Arrangement Highlights of 2021

[Latios212]

Past topics
2020
2019
2018
2017

You know the drill (and if not, refer to the topics above)! As 2021 draws to a close, what are the 5 sheets you've made this year that you're most proud of?

(If you're not an arranger, you can list your favorite new sheets by other arrangers instead!)

[BlueKirby]

well h*ck i wasnt able to do the most arranging due to a lotta shit going down for me, so im gonna include fangame arrangements that cant be submitted because i need mental validation from myself.

No. 5

Link: https://youtu.be/2OqPjVViQ6s

Act the Fool ~ HAHAHA - Len'en 4: Brilliant Pagoda or Haze Castle

there were some parts of this song i couldnt determine, so this is overall one of my weakest arrangements tbh. maybe doesnt help that im not a huge fan of this song in the first place.

this song is number 69 in the official len'en music playlist.

[close]

No. 4

Link: https://youtu.be/xMrybsGoRPg

Walking a Road that Ends in Futility - Len'en 3: Reactivate Majestical Imperial

underrated song, nice little relaxing tune. len'en music good. maybe im just biased because rmi is my favorite len'en ost.

[close]

No. 3 (Fangame Arrangement)

Link: https://youtu.be/QfxIqpeTCJc

The Utopia World is Perfect ~ Utopian Society - Len'en Eiji 2: Glorious Memory Lane

god DAMN does this theme slap. lenk did a fucking fantastic job on this theme holy HELL.

even before i really joined the western len'en fanbase i was still hyped as hell for this game. its STILL in development, but i now am friends with quite a bit of the team, and they're working hard on it.

all and all, despite me arranging this knowing it could never go up on the site, im still proud of it because i captured a lot of the energy and spirit of the original without making it too unplayable.

[close]

No. 2

Link: https://youtu.be/xFovQWYiJEw

Dichromatic Lotus Butterfly ~ Ancients - Seihou 1: Shuusou Gyoku

ill admit, it has taken me an EMBARRASSINGLY long time to figure out all the differences between the original DLB and the album version. still, i am in the (probably) majority who likes the album version more than the original. i still think this theme is a bit overlooked when compared to that one, tho, and this one is still fun to listen to, with its constant rushing accompanying arpeggios (which there was no way in HELL i was transcribing). also, seihou is criminally underrated. its a sister series to touhou not developed by ZUN (touhou creator), but friends of his, but the music of the first two was composed by him and there are three touhou characters who make cameos.

oops i nerded out on seihou here

[close]

No. 1

Link: https://youtu.be/2PI9ZLlCfuM

Tendency that Sways Even Anchors ~ Lost Anchorage - Len'en 1: Evanescent Existence

this is one of my favorite len'en songs, yet the one i talk about the most since, unlike the other two, this one is one of the less popular themes. i have my reasons to love this theme so much, and they basically boil down to "i kept getting stuck on this stage", so this song brings me lots of nostalgia. im glad this song is able to translate well onto piano, and i love the swaying feel of the entire song.

[close]

oops all len'en!

[LeviR.star]

I didn't really do a lot of arranging this year, and a majority of my sheet output was taken up by Mega Man sheets, so there's nothing to gawk at here.

Number Five

5. [NES] Dragon Quest III: The Seeds of Salvation - "Rondo"

[SHEET]

[close]

Number Four

4. [GG] Sonic Chaos - "Turquoise Hill Zone"

[SHEET]

[close]

Number Three

3. [NES] Mega Man 4 - "Dust Man Stage"

[SHEET]

[close]

Number Two

2. [SNES] Kirby's Dream Course - "King Dedede"

[SHEET]

[close]

Number One

1. [WiiU] Super Mario 3D World - "Fuzzy Flood Mine"

[SHEET]

[close]

See? These sheets are all small potatoes compared to what I managed to do last year, and the year before that, too. I suspect the main reason for this is that I exerted more musical energy towards my other projects, like getting the entire original Mega Man soundtrack onto the site, or working on my original 2A03 album, Jeff the Delivery Guy. But I'm not planning on stopping yet! Besides, I'm only 3 sheets away from reaching that 400 mark...

