A review by Rebecca Fleming
As most of you have probably seen or heard by now, Nintendo recently announced that they would be discontinuing the Club Nintendo program later this year. (For those unfamiliar with Club Nintendo, when you purchase Nintendo games and register them, you get stars, which can be saved up and exchanged for merchandise from the Club Nintendo site.) I had a number of points stored up and was trying to decide if I should spend them on a Pikmin tote when the soundtrack for The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds popped up on the site. Being a fan of Zelda games not just for their game play but for their music as well, I ordered it immediately (lucky I did, as it didn’t take long for it to ‘sell’ out). A little over a week later, I have it in my hands:
Like the Super Mario 3D World OST that I reviewed recently, the ALBW soundtrack is a 2CD set. It has 105 tracks split across the two CDs, with the first being based on Hyrule and the second being based on Lorule (those who have played the game will recall that the adventure takes place across two versions of the world: the normal, bright Hyrule and the dark-alternative Lorule). The CDs themselves look quite nice (below is disk 1; disk 2 has the design reversed and is pink):
Unlike the SM3DW soundtrack (which had a fairly thick booklet with some information about each track), the ALBW cover insert is a lot lighter; it’s basically just a folded sheet with the track listing, along with a pretty gorgeous piece of artwork.
However, on the other side of the sheet is something pretty cool which the musicians out there will particularly enjoy; sheet music for some of the melodies in the game.
The scores are divided into three categories — beginner, intermediate and advanced — so even if you’re not particularly good at music, you can still have a bit of fun trying to play some of the simpler melodies.
As well as music from the games, the CDs also include familiar soundtracks such as the sound that plays when you open a chest. Some of the music has featured in other Zelda games (such as the Fairy Fountain theme and the Kakariko Village music), but much of it is new music created for ALBW. There are some dark and foreboding tunes mixed in with lighter, upbeat tracks and some that are slow-paced, relaxing and peaceful.
I’m definitely glad I got this CD and I recommend it to any Zelda fan. I’m just sad that I never got my hands on the Ocarina of Time soundtrack.
The official Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds website is over here.
