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“NINTENDO 64!”

Last year, alongside NES Medley VI, we did another console medley: the Game Boy Medley. This year I wanted to do another console medley aside from the yearly NES medley, so we put together what was the most requested of the consoles for a medley: Nintendo 64.

Like the NES medleys of recent years and the Game Boy Medley, I held a drawing on Patreon to choose random songs to go in the drawing, adding up to 10 total songs. All 10 songs that got in were great songs, but we were missing a lot of key games that I really wanted to make sure were included in this medley. So I went back to the drawing entries, and threw in a few of those games/songs. I got a little out of control… and ended up with 20 songs!

The 20 songs featured in this medley are:

1. Title Theme (Banjo Kazooie)
2. Slider (Super Mario 64)
3. Boss Theme (Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards)
4. Goe Goe Spark (Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon)
5. Character Select (Jet Force Gemini)
6. Wasteland (Starcraft 64)
7. Green Garden (Bomberman 64)
8. Bonus Game (Super Smash Bros. 64)
9. Yoshi’s Tale (Yoshi’s Story)
10. Boss Race (Diddy Kong Racing)
11. Title Theme (Buck Bumble)
12. Dam (Goldeneye 64)
13. Huffin and Puffin (Paper Mario)
14. Mario Raceway (Mario Kart 64)
15. Final Battle (Quest 64)
16. Boss C (Star Fox 64)
17. Red Falcon (Flying Dragon)
18. Eternal Star (Mario Party)
19. Devil’s Call In Your Heart (F-Zero X)
20. Final Battle (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)

There are probably only a few important games that we didn’t touch on (DK64 and Wave Race, I know), but that doesn’t mean they can’t be in a second N64 Medley sometime in the future!

Downloads for the GaMetal album here
Download (End card acoustic short: Bowser’s Keep)

You knew the GaMetal album wasn’t going to end without us getting to one of my favorite game characters: the King of Koopas himself, Bowser. Enter Ultimate Koopa.

The second official GaMetal song, back in 2009, was a small Bowser Medley I put together that featured the SMB3 Bowser battle theme, the normal Bowser battle theme from Super Mario 64, and the final Bowser battle theme, Ultimate Koopa, from SM64.

I did a full rendition of the normal Bowser 64 theme back in 2016 that I’m ok with, so I didn’t feel like that needed a remake just yet. In my very first plans for the GaMetal album, I considered doing a full version of the SMB3 Bowser theme (along with a separate Ultimate Koopa remix), but decided to hold off on it for the time being. Ultimate Koopa, however, absolutely had to be done.

I’ve always envisioned a remix of this song being along the lines of “Bowser has obtained an obscene amount of power and can no longer be stopped, the world is doomed”, so that’s what I’ve tied to capture here.

While the fight itself (especially if you’re a SM64 speedrunner) isn’t exactly the most difficult final battle around, the music certainly suits the final battle aspect. Thus, I felt like this was the best way to end the GaMetal album.

So long, King Bowser!

Downloads for the GaMetal album here
Download (End card acoustic short: Odeka Ke Chocobo)

I’ll never get tired of doing old Final Fantasy music, so let’s get back to the Final Fantasy Battle Medley and add EVEN MORE to it!

Just one more in this case: this new arrangement now features the battle theme from Final Fantasy IX. Why IX? For starters, the IX battle theme features the iconic A-A-A-A-A-A-G-G rhythm line (or G-G-G-G-G-G-F-F in the case of FF1) that starts off all of the retro Final Fantasy battle themes. Second, I’ve already done full versions of the FF7 and FF8 battle themes, plus they have a far different feel to them than the first 6, so I don’t feel like they would have fit as well as IX’s does.

With the addition of IX, this medley now feels ‘complete’. Now I gotta fix up that old Don’t Be Afraid remix, eventually..

Downloads for the GaMetal album here
Download (End card acoustic short: Radio: Lucky Channel / Game Corner)

It’s time to revisit the first Pokémon remix I ever did from 2009: the Trainer Battle theme from Pokémon Red / Blue / Yellow!

