Star Fox 1 SNES music

[Dermot]

If you want to refresh on the music, play Star Fox!  Or listen to the music here on Star Fox Online, or download the SPC set, or whatever. :3

Remember to vote for the songs you like - I will be very suspicious if one user votes for all of them.  But if you do, give a very good explanation why. And remember that you should be able to change your vote at any time.

Hajime Hirasawa is the best! :D

[Guest DRL]

I should play again... Seriously

I used to turn-off the sounds, and turn

on my MP3-wannabe-player (cellphone).

I believe this is a must listen to,

so I will.

[Sol-Ratcht Saporro]

Corneria, Fortuna Boss, Slot Machine, and the most favorite for me would be the Training theme. Before I had the chance to download the gamerip tracks I couldn't enjoy it fully since I dealt with.....

STAY IN FORMATION!!!STAY IN FORMATION!!!STAY IN FORMATION!!!STAY IN FORMATION!!!STAY IN FORMATION!!!STAY IN FORMATION!!!STAY IN FORMATION!!!STAY IN FORMATION!!!STAY IN FORMATION!!!STAY IN FORMATION!!!STAY IN FORMATION!!!

[Dublinthefox]

Title screen, map, Corneria, and space armada.

[Guest Para Astaroth]

EVERYTHING

Because I'm cool that way!

[Robert Monroe]

Most of them are good, so I moreso made my choices on the ones I find myself memorizing the most as opposed to "situational" music.

-Title Screen (loud, brash, triumphant)

-Map Screen (its the Starfox theme, whats not to like? very orchestral as well)

-Corneria (arguably the best known song from the SNES game)

-Space Armada (my most favorite of the selection)

-Venom Base 1 and 3 (to me, this song captures the feeling of the surface of Venom better than any other Venom song in the series)

-Venom Base 2 (high-octane, with a great drumline)

-Sector X/Z (very spaceish and epic in sound)

-Sector Y (my second favorite selection. mysterious and eerie)

-Andross (the opening cutscene theme comes back with even more badassery)

-Boss Roll (Another great scifi sounding theme with a good militaryesque beat to it)

-Credits (perfect credits music, sounds like the ending theme of a scifi epic, ala the Star Wars credits)

There's other songs I like, but they didn't get votes because they're too situational (boss music in general), or generally unmemorable (most of the planet songs).

And there's some I just dislike entirely (Fortuna).

[Dermot]

EVERYTHING

Because I'm cool that way!

You'll have to be more specific than because you're cool that way. :P

[Robert Monroe]

... looking at my votes again.

I realize they all have aa single theme in common (except for Corneria durrhurr). They're all very "spacey" sounding compositions, or otherwise play on a spaceish level.

SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE.

[Dermot]

The space levels use orchestra.

The planet levels use rock, metal and jazz.  I mostly like those.

Fortuna is one of my favorite tunes in the entire game.

I like some kinds of orchestra music, but I don't really like all-orchestra-only Star Fox soundtracks.

[Robert Monroe]

The space levels use orchestra.

The planet levels use rock, metal and jazz.  I mostly like those.

Fortuna is one of my favorite tunes in the entire game.

I like some kinds of orchestra music, but I don't really like all-orchestra-only Star Fox soundtracks.

I always found Fortuna to be out of place as far as music goes. All the other planets, while not "spacey" and orchestral, still had an audible similarity to the space songs. Fortuna just sort of comes out of nowhere with its.... whatever the heck its supposed to be.

Out of all the planet songs (discounting Corneria and Venom), I'd say my favorite is probably Meteor.

[CrypticQuery]

I honestly do like all of them.  They all are amazing songs, composed by one of the greatest composers EVER! They all sound great, they can stand-alone, and the classic 16-bit style NEVER gets old!

My favorite is DEFINITELY Corneria though :D

[Mr. Foxer]

Corneria.

/thread

[Guest FoXXX]

Corneria, Venombase3, they're a few other I'll list later

[Dermot]

I always found Fortuna to be out of place as far as music goes. All the other planets, while not "spacey" and orchestral, still had an audible similarity to the space songs. Fortuna just sort of comes out of nowhere with its.... whatever the heck its supposed to be.

Out of all the planet songs (discounting Corneria and Venom), I'd say my favorite is probably Meteor.

If I had to pin Fortuna's music to a genre, I'd probably say funk or fusion jazz+funk. :3 I love jazz+funk...especially in Breath of Fire III's soundtrack.

