ReMix:The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past "The Chicken's Tale" 3:29

Last but never least, we have the oft-imitated, never-duplicated renaissance voice actor, author, internet celebrity, parkour...er, and of course multi-instrumentalist & arranger XPRTNovice (Joe Zieja), who brings us his unique, darker symphonic take on "Kakariko Village," as featured on Mirror Image:

"I really wanted to tell a different story than the typical Kakariko Village theme for the series, and my mind drifted to all the times we abused the chickens in the village. I thought about what their story would be like. And then I thought they might want revenge. I tried to give it to them."

Repercussions of fowl lamentation, indeed. I think you could be forgiven for listening to this mix and not - necessarily - immediately conjuring images of abused-chicken retribution, as it's really just a creative, minor-key/epic take on a bubbly, upbeat original, executed w/ style. Liontamer writes:

"I loved Joe's twist of taking such a relaxed theme like "Kakariko Village" and giving it a tense, cinematic grandeur. All because he had empathy for 16-bit pixel chickens.

Can somebody animate the chickens' revenge to this one? Hey, don't blame me for asking. When you hear the vox in this piece, imagine a brighter day for those chickens.

And Joe's my chicken-channeling colleague on the judges panel. I mean... we know he'll be a great help, we tested him. But life is very, very strange sometimes. :-)"

One highlight for me was the extensive use of chromatic runs, channeling some Romantic, almost Wagnerian vibes, and of course everyone loves BIG DRUMS when they make LARGE BOOM; those chickens have some serious artillery. I've been humming this arrangement to myself all day, expanding on some of the ideas, and I think that functionally it really clicks - excellent approach to take with the source melody, good blend of symphonic/cinematic elements to make things appropriately EPIC, and if you NEED a backstory, well... chickens. Check.

Excellent work as expected from XPRTNovice, and I'm downright jubilant to have Joe, Jordi, & Jack join us as new judges!

All three of them should collab on a ReMix of J.J. & Jeff, just so I can bust out the dictionary and J it up some more ;)