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Alternate Soundtrack: Kirby's Adventure vs. girlsareshort

Posted by Derrick Sanskrit

The sun is baking New York and tourists are everywhere all the time. Summer is definitely upon us, so this week's alternate soundtrack takes one of my favorite upbeat, bubbly platformers and one of my favorite upbeat, bubbly albums to make one delightfully bright summer experience.

Though it was the second game in the Kirby series, Kirby's Adventure served as the introduction to what has become Kirby's signature ability: copying his enemies powers (only a select few items gave Kirby special powers in 1992's Kirby's Dream Land). Released very near the end of the Nintendo Entertainment System's lifespan, 1993's Kirby's Adventure really pushed the NES as far as it could go with lush graphics, a vast soundtrack, and dynamic gameplay.

girlsareshort were an electronic pop group from Ontario. Originally conceived as a full band by members Alex Puodziukas and Daniel Zabawa, they soon realized that they worked best as an two-man electronic act. Releasing two LPs – 2002's contactkiss on Hi-Hat Recordings and 2003's earlynorthamerican on Upper Class Recordings – the band split up after producing Death From Above 1979's 2004 album You're A Woman I'm A Machine. Fans' hopes for a reunion were dashed when Alex found great success teaming up with DFA1979's Jesse Keeler as the dance club powerhouse MSTRKRFT.

Kirby's Adventure has recently been rereleased twice, as the Game Boy Advance port Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land in 2002 and on the Wii Virtual Console in 2007. Though tracking down cds of both girlsareshort albums proved difficult (yet rewarding) a few years ago, both albums are now readily available on the iTunes Music Store. MSTRKRFT kicks mucho butt too, but that's a soundtrack for another day.


Comments

Rob said:

Nice, that works well.  I never played Kirby's Adventure...probably considered it too girly when I was 12.  

Here's mine for the week.  Deftones' "Minerva" to the final Sephiroth boss fight in FFVII.

July 1, 2008 11:47 AM

Demaar said:

I gotta say, this is probably my favourite 61FPS feature. Alternate Soundtracks I mean. I have but one request, do you reckon you could make suggestions for which tracks to play with which levels? I know you kinda do that with the videos, but I mean like I was gonna go follow the suggestion of playing The Knife with MMX, but then I spent like 10 minutes trying to decide which track would go best with each level before I gave up lol

Anyways, excellent choice again this time around. Quite boppy and happy without making me wanna pop my ear drums...

July 1, 2008 9:50 PM

Demaar said:

Ignore me last comment, wasn't thinking clearly. It'd obviously take too much damn time to make suggestions for each level if I was struggling to do it on myself lol

July 1, 2008 10:18 PM

Derrick Sanskrit said:

I'd actually thought about that, Demaar, but I primarily focus on albums that work as a whole with particular games (Sonic vs Ratatat was an exception because it was three games). Otherwise I'd wind up just making whole mixtapes for every game, and anyone who knows me can attest that I don't need another reason to make more mixtapes. Maybe some future Alternate Soundtracks will skew that way, but for now I'm sticking with solid albums. I may change my mind next week, though. Thanks for the enthusiastic response!

Rob, smooth pick, man.

July 1, 2008 11:31 PM

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