Chronology: A Jazz Tribute to Chrono Trigger

All of the wonderful things I could say about Chrono Trigger have already been said countless times. The game is a 16-bit masterpiece, one of my all-time favorite games and RPGs. Chrono Trigger's soundtrack is a smorgasbord of delicious music. There have been a number of Chrono Trigger arrange albums over the years but I don't think there's ever been an entire arranged soundtrack for it dedicated to jazz. I never even thought of such  an idea. Jazz is easily one of my top 3 genres of music and I'd love to see more jazz video game arrange albums. Until the pool for it gets deeper, however, Chronology: A Jazz Tribute to Chrono Trigger will will do more than nicely.

This is OverClocked Remix's 60th album, which is quite the milestone, but it is also the The OC Jazz Collective's album debut. I'd say this group came out swinging, but that would be a massive understatement. Chronology oozes professionalism and high production values. The music on this album sounds so good that each member could easily be a jazz club performing these pieces live. Just listening to some of these tracks makes me feeling like it's late at night in a club, the lights are dimmed and The OC Jazz Collective is on stage doing their thing as people look, sipping their drinks and nodding their heads to the music.

At only eight tracks, Chronology is a rather short remix album. Considering the exceptional quality of the music, that actually bums me out a but. The run time  is under 48 minutes. It would have been great to see more themes get The OC Jazz Collective's magic touch, but when what we've been given sounds this freaking good, you really can't complain all that much. You could have a jazz lover listen to this soundtrack that isn't even familiar with Chrono Trigger and they would love it. I'll be listening to Chronology over and over again and eagerly anticipating The OC Jazz Collective's next project.

Chronology: A Jazz Tribute to Chrono Trigger

Sonic CD: Temporal Duality

20 years ago, Sonic CD was released on the Sega CD (Mega CD for you Japanese and European gamers). The game introduced to the series time travel, Amy Rose and fan favorite robotic knock off, Metal Sonic. By no means was Sonic CD a perfect game (don't let the fans and the press fool you, this game has it's flaws like occasionally screwy level design) but it was still a fantastic entry to the series.

When SEGA of America was localizing the game for Western Audiences, as is often the case, changes were made to the game, but this altercation would split the fanbase on a level that would rival the views of the quality of Sonic's classic and modern game outings. For Sonic CD's American release, the bulk of Naofumi Hataya and Masafumi Ogata's compositions (excepet the Past mix level themes) were 86'd and in their place a new score composed by Spencer Nilsen and David Young. This change has caused fans to get into mindless debates about which soundtrack is better. The defunct GameFan called Nilsen and Young's audio "elevator music" while some fans feel the Japanese soundtrack is too loud and in-your-face. I think both soundtracks are awesome so I can honestly say that I didn't have a problem with the soundtrack change. How many games are fortunate enough to get two badawesome soundtracks? Thankfully the community at OverClocked Remix also recognizes both scores because Sonic CD: Temporal Duality pays tribute to both the Japanese and American soundtracks.

Sonic CD: Temporal Duality marks OverClocked Remix's fourth Sonic album and their 45th album release to date. It's split across three digital CDs (plus one  bonus CD), consisting of 38 tracks that cover much if not all of the music from each version of Sonic CD. The first disc, PAST, is comprised entirely of remixes from the Japanese soundtrack. Night of the Ninth is an arrangement of one of my favorite tracks from the Japanese version of Sonic CD, Little Planet, a track some may argue is undeserving of being arranged when compared to the likes of Palmtree Panic, Collision Chaos and Stardust Speedway, but I really like what Theory of N did with this track. Speaking of Palmtree Panic, Paradise Paraodox is a wonderful techo/trance arrangement of a song that took years to grow on me (I originally never cared for either version of Palmtree Panic). Chips out of Water has, as you might expect, a hint of chiptunes thrown in but uses samples from the Game Gear. The Game Gear isn't the first system I think of when I imagine chiptunes, but it's very appropriate here and somehow adds to the tranquility of the song. You can hear some Genessis drums at the start of Timekeeper and the song keeps the upbeat flair of the original theme (Quartz Quadrant) quite well. Even that kickin' Special Stage got some lovin' in Bass for a Better Tomorrow, complete with voice samples from Sonic and Eggman. Time Traveller's Delight is a lyrical track and done in the style of 1990s rap. Considering the vocal tracks from the Japanese version of Sonic CD, this remix of Stardust Speedway doesn't seem out of place in the slightest and neither does the Wacky Work Bench remix, which I fully plan on listening to the next time I play the zone in Sonic CD.

