Repeating for those needing, and for those who might've missed the news, TEAM Entertainment has announced "20th Anniversary: Rockman 1~6 Arrange Rock Ver.". No further details have been hatched but our imaginations are running wild from many years of hoping this day, December 5, 2007, would come.

This could be one of the most monumental arrangement albums in years, especially for deprived Rockman fans who've yet to see an arrangement disc full of classic Famicom/NES-era tunes. Everything is pure speculation as of now but what are some of your hopes, dreams, and wishes for arrange staffs/instrumental styles?

I, for one, would like a classic, diverse instrument offering taking some ideas from "Wild Arms...rocking heart" with guitar, sax, trumpet, violins.

I also hope they include some Wily Castle themes, especially Rockman 3 and 4.

There's just too much material to throw on one disc! I hope the staff is methodically planning to include as much material as possible.

I cannot wait until at least mid-November, then we'll have a tracklisting hopefully.

I hope this is going to be something truly special... even though most of the actual gaming has personally fallen by the wayside Rockman and Rockman music still occupy a large place in my heart and memories.

As for it being like Rocking Heart, I do wish for a varitey of instruments like the Rockman X album (it doesn't have to be live) but hopefully it will be something that has more longevity: I'm probably the only person who didn't fall in love with Rocking Heart for the long haul.

I thought Rocking Heart was pretty lame overall. Hopefully R1-6 arrange will turn out much better.

My ideal Rockman album would performed by a five piece band: two guitars, bass, drums and synth. That's it. No horns, no strings, no woodwinds; no extra crap. Just rock. If any series' music is begging for a straight up Konami-Battle-esque makeover, it's the NES Rockmans. Considering that it has been 20 years in the making, I really hope that this album doesn't end up being a mish-mash of a bunch of different styles and all that crap. Just give me metal and loud solos and rockin' drums and mind-bending dual guitar leads.

Zane, if you played the guitar, we could put together something like that.  I've always wanted to play drums for that type of music.

I've been playing guitar for about 11 years, man.

Imagine that. Something like Iron Maiden meets Capcom Sound Team. Hoo boy... that would be crazy!

The only album I liked of Rockman music was Rockman: The Power Fighters.  Unfortunately, the tracks were too short overall and it was a little too much synth.  It needs to sound more like Rockman Battle and Chase in terms of music "energy."

Power Fighters has always been a guilty pleasure but it's too damn easy in a certain sense... it's not a true-bread remix album as it is a synth-upgrade like the Zero albums. Not saying that's a bad thing it just makes the release of this album all the more enticing.

Considering all the Rockman doujins I've heard, this news doesn't excite me much, everything I've ever wanted to be done to Rockman music has been done.

Yeah, there's a lot of fanmade Rock arrangements around, but Capcom should have enough money and talent to make it sound better than most of what's already out there.

That said, one disc isn't very much is it? If you're going to take songs from MM1 to 6, there's not likely to be a lot of different themes from one game to be on there. I hope they don't stretch the arrangements out too long. I'd rather have like 25 3-minute songs than 15 5-minute ones.

As for sound quality, I DEFINITELY want, nay, DEMAND this to be live music, NO fake guitars.
I'd like something sounding similar to Guilty Gear X Heavy Rock tracks, or Isuka.

If you lived in the Vegas area, I'd be absolutely dead-set on getting you into a studio with myself to record some stuff.  Been playing the drums for 8 years, and I've definitely got the set to match the style.

This sounds about right (though it also describes my ideal VGM arrangements, period):

Though I'm open to something more pop-oriented, be it synth-driven ("Jump", the Ys Perfect Collections) or Poison/Judas Priest in the "Turbo" era or the stuff Marty Friedman does. In fact, those would probably fit the original music better...The former fits the X series like a glove. Given how deeply rooted in the 80's the classic Rockman music is, any of those (or a combination of all of them) would be ideal.

