Worst Sonic Game Soundtrack?

[Burning Finger]

Big Arm, Speed Highway Classic, Radical Highway Classic, Water Palace Modern, Stardust Speedway US. Did they ruin all of those? I can understand the vocal pieces not being your cup of tea, but come one. Those pieces there are all awesome.

Sorry, no I do like those songs.

I should've worded that better, cause I was namely just referring to the singer, hence the "auto tune and can't sing". He ruined the new version of "Sonic Boom" for me, even if Crush 40 didn't make it that great.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Travis Touchdown

[Big Boss (legendsneverdie)]

SA2 had the weakest soundtrack of the games that I've played. Only five Songs were truly good. (Live and Learn, A Ghost's Pumpkin Soup, Radical Highway, For true Story and Supporting Me.) The rest were either mediocre, bland and unmemorable, mediocre, or painful to listen to.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Wearied Flames

[FlameStream]

Well, no doubt that Sonic Chronicle's offering was pretty bad. It's one of the obvious choice. Something really bad must have happened during development.

That game aside, I'd have to say that Sonic Rivals 2 is up there for me. Really didn't like the genre presented, though I can imagine it may suit other people's taste. I assume that Sonic Rivals's soundtrack is similar.

And the amount of hate over the introduction of symphonic strings intrumentation in Sonic soundtracks makes me weep. I thought they were great additions!

Edited January 11, 2012 by FlameStream

[Dr. Crusher]

Bah, I still think the Time Eater's leitmotif was reasonable enough.

Ill come right out and say I was never to fond of the tunes from SA2. 50-60% of the themes seem to be bland guitar themes/riffs, Tails and Eggman get the worst of it (except for Mission Street, I LOVE Mission Street).

What I love about the Heroes soundtrack is that it's so diverse and it experiments with a lot of different styles. For every awesome track like Ocean Palace, you get something like Frog Forest and Casino Park

Heroes also has the best Special theme in the series barring Sonic 3D Blast (Saturn).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-b9lhYOZrk

Seriously, im not seeing this "cheaply made" statement, that some are saying :/

Edited January 11, 2012 by Dr. Crusher

[JezMM]

For those who really dislike Sonic Rivals 1 and 2's soundtrack, I can agree they are REALLY samey. It's one of those soundtracks you have to listen to, like, several times to appreciate the individual tracks. It also doesn't help that the circulated game rip just cuts off at the loop on every track so listening to the whole thing flashes by in about 15 minutes.

Here's a particular favourite of mine though:

And in Rivals 2 I thought Mystic Haunt Act 1 was pretty swish:

(First 50 seconds)

The weird thing about Rivals was that they used these intense rock themes for EVERY stage, even the cheerful ones. But the style really works nicely when the up the ante for the final couple of stages.

One thing I will say - you gotta listen to the Rivals soundtracks LOUD to get the full impact of em.

Edited January 11, 2012 by JezMM

[Dr. Crusher]

I think even those two together sound similar, albeit not as much as other comparisons.

As I said, I like my level leitmotifs to fit the scenery/situation/emotion/etc, so having the same kind of rock in every single place ranging from idyllic hillsides to underground caverns to dark skyscrapers to everywhere else is bothersome for me. Even for final stages, I can't help but feel it doesn't fit. Maybe I just prefer sparse rock (or at least used in a somewhat fitting location like, say, an industrial factory).

I also like music that makes me imagine (eg: Collision Chaos Bad Future JP/EU makes me think of a dark dystopian city with broken lights), and said rock tracks from Rivals don't really let me do that.

EDIT: And I have had a decent listening to most of the tracks more than once. I can definitely hear the one or two bits that make each track different, but I feel it's not enough to stand out.

Edited January 11, 2012 by Dr. Crusher

[Legendary Emerald]

Worst Classic Era Game Soundtrack:

Sonic 3D Blast (Saturn). It's not a terrible soundtrack by any means... but I didn't grow up with it, and I love the Genesis soundtrack. None of the Saturn version songs have ever stuck in my head, aside from the one remix featured in Generations. It just doesn't seem to fit the game, or Sonic, for that matter. I suppose it's a matter of personal taste, though. I haven't listened to enough of the 8-bit game's soundtracks to place any of them in this spot instead, so 3D Blast will have to do.

Worst Dreamcast Era Game Soundtrack:

Sonic Advance 2. I can't remember a single song from this game, despite how long I played it when it first came out. All the other Advance games had superior soundtracks in my opinion, so I think that's enough justification for saying Advance 2 has the worst soundtrack of the era.

