Maverick Rising - A Musical Review

One of my favorite video game series is the Mega Man X series.  Not only is its gameplay a good kind of challenging, but its background music is stuff of legends.  It's so amazing that people routinely remake it so that it's not limited by the Super NES game console's sound chip.  One website, OC Remix, went so far as to release a 5-disc mega album called Maverick Rising, with all tracks free to download and share.  When I found out about this, my sense of nostalgia overwhelmed me and compelled me to drop everything and check it out.

Before I begin the actual review I want to point something out.  I am not musically inclined.  I barely know any of the technical stuff that goes into music, so chances are if you do know what you're talking about, you'll have a good laugh at my expense.  Still, that doesn't mean I can't tell what is and isn't crap, and what is and isn't at all like the original tracks.  Also, I want to point out that I'm a complete metalhead, and have difficulties standing other types of music, especially techno, which is ironic considering how much of a nerd I am.

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Okay, first track.  Oh heck yeah.  This is going to be awesome.  The Symphonic Metal soundtrack of the game is going to come out in full force and blow me away, just like it did here.  Oh yeah!  I'm Pumped!

Track 1-2 "Super Fighting Robot X":  Wait.  This isn't right.  Yeah, the tune's the same as the original, but the feeling is off.  I know why.  The first three X games, released on the Super NES, had a symphonic metal soundtrack with some techno overtones, but starting with X4 the games were released on the Sony Playstation and their soundtracks decided to go with a more techno and less heavy feel.  This track emulates the Playstation era's style, despite coming from X3, an SNES era game.  It's not bad, but isn't really my favorite.

Track 1-3 "21XX War Was Beginning": Now it is a Playstation era song, and they kept the feel intact.  But because of that alone, I'm not all that into it.  Still, it isn't bad, but it's not what I was hoping for, or hyped up for from the first track.

Track 1-4 "Stealth Lizard":  This is much better.  Still, it doesn't quite do the original justice, but it's a major step up from the previous two.

Track 1-5 "Insecta Robotica":  What.  What?  WHAT?!  I don't even know what this is, but I hate it immensely.  The original is from X6, which of all the games I think had the most underwhelming soundtrack.  And gameplay.  And everything else.  Hopefully it's just this one song that's bad.

Track 1-6 "Spin Gator": HOW COULD THEY?!  THEY RUINED WHEEL GATOR!  No.  I refuse to accept this.

Track 1-7 "STING": NO!  NO!  WRONG!  THAT ISN'T EVEN CLOSE!  Okay, calm down, calm down.  Maybe the second album has better music.  So I'll just skip ahead to that and play things by ear.

Track 2-2 "On the Highway": NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!  This isn't happening!  There's no reason for me to go on!  What am I fighting FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRR!!?!?!?!?!?
(For comparison, here's the original.)

What a disappoint.  Almost every track in this album is crap for one or [usually] more of the following reasons:

1. It completely destroys the original track.
2. It chooses a new style which is ill-fitting to what it was originally made for.
3. It just plain sounds like crap.

This all being said, there are a few masterpieces on the album that make it worth checking out.

Track 1-11 "Tuck 'n Roll": Right off the bat I can tell that this track is completely faithful to the original.  And yet, it strives beyond and surpasses the original in a very unique way: it adds lyrics.  That's right, there are vocals in this remix, and they fit perfectly, like the song was made for it.

Track 2-11 "Let There Be Light": A calm and peaceful non-metal track got remade into a relatively calm and peaceful metal track complete with screeching guitars and a faster tempo, and it works.  I don't know how the remixer did it, but this is outstanding, and a prime example of a true remix done right.

Track 3-08 "Bibamus, Moriendum Est": It takes the already heavy boss themes from X3, and makes them even more heavy, you know, as boss themes should be.  They should have a feeling of fighting for your life against all odds, with there being little hope unless you give them everything you have.

Track 3-09 "Crawfish Crackdown": While mostly faithful to the original, this remix chooses a different instrument choice which I think makes it work out far better.

Track 4-11 "X-Hunted": The original is great.  This is even better.  It keeps the feel, while expanding the track into being more than a simple melody that doesn't get old.  It makes more metal while keeping the techno overtones intact.  And it sounds awesome.

Track 5-02 "Into the Rebellion!!":  Finally a Playstation era remix that sounds amazing.  It includes voice clips from the Anime cutscenes they made for the game (exploiting the fact that they went from Cartridges to CDs, which meant a massive increase in storage space).  Usually tracks that do this end up sucking, but this one made it work.  Props to the remixer behind this.

Sturgeon's Law dictates that 90% of everything is crap.  Considering that I only found 6 of the 62 tracks to be of noteworthy quality, measuring up to or even surpassing the originals, I'd say it holds up very well.  Except for the fact that I was accentuating the negative heavily early on.  45 of those 62 (including the 6 I highlighted before) are of at least a listenable quality.  They may not be as good as I was hoping for, but they aren't bad by any means.

There are still other remixes of Mega Man X songs other than Maverick Rising, but there is no collection like it.  Still, I'll highlight a few of the ones I found below.

Mega Man X2 - X Hunter Stage Metal Version: Another take on the same original track as X-Hunted.  This version goes for more of a true Metal sound, and does a very good job of it.  I can never get tired of this track.

Spark Mandrill - Short Circuit: Faithful to the original? CHECK.  Amazing sounding?  CHECK.  Easily one of my favorites, along with just about every other metal track this guy has made.  Check them out here.  Also, included in the bonus content for his second album is another remix from Mega

 Man X, "Abandoned Highway," which properly does justice to the original track which 2-2 "On the Highway" is based on, to such an extent that it more than makes up for the damage "On the Highway" did to it.

Amazon Moon (Mega Man X6 Remix): Another track by the same author as "Spark Mandrill - Short Circuit."  It's nowhere near as amazing as his others, but it's included here because it does a much better job than 1-5 "Insecta Robotica."

So, these are only three (or four) remixes that I found independently of and far superior to Maverick Rising's selection.  I'm sure there are many more out there, but I need some help.  I simply couldn't find a remix that does justice to Vile's Factory from Mega Man X3.  This one by Mandilore comes close, but poor balancing of his instruments ruins the feel, and if I could just play with the levels I could make it that much better.  If you know of any other remix that you think I'd like, regardless of whether or not it's from the Mega Man X series, feel free to leave a comment.