Preliminary Battle XII (Special)

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

Music from Brandish 3 (PC-98) - Legend of the Lone Wolves
M.C. Kids (NES) - Track 5
Chinese Paladin (Adlib) - Peach Blossom Dream
Pop'n Music GB (GB) - Texas Gunman

All top notch, but Peach Blossom is slightly less than the rest.

I remember Music from Brandish 3 (PC-98) - Legend of the Lone Wolves from one of our previous contests, either SoTW or the BSC. The tune's got a decent melancholy vibe going for its first third, but the meat comes later when the tempo's kicked up a bit. It's not bad, but the synth is noticibly good--almost SNES-level--and I might have to penalize it for that.

I think I heard M.C. Kids (NES) - Track 5 in a previous incarnation as well, or at least one of its bretheren. Despite coming straight from a glorified sillicon commercial, the tune's got a bouncy moxie that I enjoy.

Chinese Paladin (Adlib) - Peach Blossom Dream is one of those mystery tracks Elorin put up, isn't it? Definitely slower-paced on the whole than the previous competitors, and the melody has a welcome bit of complexity about it. Still, it does seem a little drab. And what the devil is an Adlib?

Pop'n Music GB (GB) - Texas Gunman Ennio Morricone in 8 bits. I know I'm a usually little hard on western tracks that mindlessly ape the maestro's spaghetti western scores, but something about the whole shebang in glorious GB stereo makes me smile. The melody and rhythm are impressive for the system, definitely.

My selection? Pop'n Morricomusic.

EDIT: Looks like I screwed up and only selected one. Chinese Paladin and MC Kids were my runners-up, if anyone feels a need to correct things.

It briefly wierded me out to see a Pop'n Music title on the list, but that one is actually pretty good. MC Kids was another surprise; I keep forgetting just how often crappy games inexplicably get good composers attached to them.

Legend of the Lone Wolves and Cherry Blossom Dream are both pretty boring, but I went with the latter just to be contrary.

Originally Posted by orion_mk3

EDIT: Looks like I screwed up and only selected one. Chinese Paladin and MC Kids were my runners-up, if anyone feels a need to correct things.

I've added votes for Chinese Paladin and Track 5. They won't show as being from you, but they're there.

Peach Blossom Dream is just dreamy! <3 Looks like it's heading my list of best discoveries from the contest.

Actually, all the tracks here are excellent. I'll go with the 3 that had the least exposure, and Legend of the Lone Wolves had previously been in both BSC and SotW. It still is awesome though.

Question, are we supposed to vote for three tracks, no less?

If you really can't decide on the three you like best, then I suppose there's no harm in voting for less.

Gahh...I get to vote for all but one, and still it doesn't feel fair. Wolves is still on my playlist from the BSC, Stage 5 is great funk, Blossom is very lovely (though the ending is awfully abrupt), and Gunman is a wild (western) bit of poppy sugar-pow.
I guess I'll go along with the thinking that while Wolves remains awesome, it's had its shot.

Music from Brandish 3 (PC-98) - Legend of the Lone Wolves
Well yeah, it's a known track for a reason. A well-though out track with great development and good melody. Even so, I don't seem to be too fascinated with the track. It simply doesn't stay in my mind too long.

M.C. Kids (NES) - Track 5
It's one of those wacky, cheeky tracks that has got a lot of interesting side sounds. The streaming sounds are rather reminiscent of Plok for example.

Chinese Paladin (Adlib) - Peach Blossom Dream
A quite deep track here. What I like most are the squirming, wavy sound effects. Nice details.

Pop'n Music GB (GB) - Texas Gunman
The beginning sounds like Bach's famous fugue, hehe. The rest is solid, featuring interesting sound effects and rhythm.

I guess I dump Legend of the Lone Wolves.

Legend of the Lone Wolves started boring, but turned up to be quite good.
Texas Gunman is a cool track.

It's between Peach Blossom Dream and Track 5 now. I choose to destroy Track 5.

Went with the bottom 3. Lone Wolves has already been well-represented and is the least chiptune-y of the bunch.

I really dig the M.C. Kids track. Texas Gunman is neat; surprising to have a song from the Pop'n series here. I didn't even know there was a Pop'n game for Game Boy.

Um, great...3 non-votes for Lone Wolves because "it's had it's shot" (and didn't make it out of the first round of the BSC). That's, uh, some good logic there folks. And non-chiptuney? Good sound quality? I really think I'm missing something here.

Meh.

Actually, I didn't not vote for it because it's had its shot. I shouldn't have said that. I guess it was just an easy explanation since two other people had said that already or something. Silly me.

Originally Posted by Drakken

Actually, I didn't not vote for it because it's had its shot. I shouldn't have said that. I guess it was just an easy explanation since two other people had said that already or something. Silly me.

Wasn't targeted at you alone, but those were some of the oddest reasons I've seen for not voting for something overall. I'd have sworn people were talking about a Chrono track or a real heavy-hitter that got top 16 in the BSC. I knew it was going to be close between the four, was about to vote, read the nonsense and decided not to because I basically predicted the outcome (correctly)...It was just too "awesome" to vote for.

I mean...potentially penalized for "good" sound quality? Non-chiptuney? I REALLY hope that isn't what this contest boils down to. Forget that it's a silly reason to begin with...Genesis maybe (it reminds me of Phantasy Star IV's music), but LotLW sounds nothing like SNES music. The drum samples and several sections (see 2:33) are too raw to have come from the SNES. It sounds more advanced than an average chiptune because Falcom was still using the PC-98 well into 1995/1996 for their games and I assume they figured out ways of getting more out of it than in the late 80's/early 90's.

I'll probably participate once things get started, but reading those comments and seeing one of my favorite tracks lose as a combined result annoyed the fuck out of me.

Well, my reasoning wasn't that "it's has its shot" as much as "I prefer listening to stuff I've haven't heard much of before". I was first introduced to Legend of the Lone Wolves through SotW (Week 25, 2nd place, not sure if you were also the nominator) and later at BSC, so I was pretty acquainted with it.