This thread is from 2011, but who cares. New Kirby game, new soundtrack. Surprised it didn't get bumped when Dream Collection came out, but that OT was quite small anyway.
I think the Kirby Triple Deluxe soundtrack is fairly good, and I think it's a little more cohesive than Return to Dream Land's is. While there are a few tracks that don't shine as much as some of the other tracks, there are a lot of great tracks that end up putting it up there in my range of Kirby soundtracks. What I also liked is that the entire game used a lot of themes from the past familiar... and seemingly forgotten/obscure. I do think that it is more beneficial to have some good cans even when playing handhelds in general, and Triple Deluxe got good use out of mine.
The game uses some music verbatim, but that's particularly because those arrangements were fairly good already. Royal Road's extra stage, for example, uses
this version of Fountain of Dreams. (edit: This originally read "I'm pretty happy they put one of the tracks on the Kirby Dream Collection soundtrack in the game, since I thought those pieces were well-arranged." This was actually in Kirby's Air Ride verbatim, but thanks to
Emi for pointing that out to me.)
I'm very fond of the boss themes in this game as well. They range from incredibly catchy to having iffy samples that somehow
work to great all-around. The
Boss Theme has excellent backing (the bass
especially, but most would give more nods to the piano that brings back some of that Kirby's Epic Yarn flair in a more exciting manner) and that propels its strength just as much as the lead synths playing the melody.
We have wubs in Kirby in the form of
Endless Explosions, and it's used right. Wubs aren't inherently bad. The key here, I feel, is that it isn't overbearing and serves as backing, while the mixing rightly places much of the melody played by other instruments in the foreground. So often that whenever dubstep or dance beats are used in VGM or even any other genre, the dubstep tends to be incredibly overwhelming. Instead, the main melody takes precedence, and the wubs
support the main instrumentation quite a bit. This ended up being one of my favourite tracks on the soundtrack by far simply because of its arrangement and mixing.
Both Snow themes
Old Odyssey 1 and
Old Odyssey 2) can be fairly reminiscent of the Kirby's Epic Yarn soundtrack in some spots (well, mostly 1). It isn't so much the
melodies I'm fond of, but particularly the atmosphere and mood
evoked by the melodies and their backing.
Ripple Star gets an arrangement and it gets a pretty cool drum breakdown. It's one of my faves and it gets a Hi-Fi arrangement that uses great samples, and enhances that percussion and breakdown.
Tough Enemy is a really cool theme that makes use of a lot of the samples heard throughout the soundtrack including that riff sample, but what really sells it is the piano providing backing and the melody, not necessarily the lead synth doling out the theme's melody. I heartily welcome more raw and ensemble piano pieces in Kirby. I honestly think it fits. Maybe it's because I'm terribly fond of Kirby's Epic Yarn's soundtracks, but overall, I think the piano stuff is great in the Triple Deluxe soundtrack.
I do think the game's title theme doesn't strike that much of a chord unless it is in an arrangement, and luckily it gets arranged several times throughout the soundtrack.
The final boss themes are really good. Despite the fact that the
first final boss theme sounds fairly traditional in current final boss patterns at the beginning with organs and backing percussion, it strengthens into a riff-laden bonanza with more emphasis on percussion.
I do think the
other final boss theme, whose name I will leave blank (especially for those who don't want spoilers at all), is really good. I ended up liking it more than
C-R-O-W-N-E-D, and that theme was incredibly stellar. Both themes are significantly different in terms of tone and instrumentation, though. The RtDL theme simply sounds more triumphant, especially with its clearer brass- and string-laden instrumentation. By contrast, the Triple Deluxe final boss theme ends up making grand use of synth everywhere, including a sample that I think some might feel is questionable since it doesn't seem to jive well with the rest of it. However, with that said, I do think it works better contextually providing proper mood to go along with the colours and lighting used in that part of the game. The bass truly sells the opening, and the backing during the main melody starting out sounds great. The percussion interlude leading into the stronger portion of the theme blends a lot of stuff used in Kirby games and it sounds fairly cohesive. Emphasizing piano on its last legs into the loop is one of my favourite parts of it too.
I'd say that soundtrack makes excellent use of percussion all the way through. And that's what I'm ultimately fond of. Many of the samples sound really good this time around as well.
