OCR02090 - Mega Man 2 'The Quick and the Blue'

[djpretzel]

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

[Brandon Strader]

Sounds really fantastic. Especially loving that -- acoustic bass is it? Don't hear that too often. Great vocals, great backing strings and trumpet -- everything fits together quite well. When I heard acoustic performance I was expecting just that, but was pleasantly surprised by the accompanying instrumentation and even vocals. Not familiar with Mega Man 2 music (forgive me) but the arrangement is really good. That oboe sounded pretty fake but a minor detail and nigh unnoticeable flaw on an otherwise stellar production.

[/big words]

Post your opinion

[MechaFone]

This remix is epic. I'm not listening to the music much, it's the singing and lyrics that really do it for me. It's epic video game storytelling at it's best, telling the story of a robot that dared to deny his future, but ultimately plays his part like he was meant to. I want more!

[Chris | Amaterasu]

Wow, this remix mentally whacked me right over >.>

I've listened to the other original of this for absolutely ages, but I never realized =O

It's the music in my FAVORITE smash combo video, 20 secs in
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B38NsvumgsI&feature=related
I associate this song with YL pwnage <3

Awesome, so now I know where to get it from =D
Anyway, I really like this arrangement, acoustic stuff that I really dig <3

[OA]

Excellent lyrics and great presentation to this one, the vocal harmonies are really well thought out, and the performances were solid as well. Really compelling stuff, excellent work guys. :-)

edit: just heard the original version, much more interesting harmonies this time around. Awesome way to improve an already solid entry!

[Mirby]

"Your speed means nothing if it's death that you're running from!"

Best line of the song, and the main reason I love it so much. Sooooo glad it's a posted ReMix now, because I love it!

[Emperor Charlemagne]

I'll admit, this is pretty great; I had a wonderful time listening to this track.

I like Monsteropolis better, but only because i like Air Man's theme more than Quick Man's theme.


They're both great, though, and I love the dedication the Megas put into their work.

[Dafydd]

I wish there was some percussion, a shaker at least, but what's here is awesome. The synths are noticably fake and there's this one note in the melody where the guitar is badly out of tune, but it doesn't matter much. I find this part of the lyrics especially epic:

My circuits slow
I'm not scared anymore
I join the ranks of my brothers that have fallen beforeThanks for ReMixing Quickman's theme!

[Bahamut]

Embarrassingly, I realized that I never listened to Get Acoustic despite buying it a while back until I saw this mix posted and the album listed that it's from.

I'm personally mixed on the vocals, sometimes liking it and sometimes not so much, but I love the backing quite a lot. In particular, I love the acoustic & bass guitars here and how they add a bit of a South American flare to the music - it just resonates nicely with me.

[DragonAvenger]

Love the lyrics for this; not overtly nerd, but plenty of references throughout that we all know exactly what they're talking about. The background is really nice; it's one of those times where less is more in terms of arrangement. My one small gripe is that I wish the harmony and vocal line was a little tighter together on things like releases, but that's a problem I have myself. Great stuff.

EDIT: Mouseclick FTW. We should start a club.

[duskvstweak]

I love these guys if only because they make me become so attached to the plight of the Robot Masters. The last minute of lyrics make this video for me. "I see the faces of my brothers that have fallen before." Man.
The acoustic is nice and like Level 99's mix, I like the atmosphere it adds to the main source. A very cool song. I think I'm gonna go play Mega Man 2 now.

[Kizyr]

Back at Otakon, Larry was telling me that this one was working its way through the process, so I was looking forward to seeing it come out here.

I listened to it back when I got Get Acoustic earlier in the year. This was my favorite on the original Get Equipped album (both for the musical quality and the lyrics), and the acoustic version is a pretty awesome take on it.

Personally, my favorite lines are:
My circuits slow
I'm not scared anymore
This is the moment that we have been created for

I hope this gets a bunch more people into The Megas, just like what happened for me back when The Annihilation of Monsteropolis was posted. KF

[Random Hajile]

The lyrics are fantastic, and they really make the song IMO. My favorite lines are the chorus, really.
it perfectly conjures up images of a western shootout, it is truly fantastic.

"We're gonna draw,
In this town,
I am the law.
Is what they say true?
Does death wear blue?
Can he fall?"

