LogFAQs > #953431074

Oh no I feel like this next batch of eliminations will make people mad

55. Pirate Man (Mega Man & Bass)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p4m1xPx3kc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6g03ZRIsB-I

GBA version wins again and it's not even close for me, this time - the mysterious Chihiro Arisaka's conversion (assuming that is the right person, thanks to Mycro for pointing this one out) just breathes new life into this one for me. The R&F version of the track has a really jamming percussion line but the instruments themselves are just too quiet to really bring that jam to the forefront - but mmm, those GBA snares! So much punch! I think the aggressiveness of the percussion serves as a really fun counterpoint to the relaxed vibe of the rest of the instruments, where I think the GBA does pretty well for itself - again, not particularly high quality, but I think the string lead works well, and the synth for that sweeping arpeggio is beautiful. I feel like the bassline could have been a little bit more interesting, but it's a minor complaint since the percussion in this one is already doing a lot of work.

54. Dr. Wily 2 (Mega Man 9)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGh8CT4283g

Another day, another extremely popular Wily stage getting cut down early enough to confuse and upset people. I mean, look, we're deep into "I really love this theme" territory, and We're The Robots' love is well-deserved, it's a good theme! I appreciate any stage theme that's nice and long, and this one has well over a minute of content so that alone scores some points. Lots of different melodic ideas here that all flow into each other really well, lots of cool little instrumental choices that you don't hear out of NES MM stuff a lot (not to mention triplets! Those are a pain in the ass to do!), all adds up to an iconic middle Wily stage. I really like that groovy outro section - really caps the loop off nicely for the track to one to get one last word in after 1:10 has already passed. Also, We're The Robots is a hilarious name.

53. Fuse Man (Mega Man 11)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1PKs-Qgwt0

FINALLY. Ugh, do you know how begrudging my ranking of this theme was, knowing that 11 wouldn't be officially eliminated until now? I know that's a weird thing to say about a theme I really like, but my disappointment in MM11 is so great that there was part of me that wanted to revenge-hate this theme. It's a little hard not to, given that it has pretty much the exact same style as every other MM11 track that I dislike, so by all rights I should dislike it, but... it's good, right? It's really good. Okay, so I can't say that I like the B section that much - the dramatic slowing of the pacing feels unearned after only 23 seconds - and this track kind of has one or two really good ideas that it sort of runs into the ground. But it executes them really well and creates a really exciting theme and that's all I'm hear for. It's easy to see why they used this music for the trailers - the opening hook has that instantly memorable sound to it that the rest of the game is so desperately lacking, and it's immediately grabbing. My favorite thing about this track though is that the percussion here is *really* well done. All the drum fills in this are really exciting, and that 'thunderclap' sound at :12 is a great touch. I love that reversed sound that opens the track, too. MM11 has a lot of great sound design, I just wish it were more frequently used in the pursuit of more interesting music.

Final Mega Man 11 rankings:

1. Fuse Man (53)
2. Dr. Light's Trial (110)
3. Dr. Wily (125)
4. Bounce Man (133)
5. Tundra Man (145)
6. Acid Man (152)
7. Impact Man (185)
8. Blast Man (186)
9. Torch Man (187)
10. Block Man (188)

Thoughts: I think Marika Suzuki is a composer who has a lot of promise - Mega Man 11's production quality is a strong suit and I think she could make good stuff in the future. If MM11 is your jam I don't wanna take that away from you! But it really isn't my style, and it was a disappointing evolution of the series' music for me. Too many generic, airy synths and too many corny writing choices. Fuse Man is a one-hit wonder - the rest ranges from ok to just not something I'm excited to hear. Mega Man is a franchise where the games' music keeps me coming back, and the most damning thing I can say about MM11's soundtrack is that it doesn't make me want to play the game again.

Regrets?: Not really. Could put Tundra Man a little higher since I do kind of like that track. I was really harsh about the bottom 4 tracks here, but I am sitting here and honestly still cannot remember them at all and haven't thought about them once, and that's just damning in a series full of earworms.

52. Nitro Man (Mega Man 10)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wsfjSBeKJRE

As I mentioned in Pump Man's writeup, that theme and this theme were the only two I got wrong when trying to play composer guessing game - I thought that Pump Man's theme was more indicative of Manami Matsumae's slower and thematically-centric style while Nitro Man had Yuko Takehara's brisk pacing and MM6's telltale harmonic stylings. They tricked me! But it does kind of make sense, in a way, that Matsumae would write what is de facto the opening hit single on the album that is MM10, as Mega Man music royalty. There's something that's kind of exciting about this track as an evolution of Matsumae's style - it's been a hot couple of decades between MM1 and this game and there's really nothing in MM1 that sounds anything like this. It's crisp, high-octane, and never boring for even a second. The bassline doesn't do a lot (although it has a couple of good moments) and the second square wave doesn't do much except harmonize with the first and yet I still find that there's a lot to listen to here. Every harmonization choice is pretty interesting and serves as a pretty good style guide for the series as a whole. The whole outro section from :45 on is pure class. Great track, hurts to keep it out of the top 50.

51. Tornado Man (Mega Man 9)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyEnAZZWL-4

Okay, I swear I didn't do this on purpose, but I just eliminated the trailer music for 9, 10, and 11 all in a row. I guess it makes sense, given that all three tracks have a very similar sort of style - they're fast and exciting and they're kind of designed to make you want to play the game, which is a hallmark of a good Mega Man theme! Tornado Man is one that I'm of two minds about, because I think all of the content here is really good and totally rocks but god, that lead goes into some seriously high dog-whistle registers and it kind of wears out my love for this track after a while. But if the purpose of a Mega Man theme is to generate excitement, then yeah, this does that in spades! I think the hype value of this theme is pretty self-explanatory.