DarkeSword

I'm gonna go ahead and close this thread. I'm not sure what use a separate OCR block thread would be. Let's continue discussion in the main Magfest thread.

In the immortal words of LuketheXjesse MAGFEST

Matchups updated.

This is pretty groovy. I don't think the melodic adaptation to the new time sig is awkward at all. Sounds great. Nice sounds. I like your pads in the background. Really nice dreamy sound. YES

Man I love this source tune. Torvus Bog is the best. Really great arrangement; "aggressive" really nails it. Lots of great embellishments. Love the texture. YES

Yeah I'm also bewildered at your complaint of lag.

He was being facetious. I didn't talk about Snake because it's a well known fact that he was included due to a personal request made by Kojima to his friend Sakurai. But even then, Snake is an iconic, immediately recognizable character, and he does have connections to Nintendo's 8-bit era. Tales is popular in Japan and in the western JRPG fanbase, of course, but the characters are not iconic. They are not mascots. Combined that with the fact that they are not Nintendo characters, we can safely say that it is very unlikely that the new Smash Bros. game will feature a Tales main character. I'm not saying it won't happen, I'm just saying it probably won't happen. I'm not sure what argument you're making here. They included Fire Emblem characters because they wanted to do that, and they were able to easily do that because those guys are first-party Nintendo characters. They didn't include the other Nintendo characters because they didn't want to. Including some characters doesn't mean they have to include all characters. Metal Gear Solid isn't niche. It's not "niche on Nintendo platforms." You can't be niche on one platform and mainstream on another. Individual games in a worldwide best-selling franchise aren't "niche." It's extremely well known. Kojima's request actually does change everything about Snake's inclusion, because it's purely about a guy doing a favor for his friend. That's it. All the other stuff about Metal Gear Solid and Nintendo doesn't factor in at all. It's a successful franchise, the creator is friends with the producer, so they just do it.

Sonic was Mario's rival back in the 16-bit era. He's an incredibly important character in the context of Nintendo's history with their old rival Sega. Mega Man is an iconic NES-era character. There is probably no other character outside of Nintendo's own first-party roster that exemplifies the 8-bit gaming like he does. Lloyd Irving is the main character in a niche JRPG that was re-released on PS2 and is being re-released on PS3. I know you like the Tales series but it's really not as popular as you're making it out to be. Smash Bros. is, generally speaking, a mascot fighter. Nintendo can do more obscure characters from their own first-party titles (Fire Emblem characters, random Pokémon, Mr. Game & Watch, etc.) because they own them and it's fun for them to bring those kinds of characters to the forefront, but for the most part it's about iconic characters duking it out. Lloyd isn't really a mascot character; no Tales character is. He's not immediately recognizable to anyone who isn't really into JRPGs. It's not impossible, but it's highly unlikely that Smash Bros. will feature a Tales character as a fighter. Pac-Man is probably going to be Namco's representative; he's iconic, immediately recognizable, and has crossed over into a Nintendo game before (the arcade version of Mario Kart).

I probably will not do another B4C2 in the future.

That design isn't "shit." I don't think you even understand what good design is, if you think that design is bad.

After those games, Sega put out Sonic Colors, which was very fun and a step in the right direction towards getting Sonic games back on a quality track. They followed that up with the Sonic Generations, which was excellent. These are not not "semi-good;" they are genuinely good Sonic games. Sonic Lost World looks to be continuing the trend.

You should have backed it!

I'm inordinately excited for Mario 3D World. Mario 3D Land is one of the finest Mario games I've played and I played it to death, even after 100-percenting it. The control, the level design, the pacing, the aesthetic, everything came together in an incredible package. 3D World looks like it's going to continue that.

Hey these tracks are pretty good.

I do have to say, participation in this competition has been a disappointment. I don't think we've had a single week where all 12 contestants have submitted tracks. Oh well, just one more round and then we can start putting things together for the new WCRG.

Gonna move this over to R&C. Mods, let's keep this one open.

Well, I don't know about that. I was at Apex 2013 in January, which is the biggest Smash tournament in the world, and all three Smash games had competitors with an absolutely insane level of play going on. The Brawl matches were incredible.

Yes! Let the toku spirit burn!!! Also holy shit. This is killer. Really impressive sequencing and such a great, cohesive sound. I don't know why but this has such a Konami sound to it, like something out of the original NES TMNT game. Really excellent. YES

Piano's killing me. Forgive me for saying so, but the entire affair sounds incredibly lo-fi. What's going on here? Piano is very messy and muddy, and your synth pad lead thingy isn't very interesting or expressive at all. Needs lots of mixing and sound design attention. NO

Killer arrangement. Wicked energy. I love bein' a turtle. I agree with Vig and Deia. Gets a bit crowded. Needs to go back to the mixing board for some balance adjustments. NO, resub as soon as possible

I agree with Vig. I think you have a killer soundscape here, but it really feels like the whole arrangement sort of just dances around the Requiem. I think working in a B-section with a strongly stated melodic line from another source would really help anchor the piece. NO, but definitely resub. Need this on OCR.

Sounds pretty kickass to me. Vinnie's source breakdown helps; good expansion of a short source tune. Nice breakdowns with the filtered percussion. I like it. YES

Awesome arrangement. Needs production fixes. Let's close this out. NO, resub

In agreement here. For a big ol' dance track, it feels awfully empty. Like Larry said, needs more source usage too. There's a lot of unrelated vamping going on. Not a bad start but it needs work. NO

In agreement with Deia and Larry. This is a great take on the source. Really personalized; going full-on rock is a great choice, and executed really well. Could really see this on a Mass Effect montage video. Great performances; I thought the drums were a little thin, but no deal-breakers. Really nice dynamics too. YES