A spiritual successor to Super Robot Taisen IMPACT, MX was released a year after Alpha 2 and a year before Alpha 3. It served to bridge the gap between the two titles for the year, and it managed to be a rather successful title in its own right.
…Particularly, its soundtrack was incredibly impressive.
Most SRT soundtracks are either one or two discs; the only four disc albums printed to date are this one and the Alpha 3 OST (released a year later). So, the quantity is there, and I promise you, so is the quality! It would be a tough call to say for sure, but I would have to say I prefer this album to the Alpha 3 OST.
What is it that makes this soundtrack so great? First off, the selection of anime tunes is downright awesome. We see a whole slew of great songs from Evangelion, some of the best Gundam themes ever written, some Nadesico, and newcomer RahXephon joins the party as well. One can imagine, even without playing the game, how these songs fit; some are used as character themes during battle, others for dialogue and events, still others for special formations and attacks. The older anime, from the 1970s, has some wa-wa pedal guitar parts; and that, my friends, is a joy all its own.
But, as good as the anime music is, and as impressive as it is that they come out so good on the PS2 version, nothing trumps the music composed for particularly for the game.
I should point out that disc 3’s music is mostly MX-exclusive, whereas disc 4 is music borrowed from its predecessor, IMPACT. Both of these discs are great, but I’d like to focus in on disc 3 since a lot of exclusive tracks are found there.
A number of the track titles on disc 3 seem to come in pairs. There’s red/blue, heaven&earth/life&death, doctrine/gospel (good news), things of that sort. These opposing pairs make not only for good song titles, but also great tunes in and of themselves. I was especially pleased with “Dancing Blue.” Another good one, a song that stands on its own, is track 21. Track 22 takes the feel and vibe of 21 but lengthens it and adds some ethereal vocal and strings to the ambient/dance background.
Every song on disc 3 is a winner. That about sums it up.
The last disc, as I said, is a collection of songs originally written for IMPACT. These are great tunes as well, but there isn’t a very significant change in the audio quality from 2002 to 2004, especially when it’s on the same console. If, however, you have had no experience with IMPACT or its OST, it’s good enough just to have these songs right here.
All in all, the MX OST was and is a remarkable soundtrack, one of the best (and most complete) in the entire SRT series. I’m not sure if I should call it “one of the best,” as they’re all very good. But the added number (and length) of songs is a big sell for this collection.
