Kirby

Game Music, Japanese

Kirby 25th Anniversary CD, DVD, Blu-ray Announced for Japan

October 17, 2017 | Shawn Sackenheim | 1 Comment Share this

Of Nintendo’s longest running franchises Kirby is one of the youngest, playing little sibling to the likes of Mario, Zelda, and Metroid who all recently celebrated thirty years. Nevertheless, Nintendo is giving the pink puff an impressive 25th anniversary package in three colorful varieties on CD, DVD, and Blu-ray. All three versions of Kirby 25th Anniversary Orchestra Concert will be released in Japan on December 20th. Here’s the rundown on what’s included.

The 2-disc CD album features a recording of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra performing ‘The Kirby 25th Anniversary Concert” from July on Disc 1. Kirby Memorial Arrange makes up the second disc and contains live performances, vocal tracks, and other arrangements of Kirby themes that weren’t featured in the concert. Also included with the colorful packaging is a Kirby 25th anniversary pin badge with the whole thing on sale for about $30.

Stepping things up is the CD+DVD bundle that includes the 2-disc album and pin badge as well as a video recording of ‘The Kirby 25th Anniversary Concert” performance. There’s also some interview footage with long-time Kirby developers to reminisce on the series anniversary. This $70 bundle comes with an interchangeable case with three designs and a classy cover box to store the CD and DVD in.

Finally, there’s the $80 CD+Blu-ray edition that includes all the same footage from the DVD in higher quality, edited with direct feed footage of the gameplay that was projected behind the orchestra during the performance. The 2-disc album, pin badge, and classy cover box are all included with a unique design on the Blu-ray disc. It’s not a massive bonus but the big deal about the Blu-ray edition is that it will only be available to order online between November 8th and the 24th. After that it’ll be paying exorbitant prices to resellers.

If the price is too steep but you love the look of this 25th anniversary artwork, check out the official anniversary site. It’s in Japanese but you don’t need to read the language to bask in the adorable artwork and the mountain of character goods piling up in Japan. If you need a little musical accompaniment while browsing, check out the recently released tribute album Kirby25: A Chiptuned Retrospective.

Any Kirby fans planning on picking up the CD, DVD or Blu-ray? How about one of those LED humidifiers?
Game Music

Arrangement of the Week: Frozen Fantasie

March 25, 2016 | Michael Hoffmann | Comments Off on Arrangement of the Week: Frozen Fantasie Share this

The Kirby series has seen its main character go on a wide variety of adventures. Outside the standard platforming titles he’s had his own pinball game, a handful of puzzle games, and even a mini-golf style game. One of my favorite deviations from the regular games is the GameCube title Kirby Air Ride, a unique racing game that featured the series characters riding around on various types of stars.

Like many of the Kirby games, the soundtrack is full of great music tracks for the various races and game events. For this week’s Arrangement of the Week, we’ll be looking at a solo piano arrangement of “Frozen Hillside” by artist jdaster64 titled “Frozen Fantasie.”

At first the arrangement is relatively calm and doesn’t feature much melodic variation from the original track. This ends up being a good thing, as it’s a clear and pleasantly light variation that sets the listener up for what’s to come. The piece soon builds a greater amount of contrast, switching quickly between sections of heavy chords across the piano’s entire pitch register to more delicate and quieter sections.

This type of variety makes the arrangement more interesting, while still keeping the original theme clear and recognizable. The decision to frequently switch between the different arrangement styles also gives the track a lighter and more playful vibe, which is a perfect match for the Kirby series. All in all, it’s a wonderful piano arrangement that effortlessly captures the spirit of its source material.

Have any favorite remixes, arrangements, or remixes of the Kirby Air Ride soundtrack? Let us know in the comments below. You can check out idaster64’s “Frozen Fantasie” on OCReMix.
Game Music

FLAT KINGDOM ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK: AVAILABLE NOW

October 22, 2015 | Ryan Paquet | Comments Off on FLAT KINGDOM ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK: AVAILABLE NOW Share this

Brave Wave Productions released the soundtrack to Flat Kingdom earlier this month on October 2, 2015. Manami Matsumae’s latest work is a refreshing take on music for an adventure platformer. Brave Wave describes the game briefly:

Flat Kingdom is a 2D platformer for Steam. In this magical place, everything is Flat as paper. But the evil masked thief recently kidnapped the princess and stole the magic jewels from the king! Now everything is turning into 3D, animals became evil, and chaos threatens to engulf the whole world. The only one capable of withstanding this madness is Flat, a little hero who can transform into a circle, triangle, or square at will. With his abilities, he must face great dangers in order to save the world!

Manami Matsumae is famously known as the composer and sound designer of the original Mega Man, making both the addictive music and the memorable sound effects back then.