EDIT: I've reached 407 sheets by New Year's, and I've decided that my new #1 shall be "Fantasy Meadows" from Kirby Air Ride.

[Olimar12345]

This was tough this year, but here are what I think are my yearly favorites:

Honorable Mention

(no video on YouTube)
[MUL] - Giraffe and Annika
The Rhondo of Light

Comments:
A very cute piece from a very cute game. Neither are super impressive or ground-breaking, but both are fun.

[close]

No. 5

[SW] - Pokémon Sword & Pokémon Shield
Battle! (Marnie)

Comments:
This is my favorite rendition of Marnie's Theme from the Gen 8 games. I thought the arrangement turned out pretty good. ^^

[close]

No. 4

[NDS] – Pokémon Diamond Version & Pokémon Pearl Version
Jubilife City (Day/Night)

Comments:
A long-time favorite, this tune is so captivating! I particularly love how Hitomi Sato made the A and B sections in keys that were a half-step away from each other. I tried not to make it overly complex so that it would be easier for more younger pianists.

[close]

No. 3

[PS2] – Katamari Damacy
Lonely Rolling Star

Comments:
This was my attempt at making this VGM classic more approachable for piano performance. I think it turned out pretty fun. ^^

[close]

No. 2

[MUL] – Spiritfarer
Stella's Departure

Comments:
This was one of the most moving tracks in the game, and was very close to being number 1. This game was an experience that I wish I could forget so that I could try it for the first time again. What a beautiful game...

[close]

No. 1

[NDS] – Pokémon Black Version & Pokémon White Version
Anville Town

Comments:
I consider this to be one of my finest piano arrangements to date. It's a charming little jazz tune, AAB form, and it all fits on a single page. The accompaniment sits so well, capturing enough of the original while still being accessible, that it makes sight-reading particularly fun.

[close]

[Kricketune54]

I think this was the year I learned what it meant to arrange for piano lol.  Or so I think

Had to look at the stuff that was arranged this year

No. 5

Outing (Waiting) - Animal Crossing: New Horizons

I've always been a fan of Latin jazz, bossa nova... that whole Latin rhythm genre in all I guess.  It was satisfying when I first heard this one when travelling to an island in New Horizons, and was an easy pick this past summer when I was looking for something relatively simple to arrange.  Now to learn to play it myself...

[close]

No. 4

S.S. Libra - Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness

This is still probably my most expressive and interpretive arrangement to date.  It was a challenge figuring out the tempos (thank you Latios), as well as what to do for a few of the rhythms in the latter half.  I think I will be printing this one off though and trying to play it for a future Performance Ping though...

[close]

No. 3

Kirby Star Allies - Puppet Offering

I'm not sure in the future if I will be as patient as I was this year, but I had planned this one for Halloween like a year before as a future submission.  When it came to submitting, it ended up being a fairly teachable moment for myself as far as accidentals and tonality go; it was good to learn a few new things when it came to translating this to piano. While I had a couple rather wacky submissions in the latter part of the year, but this one took the cake; I'd like to learn it eventually for Halloween 2022... (common theme of this list is to want to play the sheets I'm doing lol)

[close]

No. 2

Miror B.'s Retro Groove - Pokémon Colosseum

This one was soooooo satisfying to do.  I can remember first seeing the now defunct version on NinSheet back like 5-6 years ago, playing the midi, and thinking "how is someone supposed to play this with the left and right sharing so many of the same notes"?  Even in my pretty simple abilities back then, I could tell there was room for improvement.  Fast forward to this year, it was an easy replacement for me to want to do.  Getting to put out one of the most notorious Pokémon songs in improved piano form was certainly a highlight this year

[close]

No. 1

Title Screen - Pokémon Colosseum

Ah yes, number 1.  This one just gives me good feels all around listening to, and really brings back a lot of nostalgia for me.  It took on a new meaning for me this year, when a friend of mine decided to stream Pokémon Colosseum on Twitch.  He wanted some Colosseum piano music, so I decided this would make a for a good pre stream song.   