Modern Era Game Soundtrack, and worst Sonic Soundtrack of all time:

Sonic Chronicles: This game doesn't have music. It has one kitten banging on a synth keyboard with no sense of melody. This game can not be played with the sound turned on. Hell, this game shouldn't be played at all. But the soundtrack someone manages to be worse than every single other terrible aspect of the game. No other game is deserving of the title "worst sonic game soundtrack of all time" than this.

[...]

Sonic 4: Episode I & II, Sonic Chronicles.

[BlueTidalGamer]

Sonic Chronicles. It has one or two good tracks in it but besides those, ugh it sucks.

[UltDevilDoom]

The worst Sonic soundtracks of the 3D era, in my opinion, are Sonic and the Black Knight and Sonic Heroes.

Sonic and the Black Knight needs no explanation, but the Sonic Heroes soundtrack just felt wrong in lots of places. It just wasn't catchy or inventive, much less likable. I think I would take recycled Genesis tunes over the Sonic Heroes soundtrack. I haven't played Sonic Heroes for years (not just for the soundtrack alone), and that is a choice I will continue to make.

Also, people are saying that Sonic Chronicles music sucks. They're right. The sound effects alone are enough to make people cringe.

Edited July 12, 2012 by UltDevilDoom

[WarioBone]

Alright, shoot me if you want, but I absolutely HATE the JP Sonic CD soundtrack. It's like "HYPO SONIKKU RUNTIEM GOOOOOOOOO" and it gets on my nerves like crazy. Yes, it has its moments, but for the most part, it's silly as fuck and I hate it.

Of course, I don't think it's the worst, but it's up there. Chronicles had an awful, forgettable soundtrack, and I honestly think forgettable is worse than actually being bad. On the other hand, the Sonic 4's had some ass-butt terrible music.

@Ult.DevilDoom

No, please do explain why you hate Black Knight's soundtrack. I rather liked it.

Edited July 12, 2012 by HyperMetal

[Wentos]

Alright, shoot me if you want, but I absolutely HATE the JP Sonic CD soundtrack.

*Angry glare of doom*

Anyway, here are my top 3 least favorite Sonic OSTs.

1. Sonic Chronicles

The "music" of this game has gotten a lot of hate for a good reason. You call that music, SEGA? I've heard half-baked MIDI recreations that sound better than that. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's all the music is, sloppy MIDI tracks.

2. Sonic 3D Blast [saturn]

Now to be perfectly honest, I don't really remember much of 3D Blast's Saturn OST.

That's the problem.

I can easily admit that a song is well made, and that I just don't like it; 3D Blast's music on the other hand just felt empty. The tunes don't have anything catchy or memorable about them in the slightest, and to this day I don't recall ever hearing them re-used.

3. Sonic CD [uS]

Now don't get me wrong here; While I am a massive fan of the original JP release, I am not hating on this OST just because it isn't the JP version. I remember first playing Sonic CD on Sonic Gems Collection, unblissfully unaware that a better different soundtrack existed. I know for a fact that even back then, I thought the music highly uninteresting. The JP OST is full of high energy, and each song represents its time zone accurately, while still retaining the same general theme; The US compositions were not as well executed, sadly. If you quizzed me on the tracks of the US versions without telling me the names, I honestly couldn't name most of them.

Fun Fact: SEGA called the US soundtrack the "Special Edition." Yeah, it's "special" all right...

[Semi-colon e]

Chronicles is obviously terrible, but that's a given.

Sonic 4 Episode I is bad too because of the abysmal dying cat synth. I found Episode II to have better instrumentation and better tunes, so I'll leave that.

I also found the Tails and Eggman music in SA2 really bland. It all sounded the same to me, especially after the great Sonic music that was also heavily guitar influenced. The raps are silly but they at least added some overall variety. The Shadow game seemed to lack variety as well, a few of the heavy guitar tracks like Lethal Highway and Mad Matrix were great, but the standouts were the tracks that did things differently, like Circus Park, Lost Impact and G.U.N Fortress (which is beautiful btw).

Edited July 12, 2012 by Semi-colon e

[SilentDoom]

The worst Sonic soundtracks of the 3D era, in my opinion, are Sonic and the Black Knight and Sonic Heroes.

Sonic and the Black Knight needs no explanation

Why not? I for one think Black Knight has a fantastic soundtrack. From the beautiful ambiance of Deep Woods' flutes and violins, to Camelot's Castle's combination of rockin guitar, xylophones and violins, to Great Megalith's triumphant brass, to Shrouded Forest's dynamic and fast paced beats coupled with the violas and violins, every track in the game is wonderfully composed and really capture a strong medieval feel whilst still having that dynamic edge expected from tracks in a Sonic soundtrack. Not to mention the vocal themes are wonderful. With Me is a really great and fitting final boss theme as it conveys the conversation between Sonic and Merlina, essentially clashing the two views they've had throughout the entire game in a really strong track. Knight of the Wind, whilst not as strong as some of the other Crush 40 tracks, is still very good in my opinion and Live Life is probably my favourite Crush 40 track of all time.

