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It’s that time of year once again: May Madness! For those that aren’t aware, every May I go back and remake some songs that I arranged in the old days of GaMetal.

This year’s first GaMetal remake is a song I first covered in 2010, then ended up liking so much that I did it again in 2014. Now, almost 7 years later, it was one of the most requested by the GaMetal community for a 2021 remake, so let’s get to it: Stage 9-8 from Donkey Kong ‘94!

Also dubbed by fans as ‘Showdown at the Tower’, this may have been the first song I did by request where I was initially unfamiliar with the original.

Along with generally being a cool song, the original has a sick ‘solo’ section that sounds like it was meant to be for guitar. That could explain why I like it so much, haha.

For this 3rd and final revision, I threw in a lot more background instrumentation in areas, with some added brass/strings/synths. I also let the synth handle the lead melody of the first ‘Ascending the Tower’ section that comes in at 00:56. I didn’t really care for how I handled that section in my older arrangements. I like this way much better.

I’m now fully satisfied with this arrangement, so I think we can leave this song be now. Farewell, Stage 9-8!

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We’re returning to the La-Mulana series, this time for a song from the second game in the series, In Yggdrasil!

When it comes to game soundtracks that were introduced to me by the GaMetal community, La-Mulana remains one of my favorite discoveries (more like archaeological discoveries, eh?). I’ve only done a couple of LM songs, most recently Good Night Mom (which was one of my personal favorites from 2019 GaMetal), and a lot of La-Mulana fans out there have been asking for a song from the second game ever since.

I really, really dig this song. The little section with the powerful hits at 00:28 gets me hype every time.

I added a key change at the end to make things even hyper.

Go and listen to more La-Mulana music, pretty much every song is a banger! (And play the games while you’re at it!)

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Back in the year 2010, we were all told that we would know their names.

Years later, Shulk got into Smash 4, and then even more people knew their names.

A few years passed. Just when we had forgotten their names, we were told to recall them, so here we are with a GaMetal cover of You Will Recall Our Names from Xenoblade Chronicles 2!

When Pyra and Mythra were announced (and quickly released) for Smash Ultimate, I wanted to get a XC2 song done soon. Lucky for us, this one was chosen during a GaMetal Patreon stream not long after their release!

I’ve said several times before that when I hear Xenoblade Chronicles music… there’s not really much I would change about them. They’re already super kickass. So there aren’t exactly a ton of differences between this version and the original, aside from the addition of a Guitar solo when the intro loops back around at 1:46.

It’s always fun to cover XC songs. I’m sure I’ll do another in the future!

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Happy 20th Anniversary to the Mega Man Battle Network series!

MMBN is one of those series that I’m constantly asked about, and I always talk about planning to get to as soon as I can. I gave you a small taste of Final Transmission from MMBN3 in the Game Boy Advance medley, but that doesn’t really count as ‘doing a Battle Network song’.

When I was informed that MMBN’s 20th anniversary was coming up in March, I decided now was the time to finally do a song from the series. I was neck deep in Side-Quests Volume 3 videos in March, so I couldn’t drop something on the exact date of the anniversary (March 21st), but I made it a high priority to get this one done as soon as I was finished with SQ3 and the April Fools Special.

I decided to go with Surge of Power! since 1. it’s awesome and 2. it was the most requested Battle Network song.

For this remix, I borrowed a few ideas from the Rockman.EXE 15th Arrange version, but tried to keep the feel of the original.

I’m sure we’ll get back to MMBN in time… till then, I hope you enjoy this one!

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The year was 1993, and after a few years of success for the SNES, Nintendo decided it was time to kick things up a notch. They reached out to Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on for the SNES to make bigger and better games. However, Sony was not able to handle the magnitude of what Nintendo was asking for. Parting ways, all looked to be in a peril, but then, from the shadows, a hero emerged:

Philips.

While Sony went on to develop the Playstation (which went on to sell a pathetic 12-16 units worldwide or something like that), Philips created what is still accepted by many to be one of the greatest consoles of all time: the Philips CD-i.

Eager to jump on the CD-i bandwagon, Nintendo hastily connected with Philips and threw their 2 biggest IPs right at their faces: Mario and Zelda.

The iconic “Hotel Mario” went on to sell 3 gazillion units, and gamers unanimously agree that future Mario titles have been unable to reach it’s high level of quality since, with the exception of Super Mario Odyssey which some feel came close (but still, ultimately, fell short).

But before that, developer Animation Magic was tasked with creating a game for the Zelda series. Unlike Hotel Mario, the game and world they had imagined was so monstrous in size (comparable only to Breath of the Wild), that the game had to be split into 2 different titles, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, and Link: The Faces of Evil.

