ReMix:Gunstar Heroes "Deep Mine" 3:53

By Malcos

Arranging the music of one song...

"2 Stage"

Primary Game: Gunstar Heroes (Sega , 1993, GEN), music by Norio Hanzawa

Posted 2002-05-13, evaluated by the judges panel


YEAH. Okay people, listen up - if you ain't played Gunstar Heroes, you're missing out on one of the single best 2d action games of all time, not to mention one hell of a fun blast-fest. It's by Treasure, who can virtually do no harm (Radiant Silvergun, anyone? Guardian Heroes?). Back when Gamefan magazine was still alive - what I like to call "the good ole days" - they did a lot to make sure this sleeper hit got recognized and played by all the right people. Bottom line - play it at least once in your life, or you'll die unfulfilled :) But enough hype for the game, let's talk about the ReMix. The capable Malcos aka Stephen Malcolm gives us our first coverage and sets a high benchmark for would-be GH mixers to come, with some stylized techno. Beginning with a train sound effect from an intro for a well-known sound company (I'll say no more), Malcos wastes no time in bringin' in a cool, syncopated synth line, then gradually bringing in the other components: very slick hi-low drums with excellent, varied programming, a massive bassline that's phased and filtered and panned so that it's basically a monster, some additional low-end synthage with a rapid-fire belchy analog synth pattern, and even more synth fun later on. There's just a lot going on here, with synths trading grooves and bits and pieces being removed and recombined in fun ways. Sound quality is fantastic and as previously mentioned, programming is 1. Present and accounted for, 2. Very good and 3. Not just window-dressing, but integral to the mix. Gunstar Heroes needed some coverage, and while some of its music is a little challenging in that the melody is circuitous or nominal, Malcos handles that aspect well, going for the groove and not attempting to stretch things too far from the original to compensate. I liked it quite a bit - could have used one single, biting, kickass synth solo that just rips your ears a new one, so to speak, but I have a well-documented addiction to solos, so that might just be my inner demon interjecting. Recommended.

djpretzel

Discussion

Latest 15 comments/reviews; view the complete thread or post your own.
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timaeus222
on 2013-09-09 15:49:14

I saw this back in April 2013 or so, and did actually play through 3 stages of GSH because of it. =D

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WesternZypher
on 2010-12-19 14:52:54

Another "sonic gargle" mix - put this between other mixes as a sort of palette cleanser to help you enjoy them more. It's good on its own, too; but it seems to work real well scrubbing audio after-tastes from your ears.

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Emunator
on 2009-12-19 20:33:54

Yeah, for a 4 minute remix I can't help but feel like this is missing something critical in terms of the arrangement. The sounds feel very retro-OCR but they're not bad by any means. What you've got going at 1:50-ish feels like a nice lead-in to a great balls-to-the-wall chorus section, but it never comes, unfortunately :-(

There's still enjoyable elements to the mix though, so check it out and see if the lack of direction isn't off-putting to you, especially if you're a fan of the original Gunstar Heroes soundtrack.

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DragonAvenger
on 2009-12-19 09:33:16

Gonna basically agree with OA on this one. The sounds are great, the groove is awesome, but I would have liked at least one super hardcore section to come in and blow me away. Regardless, this one has some pretty cool stuff going on, and it's a neat listen. Nice work.

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Pachi Risu
on 2009-11-16 18:28:45

Fun remix, good job.

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uagrenadier
on 2009-01-07 03:43:19

wtf?

..this is totally awesome (not the amiga game 'awesome')

i mean totally rad (no wait not 'totally rad')

this remix is friggin tubular

those who do not appreciate this can turn their ears elsewhere because i will rock out to this until i am mortally gone

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Jaybell
on 2007-08-04 00:47:02

This is the only treasure mix on the ENTIRE SITE? For shame, OCR. Gunstar Heroes had an awesome soundtrack (which I never really noticed because there's SO MUCH going on in the game), as does Dynamite Headdy. MOAR TREASURE MIXES PLZKTHX

Anyways, the mix itself? Eh. It's not my cup of tea, to be honest. I agree with orkybash, it felt like "oh man this is so building up to something awesome", but it never really did. It's perfectly good, but it's just doesn't appeal to me. Still, props on being the only Treasure mix on the site in it's entire 8 year run. /whine

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OA
on 2007-05-04 10:05:04

sweet as hell feel to this song, but it doesn't ever get kicked up to the level I expected it to. Maybe unreasonable expectations on my part, but I kept waiting for some sort of chorus or something with some harder hitting drums and it never came.

Really cool synth sounds throughout, and though It never get's kicked up a notch BAM, it's pretty good.