One of the the things that made this title theme arrangement so satisfying was I felt like I really achieved something by coming up with the LH pattern that starts at m7.  It had been few weeks or months before that the accompaniment presentation had taken place, and while I wasn't there for it, I was determined to use the knowledge from it to make better left hand patterns (my first few sheets are a mixed bag on this and it's kinda clear I didn't really know the limitations of the hand or what feels natural on a piano) that were a mixture of faithful notes and interpretive when needed.  It maybe doesn't seem all that impressive in the sum of things, but it was a great feeling of finally being able to make sense of something that had seemed opaque before.

I think mastersuperfan probably deserves a special thanks shoutout on this for the amount of time he spent one night on Discord with me fixing it up and trying out some additional ideas.  The arrangement wasn't terrible, but he saw some improvements I just didn't have the eye for at the time (such as parts of the original that had rests or the LH drop off where notes could be added in, as well as making the song have a repeat section), and the sheet really benefited from it.

This is another one I really would love to play.  The arrangements I mentioned before are a little more in my skill range, but I admittedly am not good at the jumps at m7, ironically enough. 
I did get Fiktah to play this one time, and he seemed to really like it, so here's to maybe having this up at some point in 2022

[close]

Outside of arranging, I'd like to give some performance/playing shoutouts.  Admittedly, for whatever reason I did not really play much of what came out in 2021 from the rest of Ninsheet, but I enjoyed seeing what everyone else arranged.

I had a lot of fun playing Static's Halloween from the original Animal Crossing, as well as both versions of the Sinnoh Pokémon league.  Kudos once again to Static and Whoppybones for the huge Balance is Restored, as well as Levi for finishing off Mega Man.  And if you ever make it to one of the performance events, shout out to Cacabish to running the show as of late, and for his fantastic playing.  And of course, Latios bringing it with quite a variety as well (that anime song from November was really something)

Here's to a solid 2022!

[Atcero]

I guess I did arrange a lot this year, so why not insert kekdog here

#5

Breager's Castle - Gargoyle's Quest II: The Demon Dankness
Short, simple, but also really fun to arrange. Prob easily one of my favorite tracks from the whole game.

[close]

 Number 4

Theme of Bloodstained (Piano) - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night
It's 4 only because of that tuning which drove me insane trying to arrange for it till I changed my keyboards tuning through Musescore. Otherwise 10/10 song and pretty fun to arrange.

[close]

 No. 3

General Shop - The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall
One of the more difficult songs I chose to arrange this year and loved it. Wanted to do this song for years and came out really well imo.

[close]

 2nd

Mad Forest - Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse
Another song I've wanted to do for years and finally had the skillz to do. Really was proud of this boi

[close]

 Numero Uno

Pitch Black Intrusion - Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Best song of DoS alongside Dracula's Tears. Stay Tuned insert carlton here

[close]

Learned a lot this year and can't wait to learn more next year so I can flood the site with more CV sheets

[Bloop]

This year marks my return to NSM after 4 years, and then rising to Updater-stardom in just a few months This means this'll be my first highlights of [year] too, so let's see..

Honorable Mentions

Gloam Valley - Super Paper Mario

A track from one of my favorite game OST's, Super Paper Mario. This OST is infamous for me because of all the different layers, which you almost don't notice when you're just listening to the song. Listening to the arrangement is just as much fun as listening to the original

Last Day (Final Hours) - The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

One of the most emotional parts in any Zelda game, the last few hours before apocalypse strikes in Termina. While the sheet is kinda straightforward (with some few arranging exceptions), this is one of my favorite tracks of all time, and therefore definitely deserves a mention of the honorable kind.

[close]

5.

Acid Tunnel of Love - Deltarune (Ch.2)

While not necessarily one of my most outstanding works, this game has definitely left a mark on me, with both Ralsei and Queen jumping up to my top 5 video game characters of all time. I enjoyed playing chapter 1 a few years back, but it definitely wasn't as memorable for me as Undertale was. After playing chapter 2 (and replaying chapter 1), however, I feel this game will make Undertale seem like peanuts once all chapters are released. I'll excitedly wait some time when the next chapters will be released. This was the first Deltarune sheet I wrote after finishing chapter 2, and it's probably no coincidence it's the track just before the cutest Ralsei + Kris scene to date.

