[SotW] Song of the Week - WEEK 124 Voting/WEEK 125 Nominating

Oh man, a track I worked on! And what's more I love that soundtrack, and I never would've expected it to get any recognition. I'm talking, of course, about Harry Potter - "Owl Chase" (which apparently is actually called To Catch an Owl). I didn't work on the composition of the song, I merely converted it to DS and GBA, but when working on this game, I was really impressed by the tracks. It was one of those jobs I was expecting to be tedious and just turned out awesome. If you have a chance, check out the rest of the soundtrack, it's extremely whimsical.

Then there's my own nomination, Scotland from the NES game Duck Tales 2, which I think is just marvelous in its simplicity. Great melody and I always love NES tracks with a "walking" bassline, and this one does the trick nicely. It's certainly no "The Moon" or anything, but then again, nothing is. I think this is a little gem, even if it might not stand up to this killer predecessor.

OmakeBGM00 is the third track I'll give a point to. It's really outstanding, sort of a classic arcade shooter vibe but at the same time the composition is somehow quite fetching, without any overly wanky solos or anything that tries to steal the show, but just a solid piece of work. I really enjoyed this.

Tough week, all these tracks are great.

3 points - Duck Tales 2 (Game Rip) - Scotland Theme
2 points - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - To Catch an Owl
1 point - Dragon's Fury (Game Rip) - OMAKEBGM00 (Thunder Force II: Knights of Legend)

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Metroid Prime is relatively obscure, I mean it's a huge game but I don't know anybody that specifically adores the music from them (although I do think everybody agrees that the music is awesome, when asked). I don't think it's really fair to heap them in with Metroid and Super Metroid, which are very well known, pretty much on a Final Fantasy level of fame. So anyway, I'm okay with Metroid Prime. Although I wouldn't be petrified if it didn't make it through, I don't remember if MP got a lot of exposure during BSC for example...

I should nominate something. Something cool and refreshing. Let's see how this does, I don't know if this game is considered too big though, I have a hard time putting .hack//'s popularity into perspective:

Game: .hack// MUTATION
Title: Culture City Server Carmina Gardelica (rtown2 Lambda)
Album: .hack// Game Music Perfect Collection (Disc 1)
Composers: Chikayo Fukuda, Seizo Nakata
Download link!

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by CHz

Um, Sonic CD? Is this okay with anyone?

I'm pretty sure Sonic CD is one of the classic Sonic games, arguably the best Sonic game ever... And I vividly remember the soundtrack as well. So yeah, that's a bit too well-known for my tastes.

Additional Spam:

Originally Posted by Rotorblade

Omega Five is an X-Box Live Arcade shooter that appeals to people who can appreciate how esoteric it is, that or people who just wanted the Gamerscore. Katamari Damacy was a PS2 game that exploded in popularity because the PS2 is actually a medium with a user base that actually wanted it from the get go.

This is a weird argument because it relies entirely on hindsight regarding Katamari's popularity. Nobody knew (including Namco) that Katamari Damacy would be a huge runaway success, why else would they have sold the game for half the price of a regular PS2 game? Sure it turned out to be a huge hit, but if memory serves me, it was an obscure title for a good while before it became well-known.

Comparable titles (on the PS2 or on other systems) have not escaped obscurity, musically or as a game.

Meanwhile, the 360 is a pretty big market as well, and who is to say that this game will not become notorious for its soundtrack? I'd have difficulty accepting a nomination from Touhou, which by most standards can't really be called a well-known game, but the soundtrack is so revered.

Anyway I do agree that a general rule should be formed (after all my nomination for NiGHTS 2 was shot down just a few weeks ago on similar grounds). 3 months after a game's US release sounds good to me as well.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Dhsu

I dunno, it still seems like a cult classic thing to me. I don't know ANYBODY who had a Sega CD...the only reason I even played it was the lame PC port was $5. But again I can't speak for whether the OST itself has some big following outside of SotW for some reason.

As for what Drakken said...nominating from popular series might seem like missing the point, but in every popular series there tends to be obscure off-shoots and unlocalized releases, and bringing them to light is pretty satisfying as well. I might have underestimated Sonic CD's popularity though, so I'll try to come up with an alt nom.

Well, I mean, I can totally see why you'd nominate it, it's awesome and if not everybody has heard it at this point, they really should. It's true that not many folks had a Sega CD at the time (and I really can't blame anybody for that), but judging from what I know of Sonic fans, a lot of people went and played the game on emulator later. I did actually play it on Sega CD, which might actually be sadder than playing it on an emulator.

Anyway, I'm intimately familiar with the Sonic CD OST so for me this is like nominating something from Rondo of Blood--it may not be the most played of the Castlevania series, but the game is revered by many fans as the best one, and in a series where the music is specifically admired.

Maybe I'm actually overestimating the popularity of the game and its music with "normal people" though--it's certainly awesome so it's not like I never want to hear it again... Anyway, enough yammering from me for one SotW thread.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?