Jam of the Day: Full of Life by Protricity (Relics of the Chozo: A Super Metroid Musical Collaboration)

I’ve decided to feature more Metroid music this week since the 25th anniversary just happened.

Relics of the Chozo was the very first full album put out by OverClocked ReMix back in 2003. I was very excited when it came out. Albums covering an entire game’s soundtrack were not common in North America at the time. To make things even better, the tracks flowed into each other giving the album a very cohesive feel.

Full of Life is one of those arrangements that perfectly captures the spirit of the original. You could argue its lack of ambition, but sometimes I enjoy a good “update” style of remix. It would fit along seamlessly in an HD version of Super Metroid. Speaking of which, somebody should make that.

Jam of the Day: Warlock Battle by GUIDO (Chrono Trigger Arranged Version: The Brink of Time)

With a bazillion remixes of Yasunori Mitsuda’s beloved Chrono Trigger score in existence, it’s nice that GUIDO (Hiroshi Hata and Kalta Ohtsuki) took the road less traveled in their arrangements featured on The Brink of Time. If you’ve never heard the album, you should really seek it out.

Warlock Battle is my favorite track on there and it takes some interesting creative liberties with the Magus battle theme. Everytime I hear the guitar “laugh” about 47 seconds in, I can’t help but smile. It gets pretty insane at the end and honestly the last 30 seconds or so completely loses me, but the rest is so solid that it’s hard to complain.

Jam of the Day: Stickerbush Symphony by Michiko Naruke (Super Smash Bros. Brawl Soundtrack)

I could make this blog nothing but tracks from the Super Smash Bros. Brawl soundtrack and I would still be able to update with a lot of great, very diverse music for a long, long time.

I love the tracks that really show off the arranger’s style. When you listen to the Brawl version of David Wise’s Stickerbush Symphony, it is immediately apparent who the arranger is. Michiko Naruke’s trademark style takes the track in a direction that would fit seamlessly into one of her Wild Arms soundtracks, giving it a new flavor that wasn’t present in the original instead of just updating the instruments.

Jam of the Day: Dancing Calcobrena by Máire Bhreatnach (FINAL FANTASY IV Celtic Moon)

Final Fantasy IV Celtic Moon is a pretty significant album. Released in 1991, it was the first arranged album to come out on the Square Brand label. It also features not one, but three artists (Máire Bhreatnach, Cormac Bhreatnach, and Ronan Browne) whose music would later be heard in Riverdance. And that is only part of the star power of this eight-performer album.

The Celtic style meshes extremely well with Nobuo Uematsu’s great score, though I admit that I’m partial to Celtic arrangements. And of course, it helps that they covered “Dancing Colcobrena” as it’s one of my favorite tracks from the OST.

Jam of the Day: Armored Armadillo Stage by Makoto Tomozawa, Yuki Iwai, Yuko Takehara, Toshihiko Horiyama and/or Setsuo Yamamoto (Mega Man X Soundtrack)

When people think of Mega Man soundtracks, their first thought is commonly Mega Man 2. Don’t get me wrong, the Mega Man 2 soundtrack is great. But when it comes to Mega Man soundtracks, none of them rock my face off as much as the first Mega Man X.

Armored Armadillo is a high energy track. Like many of the songs in the early X games, it has a guitar solo that, while limited by the SNES hardware, still has face melting powers.

Jam of the Day: Fortuna by Hajime Hirasawa (Star Fox)

The Star Fox soundtrack is far from obscure. Many have proclaimed their love for the Title Theme, Corneria, and Planet Venom. Never, though, do I hear people mention Fortuna.

Fortuna is an excellent track. It’s incredibly funky, has a great bassline, and some clever pitch bends. It’s also a bit of a black sheep as far as the style. But I don’t say that as a negative. Fortuna is my favorite song on the Star Fox soundtrack.

Jam of the Day: Maridia - Rocky Underground Water Area by Minako Hamano (Super Metroid Soundtrack)

Sometimes I just feel like highlighting a classic. I’ve had Super Metroid on my mind a lot recently, both from coincidental conversations with various people and because of the upcoming sequel, Other M.

Super Metroid is my favorite game of all time. The soundtrack, composed by both Minako Hamano and Kenji Yamamoto, had a very ominous tone to it. It did a great job of creating a lonely atmosphere as you explored the many cavernous regions of the planet Zebes.

Maridia was always an area that stuck out to me. I’ve always had a sense of eerie dread while playing underwater levels in games, and the theme for the rocky underground section of Maridia sent chills down my spine.