“IMPACT” took the Super Robot Taisen “Compact” series (on WonderSwan) and mashed it into one lovely PS2 title (much like how the PS2 “Original Generations” in 2007 is a compilation of the two OG games on GBA). This soundtrack is really excellent, for two reasons in particular: first, the sound quality is amazing on both the anime themes and the new music; second, there are a lot of songs found on this album that aren’t on many other soundtracks in the series.
Usually with these soundtracks, the music is split in half; one half is music taken from anime, and the other is the original half. Things were a little lop-sided on this release (though it seems they could have balanced it if they’d wanted to…); the last three tracks of disc one are original themes. They include two of my all-time favorite SRW character themes: track 33 is Kyosuke Nanbu’s theme, and track 34 is Excellen Browning’s theme. I was originally introduced to these songs through the GBA games Atlus released, so it was wonderful to hear them with higher sound quality. I’m sure other fans will tend to agree with me here.
The anime tunes, mostly instrumental versions of vocal tracks and character/mech themes, are awesome. The first disc alone is an incredible compilation of songs, one that mecha fans should love. I was pleased to hear the opening to Nadesico, “You Get To Burning,” come out so well on PS2 synth. “Shinin in the Storm” also turned out well, which made me happy because it’s one of my favorite Gundam songs. It’s also worth noting that a fair bit of anime tunes not found on other SRT albums are on here, though many did go from this album onward to the MX soundtrack, released in 2004.
Note, too, that the first disc is packed, running to nearly 80 minutes of music. They must have been struggling to fit this collection of music on two discs, and it makes me wonder what songs were left out.
Things only continue to improve as we move into the second disc. The opening theme, “GO!!,” is more in-your-face than any other JAM Project single, though it’s a shame that it’s less than a minute on this album (I suppose it’s incentive to pick up the single). From here on out, it’s the soundtrack “proper.” The music style is a departure from many other SRT soundtracks. Here on IMPACT, the standard tunes, and even the new tunes, have a flavor to them that isn’t found as much on the other albums. That flavor, my friends, is jazz: soft yet enticing jazz, often led by the piano. Little melodic runs are placed here and there to spice up classic SRT songs, and the newly composed pieces are even more interesting than the older songs.
Many soundtracks come and go in my collection, and most of them have plenty of “filler” songs. It’s the kind of stuff that you want to skip so you could just pick out your favorites. I felt like, especially on this second disc, there wasn’t any of that junk. Every song was quality, and these samples only give a bare-bones picture of the music here.
It’s sad that a series as interesting as Super Robot Taisen has been long ignored by American publishers (though that’s begun to change), and it’s sadder still that the Japanese developers have begun to “milk” the series rather than let it grow and expand in more fruitful ways. But, the biggest disappointment of all is that these games have such excellent soundtracks, yet they’ve been overlooked by VGM enthusiasts (particularly American ones) almost entirely. Perhaps it’s because the franchise itself is so daunting, they simply didn’t want to start. I, too, avoided these soundtracks with similar reasoning in mind. However, high quality soundtracks such as IMPACT and those in the Alpha series show that it’d be worthwhile to own a few soundtracks from the series (though owning all of them would lead to some serious redundancy). This particular soundtrack would be a great place for an up-and-coming SRT fan to start their collection. I highly recommend this album.
