OCR03272 - *YES* Super Mario World & Castlevania (N64) 'Very... Very Wrong Castle'

[Chimpazilla]

1) Remixer Name- Yoshiblade

 

2) D L

 

Forum ID) 52832

 

1) Game Being Arranged- Super Mario World, Castlevania 64

2) Name Of Arrangement- Very….Very Wrong Castle 

3) Name Of Arranged Song- Castle Theme, Castle Center a.k.a Dungen Main Theme  

4) Original Composer- Koji Kondo (SMW), Masahiro Kimura, Motoaki Furukawa, and Mariko Egawa (Castlevania 64)

 

5)  So after utilizing the workshop I feel I can say that this is my first remix thats follows an envision, interpret, display, revise workflow. 

We start firmly in Castlevania territory with the backing vocals from Castle Center and the cold ambiance of a stone European castle drafty and cold. The Castlevania I kept as devoid of electricity as possible , where as the SMW Castle I wanted more chripy and chippy. The glitch aspect is very import to marry the cheerful Mario with the brooding Castlevania, I really would like to know what if Mario was envisioned as some sort of gothic horror. 2:22 the pain of SMW, the sins of a million dead Yoshis are slowed and twisted. The circuits of the Games are bent as the glitchiness robs them of their respective independent worlds and throws them together in a warped reality!!! (ok Ill calm down) 3:18 really needed to be there as some sort of grotesque John Carpenter’s “The Thing” “bUt IT”s mE mARio!!! i wOnT hURt yOu” this twisted impostor, come to think of it  the twisted Impostor vocals sums up my feelings about this mix, something that should otherwise be cheerful(Mario, garish, upbeat and happy) synthesized with Castlevania (twisted mutilated gothic horror) all served with an electro-glitch twist! 

 

[Chimpazilla]

Cool concept!  I love the glitching, even though the patterns on the choir part are a bit simple and repetitive, it's working well, gives a great creepy effect.  I'm really enjoying the interweaving of themes, it's very well integrated.  I love the use of the "it'sa meeee, Mario" clip.  Good drum groove, could stand a bit more variation but I like the occasional bitcrushed sections. 

 

I wish the track were mastered a bit louder, it hovers around -3db most of the time.  Still, great creativity here.

 

YES

[WillRock]

So, lets see. That castlevania source sounds so much like the SMW castle theme at points, I can see why you chose to merge them. Quite an effortless choice there. 

 

The track itself... is pretty damn cool. The unsettling atmosphere created is great, and I have to applaud this remix for not only being stylish, but everything is done to enhance the aesthetic of the piece.

 

I only have 2 issues. 1: That drum beat gets repetitive. I'd have varied it up, glitched it about more, particularly during the intro since its so upfront without a melody to grasp too.

 

2: The ending. I both love and hate it, because it seems like you had a great idea with some weird execution ideas. The bitcrushed drums going into a fill before that door open effect seemed a little random, but I can get you're trying to build up to that moment. Then the "it's me" comes out and oh god I love it. Best part of the track. I thought it was going to descend into some horror madness then for a crazy ending... but instead, the SMW theme enters and then the track just sort of ends. I felt like that was a missed opportunity because that ending felt tacked on and almost lazy, compared to what you had before it, and what you could have ended with. 

 

Sometimes I feel like the samples might be a tad on the lower quality side of the scale, but the ideas and arrangement are great. I am going to go on board and YES this, but part of me does wish you'd spent a bit more time on that ending

 

Good luck with the rest of the vote!

 

YES

[Flexstyle]

Honestly, I just have to echo everything Chimp and Will just mentioned. The ending was lazy, but the rest of the song was fantastic. Could stand to be mastered louder for sure (shoot me a wav if you want me to do it!). Other than that, definitely above the bar. 

 

YES

[Jivemaster]

Interesting arrangement and choice of tracks. I did hear more of a leaning towards the Mario side of things, but a nice blend overall.

 

Your instrument choices and overall arrangement here where quite minimalistic, which worked in your mixes favour. Alternating between different leads certainly maintained interest. This minimalism did expose your samey drum loop sequence through the majority of the arrangement though.

 

On the mixing front, I feel more use of stereo space could have been utilised, as everything feels close to centre except for the odd effect here and there. That crit aside, everything was audible.

 

Of particular note, the bit crushing and glitching you have used to break up the track has been used sparingly and differently throughout, which is just the way it should be. Nice work here.

 

The ending leaves a lot to be desired, to the point where it feels like you copied some bars of the main melody down with everything else peeled back, added an accompanying panning synth and called it a day. It would've been great to hear a bit more creativity at the end of your track. But I won't hold it back for this one especially if no-one else is.

 

YES

[Liontamer]

Interesting combination of two step-cousin themes, not unlike DaMonz's "Medieval Koopa Jam" weaving Super Mario 64 and Jazz Jackrabbit 2 together.

Here's how I broke down the source usage, for reference:

Castlevania 64 - :40-1:00, 1:20.75-2:22, 2:53-3:02.5 = 90.75 seconds
Super Mario World - 1:20.75-1:32, 1:41-1:51, 2:11-2:40.75, 2:43-3:02, 3:27-3:56 = 99 seconds

Will co-sign on these YESes. A bit thin, but the arrangement's smart and creative!