Biweekly Music Wednesday! No. 54 ~The Great Cave Offensive: Crystal Field and Mystery Paradise~ (Kirby Super Star)

Origin: Kirby Super Star
Plays In: Crystal Field and Mystery Paradise areas of The Great Cave Offensive
Status: Arrangement
Composed by: Jun Ishikawa, Dan Miyakawa

The Super Nintendo Classic Edition is finally coming!!! In just two days, we'll be reliving twenty classics from Nintendo's greatest system, as well as the never-before released Star Fox 2! Has such a package ever blended the nostalgic and the new so perfectly? Needless to say, if you call yourself a Nintendo fan, you know you gotta get one.

But with so many incredible games featured, which one could I possibly play first? Those who know me could rule it down to two titles: EarthBound and Star Fox 2. Both are great guesses, but they aren't what I've decided upon. Humbling as it is to know EarthBound, the greatest game ever made, will be on it (let us have a moment of silence for our Japanese brothers and sisters), I know I probably won't be able to stop playing it and as I wish to play at least a little bit of every game just once, I may save it for last. I suppose that's fitting for the best game ever, yes?

Biweekly Music Wednesday! No. 37 ~Gourmet Race~ (Kirby Super Star)

Origin: Kirby Super Star

Plays In: Gourmet Race courses 1 and 3
Status: Original Composition
Composed by: Jun Ishikawa, Dan Miyakawa

Now here's something I don't understand in the least. In Kirby Super Star, there's a mode called Gourmet Race, where Kirby and King Dedede dash along three courses while grabbing as much food as possible. Contrary to the name, it's something of a side-dish mode; not quite the appetizers Samurai Kirby and Megaton Punch are, but not nearly as filling as Revenge of Meta Knight or The Great Cave Offensive.

And yet, it somehow gave birth to one of the most notable series elements that even non-Kirby fans recognize: the music. A fast-paced frenzy of chaos, Gourmet Race instantly springs the player into action as King Dedede looms behind them. It's a great song, yet it was never one of my Super Star favorites; in fact, I only recognize its greatness in retrospect. Why is that?

Well, here's where things get interesting. In the year of Kirby Super Star's release (1996), the final installment of Japan's annual Orchestral Game Concert was held, and there was a suite inspired from Kirby Super Star! With how orchestral that game's soundtrack is, that's a great idea! What would be the song chosen: the orchestra take on Green Greens found in The Great Cave Offensive? Any of the thrilling pieces from Revenge of Meta Knight? The nightmare that is Marx's Theme? The tear-inducing credits of Milky Way Wishes?

The answer: none of them. It ended up being Gourmet Race; as in, the happy, upbeat song probably least suited to an orchestra.

...or so you would think. While joined by the Mine Cart theme and Kirby's Triumphal Return, the Gourmet Race opener steals the show. This arrangement doesn't just turn the song into a masterpiece; it's transformed what could very well be a completely different song altogether. What was once a race for dessert is now a legendary battle for glory among the stars of Dream Land, setting the stage for one of Kirby's greatest final battles.

And it didn't stop there. What truly propelled Gourmet Race into stardom was its representation in the Smash Bros. series, particularly in the first two games. For the N64 iteration, every other series was represented by their respective main themes, yet Kirby's Dream Land stage was given the theme from what was essentially a mini-game...yet even today, it's everyone's favorite arrangement from the game. The case is also the same for Melee, where Tadashi Ikegami's sweeping orchestral that is The Fountain of Dreams owes more than a little to the Orchestral Game Concert version.

Let's not forget Kirby itself, for the song naturally began to proliferate in the source material. It was a stage theme in Dream Land 3, featured in a Kirby 64 racing mini-game, and, in my personal favorite twist, replaced the boss theme for Nightmare in Dream Land's King Dedede fight with The Fountain of Dreams arrangement. Since then, its etched itself into the hallowed halls of great recurring Kirby themes, joining the likes of Green Greens and King Dedede's Theme.

And to think, this all emerged from a little racing game. How truly bizarre. This would be completely understandable if Gourmet Race had been within one of Super Star's main adventures, yet I can't think of anywhere else where it'd be an acceptable substitute. Were the folks behind Orchestral Game Concert interested in the challenge of adapting a more light-hearted piece into an epic score? Does it have anything to do with the mysterious Dan Miyakawa? Was Sakurai just really fond of the theme?

Am I reading too much into it? Probably, but I simply can't get over the song's humble origins. It's up there with Dan Miyakawa as one of Kirby Super Star's greatest mysteries, and with that game's enchanting prowess, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised it launched such a song into the gaming public consciousness.

Final Thoughts: Oh, that reminds me. You remember how I said in my Super Star review how the game throws something new at me every time I play it? Here's one such example: I'd always blown through the second Gourmet Race level so quickly that I never listened to its accompanying theme in full. Needless to say, it kinda blew my mind when I left it paused one day and heard the second half.

Biweekly Music Wednesday! No. 16 ~Float Islands~ (Kirby's Dream Land)

 

Origin: Kirby's Dream Land
Plays In: Float Islands/Kaboola Room in Dedede's Castle
Status: Original Composition

Composers: Jun Ishikawa

Well, I suppose it makes sense go over a Kirby song in the middle of my Kirby-themed feature! To initiate my first Kirby-related Biweekly Music Wednesday!, I figured I'd start out with an oddball: Float Islands.

When I say "oddball," I mean that Float Islands is typically overshadowed by the rest of the glorious music found in Kirby games. It's one of the first songs you hear in Kirby Super Star, yet that game's general orchestra boom steals the show. A secret arrangement is found in Kirby Air Ride, but everyone was too busy playing City Trial and its anime-ripped OST accompaniment. We even witness an interesting techno remix in Kirby Canvas Curse, but alas, I was too absorbed in the Rainbow Resort one to notice.

And yet despite all that, Float Islands is perhaps tied with Green Greens as my favorite song in the title that started it all: Kirby's Dream Land. Whereas Green Greens embodies heartwarming nostalgia, Float Islands is a distant reflection. You're sitting down in the kitchen chair staring out the window one early summer morning, and just like that, memories from what was a lifetime ago gradually slink back. The fragmented memories of a forgotten puppet-based television show. That one road trip from when you were seven. The time you clutched your favorite Sesame Street blanket as your mom rocked you to sleep.

Dreamy.

I once described the Ripple Field theme from Kirby's Dream Land 3 conjures the visual of a resolute chase. You're running down a beach that holds the key to your past, eyes scanning the area for familiar landmarks or structures to satisfy your quench for knowledge. Float Islands is the antithesis--there is no mad dash, for that individual is already content with life. He or she's slowly pacing across the ocean, eying the eternal blue as the wind tickles their cheeks.

I wonder which person I am? I've definitely dabbled into both; at the moment, I'd like to think I'm the latter. I've got great family, a wonderfully supportive English department at school, a great internship, and am constantly challenging myself through writing. Yet there was definitely a time I'd have done anything to get my past back, and if you told me I had to run down a beach to do so, I wouldn't have hesitated.

I don't miss being a teenager, that's for sure.

What about you? If that's a bit too personal of a question, then here's an interesting piece of trivia that blew my mind a couple years back. Doesn't the part at 0:22 sound familiar? That's right, it happens to be the inspiration for this famously chill Kirby song!

...or it might be more famously chill to Smash fans. You decide!

 

Even those we deem to be most ordinary hide the most profound secrets, don't they?

Final Thoughts: So apparently all the songs from Kirby's Dream Land are in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS via the sound test and Smash Run. Beating up Bulborbs and Starmen to this is gonna be surreal. And chill, yeah.