Preliminary Battle V

Listen to the following tracks, and select the one you like best.

Test Drive 2: The Duel (C64) - Title
Gauntlet 4 (Gen) - Back of Beyond

Umm . . . yeah, two pretty lackluster pieces here, but title is much less crap.

Heh, I remember this Test Drive piece from way back when, although I was playing it on PC instead of C64. Not one of my favorites, but the competition is worse. It's cool to see some old Sakimoto/Iwata in here, but this piece absolutely falls flat to me.

I don't care much for these two tracks. I agree with the majority of the populace that "Title" is better than the ever-so-mediocre "Back of Beyond".

Test Drive 2: The Duel (C64) - Title reminds me of one of the old Castlevania tunes that came up in the BSC. It's rather short, but has a nice sense of rhythm and decent melodic material.

Gauntlet 4 (Gen) - Back of Beyond is the first Genesis tune I've heard in the contest, and it pretty much confirms my fears that those songs have an unfair technological edge. Luckily, it's not the best militaristic tune I've ever heard, so I can vote against it without any overt accusations of bias. But frankly, this is why I didn't want Genesis pieces in the contest.

Title it is.

Probably the wrong track to pick from Gauntlet 4, but somehow I didn't think people would go for one of the main level themes, since those take a while to get anywhere. Oh well.

Title has a strong rhythmic aspect and enough melody to make it complete, although it's not over-the-top. It's an interesting SID tune and a nice discovery!

Back of Beyond is not without any merits, yet it's stays on the same level throughout the whole length, so this makes it a bit bland. It must work well in-game to create an appropriate atmosphere, but on a stand-alone basis, I don't enjoy it much.

The 'pew-pew-pew, pew pew' beat in Title is a bit annoying, but the melody is solid. Beyond isn't necessarily bad, but there's certainly less going on than in Title.

The dark and forboding atmosphere of Back of Beyond is quite convincing and real, but for me not so listenable and memorable (once done), unless it's something really profound or special.

Title sounds more like something I expect from this contest. A catchy track with an allright melody.

Title uses some nice sounds there, which I've also heard in Good beepish tracks, so I am biased. Well that is about it.

Back of Beyond track gives instantly a good impression. It reminds me of some Rudra no Hihou tracks. Not much evolving here though. But it's good stuff as it is, I'll vote for it.

I really like both songs quite a bit, however Title's development is a bit weak. Back of Beyond is a bold nomination, and that, plus it being quite good, gives it my point.

EDIT: Oh come on it's not even remotely bad.

Test Drive 2 Title has some awesome stuff going for it. Back of Beyond is trying to sound epic, but it's not really working well. Title gets the vote.