Disc 2, PRESENT, focuses on the American soundtrack. Titillating Tempest is one of the songs I heard during the trailer and I can safely say that the whole song is incredible with saxophone work that is to die for. I'm certainly glad I warmed up to Palmtree Panic over the years, otherwise I may not have enjoyed Palm Beach SEGA Tan as much as I did. I was eagerly anticipating the remix of Collision Chaos, quite possibly my favorite track from the American soundtrack and Ion Storms Above the Mechanical Forest does not disappoint. It even has a guitar riff very much like the one in the original. WORK IT! was another track that was teased at in the trailer and while it's sadly much shorter when compared to the other tracks on this album, it still holds it's own with being one of the best tracks presented here and that's saying a lot. The Hero of Time, a track based off the Invincibility and Zone Clear themes really stands out from everything else, with a heavy emphasis on wind instruments. If you didn't think that boss theme couldn't get any creepier, you'd be wrong. Remember how the original had that maniacal laughter? Well Yours Truly, Satan has an even more dreadful feel to it and sounds a thousand times creepier using Mark Hamill's Joker laugh near the end. Definitely not a track you want to listen to at home alone at night with no lights on.

The third disc, FUTURE is a mixture of both Japanese and American tracks. Two Futures is a combo of the Bad and Good Futures of Stardust Speedway in the Japanese version, Whack It is even more chiptune-centric than Chips Out of Water, Gotta Go Faster is probably a nod to Sonic X in it's title and combines the Japanese version of Collision Chaos and Sonic - You Can Do Anything. The final track of disc three, has got to be some kind of jab at GameFan, or at least, that's what I'm taking away from it's title, which is called, I kid you not, Elevator Music, which if you've been keeping up thus far, is precisely what they called the American soundtrack. Ironically, this is actually a remix of the Japanese version of Palmtree Panic.

So you may be wondering, why haven't I said anything about a Sonic Boom arrangement? For some Sonic fans, this was the first Sonic vocal track they ever heard and it would be criminal for there not to a be a single remix of one of the most popular Sonic tracks on this album. Actually, there are three versions of Sonic Boom here. One on Disc 2, A World in Motion, Take it All the Way at the end of Disc 2, which is actually a jazzy non-vocal version and The Boom (Undeleted), which is easily the best of two vocal versions of the course. If you count the instrumental version of A World in Motion on the fourth bonus disc, I guess there are a total of four versions of Sonic Boom.

After spending hours listening to this album, I have the urge to go back and listen to both the Japanese and American Sonic CD soundtracks and I'd love to see OCR tackle other games in the Sonic series. Here's hoping they do a Sonic Adventure album in time. Sami Briggs also deserves a round of applause for his gorgeous album artwork. I came across a clean version of the cover a few months before the album came out and I was floored.

So here's to another 20 years of celebrating Sonic CD and some of the best music in the series. Which soundtrack is better? I can't hear the debaters because I have the volume cranked up as I'm listening to Sonic CD: Temporal Duality and I highly recommend you do the same.

Sonic CD: Temporal Duality

Milky Way Wishes: A Kirby Super Star Tribute

In 2011, the impossible happened: Duke Nukem Forever was finally released. The first time I'd read about that game, I believe I was 16 or 17 years old. I don't think a game has ever had such a long development cycle. But after so many delays and cancellations, the game was finally released. What does that have to do with a Kirby album? Milky Way Wishes: A Kirby Super Star Tribute, an OverClocked Remix soundtrack was first announced eight years ago. On March 11, 2013 this album was at long last released. I would have mentioned this sooner, but I just found out about it because as was the case with Duke Nukem Forever, I thought this album to be dead and buried. This is another one of those times where I was so happy to have been wrong.

On the album's homepage, the director's share their thoughts and memories on piecing together this soundtrack. It turns out Arek the Absolute went through eight hard drive crashes, which resulted in the loss of some of the album material and greatly set the project back. There was also originally going to be a Flash storybook to go along with the album, but this was ultimately and unfortunately scrapped. So Milky Way Wishes is missing some music and that Flash storybook that probably would have all kinds of awesome. But Milky Way Wishes is still bursting at the seems with wonderful music and a whole lot of heart. Even with the loss of some goods, Milky Way Wishes is a fine album that any fan of OverClocked Remix arrangements and Kirby fans would do well to download.

