Analyzing specific games and their music styles: Kirby Series

The Kirby series has been around for many years, providing nice repetitive and fun gameplay. As a result, music is largely the same over all Kirby games, especially as they usually all use the same leit motif, or the same melody throughout different songs in the game.

Most Kirby songs incorporate flutes and pianos combined with all synthesized instruments, so the genre is rarely varied. This is shown in the song "Moonstruck Blossom" from Kirby: Triple Deluxe. The start of the song is very beautiful and atmospheric, where it uses a solo piano to show it. The song then transitions to a combination of piano, strings and synthesized sounds to build up the intensity of the song. This works really effectively as the music plays while fighting a literal queen bee who merges herself with a flower. As the fight gets more intense and prolonged, the brass kicks in to complement the synths. This is a common style in newer Kirby games like Kirby: Canvas Curse on the Nintendo DS and Kirby Returns to Dreamland on the Nintendo Wii. The style did change a bit, though, with the release of Kirby: Planet Robobot in 2016. Songs were largely more techno and computer based than usual as the theme of the game involved mainly robots and computers.

Quick Navigation: What is the video game music genre? | A Short Timeline of Video Game Music | The Specific Genre of Video Game Music | Super Mario Series Analysis | Zelda Series Analysis | Kirby Series Analysis | Crash Bandicoot Series Analysis | Music | Sources