Sonic & Knuckles Collection Soundtrack Opinions

[LimitCrown]

The Sonic & Knuckles Collection was released for the PC in early 1997. In this PC version of Sonic 3 & Knuckles and the standalone games, certain songs were replaced with completely new ones. Also, the sound of the music in the PC version depends on the type of computer and the sound card that the computer has. Because of this. the music in the PC version won't sound good on a modern computer. However, a playlist of the music being played through a sound card with the OPL3 sound chip can be found here.

Carnival Night Zone, IceCap Zone, Launch Base Zone, the Competition Menu theme, Knuckles's theme in Sonic 3, and the Sonic 3 credits theme were replaced with new music. (There is also an unused theme that replaced the Sonic 3 miniboss theme.) In regard to the parts of the game that had their music replaced, do you prefer the original music from the Sega Genesis version or the completely new music that was created for the PC version? Also, are there some other themes in Sonic 3 & Knuckles that you might prefer from the PC version compared to the Sega Genesis version?

 

[Kurri ★]

I was about to say they sound okay until I heard Launch Base. No, Genesis version is definitely my choice. Granted they're still okay, but don't mess with my Launch Base Zone.

 

[LimitCrown]

I expect the Launch Base Zone themes in the PC version to be the most polarizing. What about some of the other music that wasn't completely changed and the PC version's Competition Menu theme?

 

[Kurri ★]

Aside Ice Cap, which I don't really care for the original anyways, the rest are actually okay. PC's Competition sounds like a nice alternative to the Genesis' version, and the others are, for the most part, the same song with different instruments. I am curious as to why they changed some songs entirely. Was the whole thing regarding MJ's involvement true? That's my only guess as to why those specific songs were changed.

 

[Heroine of Winds]

The Genesis version has a better soundtrack. The PC version's soundtrack is alright, but it did feel pretty lacking to me.

 

[LimitCrown]

Aside Ice Cap, which I don't really care for the original anyways, the rest are actually okay. PC's Competition sounds like a nice alternative to the Genesis' version, and the others are, for the most part, the same song with different instruments. I am curious as to why they changed some songs entirely. Was the whole thing regarding MJ's involvement true? That's my only guess as to why those specific songs were changed.

It is true. The Carnival Night, Launch Base, and the Sonic 3 credits themes are evidence of this. Ice Cap's theme in the Genesis version is actually an arrangement of Hard Times from the band "The Jetzons". Some of those songs also used samples that sound cards for PCs during that time would not be able to replicate, so that's probably another reason that those songs were replaced.