you ever listen to a remix before listening to the original song?

[friendlyHunter]

I had it for PS2. I didn't notice any of your complaints above when I played it. In fact, I fell in love with it for a while. That was all I played for a while, and that is what made me become a huge nerd, geek... And to love techno music like I do. Your complaints, simply, derive from your not liking of the game. I didn't think any of the remixes of any of the stages sounded like shit.

Don't get me wrong, the originals were amazing, and I enjoyed the collection. I'd say that maybe I just notice the crappy design of Collection's features because I'm software developer, but my little brother caught all the annoying stuff too.

For example, let's look at the save "feature". Here's how it works:

Whenever you get to the password screen, you have to wait about 5 seconds for no reason. Then an ugly box slowly grows until it covers most of the screen, giving you a message to not turn off your Gamcube because it's saving. It takes about another 5 seconds for it to save (HOW LONG CAN IT TAKE TO SAVE A FREAKING MEGAMAN PASSWORD!?!??!?), and then the box slowly shrinks into nothing. Then you can FINALLY go back to the stage select screen, or start copying down the password (because that "saving" box covers up the password for 15 seconds!!). Also note that the password song in each Megaman game is probably the worst song in each game.

So, wasting 20 seconds for something completely pointless after each 5-minute stage... that's not that bad, right?? WRONG! It saves after every Dr. Wily level too, but when you load it, it starts at the FIRST Wily level ANYWAY!! The worst part is, if you start playing the first Wily level with 5 energy tanks, and then get to the last level with 1 tank, and you have to stop playing - guess what??! The next time you start playing, you're at the FIRST Wily level with ONE energy tank!!! And you can't turn the save "feature" off!!! If they can't do something as simple as that right, they shouldn't have done it at all.

And since this thread is all about remixes.... I'm still not sure which stage remixes you're talking about. Can you actually make specific mp3s play for specific stages? Or does the game actually have a simple on/off option to toggle between the original songs, and their Capcom-remixed tracks? In the Gamecube version you can only listen to the original ones, and every 3 minutes the song FADES OUT in the middle, and after a few seconds of silence it starts at the intro again. This is the OFFICIAL ROCKMAN collection, how do they get away with this shoddy music worksmanship??! Oh yeah, and that annoying ringing sound when you get health pickups, and when the boss's powerbar fills up; they actually made it LOUDER. I guess you don't realize how annoying that sound is until it's twice as loud as everything else in the game.

The Gamecube version has about 5 remixes, which you can only listen to in the "Bonus Features" menu. All of them would get instant-rejected here, and dwell among the lower tiers of VG Mix. I'll admit the remix that plays during the menu is alright, but... it takes forever to choose anything in that menu, because some moron decided that you have to make cartoon Megaman PHYSICALLY WALK to a DOOR to do anything in the Menu!!! If you want to play Megaman 6, you have to walk past the doors of Megaman 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, each of which have a 5 meter gap between them! And then after Megaman 6 loads for 20 seconds, you realize that it was actually Megaman 5 you wanted to play, so you have to walk through 2 more doors, and then go past 1 2 3 and 4 again! Just shitty design all around. You should be able to put in the disk and start playing Megaman without delay, without interruption, and without the pause button randomly doing something different than it normally does.

And yes, do not say "techno" here, unless you actually mean the precise style of music officially called "techno". I believe "electronica" is the term you were looking for

[Gafgarion]

1. Sorry for saying Techno. I meant OCR.

2. The Anniversary Collection is an easier way around spending about $100 on all the MM games for the NES, so people can enjoy them without having the NES.

3. The music isn't shitty, and I don't know why you think it is. I think it really sounds great.

4. I agree with you on the Dr. Wily stages; what's the point of saving.

5. Yes, there is a toggle button to where you can change the music of each game; it is in the options menu, under Navi, like I said before. BTW, i thought the LOUD ringing sound of the health pickups and and such sounded funny, because they were so ridiculously loud.

6. The idea of walking to the door of each game was a nice feature, and much more exciting than just a fucking menu saying which one you want to play, not to mention the awesome song while you do all that.

7. Sorry that I like this game, and you don't. I guess it wouldn't hurt for you to just throw it away and never look at it again.

[friendlyHunter]

2. True. Doesn't mean I can't criticize every aspect of the GUI though

3. I haven't heard the music, because apparently the GameCube version doesn't have these remixed tracks for some reason. There are only a few remixes that you can hear on the GameCube, which you unlock by beating the games... upon hearing them again, I'd say they range from "enjoyable but simple dance remixes/covers" to "very bad".

7. It was worth the money, but still.... it would've been more convenient to download the NES roms and play them with a keyboard where the Jump and Shoot buttons aren't reversed. It takes longer to turn on the GameCube and start playing than it does to go find and download an NES ROM, and start it up in the emulator. That collection has sure hasn't saved me any time... what with making me type all these long whiny posts and all....

[Strike911]

Best Thread Evar!

[Gafgarion]

I no longer have any will to discuss this further.

Anyway, the remixes of the Castlevania games are great. I like Bloody Tears ALOT.

[friendlyHunter]

Oh yeah? Discuss THIS further! http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alot

I'm sorry... but the thread must live on!!

[Gafgarion]

Well, uh... I was fishing in a dumpster you see, and I mispelled a lot.

[relaxitsonlyausername]

If I am ever to listen to a remix before listening to the original song, then I would have to be listening to that OverClocked ReMix ormgas radio. Otherwise, I'd just be looking up games that I've already played and liked the soundtrack to.

I apologize for that last sentence. Very odd structure; it doesn't help that I haven't really written anything in ages.

Additionally, I'd probably be listening to a remix to a song from a game I never played if one of my friends burned a CD of OCReMixes for me.

[JH Sounds]

The Fatboy Slim remix of Cornershop's "Brimful of Asha" is very misleading.

[XZero]

When I saw this topic, the first thing that came to mind was Weird Al. I know a great many people who know 'White and Nerdy,' but can't tell you anything about the original song. Same for 'Yoda,' 'Almish Paradise,' and many others. I would argue that his versions are more memorable in some cases, and outright superior in others.

The connection to OCR is that there are songs here that are indeed more memorable, even greatly superior to the original versions of the songs, and not just in sound quality. An older remix comes to mind here for me: Scott Peeples' "Another Inspiration" from Chrono Cross. The original, "Dream of a Shore of Another World" is excellent, but I find "Another Inspiration" to be superior in every way.

[Mr Jarna]

I actually played Donkey Kong Country for the first time after I d/led the album. I kinda wish that "Funky Monkey Love" would have actually been in the game.

...in fact, after about halfway through the game I started playing the appropriate song during a level. The remixes on this site are beautiful, and not once did they even feel out of place in the level.

[Gafgarion]

I really LOVE Snowbound, the remix of the Winter's theme for Earthbound. That is one of the best OCR's ever. Hail DJ Pretzel!

[benprunty]

If it's a song done by a favorite remixer of mine, like Star Salzman, Adhesive Boy, Mazedude or Shnabubula I'll download the song without even really thinking about what game it was from. When stuff exists like Israfel's Glass Cage and the Wingless's All the World in One Girl, which twist the source material so far that familiarity with the original becomes irrelevant. It's really quite fun.

[Gafgarion]

I really like Bubbleman remixes. Just about every Mega Man OCR I have heard is quite awesome.

[The Legendary Zoltan]

When I saw this topic, the first thing that came to mind was Weird Al. I know a great many people who know 'White and Nerdy,' but can't tell you anything about the original song. Same for 'Yoda,' 'Almish Paradise,' and many others. I would argue that his versions are more memorable in some cases, and outright superior in others.

The connection to OCR is that there are songs here that are indeed more memorable, even greatly superior to the original versions of the songs, and not just in sound quality. An older remix comes to mind here for me: Scott Peeples' "Another Inspiration" from Chrono Cross. The original, "Dream of a Shore of Another World" is excellent, but I find "Another Inspiration" to be superior in every way.

Yeah, but it doesn't really seem fair to compare remixes to originals in that way. Even if you do disregard sound quality, the fact that the remix cannot exist without the original should automatically put it on a lower echelon (is that the right word?) than the original. I personally like Calamitous Judgment a lot more than the original (forgot the name), but taking a song that already exists and making it better is something totally different from making it from scratch. And really, the whole superior/inferior thing is subjective anyway.

Now have a smiley. ^______^

[Lint]

With the mass of source material out there, I don't usually I spend the time to get many of the original songs. Unless the song is something that I really love, I usually just let it join the masses of other tracks. It's not that the remixes are superior, it's usually just that I don't want to spend the time looking for the source unless I know that I'm going to listen to all of it - fairly often. There's a lot of good original music made for video games, and the knowledge that I'm in some way appreciating that is enough for me.

Plus, I don't see the point in downloading a soundtrack (no matter how small the file is) for one song. There's a fair amount of remixes that stand alone, or are one of less than 5 songs from any given soundtrack. I equate it to buying an album for one song, which is always a gamble. I don't need to have the soundtracks of ~470 games on my hard drive. You can listen to over 500 OC remixes without ever leaving mainstream Square (Final Fantasy/Chrono), Nintendo (Zelda, Metroid, Donkey Kong), and Capcom (Mega Man, Street Fighter) games. (There's been 3 Square albums and 3 Nintendo albums, along with the Duck Hunt album).

