So there's no denying that SSBB is an awesome game, and with a whopping 314 songs included, the soundtrack is no different.
However, many of these songs sound awesome to us because of the nostalgia we attach to them. If you grew up endlessly depositing quarters into the insatiable Donkey Kong arcade cabinet at the local pizza parlor, hearing the remix of the level theme might just bring a tear to your eye. But will it have the same effect on someone who's never played a video game before? Which songs, regardless of the series that spawned it, can be considered classical masterpieces befitting a concert hall or opera house?
That question is what prompted me to construct this list. There are many songs that I love in SSBB that did not make this list simply because they are not acceptable to more "sophisticated" listeners, or those that don't appreciate heavy techno bass and electric guitars. However, in listening to the songs here, we can hope that those that look down upon games as an art form can take something back from these reimagined themes and use them to more fully appreciate what we play. So the following songs are those that achieve that, among other things: encompassing the scope and mood of the medium that different listeners may not understand otherwise.
(Another note, this list only contains songs that are created solely for Brawl, and not simply taken untouched from another game.)
Even if you have no idea who Samus is, you instantly understand the tone of the Metroid series when listening to this song. It brings to mind a triumphant adventurer braving danger and loneliness to achieve his or her goal. But while the song itself is very good, this track gets bumped to this spot on the list because it's not completely orchestrated. A minor quibble, but considering the literally hundreds of other songs in Brawl, #10 is a very respectable standing.
The main criteria for determining which songs made the cut on this list is whether it could retain its artistic merit once nostalgia and other feelings attached to the game it's associated with were stripped away. As I've never played any Star Fox games before, I never heard this song before Brawl, but I still think it's really incredible. So there you go.
Ah, now we get into tricky territory. The main LoZ theme is very widely recognized so it's difficult to approach it compeltely objectively. However, there's a reason why it became so famous, apart from the success of the franchise itself: the main theme happens to be really, really ridiculously epic. So what do you get when you take an already epic song and put a chorus in it? Not to mention the church organ for the underworld theme. It's a more obscure tune, but still manages to almost surpass the opening because it features a full church organ. That practically defines "epic", and is something you can appreciate without any experience with the Legend of Zelda series at all.
Blasphemy! This one starts out in it original 8-bit form! How is this acceptable outside of the gaming community? The answer is that the two other variations contained in the song more than illustrate its artistic merit and versatility. It almost stands as a representation of the evolution of these arrangements - how you can take such a simple tune and turn it into a song that can stand independent of the game it originated from.
I can personally testify to this one. While surfing through the various songs from Brawl to pick the best ones for this list, this particular song started playing, and my mom asked me from the other room who composed it. I believe that speaks for itself.
If this song doesn't put the fear of God in you, you're either deaf or dead. Or atheist, but that's another matter. Imagine every dark, evil, depraved power that haunts your nightmares and roll them together. This is their theme song. Go ahead, try not to let loose a little evil laugh of your own when listening to it. It's a bit of a departure from some of these other songs with some synth-y effects in the middle, but the overall effect is so amazing that I had to include it.
Some of you may know this is originally a Russian folk tune. I bet whoever first wrote down this little ditty never would've imagined it to be reinterpreted with so many different instruments, styles, and variations. It's almost overwhelming. But not quite. Just enough to keep the simple melody fresh throughout the song.
Gotta hand it to Konami. The game's not even out yet and they recorded this version purely for Brawl. And what an awesome version it is. With a heavy, sweeping opening, then giving way to a sad, eerie violin carrying the main melody, I actually end up stopping in a match simply to listen to it in the background. Unlike other themes in this list that conjure images of brave heroes, victory, riding off into the sunset, etc, this song brings very complex emotions into play. Loss and sadness, but also determination. Maybe a bit of bitterness to add to the mix. It's this ambiguity that makes it a true masterpiece.
Were you expecting something different? When I first heard this song in the original opening teaser for the game at E3 those years ago, I definitely was. With the esteemed Nobuo Uematsu at the helm, this song almost seemed too grand, too serious for what we had come to expect of the Smash Brothers series. However, when you understand the lyrics, it all falls into place. It accurately puts into words what we first felt when we saw the opening of the N64 game with the Hand placing the figures on the table and bringing them to life. Some people wonder why gamers spend so much time exploring these artificial worlds and stories, but our answer (or, at least, my answer) can be found in this song: Saeve certando pugnandoque/ sprendor crescit. "And as we face each other in battle, locked in combat, We shine even brighter."
