P-Vock's Music Box: Let's Paint the Town
Hello and welcome to P-Vock's Music Box, the weekly blog where I pull out a random track from my music box to get you set for the weekend. If there's one thing video games are meant to be, it is fun. Video games, at their core, should be fun. There's certainly a debate to be had about fun and artistic merit coexisting or clashing within a game, but that's for another day. Let's just have some fun. I think I found the perfect series for this. A series that is simply just fun.
Splatoon is stupid, and that's why I find it just so wonderful. I don't know how you come up with the idea of kids that turn into squids and just compete to cover more of the floor in their colour of ink, but I love it regardless. Splatoon is basically just a family-friendly race war set in a post-apocalyptic world that features a plot with underlying themes of attempted genocide and segregation. Nothing but fun exists in this series, I swear.
Ignoring the dark undertones, this series is simply creative and charming. The world is just intriguing and the game at its core is just plain dumb fun. Playing this weird aquatic paintball game with memorable characters (shoutouts to my boy Crusty Sean, the prawn who fries you up a nice milkshake) is just fun. The simple fun of this series is embodied by the bouncy and energetic soundtracks accompanying these games that are simply better than they have any right to be.
I could list any number of tracks from the first Splatoon that stand out to me, but the second game is where the OST got really special in my opinion. So enough talk, have a listen to my favourite track from the base game of Splatoon 2.
It's energetic, it's bubbly, it's high-octane. But above all that, it's fun. Ebb & Flow is just a tune that feels fun to listen to. When it plays during a match, it just adds to the frantic and chaotic fun that these series absolutely nails effortlessly. The unfortunate thing about this track is that it only plays during special events called Splatfests in the game. But when the Splatfest is on, I play match after match just to keep vibing to this absolute bop. Luckily for me though, this melody had more in the ink tank later down the line.
One year after its launch, Splatoon 2 got an absolutely magnificent DLC pack called Octo Expansion. I could go on and on about how good the DLC and its new single-player campaign are, but we only have so much time. So I'll save your time by giving you a chance to listen to the final boss theme of the expansion, which may feature a leitmotif you recognize from about two minutes ago.
A game about squid people spraying their ink should not have a final boss theme that bops this much. This is without a doubt my favourite track from all of Splatoon 2 and I never get sick of it. I truly hope your weekend is as rad as these tunes, and I'll see you next week with another suggestion from my Music Box.