Best sound in Genesis/Megadrive games

[SoulBlazer]

Well, whatever -- I think there's a reason why I have like 12 OST's taken straight from SNES games and I only have 2 from the Genesis.

The SNES just had a better sound chip and processor. Not that every game had good music -- you still had to WORK on it. But it was easier with the SNES to get great sounding stuff.

Also, like I said eariler, many companies just ported their games from one system to the other and did'nt take time to rewrite the music (or the graphics, etc.) for the other system. That did'nt help matters either, since usually you could get away with doing that for the SNES but not the Genesis.

I can think of systems with worse music, though.

[Dimitri]

...what the?

Has nobody mentioned Rocket Knight Adventures yet? ToeJam & Earl, mayhaps? For shame...

Well, at least someone mentioned Comix Zone -- sounds better than most of the "rock" albums released nowadays.

chrisbid: Maybe that's why popular opinion states that the SNES sounds better -- those FF fanboiz and their orchestral soundtracks...the SNES could never tear up a club like the Genny can.

[chrisbid]

well SNES fanboys are an interesting bunch. i tried to play Gradius III today, and as soon as i got two options, the game started choking up bigtime. its easier to enjoy the music when the action is non-existent

[SoulBlazer]

I never said I was a fanboy, but I had a SNES a lot longer then I had a Genesis.

And I never had any slowdown with Gradius III.......strange.

Maybe it was, and we just never noticed it?

GREAT music from that game, though...that's one of my 12 SNES OST's.

[digitalpress]

I hope that I live to see the day when fanboys are smart enough to stay out of the competitive system's threads. I doubt I ever will, though, and these "my system is better" arguments will continue throughout time.

Shorter version: it would be nice if we could stick to the Genesis music capabilities in this thread, the on-topic posts are interesting.

[thehistorian]

Personally I don't immediately assume that “best sound” means “best music”.

Look at Ecco, it sounded very good to my ears…

[Push Upstairs]

First, i am shocked that Sega of Japan would try and bury the Sonic series after the first. Sonic 3+Knuckles was awesome.

As for the Genesis sound

Sonic 3's "Hydrocity" and "Marble Garden" levels had some sweet music. And how soon we forget "Icecap Zone".

And of course, there is the Streets of Rage series. The music was top notch (even some in SOR3)


The only time i put my faith in the Genesis music chip in question was when playing that Mega Man collection. I dont know if it was the emulator of if it is indeed a goof with the Genesis, but that Metal Man music was off and thats a sin

[MegaDrive20XX]

Streets of Rage 2
Sonic 2
Sonic 3
Contra Hard Corps
CastleVania Bloodlines

are probably five of the best soundtracks I personally love from the MegaDrive/Genesis

[crazyjackcsa]

If memory serves, I think there were some differences in the Genny 1 and 2 hardware (other than size) I can't remember exactly, but I think the Genesis 1 had better sound.

My favorites were Subterrania, Sonic 2 and Earthworm Jim. I also liked Ecco. A low point would have to be Batman Forever.

[SoulBlazer]

Sorry, Joe, just responded to a challenge. I don't think anyone is going to argue the point that Genesis games just don't sound as good as SNES ones, and hence I understand why people ask what games did push the system.

Castlevania: Bloodlines is far and away my favorite pick for best music on the Genesis, both in terms of quality and preformance.

[le geek]

I liked the music a lot in Earthworm Jim and strangely enough Gauntlet IV...

Cheers,
Ben

[Neil Koch]

I really like the music in Gauntlet IV also.

My favorite is Revenge of Shinobi. That was the first game music I heard that I thought would be cool to have on a CD.

[FurinkanianFrood]

Yeah, the Genesis sound is fine as long as it just uses the normal fm synth. I think the horrible reputation of the sound comes from games that try to do things that it wasn't meant to do (like the aforementioned orchestral/samples etc.)

The problem really arises I suppose when porting games (like the SFII series) that have voices in the original. If the voices weren't there I think people would have been I lot more upset (even though the voices are tinny, it would be strange to have Ryu and co. say nothing when performing moves, some people might think somethings broken or such.)

