thegamefreak0134

Oh wow; this is super high energy. Makes me want to go find and dust off my N64 again I agree, it's very nice to see the originals from that series getting some love. This has me thinking... the "Break the Targets" theme from Melee is really, *really* catchy. I should see what I can do with that.

This actually sounds really approachable, and I'd like to learn to play it. To save me from notating it by ear, is the sheet music available?

Wow. This reminds me a lot of Sonic Advance (1), it kind of has that feel to it, lots of liberal use of the plain 'ole Square wave that gives retro games so much of their feel. Fun piece, I really enjoyed it. I need to go hear it with Bass now, these speakers kind of suck. It's shorter than a lot of my collection, but that's a good thing-- it doesn't have enough time to get old or boring.

Holy Crap I heard metal and was prepared for the usual riff-raff, with too much distortion and not enough musicality. You guys totally blew me away, this is the cleanest, most inspired piece of metal music I've heard over the short time I've been listening to it. If that makes it obvious that I'm not into metal in the slightest, then so be it. Regardless, arrangement is totally solid. Not crazy about the synth you're using for a string ensamble, but it suffices mostly. Great work, can't wait to hear more from you.

I hate to break up the wonderful philisophical discussion going on here, but I feel that I should offer up some of that critique stuff of the ages. I notice a few things as I'm listening here for the first time. At 0:32, the chords coming in sound out of place somewhat. I would feel more comfortable with them if they were overlayed on something else, like if the synth before them hadn't faded out completely. Overall it sounds really good past 1:42, I think the House style you were going for came out really well. I'm going to listen to it again with proper bass () and probably love it from that point on. Some people might criticize you for using the original sound samples at the beginning, but I think they're perfect, especially since you don't keep them for terribly long. It makes it clear that you're transitioning from a rather solid cover-like intro to a much more interpretive house piece throughout the song. Ooh... I love the dirty bass work around 6:00 and onward, nicely done. *repeats track for second listen* The drumline at 0:16 is golden, really it is. I feel that at 0:32, it might work well to layer another drum (something deeper, like the deep bongo suggested before me) into the mix, to give it a bit more depth. Still, it's fine the way it is. 1:02 to 1:33 is perfect, it's an area where the chords I mentioned (starting at 0:32) really sound good with the flute above and the bass below. While they don't work exposed, they *do* work with other things going on around them. From here on out the piece really has body, none of that empty feeling from the intro. If this was intended, I'd work only on making the exposed parts in the intro not as raw, so they don't sound out of place. Ok, the long synth around 3:25 sounds bad to me. There's not enough variation, you've got just the one stale chord and the original arpeggio from the song. When you start adding in the lower notes around 3:39 it resolves and sounds great, but I also note that it fades that one synth out at that point. Perhaps you could cut from 3:25 to 3:39 directly? The break is good, but it's a bit longish, and if you started adding the lower synths immediately with much less of a delay, it wouldn't sound so bare. Meh, just a thought. If not a direct cut, it would also work if you reduced it from 8 measures to just 4. Overall I like the piece. It's a bit long, but this style of music tends to do that, and it's good for DJ work especially since that makes it more fun to mix with. Knowing that you had this in mind, I can't criticize the length at all. I feel that I'm being nit picky here, so like usual don't take offense. I kept production strictly *off* the list as it's still not something I'd consider myself skilled at, this review is solely based on what I can hear, and not at all based on what I know your studio software is capable of. Can't wait for the final version, I think with just a bit more tweaking this is on par with most everything I've seen submitted here, so I'll wish you luck. Later, I'll listen to it with real bass. -gamefreak

I don't hear any issues with production, this has a very clean, well done sound. The guitar sounds just fine to me, so you clearly did a good job with it. My main issue is that this sounds more like a general cover and less like a mix, you can hear the source clearly throughout the piece and it never really deviates from that path. You've clearly moved on to other things, so I won't go more into depth than that, but it's certainly a good concept to run with. -gamefreak

Oh, how sad. Twoson stopped... there needs to be so much more to this awesome mix. You nailed the atmosphere on it, if anything I'd say it needs a little more in the lower end but that might just be my speakers. I can't wait to hear where you go with it.