Gamers and critics the world over were floored upon playing the titles. SNES N-Force Magazine praised the games for their superb graphics and brilliant sound / voice acting.* Joystick Magazine also considered the graphics to be stunning, and described the animations as “perfect”.*

The soundtracks, composed by Tony Trippi and William Havlicek, have been unmatched in later Zelda titles. Most reviews of recent Zelda games you find these days will usually contain a version of the phrase “the OST still fails to reach the high bar set by the Wand of Gamelon and Faces of Evil soundtracks” somewhere along the review.

Philips would attempt to capitalize on the wild success of Wand of Gamelon and Faces of Evil by releasing a third Zelda CDi title, Zelda’s Adventure, but no one cares about that one. You probably didn’t even know it existed.

We’ve covered many songs from many games on this channel, but I hope this attempt at one of the CDi Zelda’s best songs, Firestone Lake from Link: The Faces of Evil, can deliver even half of the justice that the game and soundtrack deserve.

 

*All of this is true.

Downloadable via the Side-Quests 3 album!
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And now, the top secret surprise song from Side-Quests 3: the long awaited and highly anticipated Twilight of the Gods from Fire Emblem Gaiden / Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, and we have our friend Sax Dragon along for the ride!

I was having a lot of fun working with all of the songs that were chosen for the SQ3 album, but I felt like it was missing a really great closer song. Bowser Battle was close, but I wanted something a bit more epic.

My initial plan was to use the #1 most requested 2020 GaMetal Song Ballot track, God Shattering Star, as the surprise closer, but before I knew it, December 2020 had arrived and I didn’t want GSS to not happen in 2020.

We’ve had Sax Dragon join us for a few multi-person collaborations (Pepsi Jam, Life Will Change, Battle of Award 42), but I’ve been wanting to do a duet with just the 2 of us. While discussing what series he’d be interested in doing, he brought up Fire Emblem, so I brought up a song that placed highly in the 2019 GaMetal Song Ballot: Twilight of the Gods, and from there it was a lock!

We’ve had this collaboration in the works for quite a few months now, and I realized this would fit the bill of great surprise closer for the album.

I keep referring to this as the ‘surprise’ closer, because this track was kept a secret from the GaMetal Patrons (reminder that all Side-Quests album songs come from the Patreon Request List and are known by the Patrons well in advance), and wasn’t revealed until the end of the SQ3 first-listen stream after Bowser Battle finished to the shock of everyone in virtual attendance.

The surprise format was also kept for the public video releases, with the end card silhouette lineup excluding Alm until the end of the Bowser Battle video.

As I mentioned above, Twilight of the Gods placed among the top 10 most requested songs from the 2021 GaMetal Song Ballot. It was strongly overshadowed by God Shattering Star in the 2020 ballot, but still had a presence, and with GSS now completed, TotG was once again the most requested Fire Emblem track.

It’s request amount also gained some traction when I briefly touched on it in NES Medley #6.

This arrangement is mostly based on the version from Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, which included a lot more than the original Gaiden version. The main melody is passed between Sax Dragon and I, making this a Guitar and Aerophone duet.

Overall, I love how this came out and needless to say Sax Dragon did a killer job, we hope you love it too! 🙂

Downloadable via the Side-Quests 3 album!
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What’s a GaMetal Side-Quests finale without a Bowser appearance? A cruddy finale, that’s what!

…ok I’ve made that joke like 100 times now, but it still works. Even if you include that fact this isn’t really the finale, just like in TTYD.

I’m not sure if I’d consider this a favorite Bowser theme by any means, but it’s still pretty intense and goes in quite hard at several points.

Can’t go wrong with Paper Mario songs, right? 🙂

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Cave Story has finally made it’s way here! Aaaah!

Running Hell has been a very popular request over the years, placing in the top 10 in the 2019 GaMetal Song Ballot and still holding a decent amount of requests in the 2020 ballot, so I knew this was going to be one a lot of people would like.

This is mostly based on the original version of Running Hell, but I threw some elements of the Wii arrangement in later in the remix.

Also, I’m aware this song hasn’t officially been deemed Curly’s Theme, but most people know it as such, hence the info in the video title. 🙂

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Here’s one from a great game that I feel more people need to give a shot, especially if you’re into Smash style fighters: Lightning Pandemonium (Tempest Peak) from Rivals of Aether!

I hope you like Guitar solos, because I threw a lot of ’em into this remix.

If you’re a fan of Smash style gameplay, beautiful sprite work, and awesome game music, give Rivals of Aether a try when you can!

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We’re back in the world of Final Fantasy Legend II (or Saga 2: Hihou Densetsu, depending on where you’re from) for our take on the final dungeon theme: Burning Blood… or Boiling Blood, I believe both are official titles with Boiling being the most recent iteration.

We’ve hit up this series twice now, with the first time being Save the World (which is still one of my personal favorite 2018 GaMetal songs) and a quick appearance in the Game Boy Medley with Lethal Strike.

Save the World borrows a part of the melody from Burning Blood, so I incorporated a little bit more of StW in this remix to pay further homage.

