LeviR.star's Arrangements - [NES] Mega Man 2 ~ 2 New Sheets (w/ Crash Man Stage!)

[LeviR.star]

Here's a surprise for ya: I just made a Mother series sheet!


419th

[GBA] Mother 3 - "Porky's Porkies"

[ZIP]

What can I say? A YouTube channel I'm subscribed posted a FamiTracker cover of this song, I liked it, and a few minutes later, I started arranging. From what little music I've heard out of this game, I've decided that it's really good, and I'll definitely try to listen to all of it someday, possibly even arrange more from it. The game seems to be pretty popular (either that, or the fanbase is really loud), so I'm sure the community would be happy if I submitted this for the next round.

I shouldn't have to say this, but in case I do: I simplified some things for the sheet. The thirty-second notes in the beginning, for example, absolutely could not stay, but I like to think I came up with a pretty good substitute for them. Enjoy!

[LeviR.star]

Remember when I said a while back that my backlog was finished?

I was wrong...


420th

[NES] Mega Man 6 - "Plant Man Stage"

[ZIP]

The other day I thought I'd go through the sheets I never posted, which were either unfinished, or in a terrible shape. They weren't grouped together in a single folder like my old backlog; instead, they were scattered among the individual game folders, as I never had any real plans to take care of them. It took an hour or so, but I finally retrieved all of the sheets and sorted them into two folders: "Work-In-Progress", and "Never-To-Be-Finished". For the latter, I compiled together sheets that were either A.) Unfit for solo piano, B.) Unlikely to be completed by me, or C.) Already covered on-site by a much better version. Now, you're probably wondering, "what about the WIP sheets?" As it stands right now, I've got twenty-four of them: three from Super Mario, twelve from Mega Man, seven from Kirby, one from Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, and one from Mappy. It wasn't my goal for this year to force myself through another backlog, but I can't keep them sitting around in good conscious.

That brings us back to our 420th sheet, "Plant Man Stage" from Mega Man 6. The reason this was never posted in its original form was because I discovered that Dudeman had arranged a majority of the game's music already for his PA, and decided to leave the OST alone. If it wasn't for this reason, I'd probably have a lot more sheets for it by now, but I think it's about time I stepped up; that's what I did for the first Mega Man, right? You'll hear my thoughts about this game when I finish my take on "Centaur Man Stage", also an old WIP. Enjoy!

Remaining WIP Sheets: 24

[TheZeldaPianist275]

sheet 420 is a plant sheet

nice

[LeviR.star]

sheet 420 is a plant sheet

nice

You know it


421st

[NES] Mega Man 3 - "Spark Man Stage" (Replacement)

[ZIP]

Spark Man's stage theme, like every other robot master's from this game, is top-notch. Catchy, energetic, and with a distinct personality of its own, it's just another reason why Mega Man 3 has my favorite music from the original six games. I won't go into detail why I favor this OST over the other five, though; I don't feel like offending anybody. But I'll tell you this: if there's any Mega Man title that deserves completion on the site, it's this one! Oh, and here's the original draft (word of warning, you might want some eye bleach).

By the way, I removed two sheets from my backlog and transferred them to the "Never-To-Be-Finished" folder. Here's my reasoning:

Why did I need so much text

[GEN] Mega Man: The Wily Wars - "Boss (Mega Man)" - Besides being a terrible take on the series' first boss theme, it's absurdly difficult to play. Sure, I knew I was capable of transcribing it, but can I really expect performers to manage constant 16th triplets at ♩ = 114? This sheet was a bad idea from the start, and the reason why I'll only be arranging Wily Wars's original tracks from here on out. You have my word.

[GG] Mega Man (Game Gear) - "Dr. Wily Stage 1" - The fact that Mega Man II is frequently cited by fans as the worst OST in the franchise just goes to show how obscure this game is. All the composers did was re-arrange tracks from the NES games, and hardly made an effort to improve or reinvent them. This particular track is, strangely, an arrangement of "Quick Man Stage" from Mega Man 2, but it was so boring and pointless that I decided to throw in the towel. If you want to arrange for this game, by all means, go for it! I'm never touching it again.

