I was pleasantly surprised by the jazz-fusion style music in Capcom's "Street Fighter EX plus Alpha" game. So, I thought I'd be just as pleased with the music of its sequel, "Street Fighter EX 2."

The good news is that the songs are all new; you won't find any remixes of any of the familiar songs from "Street Fighter II" or "Street Fighter Alpha". Unfortunately, that is also bad news.

Simply put, the new compositions are absolutely awful. Not one of the songs has a stable rhythm or discernable melody and the drum support is just not there. Nearly all of them, especially "Pearl in the Sky" and "Lost Sea", are so messy that you won't know if you're listening to music or just random sounds and notes.

The only saving grace for this soundtrack lies in the last ten songs, which are taken directly from Street Fighter EX plus Alpha. From the jazzy, saxophone-laden sound of "Precious Heart" to the fierce drumming and guitar work in "Stronger", these songs are what the rest of the soundtrack should have been. However, a few of the best songs from Street Fighter EX plus Alpha, including the hard rockin' "Irreconcilably" and "Strange Sunset" (my favorite), didn't make it into this section of the disc. If you want to hear those songs, then you'll have to rely on the sound test in the PlayStation game.

Bottom line, the Street Fighter EX 2 soundtrack is too quirky and unbalanced, even for a PCM original soundtrack. It's nothing like the most of the other Street Fighter soundtracks, and as such is simply not worth the money.