Melodies Zone and fan composer KB release Sonic The Fighters: Redux cover album digitally and on CD

Did you know that Sonic the Fighters turned 30 years old this year? Melodies Zone and composer Kamikaze Bitch (Henceforth KB) decided to celebrate the occasion with the release of a whole album covering the game’s entire soundtrack.

Sonic the Fighters was one of Sonic the Hedgehog’s very few arcade games and one of only two fighting games starring our favorite hedgehog (Not counting the Super Smash Bros. series). It was designed by the team at Sega AM2 that worked on Fighting Vipers and is very similar to that game, but with a very different kind of upbeat soundtrack originally composed by Maki Morrow and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi. Now, all 24 of the game’s songs were recently remixed by the talented EDM composer KB and compiled into a whole album now available to stream or purchase called Sonic the Fighters: Redux. As of this writing, there are even physical CDs you can buy if you’re one of the cool kids who collects those today.

The whole album maintains the entire upbeat, cartoonish nature of the game and its soundtrack, with an eclectic variety of instrumentation. As a love letter to Sonic the Fighters, it should please any fan of that game’s music and make clear what a fan KB himself is of the game (As well as a different fighting game series from Sega AM2, which you may be able to guess from the album art.) If you wanna hear this treat to the ears, gather all 8 Chaos Emeralds and take the one-seater rocket past the break to read more.

The image above shows the entire track list from Sonic the Fighters; Redux. 24 tracks encompassing every little moment from this classic arcade fighter are here, along with two relevant bonus tracks. Each track is creatively composed as a dance club track with a wide variety of different instruments and styles. Some even include hidden references to other games, so see if you can pick them out as you listen.

As for where you can listen, you can follow this master link to find out where the music is available to stream and download. As previously mentioned, the CD is also available to buy from Bandcamp and Dropaholic for $40 USD with worldwide shipping. Currently, the whole album is also being livestreamed in a linear repeating order on YouTube, which you can see below. It’s worth looking at the notes KB has displayed for each song in the livestream for some fun facts about the making of these covers.

But besides just having the tracks on their own, KB has even gone out of his way to prepare a mod for the original game, replacing the game’s music with all of his remixes. The mod requires a mod software called HoneyPatcher and a copy of the PS3 digital port of Sonic the Fighters (Which is still currently available for purchase until Sony shuts down the PS3 PlayStation Store next year. If you need it, here’s a helpful way to navigate that store and make purchases today from your web browser.) If you really wanted to hear this music as you actually play through the game, then this is for you.

So do you like Sonic the Fighters and its music? What do you think of KB’s remixes of the songs? Which remixes are your favorites? Will you be purchasing a CD or running the mod? Tell us in the comments below.

With that, I’ll leave you with some words from KB and Melodies Zone regarding how and why Sonic the Fighters Redux came to be. On behalf of SegaBits, I thank them for sharing plans of this album with us so that we can share them with all of you reading this.

(KB)

Working on SONIC THE FIGHTERS: REDUX has been nothing but a dream come true.

For those that have been following me for a bit, I’ve been doing these anniversary remix albums for Sonic starting all the way back to his 30th. This, however, was an extremely rare opportunity. Sonic the Fighters has been a bit of an elusive soundtrack as far covers and remixes go. Even as of writing this, I believe it’s still not properly available outside of it’s original 1996 CD release. So being able to bring to life this OST was a daunting, but extremely invigorating chance I could NOT let slip by.

I learned a lot working with MZ on SEGA 65th. From personal work pacing, how to be a true project lead and working from front to back on a full release of this caliber, I really felt like I had grown as a professional in every capacity. I brought all of that to REDUX.

I would work very slow, but steadily on not just one song, but the entire album through full passes. First step was to get the bones of all the tracks, then arrange, flesh out and then final touches. This gave me a consistent pace and allowed me to use my energy and creativity equally on every song. It also allowed me to skip certain tracks that were giving me issues, so I had some time to think about how I wanted to tackle them without halting the whole workflow.

My basic philosophy for arranging these tracks was a mixture between being as authentic as possible, but also putting my spin on it as well. I did a lot of research on what equipment they might have been using at the time, but I also didn’t get hung up on the details. There are some tracks I just completely ignored the tone of the source material and took it in a completely different direction. Sonic vs Knuckles might be one of the best examples of this approach.

