Number 11: Planetary Pieces: Sonic World Adventure
Planetary Pieces was the official soundtrack of Sonic Unleashed, one of the Blue Sega Mascot's more recent attempts to pull the series back on track. Part of this was a switch in the soundtrack styles from earlier titles. The earliest Sonic titles were known for their catchy electronica/techno mixes, while titles in the late nineties and onward tended to stick with punkish rock.
Planetary Unleashed bucks both of those trends, instead tackling an even more ambitious design. Not on did it switch to orchestral arrangements, but at some point it was decided that rather then have one or two composers, Planetary Pieces was going to have six. Mind you, six just for the primary songs, the specialty songs also had their own composers.
When a soundtrack comes with that many composers, there is usually a good reason. In Planetary's case, it's that the game involved traveling to many different nations around the games world, and the sound director wanted different themes for each one. At the same time, each of those themes had to tie into the games main theme in some small way. A large request, but somehow or another, it worked.
Planetary pieces is an incredible soundtrack, the kind that gets into its own rhythm and never steps out of it until the last note has faded from the speakers. With its vast array of composers, its no surprise that a lot of talent moves behind it, and Planetary's various compositions run the gamut of the spectrum all the way to jazz, but at the same time bind themselves together with small motives that run through the various sounds. It's a soundtrack that can be applied to pretty much any situation, from the dullest to the greatest. Planetary Pieces deserves it's place at number 11.
Planetary Pieces: Sonic Unleashed
Enjoyment: 4
Stand Alone Quality: 3.75
Composition: 4.5
Emotional Reaction: 4.25
Non-Gamer Enjoyment: 1
Nostalgia: 0
TOTAL: 4.38
Number 11--Planetary Pieces by (*gasp*) Fumie Kumatani, Hideaki Kobayashi, Kenichi Tokoi, Mariko Nanba, Takahito Eguchi, and Tomoya Ohtani, in addition to the solo songs by Reddick and Cash. Although we do wish to recognize their contributions to the soundtrack, the listing will simply have to reflect them as "various" in order to save space in the future.
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