Not all vehicle stages are bad. Jet Stingray's rocks all to hell because

A. you speed out of an exploding tunnel midway through, which is always rad,
B. AIR WHEELIES, and
C. AIR WHEELIES ON THE BOSS' HEAD WHILE HE TRIES BOMBING YOU

*ahem* But that's the most awesome case of course. I'll break MM's vehicle/autoscroll stages down for myself:

AWESOME
---
Jet Stingray

Acceptable
---
MM4 Cossack 3
Waveman
MM7 Wily 3 Boss
Frostman & MM8 Wily 1
MM8 Tenguman & MM8 Wily 2
Avalanche Yeti

#$@%&*!!
---
MM&B Tenguman
MM&B King 2 Boss
Squid Adler/Bolt Kraken
Ride Boarski
Crimson Palace Road
Gigabolt Man-O-War

Ever played Shin Contra...?

Couldn't agree more but then X4 just freakin' rocks period.

Avalanche Yeti is acceptable once you get the feel down and can avoid getting caught on things.

I don't think Squid Adler/Bolt Kraken is horrendous... once you get it down it's rather easy. Yeah, it's annoying feeling your way though it to get to that point but at least the stage's music helps ease any pain.

Ride Boarski's level is an abomination. I honestly can't believe this made the final cut and made it past testing when it's such a mess.

Gigabolt Man-O-War isn't as bad as Ride Boarski's level (the developers obviously learned a lesson there - shocker!) yet it's a real pain on the hardest diffculty. The thing that annoys me most is the music (a guest appearence by Okada) doesn't fit with the rest of the soundtrack.

I apologize for getting this thread slightly back on topic but there are a couple samples of the Rockman 9 Arrange Soundtrack over at the official site.  Sounds promising.  I'm really looking forward to hearing what Bun Bun's track sounds like!

-Mike

Oh awesome, the Staff Roll theme is going to be a vocal?  I am SO hitting that.

Speaking of MM9 arrangements...... I'm sure fan-made ones will be coming out soon enough, but have you all heard Juja's Tornado Man mix back during July's Dwelling of Duels?

Juja: Mega Man 9 - Super Fighting Robot 9:
http://dod.vgmix.com/past/jul08/ZZalt-J … ot-DoD.mp3

I thought the arrange CD isn't on sale until the 10th? I only ask because I saw one already up for sale.

Maybe that's a sample or something? The date is still the 10th as far as I know.

Definitely better than those *something* Anniversary Rock & Techno arranges...

Also, that dark, red-and-black version of the album cover looks cooler than the one they're using officially.

That's what I said!

This will definitely be getting transferred from .ape to .wav to .mp3, for the purpose of playback in my car. The MM9 OST has the type of sound I grew up hearing, so it is welcome indeed. There isn't a single stage theme that I dislike.

Samples are up for RM9 Arrange CD. It's... well, interesting. Not as metal as I had hoped, but there are only three songs represented:

http://www.inti.co.jp/cd/rockman9ast/index.htm

Those and the vocal, too, which plays in particular the bit that reminds me of Super Punch-Out's staff roll.

It sounds OK so far, but definitely more Alph Lyra than Inti Creates. I did laugh a bit when Hornet Dance whipped out the Superstitous riff, though.

I'd just completed a full playthrough of Super Punch-Out, and after hearing its end credits, I've gotta agree; that melodic strain sounds like a remarkably similar variation.  Good catch!

I'm digging the samples, especially the funky vibe coursing through Hornet Dance. And Magma Burning laced with a strings-heavy country flavor is something I don't think any of us would've expected.

Someone uploaded about half of the album half of the album on Youtube. I'm glad I didn't preorder this one. It's very... well, "meh" to me.

At least the Boss -Born Again- track delivers on that.
There's a section in that song ripped straight outta Metal Slug though, so less originality points for that move.

While the Arrange album has diversity, it doesn't have the ENERGY that I associate with Rockman, so I'm much preferring the OST at this point as well.  There's too much of a chill-out vibe, it could have been titled "Rockman Relaxation".

I really, really, really enjoyed the arrange album. It had a ton of diversity and definitely did things to Rockman music that I didn't think would work well, but ended up being quite exhilarating. Bun Bun's arrangement immediately comes to mind. That was pure genius there, if you ask me.

