Virtual Sonic (Album) Review

 

Details

Virtual Sonic was composed by Howard Drossin. From what I learned on Sonic Retro, the music was rushed and done in only one month for the opening of Sega VirtualLand (an amusement facility in a Las Vegas hotel that closed in 98). The album describes itself as: "enhanced music inspired by the world of Sonic." 

 

Summary

In total the selection is odd. The music is funky jazz, cultural atmosphere, metalish rock, 90s hip-hop, and featuring samples ranging from chants to opera and grunts of "come on"...It's kinda' all over the place without anything to link it together. Impressive given the amount of time.

While there are new versions of some familiar tracks, like the Sonic and Knuckles theme, most of the music seems loosely inspired. After just listening to Sonic Boom, the spinball tracks don't seem too different from that album, though. 

The wild "Knucklemania" is kinda' funny, but it's basically a clue as to what the character was like at the time. "Robotnik's Revenge" is strange, seeming to be a funky, very 90s track inspired by Sonic 3 & Knuckles with a hint of Spinball. Much of the tracks, if they do resemble Sonic games, resemble those (likely because those were the Sonic games the composer had experience with). "Sandopolis" is vastly different than Sonic & Knuckles' Sandoplolis, however, being more akin to a song made much later for Sonic 06, Dusty Desert. "Boss Opera" may have been inspired by Final Fever from the JP OST of Sonic CD, but other parts seem to contradict this, so I'm not sure.   

"Chaos Jam" seems ahead of its time. Perhaps it was inspired by US Sonic CD OST (rock), but when it combines guitar and hints of the funky Spinball theme, it ends in something that resembles Sonic Adventure. Second most enjoyable track, the first being...

"Metal Sonic." Having vocals makes it stand out on the album, but also in general. The "Classic Sonic" era was mostly made of female vocal songs, so this (being male) also stands out for the time. While the lyrics are infamously hard to make out, they are oddly fitting, calling Metal a "black-eyed stingray," and insisting, "he's put together the wrong way." It's interesting to compare this with the song "Look-a-like" from the OVA because they, much like Stardust Speedway Bad Future, seem to represent the American vs Japanese view of Metal Sonic, and by extension, Sonic.   

  

Final Ranking: C

A little strange. I like "Metal Sonic" and "Chaos Jam" a lot, and the Spinball tracks are also good choices. "Knucklemania" is memorable and "City in the Clouds" is peaceful. 

It's not that it's bad, but that it's an odd combination in total.