Sonic 30th Anniversary Symphony Review

  

Details

For Sonic's 30th back in June, an orchestral arrangement and a vocal concert was streamed via Youtube. It contains melodies based on Sonic 1, 2, Sonic and Knuckles, Sonic Mania, Sonic 06, Sonic Unleashed, Sonic Lost World, Sonic Forces, and, of course, Sonic Colors. But wait, there's more! Several other songs were put into their own melodies (such as ones from the 8-bit games or "It Doesn't Matter" and "Believe In Myself"). Later many of the series' memorable vocal themes were played as a separate concert.     

Summary

Selections

The choices are pretty obvious "fan favorites" (Chemical Plant, Sky Sanctuary, Crisis City, etc). Normally this sort of thing would be annoying, but in this case I have to admit it's a good idea. It insures some of the best known songs are heard so even someone who hasn't played the game might recognize the song. And this is for the 30th, after all, so I guess they should try to make it as nostalgic as possible. 

I will admit some of the choices were surprising, though. "My Destiny," for example (since usually Sega likes to pretend 06 and especially princess Elise were never a thing). The entire 8-bit section was a shock as well, since they chose sections from those games over Sonic CD, and Knuckles Chaotix. 

I also got a little annoyed with Color's placement (yes, buy ultimate, blah, blah). 

The intermission was amusing. 

The second half allowed some representation from even more games through their main themes (such as "Knight of the Wind," from Sonic and the Black Knight).

Music

The 8-bit levels were very nice because their original form was horrid. This goes to show that a lot of times the problem isn't the composition, but simply the limitations. 

A lot of the modern music sounds natural in orchestral form, so it was great. However getting to hear many of the classic themes adapted was just as beautiful. Surprisingly I'd say Mania has the most improvement. I wasn't a huge fan of the funky OST, but this transformed it into something classy.  

Even though I usually can't stand "Reach for the Stars" (and the vocals were just reused/edited) the instrumentation is much better than the original. With the vocals it's still overly positive, but it doesn't sound as "2010." Gave me more hope for the OST of this "new" game. Unfortunately "Speak with Your Heart," (which I'd normally call better than the other) had the opposite problem, not being that different as a whole and sounding very dated.      

The real show starts after, ha. "Nate" does a decent job of filling in for past singers. Crush 40 gives the later half a lot of energy and the ending feels very put-together. 

  

Final Ranking: B

It wasn't as "stunning" as  I expected, somehow. However it's still a wonderful collection of some of the series' memorable moments and will be enjoyable for fans of all.