I like the chorus and sax solo of Unknown from M.E. unironically. I've never liked the rap section, but include it when I make mashups for the memes.
In other words, it becomes a fond memory with time, and music related to fond memories sounds better because of that emotional link. Meteor Herd theme sounded funny, and SA2 remix of Knux's theme it's so dumbadass it's fun too. The stupid "Escape from the city" was a nice way to start playing merrily, but it's true it doesn't fit Sonic games at all. I understand those soundtracks weren't meant for people with a refined taste for music, but the music itself was varied and had an acceptable quality as background music or character themes, so it was welcome. My favourite track from SA1 is Open Your Heart, and Green Forest theme my favourite from SA2, so you can guess what kind of music I usually listen to. And no, Forces music isn't on the same level, no matter how bad Adventure games music sounded to you.
I remember those but you could just bypass the in-game gyro with the little plane that appeared after you died twice/three times. The special stages were completely 'wtf' though, but they were at least easy.
In some ways that's the worst part - a lot of the Knuckles tracks would be improved with the removal of Hunnid-P =P LIVE AND LLLEEEEAAAARN HAAAANGING ON THE EDGHE OF TOMOROOOOROOWWWWWW
Since when has "liking something ironically" even been a thing? Am I THAT old that I can't catch up with these things? Either way, at the end of the day, SA3 would be just a label - what they end up doing with it is a different matter altogether. I mean, there's radical differences between SA1 and 2 that they might as well be stylistically as disparate as, say, SA2 is to Unleashed.
I'd love to see someone articulate a critique of the Knuckles raps relative to the rest of the genre. The limp dismissal those songs get always just came off as white people getting culture shock skeeved. Hunnid-P's en plein air narrative of wherever Knuckles happens to be at the moment is endearingly goofy, but I think he's a fine vocalist, and on the basis of vox as instrumentation he's totally contributing something pleasant to the music. The production on those tracks is the tightest Sega's come to achieving a contemporary sound after Hideki Naganuma- I think Knuckles and Rouge's tracks are the standouts of the soundtrack. Pumpkin Hill and Meteor Herd are tight as fuck.
Definitely nothing against Hunnid-P, but I want to know who actually wrote the lyrics for Knuckles' SA2 stage themes. The official credits from the album only list Ohtani, so I'm curious if Hunnid-P was free to do his own stuff or if he was given some kind of awkward translation from SoA.
When he spoke to FTCR last year, from what he said, the backing tracks were already finished, and he had a couple days to write and perform the raps after listening to them and getting art of the stages (He may have seen a little bit of gameplay? It's been a while, I forget exactly.)
Also, for fans of Knuckles' rap themes, Hunnid-P actually did this last month: [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBAVEGPjM4M[/youtube]
Probably not the first to say it but pretty sure that Sonic 06 was SA3. It had the same game structure as an Adventure game and everything.
I think this is a golden reason why Sonic games have been so bad over the last 15 years. Every time they hit something worthy it's time to burn your ships and find a new way home. Sure, they my keep one segment of the previous ship to remind the crew about the previous one, but keeping the flag isn't going to make your next boat hold on water.
And yet ironically they've been reusing levels like crazy since Generations. Hardly taking a new step or advancing when you see Green Hill or some kinda Green + Checkerboard "Not Green Hill" variant for the 15th time.
Man, imagine if current Sonicteam made the original Sonic games. Sonic 1 would be the same. In Sonic 2 all the levels would become straight corridors and you would have some boring werewolf levels. Then Sonic 3 would just be Sonic 1 copied and pasted, bit with broken physics or something. Sonic and Knuckles would become Sonic and OC. After Sonic Adventure 2, nearly every game has had a gimmick (three playable characters at once, guns, werehog, OC) or has just changed the formula completely (boost to win, literally uncontrollable storybook games, boom, lost world). I've always felt Sonic 3 and Knuckles was the best Sonic game (and I still do). You know why it was so good? Sonicteam actually learned and improved upon the two previous games! They didn't feel the need to reinvent the wheel each time. I really think that if Sonicteam would give it the time and effort it deserves, Sonic Adventure 3 could be a great improvement over the previous two entries, while still remaining true to the Adventure formula. But honestly Sonicteam seems to half-ass everything, so maybe it's for the best they don't want to make it.
The Adventure games weren't any different. Outside of Sonic and Shadow, every playstyle was an extreme divergence, with the only one coming close to what they did being Adventure 1 Tails.
Or just doing nonsensical things. Why is there a casino segment in the ice zones in Lost World, for example?
Personally I don't care about that. I mean they could just say it's like Las Vegas but instead of it being in a desert it's in snow world.
