Sonic CD: US vs JP

[Gumballtoid]

After having played Sonic CD, Stardroid Venus and I could not come to a consensus on which soundtrack was better. Among the exchanges were quotes like "It's just better, end of story" and other such things. As this got us nowhere, ultimately we agreed to make a topic and let the community voice their opinion.

When voting, please consider not only the quality of the soundtrack itself, but how appropriate it felt for the game. A game can have a fantastic soundtrack, yet not even feel remotely appropriate.

As well as voting on the soundtrack you like the most, feel free to post any honorable mentions you came across.


For those who have not played the game (in this case, you really should), both soundtracks are available below.
US Soundtrack
JP/PAL Soundtrack

[Kapus]

I like the JP soundtrack more for the most part (collision chaos and palmtree panic are some favorites), but there are some US songs I really like as well.

I love both of the soundtracks and listen to them indiscriminately.

[-FiniteZero-]

I like both pretty much the same. Really, it's a per-track basis.

Palmtree Panic: Both are pretty similar to me. I like them equally.
Collision Chaos: I like the fell of the US soundtrack, but I prefer the JP soundtrack due to the catchiness.
Tidal Tempest: For Present and Good Future, I prefer the US one, but with the JP one I just LOVE the Bad Future.
Quartz Quadrant: I prefer the US soundtrack in all three cases. Especially the futures. So shiny. :3
Wacky Workbench: I don't care that much for the US soundtrack in this case, as I still have a hard time recalling which one is the Good Future and which one is the Bad Future. The JP soundtrack though is cool all around, and has a REALLY nice Bad Future there.
Stardust Speedway: Call me maverick, but I prefer the US soundtrack completely.
Metallic Madness: US Soundtrack. Full Stop. That Bad Future is so awesome.
Boss: US version. I like the seriousness and the creepiness.
Special Stage: About Equal.
Main theme: I prefer Sonic Boom over You Can Do Anything or Cosmic Eternity.

[Ivory]

Ah, this subject. Oh boy! The amount of times I discussed this with Mr. X has been too much. Nonetheless, I'll share my opinions on the subject.

JP Soundtrack wins hands down. Why?

1) It suits the mood of the previous games better: CD music comes closer to sounding like the music we are accustomed to in the other classic sonic games, Sonic 1/2/3&knuckles, etc. Compare to the US Soundtrack which doesn't really fit in with the other soundtracks.

2) It was designed with the game in mind: Sonic CD was made in japan. Not much more to say, but the JP soundtrack was the intended soundtrack.

3) Sonic is traveling through time in the same stages: This is a huge one. The JP soundtrack remixes the same song for each time period, which makes sense because the bad future of Palmtree Panic Act 1 is the bad future of Palmtree Panic Act 1. The music is a more corrupted form of the present music, and this suits the mood of the game perfectly. The US Soundtrack tosses that out for unique music in every time period, which is far weaker.

4) The past themes, due to technical reasons, are still the same ones as the JP version. Which of course conflicts with the US soundtrack which doesn't even remotely come close to feeling the same. Even as a kid when I didn't know the JP soundtrack existed, I loved the past themes more than the rest of the themes. Metallic Madness Good Future JP is absolutely amazing at taking a final level sounding sonic song and turning into bright and cheery Sonic will succeed. The US Good Future is just so weak in comparison.

5) Contrary to popular belief, Sonic CD isn't actually as dark as the American soundtrack supporters make it out to be. Sonic is saving the future, not letting it fall to ruin. With that being said, the boss music in the US Soundtrack is the most unfitting thing for a classic sonic game.

The only thing the US Soundtrack has that I undeniably like more than the JP soundtrack is Sonic Boom. I'm also apparently one of the few people in the world who likes Tidal Tempest JP Present infinitely more than the US present. Because anyone else I talk to thinks the US Present is better.

Anyways that's about sums up my points. The final verdict for me is: JP Soundtrack fits the game better in all regards.

[Kapus]

Tidal Tempest JP Present is one of my favorites. You're not alone.

[SmashTheEchidna]

Ivory's made several good points, which I definitely agree with. I know that most of the US songs don't really fit in as well as the JP ones.
But, I love the US songs as well, and think that they're pretty great in their own right. I enjoy them both just as much, though I more often listen to the US songs since those are the ones I grew up with.

[LlamaHombre]

I personally find the Japanese soundtrack just ear candy from start to finish, with spectacular keyboard solos and hilariously peppy lyrics and rap and so on and so forth. It just keeps me coming back to the game itself again and again simply for the sake up experimenting with the music. Not to mention, the individual zones maintain the same melodies, which I absolutely adore when it comes to soundtracks. It helps to maintain a sense of identity within the zones as well as provide multiple takes on one particular song. I might not like Wacky Workbench Past much, but Wacky Workbench Bad Future is among my favorite tracks in the game.

It just sorta leaves the American soundtrack kinda hanging there. It's not a bad soundtrack, but I didn't fall in love with it in the way that I did with CD's Japanese soundtrack.

