LogFAQs > #953166273

70. Star Man (Mega Man 5)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCJss_gW2Qw

Alas! The last untouched game falls - I really wanted to put every MM5 in the top 50 but I couldn't quite justify it with the competition. Even my least favorite track in this game is still a gem, but there are other tracks in this series that do the odd, playful space vibe even better. I've always wondered what it is about the various themes that are meant to evoke the feeling of 'space' that they all have these bouncy rhythms and weird sharp notes that are meant to imply a sort of 'alien' quality - I've never been sure what the origin of that is. Anyway, it's fun and compositionally sound. I like the C section. I don't have a ton to say about it, it's good.

69. Pharaoh Man (Mega Man Soccer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2uY_PQdNQo

Oh shit guys, looks like we've got a real badass on our hands! Much like Elec Man, this whole thing reads like some kind of absurd parody of American rock (which is weird considering that Pharaoh Man is presumably Egyptian in origin) and it's both hilarious and kind of awesome. That guitar riff is trying its damndest to be as funky as possible - I can't hear it without imagining Pharaoh Man wearing cool sunglasses and walking with a pimp cane or some shit. I love that this song goes from this to an uptempo swing beat and it works somehow, and then it finishes off with a showdown at high noon for some reason with a real spaghetti western vibe that kind of comes out of nowhere. Mega Man Soccer never ceases to amaze.

68. Dynamo Man (Mega Man & Bass)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GBxTUyfWO0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMgZgCjVqBY

I like both versions of this theme a lot - the SNES instruments work pretty well here and I think the bass sounds slightly nicer on it, but I still kinda prefer the GBA version if just for the drums alone - that punchy snare shows up again and just really drives the rhythm of this song. Really fun little tune that kind of sounds like it's taking its cues from a spy movie theme or something. One thing that's really important to me in a Mega Man theme is that the loop - the moment that the song returns back to the beginning - really 'lands' and keeps the momentum of the theme going as it comes back to the start, and this one's got a good one - that transition at :48 - :51 just really sticks the landing imo. (Yeah that's not actually where the song loops but it doesn't matter.) This song actually continues until 2:23 for some reason, making it the new longest theme on this list.

This does have a Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future version, of course:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19kQXJdbwng

This one plays on Dangan Man's stage, who is just a giant bullet with arms and legs. Anyway, it's pretty bad, but it's tolerable just by virtue of the source material being good - they can't even fuck up that cool loop transition that badly. I would commend them on doing something different with the rhythm but I don't think they even did that on purpose.

67. Dr. Wily 2 (Mega Man: The Wily Wars)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYWhsgNxBzw

Oh my god, why do I like this DUMBASS song so much? It's been stuck in my head for like the last two weeks and it WON'T LEAVE. Honestly, I respect the goddamn balls this theme has to be irrepressibly cheerful in a part of the game normally reserved for the edgy and badass themes - this isn't just in a major key, it sounds like the goddamn credits theme to Sonic or something and it kind of OWNS? I get sort of legitimately excited to hear it and I don't know why. It's absolutely bizarre that this song, Vampire Killer, and Tunnel Rhino all somehow share a composer. Anyway, RIP Wily Wars, your soundtrack isn't that good but it does have a few kind of awesome ideas here and there that are hampered by the Genesis's weird FM synth - FM synth is powerful in the right hands but it takes a lot of work to get it to sound good and it doesn't particularly, here, although I know there's a lot of people who have a certain nostalgia for it. I will say this for Wily Wars - its original content is a lot better than the butchering it does of MM1-3's themes.

Final Wily Wars ranking:

1. Dr. Wily 2
2. Mega Water S
3. Dr. Wily 4
4. Dr. Wily 3
5. Hyper Storm H
6. Buster Rod G
7. Dr. Wily 1

66. Slash Man (Mega Man 7)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7F6oBVSPULA

An unusually good application of MM7's patchset, the sound quality in this one is actually really damn good and it's kind of startingly apparent, at least to me, how much better this sounds than a lot of tracks in MM7. That lead 'flute' synth sounds really nice! Drums are lowkey pretty good in this one too. I think pretty much every decision made here in the melody is really good - love that call-and-response outro section. Good track that makes me totally forget MM7's overall awkwardness for a second.