What other Kirby themes have shown up across the entire collection???

17:57 Really glad you mentioned Jun Ishikawa by name! He's been making Kirby music since the original Kirby's Dream Land (30+ years ago!), and is responsible for something that wasn't mentioned in this video, the "Kirby Beach Aesthetic". If you listen to other Kirby beach songs made by Ishikawa (Examples include "Aqua Star" from Kirby 64, "Bountiful Star" from Kirby Planet Robobot, "Reef Resort" from Kirby Star Allies, and "Abandoned Beach" from Kirby and the Forgotten Land), you'll hear a bit of Float Islands DNA! If you ever feel like coming back to Kirby music, a topic I HEAVILY recommend is the fact that most mainline Kirby music over the past 3 decades has been made by only two people, the aforementioned Jun Ishikawa, and Hirokazu Ando, who first started making Kirby music with Kirby's Adventure on the NES (That said, new composers have joined HAL Laboratories in recent years.) There's a very nice juxtaposition between the two composers For example, the bizarre techno arrangements at 9:40 & 9:55 were by Jun Ishikawa, and the jazzy rendition at 14:11 (Which is my personal favorite Float Islands arrangement) was by Hirokazu Ando! A cool bit of trivia about Hirokazu Ando's compositional style (You might have detected this in Industrial Laboratory at 14:11) is that he disregards human playability in his music! He prefers to make songs with a simple melody, but complex backings (Citation for this is from a 2018 Forbes article called "The Music Of Kirby: Still Tickling Gamers Pink".) This mindset can be seen in songs like "Dreaming of Clouds" from Kirby's Return to Dream Land, "Fatal Blooms in Moonlight" from Kirby Triple Deluxe, and "Blue Blizzard Remix" from Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe. (All 3 of these songs are EXTREMELY HIGH recommendations personally) By the way, some extra trivia, the Float Islands renditions at 5:13 & 13:42 with the cool reharmonizations were (most likely) done by Shogo Sakai, famous for making music for Super Smash Bros Melee and MOTHER 3. (Last bit of extra trivia, I promise.) If any of this info interests you, you can read up on WiKirby for more composer facts!

People who say Toby Fox only wrote one song and remixed it for the entire game of Undertale can scarcely grasp the scale done with Kirby's soundtrack.

I love that Charles has leaned super hard into making content about video game and anime music. It's clear he has developed a much stronger appreciation for this stuff the more he dives into it rather than it being solely just catering to what he expects will get views. Love all of your videos Charles but hearing your analyses on some of my favorite tunes from my favorite hobby is so great!!

I was so mentally prepared for a typical Green Greens/Gourmet Race analysis (also great songs, but everyone knows those). Seeing love for Float Islands was a pleasant surprise! Kirby has numerous masterpieces and it's nice to see more of them appreciated!

17:29 That stock footage of someone playing a Switch upside down 🤣🤣🤣

The joy of a musician geeking out over Kirby music is infectious.

It's so infectious how much you just legitimately adore music

pointing out that the Rest Area music in Kirby Super Star is the slowed down version just threw me through a time portal in the best possible way

i saw this and immediately clicked. i like kirby… if you couldnt tell

Wait, what the hell!? The All-Star theme from Melee is Float Islands in disguise!? I never knew!

I have a real jazz bias in my own writing. In my opinion, the Kirby series is the most beautifully composed of any Nintendo franchise. It's out of this world gorgeous.

Something I like about Kirby is that the music feels more rewarding the more you know and listen. Final boss themes are often remixed with other themes you’ve been hearing throughout the game! First thing I find on a new Kirby soundtrack is the main theme/themes, the first stage, and the boss music.

I have heard both the floating isles and the melee intro music many times and I never made the connection that they’re the same tune. That is BRILLIANT

when I was a kid, I was so into making Kirby inhale all kinds of characters and copy their abilities. now I'm trying to inhale Kirby themes and copy its harmonies. great video!!

What I really love about this format is that it seems super genuine in its reaction-based, unscripted nature. We get to see Charles feel out the song and try to parse it down while also getting his initial reactions to the sound. It genuinely feels like I'm in music class again.

