Year: 1991
Type: Gamerip
Composer(s): Yōko Shimomura
Number of tracks: 13

★★★★★

With(out) Guile

1992 was a good year for fans of arcade fighting games and websites about video game soundtracks - after all, it wasn't just Street Fighter II that saw the light of day back then, but also me. Great, right? As a result, I can't say much about the game, or rather: nothing at all. Never played it, not even on a retro console or anything like that and consequently never experienced the fascination, let alone the hype, of the Street Fighter series.

Now, you don't have to be a fan or a connoisseur to be able to judge the quality of a soundtrack. That's the credo under which this site runs and without which I could simply abandon my page-by-page ramblings. The problem, especially with old scores, is much more that there were no real original soundtracks back then and, due to the multitude of spin-offs and versions, there are now countless iterations of gamerips floating through the ether - a recurring problem of my hobby.

The soundtrack I now have in front of me consists of 13 tracks, of which only ten actually contain music. The latter three sound files are just the voicelines, which don't really hook me. On the other hand, people who like it when a Japanese speaker shouts the numbers from one to five and country names such as Brazil, Japan or UDSSR into your ear in poor sound quality will get their money's worth.

Music lovers will do the same, as the iconic tracks by Yōko Shimomura, probably the most influential Asian games composer, are likely to be familiar to most gamers, even if, like me, they have never had any contact with this pixel-puncher. Songs such as Ryu’s Theme or especially Guile’s Theme have certainly been heard somewhere before and even without the onscreen action, the songs have a pleasantly nostalgic atmosphere.

They all exude their own charm and embed their attributed characters in the respective cultural space. As expected, Chun Li’s Theme sounds Asian, while Dhalsim’s Theme has an Indian flair. The fact that the musical themes are delightfully varied right up to the expected loop and do not rigidly drone the same melody up and down further enhances the whole thing.

I was also surprised that the End Game Theme’s 1 and End Game Theme’s 2 break with the action tempo and partly sound like classic JRPGs. A MIDI version of the wedding march has also been smuggled into the score - what more do you need to be happy? All in all, not just something for nostalgics but also for (gaming) culture connoisseurs.

No.	Title	Artist(s)	Ratings
01	Intro & Character Select	Yōko Shimomura	4
02	Ryu's Theme	Yōko Shimomura	4
03	Blanka's Theme & Guile's Theme	Yōko Shimomura	4
04	Chun Li's Theme	Yōko Shimomura	4
05	E Honda's Theme & Ken's Theme	Yōko Shimomura	4
06	Zangief's Theme & Dhalsim's Theme	Yōko Shimomura	3
07	Balrog's Theme & Vega's Theme	Yōko Shimomura	3
08	Sagat's Theme & M Bison's Theme	Yōko Shimomura	4
09	End Game Theme's 1	Yōko Shimomura	4
10	End Game Theme's 2	Yōko Shimomura	4
11	You? & Country's Effects	Yōko Shimomura	1
12	Round No's Effects	Yōko Shimomura	1
13	Signiature Moves Effects	Yōko Shimomura	1