As was mentioned, even in the early days there were good soundtracks on games (Revenge of Shinobi is a perfect example) because the folks doing the soundtracks (especially Yuzo Koshiro) knew how to use the sound chip effectively.

Does't the genesis Z80 processor control the yamaha sound chip? Freeing up the main processor for graphics. I remember the first time I plugged the stereo headphone jack into my stereo while playing altered beast. The bgm of the 4th level at full bass was shaking my house.

Comparing all the systems available in 1990 I thought the genny had great sound. The music in Revenge of Shinobi and Streets of rage and Ghouls and ghosts was great.

Is it my imagination or is the sound in the model 1 genny, the first revision, better than the model II ? Actually I hook my mod 1 to my SegaCD with the patch cable and I get great sound.

I think you're right about the Genny 1, I didn't play anything on a Genny 2 until recently, and it sounds much worse. Actually, I didn't realize what was happening at first, which was one of the reasons I started this thread (there are some games I got recently that I had only played on the Genny 2 that came with the SegaCD 2 unit I bought recently, and they sound awful on it).
I need to buy an adapter for the Gen1 now....

The Genny 2 probably has something to do with the rep of the sound chip also?

Yeah, I am not really one to say that the sound is bad, yesterday I was thinking it could have been better relative to the time it came out, but I sometimes don't think much about exactly how things were when the Genny arrived on the scene. It never really died as far as I'm concerned, and it never really seems to age. I suppose when it showed up the only way to get better audio on a console was redbook audio in PCE CD games, which isn't a fair comparison really, because the Genesis is fine at what it does, which is FM synthesis.

I also just noticed that there is an interview with Yuzo Koshiro on OPCFG, (composer for Revenge of Shinobi, Streets of Rage, many others).

[Wavelflack]

Sonic 1 and Sonic 3D Blast.

Also, I've never really understood the accolades given to Yuzo Koshiro. SOR doesn't have any more "driving" techno stylings than TF3 or TF4, and those games actually had interesting meloldic elements to the soundtrack.

I think this is one of those views that most people simply adopt out of convenience or ignorance. It's the same sort of thing that leads people to talk about what a "great guitar player" Eric Clapton is, or that E.T. is the worst game of all time. Don't forget "Last Action Hero" ("worst movie ever!", until you actually see it...)
People hear about x, y or z, and rather than investigating and forming their own opinions and conclusions, they adopt the prevalent viewpoint.


I actually picked up Actraiser on the premise that Koshiro was some tremendous talent, and with a classical score to produce, his "talent" could manifest itself. Alas, it was nothing special. Not even close.

I guess I am getting more into the realm of gifted composers, rather than good sound. At any rate, Taito's in-house composer in the mid-80's (Pyros, for example), the guy behind the Sonic 1 soundtrack (?), and whoever came up with TF4's tunes ALL deserve recognition far above and beyond Yuzo Koshiro.

And yes, I DID mean to say that Eric Clapton is a fairly bland, low talent guitar player. And E.T. isn't really that bad of a game. Just so we're clear...

[GarrettCRW]

I totally lack in Genny playing experience, but Sonic 1 and Streets of Rage have pretty darn good music in my opinion. I agree about the samples, though-the crowd noise and voice samples in the classic EA Sports games can be pretty painful to listen to, particularly in the later years when EA was programming for the Super NES and Genesis at the same time.

Ultimately, though, programming for any pre-CD video game system in the music department takes not only musical talent, but an understanding of the console you're programming for. Many of the great NES soundtracks, for instance, have strong bass and/or percussion parts-hooking an NES up to a powerful stereo and playing Ghosts 'N Goblins with the bass on fullis something to behold, as is the case with Ninja Gaiden. I suspect a number of audiophiles who like the NES like what the Genesis chip did because they both were able to rock the house-a very good trait for high-octane platformers.

