OCR01329 - Mega Man 2 "Oxygen Flare"

[djpretzel]

What did you think? Post your opinion of this ReMix.

[south pacific islander]

Synth and Drums seem to work well. Aslo the transition between the two songs seem to go well, not a chunky job from the other songs I see. Overall a good song which I can enjoy.

[Fieari]

Ooh, now THIS is a good flashman. I've heard a lot of megaman mixes, as I'm sure many of you have, and to be honest, I don't like a lot of the flashman mixes I've heard. This is an exception. It's good stuff. I approve. The horrifying distortion guitar somehow works as well, which is certainly interesting because there's not many places such an instrument CAN work. I mean, usually you get that sound when you want to creep people out, but not here. Here, it's just good.

Bubbleman also gets some love. We've already got two worthwhile bubbleman mixes on the site, each good for different reasons, and now a third can be added to that list, with its own little charm. Fascinating.

Good stuff, I like I like I like.

[Julio Jose]

Very good.

[Tex]

Average for me. Good quality. However, I did not appreciate very much. In my opinion the music is too monotonous and redundant and/or uneventful for my tastes to just listen to straight up--at least that's my opinion. I think another point, the song is so good, it's so...okay.

[Nabrin]

Not bad. Average is a good word.

Something about this mix seemed a little too sparse . . . like I was only listening to half of the instruments. This can be a good thing sometimes, if done right, but this just didn't feel quite finished to me.

Something about the way it kept building up and then slowing back down bothered me a bit too . . . it would have been alright to do it once, but the whole song is up and down and up and down. Maybe I'm a slave to my formulas. I dunno.

For some positive . . . from 0:27 to 0:40 was great. Really.

[Red Shadow]

This pleases me. If i were a god, this would be a sufficient sacrifice for well over a month's time.

Excellent work.

[MaGi_TekK]

Not bad. Average is a good word.

Something about this mix seemed a little too sparse . . . like I was only listening to half of the instruments. This can be a good thing sometimes, if done right, but this just didn't feel quite finished to me.

Something about the way it kept building up and then slowing back down bothered me a bit too . . . it would have been alright to do it once, but the whole song is up and down and up and down. Maybe I'm a slave to my formulas. I dunno.

For some positive . . . from 0:27 to 0:40 was great. Really.

I totally agree, for anyone who ever wanted to learn the true meaning of the word average, please listen to this mix. It is the EPITOME of average, the middle of the bell curve, the median meets the mode, the 5'9" white american joe, the most inconspicuous tree in a forest full of look-alike trees, a 75% on a curved chemistry exam...need I go on?

[Ero Elohim]

Color me close-minded, but the song seems to leave the melody at home and bring an overabundance of accompaniment. From a minimalist point of view, this would work, but there's too much going on in the melody of Flashman and Bubbleman to really leave anything out.

Not a bad mix, and it's obvious that some effort went into it, but this isn't something I can get behind. It's not fun to listen to, you find yourself searching through all the drums and distortion to hear a few bars of music and then back to overwhelming harmony.

I think I'll stick with SymphonicChronicle's "It's About Time" for Flashman. Bubbleman I'm not too keen on, though I throw SoapAndWater on my playlist once and awhile.

[nomindo]

I dont get the average reviews, this is some sweet stuff. Probably the best Flash man treatment I have seen, and while I wasnt too fond of Bubble Man's music in the game, every Remix of Bubblemans theme i have heard is pretty good, (my fave being Disco Dans wantstogetfunkedup) Great job Quinnfox

[Corporal Eschebone]

I never noticed Quinn's style much in the past, and even the ones I really enjoyed by him I had never really attributed to him. But I think this is some very good stuff, and now that I'm looking more into Quinn's stuff I'm finding more mixes that catch me just as well.

I like this interpretation of Flashman. The futuristic synths sound damn nice.

[MrBogus]

There is no question regarding either the polish of this mix or Quinn's talent. With that said, in my opinion, when you're dealing with a soundtrack that contains some of the most legendary and recognizable melodies in VG music history, it would be a shame not to use them to their fullest capacity.

What I'm specifically referring to here is the constant and abrupt trailoffs from the original melodies into the bridges, where greater liberties are taken with interpretation. We shift into high gear with a portion of Flash Man's theme at 0:40 before down-shifting at 0:54 into a more subtle interpretation of the same portion all the way through 1:35. During this 40 second bridge, the melody takes more effort to recognize, perhaps to the point where it becomes overly ethereal. The melody bursts onto the scene again at 1:35, only to delve back into another bridge, this time DnB-based at 1:49. The same issue occurs with Bubble Man's theme, which starts at 2:44 and then quickly passes the baton to another bridge a mere 14 seconds later. What this did for me was build up a sense of false anticipation, where the trailoff from the main themes into the bridges had me believe that something greater was coming down the road, only to realize that the bridges themselves were the destination.

