RPGamers Network > Reviews > Game Music Reviews > Street Fighter II "Sing!!" Instrumental Version
Reviewed by: Kie
The original Street Fighter II was the pinnacle beginning of fighting games as we know it today. Great fighting, combos etcetera, but it also had great music from the one and only Yoko Shimomura, composer of the Legend of Mana and the well known Kingdom Hearts OSTs. As well as the OST for Street Fighter II, her and other great arrangement composers decided to do a professional arrangement soundtrack to sort of advertise Street Fighter II special edition which came out a few weeks before. This meant the album would have the songs from the 4 extra characters also, making a total of 12. I say "professional arrangement" in the fact that the Video Game music back in 1993 wasn't very well funded and they couldn't get the new technology for making their songs like the singers did so professional means that the composers got the better technology to do this album which sounds very good considering the year it was released. But enough of history, let's go through the tracks...
The first track is a remix of Chun Li's song, duely titled A potion for Dreams. The song immediately starts off with a few Chun Li sound effects and a distorted guitar doing the theme. Now I point out now, before going on, that the only thing preventing me from giving this soundtrack a score in the 90s is the sound effects they put in...They can get really annoying sometimes and block out cool parts of the theme. Now although they make the songs more original, they should not have sacrificed quality for originality. But anyway, the song then cuts into the main theme with the violin being the main instrument and a pretty constant drum beat too. At about a minute into it, it does the cool solo from Chun Li's theme which I think tune-wise, is the best part of the song. It then gets into about 10 seconds of sound effects of Chun Li before going back into the song, always using the violin and some other Chinese instruments. All in all, this song is about average compared to the others...really not the worst though.
Crimson Fist ~Burning Blood~ is the second track and is a remix of Ken's theme from the game. I was a little disappointed with this. It starts cool with the guitar intro and drums...but then a big twist which makes it a real Instrumental track, a loud trumpet comes in for the main theme. It doesn't sound really bad I suppose, sometimes guitarish maybe. Then the guitar comes in and it sounds like the song may get better until 1:26 when they drown out the cool guitar solo with some really crap Ken sounds. Then the theme starts all over again. This song is probably the most annoying when it comes to sound effects and I'd say it's surprisingly the worst track on the album, even considering that Ken's theme is the best SFII theme in my opinion.
The album seems to get progressively better for a short time, with the remix of Blanka's theme, another great original. Blanka Has Come to Town!! Starts off with a small drum intro with sound effects. It then gets into the main theme with a great electric guitar being used as the main instrument. The theme goes on for a while, sounding great and everything until about 1:29 when it goes into a quiet solo which doesn't sound bad I suppose. At 1:58, the sound effects start off, which aren't as annoying because they don't block a great tune, but it leaves you asking...what's the point of them being there?? Then the awesome theme starts again and ends with more sound effects. Definitely one of the better ones on the album.
The remix to E. Honda comes next as A Thrust of the Hand - Spirit of Japan (sort of rhymes). It starts off like a sumo wrestling match, with a few sound effects and that. Then the heavy drums come in for the theme as well as one of those indian flutes that sound loud. I suppose you can't expect a cool guitar in every song because the composers were doing a general instrumental album. At about 1:23, the intro plays again and the song seems to repeat itself, with some weird laughing too. And it keeps playing as well. At 2:51, it does a longer pitch for a small time and does it a few other times before ending. It's not the most exciting song, but it's not annoying.
The absolute best track in the game is next. This track could be in a game today and you wouldn't tell the difference. The remix of Guile's Theme entitled Lonely Wolf, which sounds right because it's lonely at the top. It starts off all peaceful with some awesome bass and synths...but then the awesome guitar comes with synths as backup for the main theme. The drum beat is cool and fast. This song isn't just good for the guitar, but the way the theme is done, and of course, the bass makes it sound so recent. The actual tune ends at 1:41 before starting sort of again, and there are minimal sound effects. The best part of the song is the magnificent guitar solo at 1:58 which then smoothly cuts back into the best part of the Guile's theme. And it's not even reached 3 minutes yet. The song then changes a few chords to add originality before then doing a different guitar solo which is also great. This solo is a very close second, which ends as a long pitch which sounds just awesome. It then gets quiet again like the start. There are about 2 sounds effects only. Great great work here. If you don't get any other song on the album, get this at least.
