Heroes vs. Villains / Heroes vs. Villains / Heroes vs. Villains

Metroid

1. The Bounty of a Brain
Hero: Samus Aran
Game: Super Metroid
Originals: "Opening ~ Destruction of the Space Colony", "Theme of Samus Aran - Galactic Warrior"
Original Composers: Minako Hamano, Kenji Yamamoto
Artist: Big Giant Circles

ReMixer Comments:
"I'm a big fan of Samus, and of the Metroid series in general. I'm also a fan of Mazedude, so naturally when he challenged me to remix her theme against Mother Brain's, I was thrilled to pick up the gauntlet (see: armcannon). I admit, it's a bit intimidating going up against Chris. Not only has he achieved a sort of legendary status by the sheer number (and quality) of posted ReMixes on OCR, but he's always been the sort of guy to really challenge himself to do new and interesting things creatively. Fortunately for me, Samus has what I consider a pretty powerful anthem or two which I could fall back on. I can't deny that I drew a bit of inspiration from Vigilante's "So It Begins..." (from Relics of the Chozo), but growing up in the 80's/90's also made it hard for me to not associate such a powerful theme with a lead guitar.

As for the two themes, I realize there may be a slight discrepancy between what Samus's theme actually is, since one is technically just cinematic music for the introduction of Super Metroid, and the other is primarily just Crateria's alternate theme.  But both are present in my mind when really trying to identify with Samus's Heroic status. One, in the sense that it's a great backdrop for retelling her story, and the other because it's there after you acquire the hyper beam and defeat MoBrain once and for all (that we know of, anyway) All in all, I had a blast working on it, I hope it comes across as cinematic and triumphant (with just a little bit of ominous foreshadowing) and I think Mazedude's own remix is a perfect and awesome counterpoint to it in every way."
~ Big Giant Circles

2. Dieselbrainage
Villain: Mother Brain
Game: Super Metroid
Original: "Mother Brain"
Cameos: "Opening ~ Destruction of the Space Colony", "Tourian"
Original Composer: Minako Hamano
Artist: Mazedude

ReMixer Comments:
"I knew I wanted to tackle the Mother Brain theme since the initial conception of this project. It's a theme I've always had 'on the brain,' so to speak, considering the unusual use of the 7/4 time signature for a boss theme. When it came time to remix that, I had a blast taking the odd time signature motif and applying it to the drum 'n bass genre, one that you hardly ever hear in 7/4. The end result was challenging, but a lot of fun, and I'm quite proud of the result.

The title is a nod to Dieselboy, a drum 'n bass artist who I listened to a lot while developing this track. Nods also go to RS3; thanks for the samples and inspiration."
~ Mazedude


Monkey Island

3. Pirate Shout
Hero: Guybrush Threepwood
Games: The Secret of Monkey Island, The Curse of Monkey Island
Originals: "Opening Theme", "A Pirate I Was Meant to Be"
Original Composers: Michael Land, Andy Newell, Barney Jones, Patric Mundy
Artist: audio fidelity ~ arrangement, guitar, bass, drum programming, vocals
Guest Performers:
Eric Griffin ~ recorder, vocals
Derek Meler ~ vocals
Marcus Affeldt ~ vocals

ReMixer Comments:
"This track started out as an idea for a collab with OA and Abadoss where we came up with the idea of going for a rock-inspired Caribbean pirate track. The idea was to be heavy and melodic, and fragment the ideas from the original into something more cohesive for the genre. OA and Abadoss quickly fell off the track and I got the help of good friends to contribute recorder and a men's pirate chorus. The lyrics are taken verbatim from a musical scene in the game. The track is meant to be fun and Heroic but still metal. I hope you enjoy this re-envisioning of a true video game classic."
~ audio fidelity

4. Voodoo, Roots 'n Grog
Villain: Lechuck
Game: The Secret of Monkey Island
Originals: "LeChuck's Theme", "Opening Theme"
Cameo: "Sagat Stage" from Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Original Composers: Michael Land, Andy Newell, Barney Jones, Patric Mundy, Isao Abe
Artist(s): Diggi Dis
Guest Performer: Alex Jones ~ trombone

ReMixer Comments:
"When I started working on this track, I didn't have a clear vision of which direction I wanted to take this song. After about 4 or 5 different takes on the song, the track started to form itself.

