Some of my favorite music in Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Part Deux

Wow, video game music sure has come a long way since the days when my dad would mute the sound on our TV while I was playing with my Sega Master System because he just couldn't stand all the beeps and blips that comprised the "tunes" in old games. Here are five more selections of my favorite music from the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Brawl:

Mother - Earthbound



This song is actually a direct carryover from Melee, along with the stage it accompanies. Often while playing Melee, I'd decide which stage to play on not necessarily based on the design of the stage itself, but because of the music that played on it. This was probably my favorite piece of music from that game and I'm glad to hear it's back for Brawl. The stage it came with, "Onett" from the U.S. Earthbound game (called Mother 2 in Japan), always felt a little clunky design-wise to me, but I'd play it just to hear this great tune over and over again.

Ice Climber - Ice Climbers



The level dubbed "The Summit" in Brawl is inspired by the nearly-forgotten NES game Ice Climbers, though it bears little resemblance to the original game. Here, this remix of the standard Ice Climbers theme belies the cool, changing nature of the level itself. The battle begins atop a giant iceberg but then, at about 26 seconds in, suddenly the music changes as the tip of the iceberg breaks off and begins racing, sliding down the side until it finally splashes down into the freezing water below.

King K. Rool / Ship Deck - Donkey Kong Country



When Donkey Kong Country was released for the Super Nintendo, I would often find myself leaving Donkey or Diddy Kong standing around in a safe spot on a level so that I could listen to the music in peace for a bit. It was the first video game I knew of to get it's own soundtrack album, and I can see why: the music in the game was, and still is, awesome. This track would play during the final boss fight onboard a pirate ship in the game, and I seriously dig this remix and that it's in Brawl. Seeing as how the main Donkey Kong stage in Brawl, "Rumble Falls," is a vertically-scrolling (read: headache) level for brawling on, it's not terribly likely I'll be choosing to play it all that often, but, like with the Earthbound level from Melee I mentioned earlier, anytime I do end up playing it, it will probably be because I want to hear the music playing on it, namely this particular tune.

Angel Island Zone - Sonic the Hedgehog



It's great to see Sonic making a guest appearance in this game (I guess all of us who saw the two biggest game mascots in the '90s--Sonic and Mario--being bitter rivals will now get to really see who would beat who in a straightforward fight) and it's also great to hear some awesome music from the Sonic franchise make an appearance as well. This track in particular remixes a tune from Sonic 3 in a very fun, fast and upbeat way that sounds indicative of most early Sonic game music, giving it a feel that's both retro and new at the same time.

Sonic Heroes - Sonic the Hedgehog



Another Sonic tune, this one from a later game in the franchise's history. I'm not a big fan of the songs with vocals in Brawl so far, but I do really like this one. There seems to be three ways of acquiring songs in Brawl: either 1) they're already available as of the first play, 2) they're unlocked by achieving certain, specific goals, or 3) they randomly show up as CDs during matches and you have to grab them manually. I have a feeling this song will be in the latter group, so who knows how long it'll be until it randomly shows up in my game.

I'll continue posting my favorite tunes after the game comes out, if I can pry myself away from it long enough to post something here, that is.

The Smurfiest game ever on ColecoVision

The first video game system my family ever had was a ColecoVision, and I can distinctly recall spending a lot of time playing this game in particular on it:



I was nuts about the Smurfs when I was a little kid, to the point where not only did I have Smurf bedsheets and an army of Smurf figurines (which probably lead to my eventual love of collecting action figures) but I also had the walls of my bedroom painted Smurf blue.

Looking back at this game now really makes me marvel at how video games have changed over the years. Not only was this a game that a person could, apparently, beat in less than two minutes (somehow, I always remembered it being much longer) but the point values clearly being a part of the terrain itself and the simplicity of the obstacles in the way, especially the spiders in Gargamel's castle, surprise me now. Though I was very young when I played this, I can still recall the awkwardness of the phone-like controller and the fact that when the Smurf jumped in the cavern it sounded like he was farting. Ah, childhood memories.

Some of my favorite music in Super Smash Bros. Brawl - Part One

Anyone who knows me really well knows that I cannot wait until Super Smash Bros. Brawl is released for the Wii. Melee was my favorite game on the GameCube, and the additions made to its sequel, Brawl, are simply amazing. Be it the stage creator that lets gamers design their own battlefields to play on, the eye-popping graphical enhancements, the fact that Sonic the Hedgehog and R.O.B. are playable fighters...the list goes on and on.

But one of my favorite new additions to the game is called "My Music". The Super Smash Bros. series has always been a kind of melting pot of Nintendo's video game history, mixing its characters, locations, games and music all together at once. With the expansive history that's covered in Brawl, along with the vast array of characters and franchises referenced, creator Masahiro Sakurai decided that having just one tune per pre-built stage was not enough and so implemented "My Music," a feature that allows not only for multiple tunes to find a home on a stage but actually lets the players determine which will be played and how often!

Brawl is already out in Japan and some folks there have already unlocked the over 300 individual pieces of music in the game and uploaded them onto YouTube for the world's listening enjoyment. Here are a few of my favorites that have been revealed--songs that I've already picked to definitely play most of the time on the stages they'll call home in Brawl:

Lip's Theme - Panel de Pon



I have no idea who Lip is, what Panel de Pon is or what stage this song will play on; I just know that I love this tune and it will be set to be played as often as possible on whichever stage it gets attached to in the game!

Go K.K. Rider! - Animal Crossing



I'm pretty certain that the first stage I'll play on when Brawl comes out is "Smashville" and that I'll have this song set to play on it then. While most of the music in the Animal Crossing games is very serene and calm, this remix is the perfect blend of rustic town serenity and all-out brawling.

The Dark World - The Legend of Zelda



My favorite era of video games was the 16-bit era, before everything moved to sloppy 3D action and 2D gaming was at its peak, so it's probably not a big surprise that most of the music I really like in Brawl has been brought in or remixed from that time period. For the Legend of Zelda franchise, I think this song will get the most play for me in Brawl; it's the overworld theme for the "Dark World," kind of an "evil parallel universe" in the Super Nintendo game The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I can still recall the day I "unlocked" the Dark World and was amazed an excited to explore a whole 'nother land parallel to the one I'd been exploring for weeks in A Link to the Past already.

Tetris A Type - Tetris



Ah, Tetris. One of the greatest games ever on the original Game Boy. I really dig this remix of this great tune. Though it hasn't been officially announced yet, there's a strong rumor that this tune appears as a soundtrack option for the Luigi's Mansion stage in Brawl. That would be awesome, as the slightly creepy flair of this remix makes it a perfect fit!

The Underworld - Kid Icarus



When I first bought Kid Icarus for the Virtual Console I had been caught up in the hype and fanboy praise for this "classic," and perhaps my expectations were set too high. It's a TOUGH game! I still haven't cleared the second stage yet, and the frustration that's resulted has led me to scarely return to playing the game. One thing I will give the game though is that I love the main underworld music theme and I especially love this remix of it in Brawl. In fact, it may just be my favorite tune in the entire game so far!

Stay tuned, as I'll be posting more of my favorite tracks from Super Smash Bros. Brawl soon!