Wednesday, July 17, 2019

MIDI Week Singles: "Stage 3: Cadillac Heights" - Robocop 3 (NES)


"Stage 3: Cadillac Heights" from Robocop 3 on the Nintendo Entertainment System
Composer: Jeroen Tel
Album: No Official Release
Publisher: Ocean Software
Developer: Probe Software



With all of the posts about movies this last week, I thought it appropriate to feature music from a game that was based on a movie.  Because for some reason movie/game tie-ins never seem to be as successful as the movie, likewise with movies that are based on video games.  Unless you are talking about Willow on the NES, that was a great game based on, in my humble opinion, a great movie.  But we are here to talk about the untitled "Stage 3: Cadillac Heights" from Robocop 3 which I first came across during my time with #AllTheNESMusic.

Now, I have never played Robocop 3 (or any of the games in the Robocop franchise), so after watching a playthrough of the game I was a little saddened by how muted the music is in the game.  I had first thought that maybe the music volume was turned down, but before starting the game, you are given the option to play with the music on or off.  So it just appears that the music volume in-game is not very loud and gets pushed into the background once guns start blazing.  But since Robocop isn't called Cuddlecop, I guess it does make sense to sacrifice the volume of the music for sound effects.

With "Stage 3: Cadillac Heights," what I like about the song is that it does not give off any Robocop vibes, but it does sound very 80s.  Had this song been recorded with an army of synthesizers and not just a MIDI keyboard (or essentially a MIDI keyboard) .  The song is quite bouncy, which kind of works in this stage when you get to use the jetpack so movement becomes a bit floaty.  What "Stage 3: Cadillac Heights" does have, at least to me, is a metropolis feel to it.  Based on the name alone, Cadillac Heights sounds like it is supposed to either be an upperclass neighborhood, a neighborhood that used to be upperclass before it fell into disrepair, or that it was always a slum that had an upperclass name slapped on it.    Or I am just wrong altogether; I guess my lack of Robocop lore is showing a bit.  For me, something about the staccato-ness of the melody, that there are no sustained notes anywhere in this song, comes across that things happen quickly in dystopian Detroit.  Almost as if Metropolis in Sim City were to take on a dystopian future, there would still be a hint of what the city used to be like.

That is what I hear in this song anyway.



~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
Machine Infected System Controlling

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