[close]

4.

Victory Parade - Paper Mario

One of my two longest sheets to date (tied with Monk Maz Koshia) from one of the most fun credits scenes I know, the victory parade from Paper Mario. OST-wise, this actually contains two tracks: Victory Parade and The Celebration Continues. I arranged the Victory Parade part of this sheet a few years back already, but I completely revised that one and added the second part as well. It was a lot of fun recognizing all themes from one of my favourite Mario games, which I'm replaying now that it's out on the (controversial) N64 emulator on the Switch.

[close]

3.

Twilight - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Though not being my favorite Zelda game of all time (which would be Majora's Mask), this game probably has my favorite Zelda OST of all time. This song is one of the most recognizable for me, and I was in a phase where I tried out arranging some challenging things, so this fit right in. It was fun figuring out what to do with the microtonal gamelan part, how to incorporate the rumbling strings, and how to take on the synth clusters, but I feel like I managed pretty well! Of course some credit goes to the updaters as well, as there have been some changes since I submitted this.

[close]

2.

Divine Beast Vah Medoh - The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

This is the Divine Beast theme after which I decided "hey let's just to all other ones as well". Although the music that plays after activating a terminal within the Divine Beast is pretty cool, I absolutely love the atonal themes that play while entering the Divine Beast for the first time. The harmonic language in all of them differs a lot, with the theme for Vah Medoh being quartal polychords. It probably took just as much time, if not more, to arrange this atonal parts, than to arrange the more straightforward active-terminal parts later on.
 

[close]

1.

Zant Battle - The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

I just had to put another Twilight Princess sheet in, because this is the one that really kickstarted my project of arranging all TP boss themes. This was the second one I did after Blizzeta Battle (Second Half), but it's definitely the most ambitious one: microtonal samples from earlier boss themes, crazy basslines, and just chaos all over, which fits the Twili Zant amazingly once he has told his backstory. This one has got its fair share of changes as well during the submission process, but it's still one of my favourite sheets this year.

[close]

This was an eventful year, where I feel I've already learned a lot in just this last half year alone. Here's to another year, with a lot more sheets!

[cashwarrior1]

First year of highlights

#5

This track I had wanted to try arranging more recently. I thought that it would be a fun challenge to make it work for piano and I'm glad I was able to get everything written out. Obviously it wasn't written for piano so it probably isn't the easiest to play due to fingerings, but that's part of learning how to arrange.

[close]

#4

This one was the last thing I tried arranging before I gave up altogether back in like 2017. Feels good to finally have an arrangement of it done!

[close]

#3

This is one of the earlier ones I arranged this year and I'm still really proud of it. I don't think it's a perfect arrangement, but it's one that I put a lot of effort and thought into how the sheet is presented.

[close]

#2

Ever since I first played this game, this was the tune that I wanted to play on piano the most. Back in 2016 I wanted to try learning how to arrange, but I just wasn't skilled enough (and I didn't have the drive) to try and arrange this. In fact, for the longest time I considered this to be my ultimate goal in arranging and it's wild that I've not only reached this point but have surpassed it in some ways, too.

[close]

#1

Definitely the hardest thing I've arranged and I'm proud of it just for that. It was quite the challenge in every aspect. Especially with the perception of rhythm through notation and how that affects the performance, it really changed how I think about notation and arranging as a whole.

[close]

[Zeila]

My own Top 5, and like every year I've done this it includes a mix of piano VGM and other miscellaneous stuff

Five

5. Fire Emblem: Three Houses - Shambhala (Area 17 Redux)(Rain)
[SHEET]

This is mainly here because it took more experimentation than the usual sheets I do, and I thought it was unique enough as an attempt at translating dubstep to piano. Maybe it still doesn't quite hit the mark, but I thought it would be funny and cool to have a sheet of it

[close]

Four

4. Kirby Star Allies - Wish-Granting Palace
[SHEET]

I definitely underestimated this track but I'm happy with the end result thanks to MSF and Radiak once again \o/ . In some ways this was harder than other sheets ranked higher in my list as dealing with overtones and other tiny details was A Lot

