Monday, February 15, 2016

Cloud Really Got Screwed in the Song Selection for Smash

Like many, I was stoked when I heard Cloud would be joining the ranks in Nintendo's mega crossover series Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and 3DS. Cloud isn't my favorite Final Fantasy protagonist, but I bear the guy no ill will. And I really like the Buster Sword. I was itching to see the song list for the Midgar stage. My hopes were dashed almost as quickly as they were raised when I saw that one of gaming's most recognizable stars was given a two measly songs as background music to Smash to.

Behold, the selection of music for Migar!
A whopping two tracks.


Being invited to Super Smash Bros. is huge. When Solid Snake and Sonic were included in Brawl, people went nuts with anticipation. The hype was even more real when not only Sonic returned for Smash 4, but joining him was Mega Man and Pac-Man, two of the biggest names in the medium. Greater still, Ryu, the poster boy for Street Fighter and quite possibly the face of fighting games was coming to Smash. 

Mega Man, despite getting a raw deal from Capcom over the past few years, has been treated exceptionally well in Smash. He's a fun character to play as, I like his stage and he's got a good selection of songs on his stage including sick remixes from Mega Man 1-3 and retro medleys. Pac-Man has also received five star treatment from Masahiro Sakurai and his team, functioning as not only a representative of the Pac-Man games, but as a love letter to Namco titles from his taunts to his music selection on the Pac-Land stage. While the removal of Sonic Boom makes me cry and it kills me to see that Sonic didn't get a single new remix, there's still plenty of jams to choose from on Sonic's Winy Hill stage.

I was about a week late purchasing Corrin and Bayonetta, but I recently tried them out. Corrin is a lot of fun and while I'm not sure if I'll be playing as the umbra witch very often, she's a great addition to this Smash roster. Bowsing through Bayonetta's beats in My Music not only reminds me of how good and diverse the music from her games are, but I see she was given a wealth of songs, topping out at eleven tracks. Seeing Bayonetta's expansive list of music just serves to reinforce how shafted Cloud's Migar stage is in terms of music. 

Now I don't know all the specifics, but I'm sure that the company that owns whatever character appears in Smash has something to do with what songs can be used in the game. Square Enix just bout always has their ducks in a row when it comes to video game music so it really is rather disappointing to see Cloud's Migar stage have super slim pickings on music. Final Famtasy VII isn't my favorite FF soundtrack, but there are plenty of good songs that could have been used from that game. Like Opening ~ Bombing Mission, Crazy Motorcycle, J-E-N-O-V-A, Weapon Raid, J-E-N-O-V-A Absolute. Square Enix could have also pulled music from other games like Force Your Way and The Man with the Machine Gun from Final Fantasy VIII, Battle 2 from Final Fantasy IX or Blinded by Light from Final Fantasy XIII. There's also the pull of non Final Fantasy titles like the SaGa games, Chrono Trigger, Parasite Eve, Dragon Quest and so forth. Migar has the least amount of tracks out of any stage in Smash for Wii U. It's as if Square Enix didn't even care in regards to music. 

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