Masato Nakamura’s J-pop inspired soundtracks for Sonic 1 and 2 are amazing pieces of music on the Mega Drive’s oft-abused audio hardware that revels in 80s synth awesomeness. While reflecting on how amazing Japanese synth pop is a topic for another time, YouTube user Rush Coil has put up a technicolour dreamworld of keytar goodness in the form of a Green Hill Zone cover.
Aside from the beautiful lead synth, what I loved about this is that the backup instruments all sound similar in spirit to the Yamaha YM2612 FM synth hardware baked into the Mega Drive, and the freestyling towards the end on that lead – amazing!
Enough from me – watch the video: