Super Smash Bros. Brawl "Falling in Love, Under That Sky" 5:42

We all love beautiful things, right? Strawberries, flowers, aliens, brawling... Well, you're in luck, as Emunator leads nine fine collaborators in a genuinely stunning cover of Strawberry Flower's Pikmin commercial theme, "Ai no Uta", also from Super Smash Bros. Brawl!

• Emunator: arrangement, piano, programmed instruments, sound design, mixing
• maclaine grace: vocals (lead, harmony)
• ZackParrish: acoustic guitar (6-string), electric guitar (lead), electric bass, mastering
• Pixels & Paradiddles: acoustic guitar (12-string), drums (kit), percussion
• Shea's Violin: violin, viola, mandolin
• Gamer of the Winds: alto flute
• Chromatic Apparatus: cello
• Theophany: backing vocals

Emunator, of our esteemed judges panel, was a man of few words here, because he knew this one challenged our Submissions Standards criteria for what we consider eligible source material:

"This was made for Dwelling of Duels' October 2024 Aliens Month. Slightly revised from DoD. I'm not sure if this source is going to be kosher with OCR standards since it was created for specifically for a Pikmin commercial and was only included as a cameo in Pikmin 2 and later featured as a song representing the Pikmin franchise in the Super Smash Bros. series, so feel free to take it or leave it."

Far be it from me to declare that I can read anyone's mind, but... that boy sure *sounds* like he was bracing for a hit. :-D No big background info about the track and its creation, it's just "Welp, y'all might reject it on a technicality, ah well." Yet, to be fair, he's not wrong. We very well *could* have rejected this on a technicality. The source theme wasn't originally made for a game soundtrack; as Emu pointed out, it was originally made for Japanese commercials for the first Pikmin release in 2001 and wasn't part of the game score. Not long after, the song was only referenced for two bars sung by the Pikmin in Pikmin 2 as an Easter egg. It wasn't until 2008 that the full original song was used verbatim as a stage theme for Brawl, which is how it's come to be globally and most prominently known as VGM. That said, with OCR's founder djpretzel, we adjusted the Standards years ago to allow arranging some non-VGM tracks popularized inside video games, at our discretion. As the current majordomo of OCR, DarkeSword made the call to consider the source valid, and here we are, expanding the circle of liberty or some other high-minded phrase. :-D

The original's vocals sung by Tomoe Watanabe have more of a lullaby quality inspired by the cuteness of the quirky, alien Pikmin, whereas newcomer maclaine grace's delivery is much more like a ballad, and we on the judges panel were enchanted with this "Song of Love", led off by prophetik music:

"opens with a very Outer Wilds-esque guitar arpeggio and some beautiful live instrumentation alongside sfx. maclaine's voice is superb for this, the tone is just perfect. [...] i can't speak to the pronunciation (no pun intended) but the text sounds like it's very comfortable and the language doesn't get in the way of anything. we get some percs at 0:57, and the backing elements continue to be excellent.

there's a break at 1:20. [...] 1:48 starts the second verse, and we get back into a more simple rhythmic backing part. some drums at 2:13 kick the second chorus, suitably understated while still playing something worth listening to.

another break at 2:42 for the start of the bridge section. i appreciate the space added to this section, it really adds some contrast to the very busy verses. i also appreciate that there's a lot of time given throughout, it feels like you're adding some bars in different places with how patient it is, and i like that. vocal riff at 3:29 is great. 3:40 starts some more distinct solo sections - lead guitar tone is perfect, sounds great. 4:20 is the recap of the chorus [...] there's a ton of falling action after this chorus. [...] 5:13's got some really subtle piano lines. [...]

this is outrageous and i can't believe it's going to be available for free. the care throughout the arrangement to constantly identify individual little bits to highlight at every second is just astounding. the performances are excellent and the vision is grand and inviting. excellent work."

From fellow judge Hemophiliac, nothing but well-earned respect and admiration for a brilliant result:

"This is the cleanest piece I've heard by Emunator. Going light with bass being portrayed by cello was an excellent call, until later in the track. It really let the track evolve and grow throughout.

All of the performances are super clean, and were mixed in very well. [...]

The light airy feeling the track has [...] Maclaine sounds stellar and stylistically fits this perfectly.

This is all absolutely gorgeous."

Couldn't co-sign this any faster; maclaine's vocals are lovely, charming, and captivating. On top of that, there's loads of synergy with the instrumentation side of this, and it's so rewarding trying to isolate the different parts and hone in on their individual contributions. For Emunator, who has no shortage of impressive collabs, this is nonetheless a feather in the cap, with huge thanks to maclaine, Zack, the twins, Shea, GotW, Chrom-A & Theophany for vibrantly, impressively bringing it to life. Short and sweet, this is an amazing presentation, folks. Be sure to Pik it up, you'll love it! :-)