Board 8 > Para ranks every classic Mega Man stage theme

Topic List	Page List: 1 ... 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
Paratroopa1 08/24/21 7:44:18 AM #301:	6. Shadow Man (Mega Man 3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usl7cw6VnLU I don't think I'll ever write something as cool as the first two seconds of this track, but if I do I will probably retire on the spot, having miraculously reached the peak of my composing career. Yeah, the whole song is really good, sure, but that funky riff that just rips out at the start, that's magic. I've seen a theory before that the first few seconds of a Mega Man theme are the most important - that first three seconds before Mega Man teleports in set the tone, and amp up the excitement for the stage you're about to play. Shadow Man's theme ranks high in this metric - that riff followed by that "cool" chromatic bassline sets the mood well for a challenging and cool stage. This is my favorite Bun Bun track and like I said before, I think more than anyone he embodies the concept of "Rock Man" better than anyone else, if indeed rock music is supposed to be his concept; this is thick with funk and blues elements and just kind of oozes that particular vibe that MM3 has. I really like the bridge at :44 - I usually call these the "Mega Man 3 bridges" because almost every theme in this game has this element of a short, complex melodic fill that leads into the outro section, and it just flows incredibly well back to that sick opening riff. All-timer of a theme, could have been top 3 if I ranked stuff differently, sucks that it doesn't make the top 5. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:957386998] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>6. Shadow Man (Mega Man 3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Usl7cw6VnLU I don't think I'll ever write something as cool as the first two seconds of this track, but if I do I will probably retire on the spot, having miraculously reached the peak of my composing career. Yeah, the whole song is really good, sure, but that funky riff that just rips out at the start, that's magic. I've seen a theory before that the first few seconds of a Mega Man theme are the most important - that first three seconds before Mega Man teleports in set the tone, and amp up the excitement for the stage you're about to play. Shadow Man's theme ranks high in this metric - that riff followed by that "cool" chromatic bassline sets the mood well for a challenging and cool stage. This is my favorite Bun Bun track and like I said before, I think more than anyone he embodies the concept of "Rock Man" better than anyone else, if indeed rock music is supposed to be his concept; this is thick with funk and blues elements and just kind of oozes that particular vibe that MM3 has. I really like the bridge at :44 - I usually call these the "Mega Man 3 bridges" because almost every theme in this game has this element of a short, complex melodic fill that leads into the outro section, and it just flows incredibly well back to that sick opening riff. All-timer of a theme, could have been top 3 if I ranked stuff differently, sucks that it doesn't make the top 5. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 08/24/21 7:53:32 AM #302:	5. Wave Man (Mega Man 5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI0_v340OPM I've mentioned how much I like Mari Yamaguchi's works, right? She kind of dominated the top 25, and lo, so too does she dominate the top 5. This is prooooobably the most obscure pick remaining but I don't think it's super controversial. An oft-forgotten robot master with a fantastic theme. Wave Man's theme is downright gorgeous; the angelically pure tones and pitch-perfect mixing of this track make it sound about as smooth as NES music can possibly get, and it remains easy on the ears through several loops, which is good because this is one of the few stages with an autoscroller so it's a really long one. Yamaguchi's hallmark style of rapidly shifting between harmonizing the lead and exploring polyphonic ideas to really fill out the 'design space' so to speak is put to amazing use here and it's definitely one of the blueprints I use frequently in my own works - even though almost all of the concepts are simple, it still manages to sound complex enough to the ear to trick me into thinking there's more going on than there really is and that's sort of a marvel to me. The decision not to use vibrato on the lead melody is interesting - it's something that almost every NES Mega Man track does to the point that there's sort of a cliche 'style' of vibrato that I attribute solely to Mega Man, but Wave Man completely foregoes this in favor of keeping the flute-like tones of the melody, which I think works. My only quibble is that it never returns to that great intro section. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:957387096] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>5. Wave Man (Mega Man 5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI0_v340OPM I've mentioned how much I like Mari Yamaguchi's works, right? She kind of dominated the top 25, and lo, so too does she dominate the top 5. This is prooooobably the most obscure pick remaining but I don't think it's super controversial. An oft-forgotten robot master with a fantastic theme. Wave Man's theme is downright gorgeous; the angelically pure tones and pitch-perfect mixing of this track make it sound about as smooth as NES music can possibly get, and it remains easy on the ears through several loops, which is good because this is one of the few stages with an autoscroller so it's a really long one. Yamaguchi's hallmark style of rapidly shifting between harmonizing the lead and exploring polyphonic ideas to really fill out the 'design space' so to speak is put to amazing use here and it's definitely one of the blueprints I use frequently in my own works - even though almost all of the concepts are simple, it still manages to sound complex enough to the ear to trick me into thinking there's more going on than there really is and that's sort of a marvel to me. The decision not to use vibrato on the lead melody is interesting - it's something that almost every NES Mega Man track does to the point that there's sort of a cliche 'style' of vibrato that I attribute solely to Mega Man, but Wave Man completely foregoes this in favor of keeping the flute-like tones of the melody, which I think works. My only quibble is that it never returns to that great intro section. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
McMoogle 08/26/21 3:45:44 AM #303:	I wish I knew more about music on a technical level to discuss this all more but I do just want to say I'm immensely loving this whole topic. Thanks for putting a lot of work and thought into all this --- I use antlers in ALL of my decorating. <cite>McMoogle posted [p:957448423] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>I wish I knew more about music on a technical level to discuss this all more but I do just want to say I'm immensely loving this whole topic. Thanks for putting a lot of work and thought into all this </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Naye745 08/26/21 8:58:01 AM #304:	i'm just happy one of my favorite 'underloved' mm tracks made it this far --- it's an underwater adventure ride <cite>Naye745 posted [p:957451998] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>i'm just happy one of my favorite 'underloved' mm tracks made it this far </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
SSBM_Guy 08/26/21 11:51:38 AM #305:	I really need to get through these write-ups when I have the time. I love Mega Man music and I love your write-ups. I think Dark Man is still in? I always really loved that song and I could never verbalize why. Glad to see it. --- Bitto "[Freud] started his scientific career by trying to explain the sexuality of a fish. And he failed." <cite>SSBM_Guy posted [p:957455880] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>I really need to get through these write-ups when I have the time. I love Mega Man music and I love your write-ups. I think Dark Man is still in? I always really loved that song and I could never verbalize why. Glad to see it. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
raidenmon 08/27/21 8:18:35 AM #306:	Oh man, your work is impressive <cite>raidenmon posted [p:957483462] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Oh man, your work is impressive </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 09/02/21 3:59:28 AM #307:	Writeup incoming, I'm just saving this first because I'm paranoid, especially after Youtube deleted the account I was using for MM2 videos lol <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:957662372] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Writeup incoming, I'm just saving this first because I'm paranoid, especially after Youtube deleted the account I was using for MM2 videos lol </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 09/02/21 4:24:14 AM #308:	4. Crash Man (Mega Man 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oO7QC32Wfs Look, this isn't a review of Crash Man's theme from Mega Man 2. It can't be; I have nothing novel to say about it. It's an undebatable bop. No, this is a review of Hyadain's seminal 2009 remix masterpiece, "Crash!! (Let's Do It)". It is a song about how Crash Man is gay and wants to have sex with Mega Man. I consider it to unironically be my favorite VGM arrangement ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cswTMX4oSEg I am sort of opinionated about video game music arrangements, but especially about Mega Man in particular. VG remixes played a major cultural role in the gaming internet of the late 90's and early 2000's, a time before Youtube, a time before readily available OSTs, a time when I still seriously used vgmusic.com to listen to terrible MIDIs of game music that I liked. The problem is, I think that historically arrangements of Mega Man music have sort of sucked? I think the biggest problem is that the songs are pretty short and don't have a lot of material to work with - most arrangements go through the theme once, with different instrumentation, and then go off into noodle mode and just solo a bit with no real aim before eventually going back to the song. It takes a strong creative vision to actually develop an arrangement that adds something new to the theme, and Hyadain is someone with that creative vision - a particularly homoerotic creative vision. The vocal stylings of Crash!! (Let's Do It) give this theme a rhythm and an edge that it didn't previously have, and the escalating energy between the first and second reptitions of the main hook give a sensation of actual progression that a lot of arrangements lack. And it just fucking slams! It helps that Crash Man has a lot of material to work with - it's MM2's longest theme and it has a sick C section to extend it past the minute length, and this arrangement makes use of what's there really well. It's good! It's very good. I think Hyadain used his work to get an actual job as a television presenter, which is amazing. Good for him. Final Mega Man 2 Rankings: 1. Crash Man (4) 2. Air Man (7) 3. Dr. Wily 1 (8) 4. Quick Man (13) 5. Flash Man (26) 6. Dr. Wily 2 (32) 7. Heat Man (33) 8. Metal Man (45) 9. Bubble Man (59) 10. Wood Man (78) Thoughts: It's Mega Man 2. It's one of the most important video game music soundtracks ever written. It brought a completely new sense of style, flair, and production values that Nintendo games simply did not have before this, but would frequently have afterwards. It's probably the reason this list exists. Of course all of its themes ranked high. Regrets?: Nah. Wood Man's just not THAT good, sorry. No regrets about ranking Dr. Wily 2 as high as I did, I will be vindicated one day. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:957662595] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>4. Crash Man (Mega Man 2) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oO7QC32Wfs Look, this isn't a review of Crash Man's theme from Mega Man 2. It can't be; I have nothing novel to say about it. It's an undebatable bop. No, this is a review of Hyadain's seminal 2009 remix masterpiece, "Crash!! (Let's Do It)". It is a song about how Crash Man is gay and wants to have sex with Mega Man. I consider it to unironically be my favorite VGM arrangement ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cswTMX4oSEg I am sort of opinionated about video game music arrangements, but especially about Mega Man in particular. VG remixes played a major cultural role in the gaming internet of the late 90's and early 2000's, a time before Youtube, a time before readily available OSTs, a time when I still seriously used vgmusic.com to listen to terrible MIDIs of game music that I liked. The problem is, I think that historically arrangements of Mega Man music have sort of sucked? I think the biggest problem is that the songs are pretty short and don't have a lot of material to work with - most arrangements go through the theme once, with different instrumentation, and then go off into noodle mode and just solo a bit with no real aim before eventually going back to the song. It takes a strong creative vision to actually develop an arrangement that adds something new to the theme, and Hyadain is someone with that creative vision - a particularly homoerotic creative vision. The vocal stylings of Crash!! (Let's Do It) give this theme a rhythm and an edge that it didn't previously have, and the escalating energy between the first and second reptitions of the main hook give a sensation of actual progression that a lot of arrangements lack. And it just fucking slams! It helps that Crash Man has a lot of material to work with - it's MM2's longest theme and it has a sick C section to extend it past the minute length, and this arrangement makes use of what's there really well. It's good! It's very good. I think Hyadain used his work to get an actual job as a television presenter, which is amazing. Good for him. Final Mega Man 2 Rankings: 1. Crash Man (4) 2. Air Man (7) 3. Dr. Wily 1 (8) 4. Quick Man (13) 5. Flash Man (26) 6. Dr. Wily 2 (32) 7. Heat Man (33) 8. Metal Man (45) 9. Bubble Man (59) 10. Wood Man (78) Thoughts: It's Mega Man 2. It's one of the most important video game music soundtracks ever written. It brought a completely new sense of style, flair, and production values that Nintendo games simply did not have before this, but would frequently have afterwards. It's probably the reason this list exists. Of course all of its themes ranked high. Regrets?: Nah. Wood Man's just not THAT good, sorry. No regrets about ranking Dr. Wily 2 as high as I did, I will be vindicated one day. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Mr Lasastryke 09/02/21 5:07:50 PM #309:	i have no major disagreements with your mega man 2 writeups, everyone thinks it's an excellent soundtrack so that's not surprising. of course, the one exception is wily 2 and i don't even hate that song. i don't think it's good either but i understand your reasons for ranking it that high. it's much better when you take the context of the game into account than when you judge it on its own merits, methinks. aside from that, the one sidenote i'll make is that i totally disagree with your "the mega man 2 password theme is the only mistake mega man 2 made" statement. sure, it's just a jingle and it's not something i go out of my way to listen to, but i think what little is there is great! i love the chord progression - it sounds like a fragment from a steely dan song or something. --- Geothermal terpsichorean ejectamenta <cite>Mr Lasastryke posted [p:957679202] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>i have no major disagreements with your mega man 2 writeups, everyone thinks it's an excellent soundtrack so that's not surprising. of course, the one exception is wily 2 and i don't even hate that song. i don't think it's good either but i understand your reasons for ranking it that high. it's much better when you take the context of the game into account than when you judge it on its own merits, methinks. aside from that, the one sidenote i'll make is that i totally disagree with your "the mega man 2 password theme is the only mistake mega man 2 made" statement. sure, it's just a jingle and it's not something i go out of my way to listen to, but i think what little is there is great! i love the chord progression - it sounds like a fragment from a steely dan song or something. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 09/08/21 7:03:28 AM #310:	3. Dark Man (Proto Man's Castle) (Mega Man 5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cuDFYZXw0c As I draw this suddenly overbearingly long project to a close, the writeups get more and more difficult to do, because the less easy it becomes for me to capture the essence of what I really like about a piece of music. The Dark Man theme from MM5 is a really good example of everything just kind of clicking into place perfectly. It's the epitome of the Wily castle theme - uptempo, exciting, lots of dynamic chord changes that build up to a dramatic climax. Obviously, I think it's the best of this style of theme, and even when MM5's soundtrack is getting weirdly overlooked I feel like this theme is cited a lot. Is there any one thing that I can really point to from this theme that makes it such a powerhouse? I don't know. Everything just kind of works and I don't have a lot of good descriptors for it. Describing music is hard! It's always been a standout favorite from my childhood into adulthood, an excellent feather in Mari Yamaguchi's cap, and a theme I'm really glad gets an extended portion of the game dedicated to it. A truly excellent theme to get mauled by tigers to. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:957841892] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>3. Dark Man (Proto Man's Castle) (Mega Man 5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cuDFYZXw0c As I draw this suddenly overbearingly long project to a close, the writeups get more and more difficult to do, because the less easy it becomes for me to capture the essence of what I really like about a piece of music. The Dark Man theme from MM5 is a really good example of everything just kind of clicking into place perfectly. It's the epitome of the Wily castle theme - uptempo, exciting, lots of dynamic chord changes that build up to a dramatic climax. Obviously, I think it's the best of this style of theme, and even when MM5's soundtrack is getting weirdly overlooked I feel like this theme is cited a lot. Is there any one thing that I can really point to from this theme that makes it such a powerhouse? I don't know. Everything just kind of works and I don't have a lot of good descriptors for it. Describing music is hard! It's always been a standout favorite from my childhood into adulthood, an excellent feather in Mari Yamaguchi's cap, and a theme I'm really glad gets an extended portion of the game dedicated to it. A truly excellent theme to get mauled by tigers to. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Lopen 09/08/21 9:20:24 AM #311:	I think the biggest praise for MM5 from me is that I haven't played it that many times yet still remember all these songs pretty vividly even them being so intricate, and it's not like I listen to Mega Man music either. Not beyond random OCRemixes sometimes which are all MM2 and MM3 anyway. Definitely has the lowest playrate to retention ratio of any of the Mega Man games. Like I see the title is for Protoman's Castle and I'm like no way I remember this one very well probably played through the entire game probably less than 5 times but no I do pretty much perfectly. --- No problem! This is a cute and pop genocide of love! <cite>Lopen posted [p:957843964] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>I think the biggest praise for MM5 from me is that I haven't played it that many times yet still remember all these songs pretty vividly even them being so intricate, and it's not like I listen to Mega Man music either. Not beyond random OCRemixes sometimes which are all MM2 and MM3 anyway. Definitely has the lowest playrate to retention ratio of any of the Mega Man games. Like I see the title is for Protoman's Castle and I'm like no way I remember this one very well probably played through the entire game probably less than 5 times but no I do pretty much perfectly. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Naye745 09/08/21 10:24:32 AM #312:	dang i was hoping this banger would make it to #1 honestly might be my all time favorite mega man track, how is it so good --- it's an underwater adventure ride <cite>Naye745 posted [p:957845418] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>dang i was hoping this banger would make it to #1 honestly might be my all time favorite mega man track, how is it so good </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
