This is something I've been working on for a couple weeks, and now that we've finally hit #500 today, I think it's time to get this started, even though I'm not exactly finished the ranking. I think I can keep ahead of the curve, at least for now.
If you aren't familiar, (and you should be! Shame on you!) VG MotD is the music of the day YouTube channel hosted by a number of Board 8'ers. Each one takes a day of the week to upload a song. You can find their channel here:
First, I've never done a ranking before. This is a new experience for me, and considering how lenient I tend to be, my first runthrough put TONS of songs in the 5.0-6.5 range, and far more above that than below. That's not necessarily a bad thing, except that it makes it impossible to rank. I'm currently listening a second time from the bottom up to revise my opinions and also to be a bit more stringent. It makes it so I won't have a repeat of my initial distribution of rankings, which is...
Way too much in the middle. So between 4.0 and 7.0 I'm counting by 0.2 now instead of 0.5, to help sort things out. And a lot of stuff is getting a lower rating since I did get more critical as time went on. (Being jaded by judging 500 songs will do that.)
Second, I'm a bit of an unknown. I ran the Best OST Contest, but besides that nobody really knows my tastes and interests all that well. I can promise you that there are quite a few places where my taste does not align with the board overall. I did my best to consider both how "good" a song was and how much I "liked" it -- in other words, both an objective and subjective opinion, but there are times where my subjectivity will cause a beloved song to plummet.
Third, there are points on the list where a quarter point out of 10 can cause a song to be almost 100 spots higher or lower. I also wasn't highly exacting on if every song with a 5.4 was better than every song with a 5.2. I simply don't care to spend THAT kind of time combing the list. I mean, I'm not even done going through a second time to find the times my judging was lolfail yet.
Finally, for your convenience, as I add to the posted list, I will append this spreadsheet for quick reference. I'm just going to copy-paste the highly abbreviated rendition of what I have in my Excel file, but it might be worth something to ya.
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“So we’ve cornered Andy and Kyle in the Swarts stairwell and then this guy comes out of NO WHERE like ****ing Batman or something.” ; ExTha is the man
I'm reasonably confident nothing I have yet to listen to a second time will get below a 4.0, but that range doesn't even span 50 songs. I'm trying to buy myself another day in case I locate something that's noticeably more awful than I placed it initially. I'd hate to retroactively go "this song gets a 3.5, but um, we kind of already got to #326, so I guess this will be #325." So I really need to get a move on, and the extra day will make a big difference if I can just sit down for a couple hours and grind out some songs.
Oh, and also, for the OMGHYPE! Everyone gets to sweat it out wondering what will be #500. Will it be from Bad Music week like one would expect? Will it be something az is known for hating, like Earthbound? Surely az wouldn't put something good and near and dear to Board 8 at the bottom, would he? I mean, he wouldn't!....would he?
Comment #1: Two of the songs from Bad Music week weren't even bad. After The Game Of Love is awesome.
Well, you still could! I don't suppose you started by any chance, did you?
And I agree with you about your comment. At least one of the other bad music songs did ok as well, although I'll leave it a mystery which one. (Hint: It's not Rave Rush.)
Oh! Speaking of which, that reminds me of the other point I wanted to make in the initial post, and forgot about...
I'm not very consistent.
I mean, I tried to be. I even made a rubric for what each ranking would represent so I could try to stick to that, but I look at everything that has a rating of, say, 6.0, and I go "wow, some of these songs are much better than others....I think." There was one I spotted today in the bottom 50 that I was a little surprised by, because I *thought* I hadn't disliked that song, but oh well.
When you listen to enough songs, your mind warps what's a 5/10 vs a 6/10 or a 4/10 after several hours of listening, or between days.
So I'm trying really hard to be consistent, but history has shown the only thing I am consistent in is my inconsistency. (Or was it that I was inconsistent in my consistency, since I'm usually rather predictable, but occasionally do something that surprises everyone?)
I've relistened to my bottom 250 at this point, so I should be good for a few days, barring a really bad song I gave a 7 to or something.