I made an arrangement of Fortuna years ago. :3

Anyway, I don't think of "spacey" as a "sound", really.  I actually think better space opera is something that isn't trying to look or sound like cliche sci-fi, if that makes sense.  It's better just to focus on making it awesome, even if that involves some unconventional approaches.  Star Fox 1 had a lot of this zesty creativity in terms of music.

[Robert Monroe]

If I had to pin Fortuna's music to a genre, I'd probably say funk or fusion jazz+funk. :3 I love jazz+funk...especially in Breath of Fire III's soundtrack.

I made an arrangement of Fortuna years ago. :3

Anyway, I don't think of "spacey" as a "sound", really.  I actually think better space opera is something that isn't trying to look or sound like cliche sci-fi, if that makes sense.  It's better just to focus on making it awesome, even if that involves some unconventional approaches.  Star Fox 1 had a lot of this zesty creativity in terms of music.

Creativity is great, and that is a strong point of SNES Starfox, but cliche scifi is never a bad thing, especially when you have fun with it, which Starfox has always done. As for "spacey" being a sound, I really don't know a better way to word it. I mean, we have "pirate" music and "cowboy" music, so why not "space" music too?

[Showtime 1-1]

The slot machine track makes me laugh. Every time.

[Dermot]

Creativity is great, and that is a strong point of SNES Starfox, but cliche scifi is never a bad thing, especially when you have fun with it, which Starfox has always done. As for "spacey" being a sound, I really don't know a better way to word it. I mean, we have "pirate" music and "cowboy" music, so why not "space" music too?

You still lost me with the "spacey" thing - I wouldn't know what you mean.  And I've never really been a fan of piled on cliche sci-fi.  If it's piled on thick, it's very Narm.  I never felt too much of that when playing Star Fox - it was cute.  But I felt the Narm in uncomfortably heavy doses with Star Fox 64 in many ways, and the music was one of them.

To be honest, Star Fox 64's music feels like...a flat carbonated drink.  No zest, no bite.  No...sense of satisfaction to it.  Star Fox SNES music has pep, perk, zest, bounce, funk, rhythm, beat, muscle, color on the planets, but in deep space it feels more feathery, impassioned, bold, spiritual, emotional, maybe a little dangerous, and always always interesting.  I could see that in some places Star Fox 64 music tried to do this, but it ended up feeling...............bland...beige...put me to sleep; I kept wondering when the music was going to come alive one way or the other, and it never did.  The only music track from Star Fox 64 that remotely grabs my interest is the pre-mission prep music as each stage begins (like when the Great Fox is clearing away asteroids in Meteo).

In fact, the comparison between the music of Breath of Fire III and Breath of Fire IV comes to mind - the former was mostly jazz+funk and it carried a large part of the game for me, but the latter was mostly generic orchestra music which felt...like all the wind had been knocked out of it, except for a few exceptional interesting tracks.

I feel similarly about F-Zero and F-Zero X - the former focused more on the jazz, while F-Zero X had more of a generic heavy metal feel to it, one that I wasn't all that fond of.  But later F-Zero Maximum Velocity came to a really good balance of both jazz and metal, which I felt really suited it.

I'm a lifelong musician, classically-trained, and with near-perfect pitch and with an occasionally phonographic memory (depends on how interesting the music is).  And in my 30 years of life, I've developed very nuanced musical tastes.  I even have a list of favorite composers.  Hajime Hirasawa (SNES) is near the top of the list, along with Masashi Hamauzu, Akari Kaida, Yasunori Mitsuda, Michiko Naruke, Yoko Shimomura, and...Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin.  Hajime Wakai (N64) always struck me as incredibly bland (sort of like my opinion of the classical composers Hector Berlioz and Felix Mendelssohn - their music is so boring that I can't remember any of it afterward).  Koji Kondo (SNES sound effects, N64 some of the music) straddles the middle - sometimes he's really good (Mario, Zelda, etc.), and other times he either doesn't hold my interest or his contribution feels somehow misaimed (as in Star Fox 64).  Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu are sort of "mainstream" game music composers - everyone knows and recognizes their music, and sometimes it's good, and sometimes it leaves a little something to be desired, similar to classical composer Ludwig van Beethoven; in this sense, the music can be valued, but it rarely ever surprises.

Well, that's all I can think to add for now. :3

[Dermot]

The slot machine track makes me laugh. Every time.