When Project One was revealed to be a first year remake project, this was one of the songs I was asked about most. I’ve been considering doing it for several May Madness’s, but it just hasn’t been able to make the cut.

GaMetal album to the rescue! It’s been a while since I did a Gen 1 remix (literally 2011 if we’re not counting the Champion theme in the 2015 Champion Medley), so this was a nice one to get back to.

Downloads for the GaMetal album here
Download (End card acoustic short: Grabbag)

And now, the song everyone has been waiting for from the GaMetal album. No, not Type A from Tetris. Gourmet Race? More like In Last Place. No, everyone has been chewing up all their gum and eagerly anticipating the long awaited return… of Grabbag, the Duke Nukem 3D theme song.

Because if there is a song out there that’s the most important in the GaMetal universe, it’s not In the Final, or Masked Dedede, or Megalovania. No sir/ma’am, it’s Grabbag.

This is Grabbag’s FIFTH appearance in the GaMetal discography, with this arrangement being the 4th full version. It also had an appearance in the Blast from the Past medley from 2011 GaMetal, thus, fifth appearance overall.

I’m not gonna review my old Grabbag song pages, so I might end up repeating myself, but let me explain why I dig Grabbag so much. When I was just a kid, Duke Nukem 3D was the first 3D shooter I ever played. Looking back, I should definitely not have been playing this game. Not because it was bad, it’s an awesome game, but because of, ya know… well if you don’t, you probably aren’t too familiar with Duke Nukem, haha.

That said, Grabbag is probably the first game theme I heard in a rock/metal style, and I’ve always loved it. When I started doing GaMetal seriously (“seriously”), I knew it’d be one of the first game songs I would learn and record.

Since 2009, I’ve been using Grabbag as sort of a reference song to test out my different sounds throughout the years. First in 2011, then again in 2015. Since then, it’s become sort of the oldest running joke in the GaMetal universe that I will keep doing Grabbag remakes, so I had no choice but to do it once more for the GaMetal album. It would’ve been sacrilege not to.

Like my older Grabbag arrangements, this is a hybrid of the original 3D version and the Nintendo 64 version, which has a few altered rhythm riffs and an added lead line (the one right before the first solo, if I recall correctly).

This arrangement is my grabbiest bag to date. I’ve added a slow intense buildup intro section, and also a whole new section after the guitar/keyboard/drum(?) solo section, followed by a new guitar solo section. I’m more than pleased with how it all turned out.

So don’t bother reaching for that gum… we’re all out. You know what time it is.

 

(Note: obviously some of my opening lines were sarcasm… or were they?)

Downloads for the GaMetal album here
Download (End card acoustic short: Pop Star)

There’s no doubt that the most important game series in the GaMetal lineup is Duke Nukem Kirby, and it’s been around since the beginning of GaMetal, with my 2009 remix of the iconic Gourmet Race.

Out of all the songs on the GaMetal album, this one is probably the least changes from my last version. I had already remade this one back in 2014, and while I’ve been more than happy with the arrangement, I knew the recording/performance could still use a lot of work. So… now we’re here!

This one is, however, slightly extended from my 2014 arrangement. I went ahead and let the last section of the song play out to the original loop point rather than cut it off before the release. Which was sort of a weird thing to do, but I did a lot of weird things back then… and still do.

Now we need to do Gourmet Race 2, but not before Void, right? <(‘-‘<)

Downloads for the GaMetal album here
Download (End card acoustic short: Chao Race)

Green Hill Zone is back from 2010 GaMetal!

So this song was not part of the originally planned GaMetal album lineup. When I hired Discovery to create the Project One trailer, one of the areas he had the bards teleport to was Green Hill Zone, so I made it a part of the trailer medley that plays in the background. I liked that little part so much, I decided to just go ahead and do a full version for the album.

I wanted to keep this remix short and sweet, so it’s a lot shorter than my original 2010 version. I cut the intro section I had (the invincibilty theme), shortened the solo section a bit, and the tempo is faster. It may sound like a lot of sacrifices, but I think it made for a more streamlined arrangement.

I still kept the key higher than the original but not as high (it’s up a half step from the original now). Because of that, I’ve been told this remix is reminiscent of the Sunset Hill version, which was not intentional but still pretty cool.

