OCR01105 - Mega Man 2 'Tickle My Wily'

[djpretzel]

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

[Riddler Sensei]

Wonderful. Wily stage remixes usually aren't very easy on the ears (save for like "Wily's Wedding"), but I was able to sit back and listen to this carefree and just enjoy it. The voices are just right.

Immediately one of my favorite Wily remixes.

[Mog]

I really like the way it alternates between the relative calm and the bass beats that come and go :) A wonderful take on the theme, constantly in a state of flux that really grabs and holds the listener's attention. Great job on this one :P

[Cuddly PyramidHead]

Normally, I'm all for new interpretations on themes, but this one doesn't work for me. It sounds good and there's a decent amount of skill in the arrangement, but as a take on Wily's Theme it doesn't really hold my interest or appeal to me. There's just something wrong with it. I honestly don't see myself listening to this song too much in the future.

[Twobitmage]

I didnt really care for it at first but towards the end there is this little piece that makes it worth it..

[eNvy]

I didnt really care for it at first but towards the end there is this little piece that makes it worth it..I think it would be impossible for me to agree with you anymore.

[Liontamer]

I thought this was a great mix. Don'f forget to check out Star's latest Chrono Trigger piece as well, "Love in an Hourglass" (http://www.vgmix.com/song_view.php?song_id=783). I'm just posting my comments from my VGMix review (http://www.vgmix.com/song_view.php?song_id=679#16970) of the track to offer my commentary again. Great job as usual, Star!

For the finale episode of VG Frequency, Star made sure to pester me early and often about playing his newest Mega Man 2 mix before he even named it. From the beginning, I knew this was gonna be a sincere attempt to kick my ass with music, and "Tickle My Wily" delivered. While I played the song in the studio, the bass levels started shaking the speakers and, by extension, the whole studio. My headphones are much more sedate, so there's hopefully gonna be less shaking.

The beginnning until 0:54 featured several layers of well-sequenced, natural-sounding instruments (e.g. piano, woodwinds, violin, etc). This was a high-quality orchestral package, and I was actually pretty surprised with the subtle inclusion of typically non-orchestral instruments, such as a saxophone-sounding synth, and how well those instruments worked. There are a few too many elements instrumentally for me to throroughly dissect, but the overall presentation here was very solid. Though some light woodwinds were present around 0:23, the music generally possessed a looming air of seriousness and a great deal of gravity starting at 0:36. The slower tempo compared to the source tune makes everything feel more deliberate in application.

The deep, rumbling tones starting at 0:57 literally shook the WMRE studio, and Star added several electrosynths that managed to work astonishingly well with the orchestral backing of this piece. I can't recall off the top of my head any remixes that have integrated orchestral piano, viloin and brass synths with electronic sounds so well. I also recognize one of the electrosynth choices (1:29) as a synth Star used for his Chrono Trigger mix "Temporal Distortion", which provided a little bit of comfortable familiarity for me musically. The claps used at this point were also well-reverbed, so they didn't sound fake or exposed, which is unfortunately hard to find in many remixes. Done properly, the claps here function very well, and the overall mastering is amazingly clean.

2:40 brought in even beefier action on the low-end with HUGE drum beats and kicks that established a more prominent beat base as compared to 0:57. While there was already a large amount of power evident in the mix before, the addition of the louder backing along with some absolutely beautiful violin-like swells at 2:57 & 3:06 brought the energy level significantly higher. Star slowed things down at 3:50 and focused on some gentle synths alongside the piano until 4:25 for the last steps toward the finish. Interesting new arpeggiated electrosynths came in at 4:29, 4:33 & 4:38 to add another brief, but fresh dimenstion to the track, and I'm impressed again with how Star has managed to keep things fresh and varied throughout the entire piece. The gradual dropping out of the layers of the track at 4:44 and 5:00 in order to achieve the piano solo finish worked out very well and didn't feel forced or rushed at all.

