Bbain's Jukebox, Shade-Style: Zelda

Once again I've had a pretty significant hiatus, but here we are back for the tunes. Welcome back to Bbain's Jukebox!

By the time you read this, I'll probably be on my way to go see The Legend of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses. I've been waiting for this for literally four years, but now it's finally time for this thing to come to the low countries.

That's why today's Jukebox runs some of the best Zelda music to ever grace console or handheld. However, I'm going to try to avoid the obvious picks just to keep things interesting. So no Overworld Theme here. As for what you will find...you'll just have to see for yourself, won't you?

Now then. Let's put on those Mole Mitts and dig in!

"Horon Village" – Oracle of Seasons

Listen to that. Now that's what you call a nice town. It's all so perfectly happy and peaceful. Every time you step into Horon Village all of your cares just drift away. Sure, the Seasons of the world might be in terrible disarray, but none of that matters in Horon Village.

No, in Horon Village 8-bit tunes are king.

"Forest Temple" – Ocarina of Time

Things aren't quite so peaceful in the Forest Temple.

Personally, I love what this music does to the Forest Temple. What should by all accounts be a relatively ordinary temple suddenly gets a very eerie quality to it, and this theme is to blame. In fact I'm pretty sure this is one of those themes that "goes with everything". Put the Forest Temple theme under any scene of ordinary things, and watch it become the spookiest thing ever. Ain't no Shadow Temple going to match that!

It just goes to show what a little minimalism paired with unsettling vocals can do to a place!

"Minish Village" – The Minish Cap

And we're back to peaceful villages again!

I've mentioned before that The Minish Cap has an excellent soundtrack, especially for a GBA title. In fact, I'd argue that the only Zelda game with a better soundtrack than this is The Wind Waker, and those are some big shoes to fill for a small game like this.

Speaking of small, it's a small world where you'll come across this music. Early in the game Link learns to shrink down to less than an inch. When he steps into a cute little village made from everyday objects, inhabited by similarly small people, this music starts to play. It's at that moment that you realize this isn't some cheap knock-off Zelda game. It's the real deal.

If only Ezlo would shut up.

"Temple" – Super Smash Bros. Melee (The Adventure of Link)

This wouldn't be a real edition of the Jukebox if I didn't include a cheating entry.

This song was never actually in a Zelda game, at least not in this form. The Palace Theme from Adventure of Link still holds up really well even in its 8-bit form. However, Super Smash Bros. Melee gave it a magnificent upgrade and turned it into one of the best songs in either series. I knew this song front to back before I had ever even heard of Adventure of Link, simply because of how much I played the Temple stage in Melee. This song has since made its way to Brawl and now Smash 4 (on WiiU), and rightly so.

Take some of the best from Zelda, update it for Smash, and you get greatness.

"Staff Roll" (Medli’s Prayer & Makar’s Prayer) – The Wind Waker

Back when I started the Jukebox series, the first thing I did was highlight Credits themes from a number of games. They're often forgotten, but they have the potential to be some of the best music of any game.

The Wind Waker is one such case, as its credits music is one of my favorite tracks ever. I absolutely love how it combines Medli's Prayer, Makar's Prayer, and a number of other songs from the game into one gorgeous medley. I don't have much else to say about it. I don't feel like I have to. It quite simply doesn't get much better than this.

Man, that one flew by faster than the Postman.

However, there's one thing I have left to do. As we all know, music plays an important role in many Zelda games. From the Ocarina of Time to the eight Instruments of the Wind Fish, and from the Recorder to the Goddess Harp, there's hardly a Zelda game out there without a magical instrument of some kind. So I think it's no more than fair to honor those in-game instruments with an entry of their own.

There's many to choose from, as I've already said. But my favorite is easily the Spirit Flute from Spirit Tracks. It's a complete bitch to actually play, but it produces some hella fun tunes.

All Spirit Flute songs - Spirit Tracks

- Us heroes, we have so much to do

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