As the name suggests, Milky Way Wishes is a tribute album to the SNES game Kirby Super Star, one of my and many fan's all-time favorite Kirby games. It's no secret that the game had some of the best music that the SNES sound chip could produce so if any game was worthy of getting an album tribute, it's Kirby Super Star. It's 2 discs and 23 tracks of arrange Kirby music goodness.

Contributing sound artists consist of Sixto Sounds, halc, PROTO-DOME, Insert Rupee, OverCoat and Ergosonic to name a few. Kirby no Nozomi (Milky Way Wishes) is the opening track of disc 1 is a lovely slow arrangement of the title theme of, you guessed it, Milky Way wishes and is an exceptional way to kick off the music. Welcome to the Galaxy (Milky Way Wishes Map) gives us our first dose of music with a healthy does of chiptune flavor, something I've come to love from the last few releases of OverClocked Remix albums. Much of  the tracks on this album are infused with some chiptunes and you won't catch me complaining. The Milky Way Wishes sub game had what is in my opinion, one of the best staff roll themes ever and Ergosonic's A Reminiscence (Staff Roll), which happens to be the final track of disc 1 does the original source track so much justice. It could easily be the best track on this album.

Moving on to disc 2, A Green Green Dedede (Great King Dedede's Theme, GREEN GREENS) combines two of everyone's favorite Kirby themes into a a rave tastic tune with some chiptune overtones. Considering both Green Greens and Dedede's Theme were originally chiptunes, I guess that kinda makes things come full circle. If we learned anything from Kirby's Return to Dream Land it's that heavy metal themes have a place in the Kirby world of music. The Savior of Dream Land (Coliseum Battle) is Sitxo Sounds sol contribution to this album and if you've heard his other OCR submitted tracks, you know your ears are going to be rocked clean off. Some people may take issues with So Easy (Great King Dedede's Theme), a rap version of Dream Land's self proclaimed king's theme with a heavy supply of  F-bombs but I myself found it pretty amusing. The last track, Ska Buffet (All You Can Eat: Dirt Version) is another track that isn't exactly family friendly and may not be what fans were expecting from a Gourmet Race remix.

There's a plethora of sexy artwork to go along with this album. More than 90 pieces of art are included when you download this album including pop art and sketches. From the looks of things, it seems like a lot of this art was going to be part of the ill-fated Flash storybook. The book may have died but at least the artwork work, or a great deal of it lives on. It's nice to look at all this artwork as you listen to the album.

As is the case with every ORC alum, Milky Way Wishes: A Kirby Super Star Tribute is totally free. It took a long time, and the finished product wasn't what the director's originally intended but what we got is a fine Kirby fan album and really, why nitpick about what isn't there when what we do have is this great?

Milky Way Wishes: A Kirby Super Star Tribute

Pilotwings: Take Flight

Ah, Pilotwings. It's what has been known as the hardware showoff series for a number of Nintendo consoles. As if being an enjoyable arcade style flight simulator wasn't good enough, the Pilotwings games also have some excellent pieces of music that I feel get overlooked. We're long overdue for a Pilotwings arrange album so Pilotwings: Take Flight couldn't have come at a better time.

Released on April 25, 2012 Pilotwings: Take Flight is OverClocked Remix's 34th album release. Unlike the previous albums, this one is on the short side, spanning a mere seven tracks. But as Nintendo said in the days of the Nintendo 64, quality over quantity. This baby may not be lengthy (total run time is only 22 minutes and 40 seconds) but it is very high on quality. Taking songs from all three Pilotwings titles, the music is heavy on the chiptunes but still sounds faithful to the source material. The Birdman Cometh, a remix of Birdman from Pilotwings 64, sounds just as jazzy as the original track and I'm very pleased that my favorite song from that game got remix love here.

Its great to see this Nintendo franchise get some much needed audio appreciation. Pilotwings Take Flight is another fine effort from OverClocked Remix. Highly recommended.

Pilotwings: Take Flight

Mega Man X: Maverick Rising

When most people think Mega Man, the classic series is undoubtedly what comes to mind. But he's not the only incarnation of the Blue Bomber. The first in a line of spin-offs, the Mega Man X series is probably the second most popular of the Mega Man games. It stuck close to the formula of what made the classic series a huge success while adding new elements such as the inclusion or armor upgrades to make X stronger. The classic series has what is without question some of the most endearing music you'll ever hear in a video game. Keeping the tradition from the original boy in blue, the X series is no slacker in the music department either. Though the music in the X games is quite different from the classic series, being more rock based, many are of the mind that it's still superb tunage. The crew over at OverClocked remix must certainly agree because the long awaited Mega Man X: Maverick Rising, the site's 33rd release, is not only one of the best fan tributes to Mega Man music, it's one of the finest Mega Man albums.