Downloads for the GaMetal album here
Download (End card acoustic short: Winds Across the Plains)

I’ve taken another song from the original 2009 NES Medley and extended it to full form for the GaMetal album: here’s Together, We Ride!, or Story 5 Meeting, or That Fire Emblem Song, whichever you know it as.

While I was never a big Fire Emblem fan, I did use Marth a bit in Melee and was always fond of the Melee arrangement of this song (where it was called Fire Emblem lol). This remix is based mostly on that arrangement, with a few new things thrown in the middle.

Together We Ride can definitely be considered the most overdone FE song, but it’s still a good one and it was in fact a part of the original 2009 GaMetal song lineup, so onto the GaMetal album it goes!

Downloads for the GaMetal album here
Download (End card acoustic short: JtS Stage 2)

It’s time to take a journey to one of my favorite NES soundtracks: Journey to Silius!

I’ve been dying to do a full cover of these songs for years now, even planning to do it as one of my birthday song choices, but just never could get around to it, but now, with the GaMetal album, I have the perfect excuse. I first covered the Stage 1 theme from this game in the very first NES Medley from 2009. I thought it’d be cool to take a couple of songs from that medley and make full versions of them, rather than remaking just that medley.

If you grew up in the NES era, you surely know of the glory that is Sunsoft game soundtracks, and Journey to Silius is no exception. It’s my personal favorite from the Sunsoft library, and perhaps even among my top 5 NES soundtracks overall. It’s not the biggest soundtrack, but each track is a banger.

Eventually I’ll do the Stage 2 theme. Eventually.

Downloads for the GaMetal album here
Download (End card acoustic short: Tetris Attack Results)

Ah yes, the starting point of GaMetal that most people know that have been following GaMetal since the beginning: Tetris.

What you’ll find with most of the GaMetal album songs is that I’ve completely rearranged this remixes from my previous versions. This Type A sounds practically nothing like my original crappy 2009 one (hell I didn’t even name it right haha).

To take this remix a step further, I’ve also thrown in the Type B theme. I know there are a lot of people that prefer B over A, but it doesn’t get nearly as much love as A. Not this time!

Downloads for the GaMetal album here
Download (End card piano short: Jungle)

GaMetal begins! First off: you saw the Project One reveal trailer, right?

Well, in case you didn’t, and you have no idea what the heck is going on, I’ll give you a quick run down: to celebrate GaMetal’s 10 year anniversary, we are, in essence, rebooting the GaMetal universe. To really kick off this reboot, I’m going back and covering songs from (mostly) the first year of GaMetal’s inception, all entirely part of a self-titled GaMetal album.

But before GaMetal was even an official project, I had a completely different project I was working on, all the way back in 2005: cover the entire Contra soundtrack.

I’m sure you already know that, though, because you read the bio here where I talk all about it.

Needless to say, this is a much, MUCH better rendition of what I was trying to do 14 years ago. A lot of you may have expected Tetris to be the opener, but it wouldn’t be a true rebooting of my game music remixing career if it didn’t start off with Contra.

Maybe someday I’ll get to some more Contra songs (we did have Waterfall in NES Medley #5), but I believe Jungle, Base, and Boss are a great start!

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Download (End card Piano short: Nightmare King)

And now, a song that fits like a glove for this year’s Halloween Special: a duo remix of Grimm and Nightmare King from Hollow Knight!

These 2 songs are usually requested together, so I had planned to tackle them both at once if and when I got around to it. These songs (when combined) were in the top 10 most requested songs from the 2019 GaMetal Song Ballot, and Hollow Knight was the #2 most requested series that we haven’t covered a song from yet.

For this remix, I took a bit of a different approach than usual: the lead Guitar plays mostly an assist role here, while the Pipe Organ is up front for a lot of the song. It was such a key component to the original, I couldn’t bare to push it to the back and guitar everything up.

I tried to go for a symphonic black metal feel, ala Dimmu Borgir, or whatever it is the kids listen to these days.

Also, as is now our tradition, our Halloween Special features a special guest in the video: the Knight!