HasteDeux 09/08/21 8:42:33 PM #313:	Yay for Dark Man. If I did your ranking topic, I would probably give it the same ranking. I love the contrast between the sections, the great use of Dorian, the chill key changes in the middle, and how it's super groovy overall. And it's now time to post the obligatory Dark Man Stage Smash Ultimate remix, my #11 vgm in the whole world at the moment: https://youtu.be/vNyTd5HGbTk (It also has other themes from MM5, of course.) --- "Ah, a party! We haven't had one of those. It could be fun! So... what is a party?" "Well, you drink punch and eat CAKE! ...I think." <cite>HasteDeux posted [p:957863274] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Yay for Dark Man. If I did your ranking topic, I would probably give it the same ranking. I love the contrast between the sections, the great use of Dorian, the chill key changes in the middle, and how it's super groovy overall. And it's now time to post the obligatory Dark Man Stage Smash Ultimate remix, my #11 vgm in the whole world at the moment: https://youtu.be/vNyTd5HGbTk (It also has other themes from MM5, of course.) </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
TomNook 09/08/21 9:19:00 PM #314:	Can't relate much to the direction this list went. I think Mega Man 5 has by far the worst soundtrack of the 8-bit MM games. Not a single memorable track, and the only passable ones are Dark Man stage and Wily stage. Even the next weakest game, MM1, while a lot rougher sounding than the rest of the games, has some memorable ones that still sound decent. I'm happy to see that people can appreciate everything though! And liking anything Mega Man is always good no matter what. --- Bells, bells, bells! <cite>TomNook posted [p:957864446] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Can't relate much to the direction this list went. I think Mega Man 5 has by far the worst soundtrack of the 8-bit MM games. Not a single memorable track, and the only passable ones are Dark Man stage and Wily stage. Even the next weakest game, MM1, while a lot rougher sounding than the rest of the games, has some memorable ones that still sound decent. I'm happy to see that people can appreciate everything though! And liking anything Mega Man is always good no matter what. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Metal_DK 09/14/21 4:07:06 PM #315:	good topic --- Casual Revolution 2007 - 2016 <cite>Metal_DK posted [p:958052866] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>good topic </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Team Rocket Elite 09/22/21 11:03:55 PM #316:	Bump --- My bracket looked like random picks compared to his. Congrats to azuarc for winning the GotD 2020 Guru Contest! <cite>Team Rocket Elite posted [p:958317874] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Bump</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 09/23/21 3:50:19 AM #317:	The end is coming very soon! I haven't forgotten <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:958322824] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>The end is coming very soon! I haven't forgotten </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
McMoogle 09/28/21 12:17:29 PM #318:	Bump --- I use antlers in ALL of my decorating. <cite>McMoogle posted [p:958496520] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Bump </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
MXCM 10/04/21 10:05:40 PM #319:	Oh man... final two <cite>MXCM posted [p:958700570] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Oh man... final two </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Lopen 10/04/21 11:36:00 PM #320:	At this rate we may finish by the end of the year --- No problem! This is a cute and pop genocide of love! <cite>Lopen posted [p:958703365] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>At this rate we may finish by the end of the year </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Team Rocket Elite 10/11/21 1:31:35 AM #321:	Bump --- My bracket looked like random picks compared to his. Congrats to azuarc for winning the GotD 2020 Guru Contest! <cite>Team Rocket Elite posted [p:958915365] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Bump</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 10/11/21 2:17:18 AM #322:	Sorry to everyone who's been waiting so patiently for me to finish this! Stupid life things and health issues way earlier on made procrastination catch up to me super hard, to the point where this ranking became a weird albatross around my neck that got less and less fun to write as things went on - I got more and more stressed about it and that caused me to procrastinate more and more. Hopefully I can avoid this when I work on list projects in the future - I just really need to strike when the iron is hot. Anyway, after taking like a month off since my last update, I've got the fire back, and I'm ready to finish this thing tonight. THANK YOU so much to everyone who's still reading this stupid list! Really can't apologize enough for leaving things hanging this long. Anyway, since I'm getting this done tonight, let's get one last appropriate bonus list out of the way - BONUS RANKING: ENDING/STAFF ROLL THEMES One more important ranking to do! I decided to roll all the 'ending' and 'staff roll' themes up into one list, so some games have two themes that go here and I'll separate them. Felt like the simplest way to go since most games have a credits theme but not all of them have another theme on top of that. Most of the games from this list get to come back for one last party here. I declined to invite Power Battle or The Power Fighters to this party, though - each game has like 6-8 different ending themes and most of them are just reused from other games, and I just did not feel like sorting through all of those. My rating for them is 'boring.' There, now I've talked about them. There's a few short loops or cutscene themes that I didn't include from a few games like MM5 and MM10. Only stuff that's actually substantial. This list is kind of exciting because there's a bunch of themes on here I don't remember or haven't even listened to before, which is kind of exciting! On the other hand, this list isn't very exciting, because most of these themes aren't actually that great! 27. Mega Man 4 (Staff Roll) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRRHZ6_gGdU Man, this sucks. Appreciate the attempt to establish MM2's main theme as the main theme of the series here, but this arrangement just sounds absolutely terrible to me and that annoys me more than any of these other not-great ending themes. Just pales in comparison to the real thing. 26. Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrGe4AM5Uig Oh boy, this one really goes to some terrible places! It starts off inoffensive but incredibly boring, but wow it just completely trainwrecks at 1:36 and loops the trainwrecky part forever for some reason! The ingame ending is a fair bit longer than 1:36 long, so I have no idea why they did this. 25. Wily & Light's Rockboard: That's Paradise!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t71bLaq49k Invited to the afterparty for shits and giggles, but I do not regret not including it in the main list. Not a lot to say about this one. 24. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2tFHPRQpYk Okay this one I actually DO have a lot to say about. First of all, for the longest time I thought this was the only original theme from this game, but having just listened to it now I FINALLY realized - it's just the theme from the CD database from Mega Man & Bass! Clever use of the theme, but that does mean this game has absolutely not a single original track to its name. Well, their use of the CD database theme here is uh... I mean I don't hate it that much, it's kind of weird and atmospheric I guess. Anyway, the more important thing is that you watch the actual ending to this game: https://youtu.be/uMlKjyDNxw8?t=2811 Most games have you defeat Dr. Wily and then the credits roll, but this game, oh no, it has a grander plot vision in mind - you see, Mega Man defeats Mega Man Shadow, a future version of himself who has become super powerful and has traveled back through time in the hopes that Mega Man would, uh, kill him? And there's a cutscene at the end where Mega Man and Bass both lament his death. It's fucking hilarious! Then they ran out of music and didn't have anything for the staff roll. Great game. 23. Mega Man II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6HHjLZXJ2M One last Mega Man II song for the road! Okay, yeah, so it's NOT good, surprise. In fact, it is really bad. The horrible, dissonant screeching that is characteristic of this soundtrack is on full-throated display here, possibly the worst example of it in the entire game. But hey, at least I can remember this tune! That must count for something, so as usual I must mount one last lukewarm defense of Mega Man II. It's bad, but it's bad in a way I find endearing. God bless you Kenji Yamazaki, this soundtrack is fucking garbage that I will always remember, and I love you for creating this trash. 22. Mega Man IV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ2W-Yzrk0U All of the Game Boy soundtracks kind of dropped the ball when it came to ending themes, in my opinion. I can't remember this one literally minutes after hearing it, like I listened to it, went upstairs to get myself a drink, then came back and did this writeup and had to listen to it again because I already forgot it. Barely clears the bar of being not outright bad. 21. Mega Man V https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpiXQujkGOs Sadly dull like the rest of the GB themes, though there's a tinge of nostalgic sadness here that I think is sort of sweet considering this was the last of the GB games. Breaks into some classic MMV weirdness at around :39 which I enjoy mildly. Ends on an EXTREMELY weird resolution for some reason - it's really weird for a looping piece of video game music to return to a I position like that, like a conductor about to put down their baton just to play the whole song again. 20. Mega Man III https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l6pEjtFt3k Winner of this extremely tepid race to be the best Game Boy ending theme. Not sure what the deal is with this slow, patriotic military march theme, but out of all the GB themes it's the easiest to remember and that's why it's winning my vote here, I guess. All of the GB themes are trying way too hard to be somber (except II) and I have absolutely no idea what the deal is with that. This is not a somber video game series! Stop trying to make it happen! 19. Mega Man 11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl_OxQO9oXc Sounds exactly the same as every other Mega Man 11 song. Could be a stage theme and there'd be no way to tell it apart. It's been like three months since I've ever had to talk about a Mega Man 11 song and I'm still sick of them! 18. Mega Man 6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdJ0fjEPDuU Interestingly enough, out of every single song in the entire franchise that I have rated in this topic, this one might be the most confusing mess to know what to do with. For some reason, the entirety of this ending theme is a weird sort of montage of scenes of the robot masters showing off how boring their fight patterns are with a half-assed medley of all of the eight robot masters, and I'm not gonna rank that, because <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:958916098] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Sorry to everyone who's been waiting so patiently for me to finish this! Stupid life things and health issues way earlier on made procrastination catch up to me super hard, to the point where this ranking became a weird albatross around my neck that got less and less fun to write as things went on - I got more and more stressed about it and that caused me to procrastinate more and more. Hopefully I can avoid this when I work on list projects in the future - I just really need to strike when the iron is hot. Anyway, after taking like a month off since my last update, I've got the fire back, and I'm ready to finish this thing tonight. THANK YOU so much to everyone who's still reading this stupid list! Really can't apologize enough for leaving things hanging this long. Anyway, since I'm getting this done tonight, let's get one last appropriate bonus list out of the way - BONUS RANKING: ENDING/STAFF ROLL THEMES One more important ranking to do! I decided to roll all the 'ending' and 'staff roll' themes up into one list, so some games have two themes that go here and I'll separate them. Felt like the simplest way to go since most games have a credits theme but not all of them have another theme on top of that. Most of the games from this list get to come back for one last party here. I declined to invite Power Battle or The Power Fighters to this party, though - each game has like 6-8 different ending themes and most of them are just reused from other games, and I just did not feel like sorting through all of those. My rating for them is 'boring.' There, now I've talked about them. There's a few short loops or cutscene themes that I didn't include from a few games like MM5 and MM10. Only stuff that's actually substantial. This list is kind of exciting because there's a bunch of themes on here I don't remember or haven't even listened to before, which is kind of exciting! On the other hand, this list isn't very exciting, because most of these themes aren't actually that great! 27. Mega Man 4 (Staff Roll) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRRHZ6_gGdU Man, this sucks. Appreciate the attempt to establish MM2's main theme as the main theme of the series here, but this arrangement just sounds absolutely terrible to me and that annoys me more than any of these other not-great ending themes. Just pales in comparison to the real thing. 26. Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrGe4AM5Uig Oh boy, this one really goes to some terrible places! It starts off inoffensive but incredibly boring, but wow it just completely trainwrecks at 1:36 and loops the trainwrecky part forever for some reason! The ingame ending is a fair bit longer than 1:36 long, so I have no idea why they did this. 25. Wily & Light's Rockboard: That's Paradise!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t71bLaq49k Invited to the afterparty for shits and giggles, but I do not regret not including it in the main list. Not a lot to say about this one. 24. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2tFHPRQpYk Okay this one I actually DO have a lot to say about. First of all, for the longest time I thought this was the only original theme from this game, but having just listened to it now I FINALLY realized - it's just the theme from the CD database from Mega Man & Bass! Clever use of the theme, but that does mean this game has absolutely not a single original track to its name. Well, their use of the CD database theme here is uh... I mean I don't hate it that much, it's kind of weird and atmospheric I guess. Anyway, the more important thing is that you watch the actual ending to this game: https://youtu.be/uMlKjyDNxw8?t=2811 Most games have you defeat Dr. Wily and then the credits roll, but this game, oh no, it has a grander plot vision in mind - you see, Mega Man defeats Mega Man Shadow, a future version of himself who has become super powerful and has traveled back through time in the hopes that Mega Man would, uh, kill him? And there's a cutscene at the end where Mega Man and Bass both lament his death. It's fucking hilarious! Then they ran out of music and didn't have anything for the staff roll. Great game. 23. Mega Man II https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6HHjLZXJ2M One last Mega Man II song for the road! Okay, yeah, so it's NOT good, surprise. In fact, it is really bad. The horrible, dissonant screeching that is characteristic of this soundtrack is on full-throated display here, possibly the worst example of it in the entire game. But hey, at least I can remember this tune! That must count for something, so as usual I must mount one last lukewarm defense of Mega Man II. It's bad, but it's bad in a way I find endearing. God bless you Kenji Yamazaki, this soundtrack is fucking garbage that I will always remember, and I love you for creating this trash. 22. Mega Man IV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ2W-Yzrk0U All of the Game Boy soundtracks kind of dropped the ball when it came to ending themes, in my opinion. I can't remember this one literally minutes after hearing it, like I listened to it, went upstairs to get myself a drink, then came back and did this writeup and had to listen to it again because I already forgot it. Barely clears the bar of being not outright bad. 21. Mega Man V https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpiXQujkGOs Sadly dull like the rest of the GB themes, though there's a tinge of nostalgic sadness here that I think is sort of sweet considering this was the last of the GB games. Breaks into some classic MMV weirdness at around :39 which I enjoy mildly. Ends on an EXTREMELY weird resolution for some reason - it's really weird for a looping piece of video game music to return to a I position like that, like a conductor about to put down their baton just to play the whole song again. 20. Mega Man III https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7l6pEjtFt3k Winner of this extremely tepid race to be the best Game Boy ending theme. Not sure what the deal is with this slow, patriotic military march theme, but out of all the GB themes it's the easiest to remember and that's why it's winning my vote here, I guess. All of the GB themes are trying way too hard to be somber (except II) and I have absolutely no idea what the deal is with that. This is not a somber video game series! Stop trying to make it happen! 19. Mega Man 11 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl_OxQO9oXc Sounds exactly the same as every other Mega Man 11 song. Could be a stage theme and there'd be no way to tell it apart. It's been like three months since I've ever had to talk about a Mega Man 11 song and I'm still sick of them! 18. Mega Man 6 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdJ0fjEPDuU Interestingly enough, out of every single song in the entire franchise that I have rated in this topic, this one might be the most confusing mess to know what to do with. For some reason, the entirety of this ending theme is a weird sort of montage of scenes of the robot masters showing off how boring their fight patterns are with a half-assed medley of all of the eight robot masters, and I'm not gonna rank that, because </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 10/11/21 2:18:36 AM #323:	16. Mega Man Battle & Chase https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDPvAMgXBRk I'm not really sure why I included this on the list, but here it is! It's inoffensive and I'm amused by the choice to have a soulful choir of ooooh's in the beginning. 