This week, Music to My Ears is featuring a track that it has featured before — with a twist.

“Street Fighter x Megaman” was a bit of a controversial release if only because of Capcom’s bungling of Megaman in general. The game was fanmade, with familiar MM mechanics and Street Fighter characters as the robot bosses. No problems there! Unfortunately, the company did next to nothing for Megaman’s 25th anniversary, and some fans saw Capcom adopting a fan game instead of making their own as a slap in the face.

No matter your feelings on the game, the OST was pretty cool. A_Rival took the classic Street Fighter themes and applied the old 8-bit sound to them to create level music that was familiar in more ways than one. As covered in the Street Fighter IV MtME post, C. Viper’s theme is probably my favorite from the entire game, so hearing it recreated here is neat.

(Plus, Viper’s stage got the classic Megaman treatment of “here’s an obstacle that kills you in one hit if you touch it. Have fun!” Love it or hate it, that’s kind of a staple at this point.)

I’m not sure if music from the 8-bit era gets enough credit for the amazing things that composers were able to do with a limited soundscape. You only got so many instruments at a time, after all, and a small selection to choose from. Seeing a more modern theme converted back into this era — and with such success — is a reminder that strong hooks and melodies will always win out.

C Viper Stage

Music to My Ears covers soundtracks or individual songs from video games every Tuesday. You can view all posts in the series by clicking here.