BRAVE WAVE PRODUCTIONS

According to the Steam web site for the game Manami Matsumae describes how she approached the music for the game:

“I saw that the game was a very fun-looking puzzle action title with a protagonist similar to Kirby. So I thought of a theme that symbolized the cuteness of the characters while having plenty of motion. I hope everyone enjoys this game”.

Manami Matsumae

I just finished listening to the album and it’s a solid effort and at times did remind me of some Kirby game moments. The album is available at Brave Wave Productions as a digital download for $9. The game has not been released on Steam yet but it looks great, you can read more about it on the Flat Kingdom website.
Game Music

E3 2011: Nintendo’s Got Game (Booth Audio Impressions)

June 20, 2011 | Jayson Napolitano | Comments Off on E3 2011: Nintendo’s Got Game (Booth Audio Impressions) Share this

Nintendo had a lot of stuff to show off this year. In addition to a new console announcement, there were a ton of games to play and hear on both the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Wii. We spent time with many of the games to catch a peek at what we can expect to hear from these games over the next year, and have posted many of the official E3 2011 trailers on our OSVchannel for your listening pleasure as well.

The games we checked out include Super Mario, Mario Kart, and Paper Mario on the 3DS as well as Rhythm Heaven, Kirby, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword on the Wii.

Join us after the jump for a crash course through the Nintendo booth this year. (more…)
Doujin, Game Music

Bearded Stars And Fluffy Facial Hair: Kirby’s Dream Band Assembled

June 18, 2011 | Audun Sorlie | 4 Comments Share this

I know when I think of fluffy things I’d like to caress, stroke, grab, kiss, pleasure, seduce and even sometimes on a rainy Thursday, molest, I think of my cat. But some people aren’t as lucky as me to own a cute fuzzy hairball of delight because of allergies, rent policies or being heartless cat hating monsters who should have their toenails clipped with a nutcracker. But for those who seeks something squishy and loveable in life, there is always Kirby, and everyone loves Kirby. Unless they are a heartless Kirby hating monster who should have their uterus slapped with a jagged spoon, male or female.

But rest assured, Andre Beller’s uterus is safe and sound. Beller gained some attention in the early 2000’s for his classical style arrangements of video game music under the name Pingosimon, making use of bass, violin and piano before bigger acts such as Select Start rose to fame a few years later. Sadly since then, Beller has tucked away his game arrangements in his beard and focused more on the live act pirate band The Dread Crew of Oddwood, but now he is firing up his game love once more with an all new band solely dedicated to the Kirby series. Named Kirby’s Dream Band, it pits Beller on bass and focuses on the various music from the wide selection of Kirby titles released over the years with rocking arrangements. A demo release is currently being recorded, and Kirby’s Dream Band will have their debut on 19th June at the Brick By Brick in San Diego. So if you are in the area, make sure you check them out, and come on back for more info on the demo when it is available.

Check out the band at their Facebook page and announce your appearance at their event listing.
Featured, Game Music

Oh, This Is Nintendo!! LEGENDS Live Report

June 8, 2011 | Audun Sorlie | 9 Comments Share this

In many ways, this event was my favorite of the ones I have attended, it combined what I loved about Symphonic Shades with its diversity in style along the prestige and importance that Symphonic Fantasies offered. Most importantly, they dared to be a bit different and gave us exclusive takes on so many familiar songs, takes that will never fade in our memories due to being so different. It was a dream come true and a true gift to my life that I could be in attendance, one that I will always cherish and remember.

Back in September of 2010, this was my closing thoughts on Symphonic Legends, the Nintendo themed symphonic concert that took place in Cologne by the same team that has given us Symphonic Shades and Fantasies. Symphonic Legends was a musical treasure and dreamlike evening filled with some of the greatest selection of video game music, and now it was time to grace the city of Stockholm with the event just in time to celebrate the arrival of summer. But this was more than just a reprise…

Read about LEGENDS after the jump! (more…)
Featured, Game Music

Arrangers Speak Out On LEGENDS: Comments From The Staff

May 12, 2011 | Audun Sorlie | 6 Comments Share this

LEGENDS is now only a few weeks away and like the weather that is currently gracing the fine continent of Europe, things are heating up for the Nintendo based concert. Taking place in Stockholm on the 1st of June, LEGENDS will revisit the world of Nintendo’s vast music library, much like concert of 2010 before it, Symphonic Legends. However, this won’t be exactly the same concert as the German audience heard. LEGENDS will be an all new experience, showcasing all new arrangements with familiar tunes and motifs, and for the people who traveled to Cologne last year, the experience of LEGENDS will be just as exciting as it will for the all new ears in attendance.

To give the audience a bit of insight into what to expect and what goes into the process of arranging the legendary music, LEGENDS has for weeks posted updates from the arrangers Jonne Valtonen, Roger Wanamo and Masashi Hamauzu about their thoughts and feelings on the different pieces they are working on. With the final announcement posted, you can now read all the updates in English!

Read all the comments from the LEGENDS staff after the jump! (more…)