Write Club -- Keep Writing!

Hey y'all. It's been a while since I've done one of these posts.

Okay, so I just wanted to go over something about writing. One of the hardest parts of keeping up with it (as you can see by my meager posting of the Hero of the Month segment) is that you just have to keep on writing. It's not a habit that always comes to you easily. The worst thing ever is sitting in front of a blank computer screen or page and wondering what the heck you're doing. There seems to be some sort of myth going around that writers are able to look at that blank page, press on through, and just write.

See, this is exactly what doesn't happen, and I think the myth trips up a lot of writers. It's like comedians. You always expect those guys to just think "okay, I have to write a comedy routine now" and then just sit down and do it. Nope. They have to have a goal in mind, a subject they want to go on about. It's exactly the same about writers. We never make something out of nothing.

So how in the world do we write? We have to be inspired. You'll be walking somewhere or you'll be washing dishes or staring at an awesome picture (maybe even a special word), and you'll just have a "DING DING DING!!" go off in your head in the form of inspiration or story. Sometimes this inspiration is only a little, and sometimes it's enough to actually start writing something with. In any case, the hard part is definitely sitting at your computer and typing up something out of your raw inspiration.

I've learned a lot through my years of fanfiction and poetry, so here's a few tips for young'uns to learn.

1. Write quickly after inspiration hits.

Not only do you not want to forget your inspiration, you also need to remember how much passion you felt for it. If you remember the idea but have stopped caring, it's going to be very hard to write on it. Maybe you have an idea for a story but really have more background than actual plot in your head. That's okay, write it down too. That way you can follow the next tip.

2. Reread what you write constantly.

While writing my Mega Man fanfiction, one of the things I more or less inadvertantly ended up doing was rereading my story. I started off on Okkusenman, a story where Bass gets out from under the thumb of Wily, and I found myself enjoying the story so much (doesn't it feel sometimes like someone else wrote your work?) that I just wanted to read it again and again. That proved a great way to maintain my passion for this story series, especially now that I'm on the fifth and last story of my Mega Man fanfiction. It reminds me of how much I wanted to write this story in the first place.

Not only that, but it helps me remember what directions I took in my first story. Sometimes in my later stories I'd wonder what to do next or what to give a character to make them more interesting, and then I'd look back at my writing and get inspired to do something or remember an old character trait that I need to show off again. It's a great way to find errors in your work or odd points that you can exploit and pretend was planned from the beginning.

So heck, reread your stories and even your notes about your works. It helps your brain get into the proper mode for your story so that when you think of your works, it will only be a natural extension of what you have already written rather than mismatched and sort of random plot additions or changes. *COUGH*R.A.Salvatore*COUGH*.

3. Love your characters and story.

One of the mistakes you can make is just get bored with what you're doing and just stop. Or maybe you carry on, but because you have lost your love for a person or even a plotline you just kind of go on with it for the sake of money or reviews or whatever. Just so you know, if you're bored by something, chances are your readers will be.

So if at any moment you feel bored, there are a few things you can do. You can stop working on that plotline and find some outside characters to write about. You can focus on that character and think about how they feel or how they got to a situation. Maybe go out and take a walk, or do the dishes (it's surprising how much work inspires my writing).

Maybe you could go listen to music that inspires you. This song Into Being from Paul Oakenfold's Another World (yeah, sometimes I listen to Oakenfold, sue me) really inspired me to write about Kerrigan from Starcraft. There are certain videos on youtube that make me want to write about the Mega Man universe, including fan-made music videos and let's plays of the games.

Really, at the end of the day you just have to remember that your characters are people. Notedly, so is your audience. Your audience wants to identify with the people from the story and be able to live your story through them. Write the story as if it's someone's life, and learn to describe things in a way that makes your readers think that even if it's only in some far off, fantasy alternate dimension, your story really could have happened.

4. Write incomplete ideas.

Yeah, basically don't forget the things that you don't know what to do with. Like maybe you're staring at a few inspirational words or ideas and you have a clue where to go, but you're not sure yet. Just write it down and wait. Sooner or later you'll get more ideas, or maybe you'll figure out how to attach that idea to one of your current stories. There will be times when particular inspiration won't be useful ever, but the more you think and the more ideas constantly pop into your head, then the better you'll be.

5. Have a vision and aim for it.

Oftentimes you'll have a key idea or image you're trying to express in a story or story series. This is the most important part of writing. Maybe your vision is to create a vast world with interesting creatures. Maybe you want to talk about a certain theme or emotion, how you feel on a particular topic. Or maybe you just want to fill your audience with a specific emotion, sharing your past or a specific hurt or glory in your life.

Let me emphasize this. If you have no vision, your story will suck. Period. This is the ironclad rule of all storytelling. For example, look at these movies that came out lately after you pretty much thought their series was over: Rocky, Rambo, Indiana Jones, Die Hard, etc. Rocky and Rambo had the advantage that Stallone seems to understand that you need a vision. Rocky Balboa was about not letting anyone tell you that you can't do something. Rambo was about the Karen rebels of Burma with the additional set of themes that show the perspectives of how different people feel about going into dangerous situations: some want to go without guns and show peace, others just want to stay away, still others believe that it's fine to let people trapped in terrible countries just rot, and finally there are those who will go in and fight.

Indiana Jones 4? All about the money and universally derided. Die Hard 4 actually tried to have a theme, one that basically says it sucks to be a hero, but this is a major failing because none of the other movies in the series have that theme, and it looks tacky and not a natural extension of the trilogy before it. Also they have a sucky villain, but that's a different topic. I mean, in the first movie Hans Gruber was hardcore. This guy in the fourth? Some idiot that you feel like you can just walk up to and slap in the face without consequence.

Better get back on topic...

For my story series on Mega Man, the idea which keeps me inspired is my objection to Keiji Inafune and the direction he took Mega Man in. I disagree with how dark the X series, the Zero series, and the ZX series ended up being. They tried to make Mega Man Legends more happy, but that game feels like it could be its own universe; it didn't really need to be a Mega Man game. Honestly, I feel like they sort of betrayed Mega Man Classic. Pretty much every game in the X and Zero series (I haven't yet seen playthroughs of ZX, I just know it's dark) makes the world worse off after the heroes save the day, and honestly that sucks. It's like saying that nothing you do in the end matters. So that's my motivation in what I wrote.

So anyway, the real key to writing is this: To write! You'll only get better if you write and read, making yourself more kin to the written word. Don't sit there in front of a blank page and wonder what you're going to do. Take the things running around your heart and mind and put them on paper! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go eat food!

Mega Man Music --- MM6

Hey y'all.  Okay, so right away during these reviews I have to admit that I have only played the games 1-5 as a kid.  It is my desire to be fair, and to judge these according to their merits, not according to nostalgia.  So yeah, number 6 is the first of those that I didn't play.  Though, to be fair, its first release was only in Japan.  I'm really glad it came over here to America eventually, but to me it's the real beginning of Mega Man Classic's troubled period.