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You laugh at my Celtic Guardian, until I use my Scapegoat, and then United We Stand, Mage Power, and 3 Axe Of Despairs, with Gaia Power out. 11900/7800
yeah a problem I had with ranking all the VGMC songs is when I listened to a song again before doing its writeup there were times when I was like "ugh this shoulda been lower" or "oops this needs to be higher time to move it up a bit or a lot"
And a bunch of times where songs that were pretty close in quality where it was hard for me to rank 'em
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http://img.imgcake.com/superangelo128/Higurashipicjpgaz.jpg Good job SuperNiceDog
azuarc did a VGMotD ranking topic on Day 500 on just a couple of weeks while I've being killing my butt off for over 30 weeks on a perfect ranking...
I SERIOUSLY need to take this thing A LOT LESS seriously if I actually want to finish this never-ending project of mine. I mean, I'm being seriously damaged with this project the way it's going. I seriously need to cool myself down.
Seriously...
-- SuperNiceDog waggs his tail better than your regular, standard dog.
SuperAngelo128 posted... yeah a problem I had with ranking all the VGMC songs is when I listened to a song again before doing its writeup there were times when I was like "ugh this shoulda been lower" or "oops this needs to be higher time to move it up a bit or a lot"
And a bunch of times where songs that were pretty close in quality where it was hard for me to rank 'em
This pretty much sums up the problem I've been having all this time... BUT NOT ANYMORE! I think there won't actually BE such a thing a "The perfect ranking".
-- SuperNiceDog waggs his tail better than your regular, standard dog.
Advokaiser posted... azuarc is doing a VGMotD ranking topic...
azuarc did a VGMotD ranking topic on Day 500 on just a couple of weeks while I've being killing my butt off for over 30 weeks on a perfect ranking...
I SERIOUSLY need to take this thing A LOT LESS seriously if I actually want to finish this never-ending project of mine. I mean, I'm being seriously damaged with this project the way it's going. I seriously need to cool myself down.
To be fair, I've been working on it for longer than "a couple of weeks." I originally thought to do this back around day 350, but I got sidetracked with running best OST and not having the time or energy to plow through all the MotD stuff as well. When it ended, I picked it up again, and rated like 10 songs a day over breakfast. I think that ended a little over a week ago.
Anyway, I'm curious at this point how many other people out there are (or were) also planning on doing a ranking. If you prefer, you are more than welcome to weigh in on this topic as much as you like, and I will certainly watch your thread if and when it pops up. (sonten's, too.)
But yeah, mine's going to be far from perfect, personal opinions aside. I'm only going through the songs twice, and things that end up on the same rating will not be far from being in random order. (I'll see what I can do about that, but I'm not relistening to 50 songs just to put them in order when they're all about the same quality.)
Anyway, this will be the last response you get from me tonight. I'll start when I wake up tomorrow.
Rating: 1 Comment: GEEZUS GOD WHY IS THIS SIX MINUTES LONG?
498. X-Men: The Arcade Game - Nightmarish Fight Uploader: TheKnightOfNee (076)
Rating: 1 Comment: Do all X-men Arcade songs hurt my ears? They seem to.
497. San Francisco Rush: Extreme Racing - Rave Rush Uploader: Ed Bellis (246)
Rating: 2 Comment: yay for bad music week? As TERRIBLE as the samples are, the actual composition isn't all that bad. For a song in "bad music week," anyway.
496. Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball - Boss Uploader: Ed Bellis (113)
Rating: 2 Comment: Ick.
495. Super Castlevania IV - Treasure Room Uploader: TheKnightOfNee (006)
Rating: 2 Comment: Not exactly the way to kick off your channel IMO
494. Omega Boost - Ground and the Sky Uploader: TheKnightOfNee (272)
Rating: 2.5 Comment: I may have been in a grumpy mood that day, but my original comment read "Did I just find the real Bad Music week? This is terrible." Mind you, this came two days after the Next Tetris track.
493. Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory - Theme From Battery Uploader: Ed Bellis (302)
Rating: 2.5 Comment: I was wrapping pennies while listening to this. I'm not sure which was worse.
492. Crusader of Centy - Battle 3 Uploader: superangelo128 (306)
Rating: The section at the end of the loop saved this from just being a comment about how horrible that background rhythm sample is Comment: 2.5
491. Wario Land 4 - The Toxic Landfill Uploader: Pikachu (325)
Rating: 2.5 Comment: That ghost-bird thing over Wario's shoulder looks the way I did after listening to this.
490. Planescape: Torment - Smoldering Corpse Bar Uploader: Ed Bellis (155)
Rating: 2.5 Comment: It's not so much bad as just plain disinteresting
489. Banjo-Kazooie - Title Uploader: Kleenex (476)
Rating: 2.5 Comment: I'm not sure which is sillier, the background picture or just how bad this soundtrack is.
Rating: 2.5 Comment: DUN-dun-dunt! DUN-dun-dunt! Oh, make it stop.
487. Evergrace - Buying Goods at Palmira Uploader: Pikachu025 (248)
Rating: 3 Comment: I had originally given this a higher rating. I'm not sure why. It's a mess. Sadly, even at it's previous rating, it was still only the third "Bad music" week entry in order, although one other was right behind it.
Rating: 3 Comment: I'm not anti-vocals, but this singer was bad. The background is marginally salvageable, at least.
480. Shadow of the Colossus - The Sunlit Earth Uploader: Harmonica (046)
Rating: 3 Comment: It wasn't actually bad; the instrumentation was quite good. But it was over before I even noticed it, and completely uninspiring.
479. Phantasy Star Online Blue Burst Episode IV - Nostalgia in Solitude - Pt. 1 Uploader: Kaleb.G (443)
Rating: 3 Comment: I remember playing PSO. The music was so drab and uninspiring. It's good to see things have changed.
478. Banjo-Tooie - Hag 1 Uploader: superangelo128 (411)
Rating: 3.5 Comment: While the Teddy Bears' Picnic bit was a nice reference, uploading a song from Banjo-Kazooie (or the sequel) is a pretty safe bet to get poor marks.
477. Shadow Hearts - Star Shape Uploader: Pikachu025 (066)
Rating: 3.5 Comment: A melody, I'd like one.
476. Chaos Legion - feel no fear Stage ~Sky Gallery~ Uploader: Kaleb.G (401)
Rating: 3.5 Comment: Original rating was lower with some comment I don't understand now about "atmospheric noise." It's still not good, but not bottom of the barrel like I first had it.
I can totally understand those first two songs of mine that are there. I knew those were polarizing when I uploaded them and some people would outright dislike them. But what at Treasury Room, I don't know anybody who dislikes Super Castlevania IV's soundtrack. It's not like Banjo-Kazooie, which people say is great, but plenty of people find it not good.
Also I can tell from these ones at the bottom that you're not too big on electronic music.
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ONLY FIVE CAN LADDER. Sushi, kamikaze, fujiyama, nippon-ichi...
I agree with some of the choices, but there are many more on there on which I disagree, although not by much.
Glad to see Star Shape down there; Nightmarish Fight and Battle 3 - Crusader of Centy sound awesome to me in a bizarre way, but I definitely see why people may dislike them that much; REALLY glad to see a Metroid Prime song down there!; glad to see the Sunlit Earth; I don't understand the hate towards TETRIS!... (tetris...), it's just a regular, bland song, etc...
-- SuperNiceDog waggs his tail better than your regular, standard dog.
Glad to see nobody's vehemently opposed to day 1's posts (except maybe LioninaComa, whose opinion is invalid because he implies that BK has good music.) I have a feeling my opinions tomorrow will be less well-received, considering I listened quickly through the songs I had in the next batch and wondered what I had in my craw the day I rated some of them. At least a couple are no worse than the songs I'm going through now in the supposed upper half of the list, so although I doubt there's anything that people will goggle at, (I certainly didn't put Baba Yetu down there,) there are going to be some disagreements with the 475-451 range.