I figure my two cents are necessary here. I like games. I'm really quite indifferent to the system, the time, or the place. I play games and judge them by the standards that were... well, standard at the time. This is why FF6 and Chrono Trigger are so consistently on my all time favorites list. They're not necessarily great games, FF6 especially had some grinding issues, but they were above and beyond anything that had been done at the time. These are the true gems of Gaming, the games that stand the test of time. Get this: I don't really like the original Super Mario Bros. Not as a game. It has catchy music, but when you really think about it, it was a ridiculously simple platformer and not a lot else. It certainly wasn't new and innovative, and only its relative popularity (and the fact that it was boxed with the system, that helped) kept it alive. SMB3 was a great game, with lots of new elements and innovative platformer elements, so from the same genre, I think it's one of those that *does* stand the test of time well. And on the same series, I *love* what they've done with the NSMB games, with good fun level design and a significant lack of story and features to get in the way of good solid gameplay. I could go on for a while here. Let's see... FFVII did some interesting things for an RPG, really it did. I can get over the graphics... well, sucking badly, because I know that it was a launch title, and was developed before the capabilities of the system were truly known. In terms of impressing me with the system's capabilities though, my hat's off to the (rather underappreciated) FF9, for *stunning* graphics and sound for that system. It's easily the most beautiful PSX game I have ever played. Another favorite here was the original (2D) Rayman. That game was *wacked*. It's the first time I've suspected the use of drugs during the creation of the GDD for a game. It's interesting to go back and play the old games, and watch the progression in quality as the game release times go up in year. Once a console has lost its launch bang, and developers are confident with the system's limitations, you start to see some really interesting and unique attempts at pushing the envelope. I think the Wii has failed the hardcore games market hard. Moms tend to love the draw of motion, but the most intuitive motion controls I've seen in the vast majority of games is no better than a mouse: point and click. Occasionally, they'll throw in a Wiimote shake where a button would have done, and it's not really thought about beyond that. Some games (Zelda) have innovative uses for the wiimote in mini-sections, but it's failed to be challenging in the least. They might fix this with the Motion Plus, but that seems like quite the ripoff. Wait, I have to pay $20 for an accessory to make the damn thing do what I bought it for in the first place? The worst bit about this is that the three best games I've played on it so far (Galaxy, Twilight Princess, and MP3) worked almost like standard button pushers, and didn't even make use of the supposed main feature of the console very well. (Wait, Zelda actually *was* a pusher in the GC version!) So it doesn't seem like a good direction to go. I'll maintain this stance here: Motion control will only truly work when there's some kind of force feedback. Otherwise, you've given us a really fancy looking joystick/button thing that we can wave through the air. There's a lot of talk about Xbox and the achievements system. I've never played an Xbox, but I *have* played some of the games released on steam, which include the same system. I won't say that the achievements add to or detract from the experience of the game itself, so I don't tend to judge the game by them. However, I do appreciate them and consider the challenge of unlocking them fun, since I have a thing for 100%-ing games. Games on the system aren't going to be judged by them, since all games include them. They're simply going to be judged by the usual factor: are you enjoying playing this game, and did you get $60 out of it? My big complaint with new-gen games, especially games on the Wii console, is that so many of them are designed with casual gamers in mind. There used to be a day when just *beating* a game was fairly godly, and it was a social event to watch someone good plow through the last few areas of a good NES game. Now, it seems that games are rated on their length in hours it takes to "go through the story" which doesn't sound like much of a challenge. I won't deny that games now are still fun, but they're not nearly as hard as they used to be, and that's somewhat of a turn off. What I wouldn't mind at *all* here is some sort of "challenge" mode, that allowed the developers to go all out with the level design and really do a "kill the player" tactic like so many other games used to do, so that the achievement of beating the hardest level on intense was actually worth something. I've seen something like this is a few games, but it's becoming so uncommon that it's disheartening. Anyway, these are just comments. Like I said, I judge games by the standards of the time, not the standards of the present. If all the system can do is 8-bit graphics and 4-channel chiptunes, then you quickly learn to judge the games that really pushed that medium as far as it could go. While you're flame-warring over here, do try to remember something: different people get different things out of games. Happy Wii owners tend to like casual and social games that are light on the difficulty, and heavy on the silly, good natured, and kid-friendly fun. Happy PS3 owners are greatly pleased with technical achievements that can deliver high resolution imagery and surround sound, for total immersion. Happy Xbox 360 owners love hardcore games, multiplayer, and the social draw of online play. (At least, if you go by the stereotypes that these systems advertise as.) Not everyone will agree with these concepts, and not everyone should. After all, the day we all flock to the same system and like the same features is the day we humans as a species lose our individuality to "The One" and God help us if that day ever comes. If X and Y aspects of a game truly make you happy, then Hooray! You've won! You've found something you can really enjoy, and that's the whole point. ...if no one minds, I'm going to make this a blog post.

I don't need to add this song to my music rotation that I listen to while I work. Why? It's already there. This is an amazing piece of work, it really brings out the character or Beatrix in such a perfect way, the lyrics do her much justice. Kate has an amazing voice, this is easily my favorite of all her vocal covers. Kate, you've managed to make me cry over this game again, and I thought I was done with that. You are one of the most talented musicians I've heard in a long time, and I'm glad the ocremix judges agree with me on this.