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HoopyFrood
on 2006-04-29 07:03:31

I've had this mix for years and still listen to it on a regular basis. The only problem is that there are no other remixes for this game. :(

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DarkWolf
on 2005-11-15 10:15:23

This remix really doesn't capture the cool PSG and FM combination that the original utilized.

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jordex
on 2005-05-03 21:08:19

I remember playing the Gunstar game and it was awesome, as this song is! Some cool sound effects in the beggining then that crazy sounding synth comes in later with that sweet sounding bass! Malcolm just did an awesome job on this!

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Txai
on 2005-01-04 13:17:01

Malcos did not reach the original melody. Maybe intentionally. But...this remix is good. The most important was to make one remix from Gunstar Heroes.

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WarpZone
on 2003-04-12 03:54:46

Yeah, if you're reading this, Malcos, I just wanna say you did a great job. :) This is more or less exactly what I hoped it would be like when somebody finally got around to maxing a Gunstar Heroes track. You didn't make up your own notes for half the song. You didn't mix in any movie quotes or make Banzi Buddy spell out your e-mail address. You didn't distort the hell out of everything, which can sometimes be pretty cool but usually just ends up being distracting. You just told it to us more or less the same way the Genesis's meager sound hardware told you, embeleshing it a little as you went. THANK YOU!!!

I probably would have picked a different track, because I always thought this was one of the weakest tunes from Gunstar, but you've done wonders with it, man. :) Please, please, PLEASE do more in the future! I'd love to see what you could do with the music from the jungle stage or the airship stage...

As for you guys up there who haven't played the game yet, unless your comp is incompatible with the current build of GENS, you have no excuse for not playing it. Look, if you're into video game music in the first place, you've probably played some version of Contra, right? Okay, picture contra, same guns, same basic controls, except you have a couple mellee attacks for use if you're surrounded by guys at point-blank range. Oh, and you have a life meter.

The reason you need that life meter is because of the enemies you'll be facing. You know how in the first level of that SNES Contra game, you'd be walking through the first level, and an alien soldier would run along the ground towards you and occasionally fire a shot?

In gunstar, eight of those guys would jump you at once. And as soon as you kill one, he explodes in a cloud of fire and a new one appears at the edge of the screen to take his place. And forget about just moving back and forth along the ground and releasing a bullet that travels in a straight line towards you. These guys swarm onto the scene and all but flank you.

First guy on the scene stops and pulls out a blaster, while his buddies run, jump, and slide at you. If there's ledges in the background you can jump on, one or two of them will hop up there to come at you from above, and if you climb onto the scaffolding, they all follow you. Meanwhile, that guy with the blaster out is taking shots at you. Fortunately, the beam travels slowly cuz you've got a lot to keep track of.

You blew up two of the soldiers like so much high-yeild explosive tissue paper, but one of them grabs you from behind, and his buddies close in and start kicking you. You mash the buttons to escape... and discover you can throw them like in a fighting game. More soldiers appear, and also a couple helicopter robot thingies. One of the soldiers pauses near the edge of the screen and actually recieves orders from the communicator on his wrist. And if you're playing on a hard enough difficulty level, right about now, someone lobs a grenade, sending you and a few of his buddies flying in all directions.

But, see, this is only the first five seconds of gameplay! The game goes on like this for almost half an hour assuming no deaths, punctuated by insane bosses, the occasional jumping puzzle, and even one shooter level.

..........

Um, anyway, great song, Malcos. :)

Sorry. :) I love this game.

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Burnov
on 2002-12-14 04:25:56

This is my first ever post. Coincidentally this was the first song I listened to on this website when I found it. I like this remix, a lot. I really like what Malcos did with this song.

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Deryck Khusial
on 2002-07-11 04:42:47

groovilicious. you might as well get Malcos’ Earthworm Jim - Underground mix. it’s strange, but playing these two together just seem Right. they're equivalents. while the Mine steadily progresses, Underground steadily degresses, and it makes for an awesome effect on the ears if you're playing 'em at the same time

Sources Arranged (1 Song)


Primary Game:
Gunstar Heroes (Sega , 1993, GEN)
Music by Norio Hanzawa
Songs:
"2 Stage"

Tags (12)


Genre:
EDM,Electro,Trance,Trap
Mood:
Dark,Energetic
Instrumentation:
Sound FX,Synth
Additional:
Effects > Detuning
Effects > Glitching
Time > 4/4 Time Signature
Usage > Workout

File Information


Name:
Gunstar_Heroes_Deep_Mine_OC_ReMix.mp3
Size:
4,745,990 bytes
MD5:
2b5edfe97d366a9a5daa82632f687f67
Bitrate:
160Kbps
Duration:
3:53

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