**REVIEW** Rockman 20th anniversary Arrange Ver. Rock and Techno albums

If you are around 30 years of age (or maybe a tad younger or older) you probably know who rockman is.. Or in other words… MEGA MAN! Thats right, the little blue bomber from the late 80’s and early 90’s who graced anyone with common sense’s NES system. If you played some of these games you’ll also know that they had some of the best music of any game on that system, at least in my opinion…….

I dont know exactly who wrote the songs for Mega Man, but i’m sure there’s some quietly unthanked soul working at capcom or maybe its a few, who wrote these songs and have no idea just how great of a job they did. From what I’ve read it was a real pain the ass to write music on the old system, no idea if its try, but at times it sounds like all these sound guys where given was about 3 channels to work with, which really isn’t alot.. And with some of the really cool stuff they did with only 3 channels they really pushed the system to its limits for great music in my opinion. Maybe thats why we all saw those sprites flashing off the screen so often LOL!

 Anyways here we are 20 years later, we’ve been graced with not 1, but 2 albums dedicated to some of the best video game music EVAR! the Rockman 20th anniversary Rock and Techno editions. These albums unfortunately do not include every song, in fact they only have 11 songs that are redone, and they also have a ’short’ edition of the original songs as well. so its about 20 tracks per an album but only 11 of them are ‘new’. Before you ask “well how can that be 11 if they have the old versions too? shouldn’t that be 22 songs?” no, becuase there are ‘medleys’ where they dont include the original songs cuz the medleys are 5-6 songs mashed together into one.. (and sometimes the best part of the albums). For a complete track list see the bottom after the review (or the pictures have them).

Now a quick background bout me..  I play guitar.. Rock guitar.. I have many guitars, amps, distortion pedals, I LOVE IT ALL!! I love music in general… I’m not a RAVER or big techno fan becuase of the trancey beats that hypnotize me to turn emo or something.. I adore all the Mega Man music from 1-6 and these albums have select songs from 1-6 on each. I have all the rockman power fighters, originals and other remixes of the Mega Man songs on my zune, yes I like them that much, and I’m a NERD I DONT CARE! I gave you this background becuase its going to be hard to understand my review if I dont.. I am not reviewing these albums as a package deal, I am reviewing them as 2 seperate albums… Now that you know my background you’ll know i’m not jaded.

Final note before reviews, I did NOT rate the reviews on song selection becuase that would be putting preference before performance and that is not fair.  I rated them on what they did with what they had to work with.

 LETS START WITH ROCK!!!!