[Push Upstairs]

Also, I've never really understood the accolades given to Yuzo Koshiro. SOR doesn't have any more "driving" techno stylings than TF3 or TF4, and those games actually had interesting meloldic elements to the soundtrack.

I think this is one of those views that most people simply adopt out of convenience or ignorance. It's the same sort of thing that leads people to talk about what a "great guitar player" Eric Clapton is, or that E.T. is the worst game of all time. Don't forget "Last Action Hero" ("worst movie ever!", until you actually see it...)
People hear about x, y or z, and rather than investigating and forming their own opinions and conclusions, they adopt the prevalent viewpoint.

I enjoy the SOR music because I enjoy early 90's techno music, i also firmly believe that pounding, fast music is the only kind of music for any kind of fight scenes (be it in game or movie). I hold SOR 1 in high reguards because its the first beat 'em up that even bothered to place some kind of techno beats into the game instead of having some generic background level music.

While i can't speak for everyone, i can say that my opinon didnt come to what it is simply because someone else said so.


BTW, "Last Action Hero" is a great movie...until they get to the "real world". Then it becomes the "generic Arnold action movie" it poked fun at in the first half.

[kainemaxwell]

I always loved the music in Task Force Harrier EX myself.

[Ed Oscuro]

I've listened to the stuff in Batman & Robin; I guess it's appropriate but most of it didn't catch my attention. It's well done for techno stuff, though. Well, here's a number of titles I was thinking of; I've got an *asterisk before the first word of each entry that represents a true favorite soundtrack of mine.

Dangerous Seed (import only) has a few interesting action tunes in it.

*Landstalker has some great music and in that regard so do the Shining games (Shining in the Darkness, and the other normally labeled ones).

I actually like Light Crusader's music a good deal - some of the Dungeon themes (not that crap that plays during the intro, ARGH my ears), the tavern/western theme, ninja dojo, zombie town, future, and the Ice Level. The best tune is the theme that plays when you're in the town, though. Not an extremely balanced soundtrack. There's also a few nifty ambient music pieces that set the mood pretty well; too bad the game really doesn't have any use for them (i.e. the warp points theme). However, it's not among the best tunes.

* Bloodlines - Great remixes (Theme of Simon and Nothing to Lose in particular) and original tracks such as Calling from Heaven. The All Stage Clear jingle is awesome.

M.U.S.H.A. Aleste/Aleste: Full Metal Fighter Elinor - Some famous stuff here (Quinn Fox did a few remixes that are worth a listen) like Armed Armor, but overall I don't listen to this one much.

Alien Soldier - I can listen to the 21-whatever A.D. track over and over; it's that good. 3-Prayer is neat too.

Contra The Hard Corps - some interesting stuff here; probably one of the most interesting is Simon 1994rd. I also like The Hard Corps theme from the first level; starts the game out on the right foot. While lots of it is pretty mediocre, there's many tracks worth a mention: Contra the Blue Gale and It's a Cruel World are neat and serve their purpose well. The All Stage Clear sound is a neat pumped-up version of the traditional Contra stage end jingle. Other tunes: A.C. Violence (not a huge fan, but it's okay)

Comix Zone. This is one soundtrack ruined for me since I've got the PC version of the game. While it's one of my favorite games ever, I just can't agree with the way the music sounds in this game. They are excellent compositions, though - the beginning of Welcome to the Temple is powerful stuff emotionally, amazing since this game presents itself as a brainless action game (it also is cool that you find Roadkill here as well - sort of like "hey the team's back together again, woohoo!) Very rarely to I hate a game based on its music.

*Monster Land IV. Wow, great stuff. I'm not too familiar with the game yet but I'm sure this will become a favorite of mine; I'm already a fan of the first action theme.

Phantasy Star 2* and Phantasy Star 4* - the whole series is good (this might be said to include the rerelease of the original PS but that's not really MD music, besides I haven't heard it as my MDs are all boxed up right now ) is good.

For PSIV, The remixes of the original Mark III game's music are cool. Personal favorites as the titles come to mind: Behind the Circuit, Ooze, the spaceship travel theme (something Landale?), Cybernetic Carnival, The Black Blood, the regular encounter themes, and Millennium. There's more that I really like, of course. Thray is nifty.

