The featured artists range from Firaga regulars RoboRob, Flexstyle and Sare to new kids Matrace, boshii and The Icarus Kid, who take on songs from a wide range of games and systems. floopy kicks us off with a reimagining of Pokemon Red & Blue’s Lavender Town, with distorted synth and echoey minor-key atmospherics behind a dubstep template. Sonic Heroes gets the treatment on track 2, with producer T--- (shut up, spellcheck) adding thumping house beats and crash cymbals to Mystic Mansion to give us a floor-friendly banger, taking us into an unexpected arrival from Team Fortress 2. Flexstyle is on production for a bassy, militaristic take on Right Behind You.
RoboRob drops in next and sprinkles his magic on Start a Cult, from 2022’s Cult of the Lamb, and his regular synth, bass and breakbeat sound is nicely par for the course. Side A finishes with debutant The Icarus Kid taking on Breath of the Wild’s Guardian Battle. This is a pulsing house number first and foremost, all handclaps and piano with the nice addition of the Game Over music in the bridge. Ask me how I know what that sounds like.
We begin side B with – finally – a track from Doom, where series newbie Matrace has a go at At Doom’s Gate, and turns it into a Nine Inch Nails-esque bass-driven goth thumper. He’s definitely allowed back, as is BLOOD CODE, who restyles Super Mario World’s Castle Theme (of course) into a high-key breakbeat extravaganza with huge synths, skittery hi-hats and wailing electric guitar. Going back to Zelda, Last Day from Majora’s Mask sees producer Theology turn it into a spooky dubstep workout with theremin and bubbly low-end synths throughout. Returning remixer boshii heads back over to the Nintendo side and picks Darkest Night from Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse. I never played the game, but on the basis of this I’m missing out – the track builds into a thunderous breakbeat with a big bassline, crisp drums and a great melody, with a breakdown worth the price of admission alone.
The album finishes up with Sare, fresh from his own VGM Essentials album, picking up Any Last Words? from mobile RPG Genshin Impact. He sees us off with another entry in the breakbeat section, with jaunty synth and piano leading us on a bouncy trip through the original melody and a big finish.
SUMMARY
This album is a lot of fun. You can debate how much it’s Halloweeny, but overall it’s a more than worthy addition to the VGM Essentials series.
If you’ve listened before, you know what you’re getting from the returning producers, while the first-timers have also brought their A-game and turned this into a favourite of mine that I’ll play all year round, not just in the autumn.
As with all Firaga releases, you can pick this up in your choice of format through Bandcamp, the Materia Store and the usual streaming places.
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