Lower Brinstar has two other versions in Prime 2 and Samus Returns. It's one of the more iconic songs in the series. It's normally an area theme, but the Dread version only plays during a story cutscene, so that explains the different tone.
The coolest part of Upper Brinstar is that opening. The melody floats in as you’re riding down the elevator, then as soon as you touch down the song kicks in fully. Just that feeling of “oooooh yeah, here we go” is something I love
Super Metroid is such a banger game and it's probably very much up your alley if you were considering playing it someday. AND it's got one of the most iconic game soundtracks of its time.
the reason of why the Dread version sounds less "danger" and more "hope" is because is in a cutscene that make you conect in a nostalgy way to the SNES song, is a callback that make you feel like you're in front of something familiar and hopeful instead of the normal "fear to the unknown" the whole series want to make you feel
Super happy to see these, these are probably the 2 top songs I’d suggest if I was the one suggesting songs You’re on point with the vibes and style of Metroid music as a whole, it’s generally really atmospheric with a sprinkling of melody and Brinstar Jungle Floor is a bit of an outlier style-wise I also wanted to add, the second (and third) song here has been remixed 3 times to be used in 4 Metroid games, each of the 4 with a slight different vibe and different environments it’s used in
Sh*t were lost today~ I can't express how happy I was to see that title in my sub-box. Super Metroid is something special. It's one of the few if not the only Nintendo IP that is mature and dark. The OST reflect the tone very well. Quite short too. A couple of short streams would do it, certainly is worth a playthrough.
The game that started the whole genre ! And an amazing game to boot! I finally played it few years ago, and boy did it hold up well. Its actually insane how much this game does right, that all good future metroidvanias tried to include and improve upon. Its nuts really. The interconnecting isolated world, the insanely good atmosphere, the fun gameplay and movement options. The weapon variety. And the soundtrack is just GODLY, you are literally feeling like being in a truly alien place, an unfriendly weird place. Everything around you feels alien, otherworldly even. And the music supports that even more ! Definitely a game that is begged to be tried by at least some of us that can appreciate oldschool games! And hey its a short game ! Worth every hour in gold! Its truly hard to believe that this was accomplished in SNES, like damn.
Nice to see Metroid back on the channel, some really good picks here. Regarding the vocals or vocal synths you mentioned, I'd say they're a staple addition to most Metroid soundtracks, with them being present in about half of the games' main themes and in various area themes like these. To me, they contribute a lot to the unique "feel" the Metroid series' music has, and create great atmosphere when exploring ruins or such from a lost civilization.
The Prime series specifically is quite notorious for its vocals. Tallon Overworld Depths and Fendrana Drifts from Prime 1, Main Theme of Prime 2, Skytown from Prime 3, and even the trailer epilogue of Prime 4 are clear examples.
I believe I said this last time, but Metroid is heavily inspired by the movie Alien. As such, yes the music is purposely designed in such a way as to evoke terror and dread, to emphasize the fact that Samus is alone on a hostile planet where literally everything wants her dead. Unfortunately I've yet to play Dread, been bugging me for a long time now as it's been an eternity since Metroid Fusion came out, and Dread is the first direct sequel to it.
Woo. I couldn't resist requesting the Dread version of Lower Brinstar, because I think it's beautiful how they remade it. Not trying to steal any of Super Metroid's thunder though. It really is a great soundtrack and you're right in bringing up that it kinda sounds like a horror. Lower Brinstar has arrangements in other Metroid games as well. I would have loved to request them all.
Metroid Dread (aka "Metroid 5") actually has a couple decades of history behind it, but it finally released on Switch in 2021, developed by Mercury Steam in Spain. The first fully new 2D Metroid game since Metroid Fusion in 2002. (though in 2004 a remake of the first Metroid (NES) released on the Game Boy Advance, called "Zero Mission")
The Prime 2 version of Lower Brinstar, "Subterranean Torvus Bog" (Or "Torvus Catacombs") is absolutely my favorite rendition of Lower Brinstar by far, and one of my favorite video game songs in general. It's so damn atmospheric and chill with the "Metroid Prime Soundfont" and those alien whistles, I can literally listen to it for hours on end. Hope you get to hear it one day!
