Wasn't kidding about my workplace's speed slowing down, unfortunately. Take a look:
Here's what it
had been:
I have no idea what's going on there. It also claims I'm in southern North Carolina, when I'm clearly much closer to Washington DC. This makes absolutely no sense.
Anyway, I'm falling behind on Sciz's thing. Let's play catchup. In spite of those really awful DL speeds that make YouTube nigh unusable.
SonicGAF's Song of the Day - #23
Song: Tropical Resort Act 1
Game: Sonic Colors
Composer: Tomoya Ohtani
Perfect starting stage music, honestly. Laidback, but energetic. Isn't in-your-face bombastic nonsense, but isn't too mellow; right from the bassline at the beginning, it gets you into the groove that the game wants you to be in. I'd say that's a success.
SonicGAF's Song of the Day - #24
Song: Wonder World
Game: Sonic Lost World
Composer: Tomoya Ohtani
Very good music, although it definitely sounds very
Mario-y - particularly reminiscent of the
Galaxy soundtracks. I suppose that's fitting, given the same comparison could be said of the game itself! But yeah, I dunno, you've got the steel drums, which
Mario games have been using a fair bit, but then there's the little bit shortly after with the sort of airy feeling and the oboe(?) lead, which reminds me of
Good Egg or
Gusty Garden - where they lighten down on most of the orchestra and let a small woodwind instrument do most of the work, before bringing all the louder instruments back into play at once for a very large impact. Still, I'm looking forward to hearing it present in the game proper. Next week. While Europe got it
last week. Sigh.
Top work from one of the top men.
Insider footage of life at WaveMaster
SonicGAF's Song of the Day - #25
Song: The ARK
Game: Shadow the Hedgehog
Composers: Jun Senoue and Tomoya Ohtani
Well, it's okay. Definitely like it better than the guitar-heavy grunge rock that most of the soundtrack went for. However, it has the same problem that most of
Shadow's soundtrack has; it's listenable enough, but none of it leaves any impact. Fortunately, Ohtani's work in the next game, while the game itself was complete shit, was much improved, having found hummable melodies in the interim. I do like the Naganuma-esque use of that "back to the mic" sample, though.
SonicGAF's Song of the Day - #26
Song: Revvin' Up
Game: NASCAR Arcade
Composer: Jun Senoue
Lyrics and Vocals: Johnny Gioeli
I recall DLing a Crush 40 album many many years ago. This was one of the tracks on it. It's funny, while I find the
Sonic game themes a little overplayed, I really liked listening to the other tracks in the set. Wasn't aware this particular one was from an
actual game; I wonder how the game compared to
the other NASCAR-esque arcade racing game Sega made? Hell, that game's sequel
also went for buttrock, despite sharing the same composer as the first one.
Also, y'know what, Johnny Gioeli's voice is really fun to listen to, even though the lyrics tend to be kinda eh (I like it when they rhyme, which Crush 40's lyrics rarely seem to).
SonicGAF's Song of the Day - #27
Song: Labyrinth Zone
Game: Sonic the Hedgehog
Composer: Masato Nakamura
It's okay, but I always thought it was one of the weaker songs in the game. I do like the plucky, almost banjo-y lead. The song's surprisingly upbeat and chipper, considering the actual stage is one of the darker and harder ones (actually, come to think of it, pretty much
all of
Sonic 1's stages are "darker and harder" - barring Green Hill - compared to later entries in the series, aren't they?). Admittedly, that contrasts rather nicely against the dreaded drowning theme, as had been mentioned. Also, this song tended to be the harbinger of "hey, you do remember you can't beat this zone's boss, right", which was never particularly welcome.
SonicGAF's Song of the Day - #27
Song: Dusty Desert ~Quicksand~
Game: Sonic the Hedgehog (2006)
Composers: Tomoya Ohtani and Mariko Nanba
This is your second #27, just so y'know.
Anyway, I tended to skip over this song when I would give the soundtrack a cursory listen now and then, mostly because the intro with the drums simply did
not hook me in the way that Wave Ocean, White Acropolis, Crisis City or Aquatic Base do. However, once the shanais(?) kick in, the whole thing becomes a whole lot better. Sure, it's not a very high-energy song, but I think that works in its favor (they can't
all be high energy, anyway; gotta mix it up!), and it definitely fits the stage it's used in (a fairly slow-paced stage in general). Overall, the song is definitely on par with the rest of the soundtrack, if not one of the better ones; it's just brought down by a rather dull opening.
I also like some of the backing horns used at 1:07 and 1:29; for some reason, they remind me a
lot of
Panzer Dragoon Saga's soundtrack (more for the music used during cutscenes than the music used in actual gameplay). Incidentally, if you've never listened to that soundtrack,
do so. I'd advocate playing the game, too, because it's brilliant, but, y'know, $200+ and such.
Well the obligatory Lost World Tome is revised and basically done, wondering if I should put it in here or the OT.
Yes.