[close]

Three

3. Shovel Knight - Le Bouquet Magique
[SHEET]

Wait, why am I putting this here when it's technically an old sheet and I already put it in the 2017 Arrangement Highlights thread? One, I haven't really done much this year apart from a few bigger projects, and two this underwent a lot of revising and I won't be revisiting it again aside from final updates to the transcribed duet version. the third reason is that I just really adore this piece

[close]

Two

2. Super Mario Odyssey - Jump Up, Super Star! (NDC Festival)
[SHEET]

What's another year without at least one completed transcription? I really liked the NDC Festival version of Jump Up, Super Star! over the original and I thought it would be awesome if anyone ever played it live, so I got to work (ever so slowly). There's a lot going on (especially with the rhythm section) and it was very challenging at times, but I'm glad I continued on and finished it

[close]

One

(playlist version for the original tracks)

1. RWBY Piano Collections
[SHEET]

This may be considered cheating because it's 18 sheets, but the majority were only done for the purpose of packaging them together so I'm going to count it. I tried to diversify the arrangement styles to be more than just "power chords go brrr," but personally I could only come up with so many ways to adapt rock songs to piano. Even so, I'm proud of myself for actually finishing this instead of letting it rot half-way complete (and with a full-page drawing to boot!). I don't think I will actually print this out for myself, but I designed it with the possibility in mind
Get ready for the Volume 7-12 collection book--coming to you never!!

[close]

To spice things up this year and add some holiday cheer, I'm also including a list of some highlights from other arrangers :3 . Tbh it's mostly a list of songs that I liked the most out of the ones that landed on site, but they are all very clean and nice to listen to (or otherwise attempt to play). Some of these are already featured in this very thread

?? ?? ??

"Balance Is Restored" from Final Fantasy VI
Arranged by Static and Whoppybones
Sheet | Original

26 pages is a heck of a lot to go through, especially when some sections are pretty involved. The presentation/formatting side is also excellent

[close]

?? ?? ??

"Blue Bird Lamentation" from Zero Escape: Virtue's Last Reward
Arranged by mastersuperfan
Sheet | Original

I think this builds up nicely to the grandiose/emotional part at the end all without being too complicated to play. All around it's a super clean sheet!

[close]

?? ?? ??

"The Heritors of Arcadia" from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia
Arranged by Libera
Sheet | Original

I'd say this is my favorite credits song from the franchise (out of the ones I've heard), and I felt that this was both an accurate and engaging arrangement of it that's ultimately satisfying to play. Well done!

[close]

?? ?? ??

"Kindness-Steeping Street" from Kirby Star Allies
Arranged by Radiak488417
Sheet | Original

Nothing much to say other than that this is an awesome transcription of a nice track :>

[close]

?? ?? ??

"Miror B's Retro Groove" from Pokémon Colosseum
Arranged by Kricketune54
Sheet | Original

I wasn't familiar with the original arrangement of this song but regardless I'm glad that it was replaced with something more up to our modern standards. There's a nice balance between the bass and piano parts, and it's definitely lively as the tone suggests

[close]

?? ?? ??

"Title Theme" from The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes
Arranged by Cashwarrior1
Sheet | Original

I started my own arrangement of this a few years ago and didn't get very far, so thank you Cash for actually finishing and submitting this! I think the different layers mesh well together and it's just a very fun piece in general (at least to listen to, I haven't attempted to play this)

[close]

?? ?? ??

"Zant Battle" from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Arranged by Bloop
Sheet | Original

Bloop did a great job with the arrangement and I was really impressed with how they approached everything as a whole. It progressively gets more chaotic and having to deal with microtonal music is no joke (especially when there are some sections where it changes mid-phase)

[close]

And another shout out to Levi for replacing all of the Mega Man sheets by the end of this year! sans Boss unless there will be an update in the next few days [had a brain fart oops] It's come a long way since 2018! Here's to another year with some great sheets

[cacabish]

After two crazy semesters of school (but there's only one semester left!) and a summer filled with trying to understand how MuseScore -> MusicXML -> Finale works (see here for the fruits of my studies), I didn't have a lot of time to submit sheets. However, I did manage to crank out a few and complete the 12 Days of Sheetsmas too! So, let's see what my top 5 favorites were...

