Tribute to an OST: Super Smash Bros. Brawl

On 09/26/2013 at 11:13 AM by The Last Ninja

ost cover

Brawl is perhaps one of the most amazing soundtracks in all of video game history. If you are unaware of this, let me explain: Brawl's ost is a mass collection of great Nintendo themes composed by many legendary game composers. There are over 300 songs and more than 30 artists that contributed, including Nobou Uematsu (Final Fantasy), Yoko Shimomura (Kingdom Hearts), Yuzo Koshiro (Etrian Odyssey series), Kenji Yamamoto (Metroid series), Yasunori Mitsuda (Chrono Trigger, Xenogears), Noriyuki Iwadare (Grandia series), Motoi Sakuraba (Tales series), and many others! These composers were asked to choose their favorite Nintendo themes and make their own arrangements. The results are incredible!

I love the SSB games; I've played them all upon their subsequent releases, and I must say that Brawl is my favorite. I understand that Melee is a better game, but Brawl gives you more, and for that it's my favorite in the series. One of those areas is the music: Brawl must have the largest video game soundtrack ever! I've posted here some of my favorite songs from the game and who arranged that particular track. There is no need for comment on each one; the music and composer speaks for itself. We may never see such a huge collaboration of so many VG composers again. Sakurai himself stated, "To have so many of these individuals providing music for a single project may very well be an historic event in the history of video game music!"

Stickerbrush Symphony from Donkey Kong Country 2/Arranged by Michiko Naruke

Yoshi's Island/Arranged by Noriyuki Iwadare

Star Fox Main Theme/Arranged by Seiji Momoi

Ocarina of Time Medley/Arranged by Michiko Naruke

Route 209 from Pokemon Diamond/Arranged by Shogo Sakai

King Dedede's Theme from Kirby series/Arranged by Yoko Shimomura

Mute City from F-Zero/Arranged by Yasufumi Fukuda

World Map from Pikmin 2/Arranged by Yasunori Mitsuda

Theme of Love from Metal Gear Solid 4/Arranged by Akihiro Honda

Stack-Up/Robot Block Medley from ROB games/Arranged by Kenichi Okuma

Master Hand Battle from SSBB/Composed by ?

Matt Snee Staff Writer

09/26/2013 at 06:42 PM

I like Brawl the best too.

The Last Ninja

09/26/2013 at 11:50 PM

I think the music and characters elevate it to #1, even though the combat isn't quite as solid as Melee.

Cary Woodham

09/26/2013 at 07:12 PM

Yes, Brawl had some great arrangements and a lot of famous guest game composers contributed.

09/26/2013 at 11:51 PM

I believe there were 36 composers in all. Now when was the last time 36 game composers contributed to one ost? That's definitely a record!

Coolsetzer

09/27/2013 at 03:11 PM

Hell yes. I listen to the OST on my ipod all the time.

Alex-C25

09/27/2013 at 06:16 PM

Great blog. I also love Brawl and it took a while, but now I consider its soundtrack to be magnificent, both on the remixes and the originals included in the game. I love the remixes of F-Zero, Theme of Love and the original music (aka, not found in any other Nintendo game).

09/28/2013 at 12:58 AM

There is music for everyone from the Brawl ost; there's so much music that it covers every kind of genre. Plenty of awesome to go around. The plethora of songs that are variations of the main theme for Brawl are done very well; I especially love the Master Hand theme.

daftman

09/29/2013 at 07:43 AM

Hehe...you're doing a tribute to a soundtrack that's a tribute to Nintendo's history. There's probably never been so much talent on display in one game. Can you imagine how many CDs it would take to hold the entire soundtrack?

09/29/2013 at 09:54 AM

The weird thing is, I don't think an official soundtrack exists. I looked for it, and I couldn't find it. Of course, the ost is downloadable on many sites, but how cool would it be to own the official collection, which I'm guessing would be atleast 10 CDs?

09/29/2013 at 01:19 PM

The rights and royalties would probably be too confusing to work through. I mean, that's a lot of people and properties to keep straight!

PixlBit