Either way, I'm rather impressed with the album. Sure, it wasn't chock full of energy, but does it really need to be?

You said it better than I did. I didn't find the arrangements or instrument choices to be that strong, either. The album tries to incorporate a bunch of styles on to one disc, but it really doesn't do any of them particularly well. Sure, the novelty factor is there, but this CD doesn't make the cut in my books.

Agreed.   I love the variety the album showcases, even if it's at the sacrifice of "energy."   From the simple piano elegance of the Prologue and Epilogue, to the aforementioned funky vibe of Hornet Fantasy, the country-strings flavor of Magma Burning, and the dance and techno beats employed in We're The Robots and Maze of Death - the music styles are constantly shifting gears, and it makes for an engaging listen.  Boss -Born Again- indeed slams hard, and Miki Tsuchiya's lovely "To A Bright Tomorrow" vocal was pulled off just as I had hoped.  (I only wished the Karaoke version was actually an Instrumental one; the lead melody would've sounded AMAZING as an instrument arranged.)

There are some missed opportunities, such as Thunder Tornado and Jewel Temptation, where the melody in both are much too subdued for their own good.  That, and a few of the songs could've stood for extended arrangement lengths.  Those aside, I'm pretty happy with the way the Arranged Soundtrack came out.  It hearkens back to the arranged soundtracks of yore, where there was free reign to work the 8-bit melodies in more flexible ways - as opposed to the arrangements of more modern OSTs, where there's almost an obligation to adhere most closely to the original sound.  It's nostalgically refreshing.

Hornet Man's arrange is just fun and funky -- this one just stands out the most. Though I like how original members of the Rockman sound team helped make this album possible, nothing is better than real instruments over keyboards (aside from the guitars, drums). I'll trade a real brass section or pianica over a keyboard imitation, no matter how genuine they sound (of course that makes costs to produce the album go up).

Hopefully with all this Rockman revival, we can finally see some quality, musically diverse arranges to the older Rockmans and make up for those heavily lacking 20th Anniversary mockeries.

On second listen through my acceptance is improving. 

But it's sounding less like Rockman and more like OTHER games though!!

Splash Woman is practically Schala from Chrono Trigger
Magma Man dreams of being in a Wild Arms intro
Overdrive Scamble is Magus from Chrono Trigger with a dash of Xenogears.
Suspense is done Soukaigi style, minus the live instruments which could have turned that into magic.
What do you Select? could be a SNK Fighter select screen.

These ARE good songs, they just aren't rockman songs anymore, which is fine if that's the direction the producer was aiming for. 
I'm glad Manami Matsumae still has a Rockman's heart though.

I had the same thought.  More specifically, it reminds me of the "Girl Forgotten In Time" arrangement from the Time & Space arranged album with its slight tribal percussion implementation.

I like the tonality of Splash Blue here, but I concede that somewhere in the middle there should've been a stronger more energetic emphasis on the percussion.  That would've made this song.

I dunno...I mean, I agree, but I didn't find anything on this one I'll listen to as much as I do the Tomahawkman theme on the Rock Arrange (which also happens to be the only track from those two albums that I thought did any justice to the original). Like, Wild Arms: Rocking Heart is a good "diverse" album, but it's awful as an actual rock album. Is it really that hard to take NES music and actually improve on it? A little speed metal would've done wonders for this one.

I don't really like what they did with this one at all. It feels like they tried to diversify the melodies with different sound set-ups and failed completely almost every time, either being short and haphazard takes (or just outright stupid...whoever chose the lead synths for Concreteman deserves some serious pain) or droning and too drawn out to matter. Which sucks, since I know III can arrange better than this, even if I don't dig the Remaster albums as much as I used to. Only ones I dig and will keep are Boss, We're The Robots and To a Shining Tomorrow. Jury's still out, but I'm leaning positive on Galaxyman and Maze of Death (yay for the drum samples!) Otherwise, total weaksauce.

Was the album actually supposed to have a rock-orientated theme? I don't remember them saying that, or anyone else here for that matter...

It could have been all POP or Dance even, at least that would have had a better chance of still sounding like Rockman songs rather than Mitsuda songs.

It also seems like 8-bit really IS the only way to really capture megaman properly.

Wholeheartedly agreed.

I disagree. The 32-bit era was extremely good to Mega Man X4.