#5

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling - "Blessed Golden Lands"
This was my submission for the Colors project and it has the honor of being the first Bug Fables sheet on the site! It was certainly a bit more complex than I normally would've like, which resulted in quite a bit of figuring stuff out, but it was chosen out of necessity as I was having a hard time trying to find another suitable candidate for the project (that was possible to complete in a short time frame by an amateur). Nevertheless, I don't regret choosing as I really enjoyed arranging it; I learned a lot working on it. And, as it is one my more favorite songs from the OST, I'm happy it's now got a sheet on the site and Bug Fables is represented!

[close]

#4

Mario Party - "Magma Mountain" (Replacement)
Story time! This one and I go back to when I first discovered the site. When I first discovered the site, I was impressed with almost every sheet I found! I printed off many of them and set about learning them! However, there were two I distinctly that I was disappointed in as I felt they were not good arrangements. Hence, I didn't print them out or learn them, despite enjoying the songs so much. The first of these was "The Blue Skies Yonder" from Mario Party 2, which I replaced about 1.5-2 years ago (you can find it here, if you're curious). The second of these was this one: "Magma Mountain" from Mario Party 1 (then erroneously titled on the site as "Bowser's Magma Mountain"). However, despite wanting a replacement for both, I replaced "The Blue Skies Yonder" swiftly, but never bothered to even attempt a replacement of "Magma Mountain".

I guess I forgot, that's all.

That is, until an updater was complaining in the Discord of a lack of replacement sheets in the updates and that "an update was not a good one if it didn't have a replacement in it", or something like that. And so I thought to myself, "why don't I do a replacement to appease them?" Then, as I thought about what to replace (especially among the Mario Party sheets), I was reminded of the history I had with this sheet. That settled it for me. I then set about rearranging it, and then replaced the sheet (it was pretty straightforward too!). Personally, I'm glad I did -- it is now a much better sheet. Younger me would've been proud to print it out and learn it! (That isn't to say present me isn't proud, because I most certainly am.)

[close]

#3

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling - "The Sailors' Pier"
This one almost feels unfair since it is not even 3 days old, but I don't care! This sheet was so much fun to arrange and everything just... worked! I remember working on for the 12th day of Sheetsmas and everything just fell into place perfectly. No weird things, no crazy "how on earth do you make this part for piano" nonsense, just straightforward music and it felt amazing. I am so proud of the finished product, it stands at #3 here. I look forward to submitting this sheet in the near future! Provided school doesn't kill me first!

[close]

#2

Mario Party 2 - "Horror Land"
This was my primary Halloween project submission (the other being a Mario Party 4's "The Boo House", which was a backup sheet I did for 2020's Halloween project) and I had so much fun with it. Of course, as a Mario Party song, this is right up my alley, but this was a really straightforward songs that lends itself well to a piano arrangement. And, by sheer coincidence, Mario Party Superstars included in this board in the collection (though I had already started working on the sheet before it was announced). Given the coincidental timing and the niceness of it, I am very proud of this sheet. This is one of those sheets that I look at the finished product and I see simplicity, in its finest. In the words of Chopin, "Simplicity is the final achievement", and I feel I have come close to achieving that here. Was that too corny?

[close]

#1

Mario & Luigi: Paper Jam - "Mixed-Up Scramble"
I am extremely happy with this sheet. This is probably one of the longest (page-wise) songs I've worked on to date, but not nearly as complex as some songs I've worked on. As someone who enjoyed Paper Jam (gameplay good, plot bad), I've always enjoyed the main battle theme for this game and I've always wanted an arrangement of it like the other battle themes from the other Mario & Luigi games, which others have done (and done amazing work with).

However, here I rose to the occasion.

Despite not knowing what I was getting into, I spent the summer working on this arrangement, and it came pretty easily, which was nice. When school returned and, despite my dumpster-fire class this past semester, I still found time to chip and chisel away at it, all the while, I was growing happier and happier with the result. Eventually, it reached a state where I felt it was submission-ready. I planned on posting it near Thanksgiving and submitting it sometime in early December, but, my crazy class wouldn't allow that, and "conspired" with my senior project class to flood me with schoolwork during that time, so decided to postpone it until after school ended. However, whilst doing my busywork and studying for my finals, I still often opened it up, tweaked it here and there, and indulged in the playback of the sheet. Even now, I still love listening to it. Then, come the 12 Days of Sheetsmas, amid the uncertainty of wanting to participate, I decided to just "go for it" and gave it the honor of getting the Day 1 slot, finally posting it, which I had planned to do over the Christmas break anyway.

All's that to say it's certainly the sheet I'm the most proud of this year and, whilst not submitted yet (very soon, I assure you), it's an easy, no-contest pick for my #1 slot.

[close]

I realize how little I actually did this year in terms of arranging. Nevertheless, I certainly feel like I have improved since I first started, which is really what counts. And, with having formalized a method of going from MuseScore to Finale, I feel proud of what I've accomplished. However, 2022 is the year I graduate, enter the workforce (with a job already in hand too!), and begin a new chapter of my life. Whilst I don't know what life has in store for me post-graduation, I am anxious to be able to dedicate solid time, really get serious with arranging, and take my music skills to the next level! (Even if that level-up is just going from "amateur" to "slightly-less amateur". )

[LeviR.star]

And another shout out to Levi for replacing all of the Mega Man sheets by the end of this year! It's come a long way since 2018!

Aww, Zeila, you remembered that old PA post of mine! Even I forgot about it... Thanks for the extra shout-out!

[legoenthusiast]

My arranging skills have slowly been improving, and I've managed to turn out a few decent ones this year. With help of Kricketune54, I'm finally getting some on site as well.

Honorable Mentions

Thunder Cloud Temple - Kid Icarus Uprising

I love this song, but this sheet still has a lot of errors which I'm gonna try and fix.

Faint Courage (Game Over) - DELTARUNE Ch. 2

A beautiful game over theme but I've done a lot of Deltarune Ch.2 and I don't want to stick another in the top 5

[close]

#5

Ferris Wheel - Deltarune Ch. 2

This was the point where I finally felt my arranging skills had reached a relatively high quality.

This song is one of my favorites from the OST, the rhythm is really catchy and I like how Toby Fox layered everything later on in the song (I had to leave some of those parts out though). And as usual, Fox makes amazing use of leitmotifs.

Since I am doing most of Deltarune's OST, I could just make my whole top 5 Deltarune, but I decided to only include this one since I actually don't like Ch. 2's OST as much as Ch.1's.

[close]

#4

Wind Blowing on Planet Earthfall - Kirby Star Allies

One of my personal favorites from KSA's soundtrack. There are still a lot of errors but it turned out all right and I was pretty happy with it at the time. I'm definitely going to redo it in 2022 and to get it submitted to Ninsheetmusic.

[close]

#3

Phantom of the Bwahpera, Act 1 - Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
Phantom of the Bwahpera, Act 3 - Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle

I'm grouping these together as one since they really go together.

Ubisoft actually did a surprisingly great job with Mario + Rabbids and Grant Kirkhope makes it even better with the OST. The lyrics are just hilarious, if you haven't listened to the original, do it now.

[close]

#2

Desert City Dazil - Xenogears

I've loved the Xenoblade Chronicles for a long time, but this year I've learned about Xenogears. Yasunori Mitsuda does an amazing job on the soundtrack as usual. Unfortunately, haven't played the game since I don't even own a PlayStation, but it's high up on my list of "games-to-play", so maybe someday...

This song in particular really caught my attention, it's one of the best desert themes I've heard.

[close]

#1

Save the Kingdom! Ordeal Quest - Team Kirby Clash Deluxe

Kirby always has such awesome music. Modern Kirby is the hardest to arrange for some reason. This is my best attempt yet at a Kirby song, and I'm really proud with how it turned out.

The song itself is amazing, it sounds like a blend of Koichi Sugiyama and the normal Kirby style. It brings to mind specifically Unflinchable Courage, but the development of the motifs also reminds me of Sugiyama's overall composition style. I'm surprised no one beat me to arranging this.

