RPGamers Network > Reviews > Game Music Reviews > Chocobo Racing OST
Reviewed by: Kie
Here we go, another arrangement soundtrack for the little Final Fantasy version of Mario Kart. The Chocobo Racing album involves arranger Kenji Ito, who remixes classic Final Fantasy songs for the game. Let's see how he did.
A lot of the songs on the album are arrangements of the regular Chocobo Theme. That is, tracks 01, 02, 03, 16, 17, 23, 28 and 29 are all arrangements from the same song. Dah de Chocobo is probably the best arrangement of that group. It has a very strong beat, with every loud drum and music beat hitting at the same time. It then gets into an easily recognisable trumpet for the main part of the song, and then comes in at the end with a great little electric guitar bit to end the song. Chocobo's Theme, or Dance de Chocobo for those in the know, is a more headbanging beat reliable Chocobo arrangement. Using long and also short beep noises as the tune. Original. Careful with your speakers on Cid's Test Course, as it is very loud no matter what bitrate it's at. It is a pretty great arrangement of the Chocobo Theme, sounding very much like the original, except with different instruments.
As for other tracks, Moogle Forest is a very nice, peaceful arrangement of "Children Seem Near", a Final Fantasy 6 piece. It uses a sort of deep flute which makes it seem very calm, but still with a fast beat.
La-La Legend is a very strange arrangement of the Final Fantasy Prelude song that has a female sounding voice saying "la" all the way through the song. It is quite creative but it doesn't appeal to the type of game, maybe if they make "Crazy Chocobo Racing" where they're all in mental homes in white jackets, this song will fit in.
The Black Manor is a good keyboard arrangement of Final Fantasy 2's "Magician's Tower" with ghost special effects as background music. A nice change from the original and somewhat boring FF2 piece.
Moving on to another one of the better tracks in the album. The Floating Garden is a synth based arrangement from Final Fantasy 5's "The New Origin" I like the music itself but the faster beat adds a little kick in it, worthy of being in a racing game but still peaceful.
The theme to the Mithril Mines is in fact an arrangement of Gurgu Volcano in Final Fantasy 1, which is also in Mt Gulug in Final Fantasy 9. The arrangement, I think, should have been done for the Vulcan-O-Valley track, which had a completely different track to it. Perhaps they wanted to mess with our minds. At any rate, this is the best track on the album, not by far, but it is good. It has a relatively good drum beat, but the best part is the fact that it's all done fast, which I think makes the song sound better. I think though, that Kenji Ito could have included the full tune into the arrangement.
The FF8 Curcuit piece is an arrangement of the Final Fantasy 8 battle theme "Don't Be Afraid" and is a great piece. The speeding up of the song and making it less orchestrated really makes the difference.
The final track, Treasure Chest of the Heart, is a Japanese sung song. Clearly the longest song on the album, it is an original and covers the entire ending theme for the game. Skipping past the vocals, there's some great orchestral instruments playing in the background mixed with drums. Though I can't really comment on the standard of singing, I'm sure if I knew what the words meant, I'd like them too, as it all seems to blend in.
Though this may be another unknown and not too liked games, the arrangements of classic songs are done with good skill. And the reason that it doesn't get an ultimately high score, is that most of the songs I've mentioned are the only really good songs on the album, but there are some others on there. Definately worth a listen to if you're a fan of the Final Fantasy soundtracks.
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| Album Information | Reviewer Rank |
|---|---|
|
Chocobo Racing OST Published by: DigiCube Release Date: March 25th 1999 Composed by: Nobuo Uematsu, Kenji Ito Arranged by: Kenji Ito 1 Disc, 30 Tracks Catalog: SSCX-10030 |
74 |
Reviewed by: Kie
Here we go, another arrangement soundtrack for the little Final Fantasy version of Mario Kart. The Chocobo Racing album involves arranger Kenji Ito, who remixes classic Final Fantasy songs for the game. Let's see how he did.
A lot of the songs on the album are arrangements of the regular Chocobo Theme. That is, tracks 01, 02, 03, 16, 17, 23, 28 and 29 are all arrangements from the same song. Dah de Chocobo is probably the best arrangement of that group. It has a very strong beat, with every loud drum and music beat hitting at the same time. It then gets into an easily recognisable trumpet for the main part of the song, and then comes in at the end with a great little electric guitar bit to end the song. Chocobo's Theme, or Dance de Chocobo for those in the know, is a more headbanging beat reliable Chocobo arrangement. Using long and also short beep noises as the tune. Original. Careful with your speakers on Cid's Test Course, as it is very loud no matter what bitrate it's at. It is a pretty great arrangement of the Chocobo Theme, sounding very much like the original, except with different instruments.
As for other tracks, Moogle Forest is a very nice, peaceful arrangement of "Children Seem Near", a Final Fantasy 6 piece. It uses a sort of deep flute which makes it seem very calm, but still with a fast beat.
La-La Legend is a very strange arrangement of the Final Fantasy Prelude song that has a female sounding voice saying "la" all the way through the song. It is quite creative but it doesn't appeal to the type of game, maybe if they make "Crazy Chocobo Racing" where they're all in mental homes in white jackets, this song will fit in.
The Black Manor is a good keyboard arrangement of Final Fantasy 2's "Magician's Tower" with ghost special effects as background music. A nice change from the original and somewhat boring FF2 piece.
Moving on to another one of the better tracks in the album. The Floating Garden is a synth based arrangement from Final Fantasy 5's "The New Origin" I like the music itself but the faster beat adds a little kick in it, worthy of being in a racing game but still peaceful.
The theme to the Mithril Mines is in fact an arrangement of Gurgu Volcano in Final Fantasy 1, which is also in Mt Gulug in Final Fantasy 9. The arrangement, I think, should have been done for the Vulcan-O-Valley track, which had a completely different track to it. Perhaps they wanted to mess with our minds. At any rate, this is the best track on the album, not by far, but it is good. It has a relatively good drum beat, but the best part is the fact that it's all done fast, which I think makes the song sound better. I think though, that Kenji Ito could have included the full tune into the arrangement.
The FF8 Curcuit piece is an arrangement of the Final Fantasy 8 battle theme "Don't Be Afraid" and is a great piece. The speeding up of the song and making it less orchestrated really makes the difference.
The final track, Treasure Chest of the Heart, is a Japanese sung song. Clearly the longest song on the album, it is an original and covers the entire ending theme for the game. Skipping past the vocals, there's some great orchestral instruments playing in the background mixed with drums. Though I can't really comment on the standard of singing, I'm sure if I knew what the words meant, I'd like them too, as it all seems to blend in.
Though this may be another unknown and not too liked games, the arrangements of classic songs are done with good skill. And the reason that it doesn't get an ultimately high score, is that most of the songs I've mentioned are the only really good songs on the album, but there are some others on there. Definately worth a listen to if you're a fan of the Final Fantasy soundtracks.
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