ReMix: Metroid Prime 3: Corruption 'Yellow Valkyrie'

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If for some likely inexcusable reason you don't know Shariq Ansari, he's the excellent fellow who brought OCR our first Metroid Prime mix, our first Wii mix, recently returned to the judges panel, had a formidable stint as forum Super Moderator, and basically represents an army of contributions to the site and game music at large. Today's his 24th birthday, which is amazing to me since it seems like he's been with us for so long, and been sending in amazing mixes for just as long, but there it is. DarkeSword's ReMixed Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2, so like the game itself, this mix (his 20th!) brings an amazing trilogy to a close. The ReMixer/Judge/Birthday Boy writes:

"I was a little disappointed with the soundtrack for the final chapter of the Metroid Prime saga. There was a very apparent inclination towards a more cinematic, orchestral sound that I felt took away from the feel of the game; the cool electronic music of the first two Prime games was always one of the main draws for me. Nevertheless, Metroid Prime 3's soundtrack was very good, and I felt the need to pay tribute to it, as I have done for the previous games in the series. Think of this as completing the trilogy."

Speaking of the trilogy, embarassing as it is, I still need to go back and finish... the first game. Yes, I know: lame. However, running this site and developing it and also trying to create my own mixes definitely has an impact on my gaming, and right now I'm still plowing through Super Mario Galaxy, which most of you beat with 120 stars hours after it was released. Think of it this way: I get to enjoy these great games for WAY longer than you due to my limited time and, admittedly in some cases, lack of mad skillz. But I digress: Shariq's been doing all his work to date, this piece included, on very dated machines (we're talking AMD K6 2, here), which is certainly impressive, but I was glad to hear he was looking to upgrade with some birthday fundage. Frankly, it's scary: if this is what he can do with a computer that's slower than PCs I have in my basement gathering dust, I can't wait to hear what Dual-Core Ansari sounds like. Not that increased CPU power is a guarantor of compositional or production improvement, but it should at least improve workflow.

This is a slick piece that plays with time but sounds mostly 6/8ish to me, featuring introductory piano and harpsichord-ish timbres but later segueing into more synthetic textures, as drums come in and a monoglide synth lead covers most of the melody. There's something of a Celtic vibe, at first just due to the time signature, but later at 2'31" there's an almost Last of the Mohicans breakdown that rocks. Gated synths also play a big role, and the anchor on the whole thing is the rising and falling bass, that sounds like a modified upright-style sample. Choral bits and bells end things in true Ansari style, and on the whole - even if Shariq wasn't as keen on the third title's soundtrack - this ReMix is every bit as good as his first arrangements from the series. The blending of ambient, electronic, orchestral, and Celtic elements works amazingly well, and the piece should please both fans of the mixer and fans of the series. Awesome work, and here's wishing a Happy Birthday to the ever-improving, consistently impressive, and genuinely affable DarkeSword.

― djpretzel