OH!!!!! UPPER BRINSTAR (Jungle Floor) HAS A REMIX IN PRIME 2 AS WELL AND IT'S A TOTAL BANGER! "Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - Multiplayer - Hunters". Hope these both get accidentally paired up in the future so you get a funny sense of deja vu, but regular Torvus Bog has probably also been requested in the patreon and it's one of if not *the best song* in the Prime Trilogy. If anything's gonna get paired with Subterranean Torvus Bog it's probably gonna be that one instead, haha.
The Dread version of Lower Brinstar has a COMPLETELY different context as opposed to the Super Metroid Version. The dread version is actually a cutscene theme. That's why the vibe is very different.
The Underground Depths song is so fucking scary. It exists in Metroid Prime 2 under the title Hydrodynamo Station and I to this day find that place incredibly hard to traverse due to the music. The green water, the black silhouettes of the giant predator fish circling far down below, slowly descending yet feeling like the fish aren't getting much bigger in my vision, telling me the shaft is far far longer than I thought, and the fish much much bigger as well. Yet downwards is the only way forward...
I actually like the basic music lessons. Especially if they're towards the end of the video they're helpful for a music illiterate like me. Anyone can react to a song, we come here to watch "a musician himself" react!
we'd all love to finish off the quadrilodgy and listen to the prime 2 version and samus returns version of underground depths lol. Prime 2 (well the whole trilogy) has one of the most unique sound fonts I've ever heard in a game. Like others have said the dread version was made to sync up with a cutscene, if you want a more traditional remake of this song, the samus returns mix is what you want to hear.
also the cutscene in question is answering some questions that have like, 30 years worth of buildup for metroid fans. So the "elusive and mysterious" comments are bang on. Dread (2021) is the first step forward in the metroid timeline since metroid fusion (2002), so to finally new major lore drops for the first time in 19 years while a remix of one of the most loved songs in the series plays in the background is pretty much peak gaming. I love it. Genuinely one of my favorite video game moments of the last decade.
Hopefully someday he explores AM2R music... while it's not official Nintendo, the people who worked on that did a very awesome job of blending Super Metroid and Metroid Prime into one sound.
My favorite version of Lower Brinstar is the Prime 2 version, but I can't blame you for missing it because even if it HAS been submitted it goes under a different name in that game. Though it doesn't have an official name i dont think, so it's usually something along the lines of "Torvus Bog Subterranean theme"
It unironically ruined Hollow Knight for me. I played it, loved it, thought, "I should play another really good metroidvania" right after, and Hollow Knight just felt unbearably slow in comparison. I played far enough to get the dash and it still didn't help. So yeah, damn near perfect game. Buyer beware on how high it sets your expectations though 😅
@@CarbonMage eh, hollow knight definitely does some things better than dread. Dread almost always holds ur hand unless u sequence break and while the bosses are pretty good (final boss is obviously amazing), HK boss line up is overall a whole lot better, while going completely hands off the moment u obtain the 4th major ability, potentially 3rd. There are other aspects where one is better than the other, but i dont think dread is clearly better than HK
@kurokofs113 I don't necessarily disagree, but Dread feels so good to physically play that hollow knight felt unbearably clunky in comparison. I did not particularly enjoy any of the bosses up through and including the first Hornet fight, and played another hour or so after that to see if the dash changed things for me, and it didn't. I may very well have loved Hollow Knight under different circumstances, which is why I say Dread unironically ruined it for me
Dread was my GOTY the year it came out, hands down. Felt SO good to play and it was such a joy to explore and fight. Oddly enough though by comparison, the soundtrack rarely (if ever) clicked with me
It's got the tone of dark 80s sci fi to me maybe... It wouldn't be too out of place in films like the original Terminator movie or whatever... Metroid games are typically exploring an area alone, similar to something like Castlevania Symphony of the Night... But instead of an evil castle, it's an abandoned space station or asteroid caverns inhabited by hostile aliens or whatever... There are fast paced moments, but there's also a lot of slow exploration... Maybe most of it will be kinda slow paced until near the end of the game, once you have your mobility options and know the layout of everything... So yeah, a lot of the game is about ambience... It's not a game series I've really got into for myself yet, although I plan to, but I've always respected it... The original soundtrack for the original Metroid game is surprisingly effective, despite being ambient music created for an NES game... It's crazy... And Super Metroid and later iterations build on that, using the better hardware of the time... It's not all music I'd want to regularly listen to, but you know? It's super good at its job.