Overall it may not be as memorable to a lot of people as some other soundtracks, but a lot of the tracks have certainly stuck with me and to say that it needs no explanation as to why the soundtrack is apparently terrible is quite frankly complete bullshit.

As for my worst, it has to be Chronicles no contest. All the tracks sound so painfully primitive and one dimensional. There's no real depth to them. For a DS game you'd think they'd be able to do better than primitive 8 bit sounding synths and drum beats, or at least compose them in a less simplistic way than they have. I look at the Rush games and Colours DS and they have wonderful soundtracks but this is just pure garbage. There isn't even a single memorable track in the game. Also, how the hell do you fuck up a remix of Green Hill? Such a wonderful and iconic musical piece is essentially butchered in this game.

[Blue Blood]

Black Knight has some killer tracks in the way of Shrouded Forest, Deep Woods and Misty Lake, but everything else is just butt-rock. And by butt-rock I mean rock that just sounds like an avalanche of guitars and drums with very little coherent melody to follow. It's a right mess, sounds far too similar to itself and not to my tastes at all, and I'd guess that's probably what UltDevilDoom was getting at cause he wouldn't be the first other person to say that.

Great Megalith and Molten Mine were cool too, but would you believe those two are remixes from non-Sonic games? Check it here and here. Tommy Tallarico did the originals and re-used them for Black Knight. I've heard Great Megalith is from another game but have never been aware of what that game might be, so it might not even be true.

Stepping aside from that, I think 3D Blast Megadrive has one of the worst soundtracks. I grew up with both versions, and this one always sounded like it was made up of far to too many long notes, not helped in the slightest by the instrumentation. A shame, because at least one track from the game was really good when done properly.

Also Sylvania Castle 1 is a serious contender for worst track in the history of the series even if the rest of the soundtrack for E2 isn't all that bad.

Edited July 12, 2012 by Blue Blood

[SilentDoom]

In that case, fair enough. To be perfectly honest, the only Sonic soundtracks that I for the most part didn't enjoy were those of Chronicles and the Sonic 4 games. When it comes to soundtracks Sonic games kick ass for the most part in my opinion.

[Soniman]

Sylvania Castle Act 1 was bad? I just thought more unmemorable than anything.

[Jack / Joker]

Sonic the Hedgehog 4. All good Sonic games have at least one iconic track that everyone knows and enjoys - Chemical Plant - Escape from the City - Rooftop Run Day - but S4: Ep. I&II lack this due to tracks lasting ten seconds and abysmal soundfont. Metal Sonic's Theme, though! <3

[Gabz Girl]

One that sticks out most is definitely Sonic Chronicles. I think everyone else here has said enough about it. Really, it's just bleepy bloopy MIDI music...on a DS!

But I also think ShtH's soundtrack is nothing special. Seriously, there's only one or two tracks that stand out (I Am All of Me and All Hail Shadow) but everything else is blahhhh. I hate Almost Dead btw, I think it's the worst vocal song in any Sonic game, ever. Yes, worse than We Can!

[Urban Flow]

I always thought Sonic handled music quite well besides chronicles being an exception.

[TitanWarlord93]

Out of all the soundtracks in the past 21 years. I have to say that my worst sonic soundtrack has to be Chronicles. The music is just awful and is a prime bad example of how Sonic soundtracks should be like.

The Sonic The Hedgehog 4 soundtracks is second worst because of those awful (dying cats) synth sounds. However I did enjoy some tracks from Episode II such as Oil Desert, Sky Fortress, Death Egg MK II and Metal Sonic's theme.

[WarioBone]

I hate Almost Dead btw, I think it's the worst vocal song in any Sonic game, ever. Yes, worse than We Can!

I would be frightened if anyone DID like Almost Dead. It's like someone said "This game needs a black metal song" and the guy in charge was like "What's black metal?" and they were like "We don't know, just make it sound like shit and super angsty."

[Wentos]

Worst part is, it's not like they couldn't have made good music for Chronicles. I know for a fact it isn't the DS's fault. Why?

[Jin.]

Chronicles just hurts my ears... Although I don't like Rivals and Rivals 2's either... (Not as much as Chronicles though)

[Blue Blood]

Chronicles just hurts my ears... Although I don't like Rivals and Rivals 2's either... (Not as much as Chronicles though)

At least Rivals 2 has Blue Coast Act 1 and Act 3. They sound like they fell right out of SA2. But then this... this doesn't sound like "Sunset Forest".