LogFAQs > #952843656

85. King (Mega Man & Bass)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkpn9eXEiiI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WHhX52XcHk

Mega Man & too much Bass, or Mega Man & not enough Bass? That is the question to answer when deciding my preference between the two versions of this extremely odd theme. They really turned the 'drama' dial up to 11 for this one, especially in the GBA version of the track with its soaring, mournfully operatic lead. I think the rhythmic part of the opening is really interesting and unusual and the toms in the C section are really nice. My main problem with this theme, aside from the fact that it's A LITTLE MUCH, is the fact that it doesn't feel like there's a flawlessly definitive version of the track. As usual, I prefer the GBA version - the SNES version doesn't feel like it has a proper lead aside from that grating guitar patch in the B section, the bassline drowning out the lead synth in the other bits. The GBA has that nice, song-like squarewave and those punchy snares that I love, but the lower end of the track feels really hollow and kinda gives me this sense that something is missing throughout. A cool but flawed tune. Oh wait, I forgot! There absolutely is a definitive version of this track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biz0O8liadM

Ahhh, there we go. Flawless. There's that low end I wanted! The bassline and percussion couldn't be written any better than this. And that lead in the B section! Perfect. (Weirdly enough the melody in the A and C sections actually DOES sound pretty nice, insanely compressed quality aside)

84. Dr. Wily 2 (Mega Man 3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC0EWRZE3Dw

Hey, I'm surprised as you guys that this little piece of iconic Mega Man 3 music is this low, it feels kinda wrong to be eliminating any MM3 tracks this early but here we are. This one's a fittingly melancholy middle-Wily-stage theme and while it's got all the hallmarks of good mixing (what of that there can be on the NES) and sound design that I expect from MM3 I just don't think this track is dynamic as a lot of the other pieces in Mega Man 3 - it kind of marches on without a lot of highs and lows and really exciting little bits and pieces that I normally associate with the game. It's good, and it makes me really nostalgic for the endgame portion of MM3, but I think 3 has better to offer.

(A note: I realize that this is actually for stages 3+4, but I ended up labeling Dr. Wily stages numerically instead of by stage so this is just kinda what I went with)

83. Dr. Wily 1 (Mega Man 10)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ltg5Kys3OUE

A completely worthy Wily 1 theme for the would-be final game of the classic Mega Man franchise, but not really much more than that for me. I think this theme is elevated particularly by the stage concept, with the stage opening in that melancholy rain section, followed by a miniboss that suddenly opens up into this energetic theme, a transition that's really well designed and makes the level super exciting. The theme itself, it's pretty good! I think much like King, though, it's kind of weirdly lacking in low end - I really want that bassline to be taken down an octave lower and really fill the space, because the track sounds kind of hollow without it.

82. Dr. Wily 1 (Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIYketbtjPM

I adore this little track to bits! Aside from MM2 and MM3, this is strangely one of the list's most nostalgic themes for me - the theme of me being stuck in Wily's Castle not understanding how Carry works because I keep trying to make it work like Item-1 but it's not Item-1. For some reason, every rip of this theme has the bassline just almost completely disappear after the first loop, and I'm not sure if it just does that in the game or not? Maybe it does, could be an error where the bass receives an instruction to shorten itself but they just forgot to put an instruction to stop that effect so it just gets stuck like that. I'm not gonna hold it against this theme though. For a tune that's so simple, the melody is just goddamn iconic and, dare I say, it slaps. It's hard to cut it but we're in the heavyweights now. That's the end of Dr. Wily's Revenge on this list, and I'm not gonna give a final ranking of its two unique stage themes, but I do have to say that it has a pretty nice little soundtrack.

81. Ring Man (Mega Man 4)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_cjwXYBdOo

I think this track is a weird, hilarious, hot mess and like a lot of tracks in Mega Man 4 is kind of fascinates me. The sheer density of weird choices in this one make it really worth examining. The whole beginning is like some weird freeform jazz nightmare, the rhythmic choices of the melody in the A section after the intro are just so strange and offputting that they almost sound like a mistake at first blush, but I think it's intentional, and it's... well, it's interesting! It's groovy and weird and there's a lot of bold choices made both good and bad, and fortunately the relatively normal B section resolves the weird tension of the A section's bizarre cadences. Believe it or not, this entire song is in 4/4 time, despite not sounding like it. There's really nothing like this in the rest of the franchise which is something I feel like I can say about half of MM4's soundtrack.