Speaking of music, the OST is now available digitally in Japan, but it's missing a few tracks. and also has some new tracks names for songs that didn't have them previously. It's also available on iTunes in the UK.
Was wondering if the holdup for Mania's OST was due to royalties regarding the tracks/zones based on Nakamura's compositions. Guess we got our answer. The OST release described as the "Selected Edition" gives me some hope they are still working to release a complete soundtrack with the GH/CP/OO tracks intact, but I'm admittedly not holding my breath on that. Even despite Mania's reviews, sales, award wins/nominations; it really does seem to remain to be seen if Mania will indeed hold any bearing as to what happens to Sonic in the future (and Forces cements that feeling more than anything else, despite its reception roughly being inverse to that of Mania's).
This is an understandable viewpoint to have - even I'm a little worried too - but I think ultimately Mania's millions of sales will swing it. Sonic Team did say that Mania's reception would steer the direction of Sonic moving forward and then the game went on to become a critical darling, much-loved by fans, glowing reviews and quite crucially Mania lit the charts on fire. Modern Sega is all about the money and Mania made a hell of a lot of it for them. I think the sales alone will solidify their intention to continue Mania moving forward. They're a business after all and Sonic Mania was one of their best selling games ever. As a business, they can't be dismissive of that. So Sega probably will push for more Mania because it made them money and Sonic Team indicated that if the game does well, which it did and exceptionally so, they'll push for it too. Then we have the fact that Forces under performed quite drastically which will contribute too. They'll focus on the game that did well for them, almost certain of it.
Mania's OST out basically everywhere. Missing tracks: Trailer BGM (Hyper Potions - Time Trials) Intro (Hyper Potions - Friends) GHz 1 GHz 2 CPz 1 CPz 2 OOz 1 OOz 2 Ending BGM (This one) & Knuckles Ending BGM (This one)
Bit of an aside, but I'm kind of surprised that neither Egg Reverie or Havoc Prognosis (the title for the second boss theme) were titled "Ruby Eclipse". I mean, given the track name theme of Ruby Delusions/Illusions, and Aaron's influence.
Jesus christ SEGA, just invest whatever you'd spend on Iizuka's next Sonic game in buying the rights to Nakamura's, Sonic 3 and Sonic CD tracks and vocals already. I don't think that anybody would have a problem with exchanging a Sonic Forces 2 for no more incomplete official soundtracks and ersatz music in games ever again.
Can't speak for 3 and CD other than 3's music rights are a mess, but Sega can't just go to Nakamura and say, "Hey, hand over your music rights. We'll pay." Nakamura probably makes good money from them and he probably doesn't want to play ball.
That'd be lovely if they could do that. The classic series music rights have been a nightmare for ages, if SEGA could just pay off whoever holds the rights that would solve so many issues. The Sonic 1/2 songs may be difficult but what about Sonic 3? As it stands no one is profiting off that game these days.
Nice to have the official title for Eggman Boss 2, but all of the classic tracks just fade out and there's naming atrocities like Hydro City Zone and Eggman Mean Bean. How is this better than the game rip I made back when the PC version first launched? I'd rather have paypal'd my $15 directly to Tee. EDIT: even Havoc Prognosis - Eggman Boss 2 fades out.
Well, there are more than 15 original songs. The album is $15. These official classic track rips could simply be considered a bonus compared to paying $1 for each original track.
Sonic CD music rights (for both soundtracks) have been cleared for a while now, at least as far back as the CD re-release. The only thing that was initially up in the air was the JP vocal tracks, but IIRC they were smoothed out later. As Ashram said, Nakamura prefers getting paid by Sega every time they want to use his Sonic 1/2 compositions, and thus likely won't be interested in Sega outright purchasing them. But at least paying for royalties is the only roadblock towards using them. Heck, we were able to get the original demos to the soundtracks with the Sonic 1 + 2 OST release not too long ago (correct me if I'm wrong) as well as remastered versions of the songs in the Sonic 1/2 mobile...remasters. It's the whole dummy spit with MJ and his crew's involvement with Sonic 3 (and supposedly to a lesser extent, Sonic & Knuckles) that's the only real red flag concerning Sonic OSTs.
SEGA purchased the rights to Sonic CD's vocal tracks; Cosmic Eternity & You Can Do Anything prior to the 20th anniversary release of Sonic CD's soundtrack, hence why they were included. The vocals were not included in the 2011 re-release of the game (by Taxman) and for whatever reason SEGA decided not to patch the vocals into the game after it was released. It's pleasing that the Angel Island intro, Hydrocity, Lava Reef and Flying Battery music has all been included in the digital release of Mania's soundtrack. Of course (as afar as we are aware) those tracks are not ones disputed due to MJ's involvement.
I don't think Nakamura is ever going to sell the Sonic 1&2 music to Sega, especially since some of the S1 songs are just Dreams Come True content without the vocals.
Where's the iTunes US version? It's not showing up for me. It's a shame that Nakamura's tracks aren't on there. I mean, couldn't they have paid for this like they did for the game?? I agree that SEGA needs to settle this music nonsense once and for all. I too would rather see them pay out to avoid a Forces 2. Half the spirit of the damn games is the music! I'll continue with Neo's rips for now...
Then again, the ending ditty is missing entirely, sound effects or otherwise. I didn't upload my rips anywhere, so that's gonna be hard.
Eh, no thanks. I love Mania to death but I hate legal BS when it comes to soundtracks. But if somehow Tee Lopes offers these tracks directly I'll buy from him.