First of all, props to the OCR gang for doing an album on the X series. While immensely popular, when it comes to Mega Man remix projects, most fans focus on the classic series. You can count the number of fan remixes for the X series on one hand. 

Maverick Rising is quite the large album. It clocks in at five discs. Rest assured, though, that this is a beautiful mix of quality as well as quantity. With five discs, and over 60 songs, that gives you more than four hours of Mega Man music to listen to. It's enough to rock your ears off. 

There's a truckload of talent behind Maverick Rising. Washudoll, Level 99, Sixto Sounds, Vurez, Avaris, Joshua Morse, audio fidelity, and a plethora of others. If I were to list each contributing member to this album I'd be here all day. Suffice to say, the amount of X lovers that worked on this album is staggering. Unless I miss my guess, it looks like this album brings some new challengers as well. BONKERS is a name that is totally new to me, as is melody and others, but they've made a lasting impression on me. There are names on Maverick Rising that I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

So what games got covered? The entire console X series. That's Mega Man X1-X8. Maverick Hunter X and Mega Man Zero 2 and 4 also received some love. Man fan favorites were arranged, including what some may consider minor tunes when compared to the stage themes, like Mega Man X's Title theme and Password theme. In case you couldn't already tell how I feel by now, the music on Maverick Rising is excellent (pun very much intended.) Do you like rock? It's here. Hard rock? Got you covered? Death metal? There's some of that too. You say you like techno and trance music? Step right up. Chiptune? Present. I doubt I've covered all the genres this album hits. I know I've said it when talking about other OCR albums before, but there's something for everyone to love here. Mega Man X fans especially will eat this album up.

It's really hard to list all my favorite tracks from this album because there are so many. Mega Man X6 was a crappy, crappy game, but I will always stick up for it's soundtrack, which saw some of the greatest tunes to come out of the X series. halc did an amazing remix of Commander Yammark Stage with Insecta Robotcia, which is heavy on the chiptune. STING, a medley track that combines Opening Stage, Blast Hornet Stage, Neon Tiger Stage and Password from Mega Man X3 is remixed by Joshua Morse, man that has won my respect many times over through the years. Level 99 and Hemophiliac bring us The Leidenfrost Effect, a soothing acoustic guitar version of Blizzard Buffalo Stage. Crawfish Crackdown, remixed by Devastus, is a sick hard rock remix of Crush Crawfish Stage. For the full track list on this mammoth-sized album, go here.

I especially like way the went about labeling the discs. Disc 1 is the X disc. Disc 2 is Zero. Disc 3 is Vile. Disc 4 is Sigma. Disc 5, acting as a bonus disc is Dr. Light. There's also some spiffy art work to go along with this album. Isn't that album cover awesome? The individual disc art is also pretty sweet. All of the album art was done by Dominic Ninmark, who also arranged some music for the album. How's that for being gifted? I would so buy a physical release of this baby just to hold the art in my hands.

Mega Man: The Robot Museum, 25YEARLEGEND, NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming, Unsung Heroes and now Mega Man X: Maverick Rising. OverClocked Remix just continues to wow me. This is their largest album to date, trumping the previous champion, Wild Arms: ARMed and DANGerous, which was four discs and 58 tracks long (and one I still need to download and listen to.) Maverick Rising makes for an incredible early Mega Man 25th anniversary present. Kinda makes you wonder OCR has anything planned for the Blue Bomber's big birthday later this year. I certainly hope so. Until then, I'll be listening to Maverick Rising again and again.

Mega Man X: Maverick Rising

Unsung Heroes

Now this is a fantastic idea for an album! Released on January 24, 2012, Unsung Heroes is the 34th album published by OverClocked Remix. I'd tell you what it's about but Stevo Bortz (AKA, Level 99) can sum it up far better than I can.

"Under-appreciated gems, lost in the shadows of the spotlight given to the big hitters in the RPG scene. Each song tackled here has some personal meaning to the musician, moreso than just a single song from a game many people know. The choice of games was up to the individuals, and that adds an extra layer of personal investment into each track. These are the games we had that none of our other friends did, though we loved them just the same."

