ReMix:Sparkster "Rawk-It Night" 2:56

The Sparkster/Rocket Knight Adventures universe provided a compelling answer to the age-old question of what would happen if you dressed an opossum up in armor and strapped a rocket to its ass. Prior to these works, the world could only speculate. It's really more of a sim than a platformer, in that sense, although certain liberties were clearly taken to make the experience more palatable to the average gamer. Either way, the music was hot thanks to Konami powerhouses Akira Yamaoka & Michiru Yamane, and finally has some representation here on OCR thanks to this rock/metal arrangement with a rough, punk aesthetic from DusK:

"I made this for DoD a few months ago. After reviewing and applying the critique I got from DoD and a few other places, I decided I should prolly sub it. I was entirely inspired by the Genesis version of the track, as I haven't even touched the SNES version of the game yet (I was a Genesis kid). I went headfirst into this track rockin', aiming to bring some metalcore flair to this great source. A little on the conservative side, but I tried to spice things up with a couple of solos, some variation on the leads, a heavy breakdown, and a few other alterations to the composition to help it really fit the genre I was mixing it in. Enjoy. :)"

The aggressive, uptempo, rough sound reminds me of some of jaxx's stuff from way back when, which I associate more with punk than anything else. I'm not personally sold on the concept of creating genres or subgenres via the "-core" suffix, so I'm gonna refrain from embracing the "metalcore" label myself. Even in the wonderful world of adult films, "hardcore" really only serves as an implicit indicator that they're gonna show you the bits doing the stuff, with "softcore" explicitly echoing the flaccid omission thereof. Best to simply avoid the -core, and while you're at it, The Core. But I digress; lots of electric energy & momentum in this arrangement, which at just under the three-minute marker makes good use of its time. Larry writes:

"The arrangement's pretty straightforward, with Dustin giving the first stage's theme the heavy rock treatment. The quick variation of the drumming rhythm at :48 was a nice touch, as well as the variations of the melody at 1:22-1:34, and I enjoyed the constant dynamic changes in the percussion that kept the energy fresh the whole way through. The tempo's a little slower here than the original song, but that only gives Dustin a bit more breathing room to rock out. Strong stuff with a lot of intensity, and much love to DusK for going some very under-represented Konami greatness to arrange. \m/"

Ditto all that; I'm surprised it took this long for a game from the series to get a mix posted, especially considering the familiar Konami names & faces behind the rockin' tunes, but Dustin's done a great job making that happen with a hot mess that rawks it up good, night or day!