Favorite VG Music

[Gors]

Konami's music on the Genesis was good as usual, but I find it very strange of them not using samples or any other shenanigans they implemented on the MSX or NES (expansion chips, sample abuse).

This song is good but I wonder how would this sound with actual sampled drums instead of FM synth generated ones (don't forget that sampled percussion frees space on the FM synth channels, thus allowing more instruments and SE)

Compare this (Konami's Rocket Knight Adventures)


to Treasure's Dynamite Headdy (notice the sampled drum patterns)


Both are good, don't get me wrong, but I really don't undertand why the choice. Maybe size constraints? Team's inexperience? This also happens in the GBA Castlevanias: Harmony of Dissonance opted for a chiptuney sound while Circle of The Moon (released earlier) had samples for music.

Circle of the Moon-Awake


Harmony of Dissonance-Chapel of Dissonance


Again, both are good but this time I really think the latter one really hurts the music's sound. This is almost completely written on Gameboy Advance's old sound hardware instead of the new hardware (GBA had two sound hardwares: the original (carried away from the old Gameboys for retrocompatibility) and the new, Direct Sounds that allow two channels of sampling). It's possible for a GBA game to use both sounds at once, but in this case, Konami wrote all the important stuff on the old hardware while backing up secondary stuff on the new hardware.

I don't know why they did this; maybe it's again the size constraints (using old hardware's sounds is easier and smaller than having to sample different .wav files and allocating them into the cartridge) or something else.