From the artist comments to the music itself, I can tell a lot of love and care went into Unsung Heroes. At first I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be familiar with the music appearing on this album. Heck, I don't even have the slightest idea who those characters are on the front cover. But after taking a look at the game list, which includes, SaGa Frontier 2, Breath of Fire II, Faxanadu, Legacy of the Wizard, Lufia & the Fortress of Doom, Bahamut Lagoon, and Suikoden, just to name a few, I was surprised that the music wouldn't be completely foreign to me. True, I couldn't recall the origin of every song without consulting the track list and there were still some songs that I didn't recognize. Even so, Unsung Heroes is still superb work all the same.

There are some vocals on a few of the tracks and they are as amazing as the audio that accompany theme. The first track, aptly named Unsung Heroes, pays tribute to these forgotten heroes in gaming. I actually thought this was an original track until I saw that it was an arrangement of the Port Town theme from The 7th Saga. So not only does this album give props to some of gaming's lost gems, it does so in the very first song. Nice. Shimmering, a remix of Rosenkranz, one of my favorite tracks from SaGa Frontier 2 sounds like a much slightly speed up version of the original source all while doing it sweet, sweet justice. There are a few rock based tracks as well, such as Family Legacy from Willow, arranging the Inn and House theme. I can't remember much about Legacy of the Wizard or it's music, but dang if that track isn't awesome!

I ended up listening to Unsung Heroes on repeat over the weekend and I can safely say that it's one of my favorite albums to come out this year. OverClocked Remix just continues to impress me, getting better and better with their releases. I can't wait to see what they come out with next. Hopefully they've got something in the works for Mega Man's 25th anniversary.

As with most albums from OverClocked Remix, Unsung Heroes is completely free to download. This baby is well worthy of taking up a tiny bit of space on your computer or portable music player. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to YouTube to hear some music from The 7th Saga and Luminous Arc.

Unsung Heroes

NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming

NiGHTS into dreams was a unique kind of game, memorable for it's fantastic 3D flight-based gameplay and it's dreamy musical score. Arranged NiGHTS music may not sound like a good fit. It's the kind of music that one may not even want to have remixed for fear of straying too far off from the source material. However, NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming, OverClocked Remixes' 26th album manages to put it's own spin on the beloved NiGHTS tunes while still sticking closely to the original tracks.

Spanning 3 digital discs, NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming contains remixes of favorite tracks such as Message from Nightopia, Paternal Horn, She Had Long Ears, and the unforgettable vocal track, Dream Dreams. With Dream Dreams being a fan favorite track, it's no surprise that it received as much attention as it did on this album. There are no less than four different versions of Dream Dreams to be heard here. The first one, Dream Dreams (Disco NiGHTS Mix) is a fast, shorter version of the original track. Even though the original tune is more slow going, this is still a superb arrangement and one of the best tracks on the album, which is already saying a lot. Slumber on a City Corner (Dream Dreams : In Silent Memory) is a jazzy, non-vocal tune, taking things much slower in contrast to Disco NIGHTS Mix. More good stuff there. The third version of Dream Dreams, The World is Dreaming is probably the closest of the four covers that's the mirrors the original song and it's nothing short of brilliant with phenomenal voice work and music to match, making it one of the best arrangements of Dream Dreams. The final version of Dream Dreams is a Karaoke version of Disco NIGHTS Mix. I got so used to listening to the vocals on Disco NiGHTS Mix that it seemed a bit odd not having them in the background, but I learned to appreciate both tracks and ended up putting both on my MP3 player.

So what about the tracks that aren't remixes of Dream Dreams? Reverse Rain (The Amazing Water), which was one of my favorite tracks in NiGHTS, is outstanding and maybe even more beautiful than the original (please don't lynch me, NiGHTS fans, I did say maybe.) From Dusk til Dawn (Fragmented NiGHTS) makes me long for more piano arrangements from OCR. She Had Angry Pixels is a wonderful chiptune cover of She Had Long Ears, one that I actually prefer over the original. Sixto Sounds hits another remix out of the park with Beyond the Dream (Gate of Your Dream), one of the most stunningly beautiful arrangements I've ever listened to. Speaking of Gate of Your Dream, A Dream, the close out song of disc 2 is another fine remix of said tune and as cliche as it sounds, the track feels just like that, a dream. A very, very good dream.

In case you couldn't tell, there's a lot to like about this album. I've greatly enjoyed listening to it on repeat numerous times. NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming is without a doubt, some of the best work to come out of OverClocked Remix and is a shinning example of just how talented the fans of video game music are. I like to think Naofumi Hataya, Tomoko Sasaki, and Fumie Kumatani, the original composers of NiGHTS' music would be proud of this arrangement album. It's a splendid love letter to their work. Head on over to the homepage below, download Lucid Dreaming and enjoy.

