LogFAQs > #954205121

45. Metal Man (Mega Man 2)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WJXkL9dPk4

Every time I have to eliminate a theme from Mega Man 2 I feel like I'm committing some sort of religious blasphemy but then I remember that the series just has a lot of really good music. Anyway, I don't have a lot to say about Metal Man, so I want to say a word about Takashi Tateishi. Tateishi worked at Capcom from 1988 to 1990 and composed just a few game soundtracks in his time there - between that and his subsequent ten or so years at Konami I only know of maybe five or six games that he was the principal composer of. The only ones I know beyond a shadow of a doubt are entirely him are LED Storm and Willow for the arcade and Cocoron for the NES. (Some people seem to think he composed Batman Returns for the NES, but I strongly suspect it was his coworker Shigemasa Matsuo who did most if not all of the composition. Anyway, that's beside the point.) Oh, and of course, a little game you might have heard of known as Mega Man 2. Anyway, as I said, he left Capcom after 1990 (side note: he wanted to do Mega Man 3 but didn't get the job). As it turns out, he didn't compose a lot of music after this, mostly doing production work at Konami, and some time in the early 00's he left the gaming industry altogether. While he does still do audio-related work, he left music composition altogether, and for a long time didn't even own a keyboard (this is why he has no tracks in MM10). It wasn't until just a few years ago that he even learned that Mega Man 2's music was super popular after hearing about it from fellow MM composer Ippo Yamada, and going to see a cover band playing the music that he had written well over 20 years ago. He had no idea! He was actually pretty excited about it and it sparked an interest in composing again, and I think he wrote some tunes for Mighty No 9 or something, I didn't really look into it. Anyway, the absolute nerve of this guy. He wrote a soundtrack that fostered a love for music in my heart as a young child and he had no fucking idea what he'd even done. Oh, sure, just casually change the landscape of video game music forever and just go about your life like nothing happened. Fucking hell.

44. Dr. Wily 2 (Mega Man V)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTHXNFZmVvg

Again, I apologize for all of the suddenly dead Mega Man V links that I don't think I can fix at this point, the Youtube account hosting them got nuked. And I apologize for the shitty rip in this video, it was literally the best one I could find. Anyway, all of the GB Mega Man games, EVEN II, have banger Wily stage themes and this one is no exception - it is, in fact, my favorite one! It's a fittingly epic finale for the Rockman World series, and I love how slow and dramatically this one builds up - it has a different, more ominous feel from other Wily stage themes and it really earns that 'drop' at :45 into the exciting climax.

43. Fire Man (Mega Man 1)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2S4mi1jH9ds

Accuse me of grading on a curve for Mega Man 1 here if you want, after I just praised Mega Man 5 for the beautiful shaping of its lead instruments; here you have Fire Man's theme, where the lead square wave couldn't be more flat. It just turns on and plays notes - it has no shape to it at all. Regardless, I don't care, this theme is dope. I love that menacing bassline in the first half and I think it's interesting how withholding the second square wave for the first part makes the second half of the theme sound more full. I just like how this one sounds aggressive, yet classy. Like all of the tracks in MM1, for something written in 1987 I feel like it was ahead of its time.

42. Snake Man (Mega Man 3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqGLXispP08

To be totally honest with you, whenever I hear the first 15 seconds of this track, for a second I go 'wait, why do I like this track that much? It's just ok' then that B section kicks in and it's just pure MM3 goodness. I dunno if any other track in MM3 sounds more like MM3 than this track. That whole second half of the track is so smooth you could literally spread it on toast. Everything in MM3 is just mixed so impeccably well and this track is no exception, it's just really pleasing on the ears. A classic that I'm sure everyone will think I ranked 30 spots too low, like Pharaoh Man.

41. Dr. Wily 1 (Mega Man 3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfOE4rJnYYc

Improbably, this is only the second highest ranked Dr. Wily stage that makes me think of turtles.