Milky Way Wishes Tribute Review

I have always enjoyed the Kirby franchise and Kirby Super Star is easily my favourite game of the series. When I was growing up, Kirby Super Star was the game my brother and I played because it was the ideal two player co op game. Kirby games have that special charm to it. They can be cutesy, easy going games, yet at the same time, can be one of the more brutally challenging games, making you want to throw your controller or handheld in a fit of rage (looking at you The True Arena).

The team behind this album, as led by both halc9 and Arek the Absolute did a wonderful job on this album. Each of the songs have been beautifully redone in the arrangers style and for the most part they performed admirably. There are a couple of missteps along the way, but nothing that ruins the album.

Going along the album I am having a hard time figuring out which song of the 23 is my favourite. They all have something special to offer to the listener and some of the songs are so different the from the original, that they could almost be considered original compositions.

By far my favourite album is actually a tie between The Ballad of Meta Knight by halc, and Kirby no Nozomi by OverCoat.

The Ballad of Meta Knight reminds me a lot of either a Cave Story song or a track from Yoshi's Island two games which have been woefully neglected in the music community. This song feels less like the end of Revenge of Meta Knight's role call and more like a stage theme. Specifically an underground theme. The music gives a feeling of melancholy with a slight bit of desperation, which I have always associated with cavern stages. halc did a fantastic job on this track and of all the music he produced for this album The Ballad of Meta Knight is my favourite.

Kirby no Nozomi is the opposite of the Ballad of Meta Knight in how the music makes me feel. Whereas the latter song invoked feelings of desperation, Kirby no Nozomi seems to incite the feelings of childlike awe. This song would not seem out of place in a Brawl in the Family strip where Kirby and his Dreamland friends are star gazing on a hill. It is a very peaceful song and easily the best song to start the album off. OverCoat did a fantastic job on the track. This is a song I could easily put on repeat for an hour and not get tired of.

I think the weakest song of the album would be So Easy from PrototypeRaptor. In the song, it is sung from the perspective of King DeDeDe. It doesn't portray the portly penguin as a sympathetic character, but far more egotistical and tough then what he truly is. In the song King DeDeDe verbally attacks Kirby for a myriad of reasons, trying to break down the pink puffball. But all it does is showcase DeDeDe as nothing but a bully full of hot air. The song is okay, but I am not too fond of the lyrics, but at the same time, it is the lyrics that complete this song. If you are fond of this type of music then you will enjoy, it is just not my type.

Another slight misstep is that the group didn't have CarboHydroM on staff to do the last song. I am not saying Ergosonic's version of the Staff Credit Roll song is bad, I do enjoy it very much, but when comparing his and CarboHydroM's version, I feel that latter is the superior version. As I said, I do enjoy Ergosonic's take on the song, but I can't help but compare it to CarboHydroM's version.

So how does this tribute album stack up? It's pretty good. A nice variety of genre's of course and you can tell that over the 8 years, a lot of work went into the album. Aside from the music, I absolutely love the art that accompanied the album. It is very reminiscent of the old Kirby Dreamland games.

If you are a video game music fan with Kirby lacking in your collection then this album is defiantly worth a pickup. You can grab the album off of the Kirby Tribute website.

This is Daimo Mac and I am lost in the music.