Yet, as you purchase this CD and pop it in, that expectant smile on your face slowly fades as you listen and find out that the CD has gone wrong. Horribly wrong. The process used to record this CD is not what Konami or any other company usually uses, which is to run their arcade cabinet through a specialized sound test and record it from there. No, they hooked the cabinets up to their recording systems directly and recorded people playing the games. As a result, every single game on the CD has its music overlayed with sound effects from the game. Needless to say, this diminishes the listening value to an extreme. This is a darn shame because I'd never actually listened to Twinbee, Poo Yan, or that Kekkyoku game before, and now the only memory I have of them is littered with sound effects scattered throughout. In some cases, the effects have been artificially tossed in to match a certain beat, which sounds even more strange than just the game playing.

The arranged tracks of Gradius and Twinbee are both well done, with a great 80s feel (heavy on synth, light on guitar), exactly what is to be expected of the Kukeiha Club, but they comprise only 9 minutes, leaving 26 minutes of classic but hopelessly tarnished music on the CD. Sheet music is included for all 8 of the featured games, but even that can't save this CD from being a terrible letdown. While I try to do a lot to support the old game music, this CD is one that should have been left in the archives. With uncluttered original music and some more arrangements thrown in, this could easily have been a must-have. As it is, I can't recommend it to even a die-hard fan.