As for Castlevania, the series is certainly getting the deluxe treatment, and it’s a good idea for us to respond in kind (also, I wrote about three pages and hours worth of material on Castlevania’s tracks before GameXplain beat us to it with a far more digestible video, and damned if I’m not going to salvage the work I did). The series has thirty-four tracks in this game; that’s exactly as many as The Legend of Zelda had in Smash for Wii U if you count DLC, exactly as many as all Ultimate’s music for the Yoshi’s Island and Sonic the Hedgehog series combined. Given the series’ storied history of famous game music, it’s entirely deserved.
For those less familiar with Castlevania, two things about its music are important to know. First, many of its tracks are incredibly famous and popular in the field of game music. The second is related to that: as a series, it has reused and remixed its songs constantly, retaining the same titles for later games. This means it’s more than possible Sakurai will simply take one preexisting arrangement he likes for any track, as there is a surplus of quality tracks and arrangements – he already has, as some of the music played in the Direct comes directly from other Castlevania games. Those that we know are remixed we’ll mention, but as of now it’s entirely possible that any of these may or may not be remixes.
In terms of musical representation, I think it might be good to look at it through individual games, from most to least songs. In addition, I will be counting both medleys as two songs each, because I’m more interested in seeing how the Castlevania songs have been used here. Finally, I will be counting the game from where the song first appeared, even in the cases the songs are remixes of those pieces from later games. I’m more interested in seeing where the team is looking for inspiration the most extensively, especially since Sakurai himself organized the listing to highlight when each track first debuted:
- Castlevania: 6 (“Vampire Killer,” “Stalker / Wicked Child,” ““Out of Time,” “Nothing to Lose,” “Black Knight”)
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night: 4 (“Dracula’s Castle,” “Dance of Gold,” “Lost Painting,” “The Tragic Prince”)
- Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest: 3 (“Bloody Tears / Monster Dance,” “Dwelling of Doom”)
- Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse: 3 (“Beginning,” “Mad Forest,” “Aquarius”)
- Castlevania: Rondo of Blood: 3 – (“Divine Bloodlines,” “Slash,” “Dance of Illusions”)
- Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin: 3 (“Ripped Silence,” “Hail from the Past,” “Jail of Jewel”)
- Haunted Castle: 2 (“Cross Your Heart,” “Can’t Wait Until Night”)
- Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow: 2 (“Jet Black Incursion,” “Crash in the Dark Night”)
- Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia: 2 (“Twilight Stigmata,” “Jet Black Wings”)
- Super Castlevania IV: 1 (“Simon Belmont Theme”)
- Castlevania: Bloodlines: 1 (“Iron-Blue Intention”)
- Castlevania: Circle of the Moon: 1 (“Awake”)
- Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow: 1 (“Ruined Castle Gallery”)
- Castlevania: Lament of Innocence: 1 (“Lament of Innocence”)
- Castlevania: Harmony of Despair: 1 (“Go! Getsu Fuma”). Note that this this track does not come from Castlevania originally, but is an arrangement of a track from an unrelated 1987 Konami game titled Getsu Fūma Den.
“Bloody Tears / Monster Dance” can be found on the official Smash Bros. website, the Smash-original “Vampire Killer” remix plays in Simon’s showcase in the Direct, and the remix of “Divine Bloodlines” plays in Richter’s. As previously stated, several of these are coming in as remixes from later games. The second “Vampire Killer” comes from Castlevania Judgment (and I think the same is the case with “Dracula’s Castle,” though it’s hard for me to be sure), the second “Simon Belmont Theme” almost certainly comes from Castlevania: the Arcade, and “Nothing to Lose” appears to be from Harmony of Despair. They are not likely the only ones in the list like that, so do not be surprised if you hear others (personally, I suspect “Go! Getsu Fuma” will just be its Harmony arrangement, for instance).
The games with the most representation are all expected, other than Portrait of Ruin, which presumably got three pieces solely on the basis of it just having a great score. Castlevania was the first game, Symphony of the Night is debatably the most influential in the series, Dracula’s Curse is one of the best NES games of all time and the subject of a Netflix animated series (though there’s no way that part matters), Rondo of Blood is the game Richter’s from…Sakurai and his music team definitely know what’s what with Castlevania. Genre-wise, this is a rather incredible representation of the series’ history. You’ve got more of an influence on the “classic-vania” action games from where Simon and Richter came, but there’s also a lot of representation of the Metroidvanias, as well. And it’s noteworthy that the vast majority of representation comes from games on Nintendo systems, with Rondo and Symphony being the big standouts from other platforms (other than Harmony of Despair, just due to its having so many remixes of classic pieces).
Smash is also drawing from a wide variety of sources. You have introductory level music (“Vampire Killer,” “Beginning”), boss fights (“Nothing to Lose,” “Ripped Silence”), themes from more unique spaces (“Slash,” “Hail from the Past”), and just good pieces in general (“Iron Blue Intention,” “Lament of Innocence”), representing a wide range of the series and a similarly wide range of tones. It goes alongside how the picks have come from so many different games. Even less used or remixed pieces like “Dance of Gold” or “Ruined Castle Corridor” are very well liked, and that Haunted Castle and Castlevania: the Arcade have musical tracks is genuinely shocking.
It cannot be overstated that this is very much a “best case scenario” for Castlevania, going far beyond what any of us could have reasonably expected in terms of both number and choice of song. We could probably debate whether, say, “Crash of the Dark Night” is a better Dawn of Sorrow choice than “The Pinnacle,” or why songs like “Riddle” or “Wandering Ghosts” or “Tower of Dolls” hadn’t been chosen, or whether Sakurai should have spent any time at all on the 3D games, or whether he should have but for Lords of Shadow instead. But that’s splitting hairs. It’s very clear Sakurai has a serious investment in representing the history of Castlevania in a way that’s gone beyond what we’ve seen from other guest series. And the mammoth amount of music might be the most clear example of this.
The Star Fox Medley is most likely Melee’s Corneria theme, renamed to more accurately reflect what it is. “Venom” was also renamed
The “Star Fox Medley” is most likely Melee’s Corneria theme, renamed to more accurately reflect what it is. “Venom” was also renamed
I’m pretty sure the 31 number for Kirby includes the GB attacks.
I personally believe that that “Star Fox Medley” is probably the Corneria theme from Melee, since it was actually a collection of various themes from the original SNES Star Fox. The reason as for why it was renamed might have to do with the fact that, since the songs are not tied to specific stages any more, they may want to name each song more properly according to the original context (since rather infamously, none of the music in Melee’s Corneria theme played on the actual Corneria stage in Star Fox). Just a thought.
I wouldn’t be surprised if the extreme increase in Street Fighter music was due to them adding a second SF rep (most likely an echo)
Thank you for reminding me about the Breath of the Wild 2017 Trailer song.
Still disappointed they wont include Game & Watch Gallery songs, are they not really considered an option to represent G&W music?