One Thing I noticed about the Sonic games

[Viku]

I don't care what the other people think of me, but I have Sonic06 music very low on my favorite sonic themelist. (the only exceptions are the voiced themes which are pretty amazing.). I like Unleashed OST one million times more.

The reason? Sonic 06 OST is not bad, but for me, a really good theme must be able to sound good when you are hearing it, but ALSO being able to pop up in your head in any situation and you start to listening in your mind or hum it.

That haven't happened with any song in Sonic06 with exception of the lyrical themes. Not even once....

Unleashed on the other hand has a lot of catchy themes: From Windmill isle, to Dragon road, to Cool Edge, Skyscraper Scamper and more. I also love The Worlds Adventure a LOT. When I first heard it I was all like "Dude, did someone put the mario galaxy OST in a Sonic game?" since it has this orchestated epicness that makes you feel that you are gonna start one heck of a game! Also, all it versions were cool, specially some of the "in-cutcenes" ones like "always" which happends when Sonic is picking up Chip's ring...it's just so beautiful....

And Endless Possibilities is just AMAZING. Not only is catchy and sounds cool, but also has a cool meaing. The theme reflects the new hope of the franchise as Unleashed "increased the possibilities" of what a sonic 3D game can do...even if it wasn't 100% perfect (blame the werehog all ya' want...even if I liked him a little) it sure was a step in the right direction and this theme sure shows it....

But still, my favorite Sonic OST from the newer era has to be SA2. Each character had his/her own unique style which fitted in a wonderful wa in each stage. Also, has one of the most epic final boss themes of the entire franchise....

[Jix Hedgehog]

I bought the Sonic 06 soundtrack.. don't know why.. the only good track on it is the beach one

Sonic Unleashed had a very nice soundtrack, but I still think Sonic Adventure is the winner.

On topic of noticing things.. anyone notice how Whiskers and Johnny resemble Mario and Luigi?

[SuperStingray]

on it's own, the soundtrack is just some corny metal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upknKLen6NM,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZkzoeEajz8.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4caPbB7kdo,

And most of the music that is stronger is really just rock and no more harmful than SA2's music. Though I will say that a lot of the theme songs, particularly

are very over the top.

With the knowledge that it's from a game starring a hedgehog, that's when it becomes funny.

I don't get how that's relevant; Shadow may be genetically a hedgehog (or specifically an alien hedgehog, as it were) but in practice, he's human, just like all the other characters. Edited August 31, 2009 by SuperStingray

[Gabz Girl]

Sonic music has always been brilliant, since the very beginning! X3

Bar the Gamegear games, and especially ShtH which was crappio (IMO), I really like all the music. Even Sonic Rush and Sonic 06, which have hit and miss songs, to me. His World is OK, but it has absolutely nothing on Live and Learn and Endless Possibilities.

SA2 and Sonic Unleashed are my favourites music-wise!

[Reading]

As much as I hate the lyrics, I felt the violin made a good introduction...

What don't you like about the lyrics? I think they do a good job of capturing Sonic's personality and philosophy. I actually described my full thoughts on His World in this post. I like orchestra, and the violin really helped give it the feeling it has.

I like a lot of the Sonic music, but I do have my favorites. Sonic 2006's soundtrack would probably be my favorite in the series; as I said above, I like orchestral music, and there was a lot of orchestra and mixed styles in the game that I really loved. Wave Ocean, Crisis City, End of the World...and especially Solaris Phase 2, my favorite final boss theme of any video game.

I hear a lot of people say that Unleashed's soundtrack is great, and while I do like it, I don't really think it's anything special. A lot of the stage themes just feel sort of dull and repetitive to me (not that they're bad). I like the Night stage themes better than the Day ones on average. Super Sonic vs. Perfect Dark Gaia, though, is amazing.

Probably surprisingly, I don't really like any of the vocal main themes besides His World. Endless Possibility is OK (good enough so that I listen to it just sometimes), but it just seems to lack that "edginess" that His World has.

[JezMM]

Bar the Gamegear games

You need to listen to Sonic 2's soundtrack again then. >.< I can't imagine anyone not liking it, even if all they can muster is "yeah, this is good but I don't like the 8-bit ness").

