CD Arrangements - The good and the bad

[sunteam_paul]

Talking purely about games you were already familiar with the music to, that were then released on PCE CD - which music arrangements 'wow'ed you, and which ones did you find underwhelming?

Here's some of mine:

Ys I.II - Of course...I was in awe when I first heard this as I had played through the Master System version and loved it to bits. It was the first PCE CD game I saw.

Monster Lair - I'd recorded some of the arcade music off on a tape recorder (holding it up to the speaker in a carefully disguised plastic bag) and always really liked it. The CD version was just stunning.

Zero Wing - I'd been a big fan of the Mega Drive soundtrack for some time. When I got hold of the PCE version, I was a little disappointed with the soundtrack, it just wasn't how I'd imagined it. I think I was expecting it to be more like Gate of Thunder, although I've got used to it now.

Golden Axe - After being so used to the arcade/MD music, this was very hit and miss, but mostly miss. Telenet uses crappy, cheap sounding instruments and only get lucky every now and again.

[termis]

The "wows"
* Ys I & II - No surprise here.  Similar story -- My first exposure to it was the SMS version, but then the TG version.  Wow.
* Strider - Yeah, the gameplay and graphics were a little off, but the redbook arrangement is frickin incredible.
* Fighting Street / Street Fighter - One can argue about how good/bad the game is, but like strider, when it comes to music, the TG/PCE version blows away all other versions, including the arcade.

The "mehs"
* R-Type Complete - The mixed arrangement doesn't do it for me.  I prefer the original chiptunes.

[Joe Redifer]

R-Type Complete - What the hell happened here?  Am I playing this in a disco or something?  R-Type's not supposed to sound like this!

Zero Wing - I'm in the same boat with Sunteam on this one.  Not bad, but not as bad-ass as I had wanted it to be.  But it does sound pretty awesome when you mix the Mega Drive and PC Engine tunes together http://www.joeredifer.com/crap/ZeroWingMix.mp3


Strider - Not bad, but it is missing a lot of music.  Can't really say anything bad about what is there, though.  Granted, Strider never had rockin' tunes to begin with so it's not something that's going on the iPod.

That's all I can really remember now.

[ccovell]

Wow territory: Shadow of the Beast.  The Amiga tunes are great, but repeat too soon.  The CD version remedied that a bit and totally enhanced the sound.

Neither a wow nor a meh: Cotton.  The original arcade game has pretty repetitive music, and T's music did the typical "Lords of Thunder" arrangement for it but didn't elaborate on the tunes too much.  I kept skipping to the next track for some of the tunes.

[Joe Redifer]

I agree with Shadow of the Beast.  I had heard the same tunes before on the Genesis version, but they were so bland that I could not bother to store them in my memory as I needed the space in my brain for more useful code.  But then the Duo version came along and blew me away.  I eventually played the Genesis version again and realized they were the same tunes.  It's amazing the difference a competent arrangement can make.

I thought Cotton sounded more like Dungeon Explorer 2 than anything else, just with less memorable tunes.

[sunteam_paul]

Agree completely with Shadow of the Beast, which is the ultimate arrangement, no matter what the Amiga fans say.

Also, another vote here for R-Type complete CD. It's more suited to one of those 'super arrange' CDs than the actual game. It still makes me cringe a bit when listening to it.

[Tatsujin]

SotB is so manifique, I can't repeat me often enough. One of the best red book works ever.

beside of that it is hard to find any red booked chips tunes that are actually better than the original. Some are great or still ok, but overpassing the original is rare.

[Arkhan]

OH WAIT I CANT READ. ignore this!

[rag-time4]

The "wows"
* Ys I & II - No surprise here.  Similar story -- My first exposure to it was the SMS version, but then the TG version.  Wow.
* Strider - Yeah, the gameplay and graphics were a little off, but the redbook arrangement is frickin incredible.
* Fighting Street / Street Fighter - One can argue about how good/bad the game is, but like strider, when it comes to music, the TG/PCE version blows away all other versions, including the arcade.

Fighting Street, to me, made great use of the CD technology for the music. I always thought that the music was definitely one of the strong points of the arcade version of Street Fighter, and I really liked how a few of the songs, notably Joe's music and perhaps one or two others, were actually made longer with extra verses before it would loop. As with most fighting games with remixed music, they didn't nail all the songs in my opinion - the Thai music sounds a bit better to me in the Arcade, and the little intro tune before each match as well as the country select theme are much deeper and richer in the arcade version.