When I showed it to audio fidelity, he kindly offered me to have Alex Jones play the lead trombone. He deserves major credit, because without him, I don't think it would have sounded half as good. I had a lot of fun doing a somewhat different genre than I usually tend to do and really hope you guys will like it."
~ Diggi Dis


God of War

5. Born of Ashes, Baptized in Blood
Hero: Kratos
Game: God of War
Originals: "The Vengeful Spartan", "Zeus' Wrath Divine"
Original Composers: Cris Velasco, Gerard K. Marino
Artist: Brandon Strader

ReMixer Comments:
"I signed on for Heroes vs. Villains, and the God of War source in particular, because I was up for a challenge. For the longest time, I didn't think I could do it. The original idea was for metal with heavy backing orchestration. I wanted to make something that sounded like it should have been on the God of War: Blood and Metal EP. Whereas that EP was more of a collection of random songs by metal bands, this is much more true to the game's feel, I think. This remix changed the way I approach remixing as a whole. I used YouTube as a reference to hear my source, and I worked a tiny bit at a time with each instrument until I was able to comprehend the source and put it in a metal context.

Long story short, it was hard, and it took a really long time. I usually work with songs I'm familiar with, and do most of the work from memory. I couldn't do that this time."
~ Brandon Strader

6. Wrath Industrial
Villain: Zeus
Game: God of War
Original: "Zeus' Wrath Divine"
Original Composer: Cris Velasco
Artist: Kunal Majmudar

ReMixer Comments:
"When I was issued the challenge to take on the famous God of War themes (Kratos and Zeus), I knew I was fighting with fire. Gerard Marino, Cris Velasco and co. did an amazing job creating a rich, strong, but nuanced score. "Wrath Divine" was a tough challenge to take on and it took me a few different tries before I landed on a direction that I liked. I decided to take those ancient melodies used to battle Zeus and make them as industrial as possible. The result is a hybrid form that pulls from many influences.

I think Brandon did a fantastic job with the legendary Kratos theme! Mine ended up being less "metal" than I had intended, but I think ended up being a fun mix in the end."
~ Kunal Majmudar


Streets of Rage

7. Bare Knuckle Blitz
Hero: Axel
Game: Streets of Rage, Streets of Rage 2
Originals: "Fighting in the Street", "Go Straight"
Original Composer: Yuzo Koshiro
Artist: WillRock

ReMixer Comments:
"I've been a big Streets of Rage fan for a while now, and with this remix, I wanted to capture the aggression of the original source tunes and the essence of the games overall, and as a result, this mix is quite hard hitting. Fun fact: The weird pitch-bending synth breakdown was done completely by accident, but it sounded really cool so I kept it in. ;)"
~ WillRock

8. Mr. Z
Villain: Mr. X
Game: Streets of Rage
Original: "Big Boss",
Original Composer: Yuzo Koshiro
Artist: zyko

ReMixer Comments:
"Streets of Rage music is some of the coolest stuff out there. Some of its most popular remixes are also amongst my favorite game remixes to begin with, so I was really excited to take a stab at Mr. X's theme. The source always struck me as a booming Latin club track... something that would shake a party down in some sweaty South Beach club. Whether I was able to execute that while musing on kicking Axel's ass up and down the block, I dunno. But let's face it, Mr. X is a badass."
~ zyko


Mega Man

9. Screw Wily, I'm Taking a Vacation
Hero: Mega Man
Games: Mega Man 2, Mega Man 9
Originals: Title, Title
Artist: Mattias Häggström Gerdt

ReMixer Comments:
"Mega Man's been going strong for quite a few years now, hasn't he? It's about time he took it easy and relaxed so I arranged two iconic Mega Man themes into a laid-back, groove infused, smooth jazzy track. Something Mega Man could put on his M(ega)P3 player and be all 'Fuck Wily, I'm Taking a Vacation'."
~ Mattias Häggström Gerdt

10. Screw Mega Man, I'm Taking Over the World
Villain: Dr. Wily
Game: Mega Man 4, Mega Man 2
Original: Wily Stage 2, Wily Stage 1
Artist: Joshua Morse

ReMixer Comments:
"Easily ranking in my top 5 favorite Wily themes, I've always wanted to give this one a go. Of course, it wouldn't be Wily with a little Mega Mega 2 Wily sprinkled in here and there."
~ Joshua Morse


Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

11. Go Ninja, Go
Heroes: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Game: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Original: Titles
Artist: bLiNd

ReMixer Comments:
"This is a remix to the title screen from the first TMNT game on the NES.  It's not quite the Turtles theme, but it does have a little bit of the melody in the main riff (the first few notes at least), and in the remix I hint to the Turtles theme here and there.  I wanted to give the original track's energy justice with the remix, which I believe I accomplished.  I also originally wanted Danimal to play the guitar parts, but he got busy travelling and it wasn't able to happen, so I faked it with samples.

