Best music on a HuCard

[Kaminari]

Pretty much anything from Daisuke Morishima (1943, Coryoon, PC Denjin...) and Kōji Hayama (Moto Roader, Schbibinman, GaiFrame, Energy...). There has been a lot of talented PSG composers/sequencers on the PCE, but in my opinion those two were the best ones.

Although I have to say my personal favorite PSG soundtrack ever (on the PCE) is Batman.

[Joe Redifer]

Revenge of Shinobi's music is pretty poor, and not just because it was from 1989. The bizarre mix of FM and PCM used to create the tunes resulted in a muffled and sometimes "scratchy" sound.

I don't think Revenge of Shinobi used any PCM in its music.  And none of the game sounded scratchy at all.  How are you listening to it?  I know some Genesis model 2's have an inferior sound chip which makes just about everything sound extremely scratchy compared to the model 1, and sound from emulators are not to be trusted, period.  Ninja Spirit sounds extremely abrasive and buzzy to me.  RoS is definitely not Yuzo's best work, but it's better than Ninja Spirit in both sound quality and composition quality.

Where in Gate of Thunder is "Dark City"?

Did you like the music in Destiny Of An Emperor?

Never heard of it.

[Keranu]

Wait, doesn't Genesis not even have PCM? That's Sega CD, right?

[esteban]

Folks have mentioned lots of HuCards with great tunes, so I just wanted to give a shout out to Cybercore since it has yet to be mentioned.

The *only* problem with Cybercore is that the song for each stage is incredibly short and loops ad finitum. It would have been so much more awesome if the songs had longer compositions.

Still, Cybercore's songs are incredibly catchy, upbeat and complement the gameplay quite nicely, IMO.

[Tatsujin]

Revenge of Shinobi's music is pretty poor, and not just because it was from 1989.  The bizarre mix of FM and PCM used to create the tunes resulted in a muffled and sometimes "scratchy" sound.  This severely hampers several melodies, such as "Make Me Dance" and "Ninja Step".

Even disregarding the technical inadequacies, the ROS tracks are simplistic and poorly arranged.  One of the best -- China Town -- is pleasing almost by accident, as though Koshiro found a nice riff and just repeated it over and over.  "Silence Night" sounds almost nothing like its original source material.  And let's not even get started on comparing "The Dark City" from ROS to the superior version found in Gate of Thunder.

I don't know what the hell you just said, but none of that didn't stop me and other people from liking the soundtrack .

1989 had good music, but scratchy sounding Genesis games come from shit like Chakan and Bimini Run.

totaly agree, super shinobi had one of the best ST in the whole MD repetoire!! i listened days and nights to it. even nowadays i can't miss it!

for ninja spirit: i like the tunez a lot. very simple and so typically IREM. i'm more the guy who likes suptile and atmospheric musics, may be therefore i like the NS tunez a lot. and i also feel the ninja theme is appearing a lot while listening to the sound. the boss theme rox enormous. such exciting!!

[runinruder]

And let's not even get started on comparing "The Dark City" from ROS to the superior version found in Gate of Thunder.   

Also I appreciate the traditional japanese sound, but I think that if you imagine the more melodic & fast Ninja Spirit music played by electric guitars, it would sound speed metal'y like Megadeth's Rust In Peace.

Since you guys bring them up...  I've always felt that the main riff in Gate of Thunder's Dark City tune is very reminiscent of the main riff in "Poison Was the Cure" off Rust in Peace.

Cyber Core's music is very cool, especially the stage two tune.  Psychosis is another shooter with good music that I don't think anyone has mentioned yet.

[Joe Redifer]

Wait, doesn't Genesis not even have PCM? That's Sega CD, right?

The Genesis has 1 PCM sound channel and it is used in A LOT of music like Streets of Rage 2, Mega Turrican and many, many others.  But I think it's use was pretty reserved back in the early days of the system, and I don't recall hearing it used in music that early.

[Digi.k]

Pretty much anything from Daisuke Morishima (1943, Coryoon, PC Denjin...) and Kōji Hayama (Moto Roader, Schbibinman, GaiFrame, Energy...). There has been a lot of talented PSG composers/sequencers on the PCE, but in my opinion those two were the best ones.

