Soundtrack Concept
I would like for each of the four games to not only have fake bands but to have a musical concept associated with it. For example, my current plans for Sonic Battle is to recreate the soundtrack somewhat faithfully while using the Bands to introduce creative elements that compliments the original idea behind each song.
Sonic Advance
Sonic Advance’s soundtrack is a different story. Most of the music in that series doesn’t mesh well with the current fast-paced modern style you’d find in many official sonic soundtracks.
As such, my current plan for Sonic Advance’s Soundtrack Concept is to mimic the Soundtrack approach from Sonic Unleashed or Sonic Mania. Sonic Unleashed’s Day/Night system introduced different gameplay styles that required different music. Day stages were very fast-paced, while Night stages were slow and explorative.
Like Sonic Mania, I plan to recreate Act 1 faithfully, similar to the Sonic Battle series. In Act 2, however, I plan to exaggerate the speed and pacing of the music, even if it means venturing away from Act 2 music in the corresponding stages.
Act 1s will act as “Night Stages” while Act 2s will be “Day Stages.” This allows me to stay close to the original design of the soundtrack while introducing that modern sonic style into Sonic Advance. To clarify, Act 2 would sound “fast” enough to overlay over boost formula-style gameplay.
- Edited: 2/22/2024: I may drop this concept depending on what I come up with for Sonic Advance 2’s soundtrack concept. I don’t want this or Sonic Advance 3’s soundtrack concept to be too similar.
- Edited: 5/29/2024: Instead of dropping this, I’m currently debating adding “Act 3s” to each level where this 3rd act would be that fast-paced remix.
- Edited: 8/2/2024: Still mulling around ideas but I had the random thought to give the entire soundtrack more older style flare (Funk/Disco/RnB) for the bulk of the soundtrack. It’ll be fun trying to mold these styles into more Sonic oriented style music.
Sonic Advance 2 (Edited: 03/12/2024)
For the Soundtrack concept, I’m debating forgoing “faithful” recreations and taking more creative liberties for this. Outside of a few songs, Sonic Advance 2 has many monotoned textures compared to Sonic Advance and Sonic Battle. Most notable songs, for example, start with a simple electronic kick with a synth arpeggio. This idea would also help me modernize the soundtrack better.
Sonic Advance 3 (03/13/2024)
I had read somewhere that Jun Senoue “teamed up” with different artist for the bulk of Sonic Team Racing’s music which was heavily center around the theme of teamwork. This Soundtrack Concept that could be interesting to emulate to highlight the “partnerup / tagteam” introduced in Sonic Advance 3.
For Sonic Advance 3’s soundtrack, there could be some form of collaboration between all members of the pervious bands that attempt to recreate SA3’s soundtrack in various music styles. As the last game on the GBA Project list, it may be fun to recycle all bands and have them interact with each other musically instead of creating brand ones (assuming I don’t decide to expand the GBA Project further in the future).
I would love to hear your ideas on any of these so post them in the #feedback channels in the Discord.
Fake Band Ideas
I want each fake band to highlight a concept or element organically found in the Sonic universe to help insert them into the Sonic universe more fluidly. The fake bands for Sonic Battle are well flushed out to highlight this. That said, I hope to get many ideas from the community for the Sonic Advance Trilogy.
Like the Splatoon series, each game in the project will have a “Main Band” that handles the Main Theme, Global music, and some stage music. In game development, “Global Music” is the short jiggles and menu music.
Anything beyond Sonic Battle doesn’t have anything concrete. I want to flush out the Soundtrack Concept first, as that determines how I approach creating a band. The creation of Bands would look like this:
- Soundtrack Concept/Philosophy
- Fake Band Idea
- Testing and Template Creation
- Execution
A slight exception to this is the Main Bands of the corresponding games, to which I want to faithfully create as many songs from each related soundtrack as possible.
Sonic Battle
Light Dash is Sonic Battle’s “Main Band” for example. The Sonic concept/element they represent are the rings and the fast Light Dash technique used in most Sonic games. The Red Ring on each of the characters attempts to symbolize this. Since the yellow/gold rings are usually interpreted as a currency, I thought the red star ring would make more sense for their style of music and general aesthetic.
The following two bands reflect the Chao and the Wisps, respectively. I plan to take more creative liberties for these two. For example, I’m looking to emulate “singing Chao” at the time of writing. As for the Wisps, I’m mulling over the concept of “Instruments with Hyper-Go Energy” to create unique tones/effects between the instruments.
In short, I imagine the Wisps going into the instruments instead of people to alter the sound. This in particular, requires extensive experimentation. The last band is planned to center around the Eseries egg-bots first introduced in Sonic Adventure. This is still in the conceptual phase. As such, I’m very open to new ideas for this particular band so post some comments in the #feedback channel.