It's a medley of three songs. :3 Two of them are Christian hymns (I can't remember the former, but the latter is "When the Saints Go Marching In"), and the third is actually an esoterically famous practice song from the Shin'ichi Suzuki method for learning the violin. :3

And I made an arrangement of it too. :3

[Vy'drach]

I voted for all the boss and level music, as well as the title screen.

Though Corneria and Macbeth are my favourites.

[Dermot]

I voted for all the boss and level music, as well as the title screen.

Though Corneria and Macbeth are my favourites.

That's fair. :3 It had a lot of good music.

[Robert Monroe]

You still lost me with the "spacey" thing - I wouldn't know what you mean.  And I've never really been a fan of piled on cliche sci-fi.  If it's piled on thick, it's very Narm.  I never felt too much of that when playing Star Fox - it was cute.  But I felt the Narm in uncomfortably heavy doses with Star Fox 64 in many ways, and the music was one of them.

To be honest, Star Fox 64's music feels like...a flat carbonated drink.  No zest, no bite.  No...sense of satisfaction to it.  Star Fox SNES music has pep, perk, zest, bounce, funk, rhythm, beat, muscle, color on the planets, but in deep space it feels more feathery, impassioned, bold, spiritual, emotional, maybe a little dangerous, and always always interesting.  I could see that in some places Star Fox 64 music tried to do this, but it ended up feeling...............bland...beige...put me to sleep; I kept wondering when the music was going to come alive one way or the other, and it never did.  The only music track from Star Fox 64 that remotely grabs my interest is the pre-mission prep music as each stage begins (like when the Great Fox is clearing away asteroids in Meteo).

In fact, the comparison between the music of Breath of Fire III and Breath of Fire IV comes to mind - the former was mostly jazz+funk and it carried a large part of the game for me, but the latter was mostly generic orchestra music which felt...like all the wind had been knocked out of it, except for a few exceptional interesting tracks.

I feel similarly about F-Zero and F-Zero X - the former focused more on the jazz, while F-Zero X had more of a generic heavy metal feel to it, one that I wasn't all that fond of.  But later F-Zero Maximum Velocity came to a really good balance of both jazz and metal, which I felt really suited it.

I'm a lifelong musician, classically-trained, and with near-perfect pitch and with an occasionally phonographic memory (depends on how interesting the music is).  And in my 30 years of life, I've developed very nuanced musical tastes.  I even have a list of favorite composers.  Hajime Hirasawa (SNES) is near the top of the list, along with Masashi Hamauzu, Akari Kaida, Yasunori Mitsuda, Michiko Naruke, Yoko Shimomura, and...Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin.  Hajime Wakai (N64) always struck me as incredibly bland (sort of like my opinion of the classical composers Hector Berlioz and Felix Mendelssohn - their music is so boring that I can't remember any of it afterward).  Koji Kondo (SNES sound effects, N64 some of the music) straddles the middle - sometimes he's really good (Mario, Zelda, etc.), and other times he either doesn't hold my interest or his contribution feels somehow misaimed (as in Star Fox 64).  Koji Kondo and Nobuo Uematsu are sort of "mainstream" game music composers - everyone knows and recognizes their music, and sometimes it's good, and sometimes it leaves a little something to be desired, similar to classical composer Ludwig van Beethoven; in this sense, the music can be valued, but it rarely ever surprises.

Well, that's all I can think to add for now. :3

Holy walls of text, Batman.

Anyway, one man's narm is another man's charm. I have always been a fan of scifi cliches, ever since I was a kid. I grew up on Star Wars and Star Trek, Robotech, Gundam, Stargate, and plenty of other throwaway things I caught on SciFi every now and then. Never really saw the "cute" in Starfox, in fact, going back to the Last Starfighter, thats sort of the feeling -I- got, an epic tale of vagbonds in starfighters fighting the evil empire that threatens to invade all of free space. As Falco says in the SNES comic, "lasers, explosions, and lots of loot!". Between shooting down Star Destroyer expies and fighting the borderline Flash Gordon-esque psychic powers of Andross, alien inhabitants of planets that ranged from desert-dwelling cousins of Octoroks with 4 arms to two-headed fire breathing chicken-lizards, black holes that are more like worm holes, and of course sound in space, Starfox is a conglomorate of deliciously wonderful scifi tropes franchise.