15. Mega Man: Powered Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pF9VAD5MKQ A less great version of the Mega Man 1 ending. I'm not really a big fan of very obviously MIDI strings, they sound very mushy and robotic, but not like, robotic in a good way like most of this series. The percussion stuff here is a nice little touch but I don't think the instrumentation did this track a ton of favors. 14. Mega Man Soccer (Ending/Staff Roll) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWlaWSFQX_Q That's right, Mega Man Soccer has an ending! It got dummied out of the game, so you need cheat codes to view it, I'm pretty sure. But what's exciting is that I've never heard this theme before! And boy, is it just, a shot of Mega Man Soccer weirdness right to the arm! It's got all of the weird hallmarks of this soundtrack that I was hoping for - garbage synths and guitars in a sort of marchy hoedown. Good ol Mega Man Soccer. 13. Mega Man 9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAQnWdu69fs Whatever it did, it managed to successfully stick in my head, because I always remember this one when I think I'm remembering 10's ending. Same deal as usual with 9 - the lead's kinda nasally and screechy in a way that I hate, but otherwise credit to a catchy eneough theme. 12. Mega Man & Bass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Rs0XJriJo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGEhlsL3w48 One last round of which is better: SFC or GBA? Yeah it's GBA obviously. Well, at least I think so. Pleasant little ending theme, but I have absolutely no idea why it gets stuck in a super depressing loop at the end. 11. Mega Man 4 (Ending) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG6DQz1FKp4 My weird story about this one - I remember back when I was playing on a translated copy of RPG Maker 2000 way back in the day, there were a few MIDIs that had been added to the database from various video games for some reason in addition to the usual RPG Maker originals, and this track was one of them - it was called like ending3.mid or something like that at the time. I actually hadn't beaten MM4 in a while and totally forgot what the ending theme sounded like, and as a result this is kinda the one Mega Man theme that I actually don't associate with Mega Man? I hear this thing and go, oh yeah, weird, it's actually from Mega Man 4. Anyway, it's memorable enough that I remember it from RPG Maker 2000 for some reason, so I guess that's something. 10. Mega Man Soccer (Robot Master credits) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_mdwhUTOEc Oh FUCK yeah, you thought you were getting just ONE previously-unheard Mega Man Soccer ending theme? Nope, there's two of them, fucker! They're both weird but I like this one a lot more - one last dose of psychotic blues rock for the road. That little bass lead-in at 0:04 makes me smile every time - it has all the misplaced confidence of a 40-year-old dad who's about to rock the fuck out. 9. Mega Man: The Wily Wars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbX8jFJVQA8 A surprise dark horse candidate! This one lulled me into thinking it was gonna be another snoozer of a credits theme but then it suddenly breaks out into what sounds a bit like a rejected Wily stage theme or something. Maybe I'm ranking this one high just because I'm a little excited for a bit of energy on this list of slow ballads, but it's pretty fun, even if the composer discovers the concept of triplets for the first time during the solo and can't stop playing with them like a new toy. 8. Mega Man 3 (Staff Roll) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSmanKQ8d0s Okay we're finally getting to the themes on this list that I don't feel like I have to justify liking. Whenever Mega Man 3 misses, it like... barely misses, like just grazing the bullseye instead of hitting it right on the mark. I think this is one of MM3's weaker tracks, but it's still really good and stands out on this list. 7. Mega Man https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbEEjiO-SEc The predecessor of Mega Man 2's iconic intro theme, I remember being really surprised by it the first time I beat Mega Man 1 (well after having played MM2 to death) and having that 'aha' moment that MM2's intro musically begins where MM1 ends. Still makes me kinda nostalgic to think about to this day. Given that I give MM2's intro theme a lot of credit, I kinda have to extend the same appreciation here. 6. Mega Man 2 (Ending) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL9Gnx42Xf0 This ending always made me cry as a kid! I mean, look, I was like, 3, but the sappy sentimentality of it still kinda hits me with Mega Man's long journey through all of the seasons, and then - sniff - the discarded helmet on the hill showing that Mega Man's work is finally done and he's gone home - bwuhhhhhhhhhh 5. Mega Man 8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5hlqyhcHj0 A surprising little redemption arc for Mega Man 8 in the eleventh hour. Really dig this theme. MM8's chill vibes finally really pay off for this type of theme, as does its low-key excellent percussion work that you can really groove to here. 4. Mega Man 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPXVodHPUpI Oh, hey, just another excellent track from MM5, no big deal. It's got all that cheesy cheerfulness that the other staff rolls have got but with some actual teeth to it. Mari Yamaguchi never leaves a theme half-finished - I don't think this one would be nearly as good as it is if not for that surprising little bridge section at 1:04. Cherry on top of a good theme. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:958916117] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote> 16. Mega Man Battle & Chase https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDPvAMgXBRk I'm not really sure why I included this on the list, but here it is! It's inoffensive and I'm amused by the choice to have a soulful choir of ooooh's in the beginning. 15. Mega Man: Powered Up https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pF9VAD5MKQ A less great version of the Mega Man 1 ending. I'm not really a big fan of very obviously MIDI strings, they sound very mushy and robotic, but not like, robotic in a good way like most of this series. The percussion stuff here is a nice little touch but I don't think the instrumentation did this track a ton of favors. 14. Mega Man Soccer (Ending/Staff Roll) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWlaWSFQX_Q That's right, Mega Man Soccer has an ending! It got dummied out of the game, so you need cheat codes to view it, I'm pretty sure. But what's exciting is that I've never heard this theme before! And boy, is it just, a shot of Mega Man Soccer weirdness right to the arm! It's got all of the weird hallmarks of this soundtrack that I was hoping for - garbage synths and guitars in a sort of marchy hoedown. Good ol Mega Man Soccer. 13. Mega Man 9 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAQnWdu69fs Whatever it did, it managed to successfully stick in my head, because I always remember this one when I think I'm remembering 10's ending. Same deal as usual with 9 - the lead's kinda nasally and screechy in a way that I hate, but otherwise credit to a catchy eneough theme. 12. Mega Man & Bass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8Rs0XJriJo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGEhlsL3w48 One last round of which is better: SFC or GBA? Yeah it's GBA obviously. Well, at least I think so. Pleasant little ending theme, but I have absolutely no idea why it gets stuck in a super depressing loop at the end. 11. Mega Man 4 (Ending) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG6DQz1FKp4 My weird story about this one - I remember back when I was playing on a translated copy of RPG Maker 2000 way back in the day, there were a few MIDIs that had been added to the database from various video games for some reason in addition to the usual RPG Maker originals, and this track was one of them - it was called like ending3.mid or something like that at the time. I actually hadn't beaten MM4 in a while and totally forgot what the ending theme sounded like, and as a result this is kinda the one Mega Man theme that I actually don't associate with Mega Man? I hear this thing and go, oh yeah, weird, it's actually from Mega Man 4. Anyway, it's memorable enough that I remember it from RPG Maker 2000 for some reason, so I guess that's something. 10. Mega Man Soccer (Robot Master credits) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_mdwhUTOEc Oh FUCK yeah, you thought you were getting just ONE previously-unheard Mega Man Soccer ending theme? Nope, there's two of them, fucker! They're both weird but I like this one a lot more - one last dose of psychotic blues rock for the road. That little bass lead-in at 0:04 makes me smile every time - it has all the misplaced confidence of a 40-year-old dad who's about to rock the fuck out. 9. Mega Man: The Wily Wars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbX8jFJVQA8 A surprise dark horse candidate! This one lulled me into thinking it was gonna be another snoozer of a credits theme but then it suddenly breaks out into what sounds a bit like a rejected Wily stage theme or something. Maybe I'm ranking this one high just because I'm a little excited for a bit of energy on this list of slow ballads, but it's pretty fun, even if the composer discovers the concept of triplets for the first time during the solo and can't stop playing with them like a new toy. 8. Mega Man 3 (Staff Roll) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSmanKQ8d0s Okay we're finally getting to the themes on this list that I don't feel like I have to justify liking. Whenever Mega Man 3 misses, it like... barely misses, like just grazing the bullseye instead of hitting it right on the mark. I think this is one of MM3's weaker tracks, but it's still really good and stands out on this list. 7. Mega Man https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbEEjiO-SEc The predecessor of Mega Man 2's iconic intro theme, I remember being really surprised by it the first time I beat Mega Man 1 (well after having played MM2 to death) and having that 'aha' moment that MM2's intro musically begins where MM1 ends. Still makes me kinda nostalgic to think about to this day. Given that I give MM2's intro theme a lot of credit, I kinda have to extend the same appreciation here. 6. Mega Man 2 (Ending) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KL9Gnx42Xf0 This ending always made me cry as a kid! I mean, look, I was like, 3, but the sappy sentimentality of it still kinda hits me with Mega Man's long journey through all of the seasons, and then - sniff - the discarded helmet on the hill showing that Mega Man's work is finally done and he's gone home - bwuhhhhhhhhhh 5. Mega Man 8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5hlqyhcHj0 A surprising little redemption arc for Mega Man 8 in the eleventh hour. Really dig this theme. MM8's chill vibes finally really pay off for this type of theme, as does its low-key excellent percussion work that you can really groove to here. 4. Mega Man 5 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPXVodHPUpI Oh, hey, just another excellent track from MM5, no big deal. It's got all that cheesy cheerfulness that the other staff rolls have got but with some actual teeth to it. Mari Yamaguchi never leaves a theme half-finished - I don't think this one would be nearly as good as it is if not for that surprising little bridge section at 1:04. Cherry on top of a good theme. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 10/11/21 2:18:41 AM #324:	3. Mega Man 7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXmkT89YLPg Finally, an ending theme is here to kick my fucking ass, thank god. It's corny as fuck, but instantly memorable - I'm kinda secretly assigning extra points here for the hilariously edgy ending where Mega Man walks away, determined and angry, from Wily's Castle in flames. Man, Mega Man 7 wanted to be SO COOL and DARK. Sorry not sorry that this theme kind of owns - unlike most of the themes on the list I'll always remember this one. 2. Mega Man 3 (Ending) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIDkiPAqhhk Hey, it's Proto Man's theme! You know the one. The one where Bun Bun wrote one of the most iconic themes in the franchise, and then whoever was programming the ending in the game only coded it to be about a minute long and just made it cut off the song unceremoniously halfway through, so that you can only hear the entire thing by glitching the game. I'll never get over how funny this is. They dummied out the second half of the most well known theme from this game! I feel like half of the themes on the list are trying to recapture this lightning in a bottle and fall flat on their face in the attempt, which is all the more reason why you should absolutely appreciate Mega Man Soccer and its commitment to not doing anything that would make sense. 1. Mega Man 2 (Staff Roll) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAmtQvMdWSw Will never be topped. Can't be. Actually, the truth is that after the ending of Mega Man 2 made me cry when I was 3, the credits roll made me cry even harder for some reason. Why? I don't know! I think for some reason the words flying through the void of space scared me for some bizarre reason, but I like to think that I was really bawling my eyes out due to the catharsis of experiencing the most awesome thing ever. I had to look for a while to find a link to the theme that plays it as it's meant to be - with the full title screen theme played first, followed by the extra breakdown and solo sections, then the reprise and conclusion. It's incredible how perfectly this works - It's like Takashi Tateishi KNEW that he had a million-dollar theme on his hands here, so much that he bookended the game with it with a dance-party remix at the end. I can't imagine Mega Man 2 ending any other way than being punctuated with the series' most iconic theme. God bless Mega Man 2, Takashi Tateishi, and god bless FISH MAN, our true lord and savior. (When I was 3 I thought this meant that there was a real fish man who worked on the game. I figured he probably made Bubble Man's level.) 1. Mega Man 2 (Staff Roll) 2. Mega Man 3 (Ending) 3. Mega Man 7 4. Mega Man 5 5. Mega Man 8 6. Mega Man 2 (Ending) 7. Mega Man 8. Mega Man 3 (Staff Roll) 9. Mega Man: The Wily Wars 10. Mega Man Soccer (Robot Master credits) 11. Mega Man 4 (Ending) 12. Mega Man & Bass 13. Mega Man 9 14. Mega Man Soccer (Ending/Staff Roll) 15. Mega Man: Powered Up 16. Mega Man Battle & Chase 17. Mega Man 10 18. Mega Man 6 19. Mega Man 11 20. Mega Man III 21. Mega Man V 22. Mega Man IV 23. Mega Man II 24. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future 25. Wily & Light's Rockboard: That's Paradise!! 26. Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge 27. Mega Man 4 (Staff Roll) <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:958916119] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote> 3. Mega Man 7 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXmkT89YLPg Finally, an ending theme is here to kick my fucking ass, thank god. It's corny as fuck, but instantly memorable - I'm kinda secretly assigning extra points here for the hilariously edgy ending where Mega Man walks away, determined and angry, from Wily's Castle in flames. Man, Mega Man 7 wanted to be SO COOL and DARK. Sorry not sorry that this theme kind of owns - unlike most of the themes on the list I'll always remember this one. 2. Mega Man 3 (Ending) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIDkiPAqhhk Hey, it's Proto Man's theme! You know the one. The one where Bun Bun wrote one of the most iconic themes in the franchise, and then whoever was programming the ending in the game only coded it to be about a minute long and just made it cut off the song unceremoniously halfway through, so that you can only hear the entire thing by glitching the game. I'll never get over how funny this is. They dummied out the second half of the most well known theme from this game! I feel like half of the themes on the list are trying to recapture this lightning in a bottle and fall flat on their face in the attempt, which is all the more reason why you should absolutely appreciate Mega Man Soccer and its commitment to not doing anything that would make sense. 1. Mega Man 2 (Staff Roll) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAmtQvMdWSw Will never be topped. Can't be. Actually, the truth is that after the ending of Mega Man 2 made me cry when I was 3, the credits roll made me cry even harder for some reason. Why? I don't know! I think for some reason the words flying through the void of space scared me for some bizarre reason, but I like to think that I was really bawling my eyes out due to the catharsis of experiencing the most awesome thing ever. I had to look for a while to find a link to the theme that plays it as it's meant to be - with the full title screen theme played first, followed by the extra breakdown and solo sections, then the reprise and conclusion. It's incredible how perfectly this works - It's like Takashi Tateishi KNEW that he had a million-dollar theme on his hands here, so much that he bookended the game with it with a dance-party remix at the end. I can't imagine Mega Man 2 ending any other way than being punctuated with the series' most iconic theme. God bless Mega Man 2, Takashi Tateishi, and god bless FISH MAN, our true lord and savior. (When I was 3 I thought this meant that there was a real fish man who worked on the game. I figured he probably made Bubble Man's level.) 1. Mega Man 2 (Staff Roll) 2. Mega Man 3 (Ending) 3. Mega Man 7 4. Mega Man 5 5. Mega Man 8 6. Mega Man 2 (Ending) 7. Mega Man 8. Mega Man 3 (Staff Roll) 9. Mega Man: The Wily Wars 10. Mega Man Soccer (Robot Master credits) 11. Mega Man 4 (Ending) 12. Mega Man & Bass 13. Mega Man 9 14. Mega Man Soccer (Ending/Staff Roll) 15. Mega Man: Powered Up 16. Mega Man Battle & Chase 17. Mega Man 10 18. Mega Man 6 19. Mega Man 11 20. Mega Man III 21. Mega Man V 22. Mega Man IV 23. Mega Man II 24. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future 25. Wily & Light's Rockboard: That's Paradise!! 26. Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge 27. Mega Man 4 (Staff Roll) </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 10/11/21 3:27:16 AM #325:	2. Gravity Man (Mega Man 5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPiKZ4AZR8A It's really stupid, but what's held me back from doing these writeups faster is that it's so intimidating to talk about these themes that I like so much, like I feel this actual weight on my shoulders having to try to find the words to really get across just HOW much I like this theme. "Like" isn't really a strong enough word for something that you've spent a good portion of your life studying and trying to emulate to the best of your ability. Every Mega Man 5 theme is a straight up killer, but Gravity Man is hands down my favorite, just the pinnacle of everything I love about Mari Yamaguchi's style - the flowing movement from one new creative idea to the next, the masterful sleight of hand to shift one instrument out of use for another to stay within the maximum four sound channels. It's one of the most ambitious NES themes not just in this series, but maybe ever written for the 2A03 chip at all? It's long, packed with content, and I can practically recount every carefully crafted little detail by heart. In the excess typical of Mari Yamaguchi's work, it's not good enough to have written a jazzy little intro with extensive and distinct A and B sections - where most of these themes would have wrapped up at the minute mark and call it a good day's work, she's still got a bunch of shit left to do. Those jazz chords at 1:07. Those FUCKING jazz chords, I still think about them all the time. That ending bridge segment is just way too sick for a 1992 NES game. There's like a million different things in this theme that I could highlight, there's like 15 different distinct ideas here that are interesting to me and that regardless all work together to form a cohesive whole when most themes can barely manage 2 or 3, but that outro bridge possibly stands as my favorite single thing in any of the themes in this entire ranking. Final Mega Man 5 Rankings: 1. Gravity Man (2) 2. Dark Man (3) 3. Wave Man (5) 4. Gyro Man (17) 5. Napalm Man (18) 6. Charge Man (19) 7. Dr. Wily (31) 8. Crystal Man (39) 9. Stone Man (49) 10. Star Man (70) Thoughts: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on this matter, of course, as music is a highly subjective art, the passion for it formed not just by its basic appreciation but also the time and place where you heard it and your particular tastes. But I just can't understand how, for nearly 30 years, people have been unable to separate this game from its companions in Mega Man 4 and 6. Not only is the game itself a step or two ahead of the other two, in my opinion, but the soundtrack is a good three or four steps ahead. The other two are good, but Mari Yamaguchi's soundtrack here is in a class of its own. Every single track is crisply produced and baked full of content, and there really isn't a weak link in the bunch - every track in this game is of sterling quality. Regrets?: I ranked Star Man way too low when I should have kept the entire soundtrack in the top 50. I'm sorry, there's just really no good excuse for this. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:958917112] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>2. Gravity Man (Mega Man 5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPiKZ4AZR8A It's really stupid, but what's held me back from doing these writeups faster is that it's so intimidating to talk about these themes that I like so much, like I feel this actual weight on my shoulders having to try to find the words to really get across just HOW much I like this theme. "Like" isn't really a strong enough word for something that you've spent a good portion of your life studying and trying to emulate to the best of your ability. Every Mega Man 5 theme is a straight up killer, but Gravity Man is hands down my favorite, just the pinnacle of everything I love about Mari Yamaguchi's style - the flowing movement from one new creative idea to the next, the masterful sleight of hand to shift one instrument out of use for another to stay within the maximum four sound channels. It's one of the most ambitious NES themes not just in this series, but maybe ever written for the 2A03 chip at all? It's long, packed with content, and I can practically recount every carefully crafted little detail by heart. In the excess typical of Mari Yamaguchi's work, it's not good enough to have written a jazzy little intro with extensive and distinct A and B sections - where most of these themes would have wrapped up at the minute mark and call it a good day's work, she's still got a bunch of shit left to do. Those jazz chords at 1:07. Those FUCKING jazz chords, I still think about them all the time. That ending bridge segment is just way too sick for a 1992 NES game. There's like a million different things in this theme that I could highlight, there's like 15 different distinct ideas here that are interesting to me and that regardless all work together to form a cohesive whole when most themes can barely manage 2 or 3, but that outro bridge possibly stands as my favorite single thing in any of the themes in this entire ranking. Final Mega Man 5 Rankings: 1. Gravity Man (2) 2. Dark Man (3) 3. Wave Man (5) 4. Gyro Man (17) 5. Napalm Man (18) 6. Charge Man (19) 7. Dr. Wily (31) 8. Crystal Man (39) 9. Stone Man (49) 10. Star Man (70) Thoughts: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on this matter, of course, as music is a highly subjective art, the passion for it formed not just by its basic appreciation but also the time and place where you heard it and your particular tastes. But I just can't understand how, for nearly 30 years, people have been unable to separate this game from its companions in Mega Man 4 and 6. Not only is the game itself a step or two ahead of the other two, in my opinion, but the soundtrack is a good three or four steps ahead. The other two are good, but Mari Yamaguchi's soundtrack here is in a class of its own. Every single track is crisply produced and baked full of content, and there really isn't a weak link in the bunch - every track in this game is of sterling quality. Regrets?: I ranked Star Man way too low when I should have kept the entire soundtrack in the top 50. I'm sorry, there's just really no good excuse for this. </quote> ... 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Paratroopa1 10/11/21 3:45:15 AM #326:	1. Gemini Man (Mega Man 3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2LF3YR2dNM I don't know how the fuck this was possible, and my only explanation for this is that Harumi Fujita must be a witch. She dropped by the series briefly to give us just two themes, and not only did both of them make my overall top 20, but one of them was my favorite Mega Man theme of all time. As incredibly as Yasuaki Fujita did in covering for her once she withdrew from the project, there's always part of me that wonders what the original Fujita's MM3 would have sounded like. Would it have been as beautifully and subversively creative as Gemini Man? I think about this track all the time, and how far ahead of its time it was. There's just nothing from any video game of its era that sounds anything like this. It's uncanny how this distinct salsa vibe of all things, something that you wouldn't expect to be anywhere near a Mega Man game, just sort of perfectly captures the vibe of this colorful, alien, crystal world. As excellent as Mega Man 2 is, Tateishi kind of has one particular style of theme and he mostly colors within its lines - by contrast, this is a breathtakingly strange and exciting expansion of what the musical palette of Mega Man even sounds like in the first place, while still checking all of the boxes. Every little melodic idea in here is so well considered that I'll overlook the fact that there's just a bit of sloppy cross-talk between the two square leads where they kind of overlap each other and create some kind of awkward interference. It's a tiny flaw but really immaterial compared to everything it does well. I'm sort of awestruck that someone could have come up with this in 1990. That one commenter may have thought Mega Man 7 was the future, but the future was already here all along. Final Mega Man 3 Rankings: 1. Gemini Man (1) 2. Shadow Man (6) 3. Spark Man (16) 4. Needle Man (20) 5. Magnet Man (24) 6. Top Man (34) 7. Dr. Wily 1 (41) 8. Snake Man (42) 9. Hard Man (58) 10. Dr. Wily 2 (84) 11. Dr. Wily 3 (94) Thoughts: Mega Man 2 may be the A-lister here, but Mega Man 3 has always been very close by, sitting just in its shadow, and by all rights it may be the better game, possibly with the better soundtrack! A lot of memorable themes in this game overall that had stood the test of time, with overall more variety than MM2 has to offer, I think. MM2 and MM3 are one hell of a one-two punch. It's amazing that MM3 was rushed out to market so quickly and yet its soundtrack is so good. Regrets?: Nah, I actually got this one mostly right. I'm gonna do one last ranking, and then collect alllll of the lists into one big series of posts at the end, so sit tight. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:958917292] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>1. Gemini Man (Mega Man 3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2LF3YR2dNM I don't know how the fuck this was possible, and my only explanation for this is that Harumi Fujita must be a witch. She dropped by the series briefly to give us just two themes, and not only did both of them make my overall top 20, but one of them was my favorite Mega Man theme of all time. As incredibly as Yasuaki Fujita did in covering for her once she withdrew from the project, there's always part of me that wonders what the original Fujita's MM3 would have sounded like. Would it have been as beautifully and subversively creative as Gemini Man? I think about this track all the time, and how far ahead of its time it was. There's just nothing from any video game of its era that sounds anything like this. It's uncanny how this distinct salsa vibe of all things, something that you wouldn't expect to be anywhere near a Mega Man game, just sort of perfectly captures the vibe of this colorful, alien, crystal world. As excellent as Mega Man 2 is, Tateishi kind of has one particular style of theme and he mostly colors within its lines - by contrast, this is a breathtakingly strange and exciting expansion of what the musical palette of Mega Man even sounds like in the first place, while still checking all of the boxes. Every little melodic idea in here is so well considered that I'll overlook the fact that there's just a bit of sloppy cross-talk between the two square leads where they kind of overlap each other and create some kind of awkward interference. It's a tiny flaw but really immaterial compared to everything it does well. I'm sort of awestruck that someone could have come up with this in 1990. That one commenter may have thought Mega Man 7 was the future, but the future was already here all along. Final Mega Man 3 Rankings: 1. Gemini Man (1) 2. Shadow Man (6) 3. Spark Man (16) 4. Needle Man (20) 5. Magnet Man (24) 6. Top Man (34) 7. Dr. Wily 1 (41) 8. Snake Man (42) 9. Hard Man (58) 10. Dr. Wily 2 (84) 11. Dr. Wily 3 (94) Thoughts: Mega Man 2 may be the A-lister here, but Mega Man 3 has always been very close by, sitting just in its shadow, and by all rights it may be the better game, possibly with the better soundtrack! A lot of memorable themes in this game overall that had stood the test of time, with overall more variety than MM2 has to offer, I think. MM2 and MM3 are one hell of a one-two punch. It's amazing that MM3 was rushed out to market so quickly and yet its soundtrack is so good. Regrets?: Nah, I actually got this one mostly right. I'm gonna do one last ranking, and then collect alllll of the lists into one big series of posts at the end, so sit tight. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 10/11/21 6:58:04 AM #327:	Actually I'll finish it off tomorrow because my friends wanted to play Valheim but it WILL be tomorrow <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:958919255] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Actually I'll finish it off tomorrow because my friends wanted to play Valheim but it WILL be tomorrow </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
McMoogle 10/11/21 4:39:21 PM #328:	Incredible fucking topic and well worth the wait. Psyched to see the wrap up --- I use antlers in ALL of my decorating. <cite>McMoogle posted [p:958933346] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Incredible fucking topic and well worth the wait. Psyched to see the wrap up </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
HasteDeux 10/11/21 11:29:54 PM #329:	Aw, I was rooting for Gravity Man for that top spot. But 2nd place is still pretty good. --- "Ah, a party! We haven't had one of those. It could be fun! So... what is a party?" "Well, you drink punch and eat CAKE! ...I think." <cite>HasteDeux posted [p:958946370] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Aw, I was rooting for Gravity Man for that top spot. But 2nd place is still pretty good. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
NFUN 10/11/21 11:43:37 PM #330:	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia8zlr_zoR8 --- Kneel... or you will be knelt <cite>NFUN posted [p:958946744] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia8zlr_zoR8 </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Anagram 10/11/21 11:55:09 PM #331:	Excellent work, para. --- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005 <cite>Anagram posted [p:958947031] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Excellent work, para. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 10/12/21 4:00:04 AM #332:	GAME SOUNDTRACK RANKINGS I decided that I should do a full ranking of all the games' soundtracks at the end as one last thing to do, just to kinda round everything up at the end. I'll include the games that have mostly non-original tracks, as well, so that'll give me a chance to talk about some games that I didn't cover quite as much in the list itself. Also, of course, I have to crown a champion at the end, right? This list will cover every game that I have talked about somewhere in this topic that has a full soundtrack and that I didn't previously fully dismiss (Super Adventure Rockman, the Game Gear port or whatever, or any of those dumb mobile games I don't care about). I think. It would be really embarrassing if I forgot one at this point. 26. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future Rockman & Forte: Mirai Karano Chousensha is, quite frankly, fortunate to even be here, as a terrible licensed game for the Wonderswan that's the most arguably non-canon game here. But it is a unique game with an analyzable soundtrack, so I kinda included it at points, but boy, is it bad! Every song here is just a Rockman & Forte track, but horribly butchered sometimes to the point of near unrecognizability. I mean, you might think Mega Man II GB is bad, but this is just both incompetent and uncreative, and at its best it was only digging itself out of the basement because it was copying a good original tune and something else did worse. Absolute junk. 25. Mega Man: The Power Battle I haven't really talked about The Power Battle much, but it's easily the worse of the two arcade games, and its existence alone (along with Wily Wars) was a pretty big roadblock to the idea of me even bothering to mention every single iteration of a single tune. All of the stuff here is taken from MM1-7 and put into this really crunchy and ugly FM synth, and pretty much none of it is worth mention. Some of the tunes originally used here were good but the conversion made it a joyless experience to listen to or even think about. There isn't really a lot more to say about it, it's just lacking in redeeming qualities. 24. Mega Man Battle & Chase Here's the thing about Battle & Chase's soundtrack - it's not that it's horrible, but I had a really, really hard time trying to listen to any of its tracks and getting myself to care about the idea of ranking any of them. It wasn't released in North America until it was a part of the... Mega Man X Collection, of all things, so I never played it and had no prior familiarity with the game. In theory, I COULD have regarded the track themes as stages and ignored the vast array of character themes this game has to offer, but I wouldn't have been able to provide an interesting opinion on any of them, so I didn't bother - they were just too boring. I'll give you what I think is probably the most noteworthy one of the bunch, which is the Wily stage theme of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TrdzBMj4OY It's a cheesy little crowd-pleaser of a rock theme. I imagine some people will like it! It probably wouldn't have ranked in the top 150 of my list, though, and I don't think anything else from this game would have either. So it's here on the list as something of a footnote. Could I have talked about it more in depth? Yeah, I guess, but I'm not gonna. 23. Wily & Light's Rockboard: That's Paradise!! Hi, Wily & Light's Rockboard! I haven't really talked about you much. You're also really lucky to be here - I could have easily dismissed this game on the grounds of being some kind of weird Mega Man board game that doesn't even have Mega Man in it and barely having any music to talk about, but I decided to include it solely on the grounds that it is the ONLY Mega Man game on the NES aside from MM1-6. While they clearly didn't put the same level of detail and effort into it as they did in the other NES games, this soundtrack isn't actually terrible - just kind of simple and short. It pretty much sounds like what I would expect a board-game game on the NES to sound like. I'd actually say that of all the things I didn't include in my stage ranking, ranking the four board themes is probably what I most regret not doing, so it wouldn't kill me to briefly remark on them now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SjAWKeY93o A bizarrely somber arrangement of Wood Man's theme, of all things. I sorta wanted to talk about this, but I forgot to. It's weird how much music in the series is attributed to Wood Man - not only does he get unique themes in three different games (MM2, MMII GB, and Soccer), but his theme from 2 is also quoted not just here, but also reappears in MM8 as well. Add Wily Wars into the mix and I think probably only Cut Man has received a similar amount of love (having also cameoed in MM8). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6JF_Lx3mqw Well, it's not good, but it has a weird way of making me nostalgic for like, NES games I've never played. Listen to all that NES-vibrato from :15 to :19! It's really got a very distinct sort of sound to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3mWg8C2L1c This'll be the best of the lot, I suppose - kind of a funky little track. That bass is doing some work at :24! Very weirdly flourish to end on at :32 - reminds me of like, a Wonder Boy game or something. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J8ajmhhcRg I kinda like this one too! It's so energetic and cheerful and it's got those big NES vibratos that I like. It goes pretty crazy at :32. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIt7vR8JUwc There's also this cute little auction theme, and... okay, well, that's about it for this game's soundtrack. Wait, why the hell did I spend all this time talking about this game? I thought I was DONE with this list 22. Mega Man: The Wily Wars Similarly to The Power Battle, most of this is just taken from MM1-3 and put through an ugly Genesis style synth. I'm sorry, but most Genesis games just sound ugly! There's a few noteworthy exceptions - FM synthesis can sound really good when it's in the right hands, but most of the time it just kind of produces garbage, and that's what happened here. I didn't mention ANY of the Wily Wars versions of the stage themes, and that's because there was nothing to talk about - every single one of them is basically a direct port of the original theme to Genesis, and every single one of them is just a pale shadow of the original in the most boring way possible, so there was absolutely nothing to say about them. Wily Wars gets this high only because it does have a few original tracks at the end, and some of them are kinda bordering on good despite how the Genesis sounds, so there's... something here, but it's not much. They're re-releasing this game, apparently, and I have no idea why - it's about as worth your time as the soundtrack is, which is to say, not much. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:958951129] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>GAME SOUNDTRACK RANKINGS I decided that I should do a full ranking of all the games' soundtracks at the end as one last thing to do, just to kinda round everything up at the end. I'll include the games that have mostly non-original tracks, as well, so that'll give me a chance to talk about some games that I didn't cover quite as much in the list itself. Also, of course, I have to crown a champion at the end, right? This list will cover every game that I have talked about somewhere in this topic that has a full soundtrack and that I didn't previously fully dismiss (Super Adventure Rockman, the Game Gear port or whatever, or any of those dumb mobile games I don't care about). I think. It would be really embarrassing if I forgot one at this point. 26. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future Rockman & Forte: Mirai Karano Chousensha is, quite frankly, fortunate to even be here, as a terrible licensed game for the Wonderswan that's the most arguably non-canon game here. But it is a unique game with an analyzable soundtrack, so I kinda included it at points, but boy, is it bad! Every song here is just a Rockman & Forte track, but horribly butchered sometimes to the point of near unrecognizability. I mean, you might think Mega Man II GB is bad, but this is just both incompetent and uncreative, and at its best it was only digging itself out of the basement because it was copying a good original tune and something else did worse. Absolute junk. 25. Mega Man: The Power Battle I haven't really talked about The Power Battle much, but it's easily the worse of the two arcade games, and its existence alone (along with Wily Wars) was a pretty big roadblock to the idea of me even bothering to mention every single iteration of a single tune. All of the stuff here is taken from MM1-7 and put into this really crunchy and ugly FM synth, and pretty much none of it is worth mention. Some of the tunes originally used here were good but the conversion made it a joyless experience to listen to or even think about. There isn't really a lot more to say about it, it's just lacking in redeeming qualities. 24. Mega Man Battle & Chase Here's the thing about Battle & Chase's soundtrack - it's not that it's horrible, but I had a really, really hard time trying to listen to any of its tracks and getting myself to care about the idea of ranking any of them. It wasn't released in North America until it was a part of the... Mega Man X Collection, of all things, so I never played it and had no prior familiarity with the game. In theory, I COULD have regarded the track themes as stages and ignored the vast array of character themes this game has to offer, but I wouldn't have been able to provide an interesting opinion on any of them, so I didn't bother - they were just too boring. I'll give you what I think is probably the most noteworthy one of the bunch, which is the Wily stage theme of course: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8TrdzBMj4OY It's a cheesy little crowd-pleaser of a rock theme. I imagine some people will like it! It probably wouldn't have ranked in the top 150 of my list, though, and I don't think anything else from this game would have either. So it's here on the list as something of a footnote. Could I have talked about it more in depth? Yeah, I guess, but I'm not gonna. 23. Wily & Light's Rockboard: That's Paradise!! Hi, Wily & Light's Rockboard! I haven't really talked about you much. You're also really lucky to be here - I could have easily dismissed this game on the grounds of being some kind of weird Mega Man board game that doesn't even have Mega Man in it and barely having any music to talk about, but I decided to include it solely on the grounds that it is the ONLY Mega Man game on the NES aside from MM1-6. While they clearly didn't put the same level of detail and effort into it as they did in the other NES games, this soundtrack isn't actually terrible - just kind of simple and short. It pretty much sounds like what I would expect a board-game game on the NES to sound like. I'd actually say that of all the things I didn't include in my stage ranking, ranking the four board themes is probably what I most regret not doing, so it wouldn't kill me to briefly remark on them now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SjAWKeY93o A bizarrely somber arrangement of Wood Man's theme, of all things. I sorta wanted to talk about this, but I forgot to. It's weird how much music in the series is attributed to Wood Man - not only does he get unique themes in three different games (MM2, MMII GB, and Soccer), but his theme from 2 is also quoted not just here, but also reappears in MM8 as well. Add Wily Wars into the mix and I think probably only Cut Man has received a similar amount of love (having also cameoed in MM8). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v6JF_Lx3mqw Well, it's not good, but it has a weird way of making me nostalgic for like, NES games I've never played. Listen to all that NES-vibrato from :15 to :19! It's really got a very distinct sort of sound to it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3mWg8C2L1c This'll be the best of the lot, I suppose - kind of a funky little track. That bass is doing some work at :24! Very weirdly flourish to end on at :32 - reminds me of like, a Wonder Boy game or something. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J8ajmhhcRg I kinda like this one too! It's so energetic and cheerful and it's got those big NES vibratos that I like. It goes pretty crazy at :32. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIt7vR8JUwc There's also this cute little auction theme, and... okay, well, that's about it for this game's soundtrack. Wait, why the hell did I spend all this time talking about this game? I thought I was DONE with this list 22. Mega Man: The Wily Wars Similarly to The Power Battle, most of this is just taken from MM1-3 and put through an ugly Genesis style synth. I'm sorry, but most Genesis games just sound ugly! There's a few noteworthy exceptions - FM synthesis can sound really good when it's in the right hands, but most of the time it just kind of produces garbage, and that's what happened here. I didn't mention ANY of the Wily Wars versions of the stage themes, and that's because there was nothing to talk about - every single one of them is basically a direct port of the original theme to Genesis, and every single one of them is just a pale shadow of the original in the most boring way possible, so there was absolutely nothing to say about them. Wily Wars gets this high only because it does have a few original tracks at the end, and some of them are kinda bordering on good despite how the Genesis sounds, so there's... something here, but it's not much. They're re-releasing this game, apparently, and I have no idea why - it's about as worth your time as the soundtrack is, which is to say, not much. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 10/12/21 4:00:34 AM #333:	21. Mega Man II (GB) Yeah, I mean, look, I've tried to defend it as much as I can. I still kind of like this soundtrack, a little bit - I used to play this game a lot in spite of best practices, so all the shitty tunes and the much better versions of them I can imagine get stuck in my head from time to time. While I genuinely don't think all of the content here is entirely lacking in merit, I do have to admit that the production quality in this one is just terrible across the board, and there aren't really a lot of great highlights here to propel the soundtrack any higher than this. It's not a good soundtrack, but I so badly wanted it to be. 20. Rockman & Forte (Super Famicom) I decided to rank the SFC and the GBA versions of this soundtrack separately, because one of the things that I didn't realize before doing this ranking, but that I came to realize as I made it, was that I just really don't like the SFC version of Mega Man & Bass's soundtrack that much! That might be kind of a hot take, and if you disagree with me and would rank it much higher, that's perfectly fine, but it really doesn't scratch the itch for me - I find it entirely frustrating to listen to. I think it's a shame, because I think Akari Kaida is a good composer who does show some of her talent in this game, but it's hindered by uninspiring instrumentation. All of the percussion in this game is badly lacking in attack, and the rest of the instruments persistently sound like they're on ambien as well. I'll sneak it in over MMII just out of respect for the vastly better production values (and for Cold Man's theme) but this soundtrack doesn't get me excited to play this game at all, and I think that's probably the best way to rank these soundtracks - by which ones make me most excited to play the game. Just assume that that's how I've been ranking them this whole time. 19. Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters The better of the two arcade games, and if you're going to actually listen to one of the two games' soundtracks, please make it this one. I remember really liking this soundtrack as a kid, but with hindsight I think it's pretty badly overrated. My adoration of this soundtrack really came from a time in the early, early 2000's when 'vg remixes' were kind of a thing in their infancy and the idea of 'updating' old game music to be 'real music' sounded really exciting and cool, and everything in this soundtrack is kind of emblematic of that idea - something that I would have found cool in 1999, but kinda falls short of the bar in 2021. Like the Wily 1 arrangement here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hnSFspELJ8 Would have once upon a time been very big and exciting to hear an arrangement of this theme in another game like this, and I'm pretty sure I had this on vgm 'mixtape' CDs that I made back in the day. Now, though, doesn't really even register as a guilty pleasure for me - the instrumentation and style is somehow more dated than the original 1988 version. Or this take on Gemini Man's theme, since I just recently crowned it the champ of my stage theme ranking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKARVkyky1E Well, I appreciate that there was an attempt to do something here - the idea of slowing down Gemini Man's theme to an actual salsa pace is a pretty cool idea, but it just kind of sounds scuffed to me - it's all too MIDI and too weirdly mixed to really pull off what they wanted to do and the end result kind of strips out everything that made the original theme so exciting to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZqBrKahUqQ Most of the arrangements fall somewhere in this zone though, like this take on Crash Man... wait, Plant Man's??? theme. Trying to do a funky arrangement, but it just doesn't really work - it's too slow and ignores parts of the song that made the original work in the first place. It's simultaneously stripped down but also too much, somehow. Best theme I can probably find in the bunch is this take on Slash Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKARVkyky1E It's not bad! It's mostly pretty straightforward and doesn't stray much from the original, and arguably the sound chip here actually sounds slightly better than the MM7 version. The decision to turn the outro segment into a little samba was really inspired and sounds great. This doesn't change the original much, still, but I actually genuinely like this arrangement. Anyway, that's Power Fighters 2. It's not BAD - it's interesting enough to be worth talking about. But listening to it now in 2021, it just kind of seems like a relic, whereas the NES games it's based on have only aged better with time. 18. Mega Man 11 Oh, you KNOW I wanted to rank this below MMII, I did so badly, but I really couldn't in good conscience. It's a slickly produced soundtrack, I can't deny that, and it does have the ONE good theme - Fuse Man's theme - as well as a host of really fun little menu themes and such. Even if most of the songs in this game sound identical, and it's not a style I particularly care for, there are worse sins committed on this list and some of the themes are at least a little better than I gave them credit for, so I'll give 11 a very slight pardon. Still, I do hope that if we get another Mega Man game after this - and I don't see why we wouldn't, eventually - I hope that we will continue the tradition of getting a new composer on board next time. 17. Mega Man 8 Similar to R&F, this one just isn't my vibe. It's not terrible by any stretch - I do think it's weirder and funkier than the somewhat comparable R&F, and it's got a couple of cool, chill themes that I like, like Astro Man, and that sick stage select theme. But it's kind of a departure from the more in-your-face style of the previous games, and I sort of LIKED when the games were in my face. That's why I'm here in the first place! I know what I like, and MM8 isn't serving it up. 16. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge This is a game that I COULD have ranked the stage themes for, since they're all kind of subtly distinct from their originals, although I didn't feel like it was worth bothering with at the end of the day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufIds7XLT_A A very different intro for Cut Man's theme here, and the B section is a bit different. I think it compares decently ot the original. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yfOwBOn9wM Not a huge fan of what they did to the original part of Elec Man's theme here, it's a bit too loud, but it's really interesting and weird that this version of the theme has just a completely different B section. It's worse, but it's interesting, and does kind of make this theme feel a lot different. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dacN67esXQE Ice Man's theme isn't great - the GB sounds don't do this one a lot of favors, and there's a lot of noticeably empty space here. That said, I do kind of like the energy this one brings into the loop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvu14qh_enY Probably the weirdest of the bunch, but I kind of like it. Much shorter than the original Fire Man theme, just kind of gets right in there and has a much different take on it. Anyway, Dr Wily's Revenge is not great, but gained a few ranks on this list mainly because of the Wily stage themes, which I really really like. Wily 1 in this game is a banger and you can't convince me otherwise! <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:958951133] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote> 21. Mega Man II (GB) Yeah, I mean, look, I've tried to defend it as much as I can. I still kind of like this soundtrack, a little bit - I used to play this game a lot in spite of best practices, so all the shitty tunes and the much better versions of them I can imagine get stuck in my head from time to time. While I genuinely don't think all of the content here is entirely lacking in merit, I do have to admit that the production quality in this one is just terrible across the board, and there aren't really a lot of great highlights here to propel the soundtrack any higher than this. It's not a good soundtrack, but I so badly wanted it to be. 20. Rockman & Forte (Super Famicom) I decided to rank the SFC and the GBA versions of this soundtrack separately, because one of the things that I didn't realize before doing this ranking, but that I came to realize as I made it, was that I just really don't like the SFC version of Mega Man & Bass's soundtrack that much! That might be kind of a hot take, and if you disagree with me and would rank it much higher, that's perfectly fine, but it really doesn't scratch the itch for me - I find it entirely frustrating to listen to. I think it's a shame, because I think Akari Kaida is a good composer who does show some of her talent in this game, but it's hindered by uninspiring instrumentation. All of the percussion in this game is badly lacking in attack, and the rest of the instruments persistently sound like they're on ambien as well. I'll sneak it in over MMII just out of respect for the vastly better production values (and for Cold Man's theme) but this soundtrack doesn't get me excited to play this game at all, and I think that's probably the best way to rank these soundtracks - by which ones make me most excited to play the game. Just assume that that's how I've been ranking them this whole time. 19. Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters The better of the two arcade games, and if you're going to actually listen to one of the two games' soundtracks, please make it this one. I remember really liking this soundtrack as a kid, but with hindsight I think it's pretty badly overrated. My adoration of this soundtrack really came from a time in the early, early 2000's when 'vg remixes' were kind of a thing in their infancy and the idea of 'updating' old game music to be 'real music' sounded really exciting and cool, and everything in this soundtrack is kind of emblematic of that idea - something that I would have found cool in 1999, but kinda falls short of the bar in 2021. Like the Wily 1 arrangement here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hnSFspELJ8 Would have once upon a time been very big and exciting to hear an arrangement of this theme in another game like this, and I'm pretty sure I had this on vgm 'mixtape' CDs that I made back in the day. Now, though, doesn't really even register as a guilty pleasure for me - the instrumentation and style is somehow more dated than the original 1988 version. Or this take on Gemini Man's theme, since I just recently crowned it the champ of my stage theme ranking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKARVkyky1E Well, I appreciate that there was an attempt to do something here - the idea of slowing down Gemini Man's theme to an actual salsa pace is a pretty cool idea, but it just kind of sounds scuffed to me - it's all too MIDI and too weirdly mixed to really pull off what they wanted to do and the end result kind of strips out everything that made the original theme so exciting to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZqBrKahUqQ Most of the arrangements fall somewhere in this zone though, like this take on Crash Man... wait, Plant Man's??? theme. Trying to do a funky arrangement, but it just doesn't really work - it's too slow and ignores parts of the song that made the original work in the first place. It's simultaneously stripped down but also too much, somehow. Best theme I can probably find in the bunch is this take on Slash Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKARVkyky1E It's not bad! It's mostly pretty straightforward and doesn't stray much from the original, and arguably the sound chip here actually sounds slightly better than the MM7 version. The decision to turn the outro segment into a little samba was really inspired and sounds great. This doesn't change the original much, still, but I actually genuinely like this arrangement. Anyway, that's Power Fighters 2. It's not BAD - it's interesting enough to be worth talking about. But listening to it now in 2021, it just kind of seems like a relic, whereas the NES games it's based on have only aged better with time. 18. Mega Man 11 Oh, you KNOW I wanted to rank this below MMII, I did so badly, but I really couldn't in good conscience. It's a slickly produced soundtrack, I can't deny that, and it does have the ONE good theme - Fuse Man's theme - as well as a host of really fun little menu themes and such. Even if most of the songs in this game sound identical, and it's not a style I particularly care for, there are worse sins committed on this list and some of the themes are at least a little better than I gave them credit for, so I'll give 11 a very slight pardon. Still, I do hope that if we get another Mega Man game after this - and I don't see why we wouldn't, eventually - I hope that we will continue the tradition of getting a new composer on board next time. 17. Mega Man 8 Similar to R&F, this one just isn't my vibe. It's not terrible by any stretch - I do think it's weirder and funkier than the somewhat comparable R&F, and it's got a couple of cool, chill themes that I like, like Astro Man, and that sick stage select theme. But it's kind of a departure from the more in-your-face style of the previous games, and I sort of LIKED when the games were in my face. That's why I'm here in the first place! I know what I like, and MM8 isn't serving it up. 16. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge This is a game that I COULD have ranked the stage themes for, since they're all kind of subtly distinct from their originals, although I didn't feel like it was worth bothering with at the end of the day. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufIds7XLT_A A very different intro for Cut Man's theme here, and the B section is a bit different. I think it compares decently ot the original. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yfOwBOn9wM Not a huge fan of what they did to the original part of Elec Man's theme here, it's a bit too loud, but it's really interesting and weird that this version of the theme has just a completely different B section. It's worse, but it's interesting, and does kind of make this theme feel a lot different. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dacN67esXQE Ice Man's theme isn't great - the GB sounds don't do this one a lot of favors, and there's a lot of noticeably empty space here. That said, I do kind of like the energy this one brings into the loop. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvu14qh_enY Probably the weirdest of the bunch, but I kind of like it. Much shorter than the original Fire Man theme, just kind of gets right in there and has a much different take on it. Anyway, Dr Wily's Revenge is not great, but gained a few ranks on this list mainly because of the Wily stage themes, which I really really like. Wily 1 in this game is a banger and you can't convince me otherwise! </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 10/12/21 4:01:29 AM #334:	15. Mega Man: Powered Up Ah, the other game with themes based on Mega Man 1. In retrospect, I think I probably should have ranked these stage themes as well, since although they are arrangements, they're kind of their own thing. At the time, the idea didn't really spark joy for me, but I regret it now, because some of the themes are pretty good. I like this soundtrack just fine! Listening it doesn't particularly excite me, but something was tried here and it kinda works. The idea to do something like a chibi-fied version of the soundtrack was a pretty cute idea, actually, taking all of this minor-key hard rock (or the closest approximation thereof) themes and reconfiguring them into major-key pop themes. Although, I do have to say, it comes across a bit uncanny sometimes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTNwQaC3dbs Like, Fire Man's theme here. Doesn't it just sound... off? The reworking into a major key here is, in theory, perfectly fine, but it just has this nails-on-chalkboard feeling that I can't quite describe. It's wrong. It bothers me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CAouPooVCk Or this take on Cuts Man's theme that sounds like it's trying to be some kind of baby lullaby. It's really not a bad arrangement at all! But it just makes me uncomfortable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwJy1t3TRUA Reworking Guts Man's theme into a major key, on the other hand, is maybe the most hilarious decision possible, and I fully applaud it. It sounds so fucking strange, yet somehow works so well, that I can only applaud it. Bravo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCjO8VKP41s As for the themes that didn't require a major key reworking, well, Elec Man's theme is fine I guess. I'm not a huge fan of the flute lead - doesn't feel fitting for this song - but for once, the use of an electric guitar in the B section sounds really great and suits... well, an electric-themed boss, I suppose. Powered Up does get a fair bit of credit from me for being one of the most well-produced soundtracks in the series - even if I'm not a huge fan of the flute here, all of the instruments here do SOUND really good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbeS_aPtN1k Bomb Man is a little bit more of a miss. I like the IDEA of having the percussion be like these little firecracker explosions going off in the background, but it was a weird idea to make basically all of the melodic content of the song an afterthought. Making the lead melody these really staccato plucked strings was incredibly odd. Some of the rhythmic choices in this don't really quite work. Not a fan of this take. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLS_MRkwcUE On the other hand, Ice Man's theme is actually probably my favorite arrangement in the bunch. I don't have anything too specific to say about it, I just think it sounds classy and it works well - I'd daresay it's a slight improvement on the original. The instrument choices work well and there's some funky little things going on with the bass progression. The chill vibes work here. They managed to extend the theme a bit too, which was necessary. It kind of works! I like it. (I didn't bother mentioning the two Wily Stage themes - both arrangements are really dull, and I feel like the composer didn't care about them too much.) So that's a quick overview of Powered Up, or at least the themes I didn't already talk about. It's a totally fine and inoffensive soundtrack that I probably could have spent more time talking about, but I think I mostly got it out of my system. It's a little bit of a shame the game is trapped on the PSP, a system I only ever had scant interest in purchasing. But hey, that's why emulators exist. I should probably pick this one up one day and give it a quick playthrough. 14. Mega Man Soccer Oh, Mega Man Soccer. Well, here we are, I suppose. This soundtrack, by all rights, ought to be completely terrible, yet here it is, ranked at #14. Sure, maybe the SNES soundchip isn't doing this game a ton of favors, but I have to admit that this game does sound distinct, and boy, does it go places with what it's got. Every single tune here is beyond strange, borderline avant-garde, and I'm the sort of asshole who likes avant-garde shit. Wily Field's just awesome, though, and the combined weirdness of Elec, Pharaoh, and Skull alone just make this soundtrack worth it. I knew I HAD to rank these themes with the rest of the stage themes, there was just no getting around it, even if the choice to do so while ignoring other games was largely arbitrary. Mega Man Soccer was just that important. Maybe the most important thing on this entire list. 13. Mega Man IV (GB) A hard game to know what to do with. It might be a bit of a surprise that it's even this low, given that it's basically a collection of greatest hits from MM4 and MM5 with a banger of a Wily stage theme. It's got three problems, though. One, every game on this list is simply just better. Two, I'm not really a huge fan of a lot of supplementary music in this game - intro and ending themes, stage select, password, final boss, etc - it's a small detail but these things add up. Three, the most glaring issue, is that I think the port to GB just wasn't quite as good as it could have been. For starters, the hits we got weren't really the greatest anyway, as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, MM5 music here, but no Gravity Man, Wave Man, or Gyro Man, which is kind of a boo, for me. But even what's here isn't quite as good as it could be. Charge Man's theme, for instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tceS3igTzQY I don't know. I mean, it's mostly fine? There's nothing incredibly wrong with it. But there's a little bit of lacking attention to detail that really irks me and saps my enjoyment of an otherwise great theme. For instance, that really low note that normally hits at the :14 mark of the song's A section is a crucially important little trademark of the theme, and it's just missing here, and hearing it missing is like an itch I can't scratch. On top of that, the loop is missed - NES Charge Man normally goes right back into the A section, but this goes all the way back to the intro, and it doesn't quite feel right - it loses some momentum from that. Every theme here is just pock-marked with these little issues and it adds up, for me. It probably seems like a minor complaint but these are all just kind of slightly lesser versions of the NES tracks, and the only thing that it has to offer in return is a really good Wily stage theme. But that one Wily stage theme IS really good, so there's that. So right in the middle of the pack seems about right. 12. Mega Man V (GB) Hard for me to decide where to rank this one. The next most bizarre soundtrack just after Soccer, this one has an incredibly interesting style and some really good themes, but sadly I think there are actually just a few more misses than there are hits in total, although the tally is very close. Doesn't get me quite as pumped to play as the next few games on the list, which ended up being the tiebreaker, but still one of the better GB games for sure. 11. Mega Man & Bass (GBA) Ahhh, THERE's the good version of the soundtrack! Like I said with the Super Famicom version, I don't think I really realized until I made this list just HOW MUCH I preferred the GBA version of this soundtrack. Yeah, even if those crunchy GBA synths means that this is "lower quality" - or at least lower fidelity - it makes up for it with instrumentation that gives nearly every track in this entire soundtrack new life. Those beefy snares and punchy synths just makes everything POP, and some tunes that I would have otherwise not noticed in the original come alive here. Narrowly misses the top ten because the rest of the soundtracks are pretty good an <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:958951139] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>15. Mega Man: Powered Up Ah, the other game with themes based on Mega Man 1. In retrospect, I think I probably should have ranked these stage themes as well, since although they are arrangements, they're kind of their own thing. At the time, the idea didn't really spark joy for me, but I regret it now, because some of the themes are pretty good. I like this soundtrack just fine! Listening it doesn't particularly excite me, but something was tried here and it kinda works. The idea to do something like a chibi-fied version of the soundtrack was a pretty cute idea, actually, taking all of this minor-key hard rock (or the closest approximation thereof) themes and reconfiguring them into major-key pop themes. Although, I do have to say, it comes across a bit uncanny sometimes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oTNwQaC3dbs Like, Fire Man's theme here. Doesn't it just sound... off? The reworking into a major key here is, in theory, perfectly fine, but it just has this nails-on-chalkboard feeling that I can't quite describe. It's wrong. It bothers me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CAouPooVCk Or this take on Cuts Man's theme that sounds like it's trying to be some kind of baby lullaby. It's really not a bad arrangement at all! But it just makes me uncomfortable. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwJy1t3TRUA Reworking Guts Man's theme into a major key, on the other hand, is maybe the most hilarious decision possible, and I fully applaud it. It sounds so fucking strange, yet somehow works so well, that I can only applaud it. Bravo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCjO8VKP41s As for the themes that didn't require a major key reworking, well, Elec Man's theme is fine I guess. I'm not a huge fan of the flute lead - doesn't feel fitting for this song - but for once, the use of an electric guitar in the B section sounds really great and suits... well, an electric-themed boss, I suppose. Powered Up does get a fair bit of credit from me for being one of the most well-produced soundtracks in the series - even if I'm not a huge fan of the flute here, all of the instruments here do SOUND really good. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbeS_aPtN1k Bomb Man is a little bit more of a miss. I like the IDEA of having the percussion be like these little firecracker explosions going off in the background, but it was a weird idea to make basically all of the melodic content of the song an afterthought. Making the lead melody these really staccato plucked strings was incredibly odd. Some of the rhythmic choices in this don't really quite work. Not a fan of this take. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLS_MRkwcUE On the other hand, Ice Man's theme is actually probably my favorite arrangement in the bunch. I don't have anything too specific to say about it, I just think it sounds classy and it works well - I'd daresay it's a slight improvement on the original. The instrument choices work well and there's some funky little things going on with the bass progression. The chill vibes work here. They managed to extend the theme a bit too, which was necessary. It kind of works! I like it. (I didn't bother mentioning the two Wily Stage themes - both arrangements are really dull, and I feel like the composer didn't care about them too much.) So that's a quick overview of Powered Up, or at least the themes I didn't already talk about. It's a totally fine and inoffensive soundtrack that I probably could have spent more time talking about, but I think I mostly got it out of my system. It's a little bit of a shame the game is trapped on the PSP, a system I only ever had scant interest in purchasing. But hey, that's why emulators exist. I should probably pick this one up one day and give it a quick playthrough. 14. Mega Man Soccer Oh, Mega Man Soccer. Well, here we are, I suppose. This soundtrack, by all rights, ought to be completely terrible, yet here it is, ranked at #14. Sure, maybe the SNES soundchip isn't doing this game a ton of favors, but I have to admit that this game does sound distinct, and boy, does it go places with what it's got. Every single tune here is beyond strange, borderline avant-garde, and I'm the sort of asshole who likes avant-garde shit. Wily Field's just awesome, though, and the combined weirdness of Elec, Pharaoh, and Skull alone just make this soundtrack worth it. I knew I HAD to rank these themes with the rest of the stage themes, there was just no getting around it, even if the choice to do so while ignoring other games was largely arbitrary. Mega Man Soccer was just that important. Maybe the most important thing on this entire list. 13. Mega Man IV (GB) A hard game to know what to do with. It might be a bit of a surprise that it's even this low, given that it's basically a collection of greatest hits from MM4 and MM5 with a banger of a Wily stage theme. It's got three problems, though. One, every game on this list is simply just better. Two, I'm not really a huge fan of a lot of supplementary music in this game - intro and ending themes, stage select, password, final boss, etc - it's a small detail but these things add up. Three, the most glaring issue, is that I think the port to GB just wasn't quite as good as it could have been. For starters, the hits we got weren't really the greatest anyway, as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, MM5 music here, but no Gravity Man, Wave Man, or Gyro Man, which is kind of a boo, for me. But even what's here isn't quite as good as it could be. Charge Man's theme, for instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tceS3igTzQY I don't know. I mean, it's mostly fine? There's nothing incredibly wrong with it. But there's a little bit of lacking attention to detail that really irks me and saps my enjoyment of an otherwise great theme. For instance, that really low note that normally hits at the :14 mark of the song's A section is a crucially important little trademark of the theme, and it's just missing here, and hearing it missing is like an itch I can't scratch. On top of that, the loop is missed - NES Charge Man normally goes right back into the A section, but this goes all the way back to the intro, and it doesn't quite feel right - it loses some momentum from that. Every theme here is just pock-marked with these little issues and it adds up, for me. It probably seems like a minor complaint but these are all just kind of slightly lesser versions of the NES tracks, and the only thing that it has to offer in return is a really good Wily stage theme. But that one Wily stage theme IS really good, so there's that. So right in the middle of the pack seems about right. 12. Mega Man V (GB) Hard for me to decide where to rank this one. The next most bizarre soundtrack just after Soccer, this one has an incredibly interesting style and some really good themes, but sadly I think there are actually just a few more misses than there are hits in total, although the tally is very close. Doesn't get me quite as pumped to play as the next few games on the list, which ended up being the tiebreaker, but still one of the better GB games for sure. 11. Mega Man & Bass (GBA) Ahhh, THERE's the good version of the soundtrack! Like I said with the Super Famicom version, I don't think I really realized until I made this list just HOW MUCH I preferred the GBA version of this soundtrack. Yeah, even if those crunchy GBA synths means that this is "lower quality" - or at least lower fidelity - it makes up for it with instrumentation that gives nearly every track in this entire soundtrack new life. Those beefy snares and punchy synths just makes everything POP, and some tunes that I would have otherwise not noticed in the original come alive here. Narrowly misses the top ten because the rest of the soundtracks are pretty good an</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 10/12/21 4:02:00 AM #335:	10. Mega Man The one that started it all. I've said it before, but for 1987, this game was just ahead of its time in so many ways, when games just didn't HAVE soundtracks like this, thematically vibrant and cutting edge with the tools it had to work with. Even if it now lives in Mega Man 2's shadow, I think it still holds up today. 9. Mega Man 9 I feel like I've done more complaining about this soundtrack over the course of this ranking topic than I've done actually singing its praises, but truthfully, I DO like this soundtrack, even if I think it's one of the lesser of the NES-styled ones. Still, the very fact that in 2008, they decided to even release another NES-style Mega Man with another NES-style soundtrack was beyond my wildest dreams, and there's plenty of great hits in here. My biggest complaint is all of the direct lifting that it did from Mega Man 2, which makes the soundtrack feel weirdly incomplete. It's a small detail, but details matter to me, and I feel like original themes in all of those spots would have gone a long way, something that Mega Man 10 remedied. 8. Mega Man 7 I'm as surprised as you that it ranks this high, given the way I basically dumped like two-thirds of the soundtrack in a landfill early on, but maybe I was a little unfair in my initial assessment, and the hits here are really good, even if they're guilty pleasures. What sealed this as high as #8 for me though was the fact that this game just KEPT coming up high on all the auxilliary lists - great boss themes, ending themes, etc. And as far as SNES games go, this was probably one of the best-sounding out there. 7. Mega Man III (GB) It's cheating, a little bit, and since it's mostly a rehash of older stuff, I decided to make #7 its ceiling, since above this are the really great original soundtracks. This is one hell of a greatest hits combo, though - probably the four most iconic MM3 themes in Spark, Snake, Shadow and Gemini, as well as some good MM4 themes. And out of all the GB games, I think that this is the crispest port of the NES tracks. It's still not PERFECT - I prefer the NES versions, which can leave the GB versions feeling like they're the diet version of the real thing, which is the other reason I can't rank this higher. But they're not bad at all! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxaB464ycCk See? Not bad! It isn't quite as pretty as the NES version, but it sounds good overall, and it even fixes a little bit of that 'cross-talk' problem between the two leads that I mentioned before, so in some ways it's actually an improvement! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AScjUlCqfQ4 A section of Snake Man isn't quite as nice - a little mushy - but the B section sounds absolutely spot on in my opinion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob8LehvbsW8 Don't love what they did with the intro riff of Shadow Man, but again, everything here sounds like a pretty close facsimile of the original. I won't go over all of them, but they're generally all pretty good sounding. That, combined with the fact that this game has some great extra themes - the Wily stage theme is fantastic, and the get weapon and password themes are top tier too - make this one a really good package. One last thing - I didn't do stage clear or game over theme rankings, because they would have been just too silly - there wasn't really enough to talk about in either of them since they're mostly just short jingles. But this game DOES have my favorite game over theme in the series, and I wanted to highlight it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GCZOWA8hXI This game is, in my opinion, FAR AND AWAY the most difficult game in the series (seriously, try playing it if you don't believe me - Dust Man's stage in MMIII is the hardest level in the entire franchise, no joke), so I heard this game over theme a LOT when I played it as a kid, and it still stands out to me. I dunno why, it's just the coolest game over theme in the whole franchise for some reason, and it's unique to this game. Please play this theme at my funeral as my casket is lowered into the ground. 6. Mega Man 6 Into the real heavy hitters now. I don't have that many takes left to say about Mega Man 6, I don't think. For me, it's the least great of the greats. All of the NES soundtracks are great and this one's no exception. Lots of cool themes here with interesting world music concepts. Not a single theme here that I would consider truly top tier, but nothing that I consider anywhere near the bottom, either - just consistent quality across the board, which still makes this one of the best soundtracks on the NES. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:958951147] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>10. Mega Man The one that started it all. I've said it before, but for 1987, this game was just ahead of its time in so many ways, when games just didn't HAVE soundtracks like this, thematically vibrant and cutting edge with the tools it had to work with. Even if it now lives in Mega Man 2's shadow, I think it still holds up today. 9. Mega Man 9 I feel like I've done more complaining about this soundtrack over the course of this ranking topic than I've done actually singing its praises, but truthfully, I DO like this soundtrack, even if I think it's one of the lesser of the NES-styled ones. Still, the very fact that in 2008, they decided to even release another NES-style Mega Man with another NES-style soundtrack was beyond my wildest dreams, and there's plenty of great hits in here. My biggest complaint is all of the direct lifting that it did from Mega Man 2, which makes the soundtrack feel weirdly incomplete. It's a small detail, but details matter to me, and I feel like original themes in all of those spots would have gone a long way, something that Mega Man 10 remedied. 8. Mega Man 7 I'm as surprised as you that it ranks this high, given the way I basically dumped like two-thirds of the soundtrack in a landfill early on, but maybe I was a little unfair in my initial assessment, and the hits here are really good, even if they're guilty pleasures. What sealed this as high as #8 for me though was the fact that this game just KEPT coming up high on all the auxilliary lists - great boss themes, ending themes, etc. And as far as SNES games go, this was probably one of the best-sounding out there. 7. Mega Man III (GB) It's cheating, a little bit, and since it's mostly a rehash of older stuff, I decided to make #7 its ceiling, since above this are the really great original soundtracks. This is one hell of a greatest hits combo, though - probably the four most iconic MM3 themes in Spark, Snake, Shadow and Gemini, as well as some good MM4 themes. And out of all the GB games, I think that this is the crispest port of the NES tracks. It's still not PERFECT - I prefer the NES versions, which can leave the GB versions feeling like they're the diet version of the real thing, which is the other reason I can't rank this higher. But they're not bad at all! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxaB464ycCk See? Not bad! It isn't quite as pretty as the NES version, but it sounds good overall, and it even fixes a little bit of that 'cross-talk' problem between the two leads that I mentioned before, so in some ways it's actually an improvement! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AScjUlCqfQ4 A section of Snake Man isn't quite as nice - a little mushy - but the B section sounds absolutely spot on in my opinion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob8LehvbsW8 Don't love what they did with the intro riff of Shadow Man, but again, everything here sounds like a pretty close facsimile of the original. I won't go over all of them, but they're generally all pretty good sounding. That, combined with the fact that this game has some great extra themes - the Wily stage theme is fantastic, and the get weapon and password themes are top tier too - make this one a really good package. One last thing - I didn't do stage clear or game over theme rankings, because they would have been just too silly - there wasn't really enough to talk about in either of them since they're mostly just short jingles. But this game DOES have my favorite game over theme in the series, and I wanted to highlight it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0GCZOWA8hXI This game is, in my opinion, FAR AND AWAY the most difficult game in the series (seriously, try playing it if you don't believe me - Dust Man's stage in MMIII is the hardest level in the entire franchise, no joke), so I heard this game over theme a LOT when I played it as a kid, and it still stands out to me. I dunno why, it's just the coolest game over theme in the whole franchise for some reason, and it's unique to this game. Please play this theme at my funeral as my casket is lowered into the ground. 6. Mega Man 6 Into the real heavy hitters now. I don't have that many takes left to say about Mega Man 6, I don't think. For me, it's the least great of the greats. All of the NES soundtracks are great and this one's no exception. Lots of cool themes here with interesting world music concepts. Not a single theme here that I would consider truly top tier, but nothing that I consider anywhere near the bottom, either - just consistent quality across the board, which still makes this one of the best soundtracks on the NES. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 10/12/21 4:02:30 AM #336:	5. Mega Man 4 Can't really hold a candle to its contemporaries in MM2, MM3, and MM5, but that's only because those soundtracks are SO superlative. This one is a little bit of a black sheep by comparison, but it's a black sheep that I sort of adore in all of its weirdness - this soundtrack is packed with creativity and bizarre choices, for better or worse. For me, it's one of the most challenging soundtracks in the bunch, but I consider that to be sort of a good thing. 4. Mega Man 10 A soundtrack that is as all over the place as you would expect from one that has like ten or eleven different composers, I forget exactly how many in all. But the good vastly outweighs the bad here - there's like three good tracks for every less than stellar track, and even the bad tracks in this game are definitely trying to do something new and weird. This soundtrack is a lot more ambitious, in my opinion, than 9 was, and I really appreciate it for that, even if it never caught on with the fans as much as 9 did. What really locks this in at #4 for me is just how cool it was to bring all of the old composers back for one last round - it was a sort of celebration of the series' musical history that I never would have expected them to think of doing, and it really goes to show just how much respect they had for the people who made this series great. That gimmick made this game something special for me, and the soundtrack something of an all-star lineup. 3. Mega Man 2 Here's the thing. I could have taken the easy way out of all of this, right? I could have just said that 2, 3, and 5 are a three-way tie, 1a, 1b, and 1c, and left it at that. It's pretty close to the truth - any one of these three games could be my number 1, depending on how I'm feeling, and all three are leaps and bounds ahead of #4 on this list - it's not even close. But that's COWARDLY. I have three favorite children here and I am FORCING myself to pare it down to one, because that's way more interesting. And when considering it like that, it's surprising how easy it really was for me to put Mega Man 2 at #3. It feels completely sacriligeous, as though I'm doing it just to be contrarian, like I should really know in my heart that MM2 should be #1 all along, for all of my deeply nostalgic ties to it. But no! It's an incredible soundtrack, one of the greatest and most influential of all time, but it just doesn't quite have the sheer depth and mastery of the craft that the other two have. 2. Mega Man 3 An insanely good followup to Mega Man 2 - it's incredible that it's somehow even just slightly better, in my opinion. It's a juggernaut of a soundtrack that's every bit 2's equal. Every theme here is great. But... 1. Mega Man 5 For me, it has to be Mega Man 5 at the very top. Mega Man 3 may have claimed my top spot in the individual stage rankings, but MM5 is the game that owned 3 of the top 5, and 6 of the top 20. Nothing else comes close. Out of every game, this is the one that I not just enjoy the quality of its soundtrack the most overall - not a single theme here that isn't superb - but it's also the one that I've tried to learn the most from in my own writing, as the production quality is just outstanding - maybe the best quality of sound you can get out of the 2A03. Just an incredible gem of a soundtrack out of a game that many people consider to be from Mega Man's declining period. <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:958951154] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>5. Mega Man 4 Can't really hold a candle to its contemporaries in MM2, MM3, and MM5, but that's only because those soundtracks are SO superlative. This one is a little bit of a black sheep by comparison, but it's a black sheep that I sort of adore in all of its weirdness - this soundtrack is packed with creativity and bizarre choices, for better or worse. For me, it's one of the most challenging soundtracks in the bunch, but I consider that to be sort of a good thing. 4. Mega Man 10 A soundtrack that is as all over the place as you would expect from one that has like ten or eleven different composers, I forget exactly how many in all. But the good vastly outweighs the bad here - there's like three good tracks for every less than stellar track, and even the bad tracks in this game are definitely trying to do something new and weird. This soundtrack is a lot more ambitious, in my opinion, than 9 was, and I really appreciate it for that, even if it never caught on with the fans as much as 9 did. What really locks this in at #4 for me is just how cool it was to bring all of the old composers back for one last round - it was a sort of celebration of the series' musical history that I never would have expected them to think of doing, and it really goes to show just how much respect they had for the people who made this series great. That gimmick made this game something special for me, and the soundtrack something of an all-star lineup. 3. Mega Man 2 Here's the thing. I could have taken the easy way out of all of this, right? I could have just said that 2, 3, and 5 are a three-way tie, 1a, 1b, and 1c, and left it at that. It's pretty close to the truth - any one of these three games could be my number 1, depending on how I'm feeling, and all three are leaps and bounds ahead of #4 on this list - it's not even close. But that's COWARDLY. I have three favorite children here and I am FORCING myself to pare it down to one, because that's way more interesting. And when considering it like that, it's surprising how easy it really was for me to put Mega Man 2 at #3. It feels completely sacriligeous, as though I'm doing it just to be contrarian, like I should really know in my heart that MM2 should be #1 all along, for all of my deeply nostalgic ties to it. But no! It's an incredible soundtrack, one of the greatest and most influential of all time, but it just doesn't quite have the sheer depth and mastery of the craft that the other two have. 2. Mega Man 3 An insanely good followup to Mega Man 2 - it's incredible that it's somehow even just slightly better, in my opinion. It's a juggernaut of a soundtrack that's every bit 2's equal. Every theme here is great. But... 1. Mega Man 5 For me, it has to be Mega Man 5 at the very top. Mega Man 3 may have claimed my top spot in the individual stage rankings, but MM5 is the game that owned 3 of the top 5, and 6 of the top 20. Nothing else comes close. Out of every game, this is the one that I not just enjoy the quality of its soundtrack the most overall - not a single theme here that isn't superb - but it's also the one that I've tried to learn the most from in my own writing, as the production quality is just outstanding - maybe the best quality of sound you can get out of the 2A03. Just an incredible gem of a soundtrack out of a game that many people consider to be from Mega Man's declining period. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 10/12/21 4:09:20 AM #337:	And that's everything! Thank you so much to everyone for reading along with this ridiculous list even through all the crazy delays! I'm really glad that people thought this list was cool and not just a stupid obsession of mine, and it really made me feel like I had to do a good job with it at some point. I've always wanted to do this ranking, and it was a lot to get out of my system, so thank you so much for sticking with it. I'll leave this topic up for a little while longer so that everyone can catch up with it - might still have a few people I want to show this to. All of the lists! GAMES 1. Mega Man 5 2. Mega Man 3 3. Mega Man 2 4. Mega Man 10 5. Mega Man 4 6. Mega Man 6 7. Mega Man III (GB) 8. Mega Man 7 9. Mega Man 9 10. Mega Man 11. Mega Man & Bass (GBA) 12. Mega Man V (GB) 13. Mega Man IV (GB) 14. Mega Man Soccer 15. Mega Man: Powered Up 16. Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge 17. Mega Man 8 18. Mega Man 11 19. Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters 20. Mega Man & Bass (SFC) 21. Mega Man II (GB) 22. Mega Man: The Wily Wars 23. Wily & Light's Rockboard: That's Paradise!! 24. Mega Man Battle & Chase 25. Mega Man: The Power Battle 26. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future STAGE THEMES 1. Gemini Man (3) 2. Gravity Man (5) 3. Dark Man (5) 4. Crash Man (2) 5. Wave Man (5) 6. Shadow Man (3) 7. Air Man (2) 8. Dr. Wily 1 (2) 9. Dr. Wily 1 (7) 10. Dr. Wily (S) 11. Solar Man (10) 12. Dr. Wily 2 (10) 13. Quick Man (2) 14. Cold Man (B) 15. Venus (V) 16. Spark Man (3) 17. Gyro Man (5) 18. Napalm Man (5) 19. Charge Man (5) 20. Needle Man (3) 21. Toad Man (4) 22. Drill Man (4) 23. Bright Man (4) 24. Magnet Man (3) 25. Sheep Man (10) 26. Flash Man (2) 27. Galaxy Man (9) 28. Dr. Wily 2 (7) 29. Ballade (10) 30. Dr. Wily 3 (10) 31. Dr. Wily (5) 32. Dr. Wily 2 (2) 33. Heat Man (2) 34. Top Man (3) 35. Yamato Man (6) 36. Burst Man (7) 37. Uranus (V) 38. Bomb Man (1) 39. Crystal Man (5) 40. Blizzard Man (6) 41. Dr. Wily 1 (3) 42. Snake Man (3) 43. Fire Man (1) 44. Dr. Wily 2 (V) 45. Metal Man (2) 46. Dive Man (4) 47. Centaur Man (6) 48. Astro Man (8) 49. Stone Man (5) 50. Pharaoh Man (4) 51. Tornado Man (9) 52. Nitro Man (10) 53. Fuse Man (11) 54. Dr. Wily 2 (9) 55. Pirate Man (B) 56. Chill Man (10) 57. Flame Man (6) 58. Hard Man (3) 59. Bubble Man (2) 60. Astro Man (B) 61. Dr. Cossack 1 (4) 62. Plant Man (6) 63. Dr. Wily 1 (9) 64. Jewel Man (9) 65. Wind Man (6) 66. Slash Man (7) 67. Dr. Wily 2 (WW) 68. Dynamo Man (B) 69. Pharaoh Man (S) 70. Star Man (5) 71. Dr. Wily 1 (8) 72. Elec Man (S) 73. Wood Man (S) 74. Dr. Wily (IV) 75. Dr. Wily 2 (4) 76. Dust Man (4) 77. Dr. Wily 2 (III) 78. Wood Man (2) 79. Cut Man (1) 80. Tomahawk Man (6) 81. Ring Man (4) 82. Dr. Wily 1 (I) 83. Dr. Wily 1 (10) 84. Dr. Wily 2 (3) 85. King (B) 86. Dr. Wily 4 (10) 87. Splash Woman (9) 88. Knight Man (6) 89. Jupiter (V) 90. Ground Man (B) 91. Tengu Man (B) 92. Dr. Cossack 2 (4) 93. Pump Man (10) 94. Dr. Wily 3 (3) 95. Mars (V) 96. Elec Man (1) 97. Search Man (8) 98. Mr. X (6) 99. Dr. Wily (6) 100. Ice Man (1) 101. Shade Man (Alternate) (7) 102. Dr. Wily 3 (9) 103. Burner Man (B) 104. Intro Stage (7) 105. Mercury (V) 106. Metal Man (II) 107. Skull Man (S) 108. Needle Man (II) 109. Top Man (II) 110. Dr. Light's Trial (11) 111. Wood Man (II) 112. Intro Stage (B) 113. Dr. Wily 2 (I) 114. Dr. Wily 1 (V) 115. Dr. Wily (II) 116. Mega Water S (WW) 117. Intro Stage 1 (8) 118. Air Man (II) 119. Magnet Man (II) 120. Dr. Wily 5 (10) 121. Dr. Wily 1 (4) 122. Dr. Wily 4 (WW) 123. Shade Man (7) 124. Frost Man (8) 125. Dr. Wily (11) 126. Commando Man (10) 127. Dr. Wily 1 (1) 128. Plug Man (9) 129. Endless Stage (9) 130. Punk (10) 131. Clash Man (II) 132. Skull Man (4) 133. Bounce Man (11) 134. Tengu Man (PS1) (8) 135. Fake Man (9) 136. Enker (10) 137. Saturn (V) 138. Time Man (PU) 139. Hornet Man (9) 140. Pluto (V) 141. Neptune (V) 142. Dust Man (S) 143. Hard Man (II) 144. Blade Man (10) 145. Tundra Man (11) 146. Oil Man (PU) 147. Magma Man (9) 148. Dr. Wily 1 Intro (10) 149. Dr. Wily 1 (III) 150. Guts Man (1) 151. Grenade Man (8) 152. Acid Man (11) 153. Fire Man (S) 154. Dr. Wily 3 (WW) 155. Dr. Wily 2 (1) 156. Intro Stage (PU) 157. Dr. Wily (B) 158. Hyper Storm H (WW) 159. Enker (S) 160. Dr. Wily 4 (9) 161. Dr. Wily 3 (7) 162. Junk Man (7) 163. Freeze Man (7) 164. Dr. Wily 4 (7) 165. Magic Man (B) 166. Cloud Man (7) 167. Spring Man (7) 168. Strike Man (10) 169. Concrete Man (9) 170. Turbo Man (7) 171. Tengu Man (Saturn) (8) 172. Endless Stage (10) 173. Mega Man (S) 174. Sword Man (8) 175. Cut Man (S) 176. Proto Man (S) 177. Buster Rod G (WW) 178. Aqua Man (8) 179. Needle Man (S) 180. Dr. Wily 3 (8) 181. Intro Stage 2 (8) 182. Dr. Wily 1 (WW) 183. Dr. Wily 2 (8) 184. Clown Man (8) 185. Impact Man (11) 186. Blast Man (11) 187. Torch Man (11) 188. Block Man (11) 189. Dr. Wily 4 (8) 190. Challenge (10) 191. Capsule Room (B) 192. Robot Museum (7) OPENING/TITLE THEMES 1. Mega Man 2 2. Mega Man 3 3. Mega Man 8 (Japan) 4. Mega Man 5 5. Mega Man 4 6. Mega Man 6 7. Mega Man 9 8. Mega Man IV (GB) 9. Mega Man 10 10. Mega Man 7 11. Mega Man 11 12. Mega Man V (GB) 13. Mega Man 8 (International) 14. Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters 15. Mega Man III (GB) 16. Mega Man II (GB) 17. Mega Man: The Power Battle 18. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future 19. Mega Man Battle & Chase 20. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge 21. Mega Man Soccer 22. Mega Man & Bass 23. Mega Man: The Wily Wars 24. Mega Man: Powered Up 25. Mega Man Legacy Collection 26. Wily & Light's Rockboard: That's Paradise!! 27. Mega Man Anniversary Collection STAGE SELECT THEMES 1. Mega Man 2 2. Mega Man 3 3. Mega Man 11 4. Mega Man 6 5. Mega Man 7 6. Mega Man 9 7. Mega Man 8 8. Mega Man 10 9. Mega Man 5 10. Mega Man 11. Mega Man IV 12. Mega Man II 13. Mega Man 4 14. Mega Man: The Wily Wars 15. Mega Man V 16. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge 17. Mega Man & Bass 18. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future STAGE START THEMES 1. Mega Man 6 2. Mega Man 10 3. Mega Man 3 4. Mega Man 5 5. Mega Man: Powered Up 6. Mega Man 1 7. Mega Man 2 8. Mega Man 4 9. Mega Man & Bass (GBA) 10. Rockman & Forte (SFC) 11. Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters 12. Mega Man 8 13. Mega Man 11 14. Mega Man III (GB) 15. Mega Man 7 16. Mega Man V (GB) 17. Mega Man II (GB) 18. Mega Man: The Wily Wars (Wily Tower) 19. Mega Man Soccer 20. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge 21. Mega Man IV (GB) 22. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future 23. Mega Man: The Power Battle 24. Mega Man: The Wily Wars (MM1) 25. Mega Man: The Wily Wars (MM2) 26. Mega Man: The Wily Wars (MM3) ROBOT MASTER BATTLE THEMES 1. Mega Man 3 2. Mega Man 7 3. Mega Man 6 4. Mega Man 5 5. Mega Man 10 6. Mega Man 2 7. Mega Man 9 8. Mega Man 4 9. Mega Man: Powered Up 10. Mega Man & Bass 11. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge 12. Mega Man IV 13. Mega Man V 14. Mega Man 1 15. Mega Man 11 16. Mega Man 8 17. Mega Man II 18. Mega Man: The Wily Wars <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:958951241] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>And that's everything! Thank you so much to everyone for reading along with this ridiculous list even through all the crazy delays! I'm really glad that people thought this list was cool and not just a stupid obsession of mine, and it really made me feel like I had to do a good job with it at some point. I've always wanted to do this ranking, and it was a lot to get out of my system, so thank you so much for sticking with it. I'll leave this topic up for a little while longer so that everyone can catch up with it - might still have a few people I want to show this to. All of the lists! GAMES 1. Mega Man 5 2. Mega Man 3 3. Mega Man 2 4. Mega Man 10 5. Mega Man 4 6. Mega Man 6 7. Mega Man III (GB) 8. Mega Man 7 9. Mega Man 9 10. Mega Man 11. Mega Man & Bass (GBA) 12. Mega Man V (GB) 13. Mega Man IV (GB) 14. Mega Man Soccer 15. Mega Man: Powered Up 16. Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge 17. Mega Man 8 18. Mega Man 11 19. Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters 20. Mega Man & Bass (SFC) 21. Mega Man II (GB) 22. Mega Man: The Wily Wars 23. Wily & Light's Rockboard: That's Paradise!! 24. Mega Man Battle & Chase 25. Mega Man: The Power Battle 26. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future STAGE THEMES 1. Gemini Man (3) 2. Gravity Man (5) 3. Dark Man (5) 4. Crash Man (2) 5. Wave Man (5) 6. Shadow Man (3) 7. Air Man (2) 8. Dr. Wily 1 (2) 9. Dr. Wily 1 (7) 10. Dr. Wily (S) 11. Solar Man (10) 12. Dr. Wily 2 (10) 13. Quick Man (2) 14. Cold Man (B) 15. Venus (V) 16. Spark Man (3) 17. Gyro Man (5) 18. Napalm Man (5) 19. Charge Man (5) 20. Needle Man (3) 21. Toad Man (4) 22. Drill Man (4) 23. Bright Man (4) 24. Magnet Man (3) 25. Sheep Man (10) 26. Flash Man (2) 27. Galaxy Man (9) 28. Dr. Wily 2 (7) 29. Ballade (10) 30. Dr. Wily 3 (10) 31. Dr. Wily (5) 32. Dr. Wily 2 (2) 33. Heat Man (2) 34. Top Man (3) 35. Yamato Man (6) 36. Burst Man (7) 37. Uranus (V) 38. Bomb Man (1) 39. Crystal Man (5) 40. Blizzard Man (6) 41. Dr. Wily 1 (3) 42. Snake Man (3) 43. Fire Man (1) 44. Dr. Wily 2 (V) 45. Metal Man (2) 46. Dive Man (4) 47. Centaur Man (6) 48. Astro Man (8) 49. Stone Man (5) 50. Pharaoh Man (4) 51. Tornado Man (9) 52. Nitro Man (10) 53. Fuse Man (11) 54. Dr. Wily 2 (9) 55. Pirate Man (B) 56. Chill Man (10) 57. Flame Man (6) 58. Hard Man (3) 59. Bubble Man (2) 60. Astro Man (B) 61. Dr. Cossack 1 (4) 62. Plant Man (6) 63. Dr. Wily 1 (9) 64. Jewel Man (9) 65. Wind Man (6) 66. Slash Man (7) 67. Dr. Wily 2 (WW) 68. Dynamo Man (B) 69. Pharaoh Man (S) 70. Star Man (5) 71. Dr. Wily 1 (8) 72. Elec Man (S) 73. Wood Man (S) 74. Dr. Wily (IV) 75. Dr. Wily 2 (4) 76. Dust Man (4) 77. Dr. Wily 2 (III) 78. Wood Man (2) 79. Cut Man (1) 80. Tomahawk Man (6) 81. Ring Man (4) 82. Dr. Wily 1 (I) 83. Dr. Wily 1 (10) 84. Dr. Wily 2 (3) 85. King (B) 86. Dr. Wily 4 (10) 87. Splash Woman (9) 88. Knight Man (6) 89. Jupiter (V) 90. Ground Man (B) 91. Tengu Man (B) 92. Dr. Cossack 2 (4) 93. Pump Man (10) 94. Dr. Wily 3 (3) 95. Mars (V) 96. Elec Man (1) 97. Search Man (8) 98. Mr. X (6) 99. Dr. Wily (6) 100. Ice Man (1) 101. Shade Man (Alternate) (7) 102. Dr. Wily 3 (9) 103. Burner Man (B) 104. Intro Stage (7) 105. Mercury (V) 106. Metal Man (II) 107. Skull Man (S) 108. Needle Man (II) 109. Top Man (II) 110. Dr. Light's Trial (11) 111. Wood Man (II) 112. Intro Stage (B) 113. Dr. Wily 2 (I) 114. Dr. Wily 1 (V) 115. Dr. Wily (II) 116. Mega Water S (WW) 117. Intro Stage 1 (8) 118. Air Man (II) 119. Magnet Man (II) 120. Dr. Wily 5 (10) 121. Dr. Wily 1 (4) 122. Dr. Wily 4 (WW) 123. Shade Man (7) 124. Frost Man (8) 125. Dr. Wily (11) 126. Commando Man (10) 127. Dr. Wily 1 (1) 128. Plug Man (9) 129. Endless Stage (9) 130. Punk (10) 131. Clash Man (II) 132. Skull Man (4) 133. Bounce Man (11) 134. Tengu Man (PS1) (8) 135. Fake Man (9) 136. Enker (10) 137. Saturn (V) 138. Time Man (PU) 139. Hornet Man (9) 140. Pluto (V) 141. Neptune (V) 142. Dust Man (S) 143. Hard Man (II) 144. Blade Man (10) 145. Tundra Man (11) 146. Oil Man (PU) 147. Magma Man (9) 148. Dr. Wily 1 Intro (10) 149. Dr. Wily 1 (III) 150. Guts Man (1) 151. Grenade Man (8) 152. Acid Man (11) 153. Fire Man (S) 154. Dr. Wily 3 (WW) 155. Dr. Wily 2 (1) 156. Intro Stage (PU) 157. Dr. Wily (B) 158. Hyper Storm H (WW) 159. Enker (S) 160. Dr. Wily 4 (9) 161. Dr. Wily 3 (7) 162. Junk Man (7) 163. Freeze Man (7) 164. Dr. Wily 4 (7) 165. Magic Man (B) 166. Cloud Man (7) 167. Spring Man (7) 168. Strike Man (10) 169. Concrete Man (9) 170. Turbo Man (7) 171. Tengu Man (Saturn) (8) 172. Endless Stage (10) 173. Mega Man (S) 174. Sword Man (8) 175. Cut Man (S) 176. Proto Man (S) 177. Buster Rod G (WW) 178. Aqua Man (8) 179. Needle Man (S) 180. Dr. Wily 3 (8) 181. Intro Stage 2 (8) 182. Dr. Wily 1 (WW) 183. Dr. Wily 2 (8) 184. Clown Man (8) 185. Impact Man (11) 186. Blast Man (11) 187. Torch Man (11) 188. Block Man (11) 189. Dr. Wily 4 (8) 190. Challenge (10) 191. Capsule Room (B) 192. Robot Museum (7) OPENING/TITLE THEMES 1. Mega Man 2 2. Mega Man 3 3. Mega Man 8 (Japan) 4. Mega Man 5 5. Mega Man 4 6. Mega Man 6 7. Mega Man 9 8. Mega Man IV (GB) 9. Mega Man 10 10. Mega Man 7 11. Mega Man 11 12. Mega Man V (GB) 13. Mega Man 8 (International) 14. Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters 15. Mega Man III (GB) 16. Mega Man II (GB) 17. Mega Man: The Power Battle 18. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future 19. Mega Man Battle & Chase 20. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge 21. Mega Man Soccer 22. Mega Man & Bass 23. Mega Man: The Wily Wars 24. Mega Man: Powered Up 25. Mega Man Legacy Collection 26. Wily & Light's Rockboard: That's Paradise!! 27. Mega Man Anniversary Collection STAGE SELECT THEMES 1. Mega Man 2 2. Mega Man 3 3. Mega Man 11 4. Mega Man 6 5. Mega Man 7 6. Mega Man 9 7. Mega Man 8 8. Mega Man 10 9. Mega Man 5 10. Mega Man 11. Mega Man IV 12. Mega Man II 13. Mega Man 4 14. Mega Man: The Wily Wars 15. Mega Man V 16. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge 17. Mega Man & Bass 18. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future STAGE START THEMES 1. Mega Man 6 2. Mega Man 10 3. Mega Man 3 4. Mega Man 5 5. Mega Man: Powered Up 6. Mega Man 1 7. Mega Man 2 8. Mega Man 4 9. Mega Man & Bass (GBA) 10. Rockman & Forte (SFC) 11. Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters 12. Mega Man 8 13. Mega Man 11 14. Mega Man III (GB) 15. Mega Man 7 16. Mega Man V (GB) 17. Mega Man II (GB) 18. Mega Man: The Wily Wars (Wily Tower) 19. Mega Man Soccer 20. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge 21. Mega Man IV (GB) 22. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future 23. Mega Man: The Power Battle 24. Mega Man: The Wily Wars (MM1) 25. Mega Man: The Wily Wars (MM2) 26. Mega Man: The Wily Wars (MM3) ROBOT MASTER BATTLE THEMES 1. Mega Man 3 2. Mega Man 7 3. Mega Man 6 4. Mega Man 5 5. Mega Man 10 6. Mega Man 2 7. Mega Man 9 8. Mega Man 4 9. Mega Man: Powered Up 10. Mega Man & Bass 11. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge 12. Mega Man IV 13. Mega Man V 14. Mega Man 1 15. Mega Man 11 16. Mega Man 8 17. Mega Man II 18. Mega Man: The Wily Wars </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Paratroopa1 10/12/21 4:09:27 AM #338:	WEAPON GET THEMES 1. Mega Man 3 2. Mega Man III 3. Mega Man 4 4. Mega Man 6 5. Mega Man 2/Mega Man 9 6. Mega Man 5 7. Mega Man 8 8. Mega Man 7 9. Mega Man 10 10. Mega Man II 11. Mega Man & Bass 12. Mega Man 11 13. Mega Man V 14. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge 15. Mega Man IV 16. Mega Man Soccer 17. Mega Man: Powered Up 18. Mega Man: The Wily Wars PASSWORD/MENU THEMES 1. Mega Man V 2. Mega Man 10 3. Mega Man 11 4. Mega Man III 5. Mega Man 3 6. Mega Man & Bass 7. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge 8. Mega Man IV 9. Mega Man II 10. Mega Man 7 11. Mega Man 5/Soccer 12. Mega Man: The Wily Wars 13. Mega Man Soccer (Formation) 14. Mega Man 6 15. Mega Man 2 16. Mega Man 4 SHOP THEMES 1. Mega Man 10 (Bass) 2. Mega Man 10 (Proto Man) 3. Mega Man 9 4. Mega Man 11 5. Mega Man & Bass 6. Mega Man & Bass (CD Database) 7. Mega Man 8 8. Mega Man 10 (Mega Man) 9. Mega Man V 10. Mega Man IV 11. Mega Man 7 WILY MAP THEMES 1. Mega Man 10 2. Mega Man 2 3. Mega Man 3 4. Mega Man 4 Cossack 5. Mega Man 7 6. Mega Man 11 7. Mega Man III 8. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge 9. Mega Man 5 Wily 10. Mega Man 6 Mr. X 11. Mega Man 5 Dark Man 12. Mega Man IV 13. Mega Man 4 Wily 14. Mega Man 6 Wily 15. Mega Man: Wily Wars 16. Mega Man & Bass 17. Mega Man 8 18. Mega Man II WILY STAGE/SPECIAL BOSS THEMES 1. Mega Man 3 2. Mega Man 7 (Bass) 3. Mega Man 1 4. Mega Man 11 5. Mega Man 7 6. Mega Man IV (Ballade) 7. Mega Man 10 8. Mega Man: The Power Battle (Yellow Devil) 9. Mega Man V (Terra) 10. Mega Man 8 (Midboss) 11. Mega Man 8 (Bass) 12. Mega Man & Bass 13. Mega Man 8 (Duo) FINAL BOSS THEMES 1. Mega Man 5 2. Mega Man V 3. Mega Man 11 (Capsule) 4. Mega Man 7 5. Mega Man 10 (Capsule) 6. Mega Man IV 7. Mega Man 10 (Machine) 8. Mega Man 9 9. Mega Man 11 (Machine) 10. Mega Man 6 11. Mega Man 4 12. Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters (Capsule) 13. Mega Man 8 ENDING/STAFF ROLL THEMES 1. Mega Man 2 (Staff Roll) 2. Mega Man 3 (Ending) 3. Mega Man 7 4. Mega Man 5 5. Mega Man 8 6. Mega Man 2 (Ending) 7. Mega Man 8. Mega Man 3 (Staff Roll) 9. Mega Man: The Wily Wars 10. Mega Man Soccer (Robot Master credits) 11. Mega Man 4 (Ending) 12. Mega Man & Bass 13. Mega Man 9 14. Mega Man Soccer (Ending/Staff Roll) 15. Mega Man: Powered Up 16. Mega Man Battle & Chase 17. Mega Man 10 18. Mega Man 6 19. Mega Man 11 20. Mega Man III 21. Mega Man V 22. Mega Man IV 23. Mega Man II 24. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future 25. Wily & Light's Rockboard: That's Paradise!! 26. Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge 27. Mega Man 4 (Staff Roll) Thank you for reading! <cite>Paratroopa1 posted [p:958951243] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote> WEAPON GET THEMES 1. Mega Man 3 2. Mega Man III 3. Mega Man 4 4. Mega Man 6 5. Mega Man 2/Mega Man 9 6. Mega Man 5 7. Mega Man 8 8. Mega Man 7 9. Mega Man 10 10. Mega Man II 11. Mega Man & Bass 12. Mega Man 11 13. Mega Man V 14. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge 15. Mega Man IV 16. Mega Man Soccer 17. Mega Man: Powered Up 18. Mega Man: The Wily Wars PASSWORD/MENU THEMES 1. Mega Man V 2. Mega Man 10 3. Mega Man 11 4. Mega Man III 5. Mega Man 3 6. Mega Man & Bass 7. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge 8. Mega Man IV 9. Mega Man II 10. Mega Man 7 11. Mega Man 5/Soccer 12. Mega Man: The Wily Wars 13. Mega Man Soccer (Formation) 14. Mega Man 6 15. Mega Man 2 16. Mega Man 4 SHOP THEMES 1. Mega Man 10 (Bass) 2. Mega Man 10 (Proto Man) 3. Mega Man 9 4. Mega Man 11 5. Mega Man & Bass 6. Mega Man & Bass (CD Database) 7. Mega Man 8 8. Mega Man 10 (Mega Man) 9. Mega Man V 10. Mega Man IV 11. Mega Man 7 WILY MAP THEMES 1. Mega Man 10 2. Mega Man 2 3. Mega Man 3 4. Mega Man 4 Cossack 5. Mega Man 7 6. Mega Man 11 7. Mega Man III 8. Mega Man: Dr. Wily's Revenge 9. Mega Man 5 Wily 10. Mega Man 6 Mr. X 11. Mega Man 5 Dark Man 12. Mega Man IV 13. Mega Man 4 Wily 14. Mega Man 6 Wily 15. Mega Man: Wily Wars 16. Mega Man & Bass 17. Mega Man 8 18. Mega Man II WILY STAGE/SPECIAL BOSS THEMES 1. Mega Man 3 2. Mega Man 7 (Bass) 3. Mega Man 1 4. Mega Man 11 5. Mega Man 7 6. Mega Man IV (Ballade) 7. Mega Man 10 8. Mega Man: The Power Battle (Yellow Devil) 9. Mega Man V (Terra) 10. Mega Man 8 (Midboss) 11. Mega Man 8 (Bass) 12. Mega Man & Bass 13. Mega Man 8 (Duo) FINAL BOSS THEMES 1. Mega Man 5 2. Mega Man V 3. Mega Man 11 (Capsule) 4. Mega Man 7 5. Mega Man 10 (Capsule) 6. Mega Man IV 7. Mega Man 10 (Machine) 8. Mega Man 9 9. Mega Man 11 (Machine) 10. Mega Man 6 11. Mega Man 4 12. Mega Man 2: The Power Fighters (Capsule) 13. Mega Man 8 ENDING/STAFF ROLL THEMES 1. Mega Man 2 (Staff Roll) 2. Mega Man 3 (Ending) 3. Mega Man 7 4. Mega Man 5 5. Mega Man 8 6. Mega Man 2 (Ending) 7. Mega Man 8. Mega Man 3 (Staff Roll) 9. Mega Man: The Wily Wars 10. Mega Man Soccer (Robot Master credits) 11. Mega Man 4 (Ending) 12. Mega Man & Bass 13. Mega Man 9 14. Mega Man Soccer (Ending/Staff Roll) 15. Mega Man: Powered Up 16. Mega Man Battle & Chase 17. Mega Man 10 18. Mega Man 6 19. Mega Man 11 20. Mega Man III 21. Mega Man V 22. Mega Man IV 23. Mega Man II 24. Rockman & Forte: Challenger From The Future 25. Wily & Light's Rockboard: That's Paradise!! 26. Mega Man: Dr Wily's Revenge 27. Mega Man 4 (Staff Roll) Thank you for reading! </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Anagram 10/12/21 9:30:28 AM #339:	Excellent work, para! --- Not changing this sig until I decide to change this sig. Started: July 6, 2005 <cite>Anagram posted [p:958955489] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Excellent work, para! </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
PrinceOfKoopas 10/12/21 12:26:54 PM #340:	Thanks for putting this whole ranking together. It was a pleasure. --- For the best videogame commentary story on the Internet (sometimes featuring GameFAQs poll of the days and contest discussion) visit https://www.koopatv.org <cite>PrinceOfKoopas posted [p:958960145] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Thanks for putting this whole ranking together. It was a pleasure. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Lopen 10/12/21 12:30:18 PM #341:	I gave you crap for taking so long on the last few but I did very much enjoy reading thoughts on these and for the most part agree with your ranking too. Gemini Man was always one of my more (I thought, now I'm not sure) off kilter favorites so good to see it get some love too. --- No problem! This is a cute and pop genocide of love! <cite>Lopen posted [p:958960261] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>I gave you crap for taking so long on the last few but I did very much enjoy reading thoughts on these and for the most part agree with your ranking too. Gemini Man was always one of my more (I thought, now I'm not sure) off kilter favorites so good to see it get some love too. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
NBIceman 10/12/21 12:31:51 PM #342:	Fantastic topic, thanks for all the hard work. --- Chilly McFreeze https://imgur.com/UYamul2 <cite>NBIceman posted [p:958960313] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Fantastic topic, thanks for all the hard work. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Leonhart4 10/12/21 12:35:08 PM #343:	I didn't comment much because I don't know how to talk about music but it was a fun read --- https://imgur.com/WqDcNNq https://imgur.com/89Z5jrB <cite>Leonhart4 posted [p:958960406] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>I didn't comment much because I don't know how to talk about music but it was a fun read </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
WarThaNemesis2 10/12/21 12:41:10 PM #344:	Right at the end, Para brings up the most important thing about the Mega Man series. MMIII Dust Man's stage is hell. --- Not a stinky alien. :( Nintendo Switch Code: SW-5719-6555-8388 <cite>WarThaNemesis2 posted [p:958960586] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Right at the end, Para brings up the most important thing about the Mega Man series. MMIII Dust Man's stage is hell. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Team Rocket Elite 10/12/21 7:40:37 PM #345:	Good read. Thanks for doing this! --- My bracket looked like random picks compared to his. Congrats to azuarc for winning the GotD 2020 Guru Contest! <cite>Team Rocket Elite posted [p:958973227] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Good read. Thanks for doing this!</quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Naye745 10/12/21 10:11:11 PM #346:	good stuff - i feel like there's quite a bit of variety and fun stuff here despite mega man being a series with a reputation of a certain style of music (hi mm2 wily 1) --- it's an underwater adventure ride <cite>Naye745 posted [p:958977364] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>good stuff - i feel like there's quite a bit of variety and fun stuff here despite mega man being a series with a reputation of a certain style of music (hi mm2 wily 1) </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Xarnax42 10/14/21 5:27:44 PM #347:	This entire topic is incredible. Your ability to analyze these tunes and communicate the minutiae that enhance or detract from your enjoyment of them is exceptional. Thanks for taking the time to be as thorough as you were. <cite>Xarnax42 posted [p:959034754] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>This entire topic is incredible. Your ability to analyze these tunes and communicate the minutiae that enhance or detract from your enjoyment of them is exceptional. Thanks for taking the time to be as thorough as you were. </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
HasteDeux 10/14/21 9:06:30 PM #348:	Yes, it was a great topic with great write-ups! (even if I skipped most of it) --- "Ah, a party! We haven't had one of those. It could be fun! So... what is a party?" "Well, you drink punch and eat CAKE! ...I think." <cite>HasteDeux posted [p:959041160] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>Yes, it was a great topic with great write-ups! (even if I skipped most of it) </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
WiggumFan267 10/14/21 10:50:35 PM #349:	good topic --- ~Wigs~ 3-Time Consecutive Fantasy B8 Baseball Champion 2015 NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPION NEW YORK METS <cite>WiggumFan267 posted [p:959044254] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>good topic </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
Mr Lasastryke 10/20/21 10:15:59 AM #350:	ok, i'm just now reading a lot of these writeups and listening to the songs and i have a question about your mega man 7 wily 2 writeup: is your point "people shouldn't make such a big deal out of this song ripping off thriller" or is it "it's stupid that the balan wonderland theme gets so much crap for ripping off ghostbusters, as this happens all the time in VGM - just look at wily 2 ripping off thriller!"? i THINK it's the latter, as wily 2 doesn't seem to be particularly disliked in spite of its possible plagiarism (it has a like-to-dislike ratio of 1K to 6 on youtube) but i'm just making sure! --- Geothermal terpsichorean ejectamenta <cite>Mr Lasastryke posted [p:959216728] in Para ranks... [t:79360411]...</cite> <quote>ok, i'm just now reading a lot of these writeups and listening to the songs and i have a question about your mega man 7 wily 2 writeup: is your point "people shouldn't make such a big deal out of this song ripping off thriller" or is it "it's stupid that the balan wonderland theme gets so much crap for ripping off ghostbusters, as this happens all the time in VGM - just look at wily 2 ripping off thriller!"? i THINK it's the latter, as wily 2 doesn't seem to be particularly disliked in spite of its possible plagiarism (it has a like-to-dislike ratio of 1K to 6 on youtube) but i'm just making sure! </quote> ... Copied to Clipboard!
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Board 8 > Para ranks every classic Mega Man stage theme (+) Yeah! (+)

Board 8 > Para ranks every classic Mega Man stage theme