Master_Yoshi

I felt kind of iffy about this track. It's understandable though, this is an amazing debut of a new style of songwriting, so con-freaking-grats on doing this well! I think the times when it worked the best were when the orchestral section was in the foreground and the electronica was playing more of a supportive role, things felt very dynamic and fluidic, too bad this really only happened towards the end. Still though, this beats the pants off anything I could dream up to do with the track, and for that you get a seal of verification as part of the EarCheck sound diet system. Yeah, okay. I'll stop trying to be clever.

Posting a review to anything VHD puts out seems nonsensical. It's going to be awesome and worth the long play time. Although, I preferred Shnab's take on a couple of the themes here, although that's like comparing a Picasso to a Van Gogh. This is very much the Van Gogh of that fight, to make it clear. Rather than try to see the sources from every angle at once, this highlights the inner beauty of it, bringing that out and not getting caught up in the unimportant details. A beautiful rendition of a beautiful soundtrack! Although, I still have to play these games through. I can never seen to get the discipline to follow them to completion...

Uhhhh.... Yeah? Okay, time to get my bias out of the way. The guy delivering the rap - his voice aggravates me. I don't know why. Something about the pitch or the way he delivers lines, I have the same problem with MC Frontalot. Creatively, this is pretty good, and I will echo sentiments that turning something from 7 seconds to just under 3 minutes is pretty amazing! So, aside from the vocals, which I hate for no discernable reason, what is going on with the rest of the track? Some pretty cool work, awesome wizardry under the hood is being employed here. This is really reminiscent of the approach taken by the bad dudes for "Jingle All the Way." Very clever expansion, and the sound choices compliment the vocals pretty well. This feels very over-the-top nerdcore, and that's just cool. *read the lyrics.* And that's pretty clever too.

Oh, I totally agree that having project mixes fall under a double standard would be incredibly rough and tumble, but maybe there is a better way of doing it? Maybe, stock them up and have mini-floods? Sort of a "We interrupt our regular mix posting cycle to give you MORE AWESOME MUSIC from this project which TOTALLY ROCKS." Because, really, that's what's sort of happening now, but it just feels like a bit of a cheat when I am looking to find new artists, genres, and game soundtracks to groove to and it feels like 1/4 (I didn't do the actual math) of the front page is from a project that gets repeatated quite often on my iPod. *Edit* Also, not to sandbag, but I notice that the recently posted DKC2 mixes that are from the project aren't getting much in the way of comments. Maybe I'm not the only one that feels this way, but that's a bit of a disservice to the artists. All I'm saying, is there might be a better way. That's a different topic altogether, sorry for going offtopic in this thread.

Step 1: Listen to this remix. Step 2: Grin like a total idiot for the next half hour. Step 3: ???? Step 4: Repeat Step 1. Step 5: Profit! No, seriously! This is just so peppy and fun and lighthearted. Nice shoutout to an older mix, that was pretty cool. And well, kirby's ridiculously cute shout attack is just epic. I am all for using in game samples to enhance a mix thus. You have done something that amazes me though. You've turned the usual mechanical, retro, almost harsh-sounding chiptune sounds and made the warm, flavourful, and amazing when consumed in high doses. Serious skills right there, and if I was not hat-agnostic I would tip my hat to you, good sirs!

Not familiar with the source, should I be? Meh, racing games were never my thing. Right, music. And it's more Level 99, who sold me back on the FF5 project with his NIN-esque heroin shooting calbrena remix. Why did I bring that up? Because the intro to this really does remind me of a concept there, although that's probably a lack of sleep and excess of caffeine running through my veins. Also peanut butter. I liked it, nice interplay between the car samples and the guitar work, that was an unexpected surprise, and was quite fun to listen to. I can only think that it was fun to make! This is where I would normally try and say something deep and meaningful here, but nothing is coming to mind, so... That'll do, pig. That'll do.

Okay, seriously OCR. What is going on here? I can understand wanting to give a project as much exposure as possible, and DKC2 was pretty awesome, but does every third or fourth mix posted have to be from this project? I'm so tired of looking for new music and just getting recycled project mixes. This is worse than when VOTL came out. Or at least feels worse. Okay, rant over. This mix isn't bad, but it's not really that standout. The lyrics really do kill it for me, they hardly ever work against the backdrop of neko's killer guitar work. I much prefer the vocal-less bonus track from the album to this, and that makes me sad, for how much I make a point of going for mixes that include vocals. It wasn't a problem with the vocals themselves, they just didn't mesh nicely. It felt like there was a completed track with guitar and such done, and then someone went and pasted over top of it. Regardless if that is what actually happened or not, I would want collabs to feel like an actual collab, not just a [New Mix+].