[Dopply]

Sonic games definitely have my favorite soundtracks from any games. And the thing is, unlike many franchises, the music never stopped being good. Some of the more recent vocal songs are absolutely beautiful, some of them rock really hard, and some are just their own thing.

Sonic Adventure 2 hands down is the best for the modern crowd. It has a genre for everyone, and Mr. Fumie Kumatani is so fucking talented he can make me like rap music. I am still the most impressed with the soundtrack from that game, with Unleashed coming in a close second.

[Scarlet2106]

Kumatani's female, and Tomoya Otani did the rap.

[Dopply]

Kumatani's female, and Tomoya Otani did the rap.

...whoops

I had Secrets Rings music in my player. My apologies.

It's Ohtani, by the way.

[JezMM]

I bum Kumatani's music so much. She has this beautifully almost modestly epic/sad sound to a lot of her songs.

Tricky Maze (Lost World), Theme of Tikal and Theme of E-102 from SA

Supporting Me... (Biolizard) from SA2

Theme Of Babylon Garden from Riders

Tornado Defense (both versions), Skyscraper Scamper Day and Cool Edge Night from Unleashed

High And Broken (Levitated Ruin), The White Of Sky (Skeleton Dome), Poison Spear (Sand Scorpion) and Worth A Chance from Secret Rings

Dive Into Gravity (Crimson Crater/Security Corridor) from Riders ZG

And numerous songs from the epic Sonic Advance 3 soundtrack. God I would actually pay money just to find out which ones she composed. =( I want to wish that she did Chaos Angel, but often I get fooled by Kenichi Tokoi who sometimes does a similar kind of sad/epic sound in his songs, so it could have been him.

But argh, ARGH. Let her do the final stage and final boss theme of a main game!

Edited August 31, 2009 by JezMM

[Scarlet2106]

...I knew as soon as I wrote that that someone would go 'Oh, it's Ohtani'.

Otani can be written Outani, Ohtani and ...that O with an accent Otani.

...I assume.

I just don't like most of the romanizations (Ohtani the least. Adding the letter H always irritates me for no good reason), and I can't remember how to do the one with the accent, so I just go with Otani.

But besides, I actually forgot there was rap in Secret Rings. In THAT case, it's credited to Runblebee.

Anyway, I need to get my hands on the Advance soundtracks again. Makes me wonder if we'll ever see stuff like that for the console series, although I guess the only real difference is that one is using the GBA synthesizers and the other is recorded.

[JezMM]

Well, even a lot of the main games are synthesised. Or at least a good deal of the tracks are (I think they usually use real guitars fairly strictly, except for Rush and Rush Adventure which probably used samples for those too).

I would love to hear music like the Advance series done with full instrumentation - even if it is still mostly synthesised. Just you know, not GBA midi.

I do find something very pumping about the somewhat repetitiveness of the modern tracks, but yeah, nothing beats a good melody.

[Scarlet2106]

Hideaki Kobayashi and Tomonari Sawada use synth guitars (Mephiles' boss fights, Vs. Character, Spiral Madness), but other than that, yeah. The rest of the time, it's either Jun, Shutaro Moritake (more recently for most of Secret Rings, '06 and Unleashed, probably Rush Adventure too) or Kenichi Tokoi on guitar (the penultimate boss music in Secret Rings). Tokoi needs to pick up a guitar more often.

But no, what I meant was that there's a lot more of a rigid sound in sequenced soundtracks. They don't have as much room to move about, so to speak.

Honestly, on this 'melody' versus '...lack thereof' thing, I dunno if it really matters. A good piece of music is good regardless of whether it's all rhythm or not.

[JezMM]

Honestly, on this 'melody' versus '...lack thereof' thing, I dunno if it really matters. A good piece of music is good regardless of whether it's all rhythm or not.

Agreed wholeheartedly. This is why I love Shadow, Riders and Unleashed's soundtracks just as much as the more melody-ish ones in the series.

Melodies are great, but sometimes repetitive pumping music is the best audioble representation of the blur of visuals Sonic is probably experiencing.

[SuperStingray]

What don't you like about the lyrics? I think they do a good job of capturing Sonic's personality and philosophy.