*PSII's music is AWESOME. Death Place is great, though this track is immenseley enhanced with a remix by (guess who) Quinn Fox that leaves the original sound a bit dry and clunky. Favorite tracks: Advanced and Silent Zone.

*Phantasy Star III has some interesting music - I like the dungeon theme but besides that the quality is lesser than the other two PS games. However, the town theme is one of the most beautiful pieces of game music ever composed - that track alone makes the game's soundtrack one of my favorites of all time. This one also has been remixed to great effect.

There's a rather obscure (in the States, anyways) RPG with more than a passing resemblance to Phantasy Star (futuristic setting, similar selection of blade and projectile or particle weapons) called Blue Almanac. I don't think it'll be translated, but so far I know that the theme playing in towns is decent.

*Gauntlet IV. Like the story theme (Betrayer?), and while the original Gauntlet theme is always a fun listen, the best tracks here are Adventures of Iron, Sortie, and Transparent Obstacle.

Gain Ground. I like GG SX's (PC-Engine CD-ROM game) soundtrack better, but this isn't half bad. There's a limited number of musical selections here but what's there is top quality.

Gunstar Heroes. Oh yeah, the title theme and the remix in the Dice Palace are both among my favorite songs ever. Besides that, I'm not too familiar with the game yet.

*Beyond Oasis. Yuzo K. 'nuff said.

SoR/Bare Knuckle (series). Yuzo K. 'nuff said...oh wait, it gets funky though. Alright:
Streets of Rage: Good but conventional.
*SoR II: Alright, I actually heard one of the fight themes in here for the first time in a Domo Kun beat-em-up released by some guys a few years ago. I'm not kidding. Love the music here. All of it's good. Don't know the track titles offhand unfortunately.
*SoR III: Some stuff is CRAP (Bulldozer - what's with the constant Sonic jump noises? - and the Disco theme. ARGH. Also Stealth Ninja wears your ears right down to nothing in a hurry). However, some of it makes up for that and then some, like the harbor theme, the park theme, and the stuff in the elevator.

*Revenge of Shinobi/The Super Shinobi: The Shinobi, Terrible Beat, China Town. That's about all I'm a real big fan of but that's more than good enough. Oh yeah, and Sega was putting Super in front of their 16 bit games before Nintendo did (well, never mind about that whole Super Mario Bros. thing).

Shadow Dancer: Hmm, mixed. Nothing hurts my ears but little really stands out in a way that truly grips me. Sub-par for a Shinobi game but wholly adequate, really. I love the theme playing during bonus stages almost as much as I like having a bonus stage in a home Shinobi game that actually plays well.

Double Dragon III: Mixed stuff, but I really like the (scratchy) America theme, and the theme for Japan is the coolest, hands down. Other than that, though, the soundtracks don't really mesh or have variety to them - they're relatively short loops, sadly. Also, the sound test is bad - you can't select any track right from the get-go.

Growl/Runark: The theme is one of the best I've heard in a game. Beyond that, this is your usual stereotypic beat-em-up marketed mainly towards hippies. Arcade version is better in every way, as well.

*Speaking of Taito beat-em-ups, Mystical Fighter/Maoh Renjishi is one of my favorite BEUs on the system, strangely enough...a few of the tracks here are pretty much perfect. An odd favorite of mine

Toejam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron: Hooray, great soundtrack!

Darius 2/Sagaia: Some wonderful themes, like Orga Breeze. I prefer the SNES/SFC Darius Alpha soundtrack, though, just for being far more listenable. I've played the SMS Sagaia a bit (own it, too!) but I don't recall how close its music is.

*Sunset Riders: Not very familiar with this one, and the voice is sort of a travesty at times, but...damn this is good! I'm sort of pre-emptively marking this one as a personal favorite.

