Wednesday, May 15, 2019

MIDI Week Singles: "Choke" - 1080° Avalanche (GC)


"Choke" from 1080° Avalanche on the GameCube (2003)
Composer: Cauterize
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo Software Technology



This might seem like a strange choice for a MIDI Week Single, but bare with me for a moment.  The song was used in 1080° Avalanche when it was released on the GameCube back in 2003.  And since we use songs in video games, I validate this as a choice.  We also write the articles so there is that too.

I think Dr. Potts put it best after I he had borrowed 1080° Avalanche for a while.  He said something along the lines of, that the music and songs in 1080° are not particularly great and probably would not listen to the songs out in the real world, but you definitely start to have favorite songs within the context of the game.  This is true for most, if not all of the alternative rock / nu-metal songs on the non-existent 1080° Avalanche soundtrack.

To me, what it feels like is that Nintendo was aiming for something similar to what Neversoft did with the music/songs in the Tony Hawk franchise.  That never quite happened for me.  Especially when I listen to the songs that were used in 1080°, I only feel a nostalgia for the game and the songs only feel like they are part of the game, not as stand alone songs; like when "If You Must" comes up, the songs stands by itself outside of the game.

So now that I am done ragging on the music from 1080°, I wanted to share "Choke" partly because it was one of my favorite songs from the game, but also because it does conjure moments of boarding down any one of those fictional mountains.  Although, I think I do genuinely like from 2:30 - 3:15, which coincidentally is the longest part of the song without any singing.  Something about this section just makes me want to boot up 1080° again with this song and hopefully be in a wide open area on the mountain going at maxed out speed.*



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
I'd Like To Chant Some Magic Spells


*We really need a snowboarding game on the Switch that isn't reliant on being able to do tricks a la SSX Tricky.

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