Without sounding as if I'm gushing fanboy-ish praise all over this mix, I believe "Tickle My Wily" is one of the most fantastic genre-bending tracks I've ever heard in my time checking out the video game music remixing scene. Starblast made sure to never retread his steps in the composition, constantly alternating between the real instruments and the electrosynths defining the foreground while implementing variations on every section. Given the length of the mix, it's very hard to highlight every single thing I enjoyed here. I'm also sure that, while I couldn't find anything particularly wrong admist this mix, a more discerning ear should be able to offer the constructive criticism that I can't. Looking briefly at the source tune, "Dr. Wily Stage 1" is a fast-paced, action/adventure piece which Star managed to slow down and fashion into a whole different piece of music through heavy rearrangement. This is a dynamic and intense hybrid piece that plays to the strengths of both orchestral instruments and electrosynths and you won't be disappointed by the mixture of styles. There are tons of elements in play that you could listen to the mix dozens of times in order to analyze, and the time spent doing that would be well worth it, in my opinion. Don't pass this one up at all.

[Riddler Sensei]

I didnt really care for it at first but towards the end there is this little piece that makes it worth it..I think it would be impossible for me to agree with you anymore.

Well, to everyone their own, I guess...I sure as hell will be listening to this in the future.

[Psycrow]

Wow lion, still in VGmix mode? :P
Hehe, great job with the mix, Wily-tickler!

[Isk]

Love it. The synth lead is too piercing for me, but otherwise...yeah. Excellent string work.

[Argitoth]

Did you mean to name this song "Tickle ME Wily" like Tickle MEEE Elmo? And not "my"? Oh well, I don't feel that any of the names fit the song. :?

[Casual Gmoe]

I think he meant it to be "Tickle my Willy" but use "Wily" in place of Willy because they are almost spelled alike. This is a very awesome mix download it now!

[Kodeir`]

The song is great, very powerful heroic type feel going with it. At 3:15 I kind of disliked how the mix went, mainly because that section just jumps out - then is followed by the rather strong sound that comes out at 3:35 which has abit too much strength in its volume over other elements. Then at about 4:23 it picks up its flow once more where everything seems just right, and the ending which I felt was fitting tied the mix into full circle. Overall a beautiful. strong, and well paced mix deserving of some more thought by other people IMO.

Great job Salzman

[Kodeir`]

Actually, I wanted to correct myself - the entire mix is awesome, I'm on hour 5 of listening to it on repeat as I work and I gotta say everyone should give this awesome mix a chance.

[LibertyCabbage]

wow this remix is so unique... I mean almost all the Wily remixes so far have been very fast techno like the song and then there was that Wily's Wedding which was really slow and this is in the middle it is cool!!

And the quality is top notch I like it :O :O :O

[^^Bastard]

Incredibly well done piece...
I love the perfect blend of orchestral, and industrial sounding synth. From soft to hard and methodic, then a perfect balance between. Never pressing, it just steps in and steps out.
Awsome job man...

You've done it again ;]

[Rychan]

I think it's fantastic and unique. I really couldn't say anything bad about it. It feels so professional and polished.

[MegaManPal]

Hmmm....I've got mixed feelings about this one. Some parts I loved others just didn't sit well with me.

[MaGi_TekK]

nice remix star, even though it's not even close to your best work, being just an average star remix, it's still laughably superior to every other remix that has come out on this site in the past 3 months. Still the #1 remixer out there yo, keep up the awesome work

[SonicANS]

Wow, simply amazing. The strong synths give an epicness to it. The piano gives it the emotion. This one is simply awesome. Very professional.

[Chadwick]

Oh man if only I had a blank CD to burn it to right now that song was great, I normally dont prefer piano songs but this one was actually a good-no a great one very epic an emotionaly touching I loved it..

[Kamikaze Noodle]

Hot shit on a grill this is awesome! Everything is just top-notch! The synths, the mixing, the arrangement, it's all beautiful. :nicework:

[Bruk]

Have my children, Star. Please.

[XxPxFuryxX]

Well I guess I should start out by saying mine and star's differences are forgotten in this reply, this is just what I personally think about this mix. I really like this alot, I think it is one of the most imaginative remixes of this song (of all the thousands of remixes of it). The way he takes the melody and comes up with counter melodies that are even more catchy than the original, it shows true tallent. Very creative, nice job this really get's the job done for this song. Definatelly a must download, nice work star.
-PxFury

P.S. I like the drums as well, very smooth reminds me of something MazeDude would do with his drum work.

[DreamChaser]

I have to say from a lot of Rockman Remixes... this has to be one of thee best remixes... it's very vibrant and extremely creative... It has a bit of flare to it that I just haven't seen in the past few years.

