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

[LeviR.star]

Bear with me here, we're nearing the end of all these obscure track selections!


On the fifth day of Sheet-Mas, my true love gave to me...


5th/506th

[TG16] Neutopia - "Boss 2"

[ZIP]

I don't quite remember how I stumbled upon this game. Maybe it was a longplay that popped up in my YouTube feed, or perhaps I absent-mindedly Googled "which Hudson Soft-developed Zelda 1 clone was released for the TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine in 1989-1990?" Whatever the reason, I soon came to find that this game has a killer soundtrack, so of course I listened to the whole thing, and absolutely loved it. In fact, while I was listening to music over the course of a 4-hour car trip back home one day, this OST ended up being the highlight. It's just that it's so catchy, and had so much variety that it kept surprising me; I very well may end up listening to it again someday. And you should too! Give it a shot, it's only about half an hour long. Enjoy!

[TheZeldaPianist275]

Levi I always like your arrangement thread because not only do I learn about games I've never heard of I learn about CONSOLES I've never heard of

[LeviR.star]

Levi I always like your arrangement thread because not only do I learn about games I've never heard of I learn about CONSOLES I've never heard of

Hey, thank you very much, ZeldaPianist! That's what I'm all about here: exploring the unfamiliar, and embracing the obscure!

But today, we're approaching the second half of Sheet-Mas with some more familiar franchises...


On the sixth day of Sheet-Mas, my true love gave to me...


6th/507th

[NES] Dragon Quest - "Miscellaneous Short Themes"

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Yes, I did make another YouTube upload for your convenience. Do you like it?

Today, the game receiving the short themes treatment is none other than Dragon Quest, Enix's groundbreaking JRPG for the NES/Famicom! (well, one of four, anyway). This game's music is fascinating to me, because at a time when VGM itself was still in its infancy, these melodies became so iconic that they're still a part of this long-running series over 35 years later, and recognized by people worldwide. And sure, you could talk about the opening march or the delightful town theme all day, but even the short themes are something special. The "Silver Harp" half-diminished seventh arpeggios are beautiful, the half-step alternating major 7ths in the "Cursed" jingle are startling, and the game over theme perfectly captures the hopelessness of falling in battle with just a single, mournful line of notes. I could go on, but these short themes perfectly fulfilled their unique purposes despite the NES's sound limitations, and several of them went on to appear in all subsequent Dragon Quest entries. And once this sheet gets on the site, we'll be one step closer to finishing the game, so enjoy!

[LeviR.star]

On the seventh day of Sheet-Mas, my true love gave to me...


7th/508th

[SNES] Final Fantasy IV - "Rydia"

[ZIP]

That's right, we're back at it with Final Fantasy, almost exactly one year after my last sheet from this series. In fact, that one was also from IV, so if I had just planned things a bit better, it would've been a perfect Ah well, no one cares. Despite having arranged multiple sheets for this series, my exposure to it has been quite minimal. Back in high school, I started VI (no, I'm not calling it "III") on my Super NES Classic Edition and played for an hour or two, then I let that thing collect dust for several years. In a miraculous feat of tech, I managed to move the save data from the Mini, to my laptop, and finally into an emulator on my homebrewed Wii; I then did the same with Earthbound, and sold the console. But before I continue VI, I don't suppose it would be a bad idea to try the first game's Pixel Remaster remake, even if it means I'll probably have to use a guide. And it's totally not because the Active Time Battle system threatens my fragile, turn-based sensibilities, no sir... but mark my words! Someday, I will stop talking about getting into Final Fantasy and actually see for myself what the hype is all about. Enjoy!

[LeviR.star]

On the eighth day of Sheet-Mas, my true love gave to me...


8th/509th

[GEN] Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - "Casino Night Zone (2-Player)"

[ZIP]

Look, I wanted to talk about this track a little more in-depth, but I haven't got much time tonight, so I'll cut to the chase: I'm not a Sonic fan, nor will I ever be. Having tried the "best of the best" including: the first game, its sequel, Sonic CD, Sonic & Knuckles, and Sonic Mania, and even having beaten a couple of them, I've determined that the games are not for me, and that I'll be content with never playing another. But every once in a while, I'll find another track from this series that seems like it would be fun to arrange, and you'll see it pop up here. Don't count on it happening very often, but rest assured that there will be more. So yay for Sonic and its funky music! Enjoy~

[LeviR.star]

On the ninth day of Sheet-Mas, my true love gave to me...


