Revisiting this thread. More things coming to mind, and more stages to look into. Before I talk about the stages themselves, some observations and wishes:
- Brawl's music is weird. See below. Too long to put here.
- Go for more sources when it comes to games - I'm sure this will happen, since the last seven years were full of new games.
- Mandate the technical - if not artistic - quality of the music. Start by requiring musicians to submit source files and avoid over-compression.
- If there is not enough space, ditch some unmodified music. We don't need those, especially if the game allows custom music.
- Give Mario spinoffs some love. It may not be playable or stage material, but if games that are unheard of get music, Mario spinoffs - which get more publicity - should get some too.
- Game-specific wish: whatever it is, give the SNES some love. It has the best classic game console sound chip ever (thanks, pre-enemy Sony).
Now, stage music wish, listing only some of the new stages because I have no comments or don't know about the rest:
PilotwingsPilotwings 64 comes to mind. Pilotwings 64 music sounds like those
old-school MIDI music from the last century, which might clash with the later, neutral-looking Mii universe. Just like the stage itself. Would be fun.
Windy Hill ZoneI know nothing about Lost World, but when it comes to Sonic itself,
Egg Carrier and
Escape from the City comes to mind, even though they don't really match the stage itself. Better than Sonic Heroes' theme song, I'd say.
Mario GalaxyMario 3D World music all the way!
Puffprod Peaks if you want a fitting theme, or just get any music from
savanna to
obstacle course to
forest to
circus... Doesn't matter! That game's got excellent music!
Oh, and the 3DS version too. That one's got nice
beach and
snow themes.
Find Mii IIIf Brawl's rules are to be applied, this (along with other hardware-based stages) would be where the casual and puzzle game music go. And so, if music is not split between handheld and home console, I want to have
one of the Dr Luigi music playing there (or in any hardware-based stage). Would be nice if we can get something out of Yoshi's Cookie (the most-ignored member of the Nintendo Puzzle Collection trio) too.
Rainbow RoadMario spinoff songs can go here. M&L3's
Dark Bowser theme comes to mind, as are
the first Paper Mario's final boss theme,
Mario Party 2's menu theme and
Mario Tennis GBC's main menu. So many potentially great songs to pick there.
OthersThere's no Kirby stage announced yet, but I want ot hear something from Triple Deluxe. From just the preview materials, I can already tell it's got good music. Either the grass level theme or the Kirby Fighters title screen sould be good.
Also, I've mentioned this earlier, but I want to see FE4 music in sme capacity. It has the best music in the whole series. The other entires of the series which have a few excellent songs, but in FE4's case almost all music sound great. Anything's welcome, but I especially want Chapter
1,
2,
10 or
Final Player Phase. Oh, and FE10 too - Eternal Bond isn't the best choice in my opinion; they should have opted for
Bearer of Hope or
Ascent.
Alright, one more.
Hyrule Castle theme! The best song in the ALttP line of Zelda games!
------
Appendix: Brawl music observations
- Brawl's music distribution, in terms of source games, is weird. Some games get multiple (often unmodified) music while other games get just one. Mairo Sunshine versus Mario 64, Air Ride versus Super Star, Path of Radiance versus the rest of the series, and interestingly, Melee versus Smash 64.
- And there's the question of which games get to have songs in the first place. Besides platformer Mario and Mario Kart, Mario spinoff series that get music include Mario & Luigi and Mario Golf & Tennis, and for some reason, no Mario Party or Paper Mario even though these prominently show up as trophies and stickers. Could be a side effect of the music selection process (the musicians picked them), and they tend to pick music they know or have worked on (few know Paper Mario, and its own composer has opted for an FE2 song).
- And they're not even really picking iconic tunes. No traces of Kirby Super Star's mountain area tune, FE4 tunes (but then, the whole Fire Emblem Jugdral subseries is completely absent from Brawl for some inexplicable reason), or anything from Mother 2 (unless you count Humoresque of a Little Dog). It's fine, if not for the fact that we have the unfittingly sad Snowman, the boring M&L2 desert theme or the completely random environmental noises in that Pikmin stage.
- Brawl's music distribution across stages is also weird. 75m gets only a few songs while the other "classic" stages get more. Melee stages have only two songs for some reason.
- And on the music itself, as some may have heard me complaining on, is distorted, over-compressed, and generally don't have the quality possessed by the original. This is the most apparent with directly ported Melee music - they don't sound like the original at all.