Let me explain.  MMs 1-3 were all weird, because Capcom had to figure out how to make the series work.  In MM4, they figured it out.  They surfed a wave of uncertainty and had a great ride.  MM5 came around, and Capcom figured out quickly that they were going to need to configure the series to not only have a good pattern, but to also be adjustable enough to be fun every time.

This wave wasn't as great a surf, but I don't blame Capcom.  MM6 was a rushed NES production which I assume was done for two reasons.  The first is obviously money, as Mega Man is a great series and they could cash in for other endeavors on the Super Nintendo.  The second was to figure out how to adjust their set formula to make the gameplay more interesting.  As much as I love MM5, the gameplay problems during the castle levels (ie the lack of challenge) made it clear that some changes needed to be made if Mega Man Classic was going to survive.

Hence MM6.  They tried some new things and definitely tried harder on the robot master designs, but in the end the rushed nature of the game made it suffer a lot of the problems of MM5.  Actually, people have said that Mega Man 6 is the easiest of the classic games.  There are several reasons for this, mainly in the very strict robot master patterns.  This to me is a huge no-no, because the reason why some of the earlier robot masters are so delightfully hard is because they have an edge of randomness and you have to figure out how to force them into their pattern.  With these guys, it's basically just watch them repeat themselves and dodge/attack accordingly.  Lame.  Especially when you throw in robot master weaknesses.

Let me actually talk good about the robot masters.  The thing that makes MM6 stand out from the others is its robot masters.  By the time this set was designed, their creator was already working on several things for the Super Nintendo, so they came out way more detailed than the NES could really handle well.  As a result, all the robot masters are very distinctive, and this is very cool.

However, at least in my opinion that's the only thing that's really distinctive about the game.  The first time I watched a playthrough of this game, I couldn't remember a thing about it other than some of the robot masters.  I knew it involved shortcuts and two power upgrades, and that's it.  I honestly had to watch it again to just remember anything about it.  Not much about this game makes a lasting impression compared to all the others in the series.

You might just say that I feel that way because I didn't play the game as a kid. That doesn't have anything to do with it.  Honestly, I remembered plenty about 7-10 after watching playthroughs.  MM6 tries, but it just doesn't really get outside of mediocre a lot of the time as far as gameplay goes.  The bosses are too boring, the enemies during the levels aren't as much of a challenge, and the two new powers don't really work out as well as they could because the game wasn't designed enough around them.

Let's talk about those.  Okay, so there's the jet adaptor and the power adaptor for Mega Man, and these as concepts are actually very interesting.  Rush isn't Rush jet in this game.  Instead he merges with Mega Man to become jet Mega Man or Power Mega Man.  The jet adaptor allows you to fly around for a short amount of time before you have to land.  However, once you do land, your little meter goes back up and you can fly some more.  The power adaptor lets you have a great punching ability to break blocks or deal good damage.

Honestly, these things could have been really great if the game was actually designed better for them.  The jet adaptor ends up more or less being a cheat because it's so handy, and the power adaptor has of course short range.  Actually, people probably would have loved the power adaptor if it showed bad guys bouncing off your fists as you punched them.  That would be hilarious.

Oh yeah, Beat is available.  You unlock him by fighting four of the robot masters, except these four have two different boss rooms and you have to choose the right one.  Beat, like in MM5, deals damage to enemy robots.  It's not as useful to have Beat in this game, as no boss is weak to it.  It's fun to find the pieces though. I thought that was a good idea for gameplay.  A bad idea for gameplay was to have it so there are shortcuts during the boss castle stages that enabled you to avoid most of the trouble of that castle level.  That's just a cheat right there.

I'm not going to say that the game isn't worth playing.  It's cool.  Oh yeah, maybe I should talk about the plot. Okay, up till this point the classic series has always been mildly serious, at least in the sense that Capcom never made the story cheesy on purpose.  It actually tries in several places to be very serious, like the ending themes of MM2 and 4.  If it was cheesy, it was only because the NES 8 bit format is hard to convey serious themes in.  MM6 involves a bit of deliberate cheesiness, specifically that the bad guy is obviously Wily in a costume.

So the story goes that Mr. X (Wily) is running a robot contest to see who the most powerful robot is, but then he steals the robots and uses them to try and take over the world.  Yeah.  Cheese.  I'll get to more of why this is a problem in my MM7 review, where it is more applicable.  MM6 isn't too cheesy by comparison.  Actually that plot point is really the only problem.  Up till this Capcom went more or less seriously with its work, and I'm disappointed that it felt it had to go more silly past this point.

Bah, this is supposed to be about music, no?  Let's get to it.  Overall I find MM6's soundtrack lacking.  Don't get me wrong, it's got good tracks here and there, but it just feels too mediocre.  There's no Crash Man-like or Star Man-like track that just sounds weird and out there.  Most of the robot master themes don't feel as distinctive or memorable as the general fare of the first five games went.  It felt like either they tried too hard or didn't try enough.  My guess is the first one, as there are some hits in here.

Now remember, I judge the music by what I think is quality, not by my personal favorites.  Also, I made sure to listen to this soundtrack a lot to give it a real chance and not just malign it.  I want these to be as honest as possible, and I'm not picking on this game.  I intend to be honest with all of these, not just put random ratings. I've listened to it over and over again these past weeks.  That being said, I think I can honestly tell you that MM6's music is a step down.  More than anything a lot of the robot master themes seem to blur with one another, sounding thematically alike.  As distinctive as the robot masters' designs are, their songs are just kinda there without really matching the robot master as well as it needed to.

The intro music is good.  It does remind me of a robot master contest.  It's cool.  Not epic like some, but it's a good time.  It leads pretty well into the title screen music, which I personally think is pretty nice.  Good stuff.

I don't like the password screen music that much.  It's okay, but it's just kind of there.  It's not really remarkable.  The stage select screen steps it up with music, and it's very enjoyable.  Ready to fight!

#8 What where they thinking?  Wind Man's theme sounds more like end credits music than a robot master theme.  Were they trying to make this music sound all sad and melodramatic because they knew it was going to be the last game for the NES?  It's a pretty good song, but it really fails to be what it needs to be: Wind Man's.

#7 Yeah...I'm not sure what happened to Tomahawk Man's theme.  It just doesn't stand out that well.  This is one of those themes I had a really hard time placing to the robot master.  I find the main layer of this song to just kinda be there.  Honestly though, it's a pretty good song on its own.  It doesn't really strike the fancy, but it's okay.

#6 I like Blizzard Man's theme alright.  I'm not sure how much it conveys snow and ice, but it's alright.  It's peppy and fun.  Cute, even.

