ReMix:The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks "Multi-track Drifting" 3:54

DAT FAKEY GUITAR. And dem orchestra hitz. Hylian Lemon (Benjamin Hoffman) blends lo-fi, retro PCM samples (arguably, the "16-bit" sound) with chiptunes (less arguably, the "8-bit" sound) for a hybrid (let's average and say "12-bit") aesthetic on our first featured arrangement of The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks:

"When I was deciding which track to arrange from this game, I was initially considering the on-foot overworld theme. That train of thought was derailed when I played Kirby: Planet Robobot. The Robobot Armor theme got my gears turning, and I had an idea to couple the melody of Spirit Tracks' train tutorial with a kind of F-Zero rhythm. It can be hard to gauge how well a track will hold up when you engineer such a dramatic change like that. Not to toot my own whistle, but I think the style ended up being a pretty good fit. I temporarily ran out of steam when Breath of the Wild came out, but I just told myself "I think I can" and kept on chugging.

I'm sorry for everything you just read. I'll have to conduct myself better in the future."

Please don't ;) Judges were unanimous and I think MindWanderer said what needed to be said:

"Funny thing is, I listened to the source and immediately thought, "Yep, this is exactly the sort of thing Hylian Lemon likes to remix." And then he did something totally different from his usual style! Well, not totally different--it still includes his signature 8-bit arps and a few sections of 8-bit melody, but the 16-bit elements and the pseudo-racing motif aren't things I've heard from him before. I hear the Kirby influence as well, even though I would have pegged it more as TMNT if I were to guess blindly.

Anyway, this checks all my boxes. Does exactly what it's meant to do and does it well. Takes the source in new directions but never loses sight of it. Great work!"

Ditto all that; ever the poet, Lawrence Oji simply offered the following:

"YES for SNES ORCH STAB"

It's right up there with McRib. I dig the filter-modulated transitions; especially the first, where the train FX seep through temporarily. In less capable hands some of these characters - fakey guit & orky stab, we'll call them - could quickly become grating or downright migraine-inducing, but Ben's got everything under control, and you're off to the races. Wonderful, ultra-high energy stuff that superimposes different production & arrangement aesthetics on the source with technique & style!