Music of the Week #606

Moving right along.

I actually did manage to write some thoughts down for Super Mario Brothers but haven’t finalized it yet. I made the mistake of not organizing said thoughts too well but it’s better than nothing. Hopefully I can find the time to get through it soon, if not, it’s definitely coming out in June or something.

Merlee’s Mansion definitely took a step towards an interesting level design because it’s not so much a traditional dungeon than it is an actual dungeon. The set-up is that you break some property belonging to the mansion and have to pay Mimi back in rubies. You start toiling in the ruby mines and working for a living until you pay back the worth of the vase you broke. Of course, the speed in which you make rubies is wholly inefficient and the game tries to trick you into thinking by elevating your workstation, you can pay off you debt faster. Clearly, you’re not expected to actually pay back the debt earnestly and you have to find your way through the mansion to cheat the system. It was a very novel and hilarious idea that I really liked the first time through.

Music of the Week #605

Near future prospects.

I have the Summer anime catalog lined up and I find at least 1 or 2 things I might be interested in, mostly on the category of “wow this got a season 2 now?” deal. They’re not worth covering week to week but it’ll at least be something to watch and keep in mind on a weekly basis.

Gloam Valley is our 2nd zone in Super Paper Mario and its step up from the mountainous-desert region from the 1st zone. I also like the music a lot more and the perpetual twilight going on with its orange sky. It’s also a very memorable chapter overall but for reasons much later in the chapter.

Music of the Week #604

Yup, still nothing.

I still really want to talk about Super Mario but damn is finding free time really difficult right now. Especially focusing on something during my small amounts of free time because I usually just scatter everywhere to try and get some mild entertainment before being pulled back into busy mode. I imagine everyone has heard every opinion about the movie at this point though, it’s certainly not THAT complex to the point of deserving deep analysis but it’s also certainly worth talking about as it stands as probably the best video-game adapted movie so far.

And to match such high praise, it’s time for my favorite track in Super Paper Mario. Like with the games before it, every chapter’s conclusion has an intermission that shows what the villains are planning up to next. But in Super Paper Mario, one of the other intermissions that accompanied the villains meeting was a vague set of dialogue between two characters. We only see text but accompanying said text was this track. Each subsequent chapter end would feature this intermission of dialogue between these two characters, with the track gaining more elements to it as the stories revealed who these two characters were.

Music of the Week #603

Another week passes by so soon.

Last week I was considering in catching up to BNHA and this week I’ve become intent to make a playlist of all the classical music I’ve come to recognize by hearing but never had the same for. I’ve been listening to Gymnopédie No.1 for at least 3 days now.

Much like in Paper Mario 1, we get some chapter intermissions at Count Bleck’s castle where a number of the survivors from the wedding scene in the prologue try and escape. Count Bleck’s Castle is certainly no Peach’s Castle nor is it like the X-Naut base as it’s barely explorable but its tall rooms does give an atmosphere of a very empty and foreboding castle.

Music of the Week #602

There’s another week with me having nothing substantial to say.

I really should get started on writing that Super Mario Bros thoughts write-up but I have been occupied with writing something else so my apologies for being so behind. The movie itself still seems to be in the talks so I wouldn’t be missing any trains from a delayed response to it I suppose. I am feeling the urge to go back and watch the 2-3 seasons of Hero Academy now that I’ve reminded my ears to some of its more memorable tracks. My interest had waned after the Overhaul arc and I have utterly no idea what happens after.

It wouldn’t be a Paper Mario game without a cut to what the villains are doing at the end of each chapter. Count Bleck’s minions are uniquely their own individual characters as in, it’s like 5 different flavors of Lord Crump with varying degrees of competence. Knowing that they’re always going to be trying to interfere with your journey while not being the the final boss of the chapter, usually, was a pretty entertaining prospect to look forward to.

Music of the Week #601

Still busy.

Days are going by quicker due to having a lot of work and time seems shorter. I really do want to write something big down for Super Mario Brothers though, especially since I watched it again with more friends and might happen for a third time. It’s not phenomenal but it’s still miles ahead of other videogame adaptations. We’re not even going to mention those fucking Netflix “”””adaptations”””” either. I vaguely recall wanting to discuss another topic but cannot for the life of me remember. Maybe next time.

A Zelda game had something similar to this and this is what I call the “post-boss fight room” theme. Soft Light is one of my favorite tracks from Super Paper Mario. It’s triumphant but also has bits of reprieve from all the pomp and glory. While Crystal Stars all contained powerful abilities to use in combat, Pure Hearts are a lot more ephemeral in their power in a gameplay standpoint. Their significance in powers, aside from unlocking the next world to explore, come to play a lot later.

Music of the Week #600

Busy as a bee

Haven’t really done anything game or anime related the past week but I did have the chance to fittingly go see the Super Mario Bros. Movie. As someone who didn’t have any expectations at all and only went in with knowing who the voice talent was, I have to say that the movie was very enjoyable for someone my age. While not every joke landed, a majority of them did and I enjoyed the oodles of callbacks and musical motifs throughout the film. In fact, I might just write a bigger post about it when I get the chance.

This week’s theme is the first proper boss fight of Super Paper Mario and it honestly harkens back to Hooktail a lot from Thousand Year Door, hell, it has nearly the same naming sense too. Fracktail however is a benevolent guardian of the Pure Heart but he is turned into an enemy after meddlesome hacking fries his programming. He makes use of the whole 3D/2D plane mechanic in the game but only shows the limited extent of the power that can be applied in a platformer style game. Of course, with how much moving parts are part of this boss, we’d see a stronger variant of him much later in the game in an optional area.