[Ferret]

Ah, it's about time we had another Wily ReMix. Until this came along I believe Wily Metal was the only one on the site (though I can of course be wrong).
It's a nice piece and I enjoy listening to it.

[Xana Taol Vlas Nedak]

Fantastic work.

[ncjason77]

this song is so sweet, it almost made me splooj my jeans...

[Blake]

Damn.


I love every fucking thing you did with those synths. Damn.

It's so awesome..

Damn.

[Sockatume]

Predictable...

Well, predictably excellent, at any rate. :D It's wonderful, with an incredible number of ideas and variations. The only bad thing is the title, which doesn't suit the track. :wink:

[CB]

Sounds like AE got some competition. Excellent remix. One of the best done for Mega Man.

[WhiteZero]

Very Awesome song! I loved it. 8O
Rating: 9/10

[Vesh]

One day, I want a do-over of this one with less goofy, less synthy (read: real) horns/woodwinds/whatever. The strings are pretty decently convincing, still synth, but it works because that's the style. The horns, though... they'll never work and desperately need some attention to production.

That microbitching aside, the thing as a whole is just one hell of a fun ride. Whether or not it really was, it feels like there was a decent amount of preplanning and forethought put into it, instead of just slappin a bunch of presets and plopping out... something... that kinda sounds like a song.

I love good drama without pretentiousness and this mix delivers that pretty well. On the dramatic bits, it stays modest without losing punch where it could have turned into this arrangementally masturbatory, over-syrupy "i w4nt t0 b3 +h3 n3x+ johrn w1llyumz`!!!1accentaccent!1tildehowyadoin" pretentious sap-fest. Good going.

Now... find some musicians who work for free who can play instruments that need to be blown.

Wait. 8O :whatevaa:

[Sensei]

If AmIEvil's Mega Man 4 "Let There Be Light" remix could be a Mega Man movie opening theme, this remix could be the ending theme... I hear no faults in this one. I love dramatics in a remix... especially when the majority of the Wily mixes are in the techno genre. Flipping things around certainly did this song justice... Great job Star.

[sandmann999]

That problem being, it is just not long enough.
Seriously, after 5 and a half minutes, and am never ready for this song to be over. I usually play it about 3 times through before I move on to the next song and find myself running the tune through my head when I'm off doing something else.

Absolutely excellent.

[Ryan8bit]

The arrangement is good and everything, but all of the samples that are supposed to be "real" instruments (like in the beginning) sound horribly GM-ish. It's easy to find good samples for electronic stuff because, duh, it's electronic. So there's not too much problem on that front.

[Fray]

Well shit, this one's amazing :) Stop reading reviews and download it immediately. It treats one of video game music's finest tunes to to a number of different styles, and every one of them is dead-on.

There's only one thing I didn't like: the first 18 seconds or so... It sounds like an amateurish take on a piano concerto style intro. It's not bad or anything, it's just a lot weaker than the rest of the piece, which sounds very professional and perfected.

Overall this is freaking incredible. It's a level of complexity that as a very green remixer I can't even imagine achieving... Just... download it :P

[LunaYoshi]

This is just plain awesome. I'm not a remixer myself, so being ignorant, I can't comment on what should have been done, but I just had to pop in and say how much I love this song. The 4:26 thru 4:43 area in particular owns my soul.

Yes, this is DEFINITELY continuous loop material. :) Thank you, Star, for the opportunity and pleasure of listening to this piece.

[Sockatume]

I've never heard the original of this, so I don't know what sort of an achievement it is in that respect. But it's utterly unmissable.

It's one of the few songs I've heard in the past year to actually give me the musical chills. It's utterly incredible. Not as a remix, but as a piece of music. I mean... I don't knkow how to put it into words.

[EvilHorde]

WOW! This is a perfect TITLE music. It would be a crime to make a megaman anime-movie and not put this as the title music..

The ambience is unbelieveable. A nice orginal tough to the energetic original. This is SUPERB. Beautiful. Definatly a top5 megaman remix.

I would´ve never believed that a song that fast and pumped-up would work as a calm, ambient song, but this works just as good as the original, maybe better!

The only bad thing about this remix is that you have to be on the right mood to listen to it.. But that´s just me.

Oh man.. sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet.

5/5

no.. wait

6/5

[Axe Canabrava]

This remix owns totally.

