P-Vock's Music Box: FAST
Hello and welcome back to P-Vock's Music Box. Sometimes, life feels like it is just going too slowly. I've been feeling that lately. I think some high-octane fun would do me quite well.
I'm feeling a craving, a desire, a carnal impulse.
I'm feeling a need. A need for speed.
No, I'm not gonna talk about Need for Speed. Why talk about that nonsense when I could discuss a GOOD racing series?
To honour that carnal desire for a rapid release, let's take a look at a series almost everyone recognizes, that almost no one has actually played.
Much like Mother, Xenoblade, and Fire Emblem, F-Zero is a series that may very well have been long forgotten by most people were it not for the representation it has in Super Smash Bros. Captain Falcon is not only an iconic character, but this RACING GAME PROTAGONIST is the man behind arguably the most famous fighting game of all time in the beyond satisfying Falcon Punch. Yet, despite this, almost no one it seems has played any of his games.
Why is that? Are the games bad? Are they boring? Are they just bland?
A big no to all of that. F-Zero is an incredible series. Every game is filled with high-speed antics, bonkers stories, and amazing music. Bout time we have a listen.
Decades after I first experienced Mute City, the music still pumps me up. The constant beat acts like a countdown with beats behind it that make you feel a need to lean forward with excitement, before the gates open and it just doesn't stop. Much like an actual race in the series, Mute City just doesn't quit. It bombards you with notes and ideas and never wavers for even a second.
This is definitely the most iconic tune from the F-Zero series, and for good reason. It's both a perfect introduction to the game as it plays on the first track available and just an incredible theme in its own right. I don't know if you could ever top it...
With how synonymous the series is with Smash, I had to include at least one Smash remix in this blog. You've had the introduction. You've had time to warm up. Now, it's time to go.
Big Blue does everything Mute City did before it, while also delivering an unforgettable melody that I swear just keeps growing more and more intense as it goes on and on. There are like, four different melodies in this one track that I can find myself humming along to at any given time. Add to that the perfect level of crunchy compression from the Gamecube sound font, and you have a recipe for a tune I can never tire of.
While I love Big Blue's Smash remix, I think it could use more guitar. For a franchise that's just an 80s action hero bounty hunter in a high-speed death race (everything I just said is actually true, FYI), it doesn't have much in the way of music that feels like an 80s action romp. In comes Dream Chaser to chase away that nonsense. Yet another tune that just oozes SPEED.
Even the name just feels like an absolutely gloriously 80s creation, which is ironic since the series began in the 90s...
Between limited prints of games on consoles no one owns, a lack of caring from the IP's owner, and being a niche idea of a super difficult racing game, F-Zero will probably never reach mainstream appeal. But I don't care as I still absolutely cherish the series all the same. It's wild and wacky and extremely satisfying when you finally nail a race that's been giving you grief all day.
I hope your weekend is as bat-shit insane (in a good way) as F-Zero is. Thank you so much, as always, for checking out my content and I hope to catch you next time with another suggestion from my Music Box.
Stay Brutal!
PS. I love Mute City too damn much to not throw in a nice little cover that always pumps me up.