Offspring Fling, the fantastic hark back to old times game released recently has an equally quaint and joyous soundtrack alongside it thanks to Alec Holowka. Opening with its slightly regal but playful “Mother’s Day” you’re presented with a lovely sample base of strings that fall somewhere between the PS1/PS2 era. It’s a catchy tune and effortlessly rolls into the more dramatic and pacey “Adeventures Time” which has some wonderful string arrangements that bring out all the danger and excitement whilst the woodblock percussive edge keeps things playful and very much old skool. It’s a fantastic track. “Misty Morn” is a cute raspy little number which serves a good step down before you get “Mellow Magnificent” which is magnificent in name and nature. It shows off one of the styles of song structure that pops up throughout where one riff is held over four rotating chords. The string arrangements and keyboard embellishments work particularly well here and this track is certainly one of my favourites.
“John Waters” is an intentionally clumsy waltz with some interesting tempo changes. I really enjoy the way some of the notes are held as if they are chord belches to show how “bleugh” the character may be. Long live deep bass notes! “Lil Piggy” is in a similar vein with its comedic approach but this ones more chirpy as it rolls between four lines of one riff to another. “Snow Problem” is the first aural piece with softened echoing piano underlying the usual strings and although the strings are brought to the foreground, it still has a melancholy feel throughout.
“This is the Day” returns to the more dramatic bouncy feel of the earlier tracks which is then given a panic version with “Dangerisk” which sounds as close to a boss battle as anything has so far where as “Rumbly Rumble” brings out some synth bass work and some dramatic piano music to give us the big, dark dramatic track which really does sound like boss music! It’s catchy, edgy and suitably brass heavy. Good fun! “Mending” is the calming waters afterwards as things quieten down before the soundtrack rounds off with the rolling joy of “Flinging High” which is like a reprise of best parts of the soundtrack… but with new riffs!
Offspring Fling’s soundtrack is well put together. The tracks roll easily between mini riff to mini riff and never get stale. Each track repeats twice before seamlessly joining the next one so you can happily run them all back to back and in fact back to the beginning again from the end. Alex Holowka has made a great job in encapsulating an era when the fun, clumsy but catchy music of a platformer could stick in your head for hours. It’s as if we never left it.