Cave Story Wii (post-update) music

I was horrified to learn that when Cave Story Wii was released, the software player ignored the drum bank and played instruments with volumes that were completely wrong and not at all like how they were composed.

So, of course I just pretended I didn't do most of the work designing the soundbank. Now, with the software player fixed, and music that sounds like it was actually meant to, like in this or this youtube clip, I finally don't have to hide that Oh, and Yann who is/was known as Nurykabe at this board, he remixed the entire soundtrack from the original game and did plenty of work on the soundbank too, so he's did a whole lot more work than me on it.

Haha, that's funny!

I checked the Youtube videos, the music is great. The same retro feeling, but more crisp and lively.

I'm curious, how does one go designing a soundbank for a game that has an established style and fanbase already? How much creativity did you have in making the new banks? Were your choices limited by the original assets in any way?

Actually, me and Yann got to decide what kind of sounds that would work with the game.

The most nightmare'ish scenario is cheap pseudo-acoustic general midi sounding instruments, so Yann and me decided to take the electronic semi-chip approach, with plenty of instruments that resembles the original ones, simply because it would sound good and not be too far away from the original game.

Oh hey, I completely forgot you worked on that. :o

Wow, I would never have thought the soundtrack is so huge!
The new Cemetary is great. Nimiga Town, Pulse, Geothermal, Balrog's Theme, Gravity are very good. Most of the tracks are better than original, except Safety and Run!. I've listened through the first 20 for now.

Recently, I had a brief email discussion with Yann surrounding the update to the Cave Story WiiWare soundtrack. I'm sorry to say that the software player wasn't really ever fixed, the game's just playing low-bitrate OGGs now... so yeah, kinda annoying, seeing as the limitations the songs were designed to work so well within were ultimately thrown out the window. Still, it's way better than how it was before!

Most of the tracks are better than original

A bold claim! I have a huge appreciation for Cave Story's original soundtrack. That said, I feel that the tracks Balrog's Theme and Living Waterway have been noticeably improved. I also love the new Geothermal, but I loved the old Geothermal too, so I couldn't possibly choose one over the other.  It'll be hard to decide which soundtrack I prefer (or if I them both equally) without many more listens and hopefully seeing the songs in their proper context... if the game is ever released here. 

As a final note, I'm not a fan of the decision to use a loop from that Cave Story remix by tumult for the title screen music, though I doubt you two had any input there. Some strange decisions made for this game...

I'm just glad to see the music is finally fixed. and I like the new soundtrack just as much as the orig one

As a final note, I'm not a fan of the decision to use a loop from that Cave Story remix by tumult for the title screen music, though I doubt you two had any input there. Some strange decisions made for this game...

I'm quite surprised about that too, Yann did a really awesome take on the title song, so I'm not sure why his wasn't used.

I had no idea Nifflas was involved in Cave Story too.
Some of you Cave Story lovers may also find this interesting: http://kwix.shackspace.com/cavestory/index.html
It is a project a couple of years old to remix most songs from the game. They made 2 albums and more recently a bonus disc.