It's so fatalistic, quick man is almost a hero. Megaman has killed his brothers and is coming to fuck up his town and he's fucking ready to try and take him down, but he knows that he's fighting death really, he's fighting against his fate, and he falls.

The implications are fucking delicious and quick man is a fucking hero for trying.

[Soteriologist]

OK, so I'm totally feeling an influence from Mr. Brightside by The Killers in this song, especially in the chorus. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGdGFtwCNBE&ob=av2e)

Awesome work dude. I'm digging this.

[Shortmann]

Awesome song. Went straight to my iPod and I listened to it a good half a dozen times in the first day. I really like the minimalist approach to the source material, it seems to compliment the song very well. Good work guys.

[LunaYoshi]

I really like this cover. I'm interested in possibly downloading the entire album to hear more, but without a second song to reassure me it's not going to only contain one gem among the rocks, I'm a bit hesitant. I haven't bought full albums in years. I've purchased too many that had one or two good songs and the rest were crap. I prefer to pay for only the ones I like. But that's not an option here, so I'm torn.

Hopefully another of their songs can show up here on OCRemix again so I can compare and possibly make the decision to shell out the probably-worthwhile $10 for it all. :)

[duskvstweak]

You could always hear it here.
http://themegas.bandcamp.com/album/get-acoustic

[Mremperor]

I really like this cover. I'm interested in possibly downloading the entire album to hear more, but without a second song to reassure me it's not going to only contain one gem among the rocks, I'm a bit hesitant. I haven't bought full albums in years. I've purchased too many that had one or two good songs and the rest were crap. I prefer to pay for only the ones I like. But that's not an option here, so I'm torn.

Hopefully another of their songs can show up here on OCRemix again so I can compare and possibly make the decision to shell out the probably-worthwhile $10 for it all. :)

Or you could head over to rainwave.cc (http://rainwave.cc)’s V-wave page, where they also have the whole album, and more by the Megas.

[Citan]

Most of the time I don't care much for remixes that have lyrics, but the lyrics in this piece are just... Incredible. The storytelling here is fantastic, I'm so absorbed by it that I'm hardly listening to the music itself. Superb work!

[BlueMage]

In hilarious news, I purchased the remastered album ... hmm, three days ago? Yes, three days. This was one of my preferred tracks (constantly find myself singing it, Metal Dance being the other one) so good show gents.

Bit more Western feel now. To be perfectly honest, while this is certainly good, I enjoy the non-acoustic version better. Thumbs up for effort guys.

[Master_Yoshi]

Uh... yeah...

It took me like 3 tries to get past the intro to this song without closing my browser window thinking this was just going to be a samey Mega Man acoustic remix.

Turns out it's a samey Mega Man remix with vocals! Yay....

I'm just so unimpressed by this track. It feels catchy and good in the exact same way most pop music is catchy and "good." Definitely not for me.

Still, I can appreciate the effort that went into this. And chalk up another mix with Male Vocals that are not instantly hateable! Yay!

[nicholai_maelstrom]

Alright, so... here's the thing. I think I might have found one of my new favorite remixers on this site. I've been a fan of The Megas since I was first blown away by The Annihilation of Monsteropolis (and holy crap, the Air Man puns just started rolling there. Not intended, rofl). This one is just amazing to me, though. I absolutely dig the western feel and the whole "quick-draw" battle that's happening all through the tune. You guys never cease to amaze me. Keep up the excellent work. I look forward to your next mixes.

[stealthchicken]

I'm normally far too lazy to post on here but you guys really deserve some praise on this one. I must admit that at first I wasn't really into the song because I normally prefer the likes of Halc, PrototypeRaptor, chthonic, and bLiNd. But after listening to the lyrics the whole way through I was completely hooked.

The acoustic western feel just goes SO well with the song and it's lyrics it's nuts. And the lyrics themselves just blow me away. It makes me feel for the Quick Man's plight and I can so easily picture the story you're trying to tell.

"My circuits slow. What they said is a lie. The shots are heard and the bullets scream death as they fly."
"I'm not scared anymore. I join the ranks of my brothers that have fallen before." - TRULY epic job guys.