I was also disappointed to see that for both themes, only 5-second snippets were used from the original melodies, then repeated throughout the song in different flavors. As with the first issue, it gave me a sense of incompleteness.

I guess I've griped enough about what I felt were shortcomings with the piece. I do enjoy this mix a great deal. It's just that I felt it could have been so much more.

[Brim]

Definitely another great remix under Quinn's belt. It fuses two great tracks together into one ultimately relaxing mix that just suits my default mood (chillout).

[RimFrost the Tourianist]

Spaced out and bombastic mix here.

MM2 is such a wonderous game in terms of music potential..

Excellent Work, Quinn Fox

[Brak]

At around 2:33 it sounds like something from super metroid. I don't remember the name or place of the song, though I'm sure someone here recognizes what I'm hearing.

[DriftingTrigger]

I like it alot. Not too sure why. probably becuase it mixed 2 of my favorite songs of all time together.

But it seemed like the main parts of each song were....kinda left out. There were a few of the basic ones. But I was expecting alittle more than that. I could definitly make out some of it. But there were a few parts I was hoping to hear, that I didn't get too.

Oh well. Its still a good remix.

[Nobbynob Littlun]

Good stuff. I love the way it swells and then goes quiet, swells, quiet. However, I REALLY gotta say I don't like that high pitched lead synth that is all throughout the song, in the swelling parts. Everything else

1:56 and 2:03 and 2:44, the cymbal is awesome. Best part of the song. It's like a cross between a cymbal and a gong. Oh snap, as it were. I just love that, I keep rewinding to hear it again =)

Nice chorus thingies, very Metroidish. Maybe you could do a remix of that one song in Metroid Prime (the first one), early in game, where you are on a platform in a toxic pool and there is a machine that releases these super-fast war wasps that circle you? Yeah. That'd be cool.

[Rexy]

I actually dig that synth; very clever texture work without being too dangerous to the ear. Heck, even much of the arrangement here is shown to be what I think is Quinn's best material. For the past year or so I've been exposed to a lot of his mixes as they came fresh from his pile, and so you can tell that I've actually grown comfortable to accept his creative arrangement style.

Having reviwed this at VGMix not too long ago I'll rope back the review I did over there for good measure.

Production setup

Often is the case, we associate Quinn with chilled electronica (plus some jazz elements from time to time), but it's here that he has taken his techniques and provided a more devious tension-based emotion range within the basic layout. The panning techniques have worked well for his cause, with equal amounts of drum space, instrument positions and textured sound to easily grant a lot of wonder towards the listener's imagination. The sounds have been given some more unique thoughts to processing and feel in comparison to his past works, and to match we have some strong EQs to grant a lot of realism towards the instrumentation when noted. The overall mastering is just as strong as we'd previously expect, and with enough thought given towards the faders and harmony balance, we are in for a very strong input taken for granted. If there's something I could critique on here I'd probably point on at the volume for some of the drones sticking out a little bit too much, but that's probably just being a nit-pick being held here. Nonetheless, the production aspects here are great, and have managed to work well to attract its well deserved audience.

Composition sequence

There's a nice string texture as brought into the introduction, an instant sign for showing that Quinn has managed to improve over his thoughts on the production setup when required. This is soon followed by elements of the chorus of Flash Man's theme being shown by 0:27, although only faintly in the background and some melodic variations being manipulated in comparison to the original. This is soon changed by a strong climatic use of drums by 0:41 and a straight interpretation of that same part of the theme, before the moods are steadily brought down once more by 0:55, being sure to be able to steadily reflect upon the stylistic approach as shown by this arranger. A bit of thought on the louder synth's note velocities could have been varied on the line, but otherwise this is a solid start so far.

1:08 then brought in a light change of synth texture to start showing upon the basic statuses around the arrangement, to better showcase some further thought towards the compositional focus. I have noticed references to Bubble Man's theme show at 1:14, before another break section managed to lead into the same energetic 0:41 Flash Man phase at 1:36. While this has worked, some elements of the drums may feel difficult to follow at first, but this is still shown to reveal some close familiarities with the themes when required.

1:50 showed signs of distorted synths, providing a dramatic break towards the listener's imagination when needed. And then at 2:02, a surprise is brought in by the doubling of the tempo, with the progressions showing in a similar progression as heard in his OCR exclusive "Umaro Uematsu". Another hidden reference is then shown linking towards Flash Man's theme at 2:16, and even though the basic status of it doesn't deviate too much in comparison to what was used at 0:41, this has still worked well enough to keep the audience's attention at a firm status.