This track seemed hard to complete, as I scrapped 2 ideas before coming up with this.  It seemed to work well as drum and bass with heavy guitar leads doing the riffs and melodies so that is how I kept it.  To keep it fresh I ended it with some hiphopish dub bass like melow beats.  I wanted to add some vocal sample of splinter from the second movie, ended up not, but maybe if I ever perform it I will drop that in the set..."
~ bLiNd

12. Enter the Shredder
Villain: Shredder
Game: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time
Original: Super Shredder
Artist: Danimal Cannon

ReMixer Comments:
"This song rose from a bit of a friendly rivalry (in the spirit of OCR vs The Bad Dudes) between myself and bLiNd.  He didn't want the Super Shredder theme to be done in a generic metal style, so I purposefully incorporated some electronic elements into a mish mash of industrial metal and dance grooves.  I had to throw in a mega guitar solo, this IS a song about the SHREDDER.   The vocal sample was provided by the lovely Kimber Bennet."
~ Danimal Cannon


The Legend of Zelda

13. He Ain't a G
Hero: Link
Games: The Legend of Zelda, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Originals: Overworld, Title
Artists: José the Bronx Rican feat. zyko

ReMixer Comments:
"I backed myself into this project because I'm the one who came up with the idea of a 'battle rap' for one of these Hero-Villain matchups, which ended up being Link vs. Ganon. Weed suggested each of us contribute a verse for each other's tracks, and I agreed. Link is, of course, identified with the classic 'Overworld' melody which appears in several tunes throughout the series, and I decided on elements from the Link to the Past 'Overworld' BGM and from the original Legend of Zelda's 'Title' track, making the resulting beat as 'hard like a criminal' as possible. Lyrics, naturally, are full of hollabacks to the games, and to Shael Riley (!). Many thanks to Diggi Dis for the final mix."
~ José the Bronx Rican

14. Bladewalker
Villain: Ganon
Game: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
Original: Ganon's Theme
Artist: zyko feat. José the Bronx Rican

ReMixer Comments:
"Realizing I could be any Villain I wanted to be for this project, my first choice naturally was Ganon; so when the prospects for a rap battle between José and myself surfaced, I couldn't pass it up. Like most of my work, 'Bladewalker' is telling a story and is not really a "battle track" in the traditional hip hop sense. I'm not so much throwin' punches at José (Link) as I am waxing poetic on my (Ganon's) cruelty and evil. Of course, I had a bit of fun with sound bytes from the Hero of Time Zelda fan film."
~ zyko


Street Fighter

15. Satsui no Koto
Hero: Ryu
Game: Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Original: Ryu Stage
Artists: zircon, Joshua Morse

ReMixer Comments:
"I owe Joshua Morse for helping me get started on this mix; he might have been the 'Villain' of the matchup, but he laid down the slick chord progression that laid the foundation for the rest of the mix! I modeled the style of this track after the jazz fusion group Hiroshima, who uses a blend of electronic drums, synths, traditional jazz instruments and the koto, a classical instrument of Japan. At the time I was working on this mix, I had just finished a koto, shamisen and bass koto sample library ('Koto Nation') so I decided to put them to good use as lead instruments here. I might have gotten a little carried away with the solos here but overall I'm really happy with the blend of traditional and modern sounds, which I also think fits Ryu as a character. Enjoy!"
~ zircon

16. Coconut Milk
Villain: Sagat
Game: Street Fighter II: The World Warrior
Original: Sagat Stage
Artists: posu yan and Joshua Morse
Performers:
posu yan ~ drums, bass, guitar
Stacy Morse ~ flute
Joshua Morse ~ everything else

ReMixer Comments:
"Coconut milk is goood... OM NOM NOM NOM...