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Download (End card acoustic short: Ghost Gulping)

So here’s a bit of a wacky one for ya: the Doopliss Battle theme from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.

This is one of the most requested Paper Mario songs, and I felt, with Doopliss being a ghost and all, it would fit in perfectly for our week of Halloween madness.

You may have noticed I slowed this song down a little bit. Or DID I?

Ok so I didn’t, I actually sped it up. When I first started working on it, I messed around with it closer to the original tempo, but wasn’t really feeling it. I thought I’d try out at a more upbeat, fast pace, and ended up liking it a lot.

Doopliss’s battle theme (officially titled ‘Fight Against Mario… No, Doopliss’) is on the shorter side, so midway in, I also threw in an arrangement of the Doopliss encounter theme (officially titled ‘It’s-a Me! No, it’s Doopliss’) just mix things up a bit.

I wonder what the next most-requested Paper Mario song is now? I gotta check…

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It’s Halloween season, and I’ve come up with some great Halloween-themed picks for you all this year, starting with this one: Castle Corridor from Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow.

Castlevania music has that dark, neo-classical feel to it that fits perfectly with the Halloween aesthetic.

There’s another official version of this song that appears in Harmony of Despair, but I didn’t listen to it too much because, while that one is more of a metal arrangement, I didn’t want this remix to just be a copy of that one.

I always have fun covering Castlevania material, so you can definitely count on more in the future!

Note: The acoustic short of Vampire Killer that appears in the end card of this video is exclusive to the full-album download of Side-Quests 2! Which can be retrieved for as little as… 0$. 🙂

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Download (End card acoustic short: Stage Green Fields / Surface of Naju)

It’s that time again: here’s this year’s NES Medley, NEStalgia VII! We’ve got 14 songs in this year’s lineup:

00:00 Overture (Dragon Quest / Warrior)
00:42 Ground Theme (Super Mario Bros.)
01:23 Bushroot Stage (Darkwing Duck)
01:57 Magnet Man (Mega Man 3)
02:35 Game Music 03 (Pipe Dream)
03:01 Eolis (Faxanadu)
03:47 Toad Man (Mega Man 4)
04:23 Title Theme (Dr. Mario)
05:01 Chill (Dr. Mario)
06:25 Grape Garden (Kirby’s Adventure)
07:06 Stage Green Fields (Guardian Legend)
07:31 Final Area (Shatterhand)
08:13 Out of Time (Castlevania)
08:45 Super Shredder (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: The Manhattan Project)

For those unaware: NES Medleys are put together by entries made by GaMetal Patrons, we then have a drawing to randomly choose which songs get to be a part of the medley for the year.

By luck of the draw, we got a really killer lineup this year with a lot of familiar tunes, and some equally killer not-so-familiar tunes (such as the Super Mario Bros. Ground Theme).

The next medley I have planned for you all, coming later this year, is from a different console. Till then!

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Download (End card acoustic short: Kiss in the Dark)

Metal Slug has finally arrived in the GaMetal Universe!… but wait, what’s this, Metal Slug 3D?

I’ve been getting requests to do Metal Slug music since the early days of GaMetal, but have just now gotten around to it. This was a recent Patreon drawing winner, so that should answer your question of ‘why on earth 3D of all Metal Slug games?’.

This game does get dragged a lot for not being… among the best of Metal Slug games, to say the least. Still, the game had a pretty bangin soundtrack, and this is a killer tune.

I’ll definitely come back to Metal Slug in the future, so don’t fret MS fans, we’re not done in this realm just yet! 🙂

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Download (End card acoustic short: Decisive Battle)

It’s time to take another trip back to the past, back to the days of the Game Boy and kickass Dragon Ball Z game songs, with this remix of the Decisive Battle theme from Dragon Ball Z: Legendary Super Warriors!

The Dragon Ball Z games (especially the older ones, imo) have their fair share of great music, and Legendary Super Warriors is no exception. We previously remixed 2 DBZ: Goku Gekitouden songs in last year’s Game Boy Medley, so after becoming aware of the bangers on the GB DBZ soundtracks, it was a matter of time till I fully covered one of them.

I’m sure we’ll get to some more DBZ stuff sometime in the future!