I think there was a lot that you guys can cover, for sure. Although, to be honest, the diversity you are talking about doesn't really exist too often in most media. I wonder, are you guys going to be looking at examples in media where it was successful (Example: Captain Jack Harkness from Dr. Who/Torchwood as a successful gay/bi male) and then show how it could be modelled into games?

Yup, awesome vids continue to be awesome. If anything, you guys have gotten better at cutting through to your main points and delivering sound, reasoned arguments to back yourselves up. Good onya!

Was pretty poorly paced, and like an above post the audio was bad in places. Otherwise, not too bad, lots of decent references, and I liked the electrode is a car bomb scene. That was pretty cool. I still think as far as gritty nintendo goes, you can't beat There Will be Brawl.

* I am actually really avoiding news on this game, I want to avoid being hyped up due to the fact that I can't see how any sequel can be better or as good as the Original. And really, the co-op does seem a bit... hrm. I don't know many people on my friends list or in real life I would want to play this with for fear of stranglings that would take place during gameplay. Granted, I have been surprised by a sequel being better than an unstoppable original in the past. Toy Story 2, anyone?

Nah, when you put it that way you come off as totally reasonable. And yeah, monologues suck. It's the one thing I really hate in metroid fusion. Granted, I'm fine with her voice actress, as even her Japanese counterpart sounded that way. And the fact cutscenes are unskippable is always a problem. So yes, it could have been handled better, but I never really meant to argue that point. I think the transition from pure gameplay to a blend of gameplay and story is necessary, and it's bound to be painful. I support it because I want the formula to be revisited, refined, hashed and rehashed. It's not perfect now, and things like being unskippable in your cutscenes is a big deal, but damnit! It's a lot closer to be a whole, enjoyable experience that is more than the mindlessness of the classic mega man era, I can't help but see through those flaws. And my comment on the throwback was towards Super Metroid, not other M. So yeah, to sum up. I agree that the implimentation here, from a technical standpoint, was bad. But the story, the characterization, all of that I am cool with. They could have done a better job telling the story, but I see nothing wrong with the story itself. It's sort of like Harry Potter. I like the story in it, the world is colourful and fun, incredibly interesting, all of that is fantastic. Could it have been told better? Of course! Does that really detract from it in the grand scheme, and was I opposed to book 7? Of course not!

I disagree with you on two points, but at least we can agree on gameplay! Honestly, I can't see you budging your opinion on the character development aspect. Moving someone from a long-standing non-character to being a fully three dimensional and fully fledged character is bound to be a rough transition, even for the best of authors and... blah. I know what's really at play here. Samus Aran is one of the video game heroines that is hardest to find hentai of. Because guys respect her, because she's one of them, or so they think. Raised on the 80s and 90s of having no emotion = awesome and badass, a la terminator and Rambo, only showing the faintest signs of budging when a child or something else helpless comes into play, there's a lot going on there I think. Most people have this image of her and preconceived notions of what it takes to be cool. Sadly, a lack of emotion isn't cool. It's boring, it's stupid, and it's incredibly scary. Ask anyone that has been through real emotional trauma and hardship - the easier thing to do is switch off completely, it takes real courage to deal with that emotion, take the hits, the freezeups, and the emotional beatings, and continue to trek on. To me, having her go into a full fledged panic attack and then come out of it rather than go fetal, that endears me to her even more. As someone that's had panic attacks, I know what that's like. Maybe it's something people on the outside can't understand? And regarding the George Lucas thing.... wow.... That's insulting. To insinuate that I might enjoy the prequel trilogies outside of the spectacle that is episode 3 hurts... I'm just going to leave it at "not the same situation, at all." *Edit* And YES YOU CAN justify taking 20 years to define something. It's the success of the original metroid and metroid 2, and listening to the fans and feedback and hearing that they want to be a space bounty hunter (wtf is that, even? Has she ever actually gotten a bounty? Does she bring in criminals? Who pays her?) They wanted another game that was built entirely around gameplay and was a throwback to the NES days. And they got it. Super metroid was awesome, but I refuse to go over to the opinion that not having story and characterization injected there makes it "too late" for the series to have them at all. That's a complete pile of bullshit. I can't think of any parallels to that situation because long standing things ALWAYS have drastic changes from beginning to end.