NiGHTS: Lucid Dreaming

MEGA MAN: The Robot Museum

Released back on March 25th of this year, MEGA MAN: The Robot Museum is an OverClocked Remix album (the site's 24th album, to be precise) by the very talented Joshua Morse. Before this album was released, I was already foaming at the mouth in anticipation based off the samples I'd heard. It was easily one of my most coveted albums of 2011 and it couldn't be released soon enough.


"The Robot Museum is an idea I've had up my sleeve for a while now. Ever since playing Mega Man 7 years back and reaching the mid-game robot museum stage, I thought the concept of a robot museum was a great one. It wasn't until I played Mega Man & Bass that the thought of an arrangement album in the style of a robot museum had occured to me."

"The following is the idea that has come into fruition. I've arranged a robot master's theme from the original Mega Man all the way through Mega Man 8 with the addition of a bonus track from Mega Man & Bass," says Joshua Morse.

The robot museum mini-stage in Mega Man 7 was one of my favorite areas out of the entire classic Mega Man series. It was short, but very sweet, containing robot masters from games gone by. The robot museum was revisited again in Mega Man & Bass and it  was expanded upon even further into a full blown level. So the fact that Joshua was inspired to create this album from two highly memorable stages from separate Mega Man titles is pretty cool.

As an avid Mega Man fan for more than two decades, I've been in love with the original songs throughout the series and have heard some excellent remixes, both from official album releases and from fans. MEGA MAN: The Robot Museum does not disappoint, featuring some of my favorite Mega Man arrangements. Spark Man has what is my all-time favorite electrical theme from the entire classic series so I was very pleased with what Joshua did with it here. Spark Shock (the tracks are named after the powers of the robot masters) starts out slow, misleading you to believe that the whole song might be of lesser speed than the original track. But after about 30 seconds, it picks up to a head bobbing beat. I like a great deal of music in Mega Man 5, but I always considered Stone Man's theme to be one of the weaker tracks from that game. So it's a little surprising that Power Stone ended up being one of my favorite songs from this album and as it stands, it's the best remix of Stone Man's theme that I've ever heard. Mention must also be given to Air Shooter, which is perfect lounge music. You will never hear better elevator music than Thunder Beam. It doesn't feel right to call it that, but that's exactly what it reminds me of. Soothing, relaxing elevator jams. Capping off this fantastic album is the ninth track, Data Base Accessed, an arrangement of the CD Data Base from Mega Man & Bass. The original CD Data Base Track was a very calming tune. In this album, the tune plays much like an infinitely enhanced version of the same track. It's beautiful stuff and a great way to end a superb Mega Man remix soundtrack.

Do I have any complaints? No, not really. Though how cool would it have been if the actual Robot Museum stages from Mega Man 7 and Mega Man & Bass had been remixed on this album? Can you imagine those tunes being given that unique Joshua Morse flavor? That would have been an extra thick layer of icing on an already sweet, sweet cake.

I've been a fan of Joshua's works for nearly three years now. He's got a very distinct style that puts him in a league of his own from other video game music arrangers. I can instantly tell when I'm listening to one of his songs. MEGA MAN: The Robot Museum ranks as one of his best works and that's saying a lot. If you're into Mega Man music, or you just like music in general (and really, who doesn't?) this free download deserves a spot on your iPod/computer/MP3 player.

MEGA MAN: The Robot Museum

25YEARLEGEND

Still trucking through The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword and listening to that magnificent 25th Anniversary Symphony CD that came with it? Or maybe you're replaying some older Zelda games. Perhaps you're discovering some of Link's adventures for the first time. However you choose to celebrate the milestone anniversary of everyone's favorite gaming hero in green, take some time out to listen to 25YEARLEGEND: A Legend of Zelda Indie Game Composer Tribute Album (Yeah, that's a mouthful).

This digital soundtrack features arranged music from the Wind Waker, Adventure of Link, Link's Awakening, Ocarina of Time, the recently released Skyward Sword, and six other Zelda games. From the trailer I've seen, it looks like this album was done from the heart of Zelda fans and music lovers and after giving it a listen, I can tell you that it sounds awesome. Being an OverClocked Remix album, the music is of course, free. No matter which Zelda game has your favorite music (really, what Zelda game actually has bad tunes?) this soundtrack has something for everyone.