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- Jun 12, 2001
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wow, I didn't mean for this to get so long. But here goes.
funny story - all this time I had held off on buying the Shock Troopers 2nd Squad Original Soundtrack. It annoyed me that 2nd Squad got an OST release while Shock Troopers 1 got the shaft yet again. I mean, 2nd Squad's music is pretty good, but part 1 is like... my favorite soundtrack ever. But I didn't really feel the need to buy it anyway what with the ability to listen to the music in emulators.... although I probably should've, seeing how I love the games so much.
Then I find out that all the music from part 1 was included on the 2nd Squad OST. Well fuck, why didn't anybody tell me?!? In light of this new discovery, I felt like quite the moron for not finding out about this sooner. This is just a testament as to how difficult it is to find any other information regarding the Shock Troopers series. So in an attempt to actually put some info out there, I will "review" the OST.
Let's start with the packaging itself. The cover has an original picture of Leon (and by original I mean it's a picture not used in the game or in any of the MVS or AES artwork), and simply says Shock Troopers 2nd Squad, with no mention of Shock Troopers 1 on the cover. The back of the case contains the tracklisting, and three screenshots - two of which are from 2nd Squad, the other from Shock Troopers 1.
The booklet contains the tracklisting again, with explanations of where each track appears in each game (which can get a little confusing in the case of Shock Troopers 1, since there are three different routes to take and so the same track will be played on different levels). Then comes a couple pages in Japanese talking about... god only knows what. I believe part of it is talking about how the "World Wide Wave" that's credited with the music in 2nd Squad is Masaki Kase, who's also one of the composers who worked on part 1. Then follows 4 pages detailing the character profiles of the heroes of 2nd Squad - Leon, Lulu, Angel, and Toy. The original Shock Troopers gets just one page, and contains a piece of artwork I had *NEVER* seen before!
I really wish I had a proper way to scan this... you see what I mean about Shock Troopers stuff being so hard to find? Even official pieces of artwork are hidden away like this! The last page in the booklet is a text transcription (in both English and Japanese) of all the voices played in Track 23. (which only covers 2nd Squad, of course)
The CD contains a total of 42 tracks, 22 of those being from 2nd Squad, 19 from the original Shock Troopers. The first track on the CD is a bonus arranged version of the "Final Mission" (aka last boss) stage on 2nd Squad. This sounds all well and good, but 42 tracks would be a tight squeeze on CD, even taking into account short tunes such as intros, character selects, etc. So what they decided to do was usually include at least two "loops" of the music for every 2nd Squad tune, but Shock Troopers gets the shaft here as no track gets two full loops before the music starts fading. Even extremely short tunes like the How to Play and Character/Route Select music only receive one loop before the fadeout starts. I find this to be very annoying, as I find the original Shock Troopers' music to be far superior to 2nd Squad's. The CD clocks in at 67:45, so they could have easily added in 12 more minutes and at least fleshed out a few of these tunes... especially the shorter tracks. It's also worth pointing out that 2nd Squad does get a full collection of character voices used in the game (including one that was never used in the game, "Bring the coup d'etat under control". This may have been a voice used for the hidden unused level found in the game's debug test. But that's a different topic...). Shock Troopers 1 gets no voice collection here either. Not that it's a HUGE deal, but it would have been nice to hear a crystal clear "YAAAYY, OKAY!" from Milky on CD, ya know? Also included with the CD, although separate from the main booklet, is piano sheet music to the "Final Mission" song from Shock Troopers 2nd Squad. Yes, I'm serious.
Basically, Shock Troopers 1 got fucked over big time here. But I guess we should be lucky they thought to include the music from that game on there at all, huh? And that's what it's all about - the music. Shock Troopers is still my favorite video game soundtrack EVER. The music is what originally hooked me when I plugged in earphones to the headphone slot on the MVS 6-slot I first found the game on. If I hadn't been able to clearly hear those bitchin' jungle and drum 'n bass tunes, I probably wouldn't have become as obsessed with the game. I'm not even a hardcore jungle or drum 'n bass fan, but in this game... it just fits. Everything just feels right and every track is a joy to listen to... with the exception of one. "Bumpers" (Track 33) is a very dull, quiet tune that doesn't really go anywhere. I guess it's somewhat interesting in its minimalistic nature, but it's the worst track in the game, hands down. 2nd Squad on the other hand, is a little less consistent... it's got some outstanding tunes, but other tracks are just sorta "there" and don't really stand out in any way. I'm not even much of a fan of the "Final Mission" tune and don't feel that it was a good choice to merit an arranged remix. I'm probably a little harsh on 2nd Squad in general because I expected so much from it... the original Shock Troopers raised the bar so high, both in terms of music and the actual game itself. 2nd Squad fell short in both categories, but taken on its own, it's still pretty good.