#5 Yamato Man's theme is kinda cool.  It's one of the themes in the mix that really could have stood to be more distinctive, but I enjoy it.  It feels like a Mega Man song.  I wish it could have been more creative, especially for a robot master that's said to originate in the same country as the makers of this game.  Whatever, it's fun.

#4 Knight Man's is more of a fan favorite in this game, and I see why.  I like it pretty good.  As it goes on it actually gets fairly interesting.  Good rollicking theme.

#3 Plant Man's theme is one of those themes that I constantly mix up with several others.  However, it's more of a cut above as it actually does convey some sense of flowers and wind, at least in my mind.  It's a nice theme, even a little soothing.  Cute.  The more I listen, the more I like.  Good job, here.

#2 Now Centaur's Man theme I actually really like.  This song they actually made more relaxing than the others, and that bit of uniqueness makes it stand out a lot more, something the robot master themes desperately needed.  It actually makes me think of horses in fields, conveying an idea.  It's a great song, really being what MM6 needs.

#1  The robot master deserving of the number 1 spot is definitely Flame Man.  Not only does his level have good gameplay, but this theme just kicks butt.  I love how it actually gets Arabian tones in the music even though the format is so dated.  This really tells the skill of the composer in the game, as he made a really great theme here that is distinctive and entertaining.  This is what 8 bit music is all about.

Say what you want about the robots' themes, but the boss fight song is great!  I honestly think it's my favorite boss battle theme in the entire series.  It's a crazy song that really does exactly what a boss battle should do: be awesome and crazy!  Wooo!  Get them baddies, Mega Man!  The get a weapon theme is okay.  They could have done a little more with it, but whatever, it's good stuff.

MM6!  Come on, we had to deal with this in MM5!  I thought you knew better!  Sigh.  So like the last game, there are two castles, and each castle of four levels has only one theme.  Lame!  Come on guys, at least switch it up a little!  Oh well.  At least the Mr. X theme is cool.  It's a good song, weird and fun.  I love the beginning of it especially.

The Dr. Wily theme is good too.  It's a little nostalgic...I like that.  I would like it better if they hadn't made the robot masters' themes nostalgic as well, but whatever.  This song takes me back to the good ol' NES days, and I enjoy it a lot. La la-la, la, la la la!

You know how I said the Wily boss theme was the best in the last game?  I take it back again.  This is more awesome.  I can't believe how much I like this song and the madness it shows.  It's so dang fun and really pumps you up to fight the mad scientist one more time.  Great stuffs!  Yeah!

I'm kinda irritated with the ending theme.  I mean, it's just a compilation of all the robot master themes with a couple of beats between each.  In a sense it's cool, as if you're saying goodbye to Mega Man NES, but still, to me it feel sort of like a cop out.  Especially since during the ending theme they're showing the robot masters'  patterns.  I guess it depends on how you look at it.

Actually, that song does make for a great transition into the credits theme, a sweet nostalgic song that really does say goodbye.  Crap, I love this song...it's the right way to end the Mega Man NES days.  It's such a good fun theme, as if you're saying goodbye to old friends.  Dang...I'm actually crying as I write this.  I didn't think it was that good.

Oh yeah, link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9Ug7szIvh0

So yeah, much like the game itself, the music is pretty hit or miss.  I just wish they had taken the time to be more individual with the robot master themes (and the password theme) rather than have them sound so thematically similar.  It's like they knew from the beginning that they were going to do a robot master compilation at the ending theme.

If this were the soundtrack to a movie, it would be a samurai movie where the main character has eight friends that he has to fight for some reason.  At the end of the movie they all get together to fight the real bad guy, or else the lead character remembers the former friends he fought.  It would be the kind of movie that some people really love, and other people don't get.

Mega Man Music --- MM5

Hey y'all.

You know, after writing reviews for all those other Mega Man games, I was starting to feel a little depressed.  Mega Man 5 really was the downturning of the series in certain ways, and honestly, it's my favorite game.  I remember playing and enjoying this series as a kid, and it means a lot to me.  Charge Man was the first robot master I ever defeated without Game Genie (who remembers Game Genie?).

So I just posted on the fourth game, and then I started listening to five's soundtrack.  That brought me out of the funk I was in, because whatever you want to say about the game, the music was definitely not one of its faults.  It pwns, doing a great job being what MM music is supposed to be. 

Oh no, all 5's flaws are in gameplay.  The plot is great, making it look like Proto Man actually kidnapped Dr. Light and held him hostage.  Of course Wily's behind it all in the end, but it's still a great plot.  The graphics also rock, and it's a fun good time for all.

Trouble is, by MM4 the classic series was all figured out.  That became trouble for the game because it then had to concentrate on making more unique gaming features for the robot master stages.  This might have been easier if Capcom hadn't been in such a rush.  MM5 (and 6) came out in the latter days of the NES, when the Super Nintendo was rising and becoming the thing (and no console has ever truly beaten the SNES in awesomeness).  I guess maybe Capcom wanted to make money so that they could move on to SNES games and still have some cash flow coming in while they work.

They did try.  I'll give 'em that.  One of the things they did wrong was make the Mega Buster's charged shot more powerful, and also larger in size.  This makes it too easy to kill bad guys.  Even worse, the weapons from the robot masters weren't great.  Crystal Man's was too random, Stone Man's couldn't hardly hit anything, Gyro and Napalm Man's were unwieldly, Gravity Man's wasn't strong enough, Wave's couldn't hit very high, and using Charge Man's was more likely to get yourself hurt than a baddie.  Star Man's shield was okay.  You're better off just going on as your normal Mega Man self in the end though.

The real doom of this game was the Proto Man and Wily Castle stages.  If these alone had been improved, then the whole game would have been much better.  Trouble is, there were a lot of great stage gimmicks during the robot master parts, but none of these gimmicks (or anything particularly interesting) were used in the castle stages.  Actually, at one point they reused the gimmick from Dust Man's stage in MM4, but you know...how about something new? 

The bosses in the Proto Man castle were extremely uncreative.  What happened to the big mammoth baddies in the other games?  Come on...

Bah, let's get on to some positive things.  First of all, they did try very interesting gimmicks for a lot of the stages.  Gravity Man's stage could have been developed more to be more challenging, but having gravity switched up and down was a great idea.  Everyone who played this game remembers the crystal drop segment of doom.  Then there's the Wave Man bubble ride that Splash Woman copied (in a better way), and Wave Man also had a fun jet ski segment.

So that's the problem with the gameplay.  They come up with good ideas, but they just didn't bring them out enough to be the right level of challenging (besides the crystal drop, which was fine as it was).  If they had just taken these same gimmicks and used them in the Proto Castle (Wily's castle should have its own gimmicks). It was a good game just done too fast.

However, gameplay is the one downside to the game, and this by no means ruins it.  The graphics are perfect 8-bit fare, the plot is good, and the music is definitely awesome.  Seriously, I love this soundtrack.  It's my favorite soundtrack.  I won't call it the best, but it's definitely the closest to my heart.  I was thinking about all the other games, and you know what?  You can talk all the crap you want to about MM5, but its music owns, and forget you if you don't agree!