Charles - great video! Something I think you missed is that the new melody added to the "Laboratory" version is the MAIN THEME of that game (Planet Robobot), called something like Noble Haltman. Robobot, Star Allies, and now Forgotten Land have been AMAZING with how they have woven their main leitmotifs across the existing kirby music to give it a new identify. In fact, in Planet Robobot, the main theme itself is part of the meta narrative!

“Factory Inspection” in crystal shards is funky af, heck all of crystal shards music.🎉

Glad you have taken a dive into one of the most iconic leitmotifs of the Kirby franchise. Love it! Speaking of which, there is no end to the reoccurring leitmotifs in this franchise, some of being reoccurring within the very games they debuted in. *Sky Tower* from Kirby's Return to Dreamland has become a modern staple in Kirby's roundhouse of reoccurring leitmotifs, as have *The Far-Flung Traveler* and *CROWNED* as leitmotifs associated with Magolor, a character introduced in that game. *The Noble Haltmann* practically courses through the vains of _Kirby Planet Robobot_ with there seldom being a track within the game that doesn't incorporate it, from the opening credits to the very final boss fight.

As a French Horn player, I love your perspective on how you hear music and chord progressions. I'm more focused on things that benefit a soloist style of playing where phrasing, resonance, and dynamics are highly rewarded and sometimes miss out on the basics of music composition that piano players are acutely aware of. Great stuff

I wanna mention how the "Mag Mount" theme from Canvas Curse is also a remix of "Castle Lololo" from Kirby's Dreamland, where the protagonist from Adventures of Lolo (the origin game for float islands' theme) appears as a boss I just think that's neat

Love seeing fellow kirby music fans geek out over this video

Absolutely love the big emphasis on VG ost's lately. Easily brings in that nostalgia and answers the questions I too had as a kid and in some cases, an adult. Thank you for your work.

What I would give to see you break down all the music in Ocarina of Time.. Your energy, passion and love for music is unparalleled. Your enthusiasm is so infectious, it makes me fall in love with music all over again, every time I watch one of your videos.

Gonna be honest, I didn't even clock that the rest area theme and float islands were the same until today XD and I've been playing Kirby since the beginning, lol. But this is why I love Kirby, the music is foundationally brilliant, and yet simple. Jun Ishikawa is a master of his craft and I'm happy Kirby has him. Also to Charles, your enthusiasm for music is so lovely and infectious, you're a joy to watch! Thank you for the great video :3

Kirby music is always good. There is no such thing as a Kirby game without fantastic music!

SUPER interesting how it was originally WAY back from a Lolo game, THEN made tribute to it by having a boss name Lololo! Thank you for the great work, I really like your enthusiasm!

Jun Ishikawa is probably one of my favorite composers ever. Him and Hirokazo Ando made music for some of my best gaming memories growing up. Float islands was my favorite song from Kirbys dream land, followed by King DeDeDe's them, which was also just freaking awesome, but there is not a bad song in that whole game.....PERIOD!

Kirby and the forgotten land (the newest one) has one of my favourite game soundtracks ever, the way it blends some of the classic themes with a mysterious adventure score is awesome!

As a music producer in the works, I can say it is so fun stitching instruments from other video games together to make something

My Childhood was playing Golden Sun and just leaving the Game Boy on to listen to Issac's Theme amongst all the other bangers in that game and then later realising it was the same guy who wrote the Dark Souls OST!

You should check out binks sake from one piece. Still in my opinion one of the saddest piano parts especially the walking down part when he said “it isn’t right leaving just the accompaniment” really made me cry. Even though Charles might not see this comment, would mean a lot if he would at least walk through it like he does with we are and coconut mall. Love ur vids man!

I love how happy he seemed listening to the original theme

by coincidence I recently learned save menu/rest area on the piano.

I never thought someone could be this excited for a couple chord changes its pretty awesome

The Kirby music is so dreamy it always makes me think of falling asleep on a big soft cloud in the sky

I never get tired of people geeking out over how PHENOMENAL Kirby's music truly is, nor will I ever tire of people finding out that Float Island and the Melee All Star theme are one in the same. It fills me with boundless joy every time!

While still at the topic of Float Islands... Worth also taking a look at Grape Garden (from Super Star, not Adventure) which uses Float Islands as an intro but subverts it by being an original song, while still using a fairly recognizable rhythm section. Also Bountiful Star from Planet Robobot which does something similar.