Of course, we're going to get everything BUT that. It can range from the Premium arranges (with each arranger indiscriminately applying their styles to whatever music they get assigned) to the Hudson Premium Arrange (chiptunes with techno beats to "modernize" them) to Gradius Tribute (half-assery all around) to the Rockman X arrange (not bad per se, but NOT something I turn to to relive Rockman X's score either) to...good god, I'll be amazed if they get this one right. I'm almost expecting a *guh* orchestral arrange for this. Hey, they crapped one out for Phoenix Wright...Maybe they'll even lease out Shiro Hamaguchi for some note-for-note piano "arranges". >_<

Like I said, I'll be dying to get this to compare it to the Rockman doujins we've seen recently. By all accounts, it should surpass them in production value. But...The "professionals" have been getting lit up the last 3 years or so, as far as the actual arrangements have gone (and for fan-arranged stuff, the production values have been pretty impressive), so I'll hold judgement for the final product. But I'm predicting a cash-in trainwreck.

1 album seems to be quite small, considering all the tracks to pick from. For all I care...They could give 1-6 each their own arrange album. But the inner fanboy in me demands the following be included at the very least:

Cutman
Fireman
Airman
Bubbleman
Woodman
Dr. Wily Stage 1 (MM2, MM3, MM4)
Hardman
Chargeman
Protoman's Castle
Mr. X's Stages
Skullman
Pharoahman
Tomahawkman

You have no idea...

http://www.sendspace.com/file/o97fc4

Power Fighters was an original soundtrack of an arcade game. The playing times basically mirror the originals and CPS2 wasn't exactly known for featuring realistic sound. Kinda helps to know this coming into this album. Battle and Chase I'm pretty sure was streamed PSX music, so it sounded more real as a result.

Scary thing is, after many years, I feel the NES music has actually aged better than Power Fighters/the PSX Rockman upgrades.

The sound quality isn't too great, but that's a pretty cool mix-up right there! Steve Harris is rolling over in his grave right about now. Wait a sec...

Man, I can only imagine hearing this with a group of guitars.

Yes, I forgot that The Power Fighter was actual OST music.  I didn't know it was done with CPS2 music capabilities.  That would explain why all the CPS2 games had the same sounds.  I was speaking in terms of The Power Fighters synth quality vs. the synth quality from Battle and Chase.

I haven't really been following the doujin scene, so could you point out some good/great Rockman doujin albums? (be it rock/jazz/whatever)

As for the album, I'm hoping for Dracula Battle style rock, that would seriously kick ass.

For rock, my favs are the two "Rock Buster" albums from J-Square, not to be confused with the RockBuster album from Colis Postal (which is still pretty good, but the latter features better tracks and live guitars), and "Megalomania" from Dangerous Mezashi Cat.  I also love Vurez's Rockman 6 tracks which are all over in the place in terms of style, you can download them from his website or OCR.

takrockers!! just released their R.O.C.Kman album this week at M3. I absolutely love it. It's kinda like Brink of Time; one of those albums that people are either going to love it or loathe it.

I can't help but grin whenever I listen to track 4. I love both Crash Man and Ring Man so that was a real treat for me.

But yea, every one of the albums Nemo mentioned are great.

I liked Rocking Heart, but it easily became overshadowed by Red Lucifer Rising.

Then again, I'm not really familar with a majority of the WA source material, anyway.

I hope this Rockman Arrange receives the traditional Capcom rock n' roll treatment; don't want a whole lot of experimental crap getting caught in there, really.

I'll be happy if I just hear live versions of the originals, maybe with a little improvisation, no matter what pieces they choose to rendition.

The Rockman X1~6 OST kind of disappoints me; the earlier stuff definitely hasn't aged well at all for me. It's indisputably synth. It sounded good in game, so I wonder if they just messed up with the audio mastering?

There are other SNES OSTs which don't grate on me, like Castlevania IV, Chrono Trigger, and Seiken Densetsu 3, so I can't say I just don't appreciate SNES synth.