Cheesy? Probably. But that is still why it deserves to be performed as a "serious" work, not just as the main theme from a popular video game.
So with the advent of Super Smash Brothers Brawl on March 9th, the Destructoid blogs most likely became flooded with posts related the game. Truthfully, I have no idea because, well, I was too busy playing Brawl.
Specifically, I spent about the first 9 hours chugging away through the brand new adventure mode, known as the Subspace Emissary. With such a drastic departure from the traditional structure of the franchise ("Hey! You got some Smash Brothers in my Kingdom Hearts!" "You got your Kingdom Hearts in my Smash Brothers!"), it has recieved many mixed reviews - some praise it, others hate it. So what do I think about it? (Like you're all dying to find out. )
First of all, what the SSE is: a collection of shiny shiny bite-sized pieces of fanservice that practically puts Advent Children to shame.
What it is not: a deep, innovative platforming adventure with a thought-provoking storyline.
Currently, I'm 97% of the way through. I've beaten the final boss and unlocked all the characters, but still need to find each and every one of those damned little orange boxes scattered through the levels. And I don't care. Frankly, it's very annoying on many levels. Many reviews have said this, but I corroborate with their claims - the physics of Smash do not translate well to platforming. And it doesn't help that there are some sadistic platforming segments in here. The only satisfying gameplay parts were where you would stop and have to battle a certain number of enemies before progressing, because it's familiar territory. Stand on a flat curface, destroy anything that moves. The basic puzzle-solving-platforming-jumping-infinitely-spawning-enemy-stomping elements that make up the rest of it are only little annoyances that you have to fight through to get to the few good parts.
But wait, there's more! Even from looking at it from the shiny bundle of fanservice angle, it disappoints in many ways. First of all, the bosses are a big letdown. There are eight total in the mode, and two of them are original characters, created solely for SSE, and not found in any game. Now, while these bosses are pretty neat in their own right, I'm sure everyone would rather have to battle more well-known baddies. There's a huge difference from "Oh, a giant purple transformer dinosaur. Ooookay....let's just get this over with." to "SWEET JESUS ON A POGO STICK I'M BATTLING <boss> FROM <game> THIS IS SOOO AWESOME!!!"
Also, Sonic doesn't even appear until right before you battle the final boss. And I mean right before. That's the only time you can ever use him (unless you've already beaten it once and unlocked him). What the hell?! Then Wolf, Jigglypuff, and Toon Link don't make an appearance at all! If they can find a way to prominently feature Snake in the storyline, they can damn sure fit in Sonic.
The Great Maze sucks. Awfully. It's like the developers wanted to extend the length of the adventure, but ran out of ideas, so they decided to force you to go through everything and battle everyone all over again. That wouldn't be so bad except that the whole thing consists of nearly ONE THIRD of the entire adventure. Lazy bastards.
Oh, and Co-op is a pain in the ass too.
However, despite the amount of cloud you have to fight through to get to it, there is a silver lining. The only reason I went through and finished the whole thing, apart from unlocking characters, is the cutscenes. Almost all of which are completely awesome.
Confused about what's going on? Don't think about it too hard, just sit back and let the awesomeness of all your favorite characters launching an aerial attack against a bigass gun turret commanded by Bowser and Ganondorf sink in. Oh yes. The plot may not make any sense, but it's so pretty you won't care.
And this is why it's worth it to play through this mode once. Once you've seen all the cutscenes and found all the characters, there's really no reason to come back unless you're one of those OCD gamers that has to collect every trinket in a game. But apart from collecting more trophies and rarer stickers, there's no reward at all for beating the whole thing on harder difficulties. After you've beaten it, you'll probably never want to pick it up again. So while it's not particularly groundbreaking on its own, it's an interesting application of the game engine. I would like to see Nintendo take these issues and improve on them for future installments, but for now, just beat it once for kicks 'n giggles then move on to kicking your friends' asses in online multiplayer.
