OverClocked ReMix Forums - Mega Man: The Wily Castle Remix Gauntlet 2011

Haha, found time to do reviews! I don't know if people find my more in-depth reviews helpful or if they don't even really get read because they're so long. But you know what? I enjoy writting them! Conciseness? What is that?

Liquid Metal Ahh, heavy metal. One of my lease favorite genres, but I tried very hard to keep that separate from my voting and overal analysis. Additionally, though I dislike a lot of how heavy metal sounds, Liquide Metal thankfully avoided most of those. Overall, I thought that this demonstrated a fair amount of technical skills and was well done by the standards of 'heavy metal'. However, I think there were some areas where the voice confidence faltered a little. The lyrics felt somewhat hesitant sometimes, which isn't quite the ideal style. What I got, however, of the lyrical contact was a pleasent mix of goofiness and heavy threats. Red Fish/Blue Fish was an excellent addition, pulled off supurbely, followed up with an excellent breakdown in the last 30 seconds. That, I think was the pinnacle, topped only by the immensly funny "fish" at the close.

Throughout the piece, however, I felt like there were some odd, out of place word choices, especially near the beginning. Overall, on the technicall end I'd work on some of the smoothness of the lyrics, so that they hit harder by being consistently awesome, not just funny. "You'll be the one who smells like sushi", for example, just didn't seem to fit where it was. So overall, it was good but left room for improvement.

Satch Man Hmm, this was a tough one. As I'm writting this, I think this is a contender for my 3rd place slot, along with a couple others.

There was a really catchy start, and I think the chip whistle blade man was a great touch! I loved the alternating at 0:50 - 1:17, worked out really well. There was a great buildup with Mr. X from 1:40 - 2:05. I knew a climax was coming, but it ended up being not at all what I expected. It worked well though, as a sort of cross between the themes. It didn't stand out quite as much as I expected that part to, and I don't know if if covered all the ground of the themes I wanted to see covered though. In terms of what's there, though, it's well done, polished, and covers the themes well.

Cold Dreams Another contender for that 3rd place slot. I liked the good, slow start on this one, really established a soundscape. There was a good combination of different sections of Mr. X, which I thought was quite cool. Once the piece gets really started, theres some really groovy change to typical "Sir Nuts" style, I really liked how it turned out. 1:18-1:48 in particular stood out. The transition after this worked well, and added to the soundscape as well. 2:16 - 2:30 had some awesome string work that went well with Blizzard Man. Overall, I think the themes were combined well and this was another solid entry.

Gemini Man I, like others before me, really liked the start - looking forward to a more fleshed out version. Not a whole lot more to say on this one, it's over just as its really getting started, and naturally doesn't give a whole lot of coverage to those themes. I guess all I can say is; Make that last Gemini Man count! I'm really looking forward to seeing it.

As an aside, it made a surprisingly good transition to Lidawg's, despite ending abruptly.

Passing of the Knight When I looked back at all I had listened to, this one pretty easily settled in on 2nd place. At first, it almost seems a little off, but soon enough I caught on on where it was mixing the themes and it was pretty cool. Gets into a pretty awesome style by about 45 second in. Pretty quickly it moves to some epic Knight Man, I loved the section from 1:00 - 1:34! 1:45 - 2:00 had some amazing mixing of the themes, some of the best in this round. And then, at 2:00 we get a noticable loss of the drums for an EPIC and masterfully executed and placed guitar solo. That really adds to the piece, and then we get everything coming together for another great breakdown at 2:30 up to the end. Loved this one!

Electrostatic Interesting style for the Mr. X stage stuff, it worked well with a good atmosphere. I liked this one, but I felt it could have use the spark man source to greater effect. If that had hit stronger, and perhaps been integrated in a few more places, I think this would have been a really cool remix. As it is, it's fairly solid but doesn't have things that particularly stand out in terms of composition.

The Death of Mr. X Stylish start to this one, with some good Mr. X in the background. Altogether it had a great beat that worked well. The mixing of the themes was very strong. I really liked, in particular, the buildup from 2:06 - 2:20. Then the breakdown. It wasn't really what I was expecting, and I think that parts of that could be improved. Though, that may largely be personal. 2:20 - 2:30 I though, in particular, could be different and really improve the overall impact of the breakdown. Past that though, it was really great and there was a good framework for the piece.

Dayquil, Nyquil Great touch on Mr. X overall! 1:22 - 1:40 was an awesome buildup to 1:55 - 2:20, which was just WOW! 2:20 - 2:50 was a strong touch on Yamato Man by itself, which was good. Then another awesome Mr. X portion with some great mixing. Overall, I felt that it was very good that it finished off with Yamato Man, because that extra coverage was needed. Solid piece. Even if it was fairly conservative with the Yamato Man sections, the Mr. X portions were STELLAR!

I Dreamt of a Man with Two Heads This had an awesome beat to start, and it was kept up throughout, which did wonders for the piece overall 1:10 - 2:20 added to this, but that section could have been developed later on in the piece. Instead, it felt like the direction changed, which took away from the depth of the piece. 3:06 - 3:20 provided some good search man. I think if we had gotten some mixing with the search man we see in 1:10 - 2:20 with Mr. X in the same style, that would have been great.

I think there was great strides in the ability of this piece - it keeps up a good beat and sticks with it for a much fuller piece. What was lacking, however, was a strong climax that builds off this beat and really fleshes out and remixes one or both of the sources. I would say focus on having powerfully awesome moments like that in the next piece, where you just wow the listener. But remember to not lose a full beat/background like you had here. Otherwise, it will start to sound empty. So, have a good solid foundation, like you do here, but still build up on it.

Copperhead Drumstep The start to this one excited me! There was a really interesting style. 0:14 - 0:26 had some pretty awesome Mr. X, which was then built upon with some snake man in 0:26 - 0:53, which mixed really well. 0:53 - 1:18 also stood out as very catchy. 1:20 - 2:00 exhibited a very awesome degree of mixing that really tied the tone together. I also loved what we saw from 2:02 - 2:30, great style that added to the piece in a very unique way. The ending, maybe could have been stronger, but it clearly works.

Smooth Operator I liked the soundscape on this guy, had some sass to it. There was some solid mixing, especially at the beginning. 1:39 - 2:10 excelled in mixing, and was followed up well. I love what you have going on from 2:42 - 2:56, which felt like the culmination of the style you had going on. I'll enjoy listening to this a lot, but I think there was some really awesome stuff done in this round, and this doesn't quite get at the same level. Very good stuff, though.

ZERO to ROBO Nice mechanical vibe. It worked really well for Crash Man, and made for a really interesting style. I would have liked to see the Mr. X source constructed in such a way, rather than only having that mechanical vibe going on in the background. Like, what you did from 0:56 - 1:05, but even more! I think that would have really made this piece stand out and hit home. 1:54 - 2:09 was really catchy and provided a good ending too. Great work on this, but I felt that it fell behind a little on the Mr. X side of things.

Well, that was fun. Time to vote now!