Source: Sonic Unleashed (Xbox3360) - Dragon Road (Daytime)

"This is a source that everyone will sort of resonate with, coming from a franchise everyone should know by now. If not, you have a lot of catching up to do. It's also one that took me quite some time to get the MIDI out for. It's also one of the many tunes, where people seem to get the notes completely wrong. So believe me, i went hard listening by ear. Luckily though, i manage to make it in just around a week (Alongside other stuff). 

The game i'm referring to is Sonic Unleashed. A game at a time period where Sonic had experienced an all time low. Sonic 06 was terrible, and people knew that the 15th Anniversary was a disaster, because all the games at that time just sucked, or were overshadowed by the bigger games. Since Sonic 06 was so bad, some people considered it the worst game ever. Sonic Team and SEGA knew, they needed to take a step back, and make something everyone can enjoy, without going too far into new territory, while also renovating Sonic into a more modern platform. This was the transition into essentially 2010's Sonic, where the big emphasis was speed. Unlike Adventure where speed was one of the many components into the character and the stage, in Unleashed it was the primarily focus, so much so that everything else was reduced to a mere background element. If you've played Unleashed, especially the Daytime levels (The night-time stages can be forgotten about, nobody likes them lol), you go at such lightning speed it almost gives you a headache, and personally for me, i love it. It's like riding your favourite rollercoaster over and over. It's soo much fun, especially when you blaze along with the background. 

Personally as well, i also argue it contains the most beautiful graphics to ever grace a video game. Like i'm not lying too, the only other game that i think is on par is Halo: Reach. The graphics are outstanding, even for a cartoony game, the environments are gorgeous.

And how about the music? That's what were here for right? Well it's also one of the top tier soundtracks, and yes i would consider it to be one of my top 20 best soundtracks in a video game. You probably think i'm a Sonic fanboy right? I am a fan, but nowhere near a fanboy. I only resonate with this game a lot, because i've played it, and for an extremely long period of time too. I just had so much fun with it, but seriously the music is no joke. Very professionally produced, yet has such a very cool fusion of genres. It takes essentially the cultures of each location it represents, and the music it predominately plays, combines it with heavy electronica elements (Mainly Drum and Bass), as well as rocking guitars. It's like a Rock Band went on a trip to a country, met an EDM DJ there, and collaborated with the local Orchestra playing music of the country. It's such a really good soundtrack (And also quite long and varied, since it has a lot of cutscene music. 4 hours is roughly the exact runtime of the whole album).

Dragon Road in particular (The location is Chun-Nan which represents China, but the stage name is Dragon Road), follows in the same descriptors. Thumping DnB beats blast through at 185bpm, while jazzy piano chords sit on top. Synthy basslines really emphasise the dance music parts, while traditional Chinese instruments provide the cultural accuracy of the location. Instruments including an Erhu, and a traditional Chinese Drum, specifically in the intro. All in all, awesome stuff, i hope you have fun with this (Lots of awesome ideas to be had here)

Note: This is the daytime version i'm doing. Not the hub worlds, or the Warehog stage. Just thought i'd get that out there."

(TheVideoGamer)

GAME: Sonic Unleashed (Xbox360)

Source: Dragon Road (Daytime)

And usual my own custom MIDI:

https://www.vgmusic.com/file/1b69875ce356f06140b61b70e71f9e50.html#disqus_thread