*Shinobi III/The Super Shinobi II: All time favorite game and the soundtrack reflects that quality. Some folks (i.e. Kurt Kalata) say it's generic stuff, and while that may be I still find it incredibly enjoyable. Too many good themes to list: He Runs, Trap Boogie, Japonesque, Rush 'n Beat 'em (cool intro to this one), and I particularly like the two riding themes (Idaten and...I forget the name of the other one). Okay, I'm gonna cheat and look a few up: Boss theme "My Dear D" is fantastic, as are Madara, Solitary, and...Whirlwind! (again that second riding theme). Had to cheat for some of my favorite BGMs of all time x_X This is probably my favorite Genesis game soundtrack. While I count other soundtracks as remarkable if they have just a handful of theme-quality tracks, Shinobi III practically oozes with quality. As an amusing note, there exist beta versions of the game where the music is also in beta quality (more recognizable than the beta of Beyond Oasis's beta music, but more different from the BGM to the SoR sountrack, to mention two games by a guy who made the soundtrack to another Shinobi game, heh), and the track titles are different too (I think one was actually written correctly the first time, from an English-language point of view).

Ghouls 'n Ghosts and Strider: Okay. What the. Definitely inferior to...well, many other contemporary versions: Both had x68000 releases, and the SuperGrafx Daimakaimura sounds immensely improved over the Genesis version. I don't like these versions of the game OSTs much, though the jungle theme from Strider sounds close enough to the real thing.

*Golden Axe series: The original has the best quality, but there's a few tunes that stand out exceptionally well in III.

Ninja Gaiden: Not familiar with this game. It's a beat-em-up, Japan-only I believe, but the text is in English.

Splatterhouse II: Some great classic arcade style music. Not enough outstanding tracks to be a favorite, but a few really catch your attention - one in particular is haunting and beautiful and seems inspired by classical music as it dances along effortlessly. Don't know names here.

Splatterhouse III: Just a few really outstanding tracks, but that's enough. Not a bad listen.

Saint Sword: Not very familiar with this one but I played it a little a while back and liked what I heard.

Rocket Knight Adventures: More work by (as I understand) Michiru Yamane, there's a few outstanding tracks here but unfortunately the scope of this title is limited. I don't know much about the system's version of Sparkster, other than that it's incredibly spendy as an import.

Battle Mania series: Some decent sound; I'm a big fan of many of the tracks in the second game, which is unfortunately very scarce. On that note, the second game not only has a great cover illustration but the ingame graphics have been cleaned up significantly over the original. If you don't want to spend big money, feel free to look up "Trouble Shooter" on eBay (I also think this one features on the site by Kid Fenris - you know what that means). Sometimes, you get what you pay for.

*Thunder Force Series: Great music all throughout, but the best stuff here is from Thunder Force IV, which wins just for the boss themes. The early ones are great, the later ones try out some variety which I don't find as easily listenable - up until the last boss theme, anyway, which is classic Genny rock. Gets a vote for TFIV.

Ball Jacks: Interesting premise for a game, you catch and launch balls from your spider-like mech at the other spider-like mech on the other side of the screen. Some incredibly fast action, but stuff is a bit generic (though super-sized) here. The woman on the back of the game case doesn't seem to have any role in the game (I didn't get too far in, though - this game is pretty hard).

Battletech: The intro theme is pretty good. This is the better version of the game as it doesn't have any slowdown (see the SNES version), but the ingame music seems odd as not much effort was made into Genefiying it.

Crack Down: A good arcade conversion. You know you didn't need that much screen space to move around, cut that nonsense. Neat elevator-style music, but it won't win any awards. Very listenable though in that sort of way.

Buck Rogers: Countdown to Doomsday - interesting game, the music isn't anything to write home about. Some interesting organ-like stuff at the beginnning, but try letting the battle theme loop a few times. Guaranteed to drive you crazy when you think your system's freezing up. I can see where they wanted to take this but it just doesn't work on the Genesis...at all.

Mega Trax/Quad Challenge: If I were feeling mean-spirited, I might call this a poor man's Hang-On or Out Run as far as the musical quality goes - but really the main points in this game of graphics and music just don't compare exceptionally well to those Sega games.

