Chai Kingdom remixes would be a better world.
Zelda had the token main-theme-on-orchestra and then another version of the theme done by a choir and guitar and the dungeons theme added in on strings. I've said before that orchestral versions of the Zelda theme are the second most worthless thing in VG remixing (second only to any kind of remix of Terra's Theme) so there was really no reason for the first one to exist. There was also a hyperactive electronic mix of Tal Tal Heights from Link's Awakening but I didn't like it that much. Tal Tal Heights is a serious theme to me, not a happy one. Next time they should give it to the orchestra and the main theme to the DJ.
Two of the Metroid songs have stupid narration at the start. Narration-free versions were available but I only kept one of those in the end (the Metroid Prime arrangement, not the monotonous version Brinstar on guitar). The narrator pronounces Samus as 'sam-as', so is that the official way of saying it now? Doesn't matter to me, I don't think I can break my habit, which is to say it with a deep AM sound ('sahm-us'). I think when I was younger I used to call her 'sA-mus' with an emphasised A but I'm not sure (except I'm dead sure I never called her 'say-mus' and I'm proud of that).
Two versions of Athletic from Yoshi's Island showed up but Nintendo changed it's name to Obstacle Course, which sounds much worse to me.
Sonic's music selection was awful, which is partly excusable because he was added later than the other characers. But if you want to see the sharp change between the old game-style BGM and the guitar-and-vocals obsession of the new games there's no place that makes it more obvious. But worst of all was the fumbled opportunity to bring Sonic R's music to a wider audience. By some complete failure of imagination Super Sonic Racing, the weakest (but admittedly most well-known) of Sonic R's tracks, was chosen to represent it in a game which wasn't even about racing. Brawlers could have Felt the Sunshine and had it Brighten up Their Day but most of them will never know they were deprived of something truly great :(
There wasn't much contest at all between the bilingual Wario songs. The Mona Pizza song was closer but the English versions of Mike and Ashley's songs demolish the Japanese ones. Japanese Ashley has bad voices and Japanese Mike doesn't even have lyrics.
I enjoyed all the Fire Emblem songs, and the Animal Crossing ones, and the Earthbound/Mother ones, and the Pokemon ones. Ironic since I've never done any of these series. But the most of the F-Zero selection was kind of mediocre.
There was one other random track (Shaberu! DS Cooking Navi) which sounded very Melty Blood-ish, which is probably the reason I kept it, since I like the Melty Blood music.
It took me so long to write this you have no idea. I haven't had crisps or chocolate in days and the withdrawl is sapping my energy.
My favourite song in the whole thing? 0² Battle. Yes, the very un-Kirby-like Kirby song with the screamchanting. I have no idea why. I haven't even played Kirby 64 but this one grabbed a hold of me from the moment I first heard it. It's powerful and dramatic and exciting all at once to me.
Easton Kingdom from Super Mario Land was represented but not by name (it was just 'underground theme' here). It's a fine remix but I can't help be a little disappointed how the least interesting BGM from the game was chosen and nothing else. A world with more Birabuto/Muda/Chai Kingdom remixes would be a better world.
Zelda had the token main-theme-on-orchestra and then another version of the theme done by a choir and guitar and the dungeons theme added in on strings. I've said before that orchestral versions of the Zelda theme are the second most worthless thing in VG remixing (second only to any kind of remix of Terra's Theme) so there was really no reason for the first one to exist. There was also a hyperactive electronic mix of Tal Tal Heights from Link's Awakening but I didn't like it that much. Tal Tal Heights is a serious theme to me, not a happy one. Next time they should give it to the orchestra and the main theme to the DJ.
Two of the Metroid songs have stupid narration at the start. Narration-free versions were available but I only kept one of those in the end (the Metroid Prime arrangement, not the monotonous version Brinstar on guitar). The narrator pronounces Samus as 'sam-as', so is that the official way of saying it now? Doesn't matter to me, I don't think I can break my habit, which is to say it with a deep AM sound ('sahm-us'). I think when I was younger I used to call her 'sA-mus' with an emphasised A but I'm not sure (except I'm dead sure I never called her 'say-mus' and I'm proud of that).
Two versions of Athletic from Yoshi's Island showed up but Nintendo changed it's name to Obstacle Course, which sounds much worse to me.
Sonic's music selection was awful, which is partly excusable because he was added later than the other characers. But if you want to see the sharp change between the old game-style BGM and the guitar-and-vocals obsession of the new games there's no place that makes it more obvious. But worst of all was the fumbled opportunity to bring Sonic R's music to a wider audience. By some complete failure of imagination Super Sonic Racing, the weakest (but admittedly most well-known) of Sonic R's tracks, was chosen to represent it in a game which wasn't even about racing. Brawlers could have Felt the Sunshine and had it Brighten up Their Day but most of them will never know they were deprived of something truly great :(
There wasn't much contest at all between the bilingual Wario songs. The Mona Pizza song was closer but the English versions of Mike and Ashley's songs demolish the Japanese ones. Japanese Ashley has bad voices and Japanese Mike doesn't even have lyrics.
I enjoyed all the Fire Emblem songs, and the Animal Crossing ones, and the Earthbound/Mother ones, and the Pokemon ones. Ironic since I've never done any of these series. But the most of the F-Zero selection was kind of mediocre.
There was one other random track (Shaberu! DS Cooking Navi) which sounded very Melty Blood-ish, which is probably the reason I kept it, since I like the Melty Blood music.
It took me so long to write this you have no idea. I haven't had crisps or chocolate in days and the withdrawl is sapping my energy.