SMWCentral Official Annual Music Tourney #1 2021 - end - Old Contests & Events

Today's picks are...

XTC - Green Man
Sega Sound Team - Track 4 [Last Survivor (FM Towns)]

Some commentary...

Once again, it sounds like we have a lot of songs competing for one slot: namely, I put five of them in a group, and reserved one of the slots for a song from this group after listening to the other three. Of the five, I caught a potential Super Mario World shoutout at the beginning of Masked Intruder - I Don't Wanna Be Alone Tonight, and Sega Sound Team - Track 4 [Last Survivor (FM Towns)] was the most unusual of the bunch. The other three, referring to Xi - Valhalla, Kenji Ito - Last Battle (Arrangement) and Hirokazu Ando & Jun Ishikawa - Vs. Magolor? They deadlocked against each other. Thus, between the other two, I chose the most unusual one of the bunch.

Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio
Kenji Ito - Last Battle (Arrangement)

Xi - Valhalla
Kenji Ito - Last Battle (Arrangement)

Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio
XTC - Green Man

1. Xi - Valhalla
2. XTC - Green Man

3. Sega Sound Team - Track 4 [Last Survivor (FM Towns)]
4. Kenji Ito - Last Battle (Arrangement)
5. Whitewoods - Fantasy Mind
6. Hirokazu Ando & Jun Ishikawa - Vs. Magolor
7. Masked Intruder - I Don't Wanna Be Alone Tonight
8. Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio

Been a while since we had an super stacked set like this; picking 2nd place was very difficult.

Set FF be like:
“If YOU just hadn’t been there, I would have been the winner!”

Guess I won't be out of this tourney! Anyway, my choices are:

XTC - Green Man
Masked Intruder - I Don't Wanna Be Alone Tonight
(There's actually an SMW-esque beginning in the music video. 🤞)

Honorable mentions:

Kenji Ito - Last Battle (Arrangement)
Hirokazu Ando & Jun Ishikawa - Vs. Magolor
Sega Sound Team - Track 4 [Last Survivor (FM Towns)]

“YAAAARGH!!! I can’t decide! I just can’t decide!!”

Holy fish paste, this is literally The Hardest Ever!!

Expect to have more intel about The Hacking of PuyoPuyo coming soon. 『いけいけ団長、頑張れ頑張れ団長！』
Credits to Nenilein (a.k.a. @PinkGeekNeni on Twitter) for the Pride avatar!

Help us raise funds for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. #ДопомагаємоРазом / #HelpTogether
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– Aya Shameimaru, Touhou Suzunaan ~ Forbidden Scrollery

Sega Sound Team - Track 4 [Last Survivor (FM Towns)] (cool vgm)
Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio (this one vibed with me for whatever reason)

Green Man deserves an HM and maybe would've won on a different day

1. Hirokazu Ando & Jun Ishikawa - Vs. Magolor (yeah, this is one of my absolute favorite Kirby tracks, so this is an extremely obvious vote here lol; but yeah, RtDL in general has a pretty cool soundtrack, and this is definitely one of the ones I like the most, really hectic and cool boss theme haha)

2. Sega Sound Team - Track 4 [Last Survivor (FM Towns)] (damn, fucking great shit lol; the guitar is damn nice here, but personally I think the organ part is my favorite, that shit be taking me places man, so good for zoning out, Sega's games and their music during this period is just so fucking legendary haha)

3. Xi - Valhalla (pretty damn good as well, definitely fits a hectic final boss battle very well, so much so in fact that I'm surprised this isn't actually from a game or something lol; anyway, I was going to nominate this, but the Last Survivor track definitely won me over this time, sorry :V)

4. Kenji Ito - Last Battle (Arrangement) (pretty good, although I do feel like it drags on a bit too much, which makes me kind of not enjoy it nearly as much as I would otherwise... that being said tho, this is still a very solid arrangement, loving that guitar-ish synth lead in some parts a lot, and in general it sounds very cool)

5. XTC - Green Man (honestly kinda surprised I enjoyed this as much as I did lol; definitely very unique sounding, but it's not as good as the other tracks, which sucks but yeah, that's just how it is

)

6. Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio (this one was cool as well, enjoyed it more than I was expecting or whatever... but yeah, the same thing as above applies here as well, although this one is slightly worse for me as well, so the placing is appropriate enough I'd say)

7. Whitewoods - Fantasy Mind (not too bad, but not too good either #1)

8. Masked Intruder - I Don't Wanna Be Alone Tonight (not too bad, but not too good either #2)

Layout by Mathos

MY TWO CHOICES:

PERFECT!!
1. KENJI ITO - LAST BATTLE (ARRANGEMENT)
2. XI - VALHALLA

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

GREAT!
3. XTC - Green Man
4. Hirokazu Ando & Jun Ishikawa - Vs. Magolor
5. Whitewoods - Fantasy Mind: It’s groovy and it can easily make me feel like I’m in the 80’s by means of the genre and the images that it uses. It’s a shame that it’s so short.

AND THE OTHER SONGS:

GooD
6. Sega Sound Team - Track 4 [Last Survivor (FM Towns)]
7. Masked Intruder - I Don't Wanna Be Alone Tonight

ALMOST
8. Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio: This one is good and I like that genre, but it wasn’t as good as the rest of songs.

Oh my GGosh! This set was incredibly GGreat and difficult! I liked all of its songs.