Alright, so I'll tell you what I'm talking about. MM5's music is not out to be more epic, or more party, or darker than any other Mega Man soundtrack.  It's just out there being itself: relaxed, fun, and just good to sit and listen to.  Honestly, I don't even have to play the game.  I could just listen to this stuff on its own because it's so darn good.  It's actual music, not just vgm fare.  Not to talk down about other MM soundtracks, it's just that there's video games out there with music it's just weird to listen to if you're not playing the game.  You know what I'm saying?

So anyway, the introduction starts out a little dramatic, giving the apparent betrayal of Proto Man a proper and suprising sound.  The title theme is just awesome.  It's powerful and even a little sad.  It's like Mega Man's saying "Proto Man....why? I....I'll do what I have to!" 

The password screen theme is a nice tune.  It's not annoying, and it does exactly what it needs to do by urging the player to go ahead and input the password.  I like it.  The screen select theme is also good...man...I can't believe how much I love that song.

Robot Masters!  Whoohoo!  Remember that these are in order of quality, not my personal favorite.

#8 One of the robot masters with a fun level was Gyro Man, who had his elevators of doom with death spikes on them.  I wish they had more of them in the game.  But anyway, his music is good.  It's a little too mellow and dragging in my opinion.  It's a perfectly good song, but it's not as evocative as the others.  Chillin' in the clouds...

#7 Wave Man's music is nice and relaxing.  It's about just cruising along in the water, just going on and enjoying everything.  Honestly, it's really too happy to be a robot master theme, but you know what?  I dang well like it.  It would be awesome if the sun in the background set while you're on the jet ski segment.

#6 I really like Star Man's theme.  It's perfectly reminiscent of space, stars, science fiction, and machinery.  Like Crash Man's theme in MM2, it serves as the randomly wonky piece of the game.  I can just see the little jet mets now, cruising in space.  Honestly, I think this level in particular was perfect.  Hard, but well designed.  And the music was exactly what it needed to be.

#5 Charge Man's music is great.  I seriously need to write lyrics to it.  Words come to mind as if it's a song about a guy asking a girl to run off on a train with him to go have adventures or something.  It's be so great in a movie...

#4 Now, one of the robot masters, Stone Man, is in a long line of Guts Man rip offs (Hard Man, Concrete Man, etc), but his theme is awesome.  It's intense without forgetting how to be an MM song, and it keeps you going during his level, easily the longest in the game. 

#3 This is how you know I'm trying to go by quality and not play favorites.  Crystal Man isn't coming in at first, though he's my favorite robot master with my favorite theme of all time.  His theme has an intense beginning, with a very dramatic middle, and an ending that sounds as if it's mocking Mega Man.  Seriously, this is good stuff.  Weird and dramatic, just how I like.  I can still remember hearing this as a kid and trying my hardest to remember it over the years.  Praise God for youtube.

#2 Gravity Man's theme is just what you expect a robot with a unique power to have.  It's fun and just a little wonky, with a nice mechanical layer to it.  It represents the true spirit of what an MM song should be.  It makes me want to play a video game.

#1 Was number 1 really going to be any different?  It's all about Napalm Man.  Seriously.  This guy's music is just so dang Vietnam, just like the game designers intended.  Honestly, this makes me think of shopping in California (you also await lyrics, Napalm Man theme...), but it's such a happy and yet equally fierce tone that well, it's a true masterpiece.  So it wins.

This soundtrack also has a great boss battle theme.  It's one of the favorites, and it's really good.  It's a fun theme with perfect melodic layering.  The "get a weapon" bit is simple, but to me it sounds like a really great background for a rap. 

One of the things I will never forgive MM5 for is for having two castles (Proto Man's and Wily's) but each castle of four levels only gets one theme.  That's stupid.  Four levels of the same song?  The other games castles had two songs each.  What gives?  Luckly, the theme for Proto Man's castle is a great song and is probably the most well liked track from this entire game. 

Wily's castle theme is also really good, I think.  It's dramatic, enjoyable, and dang does it bring back those memories.  It's great, sending you off to Wily guns blazing.  If only you didn't have to hear it four darn levels in a row.

The game over theme wasn't really that much of a theme in this game.  Ah well, didn't need to be.

Y'know how I said MM4's Wily battle music was the best in series?  I take it back, this is.  Honestly, this is is such a powerful theme here.  I enjoy it so darn much.  The ending theme is so much dang fun too.  It's the perfect ending for a fun game where you find out your brother really didn't kidnap your dad after all and just might be a good guy.  I remember downloading the MM5 soundtrack once (before I freaked out about legality) and I would just listen to this song over and over because it's just so darn happy.

That's the thing about this whole set of music.  It's happy, good times.  It's not trying to go anywhere outside of itself, and I love the honesty.  This is definitely my favorite soundtrack ever, and if it were the soundtrack to a movie, it would be one of those movies where the protagonists are a group of friends roadtripping through California.  Some bad guy is doing something evil and the only people that can stop him are the not particularly smart but still well meaning roadtrippers.  It's like a group of friends just doing what they can to stop an evil they never really believed could exist.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoURky2zdoc

Fun stuffs! 

Mega Man Music -- MM4

Hey y'all.  Time for another Mega Man review.  This one is about Mega Man Four, one of my absolute favorites from when I was a kid.  Now, I've played (and seen played) all Mega Mans 1-5, but the ones I remember best are 1, 4, and 5.  Don't worry, I've seen playthroughs to remind myself of all of them, and I've been listening a lot to the music for the purposes of this blog.

In any case, Mega Man four makes me darn happy.  Some people say that MM4 is the point where the Mega Man series started going wrong, but I disagree (it's really MM5, but we'll get there next time).  Mega Man 4 is actually the most standardized Mega Man, in the sense that it has the most aspects of what a MM game is supposed to be.  Now, while MM 1-3 were great, they were still trying to figure out a lot of things.  MM 5-6 were very rushed, 7-8 were trying to figure out how to make MM work on the Super Nintendo, and 9 and 10 were essentially trying to connect to the past but still had to adjust for how modern gaming works.

This leaves Four as the one that had the best of everything, in a sense.  Rush and Proto Man were there, the Rush jet was fixed to not break the game, the graphics were beautiful by NES standards, the music rocked, the robot masters were creative, the plot included a new "baddie", and it was firmly established in the MM series that no matter what else happens, the guy behind it is always Wily. 

Rush marine was in this game also, and since Dive Man has a water stage, it's not completely useless (it's by far not necessary, but still).  They also throw in a couple of extra items like the wire and the balloon, which are really fun to play with them without being too useful that they make the game ridiculously easy.  Honestly, taking the time to play with them is so much fun.  Then you also get the charged shot, which enables you to do more damage with you regular weapon.  Fun stuff!