So... what's your endgame here, then? That because they didn't have it before and they should have but had no excuse, that it has no place now? Or maybe you'd have preferred other M to have a ret-conning flashback that puts in that scene in super metroid?

Definitely opened my ears up to a lot of different genres I wouldn't have thought of trying out before, and for that I am quite thankful! Also, I got to follow along and listen to what people used for inspiration for some of their music, and that broadened my musical tastes too. Case in point: A recent gnomergean WoW remix came through that I didn't get, but after a bit of prodding and experimentation I was able to get into more modern sounds, and that's a very cool thing indeed.

You're missing an even bigger point here. They just DIDN'T have any character development in the previous games, except for a little bit about her dropping her mission of destroy all metroids when she had the chance to play mommy. She had less character development than even Gordon Freeman, who we at least know went to school at some point in MIT. As far as faceless, identity-less characters go, Samus was a nintendo staple along with Mario - just a mindless drone tasked with taking care of generic big bad X. Even the jerks in Gears of War had some character depth. Samus had almost none. This game tries to say "You know what? She did have depth, but I never really was able to display it before in the games because of the non-linear nature of their gameplay. I decided to put impeccable gameplay over storytelling but now I am going to try to merge them." This is the first time that such a thing has been done in the metroid universe, and really the first time someone has taken a long-standing, well beloved and in some cases cult classic game, which is entirely gameplay driven with next to no plot or characterization, and insert some real meat storyline wise. Well, sort of the second time. Fusion I see as an experiment, to see if that was even possible. There was a bit of a marriage between gameplay and story there, but I think it was more to see what audiences would react to. And people loved it, otherwise this wouldn't have been made. Would you REALLY want another 20 metroid titles that were ripoffs of super metroid, where there was no growth in the characters, universe, or any of that related stuff? Prime sort of did that, and the third game is quite weak for it in comparison to 1 and 2. Sticking to the same formula over and over again leads to horrible stagnation of ideas. And just because we all saw Samus as generic mindless ass kicker X359 because the creator failed his first couple outings of proving to us differently, should he then be forced to change his ideals to our whim rather than sticking to his own vision? Can we really only accept a series as long as nothing ever changes, only gets more "refined?" Eventually you end up with something bland, emotionless, and you are no longer making games for art or entertainment - you are making them for money. Because all the passion and joy is lost. I personally am glad this game happened. I hope the trend continues, and I hope that the marriage of plot and gameplay gets refined, and we can move down from being melodramatic and focus in on the important parts. Oh, and regarding the Ridley scene. Ridley was never an insect. He brought her to the brink of death EVERY time (unless you are uber leet, but work with me here.) If I killed your family in front of you, then threatened to kill you, and no amount of gas, bullets, melting, explosions, dismemberment, acid, atomization, or whatever gruesome death you could think of stopped me from trying to kill you too, do you think that would be cool? You'd be okay to just say "Yup, I'll just squash you." Oh wait, YOU'VE DONE THAT 5 OTHER TIMES!!! Or however many ridley deaths there have been. If the one thing that haunts your nightmares just does NOT stay down don't you think that having a freezeup moment would be appropriate? Add onto the fact that you are a nigh-invicible badass that destroys ordinary monsters during a liesurely stroll, who sees a near-useless survival stun gun as the ticket out of a completely hostile and hopeless situation. If you have the power to destroy planets and end civilizations, don't you think that having one goddamn dragon lizard never stop coming back to kill you no matter what you do would fuck you up hardcore? The only person who would be able to handle that kind of stress without showing any weakness is a psychopath - aka someone without emotion. And that is a horrible protagonist. Yeah, she has a moment of weakness due to that, but she gets over it and kicks ass! She doesn't freeze up and need someone to rescue her and make the monsters go away while she cries. She bucks up, gets over her fear, and does what has to be done. That's real courage and awesomess right there.

I guess there are going to be obvious comparisons to "Through Time and Space" which is one of my favourite mixes on the site, and quite rightly. They both have a similar feel, almost as though they could be part of the same track. In that regard, I liked Through Time and Space a bit more, since it had something of a more magical feel, taking the haunting tones from the Chrono Cross and building around them, whereas this doesn't really anchor itself to the original terribly close. Like DA said, I like and dislike that aspect of the mix. On a whole, this doesn't really work for me. It honestly feels like it builds up for so long and then I don't really get the payoff that I was hoping for that entire time. But! I will say that it is a pretty good take on the theme, and upon further listens I can appreciate the value of letting the meat of the original melody sit in the background for the most of it.