Even X1? I've always found X2's score to be mostly unpleasant and X3 only slightly better, but I love RMX1 to death.

Yeah, the recent M3 had a Rockman explosion, like 5-6 new albums.  I haven't heard any of them yet, so I can't comment, but the one from  takrockers!! and a pair from Kissing the Mirror seem like the most intriguing.

Feel the same. X1 still stands extremely well, X2 is a deflated balloon outside a few key tracks ("Zero," "Sigma 1st" and "Ending" are all you truly need to know although I have a soft spot for "Crystal Snail Stage") and X3 is a small step above because its the overall style is more consistent than X2's.

Still, I'd be lying if I didn't say I found the PS1 scores (X4, X6) more attractive.

Thanks for the recommendations, I'll definitely check those out.

Just got this bit of info from a cdjapan newsletter this morning:

I don't know which guitarist this is, but you can't go wrong with any of them in my opinion.

Probably Tohru Iwao (who was the man in Heavy Rock Tracks and XX's OST, along with Sakuraba's more recent works that used electric guitars)...That's pretty awesome. But I'll gladly take the Isuka dudes or the guy from GG1 as well. Ironic, considering the *guh* orchestral soundtrack Guilty Gear 2: Overture is getting later this year.

Good news, Kaleb. Hopefully the music will be as good as the guitarists.

Also, going from that news post, it looks like the CD is strictly focusing on rock without any techno-ish style arrangements...

Buh?

I ain't complaining...The more Rockman 7 music they work in there, the better. Not going to let a little translation goof tarnish that potential.

And I retract most of my earlier, more pessimistic comments...I didn't see that this was going to be a strictly "rock" arrange and I was expecting the worst. Unlike Rocking Heart (which is much more of a variety album and WILL disappoint anyone looking for a straight rock album), I hope they just shred the f--- out of it from start to finish. That said, I'm not expecting miracles from the upcoming "techno" arrange...The doujin scene crapped out more than enough of those this year.

And the third one (the "rearrange") is anyone's guess.

I'll pass on the techno arrangements but this one sounds interesting. I have a soft spot for Rockman music (especially the chiptunes) and I think rock is probably the way to go.

Holy F*ck! My prayers have been answered!

Techno arrangements could be either very good or they could go very wrong, I'm not getting too excited about that, but I wonder what they mean by "re-arranged versions"...?

So they're going to do a "series?"

This is just getting better. I suppose this is the answer to arranging the gobs of tunes from 1~6 (and 7?); across three discs each with their own musical style(s). I'm relieved Guilty Gear players are signed on - I can't imagine anyone acing solid rock more.

My guess is re-arranged means other styles; orchestral, jazz, etc.?

Am I the only one dying for a Latin Jazz Mega Man arrange?  NYC Streets from SF3 was hot.

Dust Man's Stage always had a jazzy percussion to it, and I could imagine a saxophone lead in a Star Man arrange.

I have a feeling that the Rockman 7 mention by cdjapan was a mistake. The album title says 1~6, and likewise, that's the exact set of games covered by the OST. But as GoldfishX said, if there's 7, I'll be pleased.

The Guilty Gear guitarist is promising, but the music will only be as good as the arrangement. In the instance of GGX:HRT and GGXX, the arranger (Koichi SEIYAMA) and guitarist (Tohru Iwao) were separate people. But Isuka, for example, was both arranged and performed by Yoshino Kusano & Tetsuya Ohuchi. I'm hoping that one of the Guilty Gear arrangers will be handling this, or at least someone competent.

Wow if you pulled that off I would so buy it.

On a side note the only song that is an absolute must for me is Dr Wily theme from MM2.  I love the SSH arrangement of this song.  It has always been one of my all time favorite MM songs.  I've also used it as my cell phone ring tone for the past 7 hears.

BTW when does this release?  I havent bought any VGM recently but I think I might purchase this.

I'm glad this is being produced in Japan. It's my observation that Americans are too hung up over Mega Man 2 and its music.