Just because a song is energetic, doesn't make it upbeat. Upper Brinstar has a fast-paced beat, but the area it plays for is still really dangerous for a first main area (I doubt anyone will argue that Crateria is anything more than a thoroughfare).
Just a heads up for future videos, in case you aren't aware yet, there's a TH-cam channel called Jammin' Sam Miller that uploads restored versions of many old video game soundtracks, including Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Countries etc. And by restored, I mean that he has remade the songs exactly as they are in the video games, but without the hard compression of old game cartridges. They're basically just HQ versions of the songs. If you're doing reaction videos to songs like this in future, I recommend checking if it's one of the many songs he has reconstructed. Again, they're exactly the same, just higher quality. (Also, the Metroid song you were talking about in the beginning is probably Phendrana Drifts)
Lower Brinstar has two other versions in Prime 2 and Samus Returns. It's one of the more iconic songs in the series. It's normally an area theme, but the Dread version only plays during a story cutscene, so that explains the different tone.
The coolest part of Upper Brinstar is that opening. The melody floats in as you’re riding down the elevator, then as soon as you touch down the song kicks in fully. Just that feeling of “oooooh yeah, here we go” is something I love
This is hands down the best part, and one of the most memorable bits of the game.
The dread remix actually plays in a cutscene which is why the feel is so different
I liked the Japanese style, and it makes sense to play in a cutscene because the planet turned into a dust in the 3rd game, so
Super Metroid is such a banger game and it's probably very much up your alley if you were considering playing it someday. AND it's got one of the most iconic game soundtracks of its time.
the reason of why the Dread version sounds less "danger" and more "hope" is because is in a cutscene that make you conect in a nostalgy way to the SNES song, is a callback that make you feel like you're in front of something familiar and hopeful instead of the normal "fear to the unknown" the whole series want to make you feel
2:28 As a series it probably some of the best fitting soundtrack pieces ever written. Metroid is the pinnacle of thematic music.
"It's like the most calm version of chaos I can imagine" is actually a really good way of characterizing lower brinstar
VERY GOOD track choice! I was listening to this soundtrack a decade before I ever played the games
Super happy to see these, these are probably the 2 top songs I’d suggest if I was the one suggesting songs
You’re on point with the vibes and style of Metroid music as a whole, it’s generally really atmospheric with a sprinkling of melody and Brinstar Jungle Floor is a bit of an outlier style-wise
I also wanted to add, the second (and third) song here has been remixed 3 times to be used in 4 Metroid games, each of the 4 with a slight different vibe and different environments it’s used in
Sh*t were lost today~ I can't express how happy I was to see that title in my sub-box. Super Metroid is something special. It's one of the few if not the only Nintendo IP that is mature and dark. The OST reflect the tone very well. Quite short too. A couple of short streams would do it, certainly is worth a playthrough.
The Dread version was such an unexpected moment for many reasons I won't get into for spoiler reasons but the song was perfect for its situation
The game that started the whole genre ! And an amazing game to boot! I finally played it few years ago, and boy did it hold up well. Its actually insane how much this game does right, that all good future metroidvanias tried to include and improve upon. Its nuts really. The interconnecting isolated world, the insanely good atmosphere, the fun gameplay and movement options. The weapon variety.
And the soundtrack is just GODLY, you are literally feeling like being in a truly alien place, an unfriendly weird place. Everything around you feels alien, otherworldly even. And the music supports that even more ! Definitely a game that is begged to be tried by at least some of us that can appreciate oldschool games! And hey its a short game ! Worth every hour in gold! Its truly hard to believe that this was accomplished in SNES, like damn.
Nice to see Metroid back on the channel, some really good picks here.
