ReMix:Metroid Prime: Federation Force "Twilight Zone" 3:38

Time for some Blast Ball, as ZackParrish & Sebastian Mårtensson declared "Game on!" for their surprise Harmony of a Hunter Returns collaboration, rocking out Metroid Prime: Federation Force! Our starting lineup:

• ZackParrish - arrangement
• Sebastian Mårtensson - arrangement, guitar, script, announcer
• Alex Parrish - voice of Samus
• Sebastian Mårtensson and Tove Petersson - crowd and chants

Sebastian explained how the concept formed, as well as how he and Zack subsequently expanded this with playful sparks after they developed the core components:

"It was fun doing this track together with Zack Parrish. This, and "The Plot Thickens", were the first times Zack and I collaborated on tracks. Zack and I had the idea to surprise Darren with a track he would've never asked for. It would open with something classic Metroid and then just turn into something quite different. Zack made the groundwork on this one and I added guitars. The middle segment was left quite open for me to improvise and create something while the beginning and end had really clear visions from Zack. It wasn't until we basically had the entire track that we thought about adding the commentator, audience, and Samus. I'm so happy that we did, though. Alex Parrish did a great job at voicing Samus and I had a lot of fun doing the voice acting in the intro, being the commentator. Track was done after a quick back and forth between us. Think it turned out quite nice! :)"

If only every sports-related VGM arrangement had earnest commentary voice acting included! Right when the music truly kicks in at :41, the bassline's puttin' in some WORK filling out the background. Interesting approach in slowing this theme down, affording Zack & Sebastian the space to consistently vary up the piece's instrumentation and density, introducing intensity with the guitar at 1:08, pulling back on the percussion to focus more on orchestration at 1:36, ramping back up at 2:17 with killer axe-wielding, and even including original guitar composition on top of the source's chord progression at 2:44, eventually giving way to the crowd chanting for our hero along with Pearl Pixel (as Samus)'s frustration for the close. :-D

Zack described Sebastian as a "super-talented musician and the nicest person on the planet", so it's only fitting that these guys would be kind enough to show love to a Metroid title that *wasn't* critically acclaimed for their secret Shinesparkers track. On top of that, they did so by shining their light on arguably the catchiest theme in the entire game, so thank you for musically introducing many of us to the world of Blast Ball. :-) Cool concept and strong arrangement, Zack & Sebastian, especially for being among your first collabs together!