The plot is great.  It starts off with a magnificent intro, probably the best intro ever for the Mega Man games ever, and only 7, 9 and 10 really compare.  Oh wait, never mind, 8 had a wonderful anime intro.  You can say 4's is better if you prefer simple intros, I guess.  So the story goes that Dr. Cossack is acting up now, because Wily "died" in MM3.  In the end, Wily was really holding Cossack's daughter Kalinka hostage, and thanks to Proto Man, Mega Man discovers this and goes after the man responsible.  And then he rides back home on a train.  Awesome.

So let's move on to the music.  Some people didn't like the music in this game as much as the others, and I think that's mostly due to the darkness of the track.  Personally, I don't mind at all that the soundtrack is more melodramatic than usual, and it's probably for the best after the party-fest that MM3 was.  It's good to go in a new direction.  Really, there's no drop in quality from the other games, it's just different.  You can either like this or something else better. 

I talk a lot about making the music in the games into the soundtrack of a movie, and I feel 4's is definitely the most story-esque.  All of the music fits thematically, as if it really is trying to tell the story of a really great dark action movie with a melodramatic ending that's kinda depressing but mostly good.

Anyway, let's get to the actual music.  For starters, the intro is magnificent.  It starts off slow, just like the melodramatic 4 is.  Then it goes into sad to describe the robot wars, then into a pulsing beat where Mega Man is ready to charge in and kick butt.  Honestly, it's just like a dang movie.  This song might as well be the opening monologue of a movie.

The title music isn't any less hardcore.  It's all like "come on, time to fight and show those losers you mean business!".  Crap, the stage select screen is one of my favorites of all time.  It really pumps you up.  I might rank the stage select screens at some point, but for now we'll just go on.

Robot masters!

#8 Drill Man has a really fun theme.  It's methodical, fun without losing that dark edge.   Honestly, the bassline of this song is a song unto itself.  The only reason it doesn't rank higher is because of its competition.

#7 I really have to wonder who composed all of the MM4 songs.  Whoever did has a really great head for making 8 bit music sound like the environment and master the song has to portray.  Toad Man's theme sounds like water and rain and sewer.  Very good stuff.

#6 Dive Man isn't one of my favorite robot masters, but I really like his theme.  It's a lot of fun, very party without losing that sense of ocean.  I'm pretty sure it's the happiest theme in the game.  Yeah, even the fun themes in this one have an edge.  Relax with Dive Man!

#5 As a kid, I didn't like Skull Man's music.  To me it just sounded overplayed without really being that interesting.  I think my brother must have lost a lot when he was playing this level or something, because I was pretty sick of it.  However, as an adult I have suddenly stopped hating it.  I'm not really sure why, but now I acknowledge that it is good fun stuff.  Not the best, but a fun theme that's a good fit in Mega Man Classic.

#4 Bright Man's theme is one of the most popular themes in this game, and it really does deserve it.  The song feels so mechanical, both chirpy and dark at the same time.  Quintessential Mega Man.  In my mind it doesn't stand out as well as other MM songs, but it's the kind of theme you'll randomly think of later in the day and not be annoyed that you did.  Good stuff.

#3 Ring Man!  I love everything about him and his stage.  Except those darn green ring baddies.  They suck.  Anyway, this theme just catches in your head and makes you want to party.  It's spacey, weird, and a whole lot of fun.  It makes you not so full of hate when those darn green ring baddies take forever to kill.

#2 Dust Man's theme....so dang epic!  The intro alone is enough to propell this song in the rankings.  It's dramatic, forceful, and cold.  It sounds just like a robotic war should sound, as if the entire world is tearing apart.  Honestly, this song deserves some famous composer treatment.  This is what doom sounds like. 

#1 I'm going to be honest.  The themes I remember from a kid most from this game were Ring Man's and Dust Man's, but in coming back and listening to these, I have to say that Pharoah Man's does own pretty good.  It's the most fun track of the robot masters, both epic and adventurous.  That's why it wins.

The boss battle theme is friggin' epic!! Gah!!  It really gives that sense of running out of time.  Great stuff!  The weapon gain theme is good too.  It has a great beat.  Very simple game over theme in this game.  The password theme is sort of annoying.  They could have stood to make it longer and not so repetitive.

Ah, they have a nice little intro to Dr. Cossack's castle.  The theme for levels 1 and 2 rocks.  It's mysterious and even danceable.  You can't help but bob your head to it.  The real gem of the Cossack music is levels 3 and 4 though.  This is a seriously epic track, one comparable to the Wily theme for 1 and 2 in MM2.  It's a fan favorite and deserves to be.  Very intense and dramatic, really bringing you in for the action.

Now, after the good times that Cossack's castle was, we find out that Wily was behind it all.  Big surprise.  Hm, the Wily stage 1 and 2 theme here is good.  Kind of reminds me of Toad Man's stage.  It's pretty good.  Not as epic as Cossack.  Nor is 3 and 4's theme, but it's still great Mega Man fare, and it brings up the drama to remind you that you're about to go fight the big boss of the game. 

You really have to give them credit for the Wily boss theme.  It's marvelous, and probably the best Wily boss theme there is (unless I'm forgetting something).  After a really cute "win the game" theme, the depressing ending theme plays, showing Mega Man going home by riding atop a train.  Crap, I need to write lyrics to this theme.....it's so sad and dramatic, remorseful and reminiscent.  It compares to Proto Man's theme in the level of depressing.  It sort of makes me wonder if this was supposed to be the last Mega Man Classic game, at least on the original Nintendo.  The remix of MM2's title theme after this bittersweet ending theme really seems to say it.  Or maybe I'm reading too much into it.

Link to the music! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kj6jW3C0HXk

So in any case, MM4 has a great soundtrack.  I personally feel that it's better than MM2's, but a lot of people like MM2's better.  Whichever.  It's not like either of them are crap.  In any case, this is a great example of what Mega Man is supposed to be, but rough points are ahead in the franchise.  Honestly, in certain ways the Classic franchise doesn't make a full recovery until MM9.  But I'll let you be the judge of that.  See you next time!

Mega Man Music -- MM3

Hey y'all.  I'm going to continue to review Mega Man music, and I'm a little frustrated right now because I just wrote out a whole bunch, but one errant keystroke deleted it all.  ARRRGH.

Anyways, Mega Man 3, in my opinion, has the best music out of all of them.  One was wonky, two was story-esque, but three was always about the party.  If these songs weren't in 8 bit tones, they would be the stuff of parties.  Dance the night away!  It's very fun and exciting music, remaining party until the Wily levels.  But we'll get to that later.

