Board 8 > What VG series music contest would you most like to see?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Hello there! A couple of years ago I hosted a Final Fantasy Music Contest on the board, and I have the itch to do something similar again later this year (as long as it doesn't step on the toes of anyone else running a contest). But what series would provide the best experience?

Zelda is an obvious choice, the other pillar of the site's tastes to go along with FF. But it has a less varied set of genres and a smaller overall pool of tracks I feel, we'd probably get a lot of multiple versions of the same piece.

Sonic is in the opposite position, it has many fangames and spinoffs spanning a world of different music. But maybe it's too big for a simple 128 contest here? And I don't want lefty to explode if Sonic R runs the board.

I'm conflicted on Smash, it spans so many different franchises and therefore has a lot of different styles of music, but it's a very enclosed series itself so there wouldn't be much in the way of new discoveries for people.

Pokemon is another huge series with plenty of spinoffs, though I wonder if the board's tastes would disproportionately favour stuff like the PMD subseries. Would that even be a problem? IDK.

Mario is Mario, an absolute giant, but does it have the passionate fanbase for a fun music contest like this?

DK, though beloved, is relatively small and I feel David Wise would take up an awful lot of spots. And if we allow fan remixes we may have to face the possibility of 6 different versions of the DK Rap battling it out.

FF is a known quantity, the last contest worked well and there's plenty of great tracks that didn't get touched, we could also keep out the ones that did very well last time as 'retiree' equivalents to broaden the field and keep it fresh. If I do go ahead with any of these, I will make some changes based on mistakes I made last time regarding seeding, nominations and the like.

I considered things like Touhou, Kirby, and Xeno too, but I'm not familiar enough with their music overall to feel right hosting a contest for them. And of course I don't want to burn anyone out on too many contests, especially with the BOST of 22 coming up, so 'nothing' is an understandable option.

we've had Sonic and Mario in the past, even if they were some time ago

so... Pokemon I guess

Smash Bros would be pretty fun, otherwise Pokmon

smash bros is a weird one because it includes music from literally every other series listed

Smash is also weird because pretty much all the music is in one game. I still voted for it though.

Although if we do pick Smash, we may need to limit it to Smash Bros originals and remixes only (not songs that are just plopped in as-is)

Smash is the way to go if you want the deepest field, although it doesn't have that much original music.

Kingdom Hearts or bust

andylt posted...

I considered things like Touhou

this was also done before (twice), but for whatever reason the host decided to run it on a private invite-only board

Pokemon would be extremely fun imo

oh wow, the only vote for DK thus far

Mega Man

Smash Bros would be fun. There's an absurd amount of remixes, and only the most dedicated Smash fans would know all of them, thus there is plenty of opportunity for discovery. What FL81 said.

Pokemon would be fun, too. PMD would not dominate the results, except for maybe Sky Tower and Dialga. It would be hard for me to deal with stuff like RBY Gym Leader theme beating SDMB...

dragon quest (including any and all viable spinoff media, from monsters to mystery dungeon to fortune street)

i don't think dq on its own could really have enough vgm interest to make this as strong as other options but if you max out the options then i think it's actually worth doing as a successor to the ff one

I vote against Pokmon because then I wouldn't be interested enough to participate

Non-FF Square would be an appropriate counterpart to the FF contest you already ran. (Ban Scars of Time, though. Too stronk.)

Trails and Atelier are also series worth considering, even if they're less well-known outside of VGM.

Mega Man gets my vote, between the number of fangames and usable side-series.

Put me down for Mega Man as well. Only series mentioned so far where that I'd really have strong interest in.

andylt posted...

A couple of years ago I hosted a Final Fantasy Music Contest on the board

wasn't this last year

also I vote Pokemon

phantasy star yet again

I think Castlevania, Kirby, and Mega Man would be my favourite viable franchises (though none were in the poll).

Would Diddy Kong Racing be eligible for Donkey Kong?

whispers bemani from the back

but seriously, i actually think sonic would be the most interesting of these, even though i would be personally more invested in pokemon probably

I voted for Smash, but if either Pokmon or Mario win Im totally nominating lots of songs from spin-off titles.

I feel like Donkey Kong should just be merged into Mario, though.

_Keeby posted...

I feel like Donkey Kong should just be merged into Mario, though.

nah, having DKC music in a Mario contest doesn't make much sense

of these choices I would personally be most interested in Sonic but I will also second Mega Man and Trails

(and BEMANI but that would have maybe five regular voters)

LeonhartFour posted...

I feel like Donkey Kong should just be merged into Mario, though.

nah, having DKC music in a Mario contest doesn't make much sense

If we did DKC, that means we could go Yoshi games, too. Of course, then that means Mario Kart, etc... oh, wait, those obviously would be included regardless. Mario & Sonic Olympics, though! (and also Diddy Kong Racing) Granted, Mario is what I would be least interested in, regardless of how it's done...

Mega Man would be fun, too, but I'm worried about predictable winners there... stuff from MMX1, MM2/3, and X vs. Zero. Still, there's lots of cool Mega Man music that's never been in VGMC. If we could allow Smash Bros. remixes in that (I doubt that would fly), I would like it more, though!

bemani/Atelier/Trails/Kirby... they could be fun, but the voter base would be almost 100% VGMC people, I think, so that would be low vote totals. But I really, really love Kirby music... a Kirby music contest would be the greatest thing ever to me. (but yeah, low votals)

Out of the poll options, Smash seems like the easiest pick since it's basically all things Nintendo. Not always the original version, granted, but I feel like you're going to get the widest breadth of music and of voters.

Other: Megaman (classic or X series)

Thanks for all the input! I was hoping there'd be a runaway winner so I didn't have to think about it too hard >_> I didn't think of Mega Man but it's been a write-in so many times I have to seriously consider it, despite not being very familiar with the series myself. I'd put another poll for the top contenders + MM, but pokemon has received 5 of the last 10 votes so idk if it's getting stuffed. Some other good ideas too, non-FF Square among them. Hmmm. Will leave the topic going for now!

Underleveled posted...

Would Diddy Kong Racing be eligible for Donkey Kong?

yeah I think I'd be lenient for anything like that, as well as Smash mixes for other series if we didn't go Smash.

FL81 posted...

Although if we do pick Smash, we may need to limit it to Smash Bros originals and remixes only (not songs that are just plopped in as-is)

hm yeah that's an interesting point too.

have we ever done a Persona music contest

persona is i think kinda worse than a lot of these because there's simply less games. Like, yes the spinoffs add more but they tend to stylistically stay very close to the mainline games, which isnt a problem something like Mario or Sonic or Pokemon or Mega Man has.

if it was all of SMT it'd be a lot more interesting

Megaten in general would be cool, because then it includes SMT, Digital Devil Saga, Persona, and Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE.

Also Persona 4 Arena and Blazblue Cross Tag Battle, as a result.

MXCM posted...

Mega Man

This or Castlevania

Ys

Leonhart4 posted...

Kingdom Hearts or bust

bust it is

Fine, I'll settle for a Tales contest