9th/510th

[PC] Castlevania (X68000) - "Loading Screen"

[ZIP]

"The hell is an 'X68000'?" you're probably wondering, or maybe "I thought this post was about Castlevania Chronicles?" comes to mind. Well you see, the X68000 is a computer released by Sharp Corporation, and literally the only reason I'll ever touch it is to post sheets from this game alone—that's a promise. In 1993, Konami released a quasi-remake of the original Castlevania, but due to the system being strictly Japan-only, the rest of the world didn't get the chance to play it until it was re-released for the PlayStation in 2001, under the name Castlevania Chronicles. Though I don't think I'll play this game any time soon, it's fascinating to me how it's structured; the first stage is pretty well intact, but as soon as you move on, the game takes a completely different turn. From what I can observe, the developers didn't aim to recreate the same exact same game, but still wanted it to feel like a fresh take on the original, and for what it's worth, I think that's a pretty respectable direction to have taken at the time.

This song is pretty cool; because of how these old computers worked, it would be a while before your disk loaded, so the composers came up with some music to help pass the time! You'd think Konami would've forgotten about this track not much later, but in the WiiWare-exclusive Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, this track plays during Stage 4! The same game also uses the password entry theme from Haunted Castle for Stage 2; talk about fan service, am I right? Anyway, this sheet has been the trickiest of the Sheet-Mas batch so far, and I'm not 100% sure about the lead sheet symbols yet, but I hope you enjoy!

[LeviR.star]

On the tenth day of Sheet-Mas, my true love gave to me...


10th/511th

[Wii] New Super Mario Bros. Wii - "Bowser Jr. Battle"

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Though I only started posting arrangements to NSM when I was a sophomore in high school, my history with arranging goes as far back as the 5th grade. My old Finale Notepad files were lost long ago, back when my family got a new computer while I was in 7th grade, and boy, I'd do anything to get my hands on them again. Several of them were crude, mostly unfinished arrangements of music from New Super Mario Bros. Wii, a game I loved as a child and still enjoy playing today from time to time. I never made it far with most of them because I struggled with transcribing the rhythms, and well, I had the patience and attention span of a 10-year-old. But today I'm finishing what I started, and present to you one of my favorite Bowser Jr. themes in the franchise, with a sheet that's essentially 12-ish years in the making. Enjoy!

[LeviR.star]

You'd think I planned posting my first sheet from Mega Man 11 on the eleventh day of Sheet-Mas, but surprisingly, this was a coincidence!


On the eleventh day of Sheet-Mas, my true love gave to me...


11th/512th

[MUL] Mega Man 11 - "Fuse Man Stage"

[ZIP]

Despite calling myself a Mega Man fan, out of the nearly 150 sheets from the franchise that I've put together, not a single one has been from Mega Man 11. Well today, that changes, and I'm happy to announce that I've summoned the courage to arrange Fuse Man's stage theme, which was used for the game's announcement trailer. Naturally, with the song being composed with a modernized synth sound instead of 8-bit, FamiTracker musicians across YouTube took it upon themselves to create "de-made" covers soon after the trailer dropped. To no one's surprise, these ended up being really popular, with many declaring that these covers were superior to the actual soundtrack—ouch. Now, while I wouldn't say 11's music is my favorite of the numbered games, I did enjoy it, especially Blast Man's stage theme. I imagine the people calling the music "bad" for being synth wanted the music to sound like the Mega Man X titles, but if you ask me, the classic series needs to retain an identity of its own. What that should sound like isn't clear to anyone yet, but it gives me hope that with the next installment, the musicians over at Capcom will cook up something that both new and old fans can be happy with (yeah, when pigs fly). So have a nice rest of your Christmas Eve, and enjoy! I've got something special lined up for tomorrow...

[LeviR.star]

I've got something special lined up for tomorrow...

As promised, here it is: one of the best King Dedede battle themes in Kirby history!


On the twelfth day of Sheet-Mas, my true love gave to me...


12th/513th

[NDS] Kirby Super Star Ultra - "Masked Dedede"

[ZIP]

This is my favorite Kirby game ever, rivaled only by Kirby's Return to Dream Land and Kirby's Epic Yarn. It takes everything Kirby Super Star did on the SNES and does it better, with improved graphics, a way better UI, and even new sub-games, making this superior in just about every way to the original (which is still a very good game). I didn't just love this game as a child, I played it religiously for a while; at one point, I couldn't beat The Arena, but after enough time, I was speedrunning The True Arena and eventually earned a best time of 04:39:94. Sadly, I never got the chance to experience the co-op mode with anyone, but I still had many fond memories; I don't use my 3DS anymore, though I still list it in my top five favorite video games of all time.

