Scooter Fox information

Scooter Fox's reviews:

Cannon Fodder: Game rip
"Not much here either..." (by Scooter Fox, 31 Oct 2005) [6/10]
Imagine you have game without music in levels, only in menus, briefings etc. It's Cannon Fodder. Sad thing is a title song, which is a rather poor remake of the one from Amiga version. Good thing is 'Recruits', something unexpected in a funny war game. Except for those two mentioned, other tunes are just typical and simple.

Cannon Fodder: Game rip
"Huh?!" (by Scooter Fox, 31 Oct 2005) [5/10]
You know something's wrong, when you download music being a game rip with only one file in it. I suppose this is a song from intro (I never played the Amiga version). Well, I was impressed when I heard vocals... so what? It doesn't change one thing - it's nothing great. I've heard so many better songs that I don't understand people who give it 10/10. I suppose they overrate an average song because it comes from Amiga version of the great game, but come on, you shouldn't rate the game or your memories of playing it 30 hours without a break instead of song, right?

Captain Tsubasa 5: Game rip
"Can't think of anything catchy, just read the text below." (by Scooter Fox, 31 Oct 2005) [6/10]
While the game is said to be the best in the series, in my opinion music is not living up to the CT5's overall reputation. Let's say that composer had had some ideas, and they were really good, but then something went wrong. I don't know whether it was composer's or sound engineer's (if there was any) fault, but it ended up as a 'characteristic' music, not quite in the good meaning of this word. What I mean is that it makes too much use of certain instruments I would name if only I was 100% sure which english word I should use (dictionary doesn't help) - just figure it out yourselves, of course if you want to waste some of your precious time. It sounds like composer wanted it to be as close to 'live' music as possible - some tunes are OK, some are crappy, and they certainly aren't as good as they could be. Six for good ideas, not for the results. Over and out.

Super Metroid: Game rip
"Koji Kondo... *sigh*" (by Scooter Fox, 31 Oct 2005) [7/10]
(I expected something incredible - that's why this review looks like this. ;))
Whenever I hear 'Koji Kondo', I see Super Mario Bros. before my eyes. Sorry, can't do anything about that, it's just something that can't be removed from one's brain. I must say that I was curious how mr. Kondo would handle making music for such great and climatic game as Super Metroid. Well, the result wasn't as good as it should be. First of all - it's nothing amazing. There are some good tunes, but on the other hand some of them are a bit like ambient, repeating themselves over and over again every ten seconds (I'm not saying it's a bad thing, take a look on the Captain Tsubasa 2, but in such case it must be done almost perfectly to sound good). Second - quality isn't *that* good either. I mean, come on, it's one of the best games on SNES, so one should expect that music is not far away from gameplay, right? However, tunes like those from Brinstar and mini-bosses defend whole soundtrack pretty well and overall rate is seven out of ten (I was going to give it a six, but I heard so many worse music on SNES that it would be just unfair).

Xenogears: Arranged/Remixed tunes
"Just read the text below." (by Scooter Fox, 14 Oct 2005) [6/10]
If you're looking for real remixes, there aren't much of them here - most of MIDIs are just slightly different versions of what you can find in Xenogears: Arranged tunes zip file. Music itself is not bad, but not really good either.

Xenogears: Arranged soundtrack
"Rather unexpectedly well made..." (by Scooter Fox, 14 Oct 2005) [7/10]
...and it even sounds good on my soundcard (except for "Awakening" in which I'm getting something like phone ringing o_O). Of course, as always, I must say that downloading PSF files or buying original soundtrack is better idea than downloading MIDIs. Also have in mind that this zip file lacks few really great tracks, including "The One Who Is Torn Apart" and "Forest of The Black Moon", which is a great loss.

Pinball Fantasies: Game rip
"Mr. Gustafsson, you have my respect." (by Scooter Fox, 14 Oct 2005) [9/10]
Great music - almost every time I played Pinball Fantasies, I waited those few minutes to listen to the whole intro. It's a bit strange format (all tunes from one table in one file), which is a bit inconvenient, but it doesn't matter that much.

Final Fantasy Tactics Original Soundtrack (Piano MIDI)
"Evade it at all costs!" (by Scooter Fox, 14 Oct 2005) [3/10]
Sakimoto's soundtracks for FFT and Vagrant Story are one of my favourites - I simply love them and I have to say that this conversion from symphonic music to piano MIDI is something that should have never been done. I mean conversion itself isn't bad (try to replace a whole lot of instruments with only one yourself), but the result is at least unlistenable. If you want to listen to the music from FFT, try to find a PSF file or buy original soundtrack on CDs, but do not download those MIDIs, because listening to them may lead you to some serious misunderstandings about Hitoshi Sakimoto and Masaharu Iwata's abilities as music composers.

Final Fantasy 7 Original Soundtrack (MIDI)
"Better than PSX version!" (by Scooter Fox, 14 Oct 2005) [8/10]
And I really mean it - just listen to famous "One Winged Angel" (I never liked chorus implemented originally there). I respect Nobuo Uematsu's work rather than love it, however there are some of his tunes that I really like, and that's why I'm giving this music an 8.

Warcraft 2: Game rip
"Why I never played human campaign? Because of music." (by Scooter Fox, 14 Oct 2005) [5/10]
Remember, it's only my opinion and it has nothing to do with music quality - I just really don't like the "human part" of the soundtrack. Orcs are nice, though :).

Tyrian: Game rip
"Good, really good!" (by Scooter Fox, 14 Oct 2005) [7/10]
Tyrian's music is almost as good as Tyrian's gameplay, so I highly recommend downloading it. Except few songs that I dislike from the time I played the game, it's an almost-excellent soundtrack (strong 7/10 IMO)... it's a pity that my soundcard plays some of those MID files horribly :(.

Descent 2: Game rip
"Better than those from Descent..." (by Scooter Fox, 14 Oct 2005) [8/10]
...but it's still 8/10 - it didn't make me fall off the chair in amazement ;).

Descent: Game rip
"Very interesting, although not perfect" (by Scooter Fox, 14 Oct 2005) [8/10]
Well, this music is really good when you listen to it carefully. However, it is not that good when acting as game music - it plays in the background, but won't make you stop playing for a few minutes just to listen it. It's a job well done anyway.

Jurassic Park: Game rip
"Jonathan Dunn's best NES tunes here" (by Scooter Fox, 2 Oct 2005) [8/10]
Dunn's style is easily recognizable, and his music for Jurassic Park is the best from those he made for Ocean's NES games. I really recommend downloading it and listening to it for at least few minutes.

Captain TSUBASA Vol.2 Super Striker: Game rip
"One of the greatest NES music!" (by Scooter Fox, 2 Oct 2005) [10/10]
There's not much more to say, really... except that most of tracks are about 20 seconds long, but I assure you, music is still awesome. It's a pity that game itself is not well known in the world (there's only japanese version), because it's at least as good as this music.