First, a comment on the game itself.  Capcom was starting to establish more of the things that would make the Mega Man universe what it would later become, though they hadn't quite got it right.  They did good things, like create the slide (which remained a staple of the games until 9), and turned items 1, 2, and 3 into a dog called Rush. Rush converted into different forms for Mega Man to use, like the coil for extra high jumps, the jet for flying, and the Rush marine for water.

However, there's a bit of a problem for gameplay.  The Rush marine is essentially useless, particularly because there are no water robot masters in this game and little opportunity for water at all.  The Rush jet is the opposite; you can make it go in any direction you want, thus rendering many obstacles worthless.  To make it worse, you only consume its energy when you're riding on the actual jet, so if you constantly jump it lasts longer.

Also, one of the things they do is make you replay harder versions of four of the robot master levels.  I don't mind this, but during each of these levels you have to fight two masters from MM2 again.  Well, technically it's robots with their powers, but still.  Come on, it's the third game in the series.  Ain't it a bit early to be nostalgic?

The plot also makes a change, and it's handled a bit badly.  First of all, there's this thing where Dr. Wily pretends to be a good guy again and ends up building these robot masters with Dr. Light, as well as a peacekeeping robot named Gamma.  However, none of this is in the actual game, and I still remain pretty darn  confused about what the plot was actually supposed to be, mostly because I didn't own the manual as a kid and the wikia page is confusing.  If you play the game without reading anything, for all you know they're all just more Wily robot masters.  That's just lazy...I mean, if this is the plot, it really should have some affect on how you play the game.

Also, this game introduces Proto Man, which is handled much better.  He shows up mysteriously in several levels, and only at the end of the game do we actually find out that he is Mega Man's older brother.  Since this actually appears in the game, it's very relevant and even us kids who bought games from used bookstores could know about it.

But hey, this game rocks out on music, gameplay and plot aside (admittedly, I really dig the graphic design for this one, better than 1 or 2).  You can argue for the other games and say they have better soundtracks, and because none of them suck it's just fine for you to do so.  I'm still gonna say three is the best, though.

Alright, let's go!

Okay, so this starts off with a very classic and fun title screen song, probably the best of the game series.  Holy crap is it fun and catchy.  It really gets you ready to play an exciting game.  The stage select screen is likewise fun, and after the intro, it kicks the mood into "alright, pick your destination!"

How I hate picking the order for these robot master songs!!!  They're all so awesome in this game.  Well, as usual, I'm picking them in order of quality, not my personal favorite.

Needle Man's theme is good and fun, but it's not quite as quirky as the others.  Still, it's fun stuff, and I can't decide if it makes me want to dance or relax.  It feels so dreamy and reminiscent and yet also happy....I just wish I could write decent lyrics for this.

Shadow Man.  To me, Shadow Man's theme suffers a bit in rankings because it becomes a bit cheesy at one point.  That just doesn't seem very ninja-ish to me.  But whatever.  It does have a great intro.  This is such a fun, great theme that you can't help but dance to it.  Party in ninja lava land!!!

Gemini Man...how I love your candy rave-colored glowy cave.  Seriously, my favorite level design other than Crystal Man's (in a later game), and it's a close competition.  As for the music, well heck, it's mysterious, wonky, and fun as mess.  I really, really want Gemini Man's to be higher on this list, but dang are the others good!

Spark Man's theme makes me happy.  It's like electric adventure party with just the right amount of intensity and excellent layering.  It matches the glowing of his level with perfection.  For some reason it makes me think of electric cowboys.

Not enough people really give Hard Man's theme the credit it deserves.  This is fun stuff.  It's strange, mechanical good times.  I guess his name throws a lot of people off, and as a robot master he really doesn't stand out in design or weapon.  But this is about music, not the robot master. 

Top Man may be the second lamest robot master in all of the Mega Man series, but his theme is rockin'.  The fast theme really fits in with his spinning nature.  High intensity.  I really wish someone on Dancing with the Stars or some other show on TV would use this song for something.

Magnet Man's music makes me think of innocent romance, like a sweet guy asking a girl to dance with him.  It's not as adventurous as a platformer might normally require, but what the crap ever.  This is just fun, soothing music that you can listen to over and over again as you play the game.

Snake Man's theme is Mega Man.  Period.  It is the thematic representation of what Mega Man classic should be: fun, a little weird, and enjoyable for a long time.  Honestly...how can it get better than this?  Some people might feel this song is comparitively overplayed, but at the end of the day it is for a reason.  SNAKE MAN!!!!

The game over theme for this one is finally one that Capcom got right.  It's sad without being depressing.  In fact, it's actually a little funny.  It gets the job done. 

As for the boss battle theme, it's really good.  I'm not sure how it compares to other boss fights, because Capcom is always good at them, but it rocks.  Good times.  It goes without saying that MM3 has the best get a weapon music.  This is an actual song versus a little clip of noise that most of the "get a weapon" bits are.

Okay, now, up until this point the music is very party and fun, and only with Spark Man's theme do things get a little dangerous sounding.  Wily's castle themes start to change that.  The music for levels 1 and 2 start to get a little more suspicious, anticipating danger ahead.  It's not a terribly noticable theme, but it's fun to listen to. 

Levels 3 and 4 really kick it up a notch.  As I listen to this soundtrack, I think of a story where the lead is supposed to save the day, but in the end he goes to a techno party instead (the robot master themes).  This song openly mocks my made up protagonist, and here he fully realizes that by partying to all the techno he has let a bad guy out of his grip and the world will soon be doomed.  It's a weird plot idea in my head....don't ask.  I even made up some silly words to it.

Fighting bad guys
Is what I should have done
Fighting bad guys
Is what I didn't do
Techno party
(It was such a waste)
It will not save the world

Yeah....those need some work.  In any case, levels 5 and 6 further raise the level of absolute dread.  The song isn't as good as the previous, but the horror feel of it is just right.  The Wily boss fight song is great and hyper too, showing off in its coolness.

After a peppy winning bit, you get to hear the most depressing Mega Man song ever (unless you think MM4's ending is more so).  This is Proto Man's theme, and this is the part of the game where you find out that Proto Man is really Mega Man's lost brother (and in my demented little story it's the part where the lead was successful at stopping the baddie, but must reflect on all the things he lost because he didn't stop the baddie fast enough). 

The real gem of this song is that it's not just sad, but also sort of contented.  It's tragic without being emo.  It's very touching, and it's the balance of this sadness with the happier robot master themes that really makes this soundtrack (imo) the best. 

But of course they can't end the game with such a sad song.  They finish the credits with a song that's similar to Proto Man's theme in that it's both sad and content.  With PM, his theme relies more on being sad, while this one is more so content and happy, as if Mega Man is looking forward to a future despite all he's been through.

Listen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aUS_gytmTh0

So yeah, that's MM3, one of the best MM Classic games ever.  It wins the best music award.

Nitpickery -- The King's Speech

Hey y'all.  I just saw The King's Speech last night, and people have been giving it good reviews so far.  It doesn't really deserve them.  I mean, it doesn't suck, it's just not something I can really get into.