Like the other tracks new to this remake, Masked Dedede's theme is awesome. It takes some of the ideas introduced by the Dedede theme in Kirby's Star Stacker on the Super Famicom, and dials up the intensity to 11. It's so good that it's been brought back several times, and blew my mind when I first heard its remix in Kirby: Triple Deluxe. So if it's so great, why isn't it on the site already? Great question; there was a two-piano submission for it from August of 2016, the same month I joined NSM, but it was discovered that the sheet was produced using someone else's MIDI, and thus removed from the board. The solo arrangement really wasn't hard at all to arrange—makes me wish I had done it years ago. But you know what they say: "better late than never!"

So with that, I'm finished with this year's 12 Days of Sheet-Mas challenge, and hope you've enjoyed these sheets as much as I've enjoyed putting them together. I don't know when my next piano arrangement will arrive here, but if I only had all the time in the world, you'd better believe I'd be back here every day. Happy holidays to you, and see you next time!

[LeviR.star]

Hey, I know it's been over two months since my last post here, but I'm not gonna dump a story about my personal life on you all today. Let's just say that I'm no longer a music store salesperson and leave it at that, 'k?


[NES] Dragon Quest

514th

Finale [TOPIC]

515th

Dungeon (Replacement) [ON-SITE]

This sheet is an edit replacement of Sebastian's on-site version. I changed a couple things, mainly presentation-related stuff, and added the note about how the track transposes and slows down as you descend lower into a cave/dungeon in the game.


Lately, I've been playing a lot of Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age, a game I bought after finishing the demo, but never continued until now. As with most games I play, I've taken it upon myself to achieve full (with some small caveats) completion, and that means doing a lot of stuff: filling out the bestiary, crafting/reworking every possible item, doing every side quest, that kind of thing. There's 250 different accolades in the definitive edition, and by aiming to collect as many as possible I've extended my playthrough by about 100 hours so far—that's no exaggeration. This game is loooooong, I tell you; even if you ignore all the extra stuff, the main campaign is nearly 60 hours in length, so there's more than enough to do if you're bored.

It's a good game, and it pays homage to the series' legacy in a really unique way, in the form of an optional area called Tickington, which is ported over from the Japan-exclusive 3DS version. Basically what you do is choose from ten different shrines, each of which representing a past Dragon Quest game, and in each one, there are 2-3 areas you can visit to look for additional side quests. The concept of visiting locations from past games is really fascinating to me, and makes me wish I'd see that kind of thing in other games I enjoy. And it's also shown me how much cool music the series has to offer, like the observatory theme from IX or the battle theme from VII. That's why I'm seeing to it that the original Dragon Quest gets all of its sheets finished, because from what I can tell, the game has one hell of a legacy behind it. And there very well may be more to come, so stay tuned, and enjoy!

[LeviR.star]

Lucky for you all, I didn't have any plans for my birthday today, so it's time to bring out some new sheets!


516th

[ARCADE] Ghosts 'n Goblins - "Stage 1 & 2"

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"But I thought he already arranged this track..." This is true! Except that was the NES/Famicom version, and this is the arcade version. I feel it is distinct enough to warrant its own arrangement, what with how drastically different the NES port's music is from the original. I still prefer the NES music, though, as it's (for the most part) a lot less grating.

517th

[PC] Deltarune - "Thrash Machine"

[TOPIC]

Thought I was done with my backlog? I thought so too, until I uncovered this recently. Check out the link to the topic for more information ^^

518th

[NES] Mega Man 2 - "Heat Man Stage" (Replacement)

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I wanted to include Air Man and Crash Man Stage replacements in this post as well, but decided to hold off on those until a later PA update. For now, I hope you enjoy this one!


Aaaaaand that's a wrap, folks. Would love to chat longer, but I'm not feeling up to it right now. See you next time!

[LeviR.star]

Between my games backlog and this PA thread, I made the lazier choice...