Xi - Valhalla
Kenji Ito - Last Battle (Arrangement)

A lot of the others were good contenders but these two just really took the cake. I'm especially a fan of both Kenji Ito's work (with this tune being my introduction to it) and vgm arrange albums, so I couldn't not go for this one.

YES

Xi - Valhalla: Song's got my name in the title and also I nominated it

Sega Sound Team - Track 4 [Last Survivor (FM Towns)]: I was scared I wouldn't have a second song to vote for in the set in which I just wanted to vote for my own song but here we go, this fucks

NO, but more respectable

XTC - Green Man: Unfortunately, I can only pick 2 songs

Hirokazu Ando & Jun Ishikawa - Vs. Magolor: It's good, especially that fucked up organ part.

Kenji Ito - Last Battle (Arrangement): It lacks the SNES jank and ends up sounding weaker for it.

NO

Whitewoods - Fantasy Mind: I don't hate it, but I'm glad it's so short.

Masked Intruder - I Don't Wanna Be Alone Tonight: Bad

Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio: Video unavailable, and I don't care to search for it.

SET GG RESULTS:
Kenji Ito - Last Battle (Arrangement) (8)
Xi - Valhalla (5)
Sun Kil Moon - Carry Me Ohio (4)
Sega Sound Team - Track 4 [Last Survivor (FM Towns)] (4)
XTC - Green Man (4)
Hirokazu Ando & Jun Ishikawa - Vs. Magolor (3)
Masked Intruder - I Don't Wanna Be Alone Tonight (1)
Whitewoods - Fantasy Mind (1)

Preliminary Round: Set HH
zts - Resurrected Replayer
Kohta Takahashi - Night Stream
Lee Nicklen - Track 2 [Small Fry]
Chick Corea - Encore (Live)
Haircut 100 - Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)
Wintersun - Sons of Winter and Stars
Hiroto Saitoh - Fellow Soldier
SuganoMusic feat. Renko - Lonely City Lights (Densha de D version)

-------------------------------------------

this is the first time you are seeing this

YES

zts - Resurrected Replayer: If you have 125 hours to spare i-

Kohta Takahashi - Night Stream: God damn, I feel like 7 different types of way about this song

NO?

SuganoMusic feat. Renko - Lonely City Lights (Densha de D version): I wish the sound quality was better, I also can't tell if the song is only like a minute and a half or if it's just that repetitive.

Chick Corea - Encore (Live): Unfortunately, I started to find myself getting a bit bored around the saxophone solo. Which sucks cause usually I love shit like this

Hiroto Saitoh - Fellow Soldier: Inoffensive and I'd imagine it works pretty well ingame, but not voting material.

NO

Wintersun - Sons of Winter and Stars: I have some respect for this, but take absolutely zero enjoyment out of it, and am not happy I had to listen to all 13 minutes.

Haircut 100 - Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl): Music for my dad.

Lee Nicklen - Track 2 [Small Fry]: The mixing and panning on this gives me a headache

Kohta Takahashi - Night Stream
Hiroto Saitoh - Fellow Soldier

List Soundtrack - List Hacks

Mega Man X3 OSTs

Chick Corea - Encore (Live)
Kohta Takahashi - Night Stream

1. Kohta Takahashi - Night Stream
2. Lee Nicklen - Track 2 [Small Fry]

3. Wintersun - Sons of Winter and Stars
4. Hiroto Saitoh - Fellow Soldier
5. zts - Resurrected Replayer
6. Haircut 100 - Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl)
7. Chick Corea - Encore (Live)
8. SuganoMusic feat. Renko - Lonely City Lights (Densha de D version)

Pretty nice set overall.

Solid set. I had a hard time ordering my Top 3.

1. Kohta Takahashi - Night Stream: Dang, this song's awesome. One of the best VGM picks of the tourney thus far.
2. zts - Resurrected Replayer: Same thoughts as #1. I just liked Night Stream a tiny bit more.
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3. Hiroto Saitoh - Fellow Soldier: This one's good. Had a hard time picking between it and #2, but I just think #2 is more unique.
4. Lee Nicklen - Track 2 [Small Fry]: It's alright.
5. Haircut 100 - Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl): Not bad, but also not all that great
6. Chick Corea - Encore (Live): I generally have a hard time getting into these 10+ minute long jazz fusion concert pieces, and this one's not much of an exception

7. SuganoMusic feat. Renko - Lonely City Lights (Densha de D version): No thanks
8. Wintersun - Sons of Winter and Stars: This song felt 4 hours long

Check out my WIP romhack!

Lee Nicklen - Track 2 [Small Fry]
Chick Corea - Encore (Live)

Hiroto Saitoh - Fellow Soldier

SuganoMusic feat. Renko - Lonely City Lights (Densha de D version)

I couldn't find anything to write :| By the way my Youtube channel

This set's picks are...

zts - Resurrected Replayer
Hiroto Saitoh - Fellow Soldier

Commentary...

Wintersun - Sons of Winter and Stars reminds me of Ne Obliviscaris - Painters of the Tempest (Part II): Triptych Lux somewhat in execution. However, I preferred Ne Obliviscaris' song in this tourney.
zts - Resurrected Replayer was chosen partially due to lack of interest on several others (the second slot for this case came from process of elimination), and it indirectly defeats Kohta Takahashi - Night Stream and SuganoMusic feat. Renko - Lonely City Lights (Densha de D version), mostly because this seems more unusual in execution (at least at the beginning).