*Edit* I checked out your album and it was alright. To me though, it just seems that this song has a certain polish to it that some of your other tracks lack. I'd easily spend $20+ on an album with more tracks like this and LOVE it!

[Martin Penwald]

Guitars and vocals are nice, but what really makes this mix stand out are the lyrics. Damn, are they awesome. The way the story of Quickman and Megaman is told, the slow part around 3:00, the final showdown...I'm usually rather hesitant to use the word "epic", especially on the internet, but in this case, I don't have any problem doing so.

Stellar work, guys.

[rahmoon]

I didn't know what to expect when I saw it was an acoustic mix, but this definitely gave me chills as I listened to it. One of the only things I didn't like was the end narrative; I mean, I enjoyed the epilogue of the story, but my own personal preference would be to have it sung lyrically, like the rest of it, like in a more minor key or something. But really and truly, that's all I took exception to, everything else was pretty darn awesome. I'm definitely checking out The Megas, I really enjoyed this concept.

[DarkSim]

This mix took me by surprise - I really didn't expect to be moved by the lyrical content of a game remix, but the effort put in and the vocal harmonies just get me every time. I'm completely enraptured by the storytelling and desperation of the Quick Man, the song's tragic hero. I've never even played a Mega Man game, but the song's so well written I don't have to have done, and that's got to speak volumes. I also barely notice the instrumentation, but upon closer listen I love the acoustic bass.

I definitely hear the Killers reference in there, which is probably my only criticism, as it sort of "breaks the 4th wall" in the storytelling as my brain associates it with Mr Brightside, and I'm momentarily distracted.

My circuits slow
I'm not scared anymore
This is the moment that we have been created for
A great line no-one's mentioned yet - your choice of the word "created" here is a stroke of genius. It implies a destiny; an inevitability about the situation that no matter how hard he tries, the Quick Man will never win, so his efforts are in vain. We know this, he knows this, yet he still tries, and we empathise with him.

Thankfully, next on my OCR playlist is a halc/ben briggs mix to cheer me up again after this song's totally swept me off to a distant emotional plane. Clever, compelling stuff.

[Sansato]

I actually purchased the entire album from iTunes a while back, but this is still my favorite track from it. For me, the lyrics invoke the theme of a wild west showdown at high noon. The brass helps with that as well. Death does wear blue, and this song is great. Not exactly epic, but close to it.

[Kizyr]

A great line no-one's mentioned yet - your choice of the word "created" here is a stroke of genius. It implies a destiny; an inevitability about the situation that no matter how hard he tries, the Quick Man will never win, so his efforts are in vain. We know this, he knows this, yet he still tries, and we empathise with him.
...I quoted those exact same lines in the previous page as my favorite lyrics in the entire piece.

For the exact same reasons, no less. That's why this is my favorite that The Megas have done--though the one based on the level select theme approaches it. I could get all Asimov on an interpretation of the lyrics here, too, based around just those three lines--something about the implicit analogy between robots' programming and humans' destiny/fate gets to the sci-fi fan in me. KF

[DarkSim]

Errr woops, so you did! My mistake, I reviewed a lot of stuff yesterday and must have missed it.

[FenixDown]

I found the lyrics of this arrangement to be my favorite aspect of this mix. I liked how Quickman was portrayed as the hero defending his town from the outsider Megaman; it's not the approach many would consider. The instrumentation added to the Western theme of the song nicely. Another win for The Megas.

[42]

Hee-hee, I agree with Kizyr and DarkSim; my favorite lyrics are
My circuits slow
I'm not scared anymore
This is the moment that we have been created for

for also their reasons about how it deals with destiny. But what I like here is how Quick Man is also rising to meet his destiny (the "not scared anymore" part and how it's repeated mantra like).

There's also just a bunch of little things in the narrative painted here that I like too, such as how the battle between Mega Man and Quick Man is given as much time as the rest of the narrative else even though such an actual battle would only last seconds, if that makes sense.

This is probably my favorite track from The Megas; I still like the non-acoustic version better though because it just reaches higher levels of tension that this one doesn't. Still, this is a really good version, and I hope that this does get more people interested in The Megas like Annihilation of Monsteropolis did for me. :-D

[AMT]

This song is great- it has some of the best lyric writing I've heard on this site. Awesome job, I love it!