475. Beatmania IIDX 11th RED - Texture Uploader: TheKnightOfNee (111)
Rating: 3.5 Comment: Always good to start the day off with a Nee bashing. (Nothing personal, dude, but your songs have more than their share at the bottom.) I just don't see what's to like here.
474. Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - On the Rocks Uploader: TheKnightOfNee (118)
Rating: 3.5 Comment: Bland bland bland.
473. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - Underground Uploader: Kleenex (203)
Rating: 3.5 Comment: Trying to figure out what there is to like...nope, can't do it, sorry. Just nothing to hate.
472. Super Mario RPG - Fight against an Armed Boss Uploader: TheKnightOfNee (174)
Rating: 3.5 Comment: And back to Nee. At least it's got a catchy beat...
Rating: 3.5 Comment: I can always spot the work of Tim Follin. It's either really good, or just excessively busy and full of swing beats. Solstice theme, this is not.
466. Ar tonelico Qoga: Knell of Ar Ciel - Tale of the Game ~ #1 Uploader: Pikachu025 (213)
Rating: 3.5 Comment: Disinteresting.
465. Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - Torvus Bog Uploader: Pikachu025 (346)
Rating: 3.5 Comment: Ambient noise. Not unpleasant ambient noise, but definitely nothing more.
464. PaRappa the Rapper 2 - Big Uploader: Kaleb.G (422)
Rating: 3.5 Comment: This song might be passable if I didn't have to listen to PaRappa during it.
463. Castlevania: Lament of Innocence - House of Sacred Remains Uploader: KamikazePotato (072)
Rating: 3.5 Comment: There's nothing *wrong* with this song. It just puts me to sleep.
462. Shadow Hearts: From the New World - Dead Fingers Talk Uploader: Kleenex (224)
Rating: 3.5 Comment: This song could have benefitted from a better-sounding source. Or is that just how it sounds?
459. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask - Astral Observatory Uploader: Harmonica (074)
Rating: 4 Comment: Yawn. A slightly uplifting yawn.
458. One Man and His Droid - In-Game Music Uploader: Ed Bellis (092)
Rating: 4 Comment: I like Rob Hubbard, but this isn't his finest work. At least the first three minutes aren't. From there it sounds like a Monty knock-off, but I think it had already lost me by then. If I started at the two-minute mark, I'd probably like this a lot better.
457. Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep - Dark Impetus Uploader: Harmonica (004)
Rating: 4 Comment: I usually like fast songs, but this doesn't excite me.
456. Donkey Kong Country 2 - Donkey Kong Rescue Uploader: Ed Bellis (260)
Rating: 4 Comment: I love the music to DKC1, but I never played the sequels. Most of the music just seems overrated, and this is no exception.
455. Tales of Legendia - Short Circuit Uploader: Pikachu025
Rating: 4 Comment: Every time I hear this song, my first reaction is "what did I just listen to?" There are some sections I actively dislike, and then there's some cool, but I just can't put this above a 4.
454. SimCity 4: Rush Hour - Wheels of Progress Uploader: Ed Bellis (288)
Rating: 4 Comment: Good music for a simulation game since you don't want it to take away from the action, but not exciting on its own.
453. Astal - Into the Darkness Uploader: Harmonica (494)
Rating: 4 Comment: This video's got a bunch of dead time at the beginning. Wake me when the song starts...
Sonic Spinball's Boss Theme is great, but I can admit it's probably heavily influenced by nostalgia for me. Treasure Room as well as Ground and the Sky are too low. However in the first cluster I'd only say Star Shape is criminally low. Goddess-Gardena would probably start off my list at 500.
The second cluster has plenty of more things for me to complain about! Hell you have a nice set of three songs in a row on the table (Underground, Fight Against An Armed Boss, Forest Stage) set at least 200 spots too low. Dark Impetus is also too low.
How about my first "too high" song? That definitely goes to Short Circuit, which is at least 40 spots too high!