[close]

I hope you didn't have your hearts set on these sheets, because you won't be seeing them in this PA anytime soon. But the real "Quick Man Stage" will be here, someday...

Enjoy "Spark Man Stage"! My next arrangement will be a re-write of my "Get a Weapon" sheet from Mega Man II.

Remaining WIP Sheets: 21


P.S: This post marks my 25th replacement! Woo!

[LeviR.star]

Going almost a week without posting anything here is killin' me, I tell ya...


114th (Re-Write)

[GB] Mega Man II - "Get a Weapon"

[ZIP]

The fact I arranged and released this atrocity of a sheet is embarrassing, but can you blame me? The new version may be cleaner and texturally uniform, but it makes no attempt to incorporate the countermelody, a part that can't mesh with the melody or bass line in any feasible way. I may have finished the re-write, but I've still failed this song; I'll only let it pass because no one wanted to see it arranged anyway. Sorry, guys...

422nd

[NES] Mega Man 2 - "Dr. Wily Stage 1" (Replacement)

[TOPIC]

A while back, I argued with a few members on the NSM Discord server over whether or not a suitable replacement could be made for this sheet, and this debate was finally resolved this week! After I sent Latios212 a transcription of the song, he worked his magic and managed to produce an arrangement that preserved that iconic 16th-rhythm drive (at least, where it's important). So rejoice, fellow Mega Man fans! After over a decade and a half, this song is finally getting the sheet it deserves.

423rd

[NES] Final Fantasy II - "Rebel Army Theme"

[ZIP]

I'm no stranger to arranging Nobuo Uematsu's music (see: The Final Fantasy Legend), but only within the last year did I start listening to his work on the Final Fantasy series, and I gotta say, I'm in love. What I expected to be generic RPG music completely blew my expectations out of the water, and I'm seriously considering starting a Final Fantasy section for my own PA, because there's far more music to be covered than I thought.


Tune in next week for... whatever I come up with! Enjoy

Remaining Re-Writes: 13

[LeviR.star]

Going almost a week without posting anything here is killin' me, I tell ya...

This didn't age well, did it?


424th

[3DS] Kirby: Planet Robobot - "Program Rhythm (Puzzle Room)"

[ZIP]

To celebrate the start of my Spring Break, I've got a polished-up WIP here for you all! This one's almost six years old, which reminds me...

Story Time with Levi

I don't think I anticipated a game's release more than that of Kirby: Planet Robobot. As a 15-year-old, it was the most exciting wait of my life, and I even secured a pre-order as a birthday present, thanks to my best friend. Having just become a mega Kirby fan, and 100%'d nearly every title in the franchise that I owned, I was fully prepared for this to be the greatest game I had ever played. Eventually, June 10th of 2016 rolled around, and you know what happened?

I smoked it. Absolutely crushed it. A little too well, actually.

That is to say, a majority of the game was hardly challenging at all. In fact, I'd go as far as to say it was too easy to be fun. For me, anyway.

Going into the game, I had every reason to be excited, because it had it all: incredible art direction, tons of fan service, promising level design, and more. But the problem was that it wasn't aimed at kids like me, who speedran The True Arena in their free time. It was designed to be a game accessible to a wide span of age groups, not as a follow-up for fans of Kirby: Triple Deluxe that wanted more of a challenge. As a teenager, I didn't understand this, and thus, was disappointed by the game, even in the face of all of that fan service.

So, if you're wondering why I haven't touched this game's soundtrack much for my PA, this is partially why. It also happens to be incredibly difficult to arrange, but it's time I stopped making excuses, and started making solutions.