Although I have to say my personal favorite PSG soundtrack ever (on the PCE) is Batman.

Batman is really amazing I keep forgetting about that game because the actual game IMO is a bit lacklustre...  OMG if only they kepted the original platform game it was meant to be!!!

[Ninja Spirit]

Actually what are some individual TG16/PCE tracks that you can listen to 1,000 times in a row

>Keith Courage/Wataru boss music. Sometimes for fun I use a music editor after converting the HES into a MP3, and transpose the pitch to many different key signatures and it sounds better than the default

>Ninja Spirit stage 2

>Sidearms boss 2

>Soldier Blade Stage 1, Boss 1, and Stage 5

>As mentioned before Bloody Wolf when you fight your partner in the final stage to break him out of the spell.

>Dragon Spirit stage 6. A certain portion of this track sounds addicting

[2X4]

I have to go with some popular ones

Legendary Axe II - possibly one of the best chip STs EVER!
Ninja Spirit - Just because it complements the game so well
Splatterhouse - An overall awesome game and the music is perfect for it

To add one that hasn't been mentioned:

Impossamole !

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but just check out the opening theme, I think you'll be surprised.  There are so many games I haven't played, there might be others that would surpass these if I heard them.

*edit* can't forget Devil's Crush!

[Black Tiger]

Actually what are some individual TG16/PCE tracks that you can listen to 1,000 times in a row

Aeroblasters: Stage 1
R-Type: intro onward Stage 1
Ninja Spirit: Behind The Wind
Dungeon Explorer: the song that begins at 4:07 in my DE mix
Neutopia: Final Boss (death metal!)
Devil's Crush: main theme
SFII'CE: Guile's Stage
Darius Plus: Zone A
Bonk's Revenge: boss(?) music
Bomberman/BM'93: battle mode music
Side Arms: Stage 1
Dragon's Curse: 1st castle music
Magical Chase: Stage 3

[Keranu]

Impossamole !

Oh hell yeah, the title screen song kicks ass!

[Tatsujin]

Impossamole !

Yeah, I know what you're thinking, but just check out the opening theme, I think you'll be surprised!

so if you really like this one, so please check out the opening/title of the original amiga version

[Tatsujin]

Magical Chase: Stage 3

hehe..i would go for stage 2

[ParanoiaDragon]

Yeah, the Amiga version of Impossamole's title theme is kick arse!  I remember playing it on my friend's Amiga years ago, because I had picked up the Turbo version.  I'd like to someday, take both versions of the game, melt them together(including adding the mine level that's in the Amiga version), & make the game way better, since it deserves to be better.  Not every game I list here, is the best example of what the PCE can do musically, but, I love all the songs, in these regardless.

Anyways, here's my choices:
Impossamole
Legendary Axe
Legendary Axe 2
Ninja Spirit
Legend of Hero Tonma
Image Fight
Mr. Heli
Air Zonk
Coryoon
Monster Pro Wrestling
Champions Forever Boxing
Aeroblasters
Super Star Soldier
Batman
Fighting Run(haven't seen anyone mention this yet )
Bonk's 1 & 2
Dragon's Curse
After Burner 2
Alien Crush
the Shubibinman games(especially the 2nd one, I LOVE that soundtrack!)
Atomic Robo Kid
Bomberman's 93 & 94(mainly 93)
Blazing Lazers
Bloody Wolf(deffinitly one of my fav's)
Dragon Egg
Bravoman(probably the only one that thinks the music is great)
China Warrior
Jackie Chan
Cyber Core
Soldier Blade
Parasol Stars
Dragon Saber
Dragon Spirit
Dungeon Explorer(especially the title theme)
Final Lap Twin
Galaga 90'
Keith Courage
Legend of Valkyrie
Liquid Kids
the Neutopia's
Ninja Gaiden(yup, you heard me, I LOVE the music that replaced the original music )
Obochama Kun
Raiden
Somer Assault
Son Son 2
Street Fighter 2
Talespin
Veigues Tactical Gladiator(love, love, LOVE the music in this game!)

Well, that's what I can think of, what really shouts at me as great music