Wow. Less than a week to go until the US launch of Super Smash Brothers Brawl. It's certainly been a long, weird, and often rocky road getting here, but it's now just around the corner. While awaiting the fateful date of March 9th, I just wanted to get my final thoughts and opinions out of the way on the game.
I know the Japanese version has been out for more than a month now, and in that short time we've uncovered vast quantities of spoilers, cheats, tricks, and information to sate our hunger. But I'm not here to talk about the gameplay itself. Rather, the journey getting to the game's release.
So first off, even though I'm new here, some of you might have noticed that I'm a big Nintendo enthusiast, and especially love the Smash Bros. franchise. Just look at my avatar! But why? The original SSB for the N64 wasn't the first game I played, or particularly the best, but it was the first game that I was actually good at. It was a gateway drug of sorts in my childhood, with simple controls and a big motivation to keep me practicing. That is, the promise of one day wiping the floor with my little brother. It was the first game that I wanted to practice at, to discover the right timing, or the right strategies for certain characters, the best stages, and the best items. Some people talk about "exploration" in a game in reference to exploring expansive lands, dungeons, towns, etc. In Super Smash Bros, you could explore the very mechanics of the game and slowly peel back the grainy polygonal figures to discover the true potential behind each fighter.
Those individual fighters also helped usher me into the world of video games that I'm so connected to now. When I first got the game, there were several characters that I had never seen before - Ness, Captain Falcon, even Samus and Kirby! But the tiny bit of background provided about them made me want to dig deeper, to discover what brought them to the Smash universe. Like actually playing SSB, I wanted to see what was behind the polygons.
So that was what essentially the original Super Smash Bros. was to me - a primer to the world of Nintendo. A sort of hub where different worlds branched out, beckoning those curious players to follow. Cheesy, maybe, but true. Looking back on this now, Nintendo's progression to the final product of Brawl is in many ways a completion of this idea.
Think about the Smash DOJO updates, what was the one that got you most excited? The announcement of Sonic? Online play? Those are all very important, but the one update that nearly made me faint from sheer happiness was the introduction of the Subspace Emmissary mode. It takes all these diverse elements and universes and distills them down to one epic adventure, and introduces some new lore to the mix. Let's face it, it's not Kingdom Hearts, but when using such well-known characters, we don't need loads of dialogue or deep, angsty emotions. The trophies are only rough representations of the fighters, those who wish to dive deeper and discover more know where to look.
So in the end, for better or for worse, after the party is over and the crowd has left, Brawl will be what the franchise was always meant to be - the gateway to the rest of the worlds of Nintendo. Not a universe unto itself, but a hub where everything meets, and anything can happen.
...Okay, maybe a little, but I still can't get enough of Brawl goodies and info. Anything I can find to stave off the insanity brought on by waiting for another month for the US release. @_@
First, a video compiling all the taunts from all the characters:
(Weegee taunts FTW!)
Then a parade of Kirby Hats, or at least the ones new to Brawl:
Gotta love Snake Kirby. He's so adorable with the sideburns and the manly, rugged beard. :3
And last but not least, every character's Final Smash attack:
So, what do you guys think? Which taunt is your favorite? What the hell is Luigi's Final Smash supposed to be? Is this making the anticipation for Brawl even worse? Or are you just sick to death of seeing leaked information by now?
So after poking around the intarwebz for overlooked Brawl leaks, I found something unexpected over at The Wiire. If you've exhausted your eyes from re-checking Reaprar's blog for fresh spoilers, give those peepers a rest and instead relax with some tasty new music tracks.
A few of these songs have already been featured on the Dojo website, but these are all apparently ripped from the leaked Japanese version's Sound Test, and are fuller versions. Enjoy.
With Brawl on the advent of dropping like an atomic bomb on Japan, the rest of Destructoid is probably feeling a little envious. I know I am. Bastards. >.>
While I can't fill the void of pushing the release date back to it's original (kind of) release on February 10, I can bring just another taste of what to expect when SSBB finally arrives in the USA and the rest of the world.
(All credit for originally posting the videos goes to Brawl Central.)