[close]

Oh, and by the way, you'll notice my "Remaining WIP Sheets" count has dropped by two; this is because FantasticIke has recently arranged "Bowser Castle" from Mario Kart: Super Circuit, meaning I no longer need to finish my own version. Enjoy!

Remaining WIP Sheets: 19

[LeviR.star]

I wonder if I can keep up a daily streak until this Sunday, the last day of my Spring Break. Let's find out!


116th (Re-Write)

[SNES] Kirby's Super Star Stacker - "King Dedede"

[ZIP]

(Original Sheet)

This re-write was easy as pie, can't believe I didn't do it already. I only made one pitch adjustment (this one), but the bass line was nearly impossible to play in the original draft. Take a look for yourself, there's so many repeated sixteenths! Also, the measure distribution was pretty bad as well, but that applies to a good portion of my older sheets, so it's nothing worth noting.

Fun Fact: The sheet I posted right after this one, number 117, is also due for a re-write soon! If you'd like to see which ones I'm planning to give this treatment, you're in luck, because I'm making my list public. You can access it by clicking on the counter at the bottom. Enjoy!

Remaining Re-Writes: 12

[LeviR.star]

Man, I've always wanted to do this one...


425th

[GB] Kirby's Dream Land 2 - "Real Dark Matter"

[ZIP]

This song was included with "Coo the Owl" on the Kirby's Dream Collection soundtrack CD, so you can imagine it didn't take me very long to finish arranging once I started; I've known it for nearly half my life! This one may have been easy, but the song that plays during the phase before it will be no small task. I think I'll let a more capable arranger take that one on, y'know?

By the way, you should listen to the Dark Matter theme from Kirby: Planet Robobot, I'll link it right here because it's amazing! It incorporates both phases' themes, and if you ask me, it's the perfect re-arrangement, and a wonderful tribute to Kirby's Dream Land 2.

Enjoy, and I'll see you all tomorrow!

[LeviR.star]

Another King Dedede sheet, comin' right up!


0th - 40th?? (Re-Write)

[GB] Kirby's Pinball Land - "King Dedede"

[ZIP]

(Original Sheet)

This here's another bizarre King Dedede theme you probably didn't know existed, and understandably so. Like most of this game's music, it's never received any official re-arrangement, so unless you powered through all three of the game's tables and made it to final boss yourself, you likely haven't heard this before. It's kinda funny, though; the crescendo at the beginning makes you think you're gonna hear the classic version again, but from the second bar on, it's completely unrecognizable. Good on Mr. Ikegami for trying something new, I guess. I wouldn't call this my favorite of the unique Dedede themes, but it's still worth acknowledging, so enjoy!

Good news for all you Kirby's Pinball Land fans: we're nearing soundtrack completion! I went back and touched-up all of the older sheets for the game in my PA, and even got a brand-new edit of "Whispy Woods Land" up on the site, thanks to Bloop! So all there's left to do is arrange the leaderboard theme; I'll be ignoring Poppy Bros. and Kracko Land, since they're just recaps of themes from Kirby's Dream Land. Who asked for this, you ask? Nobody, but it's small milestones like these that give me hope that I'll go on to finish bigger, more notable soundtracks, like Kirby's Block Ball. Stay tuned for the big celebration!

Remaining Re-Writes: 11

[LeviR.star]

I got kinda distracted with the new Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC today, so you're all getting a short re-write!


61st (Re-Write)

[SNES] Mega Man 7 - "Get a Weapon"

[ZIP]

(Original Sheet)

Man, the initial draft misses in nearly every possible way. It's nearly impossible to play, has some god-awful beaming, and... separate dynamics for each hand?! What was I thinking? I suppose I can give it credit for being a mostly-accurate transcription, but what good is that if nobody can play it? To top it all off, it's a pretty mediocre "Get a Weapon" theme from one of the series's least popular entries. At least I can say it's in a suitable shape now...