Okay, so this movie is about King George the sixth, who had a devastating speech impediment but had to have it fixed because his father was getting old and his elder brother had questionable practices in love, making him less prepared for the throne.  In comes speech therapist Lionel Logue, the "unorthodox" guy that will help Bertie (that's George's nickname) talk right again.  I bet you ten bucks that you could write the ending of this movie.

Now, I'm not one of those people that's like "oh, this is a history movie so it's automatically boring". I love history.  Thing is, this just feels so much like a simplified, over-emo dramatization of history. It'd be one thing if they went more "Braveheart" with it, i.e. the non-reality that Hollywood adds makes it interesting, but here it's not really dramatic at all.  It illustrates a very bland Hollywood stereotype, i.e. the non-reality Hollywood adds makes it boring. 

King's Speech felt a lot like the movie Invincible (and I'm sure other movies of the type), because it is a story of personal achievement.  The thing that made Invincible a bad movie of this kind was that it was bland.  Nobody really felt that interesting or did anything besides emphasize the themes they were trying to get across.

Right off I'll go ahead and say that The King's Speech is better than Invincible.  The people are more lively and say more interesting things.  And they aren't mumbling all the time either.  Yet, all the same, they're not doing anything out of place.  They're doing exactly what you expect their stereotype to do.  You've got the uneasy, emo, and mistrusting protagonist, the "unorthodox" guy that helps him, the supportive wife, the wussy Christian dude, and so on.  It has all the liberal stereotypes that you would expect in a Hollywood production these days.  Ho-hum.

Let me not talk all trash about this movie.  The guy that played George was very skilled, and early on he tells a story to his girls that's absolutely funny and ends up being sort of symbolic of the end of the film.

Who I really enjoyed was Helena Bonham Carter.  I was sort of dreading seeing this movie, but my boyfriend wanted to see it.  Seeing Carter's name on the poster made me much happier, because I trust her as an actress.  Y'know, there are those actors who you see that make you want to not watch a movie, and there are those that make you want to.  Helena Bonham Carter did not disappoint.  She was the real gem of this movie, and I enjoyed seeing her go on as a duchess and then Queen of England.  In many ways her character was also a stereotype, but she was basically the only actor that made me suspend my disbelief and enjoy the story as it was told (yes, that applies to historical movies too).

Also, I really like how this movie explains the elder brother David's affairs and how this moral failure really messed him up for the throne.  Maybe they didn't do this intentionally, but it still shows.  I sort of wish they had made it less obvious that Bertie was going to take the throne at the beginning of the movie (like how 127 Hours did with avoiding the ending we all know happened to the protagonist), but otherwise David was handled a lot better than I expected.

Another problem with the movie is that they really should have shown more of his love interest.  I think her name was Wallace Simpson. They have people talking about how bad she is, but we really only get to see her for like, fifteen seconds of direct screentime.  They skillfully portray her as controlling of David, but other than that it's mostly people bashing her.

This flaw is a telling one of the movie: tell and not show.  In many places they just talk instead of really showing how bad or otherwise intense things are.  Some of those places are: Simpson's history, the resignation of the prime minister (what caused him to do that?  Was he really that bad a PM?), the rise of Hitler, what happened to George as a child, George's researching of Logue's background, and so on.  You don't have to go on and on about these in a movie, but this movie is far too contained for being about a king of a politically important country.

You need to show a little more to give the audience a sense that this king has huge influence over the world as it is, or that he's at least concerned about it.  It's fine to show someone overcoming a problem, but come on, this is the friggin' King o' England.  The world is bigger than Downing Street. How about showing the internationality of this character?  If we were dealing with a private person it would be one thing, but George's influence makes it completely another.  Come on, show more newsreels, show David reacting to Hitler and feeling inadequate, show the Brits trying to keep their lives together, show something that makes this movie dang unique!  I'll give them credit for comparing George's and Hitler's oratory skills, but the movie needed far more of that type of thing.

Maybe this next problem is a personal one, but I felt it was dreary seeing how self-absorbed George was portrayed.  In my head I compared this movie to The Stone of Destiny, a movie that came out some years ago about Scottish college students who retook the Stone of Scone from the British as a symbol of Scotland's independence from the British throne.  While this movie wasn't big in the box office, it was very comparable to The King's Speech in certain ways.  It was a historical drama that stayed fairly close to reality.

The Stone of Destiny succeeds where The King's Speech fails in creating an inspiring movie.  First of all, it's just plain awesome to steal back an unrightfully held historic item, far more interesting than just a guy dealing with a problem (though the second would have been more interesting if they had remembered to show that this was indeed the King of England who had to deal with Hitler).  Secondly in TSD, you get to see brash college kids going into Westminister Abbey, and you're on the edge of your seat with every obstacle and setback these kids go through trying not to get caught.  It's even funny.  As opposed to TKS, where you get to see a guy curse and do tongue twisters.  Huh.

Thirdly, TSD was respectful of honor, and believed in idealism and being bold for your country.  TKS was rude to Christians where it could get away with it, disrespectful to the office of the king, and just generally attacking decency.

And lastly, The King's Speech was very self-absorbed.  I know at the end that you're supposed to feel all "warm and gooey" because George was overcoming his impediment, but they forgot to include the sense of what was going on at the time.  England was getting into a dang war, one that would see a lot of death and risk the liberty of their country, but at the end the movie doesn't even attempt to show any of this.  This wasn't just a dramatic moment for George, but a dramatic moment for the entire country.  Unfortunately, the themes of this movie were self-focused, like George was doing it for himself and not for love of country or family, or even hate of Hitler.  That would be interesting.  No man is an island, least of all the king, and certainly not at a time like that.

Now, The Stone of Destiny was not a perfect movie, but I enjoy it because the kids aren't in it for themselves.  I mean sure, they do have personal reasons for going, but in the end they are doing it for Scotland.  They love their country and their people, and in this movie you feel the Scots rising up in joy as they find out that the Stone of Scone has indeed disappeared.  You feel the passion of the Scots.  When you can't feel a thing for British people in TKS, you know the movie has serious disconnect.  It doesn't even take a lot of time to show the feeling of a nation.  The Stone of Destiny showed only a few scenes portraying how the Scots felt before and after the Stone was taken, but you could totally feel that along with them.  The heart was there, not just selfishiness.

And that's the real sad part here.  A movie about stealing a stone is far more interesting and uplifting than a story about the king that had to learn to inspire his country and stay strong in the face of Hitler's regime.   Sure, we all know that the latter is more important, but when the movie fails to portray this then that movie has lost the spirit of the true story.  Come on, people.

Okay, so let's sum this up.

