Interesting Sonic 4 music similarities

[Yugi Muto]

Just some things I've noticed about Jun's music that I hope some people may find interesting:

 

-The first 2 notes of Splash Hill Act 1 and the first 2 notes of Green Hill Act 1 (after the intro) are identical.

 

-If you shift your fingers once along the keyboard after playing the beginning of Sonic 2's final boss theme, reverse the note order and make 1 change in the pattern, you get the start of Sonic 4 Episode 1's final boss theme. (Hard to describe, just try it).

 

-The Sonic 4 theme riff and similar note progressions are used in Sky Fortress Act 2 and Metal Sonic's theme.

 

-The start of Sonic 4 Episode 1's final boss theme is pretty similar to the beginning of Mad Gear Act 3.

 

-The chase music that plays before Death Egg Mk II is similar to Doomsday from Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

 

-Sylvania Castle Act 2 has a segment highly similar to Flying Battery Zone and similar note progression to Aquatic Ruin.

 

So those are just some things I found interesting, anyone else spotted anything? Jun's pretty cheeky!

Edited August 12, 2013 by Yugi Muto

[a mystery]

I'm pretty sure this could have gone on the music thread.

Still, let's try this!

 

-The first 2 notes of Splash Hill Act 1 and the first 2 notes of Green Hill Act 1 (after the intro) are identical.

 

False. Depending on which intro you mean, Green Hill Zone's first two notes are either B and A, or C and A - for comparison, Splash Hill, when brought down to C major, starts with C and G.

 

-If you shift your fingers once along the keyboard after playing the beginning of Sonic 2's final boss theme, reverse the note order and make 1 change in the pattern, you get the start of Sonic 4 Episode 1's final boss theme. (Hard to describe, just try it).

 

I don't get this, sorry - mind to demonstrate?

 

-The Sonic 4 theme riff and similar note progressions are used in Sky Fortress Act 2 and Metal Sonic's theme.

 

I'm not sure if this is intentional, but it's a bit stretching it, in my opinion. The theme of Sonic 4 itself isn't used in either track, and calling the similarities in the melodies as making them identical would be the equivalent of saying I keep writing the same song over and over just because I tend to start a lot of melodies with E-F-G (in C major). no selfplug intended

 

-The start of Sonic 4 Episode 1's final boss theme is pretty similar to the beginning of Mad Gear Act 3.

 

Good point. I could actually see this happening, considering Mad Gear Act 3 is the last (non boss-rush) act before the final boss.

 

-The chase music that plays before Death Egg Mk II is similar to Doomsday from Sonic 3 & Knuckles.

 

Considering Episode 2 references quite a lot of other tracks in the Sonic series (in a more subtle way than Episode 1, I might add), this is frankly quite believable to me.

 

-Sylvania Castle Act 2 has a segment highly similar to Flying Battery Zone and similar note progression to Aquatic Ruin.

 

This is one of those cases. One thing I'd love to point out now that I have the opportunity - no, they do NOT have the same chord progression, mashups of the two aren't right in theory unless some modification to the notation are applied. It's quite similar to the case of Super Mario 3D Land's theme compared to Super Mario Bros. 3's, actually.

 

You could have also pointed out others, such as Casino Street Act 1 being a shameless take on Casino Night (even the chord progression is very similar), and the Special Stage theme being almost the same thing from Sonic 1, but frankly, with the existence of the general music topic, I see no need to give this special attention, personally. Let's see what the mods have to say, though.

[Neon The Hedgehog]

Wow, I've never noticed that before. It's pretty cool. I guess it makes sense, I mean the whole purpose of Sonic 4 was to I've a modern feel to how the classic games were played. A sonic generations before sonic generations if you know what I mean. I wonder if there are any other parallels in sonic music. I'm going to look into it and get back to you guys.

Edited August 12, 2013 by Neon The Hedgehog