Golden Axe II SEGA Mega Drive Complete Soundtrack CD
10PAL 50Hz
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Golden Axe II is pretty much the same as the first Golden Axe game (except for the music), the same three warriors can be selectable, the same amount of levels and the same graphics and spot on gameplay, you're more or less getting the same experience you would get from playing the original Golden Axe game.
The music however is quite different this time round. Two years later in 1991 the SEGA Mega Drive/Genesis now sampled percussion aswell as voices which enabled the FM audio to be drastically beefed up to sound more realistic than before. One of Sega's most reliable employees from the sound department Naofumi Hataya was asked to score the soundtrack to this Golden Axe sequel and he pulled off an amazing job! Gone was the tinny FM percussion from the first installment and lackluster sound, in it's place for Golden Axe II we have more in-depth musical compositions with more atmospherical tones and a touch of funkiness added. Most notable is Hataya's use of the ''Moonwalker/Shadow Dancer, Toki Going Ape Spit'' drum kit samples which are added to help beef up the audio score. At this point it's not fair to call it the Shinobi III drum kit because this game preceded Shinobi III by two years. So that second snare which was used in the tracks ''Hassou and Shadows'' is actually used and heard here in Golden Axe II first.
The bonus tracks added come from the rare Mega-CD 1-Player version of Golden Axe from the ''SEGA CLASSICS ARCADE COLLECTION''. This port of Golden Axe featured 3 tracks that were strangely done in FM synthesis as opposed to red book audio like all the rest in the game and the tracks once again recycle the drum kit from ''Moonwalker, Shadow Dancer and Toki Going Ape Spit''. Earth Rebellion Fight was added just for the sake of being added and that one was composed by Naofumi Hataya again for the 1994 Japan-only release of ''The Hybrid Front''.
Golden Axe II is a marvellous soundtrack that most fans consider it to be the best out of the three. It's captured here in high fidelity running on real hardware from a CD recorded from the real hardware that's playing it.
MUSIC COMPOSER: Naofumi Hataya (Hatabaw) 1991.
MUSIC COMPOSERS FOR BONUS TRACKS: Nankyoku, Decky, Imocky, Naofumi Hataya 1989, 1994.
SOUND PROGRAMMER: Naofumi Hataya 1991.
SOUND DRIVER: SMPS 68k.
SOUND QUALITY: 384 Kbps.
TRACK LIST: ♫
1. Castle Gates/Title Screen (00:15)
2. Tower (05:35)
3. Boss Theme 2 (08:50)
4. Boss Theme 1 (12:44)
5. Ravaged Village (16:01)
6. Ruins (19:40)
7. Dark Guld's Chamber (22:54)
8. Castle (26:24)
9. Dragon Throat Cave (30:42)
10. Intermission (34:24)
11. Map (37:41)
12. Ending Theme (40:03)
13. Fanfares (44:30)
BONUS TRACKS:
14. Thief's Theme (45:02)
15. Death Bringer Showdown (48:41)
16. Earth Rebellion Fight (53:21)
Recorded from an original PAL High Definition Graphics - Stereo Sound VA5 model 1 SEGA Mega Drive console from the front headphone jack onto a recordable blank audio CD-R disc and streamed back through the Sega Mega-CD attachment.
Enjoy!