To start out with the opening cinema is so epic. It fuses the main theme of 4 and then does an awesome mash up of a crap ton of songs. Just the way the song mashes up makes me extremely happy and gives chills to my spine towards the end. Select screen is pretty good especially with the nod to Alpha 3 in Main B.
The new selection songs are sufficiently badass but to tell you the truth I kind of miss the minor Indestructible remixes for this portion.
The theme songs really blow shit out of the water this time as far as composition goes. All of them come close to being as awesome as my fave songs from last game which were Snowy Rail Yard and Misty Bay.
Skyscraper being lead by overdriven guitar and metal clashes is completely awesome. I love the main melody and it really feels like Metro City to me.
Festival at Old Temple is an awesome ethnic/techno mashup with kind of a waltzy feel. I loved the hell out of this one. Does anyone else think this song screams hammered dulcimer?
Exciting Street Stage really makes good use of the old minor Indian keys and never stops being interesting. I was a little surprised at how upbeat this song was. To tell you the truth though this one doesn't fit my tastes really although I do enjoy the intro.
We finally get here. Solar Eclipse! I am sure there are many fans of this song and I'm no different. It doesn't really seem to go with the stage but its feel good techno and I don't give a shit because its that good. I could see Dee Jay jammin' out to this one. I'm pretty sure this song and the fact that there is a Solar Eclipse is the only reason I actually like the stage at all. Dumb hippos.
Crumbling Lab 1. Geez did this get awesome. As Secret Lab's replacement more or less it gets rid of the epic feel and replaces it with pumping techno thats hard not to get excited for. I always felt pumped to kick Seth's ass to this song. IMHO I think this usurps both Brave or Grave and Psych Out as my favorite SF boss theme.
Crumbling Lab 2 is the same really except with the epic voice treatment. So enjoyable. Strings make an appearance and supplement the techno with sufficient epicness to bring this match to an end once and for all. Rock on boss battle!
Bonus stages are kind of fun but I really ignore them most of the time. I believe the Barrel Buster is the better tune but there is nothing really noteworthy here. Everything done here is done somewhere else better.
The next 3 songs are kind of generic filler type songs although I do really like the melody for the replay screen.
SO FINALLY WE GET TO CHARACTER THEMES!!!
Honda. I like the old stylings with wood block but the added speed doesn't do much along with the new voice. It really doesn't sound Japanese to me. Its more like a recycling of the Thai chick really. This is decent but I didn't really enjoy this treatment.
Blanka. This is another song that got fast. This song actually turned out really cool. When it segues into the ending parts I really liked the strings hammering away. It really adds to the song and does some nice layering. Its a bit minimalist but pretty nice nonetheless.
Dhalsim. This is almost exactly what I would expect from a redone Dhalsim. Its almost Bollywood. Its fun and I like it despite never liking the original.
BALROG! BEST SONG EVAR!!!! The vocoder auto tune maybe a little much but the percussion destroys this song. When everything starts picking up I end up head banging everytime. I swear to god I get pumped everytime I listen to this song and I use to get ready for my day no lie. I wouldn't change anything thing here except making the drums louder. So awesome. I got that bike money you asked for Boxer.
Ah Vega. I love the extra clapping and the treatment of the main tune. Its weird though. I know the accordian is a staple of Spanish music too but I consider it more Italian so to hear it in his song is weird. Acoustic guitar and clapping is very nice. Its a wonderful song but not my favorite.
Fei Long. He really got a dash of Chinese in his main melody. This was another song I always kind of hated the original. I still really don't like the treatment. It doesn't know if its Chinese, poppy, or rock driven. Its very ambiguous and strange and I don't care for it much.
T. Hawk. Acoustic beginning. Just awesome. I don't know what the main melody sound is but its pretty cool. Its got a real spaghetti western feel. Unfortunately this song is subject to not being as awesome as New Mexican Thunderbird. It's a good treatment but it just seems like it went through the auto SF 4 machine really.
DEE JAY! I love it I LOVE IT ILOVEIT! The only thing I really wanted was a shit ton more Congas and steel drums. Remember Happiness from CVS2? I wanted some kick ass drums like that. You can hear splashes of it here and there but I can tell the drum wants his own solo. The trumpet will have to suffice though. Overall my second favorite remix in Super methinks.
Guy. He gets an exaggerated and wonderful remix. This one really brings out The Warriors elements of his song. Instead of being techno-E it has the big band flavor full force. Overall extremely enjoyable. Final Fight FTW.
Adon. The most hardest rock I've heard all album. Also the only place where the Thai chanting really does a kick ass job. Its hard to mess up a guitar driven piece like this one. Thankfully everything here is done awesome. I also love the set in this one too.
Dan. I always hated his song. After it gets out of the beginning portion into the guitar solo the song sounds awesome but overall it just sucks. Why couldn't Performance been remixed here? Gawd. Too much joke character cheese here.
Gen. I always loved the first 4 notes of this song. After that not so much. I am sad to say the same here. Its just not an interesting song really. For a Chinese assassin master I would expect something a little more Chinese and epic. Oh Well.
Cody. Intro of Final Fight? Turn the Beat Back. I love it. The kind of hip hop style really suits him well along with the bass strings that kind of add some depth along with the occasional guitar chord. I love this song.
Ibuki. This is an interesting remix of Twilight. I think I may like the original better but this is a pretty nice treatment of the song. This is another case of kind of a minimalist job although I do appreciate the echo-E kind of sounds in this here song. The sax is a bit much though.
Dudley. Wow. What did they do here? I really like the European techno dance feel they gave it but are the lyrics really necessary? I wouldn't think of this gentleman hitting the dance floor. I am also not a fan of the girl kind of humming. Overall only decent.
Makoto. Out of all three the best treatment was used here. It was no frills and just kind of an upgrade. Not too much to complain about here, then again nothing to really praise.
Juri. Its too good. I never liked the newcomers songs in 4 and I thought I was gonna hate this one too. I love the main melody, the screaming, the epicness. Please never end! One of the best new theme songs. I am also a sucker for evil themes.
Hakan. So we are two for two on this album. This is like Dhalsim's song if I liked it. The Turkish really comes through here and the main melody is too cool. The only problem here is the comical BOI-BOING sound. I don't know wtf they were thinking but it doesn't add anything to the song. Overall awesome.
Staff roll mash up. You can't get any better than this. Lets just say after I was done listening to this for the first time I had to wipe tears out of my eyes. It made me think of my Street Fighter existence as a whole. I started playing at 5 years old on Turbo. I begged my grandpa for quarters all the time to go and play. He would use 15 bucks on me every time we went. Street Fighter is apart of me and I love it.
Overall this album has a lot going for it. The treatments of the old songs along with the awesome new stage themes really brings it all together. Unfortunately I do miss The Next Door but whatever. My attention has been averted here by other awesomeness. I hope he composes for the next Darkstalkers game.
........There better be a Darkstalkers game otherwise I will be forced to fly to Japan with a sledge hammer and Ono's address.
Thank you so much Angela for ripping this. I throughly enjoyed it.
............So you wanna rip TVC UAS then???? Just kidding Although if you did manage to rip Aensland Castle and Orbital Ring System I would forever be in your debt.