A theme like that has truly stood the test of time…!

Your enthusiasm, delight, and sheer *joy* are infectious! Sometimes I wait to watch your videos until I'm feeling a little bit low, because it's impossible not to grin while you're getting excited about music! Oh yeah, and... Space Harrier has some great tunes I think you'd enjoy (and I'd love to hear you gush about them, too!)

I love how the electric-ish versions and the big band version sound super jazzy. Almost like something you'd expect to hear at a cajun restaurant or nightclub.

Finally someone talks about this series’ music in-depth

Thank you fore this video ! I didn't expect that this theme had as much of an impact on you as it did on me. I'm really glad you talked about it. It's one of the first pieces of music that I took the time to analyze when I started playing music. A great reference!

Ok, y'all, this man loves Kirby. I do too! Really though, I love that you can't contain your excitement for this Charles!

Incredibly awesome to listen to the progression of the theme. Thanks Charles for leading me into a new realm of music appreciation!

I need an entire video talking about Mario Galaxy 1/2 music, there are too many things to analyze.

Kirby music is so special

Love this piece! Also, I really enjoy watching how hyped you get over quality music it just makes me so happy😁

Some formats used for video game soundtracks: mp3, ogg, mpc (a variant of mp2, faster to decode than mp3 but larger for the same quality), ADPCM wav (even larger but very very fast to decode, ~353 kbps). Some interactive music systems will wrap those into a multi-stream container. Some games use sequenced music (either MIDI or MOD/S3M/XM/IT files, using sample playback).

Hirokazu Ando is my hero

I would not be upset if this became a video game music channel

I thought I loved music, but THIS guy LOVES music, lol. Just found your channel recently, really enjoying it, keep up the good work!

The amount of recognition, detail, and love you give to these songs from our childhoods needs to be documented in gaming history. SERIOUS props to you man!!

The musical evolution is phenominal accross all the series' history. So many themes from the first games return, recomposed to fit their specific environment. What I love most is when leitmotifs of certain songs appear in longer arrangements which leave story-wise implications of e.g. the origin of certain characters (most notably "The Stat-Conquering Traveller"); or how certain locations are connected.

That All-Star intro is one of my fondest music memories in gaming. Thanks for mentioning it :)

This whole video was a nostalgia trip for me, starting from the Float Islands theme, then to SSBM rest area, then you referenced foreverkirby who is literally the first KZfaqr I saw when I looked up covers for Kirby Superstar Ultra.

I was 6 when this came out. To this day, I can still vividly remember each and every bit of the Float Islands theme and more. Video game music got me into orchestra music and beyond. I will always be thankful for game music for teaching how to do a lot with so little.

Good taste in Kirby music! It was an instant hit with me when I played superstar ultra as a kid!

I would borrow Kirby's Dreamland from my best friend just to get to Float Islands and crank up the music and just listen to it. Excellent video!

I feel like if I could have Charles Cornell listen to whatever music I'm listening to and geek out over it I would enjoy it so much more. Your enthusiasm is so great!

Charles, I would LOVE it if you listened to some classic/original songs and then listened to their Smash Bros remake. Kirby’s fountain theme, Donkey Kong’s gangplank galleon, there are some wonderful homages done by people who love and respect the originals. I can get you a track list of my personal top ones if you wish!

Gourmet Race is the GOAT of Kirby songs

this is great! even as a kirby fan, ive never realized how many of kirby's soundtrack was lifted from float islands!

His enthusiasm about this is amazing

I too played Kirby games as a kid and continue to engage with the franchise to some extent to this day. Kirby Super Star Ultra was the first game I ever got 2 copies of, my sister and I used to play it together and I still have our original 100% save file. I also have fond memories of doing a playthrough of Kirby's Return to Dreamland with my buddies from school for a friend's KZfaq channel, let's just say there were a lot of footstooling shenanigans. The music from Kirby games is the element that has had the longest lasting appeal for me, regularly evoking emotion in me to this day.

He seriously needs to talk about Sonic music more, specifically Sonic Adventure, Sonic Unleashed, and Sonic Frontiers

Kirby music tends to be a banger out the gate. I constantly find myself humming Wispy Woods.

your enthusiasm and excitement for music really speaks to me. you're beautiful.

