I owned the full box set of all the Mega Man X titles until recently. I would only ever listen the first record of the set. That record belonged to the first game in the series. When Laced announced that they were going to be releasing it as its own 1 LP set, I grabbed it as soon as I could and sold my box set.
This soundtrack is pure nostalgia for me. This was one of the first Super Nintendo games that I ever played and it blew me away. The bosses were bigger, the stages were more dynamic, the armor was cool as hell, and the SNES soundtrack was one of the best ones I had heard to that point.
The music blasts in with the intro stage, a stage before the boss select, a first for Mega Man. The music here is infectious. High energy and urgency. What's he running towards? What's going on, why does Mega Man have to act swiftly? The music reflects those questions with the same intensity.
When the goal is reached the music morphs into an eerie theme one of the main antagonists of the game: Vile. We are easily outmatched. The music's melody is played with orchestra hits and an off time beat. It's chaotic and reflects the fight well.
After our inevitable defeat, Zero enters with a triumphant theme and quickly removes Vile's arm. In the aftermath the scene and music reflect on the events that just transpired. I remember feeling that this was the coolest moment in video games when I first played it.
Laced put all of these tracks in the same order that they appear in game. This lets me relive those moments as the record progresses. The rest of the album continues the theme with the boss selection and each of the robot masters thereafter.
This is one of the better soundtracks from the 16 bit era and it's one I'm glad that I have in my collection. This will get spun quite often. It's infectious and one of those soundtracks that n e e d s to be listened to from time to time.
No comments:
Post a Comment