I will admit that Starfox 64's music is typically more bland than the SNES game, paticularly the opening mission motifs which are often dull military-esque beats, but there are some winners. Starwolf is one, Zoness, while not "engaging", is memorable to me as well. Sector X and Area 6 are others, Sector X for its suspenseful sounds, and Area 6 for the "brassy space battle" feel.

Itss off-topic, but yeah, F-Zero did have better music variety than F-Zero X. Then again, that's why I love GX the most, because there's so many different musical tastes in that game it can make a man's head spin.

I sort of assumed you were -something- in the musical industry, your knowledge of musical terms and such is vast, though I must say I never did care for Chopin much Though I'm going to geuss you meant "romantic" rather than "classical". And I do agree than sometimes Kondo and Uemetsu are hit and miss on their compositions, though I wouldn't make the comparison to Beethoven. I find all of Beethoven's works to be very emotional and each with their own surprises, one not quite being like the other. He's just so damn ingrained into popular culture its easy to be desensitized to him.

Then again, my favorite composers are Brahms, Rochmaninoff, and Barber, so pffffft.

[Dermot]

I'm not a professional musician.  Purely amateur.  But with all the proper classical training.  (And yes, I know Chopin is romantic era, but classical tends to be a broad catch-phrase for just about everything older than Rachmaninoff.)  Music is very instinctive to me, and it's personal in such a way that I can't really do music for other people as an on-demand labor.  It either has to come from me and my inner will, or it doesn't get done at all.  This isn't exactly conducive to a professional industry.

Anyway, I tend to be mostly forgiving of cliches easily attributable to The Coconut Effect - something people come to expect (such as Space Is Noisy, Two-D Space, certain kinds of Fridge Logic, etc.).  These aren't really piled on heavily, since they tend to be taken for granted by creators and audiences alike despite their unrealism, and Tropes Are Not Bad when used in creative license.  But there is at times a line that can be crossed, where something can no longer be taken seriously or enjoyably, and this is usually a Discredited Trope, a Dead Horse Trope or an Undead Horse Trope.  Or, yes, sometimes one person's Narm without another person's Narm Charm.

I winced badly when I first saw and heard "Jeez la-weez!" :lol:

[Robert Monroe]

I'm not a professional musician.  Purely amateur.  But with all the proper classical training.  (And yes, I know Chopin is romantic era, but classical tends to be a broad catch-phrase for just about everything older than Rachmaninoff.)  Music is very instinctive to me, and it's personal in such a way that I can't really do music for other people as an on-demand labor.  It either has to come from me and my inner will, or it doesn't get done at all.  This isn't exactly conducive to a professional industry.

Anyway, I tend to be mostly forgiving of cliches easily attributable to The Coconut Effect - something people come to expect (such as Space Is Noisy, Two-D Space, certain kinds of Fridge Logic, etc.).  These aren't really piled on heavily, since they tend to be taken for granted by creators and audiences alike despite their unrealism, and Tropes Are Not Bad when used in creative license.  But there is at times a line that can be crossed, where something can no longer be taken seriously or enjoyably, and this is usually a Discredited Trope, a Dead Horse Trope or an Undead Horse Trope.  Or, yes, sometimes one person's Narm without another person's Narm Charm.

I winced badly when I first saw and heard "Jeez la-weez!"

Never said you were professional. Just that I thought you had some musical sense about you.

Anyway, as long as cliches and tropes used aren't related to bad storytelling (eg what happend with Starfox Command), I pretty much am fine with them. Its a game about talking animals in spaceships, for crying out loud, one that has an affinity for playing with cliches. Yes, some are discredited or dead, but its not like they play them seriously or straight.

A little mantra goes a long way.

[Dermot]

Never said you were professional. Just that I thought you had some musical sense about you.

Anyway, as long as cliches and tropes used aren't related to bad storytelling (eg what happend with Starfox Command), I pretty much am fine with them. Its a game about talking animals in spaceships, for crying out loud, one that has an affinity for playing with cliches. Yes, some are discredited or dead, but its not like they play them seriously or straight.

A little mantra goes a long way.

Except I don't stuff talking animals into the Animation Age Ghetto. :3 I can take it seriously as a genre. :3

[Robert Monroe]

Except I don't stuff talking animals into the Animation Age Ghetto. :3 I can take it seriously as a genre. :3

I can take it seriously too. Just not when the writing is on key with saturday morning cartoons (eating through the space armada like a doughnut in a fat farm!).