Season 4 Episode 2
No Album Release (Read More)
Game Over (JP Version) - Kirby's Dream Land 3
Ripped by Pinci
I feel like its hard to overstate just how much people fell in love with Mariya Takeuchi in 2019. Her introduction to the King for Another Day Tournament to me initially left me scratching my head, because it seemed to be referencing a part of YouTube's algorithm of recommended videos that I had personally never encountered. Nevertheless, I saw a lot of people happy with her inclusion, and just sort of shrugged and kept watching the SiIva Direct in which she was unveiled. That complete apathy toward her inclusion persisted for me, and likely many others, until we got a tease of her full powers in the final SiIva Direct, held on the 21st of September leading up to the Tournament's premiere (hey, September! Remember that?). Aside from that one arrangement, we'd be teased with the introduction of character mash-up rips through one with Mariya herself in it - The Whims of Plastic Love. The rip positively exploded when it was uploaded on its own two months later, and it to me marked the point when Mariya Takeuchi's popularity in the tournament truly spiked.
The year therafter, the tournament had long since concluded, and we were all waiting for DJ Professor K's takeover event to begin. We all knew the results, and at least personally I'd finally accepted that the tournament would only have one winner. Yet we all still loved all the contestants - their impact hadn't gone away just from not reaching first place. And so, it didn't take long for rips like Plastic Love of the Stars to become appearing - rips that reminded us that these contestants were now forever part of SiIva's legacy, even if they wouldn't get a day to themselves.
Keep in mind, this was long before 11 Minutes of City Pop, and long before the DJ Professor K takeover itself would remind of us just how much the team also loved all of the tournament's contestants, with rips like Agent H (HOBaRT the Funny Mixer Theme). So really, it was stuff like Plastic Love of the Stars that sort of stealth-started the celebrations that were to come later in the year, bringing everyone together after all those months of excitement in the year that had just passed.
It helps, of course, that Plastic Love of the Stars is a fucking banger of an arrangement! It follows suit with rips like Aquadial or Beyond the Floating Isles, where it truly is just as simple as the ripper wanting to explore the unique soundscapes that Kirby games feature by arranging another song in it, and like those two the picks suit the Kirby game in question damn near perfectly. Kirby's Dream Land 3 in particular, much like Kirby 64, sounds completely unlike anything else out there, and is probably my personal favorite Kirby soundtrack out there? It's the equivalent of listening to pastel colors, and that relaxing cheerfulness paired with the enchantingly deep bassline suits Plastic Love like a glove. It came as no surprise to learn that Pinci is a guest contributor who otherwise has a career in making remixes and rearrangements with the SNES sound in particular - the guy's work is absolutely incredible, and his range of coverage for Kirby in particular is fantastic. Please check this rip out, and when you're done, check out his YouTube channel - his arrangement of Door into Summer from Knuckles' Chaotix has been stuck in my head all day.