[Gumballtoid]

While Ivory's third point is quite accurate, I personally found the unique music to be far more impactful in the US version.

Things like Palmtree Panic and Quartz Quadrant had futures who started out similar but then became clear that the future was either bright and rosy or hopeless and bleak, and in the latter case, hit you where it hurt. The remorseful singing in Palmtree Panic Bad Future made you realize that, by not preventing the toxic and clearly uninhabitable future, you had screwed up big-time and was that much more impactful as a result.

The US soundtrack was also the one I was first exposed to, as I had played it on the Gems Collection and then went on to purchase the Steam build, so it has that much more familiarity and nostalgic value to me.

[Red]

Sometimes I like to think this:

Jap version represents Palmtree Panic

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US version represents Palmtree Panic

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Jap version represents Stardust Speedway

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US version represents Stardust Speedway

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Jap version represents Metallic Madness

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US version represents Metallic Madness

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I would go on but I'm kinda lazy and I think that's enough, IMO, the JP Soundtrack is far better, and it's really simple why:

the US soundtrack lacks the past versions, therefore making it incomplete, the present, good future, and bad future versions do not go along with the japanese past versions,  however, the japanese versions fit with the rest of the japanese soundtrack.

I grew up playing the american version of this game that came for PC, but overall I still must say that the JP soundtrack is superior.

[Rozark]

I'd say it depends on what kind of mood I'm in.
For a lighter tone of play or just doing some time trials, I go with JP.
For a darker tone of play or when I'm frustrated, I go with US.

[*Alice]

The US soundtrack had an amazing end of level jingle that should really have been used in the JP version.
The rest of that music isn't all that great, though because the whole past <-> present/futures dissonance really ruins it for me.
However, most of the US music does sound quite good on its own and could probably fit better into a different game considering how it generally feels more like western 90s PC music (and I do like quite a lot of those).
Like, really. The US Present/Future versions of everything but Palmtree Panic and Tidal Tempest could have easily fit into a game related to western sci-fi on the PC.
But it is not suited for Sonic CD. It is as if you would play MM8BDM with the music from Duke Nukem or Doom, it would just feel out of place (but not necessarily sound bad).

The JP/PAL soundtrack on the other hand is really really good and fits to all of the stages perfectly, especially Tidal Tempest and Collision Chaos are just plain amazing in all 4 time zones.
It is probably one of the 5 best soundtracks in all of Sonic history.
And the boss theme is too good for words. It manages to fit to the tension of a boss fight while being incredibly silly and I don't recall having seen or heard something anywhere like it in any other game.
And not to forget, the game was supposed to have PCM samples to make the loops completely seamless in the JP/PAL version, but unfortunately that functionality was not implemented. More about that here.

// Feel free to stop reading here, the text below is only a rant about a single act in the entire game.

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But the JP/PAL version has one really bad piece of music in my opinion and that would be Stardust Speedway Bad Future.
If it was an easy thing to do I would just replace it with the US version which is actually surprisingly good.
But really, the JP/PAL Metal Sonic race is just so incredibly unthreatening, silly and not serious because the music is not even remotely intimidating and actually full of annoying voice and sound samples. And no, this is NOT negating what I said about the JP/PAL boss theme. I really do like that one and it actually feels appropriate for fighting a boss.
The US version at least contains some tension because of the guitars, and the voices in the music support the whole decisive fight against Metal Sonic atmosphere.
Even the Sonic 4 Episode 2 theme of the White Park Act 4 fight with all the horrible instruments is better than the JP/PAL CD version in my opinion, while the theme of the Death Egg mk.II Metal Sonic race is for some reason even worse than the JP/PAL CD one.

Collision Chaos Past is my favorite piece of music of the whole game, by the way.
Tidal Tempest Present US is awful though.

[Stardroid Venus]

Personally, I think that the JP soundtrack fits the game better than the US. Some of the US soundtrack feels out of place. Like the boss theme in the US soundtrack. The US soundtrack isn't bad though. The US Stardust Speedway Bad Future is one of the better ones in the that soundtrack. Tidal Tempest Present JP is my favorite out of the JP soundtrack. It surpasses US Tidal Tempest Present.

[Mr. Sean Nelson]

JP is far better, except for specific instances like Sonic Boom.

A lot of the american music in that game was just not good in general.
Especally the boss theme.

O HO HO HO HO HO

Game sucks anyway, though.
For realz.

[-FiniteZero-]

For me anyway, it's possibly my favorite classic Sonic game, tied with Sonic 1.

The best version is of course the 2011 port/remake. Enabled music looping (as well as letting you choose which soundtrack you want), improves collision detection, and even gives ya Tails. Awesomeness.

[brotoad]

They're both good for different reasons!
variations on
JP/PAL has more consistancy to it, the different themes in the stages are all reditions of a similar theme, which I personally prefer, while the US one has a lot more variety.

I don't think either of them are especially better!