Today's sheet may have been a bummer, but don't worry, because I'm bringing you all somethin' brand new tomorrow! It's more Mega Man, so stick around! (and enjoy)

Remaining Re-Writes: 10

[LeviR.star]

Today's sheet may have been a bummer, but don't worry, because I'm bringing you all somethin' brand new tomorrow! It's more Mega Man, so stick around! (and enjoy)

As promised, I shall deliver, so here it is!


426th

[GB] Mega Man V - "Sunstar"

[ZIP]

To any pianists out there reading this: I hope your fingers are warmed up, because this is one hell of a sheet to play. It's not like my re-write from yesterday, in which I replaced the repeated sixteenths with eighths; no, it's much more complicated than that, and much worse. You'd better be prepared to play septuplets at ♩ = 150 to clear that opening bar, so if you're not, I'm sorry, but this is not the sheet for you.

Technical nightmares such as this one are a great reminder that composers working with synthesized instruments are not bound by the limitations of human performers, and can write crazy stuff like this all the time with no consequences. This sheet very well may be a contender for my most difficult arrangement to date, even after I've done all I can to simplify it without detracting from the original music. Why do we do this? Just to prove that we can? I can't answer that myself right now, but perhaps you can guess for yourself. So enjoy! You might not get another sheet tomorrow, but keep your fingers crossed.

[LeviR.star]

You might not get another sheet tomorrow, but keep your fingers crossed.

Looks like that was a lost cause. The sheet I had in progress at that point is not ready, but in the last week, I've made something else!


427th

[NES] Final Fantasy II - "Dungeon (Unused)"

[ZIP]

Normally I wouldn't arrange an unused track before most of the OST's remainder, but this one was an earworm, and I swore that I had heard it before. After all, "The Princess's Seduction" is just Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake", right? I had to have listened to it for one of my music classes. So I scoured the Internet in search of an answer, and I got two, albeit unsatisfactory ones:

- it's inspired by Bach's "Invention 15 in B Minor" (the use of mordents is quite similar)
- it's inspired by Mozart's "Turkish March" (the cadence point at the end is the same, only with sixteenths filled in)

These inspirations are clear, for sure, but the music was even more familiar than that, like I had heard it verbatim. And you know what? It wasn't borrowed from classical music at all! I remembered the melody from Final Fantasy VI's "The Magic House" when I listened to the soundtrack last year. Uematsu, that clever son-of-a-gun, repurposed his old unused track for an entirely new piece, and the transformation works quite well. So before this SNES track ever gets arranged by anyone, I just knew I had to put together a sheet for the NES original. Who knows, maybe I'll be the one to arrange "The Magic House"...

I do know one thing, though! Soon, I'll be introducing a new section of my PA dedicated to the Final Fantasy series! Over the past year or so, I've fallen in love with its music, so much that I'll even be buying tickets to the next "Distant Worlds" concert for the 35th anniversary. Until that happens, expect to see more sheets from the first six games of the series. Enjoy!

[LeviR.star]

I didn't want to post these here yesterday, for fear of them being misconstrued as a prank...


428th

[ARCADE] Mappy - "Main Theme"

[TOPIC]

An unfinished arrangement of the "Bonus Round" theme from this game was left to die in my "Never-To-Be-Finished" folder years ago, but having done some re-organizing of my files within the last few months, I think it's high time I give it another shot. But before I do that, I knew I had to arrange the main theme—it's too well-known to be ignored! Hell, why I'm at it, why don't I arrange the Mappy OST in its entirety? I've made it this far, so I might as well finish it off. Expect three more sheets from this game!

156th (Re-Write)

[SNES] Mega Man & Bass - "Cold Man Stage"

[TOPIC]

Here I am, posting this 45 minutes to midnight where I live. Because I need to get up early, I'll make this short. This sheet was an absolute nightmare, and I am so disappointed with it that I'll be submitting it to get it the proper feedback it needs. Enjoy what I have for now, and good night!