Sonic Advance
For Sonic Advance’s main band, I’ve been considering a band based on Splatoon 3’s “Yoko & the Gold Bazookas.” Not in style/genre but in instrumentation. Sonic Advance has a bit of an oldie jazz flare towards the beginning so the instrumentation may lead itself well, especially for global music and the first three stages of the game.
I’m thinking of calling them “The Flickies.” They’ll have an old timey New York Big Band “Showtime!” aesthetic going for them. Each member would wear a party mask or something similar in the style of different color Flickies seen throughout the older Sonic series.
- Edited: 02/27/2024 – Please like this! The more I think about them, the clearer I see The Flickies in my head. For Secret Base, Les could show up as a featured guest!
To this, I plan to copy the Splatoon series in the sense of “time-passing” and lore. For example, Les, the organist in Light Dash, started the organ because he was inspired by his aunt, who plays Jazz professionally. One of the members could be Les’s aunt, who was inspired by Les to join a band and stop session playing.
I also imagine a professional Slap Bass player in this band and a Keytarist to help emulate some older synths. The Keytarist specifically would really add some uniqueness to this band to separate them from others.
Sonic Advance 2 (Edited: 03/12/2024)
Lately, I’ve been listening to the Splatoon 3 band, H2Whoa. I think having a Sonic GBA band based around some mixture of H2Whoa and Wet Floor from Splatoon 2 would be great for Sonic Advance 2. Maybe as a main band. I general, I envision “colorful” or “smooth” lead synths/pads with a fast but clean guitar tones. The style would copy H2Whoa in terms of that slight tropical feel. Colorfully/Jazzy chord progressions and junk. For those that remember the old Nickelodeon show “Rocket Power” I envision a similar vibe with this band.
Sonic Advance 3 (Edited: 03/13/2024)
Continuing off what I wrote in Sonic Advance 3’s soundtrack concept, I was thinking about having 1 member from 3 pre-existing bands come together to create a few tracks for the Sonic Advance 3 soundtrack. Who gets selected can be randomized or through a fan vote/poll from the community (honestly, this sounds fun! :D).
In line with this, I had another idea of having only one character (not band) debuting but goes around collaborating with the other established bands. This could help create some sort of “anchor” that separates SA3 from the other 3 games in the GBA Project.
(Added: 03/27/2024) The day I posted my channel update declaring the GBA Project, someone made an interesting comment that could help for Sonic Advance 3.
He mentioned that, [so much could be done with a sorta “gemerl can copy specific musical elements from other characters” type of thing.]
I realized that this parries well off the pervious idea of having one character going around preestablished bands. This could be a very special robot that can “sample” Micro Elements from characters and recall them in his own playing (see Light Dash Band Profile to learn more about Micro Elements).
Though out of line from the “tagteam” concept, I had the idea of simplifying things for Sonic Advance 3. I would have only one new band (the main band) while the others would be pervious bands that have already debuted but has evolved or aged in their corresponding musical styles.
Random Band Ideas
A collection of possible bands I hear in my head. These aren’t planned or official in the GBA project in any way. Let me know which ones you like, and I might force these into the project somehow.
Inspiration: Sonic Riders Series
Instrumentation: Electro Violinist, Pianist, Drum & Bass producer.
Sonic Universe Reference: N/A
Description: A band that can theoretically produce the music found Sonic Riders series (specifically Zero Gravity) with a twist of Electro Violin. Many songs in the Sonic Advance series can benefit from this style. In particular, I can hear Techno Base from A2 and Ocean Base from A3 in this style.
Inspiration: Sonic Adventure Series
Instrumentation: Electric Guitar, Electronic Trance producer
Sonic Universe Reference: N/A
Description: Similarly, a band that can capture that Electric Guitar Chorus effect heard from Jun Senoue but with a twist of Trance style. Some songs I can hear in this style is Sky Canyon from A2, Twinkle Snow from A3, Egg Rocket, cosmic Angel, and Knuckles Boss from A1. Outside the project, I can hear Press Garden from Sonic Mania in this style.
Inspiration: Paper Mario Thousand Year Door and Splatoon 2
Instrumentation: Elec. Guitar, Piano, fiddle, horn section
Sonic Universe Reference: Badniks
Description: The Paper Mario Thousand Year Door remake re-introduced me to a music style I don’t hear too often with its Chapter 6 Battle theme. I realized this particular band can share some music styles and aesthetics with the Bottom Feeders from Splatoon 2. Since hearing this, I’ve wanted to hear Mirage Saloon from Sonic Mania in a style like this. Sadly, I’m not sure where I’d fit this into the GBA Project, but I imagine a Madmax apocalyptic group whose instruments are made from Badnik scraps. Maybe vs Mecha Knuckles from Sonic Advance.
Please share your thoughts on the Discord channel and give me ideas on moving forward. I want to create these with you guys! 🙂 Also, check back here occasionally for updates. I’d like this post to be more of an updating Log than a blog post. Can’t wait to hear what you guys come up with.