[close]

[NineLives]

This year's been a bunch of fun for arranging. I've been hitting the original GameBoy for quite a few sheets, especially Mario Tennis. Though, I found my sheets from games on other consoles to be some of the my favorites. Here, in no particular order, are five I enjoyed making this year:

A Totally Phat Jam from Planet Funkotron

"ToeJam Jammin'" was an excellent track to arrange for that funky piano sound, man. Raddest one I did this year, fo sho!

[close]

A "Creative Exercise" Spiritual Successor

The "Graphics Editor" theme from WarioWare: D.I.Y. holds a very special place in my heart, as the game was the first to get me truly interested in game design. While I haven't been really vocal about them, since this game, I've been dabbling more into the process of videogame programming through some little projects here and there, and, in addition, I almost instinctively play this song in the background as I work on them.

[close]

A Dynamic Diagnosis

I feel like if you owned the game or not, you could definitely get into the groove of "Chill" from Dr. Mario. While it's not considered a main theme of the games like "Fever" is, I feel like quite a few of us can agree this is a magnum opus of puzzle game music.

[close]

A Spooktacular Bop

It's somewhat sad that the Wario Land series hasn't had an entry in 13 years, but when you have the bar set as high as it is in this game, it's hard to think up a stellar sequel after the greatness of this title. Rumor has it that "Crescent Moon Village" was so catchy, that it was also used in the background of the first game in the WarioWare series.

[close]

A Race Age Finale

The "Ending" theme to Super Mario Kart is one that I don't think gets as much recognition as the proceeding titles' staff credits songs. Perhaps that's due to how rough it controlled compared to its successors. Either way, I found it as quite an appropriate way to end the first game in what was to become a beloved franchise. I don't know when the next update will be, so it may be up by the beginning of 2022. It was accepted this year though, so it counts, right?

[close]

[Latios212]

My list! I had some ups and downs this year but overall am happy with what I was able to put out

#5 (Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE)

"SESSION!!!"
Sheet (not submitted yet)
Original

This soundtrack's style makes it really difficult to arrange for piano. That said, I was really surprised how most of this one turned out fairly reasonable.

[close]

#4 (Xenoblade Chronicles)

"Valak Mountain"
Sheet
Original

The original is really hypnotic and I'm pretty happy that just focusing on a nonstop left hand part and the melody was able to convey that feeling.

[close]

#3 (Bravely Default)

"Serpent Devouring the Horizon"
Sheet (in submissions)
Original

I had seen Maelstrom's arrangement of this before I even joined NSM in 2015, and while it was very impressive, for a while now I'd wanted to help rewrite it. I think it turned out quite well, with it overall being very reasonable to play despite its high tempo.

[close]

#2 (Symphonic Rain)

"Fay (Instrumental)" (Four Hands)
Sheet
Original

I knew I needed to do the happiest song from Symphonic Rain justice, and played around with this a bunch before arriving at the arrangement I have. I practiced it a lot and finally ended up with a recording I'm happy with too

[close]

#1 (Xenoblade Chronicles 2)

"Friendship"
Sheet
Original

This is one of my favorite video game tracks (of which there are admittedly many). I had wanted to arrange this one for a little while but the way the parts are laid out in the orchestration made me hesitant to try. Happily, everything worked out really nicely and the melody meshes well with the accompaniment in the various sections of this sheet, and it's pretty fun to play. It's also one of my favorite sheets visually, as everything fits perfectly on three pages without any stretching or squishing, and there's a nice variety of different textures!

[close]

Honorable Mentions

"Autumn Mountain Battle" from Paper Mario: The Origami King
Sheet
Original

This one turned out to be fairly straightforward and clean. Thanks to MSF

"Water Land" from Kirby's Epic Yarn
Sheet
Original

I like how the left hand part turned out - I wasn't sure that would work nicely with the right hand preoccupied with the melody so high up.

[close]

Dishonorable Mention

"The Yoshi Clan" from Yoshi's New Island
Sheet
Original

Hopefully this is self-explanatory

[close]