Chip Tuned Rockman Review

This is certainly an interesting choice for an album arrangement. The major of Rockman/Mega Man remix albums aren't done in this fashion, but after hearing this one, I'd love to see Capcom release more like it.

When I first heard of Chip Tuned Rockman, I expected that we'd be treated to the usual Rockman 2 boot-licking that we've seen from so many arrange and remix tracks by fans. Not only does Chip Tuned Rockman have a wealth of composers, both from the fan community and those that compose music professionally, the range of tracks from the Rockman games is to say the least, expansive. There are 20 tracks on this album and nearly every game in the classic Rockman series is covered.

Two things really impress me about this album. One, the quality of the music. Being a chiptuned based album, you might think the tracks here are simply NES-style covers, and you'd be wrong. Sure, the music here does sound like it belongs in an NES games but these are full blown arrangements and pretty spectacular ones at that. The composers here are truly masters at what they do and it makes me yearn for them to come back for a second album. I only wish Bun Bun (the composer of Mega Man 3's soundtrack) could have been involved.

The second thing that really wowed me is the aforementioned amount of games represented.
There are songs from Rockman, Rockman 2, Rockman 3, Rockman 4, Rockman 5, Rockman 6, Rockman 7, Rockman 8, Rockman & Forte, Rockman Battle & Chase, Mega Man: The Wily Wars, and even Rockman World 5 on the Game Boy. With so many games being covered, everyone is bound to have more than a few favorites. That also means that some of the lesser appreciated songs get some love. Groundman got some incredible respect here, as did Wind Carry My Words (Battle & Chase).

My hope is that this album will spark a major interest for remixers to do something else besides Dr. Wily Stage 1 from Mega Man 2. There's a ton of great music out there that shouldn't just be limited to the Mega Man 2 and 3.

My personal score for this album is a 4.5/5. I've listened to it more than a dozen times now and I'm still not sick of it. Any and every fan of Mega Man needs to hear these tunes.