Some Home-Run Contest footage, showing off the multiplayer mode:
Next is some more gameplay footage:
And finally, another Japanese commercial. Two to be exact, the first one just displays Wi-Fi functionality, but the second is video from the Subspace Emissary adventure mode.
Now just watch these repeatedly for about... 45 days. That should hold you over.
(Feel free to give me a virtual smack upside the head if these have already been posted. I looked, and didn't see anything recent myself.)
Okay, so making a sequel to a video game is sort of like playing Jenga. For those who don't know, it's a game where you have a tower of wooden blocks, and you have to take a block out of the tower and place it on top. The object is to see how high you can build up the structure without it falling over.
So in video games, you start with a foundation. A solid game that sold well enough to justify the time and resources required to continue the franchise. The object is to keep the foundation, or the core gameplay of the original game, as steady as possibly, while adding new content to it. (putting the blocks that you took out of the original tower on top) It's all about balance.
Let's say the original gameplay was glitchy. Well, we can take that block out and add it to the top to make it higher. The graphics need updating. A new storyline is added. We're good so far. But the problems start occurring when you disrupt the structural integrity of the original, and take too many blocks from the wrong places. The tower collapses, and the game bombs. Or, if you add the new blocks to the wrong places, the foundation can't support it, and it overbalances and falls over again. Most times, it's a combination of both. Look at the Sonic franchise. They changed the original fast-paced gameplay too much that the foundation was no longer stable. Then on top of that, the glitchy controls and camera, bad storylines, and cheesy dialogue were like bricks added in the wrong spots on top of the tower. Eventually, these flaws start outweighing the good points, and tower falls down.
Again, it's all about balance - changing enough of the foundation while still adding enough new content to make it fresh, and worth buying again.
"But SWE3tMadness," you might say, "in real life, you don't have a limited number of blocks. You can keep the core gameplay intact and only add on new content!" Ideally, yes, you can do this, and often this is how the best game sequels are made, for example, SSBM. Take the core gameplay and frantic, multiplayer action, and then add new moves, new stages, and new single-player modes. Voila! You have the best-selling game on the Gamecube, and arguably one of the best multiplayer titles ever produced.
However, there is still a limit. Imagine a Jenga tower five stories tall. It'd collapse in a hurry, right? If you add too much new stuff, and don't change the foundation at all, eventually it still won't be able to support the extra weight. Eventually, you have to change the foundation.
This is where Pokčmon franchise is starting to fail. Everyone loves the Gold and Silver versions because they added just enough new content while keeping the original addictive gameplay intact. It worked incredibly well. So Nintendo decided to keep on doing it. However, now the more recent games have so much new content that they're on the verge of over-saturation. While there are new areas to explore, new moves, items, pokčmon, trainers, etc, the basic foundation of "Capture pokčmon, train pokčmon, battle pokčmon, lather, rinse, repeat, etc" hasn't changed. The series has grown with so much new stuff to do that the core can't support it anymore. Nintendo really needs to address this problem before they just slap on more content to the next game.
They've tried too. The addition of Contests allowed us to apply a completely different strategy for building and training a party, and the Wi-Fi multiplayer from Pearl and Diamond allows you to take advantage of a very deep system of battling with other Pokčfanatics all over the world. But these additions still boil down to only new content. Again, Nintendo needs to change the core of the franchise. While this may sounds like blasphemy to some people who say "If it 'aint broke, don't fix it", the system isn't really broken, but is no longer sufficient to support the continual addition of content in each successive sequel.
So how can they fix it? I've always said that the world of Pokčmon would be perfect for an MMO. Not everybody in WoW goes off to find epic lewtz. Some just like exploring, trading, working the market, and interacting in an online community. Just like that, not everyone in the Pokčmon world necessarily wants to raise level 100 maximized killing machines. Give us a chance to create our own character and decide what we want to do in the world. Pokčmon Ranger and Mystery Dungeon were good ideas to expand the series in this way, but Nintendo treated them as only spin-offs to the franchise, and still pours most of their resources into creating the traditional sequels that are stagnating.