Maybe "hate" was a little strong, as it does capture Sonic's personality and philosophy, but my main issue with it is that it pushes it to the point that it just seems shallow; it tries to embody Sonic as more of an icon than a character. I think It Doesn't Matter is way better in that regard. His World says Sonic is raring, steadfast and strong and that makes him a awesome and heroic. In It Doesn't Matter says the same thing, but it only says that it just makes Sonic who he is. It's a little complicated to say, but I hope you see what I'm getting at.

[JezMM]

I can agree that His World felt a little bit -too- epic in comparison to the carefree It Doesn't Matter. And it wasn't quite as uplifting as Endless Possibility. Friggin' awesome song all the same though.

[Toffkat]

It wouldn't be the first time I've screwed up in Secret Rings 'cause I was attempting to sing along to the music XD. Sonic games have always had amazing soundtracks, there's very few tracks I don't really like.

I could list favourite soundtracks, but that's virtually everything, so I'll just name a few tunes that I adore especially X3.

Flying Battery [sonic & Knuckles] - Grahh, made me love the stage despite ingrained dislike for flying fortress levels. Blame Sonic 2 for that one. But the music... I believe it's epic win XD.

Wrapped In Black [sonic Rush] - Yes. Catchy, and apparently written about coffee XD (Too plain... too strong. Wrapped in black~).

Raisin' Me Up [sonic Rush] - Dahh, loved this as an ending theme, the full version <3. So fitting *tear*.

Chaos Angel [Advance 3] - Argh. Best freaking tune in the game. Love it in all it's epicness.

Blizzard Peaks [sRA] - Mmm, snowboarding level. With awesome music. Equals win X3.

Metropolis [sonic 2] - Another case of, always loved the music despite initial dislike for the level XP.

Blue On The Run [satSR] - Mmkay, this one was picked out at random to get a special mention, 'cause I love everything on the SatSR soundtrack, but this was one of my top five <3.

Absolute top soundtracks for me would be Rush, Rush Adventure, SatSR and Sonic 2; I can't really comment on any of the others because I've never played them and only heard the main vocal tracks, but I do love nearly every last one of those I've heard. In particular, Crush 40's All Hail Shadow, What I'm Made Of, Escape From The City, Live And Learn, and Knight Of The Wind. And all those others. Gahh, it's hard to pick favourites >.>;;.

... Not to mention Crush 40's place as one of my favourite bands of all time XD.

But yes, I'm an avid fan of any and all Sonic music, be it rock or catchy little tunes <3.

[JezMM]

Wrapped In Black [sonic Rush] - Yes. Catchy, and apparently written about coffee XD (Too plain... too strong. Wrapped in black~).

You stole my joke!

'cause I love everything on the SatSR soundtrack, but this was one of my top five <3.

And my opinion!

But it's cool of course. X3 SatSR is my most-listened to soundtrack in it's entireity out of all the Sonic series (like, both CDs in one sitting rather than just random songs).

[SuperStingray]

I can agree that His World felt a little bit -too- epic in comparison to the carefree It Doesn't Matter. And it wasn't quite as uplifting as Endless Possibility. Friggin' awesome song all the same though.

Oh, I'm not saying that I don't love the melody of the song; it's epic. It's just the lyrics that got to me. And Endless Possibilities was also fantastic.

Wrapped In Black [sonic Rush] - Yes. Catchy, and apparently written about coffee XD (Too plain... too strong. Wrapped in black~).

Actually, I think the line was "Too black, too strong." Funnily enough, the joke works either way.

[lounge]

I was actually dissapointed with Unleashed's music. Here you are going thru miles of this gorgeous terrain, and the music just doesn't match up with that sort of "epic-ness". The only stage that gave me that feeling was the Rooftop Run level. Because the music is powerful enough to match the scenery and fast paced action.

For one, instead of using real drums, most of the songs have low quality drum programming. It just sounds so inferior compared to the drums they used.... in say... Emerald Coast. And that was 10 years ago. The nighttime music sounds better, but still, I wanted it to sound more powerful. More trumpets and flutes and stuff.