Awesome song from an awesome soundtrack!

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I’ve done a few Q&A / News Live-Streams over the years, and almost every time, someone brings up Tales, and I always say I’m going to try to do a full song from the series whatever year it is I did the live-stream. Finally, thanks to the RNG magic of Side-Quests, we have our first full Tales remix: Fury Sparks from Tales of Vesperia.

I thought it’d be fun to give this song a faster paced, Xenoblade Chronicles feel, and I feel the style suited it perfectly.

We’ll return to the Tales series eventually, I’ll try not to have it be 12 years this time.

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Possibly the most wildcard song from the Side-Quests 3 album is this pick from the Furi soundtrack: You’re Mine.

The Furi OST has a few different composers, with this song being created by synthwave legend Carpenter Brut.

I tried to keep a lot of the synthy feel with some heavy guitars thrown in.

This is a pretty long song, clocking in at over 6 minutes, but it manages to be progressive enough to keep things changing all the way to the end.

Oh and be sure to check out Furi, especially if you like boss-battle only style games. It’s a blast!

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Ah yes, everyone’s favorite game song… Megalomania! …were you expecting a different song?

Before Undertale and Octopath Traveler were things, there was an SNES game called Live A Live that never made it’s way out of Japan, an RPG where you played through seven different stories set in different time periods and battled bosses to a theme called Megalomania.

The first time I both heard of this game and this song was when we put together the SNES Medley back in 2015. Surprisingly, it was one of the more popular requests from that medley for a full remix, and this has wound up being one of the most popular remixes from the Side-Quests 3 album (certainly not thanks to Megalovania or anything).

Hopefully we’ll someday be blessed with an official translation and port, so more people can experience what many claim to be one of the best RPGs on the SNES!

Downloadable via the Side-Quests 3 album!
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Phantasy Star IV makes it’s second Side-Quests album appearance with this remix of Laughter!

I first covered this track back in the 2017 Genesis Medley, and have been a fan of it ever since. I thought it’d be fun to do a full version someday, so I was happy to see it was chosen to be part of the SQ3 line-up.

Coincidentally, Ooze was a part of the Side-Quests 2 album, so be sure to check that one out too if you haven’t. 🙂

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A long overdue visit to the Shin Megami Tensei series was in the works for the SQ3 album… here’s Battle B2!

This was one of the songs that was causing me to hold up on the 2021 GaMetal Song Ballot. I don’t think it would’ve top 10’d or anything, but there have been a lot of SMT requests over the years, most of which are for songs from SMT4, and Battle B2 was the most requested from the game.

The ‘bell’ synth was the trickiest thing to get right on this song. I had to layer 3 different sounds together to get something good enough. Most people just call them ‘the bells’ or ‘tubular bells’, but I don’t think they’re tubular bells. Honestly I just threw together some bell sounding stuff till I got lucky.

Really cool song, and did you notice that it was track 2 on SQ3… because it’s Battle B2? Eh????

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In a move no one saw coming, the opening song of the Side-Quests 3 album is from the extremely popular Mass Effect 2: Tali.

I had to pick up some new synths for this one! Well I’ve been needing some any way but, this track provided me with a great excuse.

At first glance (well, first listen..), this song might come off as more on the ambient/chill side, but it really kicks into gear after the 1 minute 20 second intro. From there it roller coasters between moments of softness and intensity, it’s a real trip of a song.

When were were pulling songs for the SQ3 album, someone had mentioned this would be a great first track, and I couldn’t agree more!

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We’re taking on the psychotic Luca Blight with this GaMetal remix of The Chase from Suikoden II!

As someone who only knows so much about Suikoden, I don’t have too much to say. Just that this is a pretty cool song for a crazy dude.

Consider this a little early Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes hype for all you Suikoden fans out there!

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In last year’s GaMetal Song Ballot (2021 Song Ballot coming soon, btw), Pokémon was, by a comfortable margin, the #1 most requested game series. While Sword and Shield led the pack, Black and White songs were close behind as the second most requested Pokémon generation.

To be super honest, I haven’t heard a Sw&Sh song that has quite clicked with me yet. However, Black/White songs are bangin. So here’s one of my favorite B/W songs. And for B2/W2 fans, don’t fear, I’ve included the ‘Neo’ version as well.

PLASMAAAA

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For the last few years, I’ve let my wife choose the next GaMetal remix for Valentines Day. One of her first choices was Michelle Chang’s theme from Tekken 2 back in 2016. This year we’re returning to Tekken 2 for this remix of Kunimitsu’s Theme!

This song actually originated in the first Tekken for the Angkor Wat, Cambodia stage, but returned in T2 to be Kunimitsu’s theme. Since it’s probably more recognizable as her theme, we’re just going to call it Kunimitsu’s Theme for simplicity.

Kunimitsu’s daughter just got released as DLC for Tekken 7, so I suppose we’re celebrating that at the same time!