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Album Information Reviewer Rank
Gradius 2: Space Odyssey "Gofer's Ambition"
Published by: Apollon
Release Date: July 21st 1988

Composed by: Konami Kukeiha Club
Arranged by: Ikuro Fujiwara

1 Disc, 30 Tracks
Catalog: BY30-5202
29

Reviewed by: Ersatz Sobriquet

The Japanese put out a lot of albums like these. What they would do is simply release the same OST that was previously released and add about maybe four or five "new" orchestrated versions of the more popular songs. This was the same fate of this Gradius collection. Usually, if the arranged portion is good enough, I would encourage all to get it. But in this instance, I wouldn't do such a thing to the kind people who surf the pages here at RPGamers.net.

The first track is instantly recognizable to anyone who's ever played anything related to the Gradius series, but the annoying drum loop in the background, as well as the SYNTH'ed electric guitar plays along with the already bad synth work, I don't see how this could be enjoyable.

The second track doesn't hold too much weight to the already bad formula as well. The drum loop doesn't change up to save its life, other than take a beat away, which in my book, isn't doing much. All the sounds, as in the first song, are so subdued anyway that it doesn't really matter. I hope and pray that the guitar work really was just synthed, cause if this was a real player, he should work on his power cords a bit more.

There is absolutely no reason to bore you with the same negative talk of the next four songs in the list, the only four as well that are "arranged". They sound awful as well and really doesn't do the Gradius name any sort of justice.

Tracks 7-29 are all the straight sound bits from the game. That includes everything from the "Game Over" screen to the ship selection screen. I'm guessing this is from the SNES version of Gradius 2 that was never released here in the States, known as Life Force. Most of all the tracks sound the same, some even placed back to back, so when it goes to the next song, you really never really noticed.

All these tracks average 1 minute in length and are not worth your time. Especially STUPID is the 29th track, where the theme song is played as a very stupid synthed voice says various things from the game in a row. This is REALLY funny too. At one point, this is what is said:
"Shoot it in the head", "Shoot it in the eyes", "Shoot it in the mouth", "You need some practice". Heh, and the voice. Man, you can take that anyway you want. Probably the most entertaining thing on this whole album.

It isn't worth getting, not even for nostalgic purposes. This would be a waste of your money, or space on your hard drive. Now excuse me as I delete this file.

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