I don't know, maybe they didn't have enough of the resources or budget. Or maybe they were just a little burned from working so hard on Sonic 06's soundtrack.

[MobileChicaneX]

I was actually dissapointed with Unleashed's music. Here you are going thru miles of this gorgeous terrain, and the music just doesn't match up with that sort of "epic-ness". The only stage that gave me that feeling was the Rooftop Run level. Because the music is powerful enough to match the scenery and fast paced action.

For one, instead of using real drums, most of the songs have low quality drum programming. It just sounds so inferior compared to the drums they used.... in say... Emerald Coast. And that was 10 years ago. The nighttime music sounds better, but still, I wanted it to sound more powerful. More trumpets and flutes and stuff.

I don't know, maybe they didn't have enough of the resources or budget. Or maybe they were just a little burned from working so hard on Sonic 06's soundtrack.

Yep the only 2 songs that really got me pumped up for the stages where rooftop run (like you said) and savahnnah cittidel honestly id go with sivahnah cittidel....well maybe roofto....ummm i think ill call it a tie with rtr and sc

[Reading]

Maybe "hate" was a little strong, as it does capture Sonic's personality and philosophy, but my main issue with it is that it pushes it to the point that it just seems shallow; it tries to embody Sonic as more of an icon than a character. I think It Doesn't Matter is way better in that regard. His World says Sonic is raring, steadfast and strong and that makes him a awesome and heroic. In It Doesn't Matter says the same thing, but it only says that it just makes Sonic who he is. It's a little complicated to say, but I hope you see what I'm getting at.

Sonic can be an icon, I think. But I do see.

I was disappointed a little, but not that much with Unleashed's soundtrack (then again, maybe that's just because I was disappointed by Unleashed as a whole). There are quite a decent pile of really nice songs in there. I like the curious sigh of Windmill Isle Night, the rushing pseudo-sadness of Jungle Joyride Day, the heavy grinding of Eggmanland in both night and day, the anguished struggle of Vs. Egg Dragoon, and of course, the final boss theme I mentioned earlier.

[SuperStingray]

I was actually dissapointed with Unleashed's music. Here you are going thru miles of this gorgeous terrain, and the music just doesn't match up with that sort of "epic-ness". The only stage that gave me that feeling was the Rooftop Run level. Because the music is powerful enough to match the scenery and fast paced action.

For one, instead of using real drums, most of the songs have low quality drum programming. It just sounds so inferior compared to the drums they used.... in say... Emerald Coast. And that was 10 years ago. The nighttime music sounds better, but still, I wanted it to sound more powerful. More trumpets and flutes and stuff.

I don't know, maybe they didn't have enough of the resources or budget. Or maybe they were just a little burned from working so hard on Sonic 06's soundtrack.

Well, I think Holoska was pretty good and fitting too, but I see where you're coming from. I will say that I think the cutscenes' music felt... cinematic. Namely, the opening.

[JezMM]

the curious sigh of Windmill Isle Night,

Man, I love the way you described that. Perfect. While it's not my fave song by a long shot on the soundtrack, I find something very... just nice about Windmill Isle Night. There's something almost nostalgic about it, that makes me think of both the past AND makes me nostalgic for the magical first day I had of playing Unleashed (absoloutely loved it, so t'was a special day indeed). Especially the bit at around 0:58. Dunno what it is about that whispery "doom-dom---dom---doom" sound, but I love it. When I really listen to the melody, Windmill Isle Night is fairly sinister, but yet somehow the overall sound is so calm and relaxing and peaceful. Arhghrgh marry me Fumie.

[Djawed]

Nah i think mario surpassed sonic today. Sonic used to be better but after playing mario galaxy id say its better than unleashed. The style's different, but i mean it in the way that nintendo puts more effort in making something unique, melodic and catchy.

The genesis days were awesome if its about music. Remakes in todays quality could be awesome. But they always ruin it with too much rock/guitar sound. I hate that

Just lsiten to this playlist.

Beautifull

and this is my personal favourite. It sounds kinda like a prince of persia tune.

But lets not diss sonic. Cool edge nightime i loved as well. Hearing it for the first for me was a great experience. Too bad the werehog fighting theme ruins it.

Edited September 2, 2009 by Jaouad