So here is the rock album.. Its written in a pretty metal style with double bass drums to get you hyped up.. I have to say the production of this album (both actually) is through the ROOF! this is by far hands down the BEST remake of these songs i’ve EVER heard attempted with a rock guitar lead.. Its like listening to satriani sometimes.. I like to pretend this album is what you’d get if you threw Satriani, steve via and mega man into a blender, hit THRASH and poured it on an album cover. Granted none of those big names touched this album, I’d probably blow a load if they cared enough to do mega man covers cuz that would just be iconic! Anyways that is what you should expect from these albums, its not a cheesey ass attempt at just playing the Mega Man songs for a buck, you can tell those who took the time to record these knew the songs and felt the music and put alot into them. I dont know if you could simply reproduce these so well only having heard the originals a few times. Case in point the harmonics achieved for Cutman are sweet they are almost spot on with the original and while not that difficult to pull off on a guitar its a PERFECT touch that would otherwise be missed. I do not feel that ability of the guitarist held back any of the songs in any way, in some ways he did some REALLY amazing shit on these albums! The are more harmonies on this album then i’ve heard in a looong long time and multi track dubbing they did is thick and really pushes the point across!I feel that the Medley mix’s are nearly the cream of the crop on this album, there is two, an intro and outro, and the boss battle mix in the beggining was MADE to be on guitar, when you first hear that intro Battle song you get shivers up your spine you just want to bust out mega man and battle some shit on 2.0x speed! I think they made a fairly good choice on the tracks they picked to reproduce too, the Cosack and Wily tracks translate very very well into heavy lead guitar.. My favorite on this album currently is Dr. Wily (rockman 5) mix. Just the small details and the arpegio’s he pulls off that are SPOT ON with the original. By and by there is less surprises on this album than the techo one for following the originals, everything is pretty by the book but its GOOD it works it doesnt make you “wtf am i listening too? this wasn’t in the original song?” There is the occasional added solo that ISNT part of the original song but it never kicks you in the nuts with pain becuase its that out of place or anything.  I must make a comment, every mega man album ever released so far has allways had a remake of Mecha Dragon, THIS IS A GOOD THING! This is one of the best songs in the Mega Man (rockman) series. I was glad to see it here, and it does indeed ROCK! high energy all the way and when you get two harmonizing guitars playing that lead it just kicks ASS and sings!Okay so there is ONE bad thing about this album. I feel that the Shadowman song was REALLY blown.. They went heavy on the Organ sound, and I’m a hammond b3 fan just like anyone, but they really missed the boat on this one.. I cant help but feel let down when the chorus kicks in, its like a honkey tonk lounge act , and your just kind of like… w.t.f.??? Plus i swear the chorus goes down in key not up, but I’m sure its just my ears.. I think they were okay with the verse but the chorus comes in and i’m just like… Meh i cant be excited or care about the song anymore at that point I dont utterly hate it, but its by far the weakest track on the album, I’m sure some of you will simply love it, it just DID not do it for me. They did a FANTASTIC job on ‘get a weapon’ and otherwise short repetitive song here feels VERY good and pretty high energy I almost feel like i should be watching rocky jog down the street to this while punching to the air… Okay maybe not…  The title medley mix at the end is a GREAT treat as well, i wont spoil anymore.The last negative note on this album, is that the original tracks of the songs are TOO short, some of them actually fade out before the main melody hits which is really too bad, i understand they are there more for reference so people can hear what was made out of the original on this album, but comon give us another minute on each one, even 30 more seconds would have helped.. the album length was only 51 minutes… dont CD’s hold 74 minutes of music? Anyways you’ll say “meh that last few track dont matter” I agree, we dont buy this for them, but why not give us a little more is gonna hurt anyone? If you’re gonna skip em, you’re gonna skip em, but for those of us who like the nostalgia let us have it! sheesh! But tell you what i’m not going to dock the album for that becuase the TECHO album does the same thing..I’ll tell you what, This album really grew on me.. At first i’ll be honest, i was going to give it an 8.5 becuase the shadowman track and i just felt that megaman raelly didnt hold up well in a guitar enviroment, that is becuase the techo album REALLY jaded me.. But in all honesty if you JUST love ROCK and love mega man and HATE techno, this album will DEFINATELY impress. It is EXACTLY  what you expect and exactly what you want, IT just doesnt hold up quite as well as the techno album and i’ll explain why at the end. But i’m going to give this album a 9.5 becuase what it does, it does ALMOST PERFECTLY!  and I know i mean that now.. So my final verdict is…

9.5/10

NOW ITS TIME FOR TECHNO!!

OMG WTFBBQ !! ME? review a TECHNO album, and DAMN I’d almost call this album trance.. Really.. and I’m not a fan of that kind of music.. But i’m going to let the cat out of the bag early on this one, I LOVE This album.. Why??? becuase I like the original tracks SOOO much and I feel this album COMPLETELY nails each song perfectly if they were to be made today fresh and new with the power of consoles we have now. Lets face it, Mega Man (or rockman) was not made in a rock sense, the songs are bass heavy, electronica and very high energy, they needed to be, you were running through a stage dodging bullets, killing helmets and flying robots.. It only makes sense that this album would carry over COMPLETELY well to an electronica source..

For the most part the song selection is UTTER PERFECTION! lets face it.. Mega Man 1 had some good music yeah but the REAL homerun was Mega Man 2, you got airman, quickman, heatman.. They picked some great tunes.. They aren’t all Megaman 2, theya re few others as well, but they knew the right ones to pick.. I will admit some of the songs on this album are a little different in how they start, or have a few parts in the middle, but the sound banks they used FEEL right, they dont feel too far removed from what the original was trying to say.. and it WORKS! perfectly! they figured out a way to extend a 30-50 second loop into 4 minute songs without being too repetitive and annoying.  Again i’m not a fan of this type of music normally, but hearing your old favorites and the arrangement they picked for them it just WORKS! and it feels natural at times it makes me wish we had a proper remake of the original  Mega Man series to go along with this music and not that overly sickeningly cute psp version we got, granted i’m happy to see the series get some love in both this album and that games incarnation but if some programmers and artists out there are listening, take these songs and give us a 2008/2009 rename of these levels with some slick grahpics that keep megaman true to his form that he was back then but really make us feel these songs! cuz these are REALLY works of art..