...wow... Just listened to this for the first time. I'm going to be skeptical about any Galaxy remixes in general, since I feel that most of the Galaxy soundtrack was quite amazing in its original form, but this is truly very nice. I definitely recognize the source in a number of places. I was only able to find one thing that I slightly disagree with, that being right at the very end. (I'm listening to version 2 here.) When you fade out and just have the piano left, you're using a hard sample, and just fading the volume around. That's fine if that's the tone you want, but a real piano changes voice when the keys are pressed softly (or with a damper pedal for example) and I didn't hear that. That's the only place in the piece that it really stood out for me, and I know its very very nit-picky. Overall, I like this a lot, and I would very much like the final version to add to my ever growing list of things to listen to while I work. Good job! -thegamefreak

Certainly an interesting take on the source, it definitely qualifies as a mix. It seems like there isn't a lot of source there, but I can see that you seem to be using some of the chord progressions from the source throughout the piece, even if you're not using the actual notes. Its subtle, but definitely there. I know that the entire glitched feel was intended, but it seems like it still needs some work in the overall mastering department. I guess I'm saying it seems unfinished. On a musicality level, I loved every minute of it, but the quality overall could be improved a bit. Actually, I think I wanted a bit more. It seemed short to me, which is a good thing. So you have room to be more creative as it is, or you can leave it as just a quick artistic expression. Thats up to you. Good job! -gamefreak

Its been too long since I played that game for me to recognize this particular source, piece, so I'm going to comment on the piece as a whole, without a nod to source. ZOMG it needs percussion. I'm 100% certain that the entire tone/mood of the remix is going to change when you get percussion added in. That being said, the main melody needs... improvement. Its just kind of there at the moment, there's nothing that makes me really want to listen to the melody on its own, it kind of serves as something to make you listen to the other parts of the mix. This has potential, but it would need a lot of work to be accepted, I know that. All in all though, I definitely hear the classic Mario party vibe in terms of the other non-melody parts. -gamefreak

Well, you get instant brownie points for remixing my favorite song from this game. Unfortunately, you get three immediate red Xs for putting this song on MySpace. Bad choice of storage, there are many other sites out there that will not compress the heck out of the song. I felt that the mix was overall a bit too mellow. It has some interesting sounds, but it seems like the entire mix is building to something that it never quite makes it to. I definitely want to hear a different flute for the main melody, it sounds... icky on that high note. Its a neat idea though, and I definitely think with a bit more polish, it has a good chance, especially since I don't see a lot of rayman material that often. I always remembered this piece as kind of a big band thing, so its definitely a fresh take on it. -thegamefreak

...This is probably the last piece of music I would have ever expected to get remixed from this game, and yet you've done something truly unique with it, and I kind of like it. I definitely agree, a lot of the sections still sound a little robotic. The piano sounds fine, but I'm not to hot on the organ for some of its solos. Maybe its just me. The arrangement itself, from a musical standpoint, is just fine, no problems with it at all. I'd say right now, concentrate on making the instruments themselves sound more natural, and run with it. Good job, especially with the limited source material! -thegamefreak

Wow, I feel kind of neat being the first reply. First off, I'm not too hot at all on the Bass drum at the beginning, although it might be my Mega Bass headphones. Its a little too harsh. Good effect, I'd just tone it down a bit. This is some really nice work overall, it has a really good kind of funk to it. My biggest complaint is that I didn't recognize any source material until after 2 minutes into the song. Now, that may just be me not having played the original Sonic in too long, but it seems almost like there's too much original material here, at least in the first 2 minutes. Oh... this song is only 3:33... well then. (To clarify, I tend to review as I listen.) Well I'll definitely give that the overall feel of the song is there. This sounds really nice, don't get me wrong, you've obviously got a good ear for this sort of thing. This is OCR though, and the R bit is very important. Definitely needs more from the source. Now, I can't tell if this is from the style of not, but I'm not personally a fan of long intros. Not at all. I think the best place to introduce some form of the melody would have been around 1:33 when the rings sample came in. Also, I notice that the... how do I put this... Referring to the original source, I guess it would be the "break"? The section after the most recognizeable melody, which basically consists of some drawn out chords, and more importantly a key change, which varies the atmosphere of the original piece during the break. You keep this mix in the same key for the entire length. I feel like when I get to the end, I want there to have been more, for the last phrase of the melody that played to have led into something... epic. So I guess my best suggestion is, either add some more source to the intro, or shorten it, and then lead the end of the mix into something more varied. Its a good start, but its definitely missing an epic punch that makes a listener want to come back to it. Thats my take on it. Consider me an outsider, kind of a GE judge if you will. Nothing sounded technically out of place to me, I just wanted more from the overall experience. I'm sure someone else on the forums can tell you if you need to fix something more relating to the actual soundscape, but it sounded OK to me. -gamefreak