There are a ton of flavors on this album, but I think working within that aforementioned philosophy, all the tracks sound cohesive and a part of the same project. I also can’t stress the pure freedom MZ gave me during REDUX. He didn’t say a single word of doubt or change about a single note on this entire album. He even entrusted the art direction and packaging to me and my amazing artist, Biodigital. Bio and I worked very closely on not only bringing the spirit of Fighters to life on the visual side of things, but also paying extreme homage to the incredible team at AM2. Can you Sonic fans out there tell me the reference on the cover?

I also worked very closely with BetaRelics to implement the music into the fan mod for the game. It was really fun problem solving with them! I realized the original in-game music was way louder than any of the CD rips I’ve heard, so I had to master the album a second time to get the volume at the right levels. When you play with the music from REDUX, it really brings the whole vision together. Hope ya’ll in the Fighters community dig it! Ya’ll will have to teach me how to properly play sometime!

I can safely say I made zero compromises on this album. It’s not everyday you get to tackle a project like this, but I hope to all the Sonic the Fighters fans out there that ya’ll dig my version of the soundtrack. It’s been a blast, no processing needed.

(Melodies Zone)

SONIC THE FIGHTERS: REDUX grew out of a shared love for a soundtrack that Kamikaze Bitch (KB) and I have considered a favorite for years. We’ve talked about revisiting it here and there, but turning that enthusiasm into a full project was another matter. Between the scale of the work and finding the right time to take it on, the opportunity never quite came together.

A big part of what I do through Melodies Zone (MZ) is finding the right match between an artist and the music they’re reimagining. I take pride in understanding someone’s style and recognizing which soundtracks could give them the opportunity to create something special. Fighters always felt like a perfect fit for KB. His distinctive, hard-hitting approach could bring a fresh perspective to the music while preserving the personality that made us love it in the first place.

We had a great time working together on SEGA 65th Anniversary, an album we put together in 2025, which was largely built around KB’s arrangements alongside contributions from guest artists. That experience made me excited about what we could do next. With Sonic the Fighters celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, it felt like the right moment to revisit the idea. If we could make the vision happen, there couldn’t be a much better time.

REDUX wasn’t originally going to cover the entire soundtrack. As the project developed, though, we both felt this might be our one opportunity to give Fighters this level of attention. We wanted to make the most of it, and KB committed himself to reimagining the whole soundtrack. That decision also opened up the possibility of bringing his arrangements into the game itself.

Fighters still has such a passionate, active community, so a soundtrack mod felt like a natural extension of the album. It gives fans another way to experience KB’s work, hearing the arrangements alongside the characters, stages and actions that inspired them. For a project that started with our love of the game, bringing the music back into it felt particularly special. Big thank you to BetaRelics for making this happen!

The CD came from my love of physical media. I’ve wanted to make physical releases part of MZ for a long time, but they’ve always ended up on the backburner. With REDUX, I kept coming back to the same thought: with everything we were putting into this project, how could we not make a CD happen? The digisleeve CD edition gives fans something tangible to keep and makes this a milestone as MZ’s & KB’s first CD release. It features a 12-page booklet with exclusive art and notes, and we hope Sonic fans love it!

The CD is available through BandCamp, priced at US$40 with free shipping worldwide. We’re also planning more physical releases from KB’s catalogue, new merchandise and physical editions of previous and upcoming releases from other MZ artists. REDUX is the first step, and we’re excited to give fans more ways to collect the music they love and support their favorite artists.

Throughout the project, we wanted to celebrate the work of original composers Maki Morrow and Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and give a new generation of Sonic and video game music fans a chance to connect with their melodies. Bringing a complete reimagining of the soundtrack to Spotify and other streaming platforms gives listeners a new way to discover and enjoy this music beyond the game itself. KB brings his own personality to the arrangements, but our affection and respect for the original music remain at the heart of it.

For me, REDUX captures the kind of record label and brand I’ve always wanted MZ to be: somewhere artists have room to experiment, try unconventional ideas and take projects beyond the music itself. It brings together passion, creativity, respect for the original music and the fun of giving something a little more niche its moment. KB has been the perfect partner in making it happen, and I’m grateful for both the music he’s created and how easy and enjoyable he’s made the collaboration.