The pulsing, cracking saxophone counterpoints the slow, determined, and mindlessly cyclical piano foundations of the piece. It's a brilliant rendition of Necro's NG and 2i theme, keeping all the goodness of those versions and really building and building on top of them to create something with a kind of manic, almost jubilant fury. Not bad, but not one of my favourites.Īnd that's because my favourite track from the whole CD is 'Get On A Train (Backing Repeat)'. A saxophone interlude eventually leads it into a rap section.

Some tribal-style drums get things off to a good start and eases it into a light pleasant tune before becoming more agitated. 'Tomboy (Huge Side)' used to represent Elena is again nothing like her game music, which I remember as being pretty weak anyway, so it's no great loss. It's relatively unchanged and uninteresting. The fifth track is Ryu's theme, 'Good Fighter (Blirian Mix)'. A languid, thoroughly cool, calm, and collected piece, it's easily one of my favourites, despite it's relative lack of development throughout. 'Sharp Eyes (For Dancers),' by a process of elimination, is Ibuki's theme, though it's nothing at all like her in-game theme. Moving on past Yun & Yang's 'Crowded Street (Midnight Ver)' (blah) we come to the first real treasure of the bunch. The original was one of the few tracks that made an impression on me while playing the arcade with its slightly mournful motif and simple but stirring backbeat. From New York City to Olde Londone Towne, the second track is Dudley's 'Leave Alone (Rare)'. It was always a great piece and is made even better by the improved instrumentation, more complex structure, and a spicy meatball seasoning. The collection kicks off with 'Jazzy NYC (Latin Mix),' a rich, satisfying, and finely made retuning of Alex's classic theme. It's hard not to, as it's a short but incredibly sweet alternate take on the Street Fighter III themes and characters. I found this CD in Tower Records a couple of years back, at a time when I'd only played Street Fighter III: New Generation a few times. Arranged soundtracks are free of all that, they allow the composer to really cut loose, as it were, and retool the familiar tunes they way they want to, free of the shackles of game design and hardware constraints. This is true especially in fighting games, where the fight lengths vary wildly and so the tunes have to be written to be repeatable, and at the same time have enough initial impact to make an impression before the round is over. Time limits, file size limits, the requirements of the flow of the game, etc.

In this day and age, in-game music and the hardware it comes from has advanced sufficiently to produce superb quality sounds, but there are still always constraints.

Street fighter iii new generation ost