I'm a simple man; I see a video on Kirby music, and I click. 😄 Awesome work as usual, @CharlesCornellStudios! I know you get recommendations constantly, but keeping things Kirby, I highly advise looking at "Kirby and the Forgotten Land", and scoping out either "Metro on Ice," "Northeast Frost Street," and/or "Battle of Blizzard Bridge." For whatever reason, all the cold tracks in that game absolutely kill it. Yuuta Ogasawara and Hirokazu Ando brought their A games for those tunes!

YOOOOOO MY BOY KIRBY _LET'S _*_GOOOOOOOOOOOO_*_ DUDE!!!_

YES A KIRBY VIDEO!!!! Some of these were insane, the Canvas Curse one blew my mind at the end.

Of all the people on this niche subculture of musicians going over video game music, not many of them have even touched Kirby. Thank you for making this video I loved it!

Dude I literally absolutely love the level of excitement you get from doing this! 🎉

16:13 that rhodes melody in the background goes INSANE

Float Islands reminds me of August & September weather. Beautiful song & time of year.

Yep. I had never noticed that the All Stars waiting area in Smash Bros Melee was this song. Very cool.

FINALLY! FLOAT ISLANDS LOVE! Woooo it's so nice to see someone give Float Islands the credit it deserves! I think this is the first time I've ever ooohed and ahhed and HAHAH'ed and pointed at the screen at the same points Charles did, lol.

i'm so happy he covered canvas curse / power paintbrush if just for a bit, the soundtrack of that game is so so so interesting

I love how you seem more and more confident talking about videogame music. Cool stuff

15:50 It's _so_ big band, Charles knows every choice they made!

You know Charles, going back to the music from Portal in the last video and also looking at this video from this guy compiling the video game variations. I was thinking you should check out “8-bit big band” their versions of portal music is amazing. They also do a lot of other game music as well.

15:33 Just a replay button of Charles sounding like a gnome

Collapse Castle might be my favorite Kirby song; but Planet Robobot is probably my favorite OST overall

I’m so happy to see you doing a lot of games and shows now!! They’re so interesting to breakdown as well as just being great music. If you can I’d love to hear you react to RWBY music. The main writer starting out was Jeff Williams and there’s a variety of genres and styles depending on characters with their motifs. “Neon” and the “never miss a beat” remixes(?) are fun ones

I love how much you are exited about chords xD

Kirby games tend to come out in the waning years of a platform. By that time, the programmers know everything about the architecture & get the most performance out of it. People usually talk graphics, but the music in the Kirby games is using every trick in the book to sound that good.

Wow, it was composed so differently that I never realized the rest theme was the second half of Float Islands just until now

I'm so glad there is people like you who pay attention to soundtracks so in depth and can truly appreciate how awesome they are!

I love big band music. I was in my high school's jazz ensemble, and it was a TON of fun.

I wish I could get as passionate about music as you do.

For me it was always the balloon ride theme at the end, but Float Islands was definitely up there.

I was just thinking about this, such a mind blowing way the Kirby themes carry through the series

That second part of the floating island theme has basically evolved into Kirby's version of the fairy spring theme

Kirby OSTs were actually the reason why I got into music theory. I always loved the games growing up alongside the music (Grape Garden, Rainbow Resort, Cocoa Cave, Gourmet Race, Queen Sectonia, etc.), but when I found the sheet music to Gourmet Race, I just knew I had to learn how and why Now I'm still flabbergasted by Kirby music. Especially Cocoa Cave, but all of them are honestly amazing. It's also one of the reasons why Kirby is my favorite franchise of all games

Kirby music is great because it’s so happy, but there’s lots of depth to a seemingly simple set of tunes.

KZfaq suggested this to me because I was trying to find a specific Kirby song that I couldn't remember the name of (it was gourmet race), and I'm so glad it did! This guy has such infectious excitement about these songs and chords. I love it!

LOVING this selection between incredible gaming music and anime music for the channel!

9:55 the beat change had me making the same face 😂

Your thumbnail makes it look like you're the final evolution of Kirby 👌 lol. Thanks for the great videos Charles!

Kirby really does that! There's more tracks that keep coming up in the next games and it is amazing! I really like Kirby's soundtrack, too. More people should listen to it.... Great video as always!