They were probably tired after Lonely Wolf when they made Dhalsim's remix Faraway Indie. It's a weir song, I'll give them that. It uses bongo drums at the start, which is original. It slowly moves into the main theme until the heavy drums come in. The theme itself starts at about 1:13 with a weird instrument. I can guess it to be stringed but other than that, no idea. If anyone has any idea, e-mail me or something. Anywho, the song doesn't really get any better than that. At 2:47 there are weird effects not in game used to boost the song I suppose. They amazingly work pretty well, but as said, it's pretty boring all up, until you like the weird instruments. Probably one of the worst on the album.
Terror! Vaccuum Man!! is the remix of Zangief's theme and starts off with a few sound effects and bass before getting into the actual theme at about 0:42 which is done with low synths and chimes with sound effects that actually help the song for once instead of hindering it. At about 1:40, a flute comes in and does a little solo which sounds pretty good. It then goes back into the synth beats and the theme again to finish the song off really. It ends with weird sound effects but all round the theme is good and is worth a listen.
We come now, to probably the second best song in the album. The remix of Ryu's theme titled Become the Storm is a great piece to a great song. It starts off with low beep sounds and a guitar bass. Then the acoustic guitar plays a slightly faster and different version of the actual tune. The electric guitar is there a bit but it focuses on the acoustic one until 1:10 when the electric guitar does a really great yet short solo. This precedes some more sound effects before the song repeats for a while. At 2:26, the bass disappears and the song goes into a canon (several tunes and instruments played at once) which makes the song more interesting and better. The only fault I see with it is that it ends too quick, a few guitar chords and it's over, but still, it's a great song.
Bison's Dream is obviously the remix of M.Bison. It starts off sounding evil and mysterious but then surprisingly goes all peaceful with a soothing organ playing and a slow trumpet every now and then. The bass is soft and plays once every 4 beats which slows the song down. The tune itself is peaceful but can be a little boring if you've gotten used to the fast paces the other songs had up to now or afterwards. Not really the best song at all on the album, but at least it gives the album variety...something for everyone.
I regard the Balrog theme highly with the Ryu and Ken themes personally. The remix Masked Narcissist starts off with drums and a guitar before showing signs of the tune with some synths. The tune itself is run by an organ of some sort. The song is slowed a lot and the chords are more or less the same. Pretty boring until the tune ends and the guitar solo comes in from about 1:32, followed by drums with it to make it more interesting. There are one or two effects during the solo and near the end of it, the tune begins to start again which lets it move smoothly into the song again. I'd say the highlights would be the guitar solo and guitar accompanying the theme from about 3:08 and then eventually getting louder for the ending. A great canon for the end of the song which makes it one of the better songs on the album.
Getting near the end and we're at Tiger Legend. This song is an arrangement of Sagat's theme, and starts off with some upbeat percussion and a distorted synth beat. Also accompanied by the word "tiger". The tune is distorted synth based. At 1:03, a guitar solo comes in (yes another one) with some sound effects (yes more) and then the theme starts all over again. There appears to be a predictable pattern in the songs on the album but sometimes they throw something in that's unpredictable. A second guitar solo, like in Lonely Wolf, is an example. This solo is better than the first and goes longer which also ends the song too. A pretty good song all up.
The final song of the album, if you haven't guessed by the process of elimination, is the Vega's theme remix, Silent Gravestone. It starts off with a pretty fast accordion and then goes into the theme which is a grand piano. I suppose most of the instruments from the songs reflect the characters and how they act. This is no exception, it sounds like it would be for Vega. A piano solo, one of two on the album, starts at 1:24 and is well recorded and played with a constant drum beat that sounds like clapping. At 2:12, the song starts again with, yep you guessed it, sound effects. There's no guitar or guitar sounding instruments in the entire song once again proving the variety of the album. The song ends with the second piano solo of the album and finishes it off.
Song summary aside, the album deals with, in general, flutes, clarinets, guitars, pianos, organs, heavy bass, all synths and strong percussion where necessary. All in all, I'd say 9-10 out of the 12 songs are well worth a listen if you can find them that is. A great album by Yoko Shimomura and the arrangement team of Seiji Toda, Hiroyuki Negishi and Hideya Nagata, and as I said, the only thing that was wrong, that they've obviously learnt from, is the sound effects in the remixes. Nice work.