519th

[ARCADE] Frogger - "Main Theme (Araiguma Rascal)"

[TOPIC]


Frogger is a game I've wanted to cover for a long time now, but there's something that's kept me from getting around to it: composer credits. No, I'm not talking about the sound programmers that coded the music into the game, I'm talking about the sources of each individual track, because I am quite certain not a single original piece of music was written for this title. It's common knowledge that the in-game loop is an arrangement of the opening theme from the 1977 anime Araiguma Rascal, but it doesn't stop there; the other tracks consist of more anime openings, nursery rhymes, and folk songs from all around the world, and I've only managed to find the sources of a handful of them. What's worse is that there's an obscene amount of music in here for a 1981 game, with twenty different fanfares that play when you get Frogger home. How could I, in good conscious, arrange the rest of the tracks without identifying their origins first? I won't, and that's why I've decided that, until I do, the main theme will be my only sheet for Frogger. Chris Cantrell, who I found through The Cutting Room Floor, was a tremendous help in getting the music ripped and uploaded, and a couple YouTube commenters helped point out the origins of a few tracks, but since then I've been unable to find anyone who can help. If you know a good forum or Discord server I can reach out to, please let me know, because I'm stumped. Enjoy!

[LeviR.star]

The quest to finish my Mega Man 2 sheets continues...


520th

[NES] Mega Man 2 - "Air Man Stage" (Replacement)

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Can you believe my Quick Man and Bubble Man Stage replacements were posted over a year ago? Not to mention the fact it's been eight years since my first sheet from this game was added to the PA... God, I don't want to think about this any longer. Something something, every passing day is the same but when you look back everything is different, something something. There's nothing more sobering than the realization I'm never getting all those years back, and that the older I get, the less time I'll have for doing what I love. Even if I could stop time, it wouldn't make any difference, because there's nothing waiting for me in the future that I yearn for more than what I once had.

Air Man's stage theme is cool! The little chromatic lick at the beginning is instantly memorable, and the guitar solo-esque section (written by composer for the first Mega Man game, Manami Matsumae) is some of the craziest stuff out of the entire Mega Man 2 soundtrack. Interesting to see how the bass line would find its way into Crash Man's stage theme in Mega Man II on the Game Boy, that song is also pretty catchy. Speaking of Crash Man, his NES stage theme is the only remaining one for me to arrange, then after a few more miscellaneous tracks, all there will be left to do is get everything touched up and submitted! Fingers crossed that I get that accomplished by the end of 2025; enjoy!

[LeviR.star]

I moved again! But that story's not why you're here, so let's move on to the sheets, shall we?


[GB] The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls

521st

Hop Hop Springs [ZIP]

522nd

Eclair Palace [ZIP]

I recently played through The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls, known in Japan as Kaeru no Tame ni Kane wa Naru, and I gotta say, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It's this weird mixture of platforming and action RPG elements, with a really entertaining story that kept me thoroughly engaged, and I would definitely recommend it. The composer behind the game is Kazumi Totaka, the same guy behind Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, Yoshi's Story, Animal Crossing, Luigi's Mansion, and many more. In some of his works, the aggressive repetition of each primary motif rubs me the wrong way, but overall I think it was done fairly well in this game. I might even consider making some arrangements for my channel, but for now, I'll stick with a couple of sheets of the tracks that stuck with me. Enjoy!

P.S. I did some reorganizing in the OP: the broken glow effect surrounding the dedicated/conquered games has been removed, and the two Game Boy-exclusive sheets from The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle have been given their own section, bringing the total number of games with sheets to 175. Let's hear it for more games~

[LeviR.star]

You didn't think I forgot about this game, did you?


523rd

[ARCADE] Haunted Castle - "A Lullaby Sent to the Devils"

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Recently, Konami unveiled at Nintendo's recent Partner Showcase direct a new collection for Switch, Castlevania Dominus Collection, which has the three Nintendo DS games plus a good amount of bonus material. That's all well and good for Metroidvania fans, but what they also included is Haunted Castle Revisited, a remake of the dreaded Haunted Castle that released to arcades in 1987. The original is a very sloppy, unreasonably difficult game that doesn't hold a candle to the original Castlevania, but Revisited is a miraculous improvement that turns it from a bad time to a pleasant one. It's on a similar level of quality to Castlevania: The Adventure ReBirth, but unlike that game it doesn't outright abandon its source material; it's faithful everywhere that matters, including the soundtrack. Listening to the new arrangements made me remember I only have a few sheets left from the original, so in an hour and a half I whipped up one for "A Lullaby Sent to the Devils". There's probably some room for improvement, so I'll be submitting it next round, alongside a replacement for "Crash Man Stage". Enjoy!