It is one of my favorites. It's not my 1 Favorite only because the competition is tough.

11/10

[LibertyCabbage]

ok i underrated it earlier, i've listened to this more times and i must say this song rocks your socks!! it is definently the best or at least one of the best megaman remixes... I've hard this song stuck in my head but its OK cuz it's so awesome :D

10/10 niceness ya its one of the best on the site !!

[jessthemullet]

This song is awesome. Star takes the cake with this mix. I'm a big fan of techno, but this is so much more than your typical cookie-cutter techno remix. Definately a great song, and a classic in my book. I'll be listening to this for a long time. Good work.

[Musicman]

quite amazing. I like the blend of orchestra and techno. sounds like something more from the x series. which is a big plus. I'm very pleased with this mix. I hope to see more like it in the future

[Xatos]

My favourite megaman remix

[Julio Jose]

Nice nice nice. Very good strings. And the beats pace is nice.
I also liked some of the nice synthisizer effects in there.

[MeTc123 RType]

Hey. jus wanna say. this is one of my fav remixes on ocr. im not gonna go technical but jus say, this for me is an example of 100% perfection.

[NeOmega]

I gotta say, I see why it is number 1 at the moment.

Excellent piece of ambient trance electonika. Hardly a bass throught out, yet an incredile pace and rythm.

Hard to tell if it was fast paced or slow paced. That good.

[HalcyonSpirit]

This has got to be the greatest mix of this theme ever made! I'm constantly putting this on repeat, I can't get enough of it. I've had it for quite a while now, too, and I still haven't gotten tired of listening to it. It's that good. Never question Star's ability to produce such great mixes. Never.

Thank you Star, for making this awesome mix.



For those reading the review: if you haven't already, download this mix right now!!!

(Side note: The only thing wrong with this mix is the name... it doesn't fit the music. Maybe a name along the lines of "Destiny's Way" would have been better... the song sounds like something that would go along with someone facing his destiny. And if you need some more explanation... it's the stage music for the Skull Castle, and Mega Man is moving along the path (the "Way") and will be facing Dr. Wily sometime afterwards (his "Destiny")... yeah. But that's just my opinion... I'll shut up now.)

[shrimpchips]

...I'm speechless. Outstanding, outside of the name of course, which I imagine stops people from taking the mix seriously and then not download it. Like the poster above me said, "if you haven't already, download this mix right now!!!"

[esden9]

This is one of those rare remixes that I listen to nearly everyday and yet will still hit repeat when it's over. The fusion of symphonic and electronica elements is damn near perfect..a defining sound that will always remind me of early 2004. It brings to mind in crystal clarity everything that was happening in life at that time. It's subtle and varied ornamentations send shivers up my spine. Truly a remix to be loved and adored forever.

[Antelucan]

Wow. I love that string motif in the background. Also, the string runs at 2:57 are superb. I personally like how it began with a soft piano, gradually increasing in tempo, and it all winds back down to the same. Way to interweave the electronic and orchestral elements. This is remixing at its finest.

[Babylon Skyscraper]

I must sadly admit that I registered and got an account on ocremix.org just to reply to this thread. Yes, it's that cool.

Now, I'm not about to blow sunshine up anyone's ass without justifying my claim. Unfortunately, as I listen to these songs on my silly Quicktime, I can't get a minute or second count, so I'll keep my unfortunately vague references as to the strings and the synth and the chords (etc, etc...) few and far between. As seen by the previous posts in the thread, Star did something right. I think we can all agree there.

Someone mentioned, as I was browsing through the thread, that this song stands on its own not as a remix, but its own tune. Frankly, I would agree. I've not yet played Megaman II, as my friend just got the Anniversary collection for the Xbox and I have not yet partaken of that sweet ambrosia in a disc. I have never heard the original tune.

So, now that I've torn apart my own biased arguments and all foundation for them to stand on, let's get to the fickle sunshine blowing, right? Right.

I was skeptical about this mix when I first began looking through OCR's stuff, mainly because the title. I thought that "Tickle My Wily" was immature, and that somehow this would reflect on the song. It should be noted that this was before I had listened to any of Star's songs. That said, I have never again judged a song by its title.