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| Album Information | Reviewer Rank |
|---|---|
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Street Fighter II "Sing!!" Instrumental Version Published by: Pony Canyon, Scitron Label Release Date: March 19th 1993 Composed by: Yoko Shimomura, Isao Abe Arranged by: Seiji Toda, Hiroyuki Negishi, Hideya Nagata 1 Disc, 12 Tracks Catalog: PCCB-00114 |
88 |
Reviewed by: Kie
The original Street Fighter II was the pinnacle beginning of fighting games as we know it today. Great fighting, combos etcetera, but it also had great music from the one and only Yoko Shimomura, composer of the Legend of Mana and the well known Kingdom Hearts OSTs. As well as the OST for Street Fighter II, her and other great arrangement composers decided to do a professional arrangement soundtrack to sort of advertise Street Fighter II special edition which came out a few weeks before. This meant the album would have the songs from the 4 extra characters also, making a total of 12. I say "professional arrangement" in the fact that the Video Game music back in 1993 wasn't very well funded and they couldn't get the new technology for making their songs like the singers did so professional means that the composers got the better technology to do this album which sounds very good considering the year it was released. But enough of history, let's go through the tracks...
The first track is a remix of Chun Li's song, duely titled A potion for Dreams. The song immediately starts off with a few Chun Li sound effects and a distorted guitar doing the theme. Now I point out now, before going on, that the only thing preventing me from giving this soundtrack a score in the 90s is the sound effects they put in...They can get really annoying sometimes and block out cool parts of the theme. Now although they make the songs more original, they should not have sacrificed quality for originality. But anyway, the song then cuts into the main theme with the violin being the main instrument and a pretty constant drum beat too. At about a minute into it, it does the cool solo from Chun Li's theme which I think tune-wise, is the best part of the song. It then gets into about 10 seconds of sound effects of Chun Li before going back into the song, always using the violin and some other Chinese instruments. All in all, this song is about average compared to the others...really not the worst though.
Crimson Fist ~Burning Blood~ is the second track and is a remix of Ken's theme from the game. I was a little disappointed with this. It starts cool with the guitar intro and drums...but then a big twist which makes it a real Instrumental track, a loud trumpet comes in for the main theme. It doesn't sound really bad I suppose, sometimes guitarish maybe. Then the guitar comes in and it sounds like the song may get better until 1:26 when they drown out the cool guitar solo with some really crap Ken sounds. Then the theme starts all over again. This song is probably the most annoying when it comes to sound effects and I'd say it's surprisingly the worst track on the album, even considering that Ken's theme is the best SFII theme in my opinion.
The album seems to get progressively better for a short time, with the remix of Blanka's theme, another great original. Blanka Has Come to Town!! Starts off with a small drum intro with sound effects. It then gets into the main theme with a great electric guitar being used as the main instrument. The theme goes on for a while, sounding great and everything until about 1:29 when it goes into a quiet solo which doesn't sound bad I suppose. At 1:58, the sound effects start off, which aren't as annoying because they don't block a great tune, but it leaves you asking...what's the point of them being there?? Then the awesome theme starts again and ends with more sound effects. Definitely one of the better ones on the album.
The remix to E. Honda comes next as A Thrust of the Hand - Spirit of Japan (sort of rhymes). It starts off like a sumo wrestling match, with a few sound effects and that. Then the heavy drums come in for the theme as well as one of those indian flutes that sound loud. I suppose you can't expect a cool guitar in every song because the composers were doing a general instrumental album. At about 1:23, the intro plays again and the song seems to repeat itself, with some weird laughing too. And it keeps playing as well. At 2:51, it does a longer pitch for a small time and does it a few other times before ending. It's not the most exciting song, but it's not annoying.
The absolute best track in the game is next. This track could be in a game today and you wouldn't tell the difference. The remix of Guile's Theme entitled Lonely Wolf, which sounds right because it's lonely at the top. It starts off all peaceful with some awesome bass and synths...but then the awesome guitar comes with synths as backup for the main theme. The drum beat is cool and fast. This song isn't just good for the guitar, but the way the theme is done, and of course, the bass makes it sound so recent. The actual tune ends at 1:41 before starting sort of again, and there are minimal sound effects. The best part of the song is the magnificent guitar solo at 1:58 which then smoothly cuts back into the best part of the Guile's theme. And it's not even reached 3 minutes yet. The song then changes a few chords to add originality before then doing a different guitar solo which is also great. This solo is a very close second, which ends as a long pitch which sounds just awesome. It then gets quiet again like the start. There are about 2 sounds effects only. Great great work here. If you don't get any other song on the album, get this at least.
