i always felt that way about Sunsoft's later stuff on the NES. Its hard to believe something like
Journey to Silius is coming from the same console as 99% of other NES games. [/quote]Ooh, yes. Sunsoft did some really interesting stuff programming-wise-- they used the PCM for bass and the other channels for percussion, exactly the opposite of what most sound programmers did.
And the above-mentioned Gimmick is what happens when they combine this with an extra chip to provide more sound channels. It's awesome.
Also, back to the original post... how the heck did I not mention Tim & Geoff Follin? Seriously?
Geoff Follin did the Tom & Jerry game for NES, which somehow managed to
outdo the SNES version soundtrack-wise. For those who haven't played it, bask in the awesomeness of the first level theme
here.
As for Tim? Just take a listen to
the title theme from Solstice. It starts off simple, and then goes into full Heavy Mithril mode. Or
Treasure Master, which, for reasons known only to Tim, is also a cover of the
Starsky & Hutch theme.
Oh, yeah, and the Follin brothers
did not use the PCM channel at all. Seriously. They're just that good.
And that's not even getting into the Follins' SNES work, like
Plok,
Spider-Man & X-Men, and
Rock 'n' Roll Racing. Most of the music in these games uses
only 5 of the 8 sound channels on the SNES, leaving the rest free for sound effects.