Fatal Fury 2 is one that stands out to me. Having really enjoyed the game on Neo Geo and SNES, I was blown away by the music on the ACD version, so much so that it was the only thing I played in my car for several weeks. I'd have to say it made my 89 Honda Accord hatchback feel like a flying DeLorean!! As with Fighting Street, I thought the original Neo Geo version of Joe's music sounded way better, but certain themes, such as Andy and Terry Bogard, Big Bear, and Krauser, are some of my favorite music ever heard in a video game.

[Necromancer]

Ys I & II and Shadow of the Beast music = f*ck yeah!

I thought Riot Zone's tunes were okay but nothing to write home about, until I heard the original music from Riot City.  Compared to that repetitive and scratchy trash, Riot Zone is a symphonic masterpiece.

[nat]

I'm in the minority, but I prefer the CD version of R-Type's soundtrack over the cart version. Except for the first level song, that one is pretty bad on CD. The rest are damn good, though.

I also disagree with paul on Golden Axe.... The CD soundtrack is absolutely killer.

[Black Tiger]

Golden Axe: Blew me away. It was the first CD game I ever saw, played and heard. The awesomeness of the soundtrack will never fade for me. I recently acquired (yet again) an arcade board of Golden Axe, now that I can play it properly with a supergun. I was surprised how much the soundtrack and gameplay feel lackluster now, compared to how I remember the Genesis and PC Engine versions playing and sounding.

Side Arms Special: Also one of my first few CD games. Side Arms, along with Trojan, 1943 and GnG defined the sound of arcades to me. The CD game took it to a whole new level and perfectly captures the feel of 'Capcom sound'.

Ys I & II: I loved the SMS version ever since it first came out and was dying to play the Turbo-CD version ever since I first read about it. The soundtrack alone made the Turbo-CD worthwhile, although the instruments now sound kinda simple compared to Ys III, Ys IV and the Ys anime soundtrack.

Ys III: I rented a SNES just to try the game. At the time, during the early days when the SNES sound still seemed new and unusual, I thought that it sounded like a CD game. When I finally got the Turbo version, I was reminded of how "real" sounding SNES instruments really do not compare to CD game music.

R-Type Complete: The first time I heard it, it felt like I was hurt emotionally. After long imagining how a CD version could sound... only to find that the developer purposely tried to do something completely different. A slap in the face considering the "Complete" monicker. It would've suited a "Before Christ"/Syd of Valis style re-imagining. Instead, a more appropriate title would be "R-Type Broken".

Dynastic Hero: Although the music is different, it counts almost as much as R-Type Complete. It's been too long since I played through it to judge the new music, but I was still disappointed the first time I tried it.

Forgotten Worlds: I loved the Genesis version and it was my favorite game until PSII finally came out. The soundtrack perfectly complimented the wacky game, but the Turbo-CD version was truly EPIC.

Valis III: Another early Genesis game I absolutely loved. It seemed perfect all-round and the soundtrack sounded cool to me as someone who had played Valis II to death. When I fnally got the Turbo-CD version, I was disappointed by some of the differences (lack of parallax), but man did the music sound perfect.

[nat]

While I mentioned two that I like earlier, I failed to mention the one that I feel is the biggest waste of the format: Bubble Bobble II: Rainbow Islands. All the music could have easily been done as chiptunes, not to mention 90% of the levels use the same BGM. Cool game, disappointing soundtrack.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Ys 1-4-fantastic music all around, though, a few a the chiptunes in 4 aren't quite as nice as they coulda been

R-Type Complete-this one is hit & miss for me.  the first level is cool, but not for ingame.  there are some tunes in it that I love!  a part of me would like to redo all the music for R-type in more of the fashion I would imagine for ingame redbook R-type music

Monster Lair-brilliant renditions of the original

Golden Axe-just recently relistened to this one, & found that I really love it for the most part, & if we ever did a decent port of Golden Axe for the Turbo, I'll be using these as a bass, possibly just overlaying a few more instruments over the original cd music.

Strider-brilliant music, including the desert music, though, there are tunes that I miss

Zero Wing-can't really comment specifically, that's a game I didn't play as a kid, & at the moment, I can't even remember the music

Shadow of the Beast-absolutely brilliant, I think there might be a few missing tracks, but, still, this stuff is gold.  I do find it odd that it seems like every version of SotB has the music in different places

Cotton-generally speaking I love the music, mainly cuz it remeinds me of DE2

Riot Zone-not bad, pretty good actually, but especially when you compare it to the arcade

Dynastic Hero-I abolutely love the music in this game, it's been a big inspiration for me, though, a part of me wishes they were able to use the orignal tunes

Valis 3-I like some of the tracks, but, alot of the sounds used aren't so hot.

[SuperDeadite]

Some that haven't been mentioned yet are the Dragon Knight games.
PCE's versions were done by T's and sound awesome. 

And for the record, I adore R-Type Complete.  f*ck the haters!