I really dont have a negative to say about this album.. Except maybe that some of the songs start out with 20 seconds of something you cant identify becuase its not in the original song, but it doesnt bother me, they make it bleed into the song and it works, its almost like they took the song and worked backwards.  And they hit every important melody and peice you need to hear to make it UDDERLY perfect! You’ll listen and hear the main melody line and your mind will go “ohhh i’m expecting that little part in the background with..” and BAM! you’ll hear it here… Not that the rock version doesn’t also deliver, but its so PERECT to how it should sound compared to the original version that you brain just relaxes and utterly enjoys it without thinking “they could have picked a better instrument for that” (unlike the shadowman mix on the rock album). When i first heard the airman mix, I kind of thought to myself “Okay this is a little slower than I would have prefered, but i recognize the tune in there so i guess its not that bad” But they are just playing with you.. after 50 seconds of foreplay they hit you with the real DEAL! and while this song probably has the most ‘extended’ parts that aren’t in the normal song, it WORKS! They do it again with snake man, i kind of feel like i’m listening to a cheeze ball techno song, then 23 seconds in BAM! it hits me a little better and i’m into that familar territory.. I dont have a problem being teased when you deliver, and thast exactly what this album does.. and its going to get perfect marks from me becuase Mega Man was made to be trance/techno its just the way it is.. Heavy bass driven melody’s with a great harmony line.

Magnet Man takes a different approach all together, gone are the heavy buzzsaw synths and instead we are given a light bouncey take on Magnet man but it works really well and almost sounds like they synthed some of the original NES sounds almost. Thats how much I really appreciate how they tried to stay true to the originals while still making them extremely modern. A tough task in deed but they pulled it off! I was never a big fan of 5 and 6 , but eventually the music from them grew on me and i came to realize they are just as good as all the others, i now appreciate all Mega Mans’ 1-5 and starman and flameman towards the end of this album are quite good renditions as well VERY well done..

So you can tell I’m a bit more impressed by the techno version, But i’ll say at first i wasn’t excited to get it, i really loooked foward to the rock version more so, but the Techno stole my heart! it really really works well. GREAT JOB!

My verdict on the Rockman 20th anniversary Techno album is….

10/10

Perfection.

I’d like to make a little note here… I know alot of you who read this might try to download these albums, but I really must digress, Try to at least purchase one of them, if not both. These albums are really well done and the artists/publishers deserve to know that we DO appreciate this and I’d personally love to see another edition of these come out.. both rock AND techno becuase there is still alot of neglected songs that didn’t make the cut.. I’m allways depressed when I dont see Bubbleman on the list, that is one of my favorite tracks and neither album had it. I recommend BOTH these albums to any Mega Man/Rockman fan. You wont be dissapointed even if you aren’t a huge fan or metal or techno, they did a great job!

My hat is off to everyone behind these albums!

Track list for Rock edition:

1. Boss Mix Medley

2. Cutman Mix

3. Metalman Mix

4. DR.Wily 1 (rockman2) mix

5. Shadowman Mix

6. Get A weapon (rockman3) mix

7. Dr.Cossack 2 Mix

8. Dr.Wily (rockman5) mix

9. Yamatoman Mix

10. Tomahawkman Mix

11. Title Mix Medley

12. Cutman ((original short ver.)

13. Metalman (original short ver.)

14. Dr.wily 1 (original short ver.)

15. Shadowman (original short ver.)

16. Get a Weapon (original short ver.)

17. Dr.Cossack 2 (original short ver.)

18. Dr.wily (original short ver.)

19. Yamatoman (original short ver.)

20. Tomahawkman (original short ver.)

Track list for Techno Edition:

1. Stage select Mix medly

2. Elecman Mix

3. Dr.wily 1 (rockman2) mix

4. Quickman mix

5. Airman mix

6. Heatman mix

7. Snakeman mix

8. Magnetman mix

9. Dr.Willy 2 (rockman4) mix

10. Starman mix

11. Flameman mix

12. Elecman (original short ver.)

13. Dr.wily 1 (original short ver.)

14. Quickman (original short ver.)

15. Airman (original short ver.)

16. Heatman (original short ver.)

17. Snakeman (original short ver.)

18. Magnetman (original short ver.)

19. Dr.Wily 2 (original short ver.)

20. Starman (original short ver.)

21. Flameman (original short ver.)