OCR00034 - Gradius "Perfect Selection"

[Joe Redifer]

Gradius 'Perfect Selection'

Gradius has almost always had awesome music. Every single track is not a winner, but usually the music kicks ass. This mix starts out sounding like it was straight from the game itself. Then it starts sounding a bit better, but still sounds like an 8 or 16-bit game machine. It goes through some various Gradius tunes. If you like Gradius music you'll like this. If you want to hear some good videogame music from the late 80's you'll also want to download this. Melody is king.

[SsaiskK]

well i never heard the original... so i cant do ne comparing.. but what im hearing is reaal good. this mix sounds very solid and the 8-bit quality of the sound just compliments the mood of the song. very well done.

[Mahjong No OujiSama Yoshi]

Here's another MODule gone MP3, this time it's an XM but I highly reccomend this one! Why? Because it's freakin' KONAMI! I swear, if you hate this, you've got absolutely NO soul!

[Shwenky]

This song is way too short, but it still is one of my favorites. The gradius soundtrack always sounds great when it's remixed.

[Chickenwarlord]

This piece is catchy. That's probably the OST doing the work, even trying to rope me in with the lofi synths. But the thing that's great about it is the tune. I might as well just listen to the original. It has everything this mix has: lofi samples, catchy tunes and repetition.

In short, just get the original. This isn't much of a sound improvement anyway.

[OceansAndrew]

This sounds like it was released in an arcade in the mid 80's, and is the sound test or something. Nothing but the three original tunes back to back with weak ass fades inbetween them. I wouldn't even call this a medly, sorry. It sounds like a triple midi rip.

Weak.

[BardicKnowledge]

Well, the first few seconds are almost a direct rip of the game. As has been said above, the game's soundtrack is one of the best of the generation, so that's not neccessarily a bad thing.

However, the remix doesn't ever seem to stray from the original at all. In addition to that, there aren't transitions between pieces, so this ultimately sounds like a few short MIDI rips instead of the cohesive remix that the panel pushes for today. Cohesiveness has allowed mixes with this level of production to pass in the past, but even then, if this was mix #500 instead of #0034, it would be rejected as a midi rip outright. It's good to know the site's history though, but not worth a second listen. As Chickedwarlord says above, just go play the NES game and you'll hear 95% of the same things.

[DragonAvenger]

Don't know the original, but apparently I'm pretty much listening to it. Sounds like it could be in a NES/SNES game, and sounds like little samples of each track to boot. What the heck fades?

Sorry, but no thanks.

[Eino Keskitalo]

That fade after the first tune is so strange to hear.. Otherwise, I actually really enjoyed listening to this. Obviously it's not much of a rearrangement, and not a radical re-sounding of the material, so that too is strange to hear among OCR tunes, even the older ones. This one sticks out. Luckily I liked listening to it.

--Eino

[42]

Not bad, actually.

It sounds like it came directly from a game.

The fade at 0:56 is like changing levels/areas in the game.

Highly reminiscent of late 80's/early 90's 16-bit game soundtracks and nicely energetic and fast paced.

It's a very interesting track and definitely shoot 'em up worthy.

[Bahamut]

The transitions are pretty atrocious - it sounds like I'm listening to a preview to some album, not an actual song.

Can't say I'm familiar with the original source, but I get the impression that there wasn't much rearrangement here though.

[Emunator]

Pretty vanilla, but there's a few moments where this track harmonizes pretty nicely. I have to agree with everyone else, what the hell was with the fadeout in the middle of the track? That really was hilarious, at first I thought this was just a 45 second track with a crappy fadeout tacked on the end, and then it jumped in with a brand new song.

[Crulex]

Nice and catchy, but a wee bit too close to the original. I could almost picture it being from the game itself rather than a ReMix. But it's not bad and it sounds good. For when it was made, this is nicely done.

[Samildanach Emrys]

The track that starts at around 1:00 sounds pretty much the same as from the Gradius minigame in Legend of the Mystical Ninja (which you can hear here:

)

Not tremendously impressive.

[Lucavi00]

people complaining about fades need to actually play the game and realize it fades between songs too. It's how its been done in every gradius game...ever.

[Tables]

Not super familiar with the source, I have a feeling it sounds similar to this, but it's a selection of fun and well 'played' tunes. Not a fan of way this medley is structured though, whether it's accurate to the game or not the fade outs and abrupt 'fade ins' don't really work musically. In my opinion. 

 

Actually this sounds like how I'd imagine the credits music for this game to be. I suppose this is a lot cooler with the nostalgia goggles on. For now? Well maybe this can open the door for more Gradius mixes, it definitely sounds like there's some noteworthy material to work with further!