Regarding the vocals or vocal synths you mentioned, I'd say they're a staple addition to most Metroid soundtracks, with them being present in about half of the games' main themes and in various area themes like these. To me, they contribute a lot to the unique "feel" the Metroid series' music has, and create great atmosphere when exploring ruins or such from a lost civilization.
The Prime series specifically is quite notorious for its vocals. Tallon Overworld Depths and Fendrana Drifts from Prime 1, Main Theme of Prime 2, Skytown from Prime 3, and even the trailer epilogue of Prime 4 are clear examples.
I believe I said this last time, but Metroid is heavily inspired by the movie Alien. As such, yes the music is purposely designed in such a way as to evoke terror and dread, to emphasize the fact that Samus is alone on a hostile planet where literally everything wants her dead.
Unfortunately I've yet to play Dread, been bugging me for a long time now as it's been an eternity since Metroid Fusion came out, and Dread is the first direct sequel to it.
It's always a good day when Metroid gets time in the spotlight.
Woo. I couldn't resist requesting the Dread version of Lower Brinstar, because I think it's beautiful how they remade it. Not trying to steal any of Super Metroid's thunder though. It really is a great soundtrack and you're right in bringing up that it kinda sounds like a horror.
Lower Brinstar has arrangements in other Metroid games as well. I would have loved to request them all.
Metroid Dread (aka "Metroid 5") actually has a couple decades of history behind it, but it finally released on Switch in 2021, developed by Mercury Steam in Spain.
The first fully new 2D Metroid game since Metroid Fusion in 2002.
(though in 2004 a remake of the first Metroid (NES) released on the Game Boy Advance, called "Zero Mission")
Uncle Jesse and Metroid is a good combo
The Prime 2 version of Lower Brinstar, "Subterranean Torvus Bog" (Or "Torvus Catacombs") is absolutely my favorite rendition of Lower Brinstar by far, and one of my favorite video game songs in general. It's so damn atmospheric and chill with the "Metroid Prime Soundfont" and those alien whistles, I can literally listen to it for hours on end. Hope you get to hear it one day!
OH!!!!!
UPPER BRINSTAR (Jungle Floor) HAS A REMIX IN PRIME 2 AS WELL AND IT'S A TOTAL BANGER! "Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - Multiplayer - Hunters".
Hope these both get accidentally paired up in the future so you get a funny sense of deja vu, but regular Torvus Bog has probably also been requested in the patreon and it's one of if not *the best song* in the Prime Trilogy. If anything's gonna get paired with Subterranean Torvus Bog it's probably gonna be that one instead, haha.
This song will always remind me of TerminalMontage's Something About Super Metroid and it using Dominic Ninmark's eurobeat remix
The Dread version of Lower Brinstar has a COMPLETELY different context as opposed to the Super Metroid Version. The dread version is actually a cutscene theme. That's why the vibe is very different.
The Underground Depths song is so fucking scary. It exists in Metroid Prime 2 under the title Hydrodynamo Station and I to this day find that place incredibly hard to traverse due to the music.
The green water, the black silhouettes of the giant predator fish circling far down below, slowly descending yet feeling like the fish aren't getting much bigger in my vision, telling me the shaft is far far longer than I thought, and the fish much much bigger as well. Yet downwards is the only way forward...
Vocal synths are something of a Metroid signature, I'd say
I hadn't heard the dread version before, that sounded amazing.
I actually like the basic music lessons. Especially if they're towards the end of the video they're helpful for a music illiterate like me. Anyone can react to a song, we come here to watch "a musician himself" react!
Underground Depths is my favorite song of super metroid
These two songs are my absolute favorites from the Super Metroid
we'd all love to finish off the quadrilodgy and listen to the prime 2 version and samus returns version of underground depths lol.
Prime 2 (well the whole trilogy) has one of the most unique sound fonts I've ever heard in a game.
Like others have said the dread version was made to sync up with a cutscene, if you want a more traditional remake of this song, the samus returns mix is what you want to hear.
also the cutscene in question is answering some questions that have like, 30 years worth of buildup for metroid fans. So the "elusive and mysterious" comments are bang on. Dread (2021) is the first step forward in the metroid timeline since metroid fusion (2002), so to finally new major lore drops for the first time in 19 years while a remix of one of the most loved songs in the series plays in the background is pretty much peak gaming. I love it. Genuinely one of my favorite video game moments of the last decade.
