Welcome to GamesRadar's daily blast of all things pertaining to the ever-growing field of game music. Each post will introduce new sounds, games, composers and fan-made remixes of gaming's greatest aural achievements.
May 24, 2010
Game: Star Fox
Song: Ending theme
Composer: Hajime Hirasawa
Above: Ending theme from Star Fox
Everyone knows the Mario and Zelda themes by now. Hell they're practically part of mainstream pop culture, so easily recognizable that even someone who's barely played games in the last 10 years could pick them out. But for all their greatness, I truly feel like Star Fox has the best theme of any Nintendo game, one that sounds truly epic and deserving of a full John Williams-style movie treatment.
This particular track plays over the credits of the SNES original. It's essentially a three minute callback to the game's overarching theme, a tune you hear in the menu screen and during the level select, plus at various points throughout the missions themselves. It's one of the first pieces of game music that I felt was really striving for a cinematic feel instead of "video game music," a trait echoed in all the other songs in this first Star Fox. They sound less like Nintendo and more like Star Wars.
Case in point, this track from the Space Armada level, where you're attacking a massive invading fleet of ships. You fly above, below and even inside these hulking space craft while this intense barrage of drums beats down your throat. It's a feeling that even the superior N64 game couldn't replicate.
Above: The music has aged better than the game
It's strange how we're nearly four years into Wii's life cycle and still haven't heard a peep about a new Star Fox game, even when it's a series made popular by dogfights and air-to-ground action. Seems like motion controls could actually work in this case. Maybe we'll hear something at E3 2010?
Purple Coins and Good Egg Galaxy by Koji Kondo
His Name Was King by Luis Bacalov
Heavy shreddin' by Frykman and Strong