Super Thunder Blade: Control here is pretty wierd...but you know, this game makes up for the SMS version. Never been a big fan of the soundtrack on this one, but it's still a classic.

Zero Wing: There's a few tracks that by now pretty much everyone knows, but after the opening theme and first level there's only one other song I really like.

Grind Stormer/V Five: Interesting game, but the soundtrack isn't exceptional for a shooter or otherwise.

Bio-Ship Paladin: Hmm, another sidescrolling shooter. The only redeeming feature of this one is the targeting system and I'm not sure that's actually a positive here.

*Forgotten Worlds: Ah, a break from all those scrolling shooters. Quality soundtrack through and through.

Crying-E: I found the music to this game grating the first time I tried it out. Good looking shooter though, you can see why Sega reused elements for a later title.

King of the Monsters 2: Oh no, Takara has taken an excellent game and made it into a clumsy fighter, ala the original KotM (note: not KotF). Not a fan. Interestingly enough, the SNES version of the game keeps the sidescrolling sections intact. If you've ever said "but uuuh I don't like the scrolling sections in the Neo Geo King of the Monsters!" then I invite you to play the Genesis version of the original game in this series...or the arcade game...or this one. Well, if you still say you don't like them you're nuts. They made the game playable and interesting. As a side note, the SNES/SFC version of the original King of the Monsters seems like a different game from the arcade and Genesis version - the short, stubby look and dumb city graphics of the original are changed for the better. Oh yeah...I don't like the soundtracks for these versions.

Herzog Zwei: Sounds a bit grungy, especially for a Tecno Soft game.

Altered Beast: Fair enough conversion, has some well-loved tracks in it.

Divine Sealing: It says something that this unlicensed game has soundtracks that really aren't too far distinguishable from licensed shooters...for shame, for shame.

Gynoug: This relatively unknown, quirky game that feels rather like a sidescrolling Legendary Wings has some rather nice music; well composed but a bit limited by the simplistic use of the Yamaha chip.

Mercs/Senjo no Ookami II: The sequel to Commando (going by the Japanese names), this one is a stripped-down version of its big brother in the arcades and the music reflects that, but having strong compositions helps it along. In any case the music translates pretty well but notes tend to stick in this one.

Gargoyles: Actually fairly strong as far as U.S. soundtracks go, but still sounds a bit off - some of the notes it hits I tend to hear in other U.S. released Genesis games, too.

Star Trek 9: I actually feel the player sprites look better for this version - perhaps it was designed with the Genesis in mind. The music's actually not too terrible, but it's pretty far removed from your usual orchestrated DS9 stuff as far as composition goes (and, heh, they did mangle the title theme pretty well here). Underrated title in any case.

Space Harrier II: Hmm, this one's good! The first level theme isn't quite as memorable as that of the original arcade game, but it's close.

[suppafly]

The best example of awesome genesis music is the intro in Lightening force (thunder force 4).

Other games with awesome music are:

- SOR1 (Music by Y. Koshiro)
- SOR2 (Music by Y. Koshiro)
- Revenge of Shinobi (Music by Y. Koshiro)
- Cool spot (Music by T. Tallarico)

[Lord Contaminous]

I have alot of notable Genesis music to list. Every once in awhile, I pop in cartridge after cartridge to mess around with the BGM sound modes. Shoot as we speak, I got Arrow Flash and Mega Turrican music being extracted from my Genesis into my minidisc player with a RCA Y adapter. Gonna do the same for Thunder Force II, Dynamite Duke and Streets of Rage 1 and 2.

-Several tunes from Herzog Zwei: "The Superfighter Invigorated Us", "Breach of Contract", "Jagd Fleiger" the title screen music, and "Sniper"

-Every track of M.U.S.H.A. is awesome.

-Sonic 3: Angel Island, Act 2

-Phantasy Star 4: "Laughter", the music in the Zio boss battle

However, I didn't quite like the sound format for the music in games such as Batman Returns, Tale Spin, and Green Dog