Here's something different for this Sunday! As the latest entry for Nintendo's Super Smash Bros. franchise is already out in Japan since last week, many people already managed to go through the game and access the full BGM listing for the Music Play mode. This time around, since many Taiko-related composers have lent their hand in order to forge this portable entry's soundtrack, it sounds quite right to dedicate a blog entry about their arrangements in the game!
But before beginning, SPOILER ALERT! Some of the Play Music songs shown below may either come from unlockable stages or include a silouhette of one of the secret fighters, so venture ahead if you are not afraid of visual spoilers from this game.
Our journey begins with a resident Namco composer I failed to mention last time for the previous composer reveal blog entry. Jesahm of Donkey Konga and Taiko fame comes to town with an arrangement of Super Mario 3D Land's 'Beach-styled' variation of the game's main theme, appropriately named Main Theme / Beach Theme.
With Torine being featured on the next Taiko Team livestream, her Smash Bros. works are next! Aside from the main music for the Final Destination stage, Torine also made the tracks that are played at the end of a successful Classic Mode play and during the End Credits.
Up next we have Ridge Racer and Idolm@ster composer Ryo Watanabe, notable on Taiko for MUSIC♪. For the latest Mario Kart-inspired track, he made a song medley about Rainbow Road, the Mario Kart series' final and most known circuit series.
When it comes to the most active musician among the Namco-sent composers, Rio Hamamoto easily takes the cake with six different BGM tracks, ranging from other Classic Mode BGMs to the Target Smash mode theme and selective stage music.
On this front, Rio Hamamoto made two custom arrangements for the Legend of Zelda series (the Underworld main theme from A Link To The Past and the Gerudo Valley from Ocarina of Time) and that kick-ass Mega Man 2 Medley that introduced the Blue Bomber to the Smash Bros. universe since its character reveal video!
From MONACA no Okabedesu member Keiichi Okabe, we have yet another arrangement from A Link To the Past, reguarding the Dark World BGM.
Now it's time to the closest composers to the Taiko no Tatsujin franchise! From Yano Yoshito, we only get a custom medley from Balloon Fight for a certain 3DS-exclusive stage...
As Namco itself has in Pac-Man its major reference on Smash, it makes perfectly sense to have Namco composers behind some of their songs, isn't it? For this cause, Masubutchi Yuuji steps in with an arrangement from two popular Pac-Mania BGMs. Some of this medley's vibes can be vaguely similar so something exquisitely Taiko-related...
Newcomer Taiko musician Yoshinori Hirai also has his share of works for this portable fighting games, despite the fact that his tracks are only for certain menu screens in the game...
And so we come to the Namco in-house grand-daddy of Taiko boss songs! Linda AI-CUE is the man behind Classic Mode's themes for Smash Bros. games recurrent enemy Master Hand and its secret form being introduced with this title:the Master Core. While the vibes from the game's main theme can be clearly heard for these two boss themes, his musical influence from his Taiko no Tatsujin songs is aggressively here as well.
This is particularly true for the Master Core Theme, where in the middle of the song it's possible to hear a morse code in the style of several 2000 songs, spelling out no other message than 'Master Core'. Neat, isn't it?
This concludes our trip among the more Taiko-related composers, but I feel necessary to throw in a couple of honorable mentions from artists that have contributed to our drumming franchise in indirect ways!
First up we have Kenji Ito, GungHo's in-house composer who, among his other works, single-handedly made the whole soundtrack for the Android/i-device hit game Puzzle & Dragons. For Smash Bros, Ito comes up with a remix of Mute City's theme from the first SNES title of the F-ZERO franchise.
Lastly, we have Shohei Tsuchiya from ZUNTATA, the main in-house composer (together with COSIO) of rhythm game series Groove Coaster. His arranges for the game touch both old and new Nintendo games, with a medley for the (once) Japan-exclusive Famicom Disk game The Mysterious Murasame Castle and an arrangement for Kapp'n's song from the latest Animal Crossing title for 3DS (New Leaf).
With that, that's really all, for now. See you around the time of the Wii U Smash Bros. title's release!
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As a side note for today's entry, the Song of the Week feature of Gashadokuro has been brought back to its former glory. Enjoy some facts about Kimidori's only new Don Points-unlock song!