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!

Ah, Sixto. You seem to be at that point in an OCR "career" where you can now do no wrong, as long as you keep doing what you're doing. I mean, you've been there for a while, but for me this is where I would really say "Yeah, the past few Sixto mixes have been like this, and that isn't a bad thing!" Really though, what to say about this. It's the sound everyone should know and hopefully love. Enough expression and interpolation and other big words so we know this isn't just a straight up rock cover, the arrangement works well enough, what else can someone say? Oh, right. I liked this.

Sounded really reminiscent of another AeroZ take on one of the source tunes, to the point where I was having some serious Deja Vu, until I realized that yes, I had heard this before. Not really a knock against this particular track, though. This accomplishes what it sets out to do quite deftly, can't really complain. Well, I could, but there's nothing really glaring out in this track. The lack of direction is quite intentional, the quirky and sometimes contrary sounds used very deftly channel the madness of a Blue Mage.

Wasn't really feeling this mix. I think the issue is that it feels like it's lacking in the polish department. It feels really dark and oppressive, which is fantastic, but also seems to lack clarity in the sound texturing. At some points I forget about what is happening with the bass as the lead just... leads on. And since there is pretty much just that one synth and some strings to accompany it, there's not really much. Although, to be honest, this does sound about right for Ex-Death. I mean, the muddy and sometimes chaotic feeling bass representing the void, the strings representing.... yeah, you get the point. Still, not bad. Good take on the tune, just was expecting more. *Edit* I listened to this on some headphones that cost more than 30 bucks... And now I can hear it. So yeah, I pretty much take that back, other than the part where I wasn't really feeling it. Meh, just not my thang, although the quality is awesome and it does exactly what it sets out to do.

I don't know what's more amazing. That DS routinely makes amazing mixes with free sounds and FL Studio presets, or just how awesome he can make a mix using new sounds. Either way, this is quite stunning. I love how it is constantly evolving, and really does take the source in a direction I would never have thought of, or guessed. I remember when I first played the game, this track really did strike me as relatively boring, and quite dreary in comparison to the rest of the soundtrack and the overall aesthetic. This really does capitalize on that melody though, I love the sound choices here. Definitely feeling the DS style of cascading sounds, never really building up to a climax but never feeling short of energy either. Approve.

All I can say is this. ABOUT FREAKIN' TIME!!! Absolutely sublime, guys. I'll post more detailed in the individual remixes, as I hope and expect they all get posted. I mean, c'mon. For a square game FF5 is horribly underrepresented on OCR. This album is an absolute touch of brilliance though. Having the styles directed by jobs and the flavour of the art is fantastic, and really opens up to a wide variety of mixes. I personally can't wait for Samurai and Dancer. Is beastmaster going to be a total rofl mix? I might be able to handle that.. Also, very nice, releasing the project in chunks. Analogous to Half Life 2 episodes 1 and 2 - released small and quick. Hopefully you guys don't follow valve's footsteps and make us wait forever for episode 3.

See it's music like this that I wish would get played more than overplayed "classics" like One Winged Angel and Liberi Fatali and the Halo franchise at shows like Video Games Live. Oh, right. I totally dig this. Guys need to work on your recording though! It all sounds so distant and I don't get the feeling that I am listening to an orchestra as much as listening to a recording of a recording of an orchestra. An orchestra dishing out some awesome music, but still, there is that separation. But hey, this is the second track you guys have released to OCR, and this was a live performance, so it's nothing to feel too faulted on. Maybe try hitting up Tommy Talarico or someone connected to VGL to see how they do their recordings - those always sound really sharp and amazing on CD. And don't flame me! I love the track for once! Wholly and nigh unconditionally.

That intro was deceiving, I was expecting something a bit more faster paced, groovier, or maybe just... different. But this has a nice factory feel to it, everything just clunks along at its own pace, taking no shit from no... um... what would a factory take no shit from? Even the shift at 1:30 doesn't feel jarring, there is still that mechanical feel to it, even though things have loosened up and are now moving at full bore. I love how you dress up your samples dude. They are really well layered, and the deficiencies in them are covered really nicely by some complimentary synth work. My only gripe is that it feels a bit anti-climactic, the song just sort of falls off the end, rather than coming to a nice, well oiled stop. Still, that's not any form of major detraction from the work as a whole.