It's also worth pointing out that the tracklisting has a couple errors... and that's besides the obvious "SAURUS Rogo Sound" Engrishness. Track 36 on Shock Troopers is listed as "Breakbeat Sience". So... which title were they going for? "Breakbeat Silence", or "Breakbeat Science"? I'm thinking it's the former, but you really never know. Another error that only a dork like me would notice is that they completely transposed Tracks 38 and 39, which are listed as "Laststage" and "Lastboss" respectively. That can't be right, seeing how Track 38 is the tune that's played in the second half of the stage (i.e. the one where you actually fight the last boss), and Track 39 comes from the first half (i.e. the one where you DON'T fight the boss). Come on Saurus, get your shit together.
Even though I'm sorely disappointed with how the music tracks were handled on Shock Troopers 1, it's still a very worthy purchase and I'm still kicking myself for not finding out sooner that the CD contained the tracks from both games. It's definitely a must-buy for anyone who considers themself a fan of the games (which should make about, oh, 8 people or so). At the time of this writing, Play-Asia and CDJapan still have copies of it at a reasonable price, so if you were ever considering buying it, I'd do it now before they disappear. The CD is surely out of print now and is only going to become more difficult to find in the future.
And if you actually read this far, here are a few MP3's. If you haven't heard any of the music before, give them a listen to get a taste of what all my fuss is about!
Shock Troopers 1 - Dark Matter (Boss theme)
Shock Troopers 1 - Jungle Rhythm (Jungle 2-2 / Valley 3-2 / Mountain 2-2)
Shock Troopers 2nd Squad - World Wide Connection (1st Mission)
funny story - all this time I had held off on buying the Shock Troopers 2nd Squad Original Soundtrack. It annoyed me that 2nd Squad got an OST release while Shock Troopers 1 got the shaft yet again. I mean, 2nd Squad's music is pretty good, but part 1 is like... my favorite soundtrack ever. But I didn't really feel the need to buy it anyway what with the ability to listen to the music in emulators.... although I probably should've, seeing how I love the games so much.
Then I find out that all the music from part 1 was included on the 2nd Squad OST. Well fuck, why didn't anybody tell me?!? In light of this new discovery, I felt like quite the moron for not finding out about this sooner. This is just a testament as to how difficult it is to find any other information regarding the Shock Troopers series. So in an attempt to actually put some info out there, I will "review" the OST.
Let's start with the packaging itself. The cover has an original picture of Leon (and by original I mean it's a picture not used in the game or in any of the MVS or AES artwork), and simply says Shock Troopers 2nd Squad, with no mention of Shock Troopers 1 on the cover. The back of the case contains the tracklisting, and three screenshots - two of which are from 2nd Squad, the other from Shock Troopers 1.
The booklet contains the tracklisting again, with explanations of where each track appears in each game (which can get a little confusing in the case of Shock Troopers 1, since there are three different routes to take and so the same track will be played on different levels). Then comes a couple pages in Japanese talking about... god only knows what. I believe part of it is talking about how the "World Wide Wave" that's credited with the music in 2nd Squad is Masaki Kase, who's also one of the composers who worked on part 1. Then follows 4 pages detailing the character profiles of the heroes of 2nd Squad - Leon, Lulu, Angel, and Toy. The original Shock Troopers gets just one page, and contains a piece of artwork I had *NEVER* seen before!
