Nintendo fans were excited to finally hear the confirmation that Grant Kirkhope (known for his work on Banjo Kazooie, Goldeneye, and Donkey Kong 64) would be producing music for Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle. It's a dignified catch for Ubisoft, and Mr. Kirkhope is quite excited to be working alongside the team creating the upcoming crossover title.
While many didn't notice the music as it was either overshadowed by the hosts explaining the game's mechanics or drowned out by sound effects, a dedicated YouTube user named SuperWiiBros08 noticed that some of the gameplay demonstrations for the title had a boss theme which was easily identifiable, and was able to be heard clearly. He took up the task to cobble together the comprehensible parts of the track and put it all together into a five minute piece which you can listen to below.
The music definitely reflects the style which Kirkhope has come to be known for. As an example you can listen to parts of the seminal Yooka-Laylee soundtrack which was recently released, and recognize the similarities almost instantaneously. Here's The Great Rampo Battle, which is evident that these OST were cut of the same cloth.
If you're interested in getting a physical version of Kirkhope's soundtrack, make sure you keep an eye out for the collector's edition as one of the many goodies included is the OST on CD.
How do you feel about Kirkhope's latest composition? Let us know in the comments, and read our impressions on the upcoming Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle here.
[source youtu.be]
Comments 31
Simply magical. This game is shaping up to be amazing!
Sounds like Looney Tunes Battles.
Koji Kondo, Grant Kirkhope, and David Wise are like rock stars in my mind. It's a shame video game composers don't get the same recognition like other musicians, they're "second grade".
It sounds good. It's not 4:58 long though, some of it is looped. The loop starts again at the ~2:30 mark.
@BornInNorway81 For now they are. In time, most great artists achieve wider recognition. It's just that games are still in their infancy as in terms of expression, and the arts community is slow to accept new things. Games are still widely viewed as toys, which is true in many ways, but then by those same standards, so is Chess.
The highly commercial aspect of videogames holds it back from being fully accepted. Comic books have suffered from this discrimination for decades.
Because artists like Kirkhope operate mainly in the sphere of gaming, his work has yet to be taken seriously because of those 'negative' associations. But soon enough, the spectrum of age will include three generations of people who accept and love videogame music as simply great music.
Classic FM in the UK ran a series which gave gaming music a proper platform, and played many pieces, viewing them as the great music that are. It was wonderful.
Videogame music is also completely unlike other musical forms in terms of its structure. It's expected to grab it's listener immediately, to draw them into a richly detailed world, and be repeated in comparitively short sequences, over and over, or to progress in a meaningful way. To avoid making that very annoying or loud and bashy requires a very keen musical eye indeed. It is its own musical form I believe.
As it so happens, my mum really enjoys a lot of game music. The Breath of the Wild sound selection is a beautiful chill out album on its own. Why don't more artists make accessible, effective, emotive, imaginative music like video game soundtracks? I suspect over time, more and more will.
It's fantastic. Which is great because that just made this game even more appealing. Can't wait to play. Hope the game is difficult too, or at least gets moderately difficult in the later half of the game. That'd be fine.
Ubisoft chose the best kind of guy to compose this game. Always wondered what a Kirkhope-made BGM would be in a Mario game, and this is exactly what I've expected.
Can't wait to get home from work and listen to this bad boy. I love music from this guy and David Wise.
Really looking forward to this game before I heard this music and it sounds great. I might be anticipating this game more than Splatoon 2 — but maybe that's because I knew I'd be buying Splatoon 2 for so much longer and it was preordered since January. This game popped up looking much better to me than expected and releasing much earlier than expected.
I'll have a listen when I get home but I imagine that it sounds pretty great. I was going to get the collector's edition but I can't justify the mark up on the figures when they are purely collectibles. Would rather have a steelbook, soundtrack and potentially smaller figures in any collector's edition.
There is a movement that is seeing VGM begin to break through I would say @BorninNorway81. As @HappyMaskedGuy mentioned Jessica Curry, herself a game music composer, hosted a show recently dedicated to VGM on the back of occasional Saturday Night at the Movies specials over the last few years, both on Classic FM. With several games frequenting the yearly Classic FM Hall of Fame charts, the occasional Grammy nomination with category changes having come into effect, and sell out shows all across the world, acceptance is happening albeit slower than I would like. A Video Game music show at the Proms is what I would love to see happen.
Wow. That song is really catchy but it's so similar to what he made for yooka laylee. If you played one after the other they'd sound like one long song
I had no idea he was making the music for it. I will most likely get the game now!
That is brilliant. This game is going from Zero to Hero.
Wow, this boss music really sounds like it came straight from Yooka-Laylee! Now I have to get this game, because I simply must listen to the rest of the soundtrack! Love me some Kirkhope goodness!
Ubisoft definitively has not skimped out on resources for this game. Kirkhope's music sounds wonderful!
@Untempered-Link I turned on the music and scrolled down to the comments and got sucked into watching your avatar for awhile. I think somehow Luigi dancing to that music hypnotized me. I feel weird now. Maybe I will put on some overalls and a green shirt and go lay down...
Wow.
@HappyMaskedGuy The best art is born out of adversity and diversity. Let's hope the next generation have their own under-appreciated forms that they have to make the case for to us old heads.
A Banjo-Kazooie composer composing for a Mario game (plus a Rabbids game)...never thought I'd see the day, and as with every other soundtrack, Kirkhope does not disappoint
I am excited for both games! I can't wait to play them both. So many awesome games coming! I wish there were 48hrs in a day and that we didn't get tired!
Only Beethoven can write Beethoven.
Hearing his rendition of Princess Peach's Castle, however brief, made me smile.
This is the composer for Banjo-Kazooie writing music for a Super Mario game made by the developers of Assassin's Creed.
I really don't like Kirkhope nor his music. Should've been David Wise.
I don't get the fuss to be honest. I'd not actually heard of him before, when I think Rare and great music I think David Wise. Listening to the embedded clip it's not won me over either. It will sound great in the game of course, but it's not something I'd want to listen to for fun or relaxation. Not like the sublime Mr Wise's Busted Bayou, Stickerbruch Symphony or the Staff Credits theme from DKCTP.
Still if it gets the game good attention I won't complain! I just hope the game ends up being as good as the initial impressions suggest. Roll on August!
Funky!
@BornInNorway81 Those three along with Tommy Tallarico and Yuzo Koshiro do get quite a lot of attention.
There are superbly skilled video game composers getting way less recognition which is the truly sad part.
People like Alberto Gonzalez and Tim Follins, to some degree.
Doesn't sound off for a Mario game? It's nice, it just isn't Mario music.
Lovely. Hopefully Kirkhope also gives lots of Mario themes the "Kirkhope" treatment. The castle theme sounded "Mario-like" like always though.
Damn, you can really feel the tension in his music! He knows how to get you in the mood for a boss battle hahaha.
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