Hopefully someday he explores AM2R music... while it's not official Nintendo, the people who worked on that did a very awesome job of blending Super Metroid and Metroid Prime into one sound.
Timely since the finale to AGDQ this week is a Super Metroid Map Randomizer Race.
My favorite version of Lower Brinstar is the Prime 2 version, but I can't blame you for missing it because even if it HAS been submitted it goes under a different name in that game. Though it doesn't have an official name i dont think, so it's usually something along the lines of "Torvus Bog Subterranean theme"
I think my favorite version of the Lower Brinstar theme is the one from Samus Returns on the 3DS. You should definitely check it out.
metroid is my undisputed favorite game series from nintendo
Brinstar is just so classic.
Both Brinstars are peak
Dread was a damn near perfect game.
It unironically ruined Hollow Knight for me. I played it, loved it, thought, "I should play another really good metroidvania" right after, and Hollow Knight just felt unbearably slow in comparison. I played far enough to get the dash and it still didn't help.
So yeah, damn near perfect game. Buyer beware on how high it sets your expectations though 😅
So is Super Metroid. And Metroid Fusion. Most of the series would fit well in a Top 100 games of all time list.
@@CarbonMage eh, hollow knight definitely does some things better than dread. Dread almost always holds ur hand unless u sequence break and while the bosses are pretty good (final boss is obviously amazing), HK boss line up is overall a whole lot better, while going completely hands off the moment u obtain the 4th major ability, potentially 3rd. There are other aspects where one is better than the other, but i dont think dread is clearly better than HK
@kurokofs113 I don't necessarily disagree, but Dread feels so good to physically play that hollow knight felt unbearably clunky in comparison. I did not particularly enjoy any of the bosses up through and including the first Hornet fight, and played another hour or so after that to see if the dash changed things for me, and it didn't.
I may very well have loved Hollow Knight under different circumstances, which is why I say Dread unironically ruined it for me
Dread was my GOTY the year it came out, hands down. Felt SO good to play and it was such a joy to explore and fight. Oddly enough though by comparison, the soundtrack rarely (if ever) clicked with me
Wish the Prime 2 version of Lower Brinstar was also requested.
Always love Metroid :D
It's got the tone of dark 80s sci fi to me maybe... It wouldn't be too out of place in films like the original Terminator movie or whatever...
Metroid games are typically exploring an area alone, similar to something like Castlevania Symphony of the Night... But instead of an evil castle, it's an abandoned space station or asteroid caverns inhabited by hostile aliens or whatever... There are fast paced moments, but there's also a lot of slow exploration... Maybe most of it will be kinda slow paced until near the end of the game, once you have your mobility options and know the layout of everything... So yeah, a lot of the game is about ambience... It's not a game series I've really got into for myself yet, although I plan to, but I've always respected it... The original soundtrack for the original Metroid game is surprisingly effective, despite being ambient music created for an NES game... It's crazy... And Super Metroid and later iterations build on that, using the better hardware of the time... It's not all music I'd want to regularly listen to, but you know? It's super good at its job.
Dread is a masterpiece. You should definitely play it when you get the chance.
Reminds me of some track from Tubular Bells II
Just because a song is energetic, doesn't make it upbeat. Upper Brinstar has a fast-paced beat, but the area it plays for is still really dangerous for a first main area (I doubt anyone will argue that Crateria is anything more than a thoroughfare).
Sucks they didnt have you react to upper and lower brinstar from prime 2 aka multiplayer battle theme and torvus bog depths
Just a heads up for future videos, in case you aren't aware yet, there's a TH-cam channel called Jammin' Sam Miller that uploads restored versions of many old video game soundtracks, including Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Countries etc. And by restored, I mean that he has remade the songs exactly as they are in the video games, but without the hard compression of old game cartridges. They're basically just HQ versions of the songs. If you're doing reaction videos to songs like this in future, I recommend checking if it's one of the many songs he has reconstructed. Again, they're exactly the same, just higher quality.
(Also, the Metroid song you were talking about in the beginning is probably Phendrana Drifts)