They were probably tired after Lonely Wolf when they made Dhalsim's remix Faraway Indie. It's a weir song, I'll give them that. It uses bongo drums at the start, which is original. It slowly moves into the main theme until the heavy drums come in. The theme itself starts at about 1:13 with a weird instrument. I can guess it to be stringed but other than that, no idea. If anyone has any idea, e-mail me or something. Anywho, the song doesn't really get any better than that. At 2:47 there are weird effects not in game used to boost the song I suppose. They amazingly work pretty well, but as said, it's pretty boring all up, until you like the weird instruments. Probably one of the worst on the album.
Terror! Vaccuum Man!! is the remix of Zangief's theme and starts off with a few sound effects and bass before getting into the actual theme at about 0:42 which is done with low synths and chimes with sound effects that actually help the song for once instead of hindering it. At about 1:40, a flute comes in and does a little solo which sounds pretty good. It then goes back into the synth beats and the theme again to finish the song off really. It ends with weird sound effects but all round the theme is good and is worth a listen.
We come now, to probably the second best song in the album. The remix of Ryu's theme titled Become the Storm is a great piece to a great song. It starts off with low beep sounds and a guitar bass. Then the acoustic guitar plays a slightly faster and different version of the actual tune. The electric guitar is there a bit but it focuses on the acoustic one until 1:10 when the electric guitar does a really great yet short solo. This precedes some more sound effects before the song repeats for a while. At 2:26, the bass disappears and the song goes into a canon (several tunes and instruments played at once) which makes the song more interesting and better. The only fault I see with it is that it ends too quick, a few guitar chords and it's over, but still, it's a great song.
Bison's Dream is obviously the remix of M.Bison. It starts off sounding evil and mysterious but then surprisingly goes all peaceful with a soothing organ playing and a slow trumpet every now and then. The bass is soft and plays once every 4 beats which slows the song down. The tune itself is peaceful but can be a little boring if you've gotten used to the fast paces the other songs had up to now or afterwards. Not really the best song at all on the album, but at least it gives the album variety...something for everyone.
I regard the Balrog theme highly with the Ryu and Ken themes personally. The remix Masked Narcissist starts off with drums and a guitar before showing signs of the tune with some synths. The tune itself is run by an organ of some sort. The song is slowed a lot and the chords are more or less the same. Pretty boring until the tune ends and the guitar solo comes in from about 1:32, followed by drums with it to make it more interesting. There are one or two effects during the solo and near the end of it, the tune begins to start again which lets it move smoothly into the song again. I'd say the highlights would be the guitar solo and guitar accompanying the theme from about 3:08 and then eventually getting louder for the ending. A great canon for the end of the song which makes it one of the better songs on the album.
Getting near the end and we're at Tiger Legend. This song is an arrangement of Sagat's theme, and starts off with some upbeat percussion and a distorted synth beat. Also accompanied by the word "tiger". The tune is distorted synth based. At 1:03, a guitar solo comes in (yes another one) with some sound effects (yes more) and then the theme starts all over again. There appears to be a predictable pattern in the songs on the album but sometimes they throw something in that's unpredictable. A second guitar solo, like in Lonely Wolf, is an example. This solo is better than the first and goes longer which also ends the song too. A pretty good song all up.
The final song of the album, if you haven't guessed by the process of elimination, is the Vega's theme remix, Silent Gravestone. It starts off with a pretty fast accordion and then goes into the theme which is a grand piano. I suppose most of the instruments from the songs reflect the characters and how they act. This is no exception, it sounds like it would be for Vega. A piano solo, one of two on the album, starts at 1:24 and is well recorded and played with a constant drum beat that sounds like clapping. At 2:12, the song starts again with, yep you guessed it, sound effects. There's no guitar or guitar sounding instruments in the entire song once again proving the variety of the album. The song ends with the second piano solo of the album and finishes it off.
Song summary aside, the album deals with, in general, flutes, clarinets, guitars, pianos, organs, heavy bass, all synths and strong percussion where necessary. All in all, I'd say 9-10 out of the 12 songs are well worth a listen if you can find them that is. A great album by Yoko Shimomura and the arrangement team of Seiji Toda, Hiroyuki Negishi and Hideya Nagata, and as I said, the only thing that was wrong, that they've obviously learnt from, is the sound effects in the remixes. Nice work.
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