Sweedumz

I didn't elaborate my scoring method, so I may as well do it now. Essentially, it went as follows, but I don't presume to say that my own personal tastes weren't applied where I felt appropriate. *****: Stays true, a great remix, and replays the game through music. ****: Stays true and imporves upon the original with a great remix. ***: Stays true to the original **: Nice remix, but strays too far from the theme. *: Way too far from the original to be an appropriate remix. That was more or less my method. Tracks like "The Secluded Stronghold" and "Walk on Water", accomplish 5 stars in my own personal view, for what it's worth. 3 stars means the track stayed true to the original. I can't define "staying true", but I know it when I hear it. 1 star means that the song may have been a nice piece of music, but it just wasn't a remix of the level. (To be fair, "Knuckleduster" was probably a 2, but I just don't like vocals in VG remixes.) I would disagree strongly with that view. If people want to create interesting music, there are other ways to do it. If you want to create a video game remix, you're shouldering an additional responsibility to stay true to the original. If you're going to the effort of making an entire remix album for a game, then that responsibility weighs heavily on you. Icecap and Lava Reef were keystone tracks. Again I appreciate somthing different was trying to be done, but this wasn't "just another mix" to be added to the substantial pile. This was an OCRemix site project album. When the rest had faded into obscurity, this was still going to be around. As such, these levels needed to be spoken for appropriately. And if it sounded cliched simply because so many people who loved those levels had remixed it so many times, that wasn't the level's fault. I've played Sonic 3 and Knuckles a lot. I remember at one point having eight saves so I could play through with each character with or without each special power. I played it non-stop for over 2 years. Constantly. It's one of my Desert Island Games. I don't mean to say I some kind of S3K guru or sage. I only mean to emphasise that I loved that game. After so much play, I've got certain "impressions" about each level. I think a few of them are right. Anyway I had to give my opinion, and my opinion is that in this case, experimentation didn't pay off. The important tracks just strayed too far. I'm not a musician, but I am a S3&K player. But I think my opinion would be representative of the latter group.

I heard about the album recently and after Hedgehog Heaven I just had to get it. S3K was and still is my all time favourite platformer. I still play it to this day. Unfortunately, well... I'm going to give a rundown of each track before I discuss the album in its entireity. I hope you guys like constructive criticism, because believe me, I'm trying to be constructive here. Scores out of five stars, from one to five. =========================================== 101 - SnappleMan - Sonic the Hedgehog and Knuckles (Title) OK the title. Not much can really be done here. I think it works well. Score: *** 102 - KungFuChicken! - The Wait is Over! (Data Select) It's a nice rendition of the menu. Catchy, with zest, and true to the original. Score: **** 103 - Rexy - Divided from Grace (Angel Island) Excellent. Great place for the Sonic 3 intro, and I love the 2 act mix. Really evokes the journey through Angel Island Zone. Very well done. Score: ***** 104 - Daniel Baranowsky - Caution-Echidnas May Eat Your Brain (S3 Boss 1) The funk is with this track. Great remix. Score: **** 105 - housethegrate - Walk on Water (Hydrocity) Awww yeah! I'm back in Hydrocity every time I listen to this track. True to the original, but older now, with more experience, and a backing band. And has the second act tune. I love this one. Score: ***** 106 - Daniel Baranowsky - Knuckleduster (Marble Garden) Vocals, Bad! Country,WORSE!! No! No. Score: * 107 - Hadyn - Three Ring Nightfall (Carnival Night) This is an interesting remix. I really like the xylophone. Catchy. Score: **** 108 - Hetcenus - That Freezing Feeling (IceCap) This track does not evoke Icecap, or an ice cavern, or an icy lake or mountain or indeed anything from that level. The only tune I can make out isn't even from this game! I just.... I'll... talk about it later.... seriously.... Score: * 109 - Gecko Yamori - Elevator Music (Launch Base) The track's OK but its problem is that it's just not Launch Base. I'm not feeling anything. Score: ** 110 - GaMeBoX - Robotnik Radio (S&K Boss 1) This is interesting, but a bit slow for the original. Nice though. Score: *** 201 - GaMeBoX - iMushroom (Mushroom Hill) I like this one. The two tracks are there, and it evokes Mushroom Hill very well. It's original, while sticking to the plot. Score: **** 202 - SnappleMan - Dead Batteries (Flying Battery) Open the BombBays!!! Great remix. Two acts are represented, the original is recognised and then