Sound Current: Rockman 7

By Jeriaska . March 23, 2008 . 11:08pm

As has perhaps drawn online remixers and doujins to endlessly revisit the early Rockman tunes, the stage music of the original trilogy often managed to illustrate a game stage in a musical idea as effectively as the molten pools of lava and hills of glistening frost appearing on the screen. A two-year absence followed six Rockman games on the Famicom before the first and only outing for the Blue Bomber appeared on the 16-bit Super Famicom. Not only was Rockman 7: Confrontation of Destiny! a comparatively long time coming, it took well over a decade for an original soundtrack album to be published, which happened late last year under the auspices of Team Entertainment.

Rockman 7 attempted to emulate the style of the traditional series on faster, more graphically capable hardware. Steps to retain the classic feel included crediting musicians as several letter pseudonyms, like Apple Z and Narinari, a convention which had been necessitated in the 1980's by hardware limitations. Mega Man has proved to be a deceptively challenging formula to emulate, and the codenamed musicians of this title are largely successful in blending futuristic techno and bright eyed optimism in just the right proportions. Leaving aside the belated release, the only major shortcoming of the soundtrack is in its technical flaws.

In searching for a factor that has led to Team Entertainment's Rockman 7 audio revival receiving less than glowing praise, one might point to the appearance of several sound effects cropping up on the recording. It can be hard not to be distracted by the appearance of ice blasts that briefly intrude midway through Freeze Man's stage theme, one of the highlights of the original score. Team has posted a disclaimer to their official website regarding the suboptimal quality of the recording, but a number of soundtrack reviews remain severe in their judgments. They cite both these interruptions and the decision to restrict the length of certain tracks to fit the entire 37 song score on a single disc as distinct setbacks for a long awaited album release. These issues put something of a damper on what might otherwise have been a praiseworthy gesture of vintage videogame celebration on the part of the music publishing house.

Speaking solely on the subject of the music itself, the compositions are among the most memorable in the series outside the gemlike construction of the stage music of Rockman 1-3. While starting off the player on the level select screen has long been a hallmark of Rockman's non-linear gameplay design, part seven devised an introductory stage to set the mood. The stakes have clearly been raised as nemesis Dr. Wily appears, hovering in his trademark flying saucer. The intensity of the music stays light enough to distance the mood from the more menacing dystopia of Rockman X, while the electronic backbeat foreshadows the arrival of the protagonist's troubled alter ego Bass and his wolf-bot Treble.

Those who have played the Super Nintendo title might recall that in-game, holding down the B button during Shade Man's introduction yields an upbeat arrangement of another vintage Capcom platformer, Ghouls 'n Ghosts. This album, imperfect as it is, at least includes the secret stage music and its alternate introduction. Another distinctive addition to the soundtrack is the retro medley found in the Robot Museum. The arrangement swings from a catchy remix of Snake Man's theme, to Guts Man, to Heat Man before the track loops. By no means a Herculean feat in the annals of Mega Man arrangements, the tune nevertheless represents an earlier attempt to revisit the classics of the series, alongside the soundtrack for the arcade title Rockman 2: The Power Fighters. While unidentified in their remixing, it seems appropriate to remember on Mega Man's 20th the efforts of musicians V-Tomozoh, YUKO, T."ANIE".N, Krsk, Kan, Apple Z, More Rich, Narinari, and Ippo for having contributed to one of the last original Rockman titles.

Originally published 12.07.07