In conclusion, if you've made it this far through my post, congratulations. But in all seriousness, as much as I love the Pokčmon franchise, Nintendo desperately needs to rework the foundation of the traditional hand-held RPG’s in order to keep the franchise viable
I posted earlier this week regarding the plans my seventh-period class at school and I put together to end the semester exams with a bang. That is, to play Guitar Hero 3 (Xbox 360 ver.) for our exam period, which was about an hour and a half long. So after some trash-talking and technical difficulties (it turns out I was the only person who knew how to calibrate lag xD ), we got into it.
One epic pro face-off had two guys going head-to-head on One in Expert, but everyone else in the class played on Easy or Medium. It's a little awkward when you can trounce everyone else who plays on those difficulties, but the only other people who do Expert can easily hand you your ass. So overall I ended up roughly second or third place in our impromptu contest. Doing pro face-offs, I won at Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll (Expert) and 3's and 7's (Medium), and lost on Hellacopter (Expert), La Grange (Expert), and Black Magic Woman (Expert).
After class was over (it was a shortened day, the period ended at 1:30-ish), a few people stayed behind to continue rocking, and we were visited by some more serious players, one of which I'm happy to say is my younger brother. He defeated the reigning GH champ (the only guy I know personally who has passed TTFaF) at Cherub Rock by a good 50k margin. ;D
But that's not the best part. We all had fun, but one freshman is our class is autistic, and while 'normal' enough to go to our high schoolregularly, he has a lot of trouble with social activities like this. He really wanted to play with someone, so we gave him a guitar controller, and after playing a couple songs, he was actually able to beat a few other girls playing with us. It was the happiest I've seen him in class.
In the end, a great way to end the semester. I hope I've earned a little more respect from the other gamers in my school. :3
Well, this week starts the dreaded semester exams at my high school, but surprisingly there is one bright spot in this dark sea of almost-certain annihilation.
But before I tell you that story, I have to tell you this story...
You see, my seventh-period class is Handbells. Yes, instead of a marching band or more traditional ensemble, we have a class for our handbell choir. It's basically a dozen or more people each playing three or four bells that each have a different tone. For example, I play A, A-flat(G-sharp), B, and B-flat (A-sharp). The other people whole play with me that period are all pretty fun, and our director/conductor/teacher is far younger than any other staff in the school (twenty-three, methinks?), is the drummer for a local band called The Greens and is a self-proclaimed geek. In between practicing songs, we all talk quite a bit about sports, movies, and video games.
So, when we walked into class after christmas break and started socializing before the bell rang, we soon discovered that nearly everyone in my class who has a PS2 or Xbox 360 got Guitar Hero 3 or Rock Band over the holidays. Throughout the whole class that day we discussed our favorite songs, which ones are the hardest to play, how far we've gotten in career, etc, but one thing we all agreed on is that everyone needed to get together sometime and have a tournament.
But how?...
Well, because of how the Handbells class is structured (i.e. we just practice random songs the whole 50 minutes of the period), we don't have a "semester exam", just an extended period when all the other classes are taking theirs. That's nearly two hours with nothing to do....except....
Play Guitar Hero.
So on Friday, when other kids are sweating over a Calculus, Anatomy, or History test, my class will be rocking out to end the semester. Fuck. Yes. \m/
Follow-up commentary will be probably posted Friday evening-ish. But now I've got to practice. >:D
Welcome, and enjoy the random ramblings of the rare "girl gamer". Mi blog-a es su blog-a. Just remember to clean up after yourself when you leave.
- Piano pieces currently working on: -
Portal - Still Alive Super Mario Galaxy - Buoy Base Galaxy, The Story Begins
Tetris - Korobeiniki (A Theme)
Donkey Kong Country 2: Wasp Hive
Super Mario 64 - Final Bowser Theme
- Favorite Games -
- Super Smash Bros Brawl
(Mains: Samus, Metaknight, Wolf, Cpt. Falcon)
- Super Smash Bros. Melee
- Super Mario series
- Legend of Zelda: OOT and TP
- Animal Crossing
- Pokčmon GSC and PD
- SoulCalibur series (I generally use Ivy)
- Guitar Hero and Rock Band (Expert FTW!)
- Elite Beat Agents
- DDR series
- Pikmin series