expanded expertly. I'm right back flying through the level as I listen. And here comes Sandopolis too. Expertly done. Score: ***** 203 - BrainCells - Live at the Sandopolis (Sandopolis) This one does its job and does it well, going through the desert, then into the tomb, and stays with the original every step of the way. I'm sure there was not a few sand grains lodged in the instuments after this one. Excellent job. Score ***** 204 - Rexy, Hetcenus - Beneath the Ashes (Lava Reef) I'm not in a volcano. I'm not seeing the Death Egg in the distance. I can at least make out the tune this time, but, no. It just doesn't work. Lava Reef is not a piano level. Score: * 205 - Kanjika - The Secluded Stronghold (Hidden Palace) I stand... in awe of this track. It's by far the best in the album. It tells the story! It tells the story!!! I'm all the way back to my first play through this level. The emotion, the excitement, the capitivation. It's all there, and so is the original track. This is incredible. Thank you. Score: ***** (Mere stars are too vulgar a thing to give this track) 206 - Kanjika - Breathtaking Vision (Sky Sanctuary) This is just great. What a brilliant remix. It's following the drama too, that nailbiting gauntlet chasing the Death Egg, always against the clock. Do or die time. Brilliant. Score: ***** 207 - BrainCells, SnappleMan - Scrambled Eggman (Boss) Done and done right. You don't laugh at Dr. Robotnik sir. He laughs at you. Score: **** 208 - Joker - Before the Storm (Death Egg) Fairly different, but still evocative of the level, especially the second act. It's got that outer space station vibe. And yes... yes it's there.... Score: *** 209 - SnappleMan - Malicious Fingers (Final Boss) I would have figured that any S3K album would have to include The Outer Space Machine. But you guys went ahead and topped it. Wow. This boss got the remix it richly deserved. Score: ***** 210 - SnappleMan, Ashane, norg - The Doomsday (Doomsday Zone) Excellent chase music, but just a wee bit too much of a rockalypse. But maybe that was the point. Still, the track still flies through the asteroids and gets the emerald in the end. Score: **** 211 - Red Tailed Fox - So Long and Thanks for All the... (S3 Credits) After all the action, we do need to wind down a little. Great choice for a remix. Score: **** 301 - chthonic - Red Sphere, Blue Sphere (Special Stage) Anyone who played the Sonic 1 bonus sphere game is going to love this track. I know I did. Remember to clear the perimeters! Score: ***** 302 - Rexy - Schumacher Bar (Competition Menu) Now this is some nice use of a piano in a song that suits it. Good take on the source material. Score: **** 303 - Ross Kmet - Momentary Standstill (Azure Lake) This is faithful to the original and has a nice beat. But I think it lacks the kick Azure lake needed. Score: *** 304 - Ichitootah - Helium Stairways (Balloon Park) This track goes to balloon park, but I think wanders out looking for candy too soon. Score: ** 305 - Hetcenus - Ivory Gadget (Chrome Gadget) ....hrmmmm... My best time in Chrome Gadject was 34'40 I think. This was not the track that was playing when I did it. Score: * 306 - Joker - Heat Blur (Desert Palace) This seems to play with the oasis or mirage side of Desert Palace. It's a very original remix. Score: **** 307 - jmr - Eternal Excavation (Endless Mine) Now this takes me back. I'm setting records all over again. Great interpretation of the original and a great place for a piano. Score: ***** 308 - Rayza - Groove Basin (Azure Lake WIP) I think this tracks gives a better interpretation of Azure Lake. Keeps the essense of the song and adds well to it. Score: **** 309 - AkumajoBelmont - Water on the Dancefloor (Hydrocity WIP) I love the Knights feel to this track. But it does stray a bit too far from the original. Score: *** 310 - Hadyn - Heads Up for Tails (Final Boss) I really like this track, and I can tell it must have been a tough choice against 'Fingers. I think the deep notes both help and hinder the track. Score: **** 311 - Kanjika - Stranger to Closure (S3 Credits WIP) Trumpets sounding, but I think they may have been overkill for the credits. Could have done with the S&K Theme as a finisher. Score: *** 312 - GaMeBoX - Ice Cap 4 Life (IceCap WIP) Gets the tune, but doesn't fully capture the level. Score: *** 313 - Kanjika - Hydrochill (Hydrocity WIP) My Hydrocity is popular. This does well in the time it was given Score: *** 314 - Xenon Odyssey - Lava Passion (Lava Reef WIP) A proper rendering of Lava Reef. I'm not a great fan of the love song thing here. It's just not the zone. Score: *** =================================== OK, now for the bit you're not going to like. ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Overall Score: ** 2 (of 5) stars This may look a bit harsh, especially considering how many great tracks are on this album and how much effort went into it, but I feel this had to be given. Firstly, the album isn't really complete. No special stage track(s)? Guys! And where's the counterpart to Sonikku Ganbattle, the tribute to the S&K theme? These are serious omissions. But really whats gone wrong is the Icecap and Lava Reef tracks. I feel I have to address these. Essentially Different tracks do really have different weightings, and these two seriously drag down the whole album. These were the tracks people were waiting for, but were let down on. Now, maybe you were trying to do something different with the tracks, Icecap in paticular. I can understand that, but please hear me out on this. Icecap remixes are usually full and heavy. But really they are that way because that's what Icecap is all about. Icecap is not a slow piano track. That's not what the level played like. It was the wrong choice for a remix, very wrong. Seriously. The whole tone of the level is completely absent. Snowboarding, icicles, snow, loops, speed, all AWOL. I have never heard a truely great remix of Lava Reef, but I have heard enough to know that again, slow piano does not capture the level. This level needs something.... more powerful, deeper. I don't know. But this track just didn't work. It wasn't what Lava Reef was about. Anyway, enough about the bad, I want to talk about the good. The best tracks on this album essentially take you back to the level in question, capture its character, and replay the story. Now, what's all this story business you might ask. Well, anyone who realy played S3&K back in the day can tell you that yes this game had a story. Those crappy little 10 second cut scenes using the games engine were to us, rich with character and drama. So were most things in the game. Backgrounds, sprites, level design. Sometimes you could play the whole two acts of a level just to see Knuckles fall into the lake, or see the Death Egg in the distance. The game had style and depth in its story, and I think that it still stands today as one of the best, if not the best example of how to incorporate story into a game. The best tracks in the album paid homage to that aspect of the game by recounting the places, themes in each level. They play back the events that made up the journey through the floating island. "Divided from Grace" recalled the firey forest. "Live at the Sandopolis" went down into the spooky tomb and got chased by the ghosts. "The Secluded Stronghold" just..... wow.... its the essence of what I'm talking about, especially since that was a "cut scene" heavy level. This is what I think a great remix album is all about. Reliving the game through music. But of course some levels are better remembered than others. People will always have their favourite levels that they played the most. It was vital to get those levels right. So now we're back to the bad. "That Freezing Feeling" and "Beneath the Ashes". I take it that because these two levels, probably the most popular ones, have been remixed so much in the same ways, you wanted to do something different. Again I can appreciate that, but of course that misses the point. By changing the song so much, you're no longer reliving the level. You've left out what makes the song that level's theme. It's a bit like deciding that Sushi has been done to death the way it is and you're going to try cooking the fish instead. It's just too big a step. Icecap zone in paticular was the zone that was probably the most critical remix in the album. Who could forget the feeling of seeing Sonic snowboard down that slope, slide through the ice caverns. The loops and the speed, the view of icebergs on the lake. The music. It was vital that all those things be represented in the music, but that didn't happen. None of those things were represented. In my opinion, you need to change that rack before this can be considered a true remix album of Sonic 3 and Knuckles. That may seem very harsh, but I feel it must be said. The same goes for Lava Reef. Perhaps not as critical as Icecap, but still one the memorable levels. I think this level needs its one great remix, which has never been done. Something that evokes the journey through half dormant magma vents. It's just never been done. But I think the version here is just too far off the mark. Lava Reef was about jumping across fire, not lying beneath ashes. (As a side note, the best Icecap remix I ever heard was an old MIDI called Icecap_Blaster I think. It felt it really emcompassed all aspects of the level and I think anyone wanting to go for a gold remix for Icecap should look that one up.) So in conclusion 2 of 5 stars. I'm sorry if I seem too danming, but I just had to be honest here. My taste for music probably leaves a lot to be desired, but my love of this game drives me to speak here. As it stands, the album cannot replace the original soundtrack for me in the way Hedgehog Heaven did. I really want it to, but it just can't. Not without those tracks. Again, I'm sorry to be such a downer, but, it just means a lot to me.