At 2:30 there's a light synth build that has emphasized on equal amounts of bass and treble frequencies that show a stronger resemblance to elements of the soundtracks for the Ratchet & Clank series rather than Mega Man... Or at least that's what I think. ; This is soon lead into a closer reference to Bubble Man by 2:44, and with some strong thought on synth expression this has managed to work well to steadily show some further passion towards the listener. The arrival of the drum sequence at 2:58 felt to be a little bit on the sudden side, but aside from that light aspect the audience has been brought into one of the more interesting breaks as provided by this arranger.

3:12 marked the return for the tense distortion status as shown at 1:50, as well as a light reference to Flash Man's theme again, all before a rendition of the 0:41 segment at 3:32. Again I feel as if some variance from that section could have been needed to further bring in some variance towards the theme in general. But all this has been made out by a very light ending scenario as shown by some further synth processing and closing techniques to steadily wind down the atmosphere and satisfy its audience. Although the transition from the major drum use could have been smoother, this is seen to be one of the more solid finales seen from this arranger.

So yeah, that may not have been one of my most serious of writeups, but that honestly showed how excited I was over the whole thing. In terms of arrangement concept and production polish I actually found it to be one of his better works as well as being somewhat daring in comparison to the similar stylistic approaches of his prior works (which were mainly adapted from "Boss Uniform"). And for that, I digged a lot of it. However I don't know if it was me or not but I thought I sensed a clip at around 2:37? Or it may have been the way I downloaded it. That isn't seen as a big issue if that was the case. I did have some light qualms over some of the drum execution, especially when going into the second variation on Flash Man, but I grew used to it as well as most elements of a liberal nature.

That said, I feel that this ranks high as Quinn's best release to date, for a high number of reasons. I hope he comes by to bring in more good stuff... maybe Solace in Second just to shut Liontamer up.

[MrBananaMan]

Is there anyway to contact the maker of this or get a version with the original notes from flashman. It seems to be the original way at 28 seconds and then changes one of the notes right after that, but then at the big hit at 40 seconds the second note (5th if you count the pickups) that is played is not from the original, it is just a repeat of the 1st. This bugs the hell out of me. It stays like that for the rest of the song at the loud parts and I just cant stand it. PLease if anyone knows how I can contact the composer I would appreciate it.

[Liontamer]

Is there anyway to contact the maker of this or get a version with the original notes from flashman. It seems to be the original way at 28 seconds and then changes one of the notes right after that, but then at the big hit at 40 seconds the second note (5th if you count the pickups) that is played is not from the original, it is just a repeat of the 1st. This bugs the hell out of me. It stays like that for the rest of the song at the loud parts and I just cant stand it. PLease if anyone knows how I can contact the composer I would appreciate it.

Heh. That's a pretty naive request.

[MrBananaMan]

hey i know but it really is bothering that much. that one note ruins it for me.

[Lord Archimage Nykimbur]

Wow, I find it wonderful that you all find this an average megaman remix, and to me it's one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. As I've said before, because of my visions, this remix represents very well so many things I can't explain. I downloaded this over half a year ago and I'm still listening to it, great work.

[Bummer]

Quinn, you fox! Very cool, groovy remix, which also goes over to thrashing madness sometimes, but that´s cool.

Nice choice of synths and beats. Compared to he others, this Flash is more, floating if I may say. It´s like your in water and sinks down to the dark blue only to discover how beautifully the light from the surface reaches the very depths of your wet prison.

This remix makes me poetic, better finish this.

Great remix, mixes not only two great bosstracks but also two kinds of feelings: calm and rush.

Well done Fox.

[K.B.]

My goodness I love this mix. It's just so... dirty. And so seductive, so impulsive. And, oh what's this, it looks like Sally Albright has something to add: "oh ah-ah oh... ah, oh, oh god, oh, yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! ah! oh! oh yes! yes! yes! oh, yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! yes! oh! oh, oh... oh god... oh..."

...well then. I must concur, though this remix is most certainly the real deal.

[Marmiduke]

You choose to get a little creative and different with a score like Mega Man 2, you are going to get casualties of war. I mean, this is a radically altered rendition of the themes, and not in an expansive way either.

I enjoy the minimalist approach, even though I don't think the concept quite gels with the rapidfire chiptune flavour of Mega Man. So its not 100%, but then, what is?

I've come to realise I love pretty much any synth anyone can throw at me, so I enjoy most of those elements in this; the guitar however threw some of the balance off, especially with the chorus backing (even though it does sound nice). So I thought the first half was more successful than the last.

Overall, it's a black sheep among the more faithful, blue bomber melody extravaganzas, but it's also fun to listen to in its own right. I can see a lot of people's tastes rejecting this, but nevertheless it should be given a chance.