P-Vock's Music Box: Get Smashed
Hello and welcome back to P-Vock's Music Box. You ever want to hit someone? Maybe that friend who's making you mad? That coworker who won't back off? That Karen in the grocery store?
Probably not a good idea to walk up and slug them, but thankfully, there's always a good out.
If you're looking to let off steam, Smashing is always a good way to do so.
Super Smash Bros is one of the most iconic franchises in media. Largely because it simply takes so many iconic IPs and mashes tons of beloved (and not so beloved in the case of Byleth and Terry) together and lets them duke it out with tons of fanservice and some obnoxiously fun attacks.
It also has some dope tunes.
You'd think that a series based on bringing together other IPs wouldn't have much of its own lovely music, but Smash isn't any other series. When you first turn on the N64 original, you're greeted with an absolutely brilliant opening movie with incredible music. What starts out as whimsical and fun gets real intense in basically no time flat. Mixing in the iconic and delightfully crunchy sound effects and just enough slight allusions to the franchises represented creates an intro that is almost unskippable and nearly perfect.
Man, imagine if they made a perfect intro.
While I don't think it is the flawless masterpiece some people have been claiming for 20+ years, it's hard for me to think of a better sequel in all of media than Super Smash Bros. Melee. It is just Smash 64 but more.
This is perfectly represented in this bombastic and confident opening theme. It's just so triumphant. This music screams that you're in for a treat. It knows exactly why you're here and wastes no time in telling you that turning on this game for the billionth time was definitely a good call.
There really isn't a series with better intro themes that really tell you everything you need to know about the game, and I'm happy that this idea has carried on into today.
Smash Ultimate is a game truly deserving of its name. It's beyond spectacular, and this intro theme is the perfect welcome to the game. In just a couple of seconds, it tells you everything you need to know about basically every character in its roster. Add to that an absolutely phenomenal song with delightfully cheesy lyrics (sung by one of the greatest voice actors ever, Abby Trott), and you have a winning recipe.
Crossover media tends to focus too much, in my opinion, on one character or IP. I understand why that is, it's simply easier to paint this media from the perspective of the most iconic character. While Mario definitely gets a lot of screen time, Smash Brothers has avoided using him as some kind of mascot by carefully creating its own identity. The unique music for the series has definitely aided in that. While I could list all of the ripped tracks, medleys, and rerecorded arrangements of tons of music from the various games I love in Smash Bros, there are enough unique and original themes for me to make multiple poorly written blogs just about the original music in this series.
All of it is great, and all of it makes you really excited to pick up a controller and put down your friends.
Whether or not you're looking to assault your friends this weekend, I hope your weekend is amazing. Thank you so much, as always, for checking out my content and I hope to catch you back here next time with another suggestion from my Music Box.
Stay Brutal!
PS. I had to give one medley a play, so here's my personal favourite Smash medley, from one of my favourite franchises.