Have any of you ever played through Megaman X? Man, is that guy angsty or what? Seriously, the final speech at the end when Sigma's base is gone was emotional! Anyways, when I listened to this remix the first time, I couldn't help but imagine what the Wily stage was like. But with every Megaman game, there is that feeling of angst when you get through the 8 original bosses. You know the game isn't going to last much longer. You know that you're going to uncover the secret plot. You know you're going to fight Wily/Sigma/whoever, and that it's going to be epic and utterly awesome, because that's what you've come to expect from Megaman. And if you've played X a hundred times like I have, you get to expect that; you've got your mad powerups, your 8 weapons, your 4 sub-tanks, and you're ready to go. You are premeditating the murder of Sigma. It's that angst that comes with the realization of your actions, the mixture between sorrow and desperation, the feeling of "I don't want to fight, but I must!" felt by the character (because he's the hero, it's his job, and no one else can do it) and echoed by the player (because you bought the damn game and Capcom spent all this time making 8-bit robots for the sole purpose of giving you things to kill) that this song flawlessly embodies for me.

There are Megaman songs out there written by the boys at Capcom that begin soft before entering into their main chorus. Sigma Stage 1 in MMX is like that. Would it be improbable then to see this song -this one right here, "Tickle My Wily"- appear in one of those final, angst-ridden stages? Personally, I think not. Maybe I'm stepping beyond my boundaries here, but I think this song fits in perfectly with the Megaman genre for where it sits in the game's storyline. If there was a way to loop the track before its piano ritard for the finale, I don't see why it couldn't be in a level of its own. However, as it stands, this piece is a work of art that rivals anything that any of Capcom's composers could have rolled out with. Congradulations, Star, and a million thanks for providing all of us with this song.

[Bummerdude]

Now this is something completely different. How many remixes are there of this theme. Probably very many, but how many did it not only with techno instruments, but also with orchestric material? Not many, this might be the only one, and it may not be surprising that Star made it either.

The synth samples was great I think, the beats likewise, but what captured me the most was that Star had changed those MM-synths into strings, giving a completely other effect which I´m afraid to describe since I´m just gonna express myself wrong, but it´s sure beautiful, and by the help of the techno stuff, this gets more than just a harmonic piece. The piano was the beginning and finishing touch to this piece, and i have absolutely no complaints about it.

The only complaint I have is the name of this remix, I don´t really understand the thought behind it.

Majestic and awesome at the same time, you´re one of the best Star. :mrgreen:

[Psychotic Ninja]

At first I thought this remix was gonna suck, but man was I wrong. Star Salzman did a great job remixing this.

[diamondfalcon]

Yeah, you seriously should have changed the title, and maybe more people would have downloaded this mix. I withheld downloading this remix the first time I saw it because it sounded lame. But after finding out it was made by the Star Salzman much later, I got the piece and it is now my favorite Wily remix. Great job with the string and techno mix, it's very awesome. Keep at it Star Salzman!

[Audity]

Great ideas and implementation. I would say it's the best Wily mix, but it basically ties against NoppZ's Wily Meets Flashman (as if they were each at opposite ends of a long metal pole). Wily Meets Flashman may seem like a very generic techno song upfront, which prevented me from immediately thinking to keep it (took me many listens), but has so much going on, which simply works, just like this mix, which seems like a generic orchestral song at first. Here's to good Wily mixes!

[avaris]

One of my favorite tracks from OCR. Love it how it retains the feeling of the source but expands upon so well to create a new a unique piece of music. Kudos good sir!

[OA]

A little unfocused, but definitely exciting and creative. The soundscape was nice and varied, and the effects and panning was always interesting. Pretty epic stuff, I dig it. :-)

[Marmiduke]

A no-brainer 5 star mix. It's a wonderfully slowed down, textural take on a a track that naturally suits being played fast. Giving the melody room to breathe and explore uncharted territory unlocks so much more than I ever dreamed existed within Mega Man music.
As far as I'm concerned, the faux orchestra elements (especially those in the intro) are very much an acquired taste, but I actually wouldn't trade them for anything. The mix has a nice Harry Gregson Williams-esque sound that I really dig.
Sounds like a lot of people had an issue with the goofy, homoerotic title, as well. While it may not match the tone of the music, it is memorable. And sometimes, that's an invaluable thing to be, especially when the music deserves to be remembered.
I frigging love this mix and consider it one of the more listenable and inventive from the Mega Man mix catalog.