We went through about 10 different versions of this at first, including some crazy live impromptu jam session Sagats. We have enough demo material for another album of Sagat tracks... maybe one day..."
~ posu yan


Kirby

17. The Life and Death of Kirby
Hero: Kirby
Game: Super Smash Bros.
Original: Kirby's Theme
Artist: Insert Rupee

ReMixer Comments:
"This remix is... decidedly different from our previous collaborations. Our goal was to choose a 'definitive' Kirby theme, which are almost always happy and bouncy, and give it a darker more aggressive feel... considering the nature of the project, it seemed fitting to kind of evoke the sense that Kirby was saying 'put up or shut up' or, you know, showing his darker and drug-addicted side. We're both really proud of the final product, and it should be noted that Ben was only able to write the ending and finish the remix with the aid of a dangerous amount of alcohol. Enjoy, bitches!"
~ Insert Rupee

18. Hot Air Penguin
Villain: King Dedede
Game: Kirby Super Star
Original: Dedede's Theme
Artist: Mazedude

ReMixer Comments:
"This one went through quite a bit of evolution. My first pass was a Miles Davis-esque jazz thing... which didn't quite work, so then I decided to do a genre I've rarely tackled: jungle jazz. And, it worked! Making it piano-centric was a strong point from the get-go (and I thank Bladiator for his input), and then the introduction of the trombone was something else I hadn't done in a long while. Yes, that's me playing... pretty rusty, I know.

That, and the mix by Insert Rupee inspired me to get some 8-bit goodness going on there too, so... all in all it may be a tad bit messy, but still tons of fun in a chaotic way. I'm also a fan of the Kirby games, so the nostalgia there added to the experience. :)"
~ Mazedude


Castlevania

19. The Prodigal Son Returns
Hero: Simon Belmont
Game: Super Castlevania IV
Original: Simon Belmont's Theme
Artist: Mustin

ReMixer Comments:
"BAD DUDES - OR SHOULD I SAY PLAIN DUDES,

It is I, your former master, Mr. M! I have turned coat and joined forces with the OCR crew for what will be our greatest battle! Your training is complete. My plan has executed perfectly! Now - face me! Face me and WELCOME... TO DIE!!"
~ Mr. M

20. A Walk with Death
Villain: Dracula
Games: Castlevania, Castlevania 2, Castlevania 3
Original: Boss BGM, Dracula's Castle, Dracula Battle, Clockwork
Artist: Ailsean

ReMixer Comments:
"This arrangement is comprised of several scenes.  Here's the rundown:

Death steps easily from the ship to the dock and makes his way up the boardwalk.  He moves with deliberation.  One second, one step. There is no need to hurry.

Centuries of steps and seconds have passed before.  Centuries more will pass before him. He climbs the steps to the street above and turns the corner, passing from view...

A swarm of the little, deformed men surround your legs!  Jumping, biting, catching, they do not relent.  You leap away and gain enough ground to catch a few of them with your whip.  The rest scatter.  You flee up the narrow stairs and leap across a gap in the block path. Something wet slams into your back, knocking you back down to face the little deformed men again.  Turning as you fall, you see a flash of snakes and wonder what's keeping the severed head aloft as it passes by.  This is going to be a long night...

The doors to the grand hall swing open easily.  Death sits at the end of the cavernous space.  He looks over you, judging as a spider would judge the flies in its web, deciding which is the most ripe and tender.  He laughs.  A dozen skeletons burst from the ground between you and Death!  It appears you are not ripe and tender enough for him yet...

You have reached Death.  He sits patiently in his chair.  Your whip is around his throat before you are aware your arm has moved.  But it uncoils and falls from your hand.  It erupts into flames and is ash before it reaches the floor.  When you look up, his eyes are an inch from yours.  He places his hand on your shoulder and you feel the life leaving you...

You hover above yourself, watching your body crumple and fall before Death's feet.  As you rise higher, you see him kneel over your corpse and begin to feed.  You rise higher, floating through the gears and machinery of the castle clock tower.  You continue upwards, floating into the void...

PS - the repeating minor third vocal part is inspired by the first three notes of the chorus an old Appalachian folk song called 'Oh Death.' There's an awesome Ralph Stanley version of it on the O Brother Where Art Thou OST, and Jen Titus did a great version for Supernatural.  The Dock Boggs version will give you nightmares.  For real.  Hellhounds on your trail and stuff."
~ Ailsean