LogFAQs > #934600412

9th: Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - Chrome Gadget Zone
Composer: Tatsuyuki Maeda, Sachio Ogawa, Masanori Hikichi
Score: 87/100 (8.2), Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (2/17)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCx1n6BcRls

What a crime that a song as good as this was designated for a short two-player minigame stage. If this was played on a stage like Star Light Zone or even Stardust Speedway, hoooooo boy. What I love the most about Chrome Gadget is how deceptively simple it is, you got this very catchy but easily listenable flowing constant melody throughout the whole thing, but as you listen closer you can peel away at the different channels and look at how they interact in beautiful ways. I talked a little bit about Maeda (again, probably Maeda at least) layering in the Lave Reef writeups but here is one example where it just really shines. 0:41 is a short section that I like to look at when realizing Chrome Gadget does this kinda stuff in very, very subtle ways; the main focus goes rapidly from melody -> tertiary panned melody -> countermelody panned the other way -> it all combined again. The melody and countermelody swap back and forth for pretty much the entire song in a way that makes it hard to really follow which is which at certain points in time besides the fact that it's marked by which FM patch is being used for it. Beautiful but also a bop; the best of both worlds!