Daniel K Sep 21, 2008
they're aiming for Megaman 2, the songs aren't as smooth as the ones from that OST, but they're much flashier...almost showboating in some spots.
This really struck me as well. There is a limit to the extent you can re-create the sound of the past, since things like sound equipment and recording circumstances, as well as the general zeitgeist, are bound to be different. The Rockman 9 music sounds more sophisticated and complex than most classical NES music ("Maze of Death" and "Galaxy Fantasy" are good examples, but you hear it all over the album). The synth is lovely and goes a long way to win over my old-school gamer heart, but there's something in the overall sound that makes you feel that this stuff is not from the 80s.
The music itself? I have to admit that the OST hasn't grabbed me as much as I thought it would. Don't get me wrong, I love the NES synth, but about half of the stage themes just pass me by without much of an impression. So far, I feel its an unevenly balanced soundtrack, with some positively awesome tunes, but also a noticeable amount of bland tracks.
My absolute favourite is "Maze of Death". Holy shit is it good! Runners-up would be "Thunder Tornado" (no surprise they choose this one for the trailer) and "We're the Robots". I also have a weakness for "Splash Blue" - it's comparatively slow pace and beautiful melody paints a nice silhouette in contrast to the rest of the music, and it really reminds me of something from Capcom's NES Disney titles (Darkwing Duck or Duck Tales, can't quite remember). However, there's some boring stuff on here, there's no denying that. Some of the stage themes sound somewhat generic and don't register with me even after five times ("Concrete Jungle" comes to mind). I wouldn't exactly call them bad, they're just not too memorable. The only tracks I would call bad are the stage select and boss themes, they just sound like travesties of their NES counterparts. These sound like they didn't even try, like they just thought "lolz it sounds like NES, so they'll gobble it up anyway".
Its a cool soundtrack, but Rockman 2 or 3 it ain't. However, since there's some really awesome stuff on there, and since they had the sheer guts to produce this in the first place, I'm still giving it two thumbs up.