Based on the samples...It's not going to be as bad as I was dreading, but it's also probably not going to clear "novelty" status. I'll give it a listen, but I doubt it will do enough to win me over.

Funny, nobody seems to like the kick-ass Rock album, but THIS piece of drab uninspired Techno they do!
This is a good case of Fans Have Done It WAY Better Many Times Before.

Samples for every track are available here:

http://www.towerrecords.co.jp/sitemap/C … ORT_CD=101

No, I'm with you. I've never liked Shinji Hosoe and these samples are doing nothing to change my mind. I'm definitely giving this one a miss.

As for the Rock album, I think people criticize it more for what it doesn't have than what it does. Sure, I would have loved it to have had twice as many tracks, but what's there is delicious, and I've been enjoying the hell out of it.

Snake Man meets Ridge Racer. Star Man sounds interesting but this album is going to be as flat as rock arrange. Ah well, I'll take it for what it is.

The Complete Works had it down, especially for Star Man.

I really wish they'd release a box set for complete works along with the stuff from the Power Battle/Power Fighters to cover the remixed music in the Anniversary collection; Protoman (Darkman's) Theme was amazing.

Yeah, those Complete Works were awesome.
I never knew they were arrangeing the music for those games, so when I got RM4, my favorite, and fired it up in Navi mode and suddenly found the entire soundtrack to be arranged, I almost burst out in tears.

Well Atomic Planet managed to make Rockman 1~3 spotty, taking various tracks from the Power Battle games, misusing some tracks (like the Opening Stage from 7 on Topman, Cloudman from 7 on Magnetman). I think the original PlayStation version of 3 only had title and boss themes, the rest were all the original sounds.

On that note, here's the arrange staffs for the Complete Works series:

Rockman 4: Takuya Miyawaki, Naoto Tanaka, Toshio Kajino
Rockman 5: Masahito Nishio, Takuya Miyawaki, Naoto Tanaka, Toshio Kajino
Rockman 6: Naoto Tanaka, Toshio Kajino

Not too certain where these names came from as I don't own the PS originals (or even if they were credited in them). What I find further odd is the themes carried over from the Power Battle games have different staffers but are credited differently in the CW.

No, actually Atomic Planet didn't do anything that wasn't already in the PSX remakes. Those misuses were originally in there as well. It's just that where RM4, 5 and 6 had readily available remixed soundtracks in Navi Mode, RM1, 2 and 3 required some kind of button input.

Also: listening to the Techno AST right now, and I remain thoroughly unimpressed.
OCRemix has MUCH better stuff available for free.

Disco Dan Forever!

Although Shinji Hosoe is definitely awesome.

Wow, this album blows.  Finally checked out the samples, had some hope since it was Shinji, but this is awful, even by techno standards, every doujin Rockman techno/trance/club album I have destroys this album.  Check out "Rock Love" from Colis Postal for what this album should have been.

To each their own, my friend.

To me, this is my top arrange of 2007, along with that Romancing SaGa Doujin Arrange (which involved Hyakutaro Tsukumo and his friends from FNAG). I very much like Hosoe since his early Ridge Racer works, this is no diffrent.

I wasn't expecting him to re-invent the wheel so to speak and came off pleasantly surprised. I like it more than the Rock Arrange for one.

I feel like I'm voting in a presidential election when trying to compare the two - I really can't decide which one is less bad.

Pretty let down with both myself... I don't know, it wasn't like they were particularly bad or anything but rather they were not what I envisioned prior to listening. No real need to blast them into orbit though, they just weren't my thing.

For my money, they were both pretty average, nothing special types of albums, but I felt the techno one was better than the rock one which kinda missed the point.

I have no objections toward the Techno one, seeing as I <3 Shinji Hosoe.

Both albums are good. The rock one is more solid on the whole, but the techno one has some unique instruments and neat new melodic hooks. They're not up with my favorite albums of the year, but to call them bad would be illogical.

Still haven't heard the techno one in full (and I'm in no hurry), but as for the rock one...I feel like I can pull a totally random metal CD off the shelf and get something better. If it didn't have the Rockman melodies going for it, it would be totally worthless. The fact that it DOES and I still hate it is what makes it downright inexcusable. Anyone who thinks this is good...Please listen to Yngwie Malmsteen or Marty Friedman or Judas Priest or Gamma Ray or hell, practically any 80's metal band or power metal band for just a few minutes/songs to understand how sloppy this thing is and how little it uses the source material to any effect (except for how poorly it emulates it). Considering Rockman music practically comes from these genres (and is partially what got me into them), hearing an arranged album that is actually worse than any two-bit hair band I can find and can't even match the tempo of the originals is disheartening.

And to top it off...If they're going to stick originals on, could they at least allow them to finish ONCE before fading them? The boxset at least does that right.

Face it folks...They hosed us on this one. I'd say the rock arrange is easily bad enough to shake my already waning confidence in what the VGM scene is currently up to.

The Rock album grew on me quite a bit, and while the Techno album didn't blow my socks off like I expected it to, I still like it very much. They could have turned out better, but they also could have been far worse. If you don't like them, then don't listen to them - it's as simple as that.

So I'm just curious what your thoughts are on Tohru Iwao now? ;p

I'll tell you mine - utter disappointment. I know he's better than this. I've heard him play better than this. It's clear to me that he and Hosoe just took the money and ran here.

Poor album.

I am a grand Hosoe fan but I don't know what's been up with him lately. His work has sadly declined from his rock-tinted/Arika/Street Fighter EX/Driving Emotion days. It's as if he's been getting lazy.

This is my point, but replace it with actual good rockman arranges, because the only way I can see anyone liking these albums is out of ignorance from not hearing how these albums sound when done right.

I still think he's a sloppy guitar player, but I enjoy what he did with the Rock album.

Your statement here got me thinking about something else, another element of these releases - Rockman 7 and 8 included. Granted, the music is the most important aspect (duh!) but am I only one that thinks the presentation outside the clever cover art -  liners, disc art - was entirely second rate? I mean the blue-on-blue motif on the Rockman 8 disc creates no contrast at all. Is to too much to ask for a little more creativity and thought in an officially licensed product? Like I said, the music is the most important thing, but I expected more because I expect more from Japanese releases/albums than what's released elsewhere.

Really, Suleputer should have released these things.

What REALLY burns is that these ones cost an outright $30 (U.S.); most one-disc releases only cost about $22 (U.S.), but that seems to be when the retailer has a deal going with the supplier/manfucturer.

I guess they were only trying to capitalize on Rockman's popularity...and the price tags really give that away.

Yeah, when you look at it that way, the albums aren't worth it. I mean, I just downloaded my copies for free, so I didn't consider the cost.

2006 saw Ibara and Under Defeat, which I thought were great.