I really wish I had a proper way to scan this... you see what I mean about Shock Troopers stuff being so hard to find? Even official pieces of artwork are hidden away like this! The last page in the booklet is a text transcription (in both English and Japanese) of all the voices played in Track 23. (which only covers 2nd Squad, of course)
The CD contains a total of 42 tracks, 22 of those being from 2nd Squad, 19 from the original Shock Troopers. The first track on the CD is a bonus arranged version of the "Final Mission" (aka last boss) stage on 2nd Squad. This sounds all well and good, but 42 tracks would be a tight squeeze on CD, even taking into account short tunes such as intros, character selects, etc. So what they decided to do was usually include at least two "loops" of the music for every 2nd Squad tune, but Shock Troopers gets the shaft here as no track gets two full loops before the music starts fading. Even extremely short tunes like the How to Play and Character/Route Select music only receive one loop before the fadeout starts. I find this to be very annoying, as I find the original Shock Troopers' music to be far superior to 2nd Squad's. The CD clocks in at 67:45, so they could have easily added in 12 more minutes and at least fleshed out a few of these tunes... especially the shorter tracks. It's also worth pointing out that 2nd Squad does get a full collection of character voices used in the game (including one that was never used in the game, "Bring the coup d'etat under control". This may have been a voice used for the hidden unused level found in the game's debug test. But that's a different topic...). Shock Troopers 1 gets no voice collection here either. Not that it's a HUGE deal, but it would have been nice to hear a crystal clear "YAAAYY, OKAY!" from Milky on CD, ya know? Also included with the CD, although separate from the main booklet, is piano sheet music to the "Final Mission" song from Shock Troopers 2nd Squad. Yes, I'm serious.
Basically, Shock Troopers 1 got fucked over big time here. But I guess we should be lucky they thought to include the music from that game on there at all, huh? And that's what it's all about - the music. Shock Troopers is still my favorite video game soundtrack EVER. The music is what originally hooked me when I plugged in earphones to the headphone slot on the MVS 6-slot I first found the game on. If I hadn't been able to clearly hear those bitchin' jungle and drum 'n bass tunes, I probably wouldn't have become as obsessed with the game. I'm not even a hardcore jungle or drum 'n bass fan, but in this game... it just fits. Everything just feels right and every track is a joy to listen to... with the exception of one. "Bumpers" (Track 33) is a very dull, quiet tune that doesn't really go anywhere. I guess it's somewhat interesting in its minimalistic nature, but it's the worst track in the game, hands down. 2nd Squad on the other hand, is a little less consistent... it's got some outstanding tunes, but other tracks are just sorta "there" and don't really stand out in any way. I'm not even much of a fan of the "Final Mission" tune and don't feel that it was a good choice to merit an arranged remix. I'm probably a little harsh on 2nd Squad in general because I expected so much from it... the original Shock Troopers raised the bar so high, both in terms of music and the actual game itself. 2nd Squad fell short in both categories, but taken on its own, it's still pretty good.
It's also worth pointing out that the tracklisting has a couple errors... and that's besides the obvious "SAURUS Rogo Sound" Engrishness. Track 36 on Shock Troopers is listed as "Breakbeat Sience". So... which title were they going for? "Breakbeat Silence", or "Breakbeat Science"? I'm thinking it's the former, but you really never know. Another error that only a dork like me would notice is that they completely transposed Tracks 38 and 39, which are listed as "Laststage" and "Lastboss" respectively. That can't be right, seeing how Track 38 is the tune that's played in the second half of the stage (i.e. the one where you actually fight the last boss), and Track 39 comes from the first half (i.e. the one where you DON'T fight the boss). Come on Saurus, get your shit together.
Even though I'm sorely disappointed with how the music tracks were handled on Shock Troopers 1, it's still a very worthy purchase and I'm still kicking myself for not finding out sooner that the CD contained the tracks from both games. It's definitely a must-buy for anyone who considers themself a fan of the games (which should make about, oh, 8 people or so). At the time of this writing, Play-Asia and CDJapan still have copies of it at a reasonable price, so if you were ever considering buying it, I'd do it now before they disappear. The CD is surely out of print now and is only going to become more difficult to find in the future.
And if you actually read this far, here are a few MP3's. If you haven't heard any of the music before, give them a listen to get a taste of what all my fuss is about!
Shock Troopers 1 - Dark Matter (Boss theme)
Shock Troopers 1 - Jungle Rhythm (Jungle 2-2 / Valley 3-2 / Mountain 2-2)
Shock Troopers 2nd Squad - World Wide Connection (1st Mission)
