ReMix: Super Metroid 'Mega Dance Mix 2002'
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- Game: Super Metroid (Nintendo, 1994, SNES)
- ReMixer(s): MIDIman
- Composer(s): Kenji Yamamoto (I), Minako Hamano
- Song(s): 'Opening (Destroyed Science Academy Research Station)'
- Posted: 2002-03-21, evaluated by djpretzel
This story begins seven years ago, give or take a year, back when I was a freshman in high school band. Halfway through the year, a student transferred in named Chris Guirreri - French Horn player. I never really got to know him that well, but we did go on the annual band trip together (this year it was King's Dominion, I think) and he was in our room and we started talking. Turned out he was into electronic music and in particular videogame music. We talked about different artists we liked, and I remember clearly he corrected my pronunciation of "Jan Hammer". Anyway, he was telling me about how great some of the Capcom soundtracks were, particular Darkstalkers, and we actually stopped at an arcade and got to play match at one point. VERY long time ago. He graduated that year and I still had three more miserable years to go, so I never saw him again. But lo and behold, someone by the name of MIDIman started posting on our forums recently, and when he submitted this mix, the real name on the email rung a bell. Wow - certainly not THAT amazing a coincidence, but still pretty cool. Even cooler is this techno dance ReMix of the Super Metroid title music. Now, the title music is kind of . . . spartan, shall we say, so a good portion of this track is reminiscent of the melody if not clearly an arrangement. But it's close enough in my book - a lot of people still can't spot the original title theme in my Phantasy Star Alis Overture (it's greatly slowed down!), so I should be one to talk. Anyway, regardless, this is a great, professional track, with wonderfully warm and dynamic analogue textures matched with crystalline digital synth patterns, a vocoded version of the vocal sample, a daft punk-ish bass and relentless kick, and maahvelous phased pads. You want more? How bout a bitchin' retro analog synth solo at 2'40" with fantastic pitch-bending? A revealing ending that clearly shows the quality and detail of the underlying parts of the song? How bout just a great beat? You got it, compadre. Weird and wild that I crossed paths with someone so long ago that was into games, electronic music, and game music, and only through OC ReMix do I hear from them again. Viva la Internet :)
Discussion: Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the - SubNormal J3 on February 27, 2011
I was never super happy with this track quite frankly and I look back on it now and think with more of a grimace than anything else. Yes, as in the purple McDonald's monster. The mix is actually rather shallow, there's no snare, and wtf was I thinking when I topped it with a laser kick?
The melody is purely associated to the Title Theme form the game. Nothing more. I used those few notes as a foundation for melodic development, which maybe breaks all of the new rules of today's OCRemix, but back in the day I thought it was a refreshing unique addition to the collection of remixes here. IMHO, it still pays homage to the game quite well.
So does this post mean I'm making a return and will start submitting tracks? I have about four of them lined up actually, but am still not entirely pleased. I've been listening to a ton of music this past month and have a lot of new inspiration - will likely be submitting something soon!
More than anything else, just been happy to see this community thrive!
- MIDIman on February 22, 2010
Honestly though, lack of source connections aside, it's pretty good. Nothing super-special, but the voice clips were good and the whole thing wasn't as boom-tiss as I expected. Nice pads, too. Nice work, I guess :-P It makes for great background music.
- Emunator on December 12, 2009
- Rozovian on February 22, 2009
Balancewise it's pretty good, and some of the pads are sounding great, but the bell can be pretty piercing, I think it should have been toned down slightly.
I'm not super excited by the melody in this, but this is an EXCELLENT track for having in the background. If I had an elite retail boutique I would have this in my playlist and watch the sales roll in. Fantastic background music. :-)
- OA on March 7, 2008
I've tried Metroid repeatedly and failed early on (bad gamer, remember?) but this song by itself made me come to look up Metroid again, at least to read about it. This song is definitive for me as Metroid as the Bobomb field is for Mario. Great, great stuff.
- MechaFone on October 5, 2007
It's certainly not bad in any way from a sound quality perspective. This sounds awesome, and it definitely one of my favorite tracks to listen to. The connections to the original though are rather minimal, which is unfortunate in retrospect. Someone (Chris?) fill me in on whether I'm missing something.
Just based on this sound quality though, I always wanted MIDIman to hit us again with some new stuff. Now that we've met at Otakon this past summer, hopefully he'll come out with some new material like he alluded to. Good luck to him and [URL="http://www.escapepodaudio.com/"]Escape Pod Audio[/URL]!
- Liontamer on October 5, 2007
- Martin Penwald on November 14, 2005
- tacoman165 on February 8, 2005
- Onion Knight on December 31, 2004
The Trance style is good.
9/10
- schwagnah on September 14, 2004
- Deryck Khusial on September 20, 2002