Err... well, I was half right! It took five more years of arranging experience and a submission slot to whip this sheet up into a suitable shape. But I don't want to jinx anything yet, so let's just see what happens in the next month, and hope for the best.


Oof... these re-writes just keep getting trickier and trickier. I don't even wanna think about how I'm gonna redeem "Frozen Hyrule" or "Gravity Beetle Stage", but as painful as it is, it needs to be done. I've got a lot to do this weekend, and very little of it is VGM-related, so once again, cross your fingers, because you might just see me again here tomorrow. Enjoy!

Remaining Re-Writes: 9

[LeviR.star]

Hold everything, folks; I just added a new re-write to my list!


162nd (Re-Write)

[GB] Mega Man II - "Hard Man Stage"

[ZIP]

(Original Sheet)

Why'd I re-write this one if it wasn't on the list, you ask? Well, the answer's simple: I had no idea the old draft was so terrible. I mean honestly, it should not have hit my PA as late as it did. Then again, it was in the sheet #145 - 165 range, which I consider to be my worst stretch of arrangements since I first came to the site. I'd venture to guess over half of them were on the list at one point, and there's still more to go! Just be glad I got around to it, okay?

As you can see on the old draft, (click here for an even older, unpublished draft!) the distribution of parts was far from ideal. Not only that, it was in dire need of rhythmic streamlining, as well as some corrections to the transcription. Thankfully though, I've just downloaded foobar2000 to replace Audio Overload (no, I won't link it,) meaning I can isolate channels again! You know what else this means?

It means that I'll finally be getting around to arranging the entire Mega Man II soundtrack! That's right, I've been hard at work; just last night, I touched up (my new term for "revised") a bunch of this game's sheets in my PA... see them below!

I deprived myself of sleep for this

Stage Select
Stage Start
Metal Man Stage
Wood Man Stage
Boss
Stage Clear
Dr. Wily Stage 1 (with newer, simplified title)
Top Man Stage
Needle Man Stage
Magnet Man Stage

[close]

In addition, I've updated my only on-site sheet for this game as well, renaming it "Title Screen / Dr. Wily Stage 2" (because the track is reused in-game). Thanks to Bloop for helping me get those new files up! Now, only three sheets remain: "Air Man Stage", "Ending", and "Ending (Unused)". They're intimidating, for sure, but if I've made it this far, I've got no reason to give up yet. Expect to see the first of those three up very soon. Enjoy!

Remaining Re-Writes: 9

[LeviR.star]

Expect to see the first of those three up very soon.

Is it still "very soon" yet? Or have we already crossed over into "a little while"?


429th

[GB] Mega Man II - "Air Man Stage"

[ZIP]

The draft I started is from four years ago, and it has not held up in the slightest; fact is, it was never "up" to begin with. But can you blame me? This is not an simple song to arrange for two hands. Hell, it's hard enough to just listen to, unless you like making your ears bleed. It's covers like those of RushJet1 and Jasper Valentine that are much easier to enjoy, thanks to that downwards octave shift. This arrangement did not receive the same shift, because it's the piercing pulse waves, combined with the high register, that make the piece less than bearable. It did, however, receive more than one creative liberty, namely with forming the right hand part. Let's be honest here, these two upper lines do not mesh together well; just listen to the black MIDI I transcribed for this. So, for the first eight bars, I dropped out the melody line (for two beats at a time, every other measure) in favor of the accompaniment pattern, but for the rest of the piece, the melody took precedence, while the other line supported the harmony (well, except for in m. 9, 17, and 21). The result turned out pretty well, I must say, but I feel as though there will be some disagreements if I end up submitting this. Whatever the case may be, "Crash Man Stage" will get priority for my next Mega Man II sub, because I'm not about to let its older draft rot in the archives.

I don't even know where I'll begin with either of this game's two remaining tracks, so while I think about it, I'll be preparing my next Mappy sheet. Enjoy!