The King's Speech
Score: Four out of Ten
Best Actor: Helena Bonham Carter
Summary: At times funny, but far too contained and self-focused.
People who will enjoy this:
- Casual moviegoers
- People who like history
- People inspired by personal struggle
- People judgemental of Conservatives

Mega Man Music -- MM2

Hey y'all.  Time for more Mega Man!

I really love all Mega Man music.  A lot of people say the second game had the best, and I personally disagree.  I'm not sure why.  Maybe I find the songs of the other games more cohesive to each other or something.  But whether or not MM2 is my first favorite is really beside the point; it's a good, solid soundtrack with a lot of fun stuff to listen to.  Definitely one of the better ones.

As far as the game itself goes, it's very good.  MM2 establishes permanently what the Mega Man games are stylewise, with its influences stretching out beyond the Classic series.  It extends the number of robot masters to eight, cleans up the graphics, eliminates the point system, and creates some classic enemies like tellies, sniper joes, and pipies.  MM1 was wonky in pretty much every way, and MM2 straightens things up.  It actually gives an intro and intro music to Mega Man, of which MM1 had none.

As far as the music goes, MM2 ends the notorious short looping and allows the music to extend further and take the time to really develop into the fun stuff it is.  The music becomes the storytelling of the game, which is highly necessary when your game has basically no on-screen plot.  Video games aren't obligated to be storytellers, but dang if the music doesn't try.

The intro explains the happenings for the first Mega Man game, and in fact actually uses the music from the ending of the first game for this intro.  It segways perfectly into the title screen music of this game, going from a mellow, tragic intro into an action packed title with Mega Man standing on a skyscraper with his hair blowing in the wind.  It's perfect.  Hey wait, why isn't this soundtrack my favorite again?

Anyways, this game definitely has my favorite password music ever.  It's short, repetitive, and squeaky, but it's awesome and I love it.  Yay!  It just makes me so happy.  The boss select screen music is good.  Sounds like a great intro into the danger that one will surely face on an adventure.

Okay, so here's the list of robot master themes from what I think are the worst to best written for this game.  Note that I didn't say my favorite, but most skilled.  Also note that "worst" only means compared to the other robot master themes.  All the themes in this game are awesome.  Each of them evokes the proper emotion and imagery related to their robot master.

#8  Notedly, I really enjoy Heat Man's music, and it evokes in my mind images of lava and gunfire, perfect for a fire-element baddie.  Trouble is, they went though a lot of work making the other songs on this soundtrack, and this one seems like its looping is still too short.  Still, it's funny when you play the level, mess up, die, and be mocked by the music as you try again.  Well, you have to deal with his disappearing block segment from hell with some sense of humor, or you'll get pissed off.  Go play Air Man first. 

#7 Crash Man's theme song is kind of weird.  It's a lot more goofy than the others, and this makes it really stick out.  It's completely enjoyable, though.  It gets a bit too goofy for me in parts, which is why it isn't higher in this list, but hey, it's still Mega Man music.  Party on.

#6 Air Man's theme is so much fun. A lot of the time I get "I Can't Defeat Air Man" stuck in my head and forget about this song, but this song is great game fare.  It's interesting enough to enjoy, and not too weird to distract or annoy as you play the level.

#5 As a kid, I never really cared too much for Wood Man's theme.  It's good video game stuff, but it didn't evoke too much for me.  As an adult I enjoy it, and I see why a lot of people like it the best.  It's dramatic adventure stuff.  I guess the problem is it just doesn't seem unique to me.  It just doesn't say "Wood Man".  All the same, it's a good song, and it reminds me of being a fighter pilot for some reason.

#4 Metal Man has some great music.  He's known for a lot of his stage hazards, like those drills that pop up through the floor and ceiling, and also his metal blade weapon.  Honestly, Metal Man is all around awesome.  The song gives a great, adventurous tone, and really deserves its higher spot on the list.

#3 Bubble Man's theme reminds me of Air Man's in the sense that it's more relaxing than otherwise.  It has a sense of calm without losing that nice drive and oceanic wonder.  It's such a deep song with lots of yummy layering.  Good stuff, good stuff.

#2 Flash Man's theme is a lot of people's favorite.  It's just a fun theme with mysterious tones. It wasn't my favorite, but y'know it's solid and a lot of fun.  The level just wouldn't be the same without it.  You get the sense of foreboding as you wander the glowy maze of mischief.

#1 That leaves Quick Man for the number one slot.  Yeah, this theme is weird.  It feels odd that the little "vrrreen" from the instant death lasers isn't playing along with this song.  It's the best because not only is it good, but it's also unique. 

Now, the Mega Man universe has always had good fight themes, and this is no exception.  However, MM2's just isn't as good as the ones from other games.  It's solid, but doesn't carry the strength of others.  Also, the game over music is too darn cheerful.  I mean heck, Mega Man just died here.  No need to laugh at him.

Next up is one of the greatest Mega Man songs ever.  Any true classic gamer recognises this as one of the best pieces of gamer music of all time.  That would be Wily levels one and two.  The theme played there is magnificent and has spawned many a set of person making up lyrics to it.  My favorite is the ridiculously fun Okkusenman, a Japanese song about missing the innocent past and how the years slipped away.  Seriously, you gotta hear it.

Okkusenman: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzSR_TFMirs

Notedly, some people don't like this theme, but it has been kinda overplayed in gamer circles.  That, however, doesn't take away from its genuine quality.

Wily levels three and four cut out all the fun.  It's like, "okay guys, you spent the last two levels partying, so now it's time to focus and kill the mad scientist".  It's very focused on this, and you won't be thinking about the theme that much at all.  Let's move on.

The Wily boss fight doesn't have a separate theme, but there's a short victory theme.  It's okay.  The real gem of the ending plays along with a melodramatic ending scene where Mega Man is walking home through petals, leaves, snow, and rain.  Once the sun comes up, Mega Man reaches his home in the country, leaving his helmet behind on the hill.  The song evokes drama as if Mega Man regrets war or is just tired and ready for peace.  This begins the trend of super melodramatic Mega Man endings, one that doesn't end even until the Zero series (or maybe ZX; I've never seen playthroughs of those).  It's a sad, touching song, but I miss having happy endings.

Fortunately, MM2 doesn't leave me hanging.  They pep it up for the credits with a very much underrated song.  It's fun, party, and leads right back into the title theme as it closes off.  Yay!  Rock on!

Oh hey, you can listen to the soundtrack here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVn96gyZ5cM

So yeah, MM2 has a great soundtrack.  Though I played this game (ie watched my brother play it) as a kid, it's the one out of the first five that I remember the least.  Looking back at it on youtube evokes fond memories, and I do start to remember certain things, like the spike blocks in Air Man's stage, the dragon in Wily 1, and the giant chicken thingies in Wood Man's.  It represents what Mega Man is supposed to be as a game, and it's fun as mess.  Some of the kinks as far as gameplay go aren't really worked out, but whatever.  Glitches in small doses only improve a game.