I think the remixes found here are as diverse as the source material. The source materials don't always seem to focus on making the tracks full or complex, since they usually get looped after you spend 1-3 minutes in an area. I don't know if I could really loop the remixes and keep focusing on the game. I'm not even sure that all of the remixes would necessarily fit in the games they base themselves on. The recent Guilty Gear remix (Alpha Blade) is a good example for me, I love the remix - but playing Guilty Gear with it playing would feel different and distracting (of course, this is coming from someone who spent 4 hours searching for a rip of Robo-Ky's theme from GGXX). The other Guilty Gear remix Destroy Movements would be a little jarring too. Not to mention playing through Spittin' Narcissism from Blood on the Asphalt.

Not all of the remixes are so distanced from their source material, and quite a few of them are right at home in the original setting. What I'm saying is that the remixes have the strength to stand alone, with or without the strength of their source material. I was pissed that I bought Jade Cocoon, yet People Made of Stone is still quality. Playing Perfect Cherry Blossom is an insane experience in bullet hell, Icy Peaks is relaxing, even a little tragic. I love Chrono Trigger, but Chrono Symphonic has yet to really grow on me. Voices of the Lifestream was a very diverse collection of tracks, but I think my general dislike of FF7 has skewed my opinion of it. I had never heard of Cauldron 2 before I listened to It's Binary, Baby! Album Mix and I was tapping my foot to the track for weeks.

So, back to answering the question. Yes, I've listened to remixes before listening to the original song. I don't think it takes anything away from the experience, and it might even add a little bit of mystery to the experience. Listening to the source material has just as much merit as listening to anything else though.

[Gafgarion]

So I recently got the soundtrack to Mega Man X: Command Mission. I like it alot.

[SoloGamer]

I really LOVE Snowbound, the remix of the Winter's theme for Earthbound. That is one of the best OCR's ever. Hail DJ Pretzel!

I really like Bubbleman remixes. Just about every Mega Man OCR I have heard is quite awesome.

So I recently got the soundtrack to Mega Man X: Command Mission. I like it alot.

None of these posts really have anything to do with the topic. Might wanna consider not posting so much

As for me, most of the mixes I listen to are from games I've played (there are a few exceptions, of course). I'm too lazy to actively go out looking for music so I'd rather just let it all come to me (and I don't listen to the radio, so that pretty much limits me to movies, games, and TV shows). Then if I like what I hear, I look for that song and maybe others that sound similar. Very limiting, I know, but I don't really listen to music very often anyway.

[Kureejii Lea]

So I recently got the soundtrack to Mega Man X: Command Mission. I like it alot.

It's got some nice stuff, though since it hasn't been covered here at all I don't quite see the relevance... Cinnamon's theme sounds like it would be at home in a Kirby game.

Anyway, to the topic, yeah, listen to remixes from games I've never played all the time. I would think that to say the remixes only work on nostalgia is to disregard their musical quality and insult the remixer. There's no reason track can't stand on its own, regardless of source or lack of association, if the composition's good.

[Tex]

http://prot.arnoldascher.com/music/prot/FF6_Enchanted_Esper_V2.mp3

Eumeatus...hahahah...

Anyhow, I generally listen to stuff from games I never played, but I am sure to check the OST from these games too.

There were rearrangements from Phoenix Wright I heard before hearing the OST or playing the game. It's a strange feeling, I tell you.

[Nicholestien]

i guess i have incredibly terrible taste in music then. i got a bunch of oc remix artist on my comp, and overall ocremix is the most songs I listen to. I don't really listen to it the same way I listen to other music though, its all like, it has a charactor and what not, it defines personalities, man, i can't explain that shit. fuck. I pretty much was introduced to music entirely because of oc remix, and i guess, as a result, my taste in music is fucked.

[Gafgarion]

i guess i have incredibly terrible taste in music then. i got a bunch of oc remix artist on my comp, and overall ocremix is the most songs I listen to. I don't really listen to it the same way I listen to other music though, its all like, it has a charactor and what not, it defines personalities, man, i can't explain that shit. fuck. I pretty much was introduced to music entirely because of oc remix, and i guess, as a result, my taste in music is fucked.

So you are ashamed of having OCR's as a first look into music?

What I generally dislike about some OCR's is that some of them don't follow the same tempo as the original track. I prefer it to be the same tempo.

[Tensei]

What I generally dislike about some OCR's is that some of them don't follow the same tempo as the original track. I prefer it to be the same tempo.

Yeah, god forbid anyone tries to actually make it more than a cover. Snobs.

[Arek the Absolute]

So you are ashamed of having OCR's as a first look into music?

What I generally dislike about some OCR's is that some of them don't follow the same tempo as the original track. I prefer it to be the same tempo.

Are you serious?

No, seriously, are you serious?

What the hell? Do you even know what remixing is about?

[Gafgarion]

There is this Blast Hornet stage remix from Mega Man X3 by Beatdrop, and it originally ran at 200 BPM. This remix runs at like 135 BPM; however, it still sounds awesome.